As any percussionist or fidgety pen-tapper can tell you, different materials make different noises when you hit them. Researchers at Drexel University hope this foundational acoustic phenomenon could be the key to the speedy removal of lead water lines that have been poisoning water supplies throughout the country for decades. A recent study conducted with geotechnical engineering consultant Seaflower Consulting Services, showed that it is possible to discern a buried pipe’s composition by striking ...

A research team, affiliated with UNIST has unveiled a cutting-edge catalyst with exceptional oxidizing power, capable of extracting electrons from compounds. Anticipated to revolutionize various fields, including the development of metal catalysts and synthetic chemistry, this catalyst marks a significant breakthrough in catalytic research. Led by Professor Jaeheung Cho in the Department of Chemistry at UNIST, the research team successfully synthesized the pioneering manganese-fluorine catalyst, utilizing the Macrocyclic Pyridinophane System. This catalyst demonstrates the ability to induce oxidation reactions, ...

One in four older adults take aspirin at least three times a week, mostly in hopes of preventing heart attacks and strokes, a new poll shows. But many people aged 50 to 80 who said they take aspirin may not need to, the findings from the University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging suggest. In all, 57% of people aged 50 to 80 who say they take aspirin regularly also said they don’t have a history of cardiovascular disease. Such people should have a conversation with their health care provider about what’s best for them before stopping or starting aspirin use. National guidelines have changed in recent years for using aspirin for prevention, ...

Antimicrobial resistance is a story of constantly moving parts and players. With every new or tweaked antibiotic or antimicrobial drug, the targeted pathogens begin the evolutionary dance of acquiring resistance, prompting researchers to constantly develop workarounds or entirely new classes of medicine. Understanding the underlying mechanisms of acquired antimicrobial resistance is critical to the fight, a case of knowing one’s enemy. In a new paper published March 2, 2024 in npj Antimicrobials and Resistance, part of the Nature Portfolio, researchers at Sanford Burnham Prebys, working with Roche Pharma Research and Early Development, ...

Before a robot can grab dishes off a shelf to set the table, it must ensure its gripper and arm won’t crash into anything and potentially shatter the fine china. As part of its motion planning process, a robot typically runs “safety check” algorithms that verify its trajectory is collision-free.  However, sometimes these algorithms generate false positives, claiming a trajectory is safe when the robot would actually collide with something. Other methods that can avoid false positives are typically too slow for robots in the real world. Now, MIT researchers have developed a safety check technique which can prove with 100 percent accuracy ...

Background and objectives Obesity is a chronic metabolic disease associated with the development of several other diseases, including cancer. The present study aims to evaluate the eating habits, physical activity, and clinical profiles of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients with overweight/obesity.   Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted with data collected from the medical records of patients diagnosed with CRC (n = 41) from June 2019 to June 2022. Additionally, a questionnaire (n = 35) was applied to gather information on eating habits and physical activity. The data were ...

Endometriosis is a chronic condition affecting women, often resulting in painful symptoms such as menstrual cramps and pelvic pain. Pain caused by endometriosis significantly lowers the quality of life and reproductive health of affected women, with around one-third of women still experiencing pain and discomfort despite treatment. While hormonal therapies and surgeries are common treatments, they often do not result in complete alleviation of symptoms. Effectively managing pain is, therefore, crucial for managing ...

The global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare systems has been significant. The sudden surge in infected cases overwhelmed hospitals and disrupted routine healthcare services, thus further worsening public health. Managing patients, too, has been challenging due to the variation of COVID-19 symptoms, ranging from mild to severe, that require medical intervention.   To help hospitals prioritize patients in need of care, researchers have been looking into various biological markers that can determine the risk of the disease becoming more severe. Among these, proteins in the blood related to blood clot formation, increased inflammation, and ...

Spintronics is a field that deals with electronics that exploit the intrinsic spin of electrons and their associated magnetic moment for applications such as quantum computing and memory storage devices. Owing to its spin and magnetism exhibited in its insulator-metal phase transition, the strongly correlated electron systems of nickel oxide (NiO) have been thoroughly explored for over eight decades. Interest in its unique antiferromagnetic (AF) and spin properties has seen a revival lately, since NiO is a potential material for ultrafast spintronics devices.   Despite this rise in popularity, exploration of its surface magnetic properties using ...

As role models and mentors for the youth, teachers play an important role in guiding children into well-rounded adults. However, excessive workloads and high skill expectations have allegedly led to teacher shortages in Japan. In 2022, the Ministry of Education Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) reported a record low in applicants for primary school teaching positions, and a survey from the same year revealed that 65.8% of 924 full-time educators expressed a desire to quit due to overwhelming demands. To address the teacher shortage, Associate Professor Akihiro Saito from ...

The James Webb Space Telescope makes one of the most unexpected findings within its first year of service: A high number of faint little red dots in the distant Universe could change the way we understand the genesis of supermassive black holes. The research, led by Jorryt Matthee, Assistant Professor in astrophysics at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), is now published in The Astrophysical Journal. A bunch of little red dots found in a tiny region of our night sky might be an unexpected breakthrough for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) within its first year of service. These objects were indistinguishable from normal galaxies through the ...

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and Los Alamos National Laboratory have used machine learning to create a model that can simulate reactive processes in a diverse set of organic materials and conditions. "It's a tool that can be used to investigate more reactions in this field," said Shuhao Zhang, a graduate student in Carnegie Mellon University's Department of Chemistry. "We can offer a full simulation of the reaction mechanisms." Zhang is the first author on the paper that explains the creation and results of this new machine learning model, ...

Common inherited genetic factors that predict cancer risk in the general population may also predict elevated risk of new cancers among childhood cancer survivors, according to a study led by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health. The findings, published March 7, 2024, in Nature Medicine, provide additional evidence that genetics may play an important role in the development of subsequent cancers in survivors of childhood cancer and suggest that common inherited variants could potentially inform screening and long-term ...

[Vienna, March 5 2024] — The world population is aging at an increasing pace. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2023, one in six people were over 60 years old. By 2050, the number of people over 60 is expected to double to 2.1 billion. “As age increases, the risk of multiple, often chronic diseases occurring simultaneously—known as multimorbidity—significantly rises,” explains Elma Dervic from the Complexity Science Hub (CSH). Given the demographic shift we are facing, this poses several challenges. On one hand, multimorbidity diminishes ...

LOS ANGELES — A pioneering Phase 1 CAR T cell therapy trial for the treatment of glioblastoma at City of Hope, one of the largest cancer treatment and research organizations in the United States, demonstrates promising clinical activity against incurable brain tumors, according to research published today in Nature Medicine.  The study, which is the largest reported trial to date of CAR T therapy for solid tumors, evaluated CAR T cells engineered to target the tumor-associated antigen interleukin-13 receptor alpha 2 (IL13Rα2), a product invented at City of Hope and exclusively licensed by Mustang Bio Inc. (Nasdaq: MBIO), a Fortress Biotech Inc. (Nasdaq: ...

The findings reveal a troubling surge in cases of syphilis, gonorrhoea, and chlamydia, indicating a pressing need for heightened awareness of STI transmission, and the need to enhance robust prevention, access to testing, and effective treatment to address this public health challenge. In 2022, the number of reported cases saw a significant increase compared to the previous year, with gonorrhoea cases rising by 48%, syphilis cases by 34%, and chlamydia cases by 16%. In addition, cases of lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) and congenital syphilis (caused by transmission from mother to fetus) have also substantially increased. These trends underscore the urgent need for ...

For the first time, neuroscientists have established a link between shifts in our visual perception and the cadence of our steps while walking. The research, published in Nature Communications, shows that the brain processes vision in a rhythmic manner, rising and falling in sensitivity in a cycle that corresponds to the rhythm of our steps. When swinging from one step to the next, human perception is good and reactions fast. During footfall, however, our vision is not as sharp and reactions are slowed. Lead author Dr Matthew Davidson from the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney said: “This work reveals a previously unknown relationship between perception ...

In a study published in Cell on March 5, Prof. ZHANG Xiaoming at the Shanghai Institute of Immunity and Infection (SIII) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Profs. GAO Qiang, FAN Jia and YANG Li at Fudan University have uncovered an unexpected level of complexity hidden within neutrophils, which were previously thought to be a relatively uniform population of short-lived immune cells.  Using cutting-edge single-cell RNA sequencing technology, the researchers analyzed individual neutrophils across a remarkable 17 different cancer types from 143 patients. They revealed that neutrophils can adopt at least ...

University of Otago researchers have discovered three psychological factors that predict if a non-smoker will start vaping. The study, published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Review, investigates how psychological traits related to personality and mental health predict the likelihood of vaping uptake over time in non-smoking adults. Researchers, led by Professor Tamlin Conner of the Department of Psychology and Andre Mason of the Department of Psychological Medicine, analysed longitudinal data of more than 36,000 New Zealand adults from the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (NZAVS). They found people who ...

Optical properties of afterglow luminescent particles (ALPs) in mechanoluminescence (ML) and mechanical quenching (MQ) have attracted great attention for diverse technological applications. Recently, a team of researchers from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) has garnered attention by developing an optical display technology with ALPs enabling the writing and erasure of messages underwater.   The team, comprised of Professor Sei Kwang Hahn and PhD candidate Seong-Jong Kim from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the POSTECH, uncovered a distinctive optical phenomenon in ALPs. Subsequently, they successfully created ...

A team from Nagoya University in Japan has identified previously unidentified gene variants that are associated with the development of generalized pustular psoriasis (GPP). The team’s findings, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, offer hope for improving diagnosis and therapy.     GPP is rare, but its effects are often serious. People with GPP can experience recurrent flares of the disease, which include multiple erythematous lesions and sterile pustules over the whole body, often accompanied by fever ...

Background and objectives Cytokine storm (CS) is an acute systemic inflammatory response with limited effective interventions up to now. The treatment experience of the COVID-19 pandemic suggests great potential in the intervention of CS by herbal medicine. This study aimed to investigate whether Schisanhenol (SSH), an active component of the Chinese herbal medicine Schisandra chinensis, has the potential to interfere with CS.   Methods The effect of SSH on nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) signaling pathway activity ...

In a potentially game-changing development, scientists with the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC have revealed a new understanding of sometimes fatal viral infections that affect the heart. Traditionally, the focus has been on heart inflammation known as myocarditis, which is often triggered by the body’s immune response to a viral infection.  However, a new study led by James Smyth, associate professor at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, sheds new light on this notion, revealing that the virus itself creates potentially dangerous conditions in the heart ...

About one-third of autistic people are unable to communicate using speech, and most are never provided an effective alternative. However, a new study from scientists at the University of Virginia suggests that many of these individuals are literate, raising the possibility that they could learn to express themselves through writing.     The study published in the journal Autism, reports that five times more nonspeaking autistic teenagers and adults demonstrated knowledge of written language conventions than would be expected from previous estimates of their abilities. The finding has important implications for the millions of autistic ...

New Haven, Conn. — Whereas humans have one receptor on their tongues that can detect all sorts of sweet things, from real sugar to artificial sweeteners like aspartame, insects have many receptors that each detect specific types of sugars. Yale researchers have now uncovered one way insect receptors are able to be so selective, an insight they say will help us understand how animals decipher the chemical world and how we might mimic that ability in the future. They reported their findings in a study published March 6 in Nature. Sugar is important to animals ...