When scientists and policymakers make tough calls on which areas to prioritize for conservation, biodiversity is often their top consideration. Environments with more diversity support a greater number of species and provide more ecosystem services, making them the obvious choice. There’s just one problem. There are several ways to measure diversity, and each reveals a slightly different, and sometimes conflicting, view of how life interacts in a forest or other ecosystem. In a new study published ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – Pairing cryptocurrency mining – notable for its outsize consumption of carbon-based fuel – with green hydrogen could provide the foundation for wider deployment of renewable energy, such as solar and wind power, according to a new Cornell University study. “Since current cryptocurrency operations now contribute heavily to worldwide carbon emissions, it becomes vital to explore opportunities for harnessing the widespread enthusiasm for cryptocurrency as we move toward a sustainable and a climate-friendly future,” said Fengqi You, professor of energy systems engineering at Cornell. You and doctoral ...

Granular materials, those made up of individual pieces, whether grains of sand or coffee beans or pebbles, are the most abundant form of solid matter on Earth. The way these materials move and react to external forces can determine when landslides or earthquakes happen, as well as more mundane events such as how cereal gets clogged coming out of the box. Yet, analyzing the way these flow events take place and what determines their outcomes has been a real challenge, and most research has been confined to two-dimensional experiments that don’t ...

The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) has announced the induction of MinJun Kim, Robert C. Womack Endowed Chair Professor in Engineering at Southern Methodist University to its College of Fellows. Election to the AIMBE College of Fellows is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to medical and biological engineers, comprised of the top two percent of engineers in these fields. College membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering and medicine research, practice, or education” and to “the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional ...

A ground-breaking study – the largest of its kind globally – has found children with multiple sclerosis (MS) have better outcomes if treated early and with the same high-efficacy therapies as adults. There are a limited number of therapies approved for children with MS, with only one considered to be of high-efficacy – meaning highly effective. However, a Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH) observational study has determined that paediatric patients should be treated with the same high-efficacy ...

WASHINGTON  –  U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) scientists published the Cascaded Variational Quantum Eigensolver (CVQE) algorithm in a recent Physical Review Research article, expected to become a powerful tool to investigate the physical properties in electronic systems. The CVQE algorithm is a variant of the Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) algorithm that only requires the execution of a set of quantum circuits once rather than at every iteration during the parameter optimization process, thereby increasing the computational throughput.  “Both algorithms ...

Bengal cats are prized for their appearance; the exotically marbled and spotted coats of these domestic pets make them look like small, sleek jungle cats. But the origin of those coats — assumed to come from the genes of Asian leopard cats that were bred with house cats — turns out to be less exotic. Stanford Medicine researchers, in collaboration with Bengal cat breeders, have discovered that the Bengal cats’ iridescent sheen and leopard-like patterns can be traced to domestic cat genes that were aggressively selected for after the cats were bred with wild cats. “Most ...

More than 1 million people in the United States identify as transgender; however, there is limited research on nutrition-related health outcomes for transgender people. To narrow the research gap, Mason MS, Nutrition student Eli Kalman-Rome investigated common motivations of dietary supplement use in transmasculine people. The study defined transmasculine as people on the transgender and gender-nonbinary spectrum who were assigned female at birth.  Transmasculine people reported a higher use of dietary supplements (65%) compared to the total U.S. population (22.5%), according to the study. 90% of transmasculine participants reported using supplements ...

Research that involves implanting devices into the brains of human volunteers creates a special moral obligation that extends beyond the trial period—an obligation that researchers, device manufacturers, and funders owe to the volunteers. This is the conclusion of two new essays in the Hastings Center Report that launch a series on the ethical and social issues raised by brain research.   The “Neuroscience and Society” series is supported by the Dana Foundation and will be published in open-access format online over the next three years. The series seeks to promote deliberative public engagement about neuroscience, writes Hastings Center senior ...

PHILADELPHIA -- For years, it was harder for Black patients to secure a coveted spot on the national kidney transplant waitlist because a clinical algorithm was making Black patients appear healthier than they were. After a Penn Medicine researcher exposed the problem in 2019—and showed how it exacerbated racial disparities in kidney disease—a national taskforce recommended removing race from the algorithm’s scoring, a move that has quickly been adopted throughout the country in an effort to reduce ...

“[...] the combination of ABT199/venetoclax and Thio enhances the cytotoxicity of (Flu+Clad+Bu) in AML cell lines and leukemia patient-derived cell samples.” BUFFALO, NY- March 25, 2024 – A new research paper was published in Oncotarget's Volume 15 on March 14, 2024, entitled, “ABT199/venetoclax synergism with thiotepa enhances the cytotoxicity of fludarabine, cladribine and busulfan in AML cells.” ABT199/venetoclax, an inhibitor of the pro-survival BCL-2 protein, has improved AML treatment. Its efficacy in hematopoietic ...

Research Highlights: A large study of residents in Ningbo, China, a major city of more than 8.2 million residents, found that exposure to more artificial, outdoor, nighttime light was associated with a higher risk of conditions that affect brain health. Excessive exposure to air pollution and artificial, bright light at night were both independently linked to a higher risk of developing cerebrovascular disease and having a stroke. Embargoed until 1 p.m. CT/2 p.m. ET, Monday, March 25, 2024 DALLAS, March 25, 2024 — People continuously ...

Investigators from the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center will discuss the latest breakthroughs and cutting-edge science at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), which attracts more than 20,000 oncology professionals from around the world. The annual meeting will feature more than 40 regular, late-breaking and clinical trial abstracts from UCLA physicians and scientists, who will present their latest work in key areas of translational and basic scientific ...

ITHACA, N.Y. -- By studying individuals who spontaneously clear hepatitis C infections, a team of researchers has identified viable vaccine targets for a disease that infects 70 million worldwide with case numbers increasing every year. It turns out that a quarter of people who become infected with the hepatitis C virus clear the infection on their own without treatment, while the remaining three-quarters of people develop chronic infections that can last for years. The blood-borne disease – which causes liver cirrhosis, liver ...

For centuries, the Cerne Giant, a figure carved into a hillside in Dorset depicting a nude man carrying a club and stretching some 180 feet high, has fascinated locals and visitors to the area. The history of the giant, however, and in particular, its age, has long been a mystery. A new paper in Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies proposes that the Cerne Giant can in fact be dated to the early Middle Ages, and, as a result, its cultural context and significance more clearly understood.   “The Cerne Giant in its Early Medieval Context,” by authors Thomas Morcom and Helen Gittos, acknowledges that previous attempts to date the giant placed ...

25 March 2024: RCSI research has found that venetoclax, a medication currently approved for leukaemia, has benefits for patients with multiple myeloma when used in combination with another drug. This discovery offers a new avenue of treatment options for the currently incurable disease.  Multiple myeloma (MM) is a type of blood cancer that is newly diagnosed in around 400 people in Ireland each year. Despite treatment advances in recent years, it remains incurable. The search for innovative treatment strategies is crucial, particularly for patients whose cancer is resistant to standard care.  In the new study published in Haematologica, researchers at the RCSI Department of ...

Philadelphia, March 25, 2024 – Food insecurity among college students is associated with negative physical and mental health and lower academic performance and graduation rates. A recent research study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, published by Elsevier, investigates why over half of college students eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—the nation’s largest food assistance program—do not apply. Lead study author Suzanna M. Martinez, PhD, MS, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California San Francisco, explained, “In California, ...

Professor Jinyang Liang’s team is advancing in imaging speed with a new ultrafast camera system. Pushing for a higher speed isn’t just for athletes. Researchers, too, can achieve such feats with their discoveries. This is the case for Jinyang Liang, Professor at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), and his team, whose research results have recently been published in Nature Communications. The group based at INRS’ Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Research Centre has developed a new ultrafast camera system that can capture up to 156.3 trillion ...

New research has found no evidence of a difference between recovery time and complications when comparing standard and keyhole surgical incisions for the treatment of oesophageal cancer (cancer of the gullet).  The study, led by the University of Bristol Medical School and published in the British Journal of Surgery, showed surgeons treating patients with oesophageal cancer do not need to change their practice if they have a strong preference for either procedure type. Oesophageal cancer is the tenth most common cancer globally. It causes one in 18 cancer-related deaths. ...

Key Takeaways  In a retrospective analysis of 105,517 patients with colorectal cancer, researchers found that colorectal cancer surgical cases fell by 17.3% during the first year of the pandemic.  Patients who underwent surgery for colorectal cancer in 2020 displayed more advanced stages of cancer compared to those treated in 2019.  The authors attribute these findings to multiple factors, including delays in screening, fear of COVID-19 exposure that may have prevented some people from seeking care, and disparities in cancer care that were likely exacerbated during the pandemic.  CHICAGO: While the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer considered a public ...

In nanomaterials, shape is destiny. That is, the geometry of the particle in the material defines the physical characteristics of the resulting material. “A crystal made of nano-ball bearings will arrange themselves differently than a crystal made of nano-dice and these arrangements will produce very different physical properties,” said Wendy Gu, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford University, introducing her latest paper which appears in the journal Nature Communications. “We’ve used a 3D nanoprinting technique to produce one of the most promising ...

Scientists have discovered how honeybees can decipher dances by their hive mates that relay directions to food. The findings reveal how, in the complete darkness of the hive, each bee uses its antennae to help interpret the information communicated through the dances. It has been known for decades that honeybees do so-called waggle dances, in which their movements and orientation on the honeycomb signal the direction and distance to food outside the hive. However, until now, it was unclear how the bees gathered around a waggle dancer make sense of the information. Gaining greater insights into how bees communicate could help scientists to better understand the effects of ...

Nucleus Genomics, the next-generation genetic testing and analysis company, today announced the launch of its DNA analysis product to bring the benefits of personalized medicine to everyone. DNA and health are inextricably linked, but profound insights into how DNA can shape health are missing from healthcare. Customers who’ve previously done microarray genetic testing with older testing companies can upload their DNA data onto Nucleus’ platform to receive greater insights into their genetic risk for diseases like type 2 diabetes, breast cancer, and many more. Nucleus further personalizes these risk assessments by integrating personal ...

Physicists are also interested in fish – above all when they are researching the formation of structures. A research team from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) and the University of Bristol (United Kingdom) has examined the schooling behaviour of zebra danio (Danio rerio, also known as “zebrafish”) using methods from the field of multi-particle physics. In the scientific journal Nature Communications, they explain that groups of just three fish already move in a similar way to large schools while, by contrast, two fish display completely ...

About The Study: Provision of medications for self-managed abortions increased in the six months following the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. Results suggest that a substantial number of abortion seekers accessed services despite the implementation of state-level bans and restrictions.  Authors: Abigail R. A. Aiken, Ph.D., of the University of Texas at Austin, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2024.4266) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, ...