KYOTO, Japan – May 20, 2024 Infertility affects approximately 1 in 6 people in their lifetime worldwide according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Infertility —as defined by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM)— is a disease, condition, or status characterized by “the inability to achieve a successful pregnancy based on a patient’s medical, sexual, and reproductive history, age, physical findings, diagnostic testing, or any combination of those factors” or requiring medical intervention such as the use of mature donor gametes “to achieve a successful pregnancy ...

Ikoma, Japan – With the growth of the Internet of Things, sustainable solution for powering wireless sensors and devices are considered important. Thermoelectric generators, for example, which have the ability to convert waste heat into electricity can offer a sustainable solution. Researchers around the world have been working on such solutions. A research team, led by Masakazu Nakamura from Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), Japan has also been working on flexible wearable thermoelectric generators that produce electricity from body heat by sewing nanomaterial called carbon nanotubes (CNTs) into fabric. Effective ...

The authors of a major study on the Critically Endangered Arabian leopard say that the release of captive bred animals carefully selected for their genes can make a significant contribution to the successful recovery of the dwindling wild population and avert the prospect of extinction.   An international collaboration led by scientists from the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) at the University of Kent, University of East Anglia (UEA), University College London (UCL), Nottingham-Trent University (NTU) and the Diwan of Royal Court in Oman, surveyed the remote Dhofar mountain range of southern Oman to determine how many of Arabia’s last big cat survive.   By ...

For Wendy Hood and Geoffrey Hill in Biological Sciences, Andreas Kavazis in Kinesiology, and their team, Emma Rhodes, Paulo Mesquita, and Jeff Yap, traveling the country to unlock the mystery of mitochondria in migrating aviary species has allowed them to make a significant contribution to research in an area that has not been investigated before. The first publication conducted in the AU MitoMobile van is featured in Scientific Reports, “Flexibility underlies differences in mitochondrial respiratory performance between ...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients with type 2 inflammation may soon gain access to a new drug — dupilumab — that showed rapid and sustained improvements in patients in a pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial, researchers report in the New England Journal of Medicine. This monoclonal antibody is the first biologic shown to improve clinical outcomes in COPD. The data supporting the use of dupilumab in COPD will be reviewed by the United States Food and Drug Administration in June. The disease improvements — as measured by a significantly ...

Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday 20 May 2024     Annals of Internal Medicine Tip Sheet      @Annalsofim     Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also on behalf of the organization they represent.     ----------------------------     1. ...

Purdue-led fishing expedition nets new pupfish family member in New Mexico Genetic drift, not natural selection, identified as main factor driving speciation WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Scientists have identified a new member on the genetic family tree of an endangered pupfish native to south-central New Mexico. “We went into this thinking that there was one species of conservation concern,” said J. Andrew DeWoody, professor of genetics in Purdue University’s Department of Forestry and Natural Resources. “The preponderance of evidence ...

BOSTON--Yoga, mindfulness, meditation, breathwork, and other practices are gaining in popularity due to their potential to improve health and well-being. The effects of these practices are mostly positive and occasionally transformational, yet they are known to sometimes be associated with challenging altered states of consciousness. New research by a team including investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, reveals that altered states of consciousness associated with meditation practice are far more common than expected. Although many people reported positive outcomes, that were sometimes even considered ...

Cislunar space, which stretches from the Earth to just beyond the moon’s orbit, is about to become heavily trafficked over the next 10 years. With NASA’s planned Artemis missions and other countries joining in the cislunar space race, there’s an interest in observing, tracking and predicting the orbit of objects like asteroids and satellites so they don’t collide with spacecraft. But the process of detecting and observing space objects, known as space domain awareness (SDA), faces challenges with the extensive volume of cislunar space. “Cislunar space is vast,” says Tarek Elgohary, an associate professor ...

A sensory process such as pain is no ordinary phenomenon—it’s a symphony of neural and vascular interactions orchestrated by the brain and spinal cord. Attempting to dissect this symphony by focusing on a single region is like trying to understand a complex melody by listening to just one instrument. It’s incomplete, potentially misleading, and may result in erroneous conclusions. Enter the Carney Institute’s team of visionaries. Their mission? To develop tools that allow unprecedented observation of neural and vascular activity within the brain and spinal cord. They tackled two critical fronts: imaging hardware and bioluminescent (BL) molecular tools. Innovative ...

A certain biological pathway, a set of linked reactions in the body, drives the inflammation seen in the skin disease psoriasis, a new study finds. The work could lead to improved therapies for all inflammatory skin diseases, including atopic and allergic dermatitis and a type of boil called hidradenitis suppurativa, say the study authors. Inflammation is the body’s natural response to irritation and infection, but when out of control, it can lead to the reddish, flaky, itchy lesions that come with these skin diseases. Led by researchers at NYU Langone Health, the new study found that the interleukin-17 (IL-17) pathway, ...

Research Assistant Professor Christopher Fowler received the NASA 2023 Planetary Science Early Career Award for his project “Bringing Planetary Science to West Virginia”. The award is based on demonstrated leadership, involvement in the planetary science community, and potential for future impact.    The resources provided by the NASA Planetary Science Early Career Award will allow Fowler and team to undertake research-related activities that are not always possible within the scope of more “traditional” ...

“[...] we have characterized a pair of compounds that impact multiple processes that are relevant to cancer cell proliferation but also, and possibly more importantly, to metastasis [...].” BUFFALO, NY- May 20, 2024 – A new research paper was published in Oncotarget's Volume 15 on May 16, 2024, entitled, “The anticancer potential of the CLK kinases inhibitors 1C8 and GPS167 revealed by their impact on the epithelial-mesenchymal transition and the antiviral immune response.” The diheteroarylamide-based compound 1C8 and the aminothiazole carboxamide-related compound GPS167 inhibit the CLK kinases, and affect ...

Aging is contributing at the 2024 Systems Aging Gordon Research Conference in Barcelona, Spain, from June 2–7. BUFFALO, NY- May 20, 2024 – Aging is a contributor at the 2024 Systems Aging Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on “Systems Modeling, Aging Biomarkers, and Longevity Interventions” — taking place from June 2–7, 2024, in Castelldefels, Barcelona, Spain. “The conference will present recent advances in systemic rejuvenation, multi-omics approaches, applications ...

The shortage of suitable donor meniscus grafts from the knee and temporomandibular joint (TMJ) impedes treatments for millions of patients. Vitrification offers a promising solution by transitioning these tissues into a vitreous state at cryogenic temperatures, protecting them from ice crystal damage using high concentrations of cryoprotectant agents (CPAs). However, vitrification's success is hindered for larger tissues (>3 mL) due to challenges in CPA penetration. Dense avascular meniscus tissues require extended CPA exposure for adequate penetration; however, ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. —  By converting their data into sounds, scientists discovered how hydrogen bonds contribute to the lightning-fast gyrations that transform a string of amino acids into a functional, folded protein. Their report, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offers an unprecedented view of the sequence of hydrogen-bonding events that occur when a protein morphs from an unfolded to a folded state. See video: Protein Sonification “A protein must fold properly to become an enzyme or signaling molecule or whatever its function may be — all the many things that proteins do in our bodies,” said University of Illinois ...

New York, NY [May 20, 2024]—Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have designed a regenerative medicine therapy to speed up diabetic wound repair. Using tiny fat particles loaded with genetic instructions to calm down inflammation, the treatment was shown to target problem-causing cells and reduce swelling and harmful molecules in mouse models of damaged skin. Details on their findings were published in the May 20 online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Diabetic wounds, often resistant to conventional treatments, ...

Irvine, Calif., May 20, 2024 — A team of glaciologists led by researchers at the University of California, Irvine used high-resolution satellite radar data to find evidence of the intrusion of warm, high-pressure seawater many kilometers beneath the grounded ice of West Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier. In a study published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the UC Irvine-led team said that widespread contact between ocean water and the glacier – a process that is replicated throughout Antarctica and in Greenland – causes “vigorous melting” and may require a reassessment of ...

EMBARGOED UNTIL 15:00 EDT MONDAY, MAY 20, 2024 For the first time, there is visible evidence showing that warm seawater is pumping underneath Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier—ominously nicknamed the Doomsday Glacier. An international team of scientists—including a researcher from the University of Waterloo—observed it using satellite imagery and warns that it could accelerate catastrophic sea level rise in 10 to 20 years.  The intrusion of seawater causes the ice to continuously lift off the land and settle back down again. Ice melts intensely when it first touches seawater, ...

Deposits of designated critical minerals needed to transition the world’s energy systems away from fossil fuels may, ironically enough, be co-located with coal deposits that have been mined to produce the fossil fuel most implicated in climate change. Now, research led by the University of Utah has documented elevated concentrations of a key subset of critical minerals, known as rare earth elements, or REEs, in active mines rimming the Uinta coal belt of Colorado and Utah. These findings open the possibility that these mines could see a secondary resource stream in the form of metals used in renewable energy and numerous other high-tech ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE: MONDAY, MAY 20, 2024, 3:00 PM ET Key points: Replacing an average diesel school bus from 2017 with an electric one may result in $84,200 in health and climate benefits—including fewer greenhouse gas emissions and reduced rates of mortality and childhood asthma—per individual bus. Those benefits may increase to $247,600 per individual electric school bus replacing a diesel bus from 2005 or earlier in a large metropolitan area. While the benefits of replacing diesel vehicles with electric ones are well known, this is the first study to specifically quantify the health and climate benefits of replacing diesel school buses with electric ...

Endoscopes are instruments that are used to look inside the body Even with new developments cleaning them sufficiently has been a challenge  The University has entered a knowledge transfer partnership (KTP) with PFE Medical to improve the process by removing bacterial biofilm inside them.  Aston University experts are teaming up with a medical products company to improve the cleaning of endoscopes. Endoscopes are long, thin instruments with a light and camera at one end that are used to look inside the body. Cleaning them sufficiently has been a challenge and even with new developments they can ...

LA JOLLA, CA — The brain is often referred to as a “black box”—one that’s difficult to peer inside and determine what’s happening at any given moment. This is part of the reason why it’s difficult to understand the complex interplay of molecules, cells and genes that underly neurological disorders. But a new CRISPR screen method developed at Scripps Research has the potential to uncover new therapeutic targets and treatments for these conditions. The method, outlined in a study published in Cell on May 20, 2024, provides a way to rapidly examine the brain cell types ...

Image   Artificial neural networks may soon be able to process time-dependent information, such as audio and video data, more efficiently. The first memristor with a 'relaxation time' that can be tuned is reported today in Nature Electronics, in a study led by the University of Michigan.    Memristors, electrical components that store information in their electrical resistance, could reduce AI's energy needs by about a factor of 90 compared to today's graphical processing units. Already, AI is projected to account for about half a percent of the world's total electricity ...

EMBARGOED UNTIL:  10:15 a.m. PT, Monday, May 20, 2024 PARC MODEL OF CARE ASSOCIATED WITH FEWER DEATHS AMONG VETERANS  POST-ICU   Session:  B18 – Bridging Gaps to Improve Long-Term Outcomes The Post-Acute Recovery Center: A Telehealth Care Model to Improve Patient-Centered Outcomes for High-Risk Survivors of Critical Illness Date and Time: Monday, May 20, 2024, 10:15 a.m. PT Location:  San Diego Convention Center, Room 32A-B (Upper Level)   ATS 2024, San Diego – Research presented at the ATS 2024 International Conference demonstrates that veterans who received ...