The Ecological Society of America is pleased to announce its 2024 Fellows. The Society’s fellowship program recognizes the many ways in which its members contribute to ecological research, communication, education, management and policy. This year, the ESA Governing Board has confirmed nine new Fellows and ten new Early Career Fellows. Fellows are members who have made outstanding contributions to a wide range of fields served by ESA, including, but not restricted to, those that advance or apply ecological knowledge in academics, ...

Currently, most therapies for allergic diseases require lifelong treatment. Allergic reactions, characterized by ongoing (type 2) inflammation in response to chronic antigen exposure, underlie many chronic diseases in humans, including asthma, atopic dermatitis, ulcerative colitis and more. T helper 2 (Th2) cells play an important role in the body's immune response, particularly in allergic reactions. Despite their central role, the sustained activity of Th2 cells during allergic reactions, even in the face of constant antigen exposure, has long puzzled researchers. A research team that included authors from Mass General Brigham, including ...

Link to release: https://www.washington.edu/news/2024/04/30/oects/   Researchers who want to bridge the divide between biology and technology spend a lot of time thinking about translating between the two different “languages” of those realms. “Our digital technology operates through a series of electronic on-off switches that control the flow of current and voltage,” said Rajiv Giridharagopal, a research scientist at the University of Washington. “But our bodies operate on chemistry. In our brains, neurons ...

MIAMI, FLORIDA (April 30, 2024) – Newly updated guidelines on neuroendocrine tumors developed by an expert at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and collaborators provide clinicians with the latest recommendations for staging and management of these rare but increasingly diagnosed tumors. The guidelines, developed for the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) and summarized today in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, highlight recent changes for treating these tumors and offer a snapshot of this rapidly evolving ...

Around 6,200 BCE, the climate changed. Global temperatures dropped, sea levels rose and the southern Levant, including modern-day Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon, southern Syria and the Sinai desert, entered a period of drought.  Previously, archaeologists believed that this abrupt shift in global climate, called the 8.2ka event, may have led to the widespread abandonment of coastal settlements in the southern Levant. In a recent study published with the journal Antiquity, researchers at UC San Diego, the University of Haifa and Bar-Ilan University share new evidence suggesting at least one village formerly thought abandoned not only remained occupied, but ...

“[...] these findings may help to advance our understanding of the pathogenesis of corneal endothelial disease and may lead to the discovery of new therapies targeting senescent cells.” BUFFALO, NY- April 30, 2024 – A new research paper was published on the cover of Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 16, Issue 8, entitled, “Senescent characteristics of human corneal endothelial cells upon ultraviolet-A exposure.” In ...

Common household products containing nanoparticles – grains of engineered material so miniscule they are invisible to the eye – could be contributing to a new form of indoor air pollution, according to a Rutgers study. In a study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, a team of Rutgers researchers found people walking through a space, where a consumer product containing nanoparticles was recently sprayed, stirred residual specks off carpet fibers and floor surfaces, projecting them some three ...

An international team of researchers has successfully used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to map the weather on the hot gas-giant exoplanet WASP-43 b. Precise brightness measurements over a broad spectrum of mid-infrared light, combined with 3D climate models and previous observations from other telescopes, suggest the presence of thick, high clouds covering the nightside, clear skies on the dayside, and equatorial winds upwards of 5,000 miles per hour mixing atmospheric gases around the planet. The investigation is just the latest demonstration of the exoplanet science now possible with Webb’s ...

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured the sharpest infrared images to date of a zoomed-in portion of one of the most distinctive objects in our skies, the Horsehead Nebula. These observations show the top of the “horse’s mane” or edge of this iconic nebula in a whole new light, capturing the region’s complexity with unprecedented spatial resolution. Webb’s new images show part of the sky in the constellation Orion (The Hunter), in the western side of a dense region known as the Orion B molecular cloud. Rising from turbulent waves of dust and gas is the Horsehead Nebula, otherwise known as ...

Proteins are the workhorses of life. Organisms use them as building blocks, receptors, processors, couriers and catalysts. A protein’s structure is critical to its function. Malformed proteins not only fail to carry out their tasks, they can accumulate and eventually gum up the inner workings of cells. As a result, misfolded proteins cause a variety of degenerative diseases, from Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s to the blinding disease retinitis pigmentosa. These disorders are currently incurable. A paper out of UC Santa Barbara reveals a new connection between ...

Researchers from the University of California San Diego have revealed new trends in drug consumption that shed light on how people are adapting to the evolving risks associated with unregulated drug use in the United States. The findings could help policymakers and public health officials better tailor interventions to meet the needs of vulnerable populations and reduce the public health burden of substance-related harm. Since the early 2010s, deaths from accidental overdoses have been on the rise ...

Speech is critical to detecting suicidal ideation and a key to understanding the mental and emotional state of people experiencing it. Suicide hotline counsellors are trained to quickly analyze speech variation to better help callers through a crisis. But just as no system is perfect, there is room for error in interpreting a caller’s speech. In order to assist hotline counsellors to properly assess a caller’s condition, Concordia PhD student Alaa Nfissi has developed a model for speech emotion recognition (SER) using artificial intelligence tools. The model analyzes and codes waveform modulations in ...

April 30, 2024, ALEXANDRIA, Virginia —The American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF) published the Clinical Practice Guideline: Age-Related Hearing Loss today in Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery. This clinical practice guideline (CPG) sheds lights on a global public health problem affecting approximately 466 million people worldwide and identifies quality improvement opportunities and provide clinicians trustworthy, evidence-based recommendations regarding the identification and management of age-related hearing loss (ARHL) in patients 50 years and older. “Age-related ...

The grazing of both domestic and wild animals is shaping landscapes across Europe. It can also contribute to multiple ecosystem services, such as providing habitat for biodiversity. Grazing systems with lower densities of animals and with minimal and only targeted applications of deworming and other medicinal treatments offer benefits for local biodiversity protection and various ecosystem services. However, this type of land management also poses a range of challenges, leading to a constant decline in the number of land users engaged in low-intensity grazing. A team of researchers led by iDiv, UL, and UFZ set out to investigate these ...

Philadelphia, April 30, 2024 – A genetic propensity to higher circulating levels of lipids containing arachidonic acid, an omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid found in eggs, poultry, and seafood, has been found to be linked with a lower risk for bipolar disorder, according to a new study in Biological Psychiatry, published by Elsevier. This new evidence paves the way for potential lifestyle or dietary interventions. Bipolar disorder is a debilitating mood disorder characterized by recurring episodes of mania and depression. Although its etiology is still unclear, previous studies have shown that ...

In an effort to improve early detection of breast cancer and address disparities in outcomes, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has issued updated breast cancer screening recommendations to now advise all women to undergo routine screening every other year starting at age 40 —representing a significant shift from previous guidelines, which recommended screening starting at age 50 and engaging in individualized decision-making for women aged 40 to 49. The revised guidelines aim to enhance early detection of breast cancer and tackle disparities in breast cancer mortality, particularly among Black women, who are more likely to have aggressive ...

New York (April 30, 2024) – The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) annually honors researchers, clinicians, educators, and emerging health professionals who have made outstanding contributions to high-quality, person-centered care for older adults. This year’s award recipients include 19 leaders representing the breadth of medical disciplines championing care for us all as we age.  Choosing Wisely Champion Award Paras Goel, PT, DPT, Med, MBA, GCS Clinical Student Research Award Elizabeth Margaret Ann Kelly Clinician of the Year Award Joyce Fogel, MD David ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Tai Forest Monkey Project has operated a research field station in west Africa’s Ivory Coast for 30 years, but on the one day since its opening that the site was unstaffed because of conflict in nearby Liberia, poachers took advantage – and killed 18 endangered monkeys. The anecdote is a telling example, scientists say, of how thousands of field stations studying primates in forests around the world not only generate knowledge about these threatened species, but also contribute to ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – Environmentalists rejoiced when China announced its commitment to reach carbon neutrality by 2060, but the decarbonization of China – which emits 27% of global carbon dioxide and a third of the world’s greenhouse gases – may come with hidden costs and hard environmental choices, according to new research.  In a paper published in Communications Earth & Environment, Stefano Galelli, associate professor at Cornell University’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and colleagues attempt to quantify how decarbonizing the China Southern Power Grid, which provides electricity ...

The link between massive flood basalt volcanism and the end-Triassic (201 million years ago) mass-extinction is commonly accepted. However, exactly how volcanism led to the collapse of ecosystems and the extinction of entire families of organisms is difficult to establish. Extreme climate change from the release of carbon dioxide, degradation of the ozone layer due to the injection of damaging chemicals, and the emissions of toxic pollutants, are all seen as contributing factors. One toxic element stands out: ...

KANSAS CITY, MO—April 30, 2024—The Stowers Institute for Medical Research announces the appointment of Kamena Kostova, Ph.D., as its newest Principal Investigator. Kostova, an accomplished cellular and molecular biologist, will join the Institute in Fall 2024 as an Assistant Investigator. She brings with her an established research program focused on understanding cellular responses to ribosome breakdown and the relationship these responses have with complex diseases such as cancer and neurodegeneration.  Kostova is currently ...

The German Science and Humanities Council (Science Council) assessed the German Fed-eral Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) in Berlin on 7 and 8 November 2023 and published its assessment today, 22 April 2024. As the highest German scientific commission, it certi-fies that the BfR “fulfills tasks of great social relevance” (protection of human health, in-forming the public about health risks posed by chemicals and biological substances) “on the basis of very good research”. It is characterised by an “extremely rapid response capability, a pronounced application orientation and a high degree of being up-to-date with its topics”. “We are delighted ...

In a new study published in Cell Stem Cell, USC scientists report significant progress in cultivating nephron progenitor cells (NPCs), the cells destined to form the kidney’s filtration system, the nephrons. NPCs hold immense promise for understanding kidney development, modeling diseases, and discovering new treatments. “By enhancing our capability to grow NPCs from human stem cells, we create a new avenue for understanding and combating congenital kidney diseases and cancer,” said corresponding and lead author Zhongwei Li, an assistant professor of medicine, and stem cell biology and regenerative medicine ...

Bottom Line: The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends biennial screening mammography for women ages 40 to 74. The USPSTF concludes that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of screening mammography in women 75 years or older. The USPSTF concludes that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of supplemental screening for breast cancer using breast ultrasonography or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in women identified to have dense breasts on an otherwise negative screening mammogram. Among ...

WASHINGTON, April 30, 2024 – Interactions with voice technology, such as Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google Assistant, can make life easier by increasing efficiency and productivity. However, errors in generating and understanding speech during interactions are common. When using these devices, speakers often style-shift their speech from their normal patterns into a louder and slower register, called technology-directed speech. Research on technology-directed speech typically focuses on mainstream varieties of U.S. English without considering speaker groups that are more consistently ...