Over recent centuries, the intensification of land use has caused the loss of natural sponge functions in landscapes. River straightening, bank stabilisation and embankments disrupt the natural exchange of water with the floodplains, which not only absorb and slowly release water during droughts but also provide diverse habitats, nature-based flood protection, and valuable recreational areas. Restoring wetlands is vital in addressing the climate and biodiversity crises. The "SpongeBoost" project supports policy-making, ...

A UBC Okanagan research team has developed an innovative artificial intelligence system that can accurately predict where ships are heading and arriving, potentially helping Canadian ports better prepare for incoming vessels and respond more efficiently to global supply chain disruptions. Dr. Zheng Liu, a Professor with UBCO’s School of Engineering, and doctoral student Chengkai Zhang have created TrajReducer, a framework that increases prediction accuracy and computational efficiency by analyzing ship trajectories through advanced spatial clustering and cross-dimensional metadata ranking. The ...

Living with an autoimmune disease is linked to a near doubling in the risk of persistent mental health issues, such as depression, generalised anxiety, and bipolar disorder, with these risks higher in women than in men, finds a large population-based UK study, published in the open access journal BMJ Mental Health. Chronic exposure to the systemic inflammation caused by the autoimmune disease may explain the associations found, say the researchers. A growing body of evidence suggests that inflammation is linked to mental ill health, but many of the published studies have relied on small sample sizes, limiting their statistical power, note the researchers. In a bid to overcome this, ...

The emotional demands and confrontation inherent in person-contact roles, involving direct face to face or voice to voice interaction with external parties, are linked to a heightened risk of type 2 diabetes, suggests research published online in Occupational & Environmental Medicine. And inadequate social support from managers and colleagues at work seems to amplify the magnitude of these associations, the findings indicate. Job strain, job insecurity, workplace violence and bullying, and effort–reward imbalance have all been linked ...

The annual cost of hand and wrist injuries among dog walkers in the UK is estimated to top £23 million, with women and the over 65s most at risk as a result of being pulled along on the dog leash, finds a review of the available evidence, published online in the journal Injury Prevention. Cases of dog walking injuries have been rising in recent years in tandem with an increase in dog ownership and dog walking to improve fitness, explain the researchers.  In the UK alone, there are around 8.5 million dogs–one for every seven to eight people. Despite the many cognitive and physical health benefits of dog ownership, it is not without ...

The Lancet: Life-saving childhood vaccination coverage has stalled in recent decades, leaving millions of children at risk for deadly diseases   Globally, between 1980 and 2023, vaccine coverage doubled against diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough (pertussis), measles, polio, and tuberculosis. Additionally, there was a 75% global decline in the number of children who had never received a routine childhood vaccine (also known as zero-dose children), falling from 58.8 million in 1980 to 14.7 million ...

The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Magnet Recognition Program is the highest honor of excellence in nursing MD Anderson achieved its first Magnet with Distinction designation, an elite rating earned only by the world’s top-tier organizations  MD Anderson is one of 26 organizations worldwide to have earned six or more Magnet designations  MD Anderson is highlighted for its highly credentialed nursing staff, strong professional engagement and notably low turnover rate  The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has earned its sixth Magnet designation and first Magnet ...

In a new paper with implications for preventing Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorders, Keith Hengen, an associate professor of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, suggests a new comprehensive approach to understanding how the brain works and the rules it must follow to reach optimal performance. “There’s a common perception that the human brain is the most complicated thing in the universe,” Hengen said. “The brain is immensely powerful, but that power may arise from a relatively simple set of mathematical principles.” Hengen ...

The University of Texas at Arlington has awarded funding to research teams to launch new investigative projects. The Research Enhancement Program (REP), administered by UTA’s Office of Vice President for Research and Innovation, offers seed funding to investigators to help them test new ideas and explore new directions that could lead to future innovations and more competitive proposals for external funding from federal agencies and nonprofit foundations. In our research series, we highlight six of these grants. Researcher: Liwei Zhou, Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering Project title: “Highly Accurate Micro-grid Multi-time-scale Control and Optimization ...

In 1944, Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger published his book What Is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell, an early landmark in an ongoing—if sometimes controversial—conversation between quantum mechanics, the weird theory that governs the microrealm, and biology. Schrödinger is one of the founding figures of quantum mechanics, having postulated his now-famed quantum equation, a century ago, in 1925. In honor of the discovery of quantum mechanics, this year has been proclaimed the International Year of Quantum Science ...

A recent study published in Engineering has shed light on a novel combination therapy for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) that significantly reduces bone destruction by targeting the m6A methylation pathway. The research, conducted by a team from the China–Japan Friendship Clinical Medical College and other institutions, explores the synergistic effects of triptolide (TP) and medicarpin (Med) in mitigating RA-associated bone erosion.   Rheumatoid arthritis is a progressive autoimmune disease characterized by chronic inflammation and bone destruction, primarily driven by the overactivation of osteoclasts (OCs). Current treatments ...

Global climate change has become one of the most pressing challenges of the 21st century. As anthropogenic CO2 emissions from fossil fuel consumption and industrial processes continue to disrupt Earth’s carbon cycle, atmospheric CO2 concentrations have reached unprecedented levels—exceeding 420 parts per million (ppm) in 2023 compared to pre-industrial 280 ppm. This rapid accumulation of greenhouse gases has resulted in measurable consequences including rising global temperatures, ocean acidification, and increased frequency of extreme weather events.   As ...

The candidate pool for engineered materials that can help enable tomorrow's cutting-edge optical technologies—such as lasers, detectors and imaging devices—is much deeper than previously believed. That's according to new research from the University of Michigan that examined a class of materials known as topological insulators. These materials have exciting and tunable properties when it comes to how they transit energy and information. "We see this as a step toward building a more versatile and ...

It is of vital importance to, on occasion, consider how little we know about the spinning rock we all live on. Take coral reefs, for example. Given how much they’ve been studied, you’d think we’ve learned just about everything about them by now. But talk to a marine biologist, and they will quickly disabuse you of this notion. “A majority of the things that are out there on coral reefs are simply unknown to us or haven’t been formally described or named,” said Catherine McFadden, a professor of life sciences at Harvey Mudd College. McFadden is ...

In a step toward treating mitochondrial diseases, researchers in the Netherlands have successfully edited harmful mutations in mitochondrial DNA using a genetic tool known as a base editor. The results, published June 24th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology, offer new hope for people with rare genetic conditions. Mitochondria, often called the powerhouses of the cell, have their own small set of DNA. Mutations in this mitochondrial DNA can lead to a wide range of maternally inherited diseases, cancer, and aging-related conditions. ...

The transition from sprawling (reptile-like) to more upright (parasagittal) posture and locomotion was a transformative event in mammalian evolution. A study published June 24th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Dr. Robert Brocklehurst and Professor Stephanie Pierce at Harvard University, USA and colleagues suggests that parasagittal posture evolved via an indirect, dynamic, and radiating process. Non-mammalian synapsids (tetrapod vertebrates), the ancestors of extant mammals, underwent major musculoskeletal reorganization, including ...

A trade-off between tooth size and jaw mobility has restricted fish evolution, Nick Peoples at the University of California Davis, US, and colleagues report June 24th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology. Ray-finned fish are a diverse and widespread group, representing 99% of living fish species. Two key adaptations have helped them thrive: large teeth and extendible jaws. Fish with larger teeth can access a wider range of food sources, while the ability to rapidly extend the upper jaw allows fish to hunt fast-swimming prey by using suction forces to pull them closer. However, these two innovations are rarely found in the same fish species. To find out why, ...

Researchers have discovered two new viruses in bats that are closely related to the deadly Nipah and Hendra viruses — pathogens that can cause severe brain inflammation and respiratory disease in humans. The viruses, as well as other new viruses, bacteria, and parasites identified from bat kidneys, were reported this week in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens by Yun Feng of the Yunnan Institute of Endemic Disease Control and Prevention, China, and colleagues. Bats are natural reservoirs for a wide range ...

For over a century, scientists have puzzled over a fundamental mystery in our evolutionary history: how did mammals go from sprawling like lizards to striding like cats and dogs? This transition—from a sprawled stance (like a lizard) to an upright (parasagittal) posture—marked a pivotal moment in mammal evolution. While the earliest non-mammalian synapsids, the ancestors of living mammals, had a sprawling posture, researchers debated when and how the upright postures of modern mammals evolved. Now, a groundbreaking study in PLOS ...

An international research team led by Dr. André Marques from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, Prof. Dr. Christiane Ritz from the Senckenberg Museum of Natural History in Görlitz and Dr. Aleš Kovařík from the Institute of Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences has achieved a significant breakthrough in research into the reproduction of dogrose. The study, which has now been published in the renowned journal "Nature", shows how differences in the size of the centromeres - the central docking sites for chromosomes - play a decisive role in the extraordinary chromosome inheritance ...

ROCKVILLE, Md. – June 24, 2025 – The Association for Molecular Pathology, the premier global molecular diagnostic professional society, today announced the publication of best practice recommendations for clinical laboratories developing and performing homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) testing. The manuscript, titled “Recommendations for Clinical Molecular Laboratories for Detection of Homologous Recombination Deficiency in Cancer: A Joint Consensus Recommendation of the Association of Molecular Pathology, Association of Cancer ...

An international team of scientists has developed a biodegradable material that could slash global energy consumption without using any electricity, according to a new study published today. The bioplastic metafilm – that can be applied to buildings, equipment and other surfaces – passively cools temperatures by as much as 9.2°C during peak sunlight and reflects almost 99% of the sun’s rays. Developed by researchers from Zhengzhou University in China and the University of South Australia (UniSA), the new ...

Researchers from Donghua University in China and the University of British Columbia have introduced a novel design methodology for 3D rotary braiding machines, offering a significant step forward in the production of complex geometric textile composites. Their work, published in Engineering, details a programmable design approach based on circle-cutting and combination strategies, which enhances the ability to create 3D braided composites with intricate shapes.   3D braided composites are highly valued for their exceptional mechanical properties, such as high ...

Neuroblastoma is a cancer that affects the sympathetic nervous system of children. It is unusual among cancers because it shows a range of outcomes: from aggressive, potentially fatal progression to a unique phenomenon where the tumor spontaneously regresses even without treatment. Identifying why some patients regress and others don’t could help thousands of patients. A research group led by Nagoya University believes that the answer may lie in the “uncommitted” state of some neuroblastoma cells. In mice bred to have tumors that were presumed to regress, they discovered a population of “uncommitted" cells that ...

New study explores why foreign firms listed in the U.S. choose between IFRS and U.S. GAAP. The research finds that firms strategically weigh the flexibility of financial reporting and the costs of compliance, rather than following the common standards in their listing jurisdiction. These insights help explain the real motivations behind financial disclosure decisions and offer guidance for regulators and investors alike. A new study by Dr. Heylel-li Biton of the Hebrew University Business School sheds light on a long-standing question in global finance: Why do foreign firms listed in the United ...