A new paper in Nicotine & Tobacco Research, published by Oxford University Press, finds that banning the sale of menthol cigarettes would likely lead to a meaningful reduction in smoking rates. Menthol cigarettes are of particular public health concern because studies have found that the cooling effects of menthol mask the harshness of cigarettes, making it easier for young people to start smoking. Prior research has also found that menthol in cigarettes makes it easier for smokers to absorb nicotine, which results in ...

When clouds meet clear skies, cloud droplets evaporate as they mix with dry air. A new study involving researchers from the University of Gothenburg has succeeded in capturing what happens in a model. Ultimately, this could lead to more accurate climate modeling in the future. The clouds in the sky have a significant impact on our climate. Not only do they produce precipitation and provide shade from the sun, they also act as large reflectors that prevent the radiation of heat from the Earth – commonly known as the greenhouse effect. “Although clouds have been studied for a long time, they are one of the biggest sources of uncertainty in climate models,” ...

Trust, a cornerstone of human interaction, has a significant genetic component, with around 33% of the variation between individuals attributed to our genes, according to new Australian research using data from twins and a meta-analysis of previous studies on the heritability of trust. Successful relationships, economic transactions and social cohesion are all a matter of trust. Without trust, businesses collapse, political parties fail, and conflicts erupt, whether on a personal or international scale, resulting in broken hearts and lives lost.  “Higher levels of trust are associated with a range of social and economic benefits, ...

People who eat a healthy, plant-based diet that is high in vegetables, fruit, whole grains and nuts are less likely to suffer with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), according to a study published today (Wednesday) in ERJ Open Research [1]. However, people eating an unhealthy plant-based diet, high in refined carbohydrates, sugary drinks, high-sugar and high-salt foods, are at a higher risk of OSA.   People with OSA often snore loudly, their breathing starts and stops during the night, and they may wake up several times. Not only does this cause tiredness, but it can also increase the risk of high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease and type 2 diabetes.   The new study ...

The expression "flawless from every angle" is commonly used to characterize a celebrity's appearance. This doesn't simply imply that they appear attractive from a specific viewpoint, but rather that their appeal remains consistent and appealing from various angles and perspectives. Recently, a research team from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) has employed metasurface to fabricate angle-dependent holograms with multiple functions, capturing significant interest within ...

University of California San Diego and CEA-Leti scientists have developed a ground-breaking piezoelectric-based DC-DC converter that unifies all power switches onto a single chip to increase power density. This new power topology, which extends beyond existing topologies, blends the advantages of piezoelectric converters with capacitive-based DC-DC converters. The power converters the team developed are much smaller than the huge, bulky inductors currently used for this role. The devices could eventually be used for any type of DC-DC conversation, ...

NEW ORLEANS, La –  Ochsner Medical Center – New Orleans achieved accreditation as a Center of Excellence in Robotic Surgery, and Ochsner Baptist – A Campus of Ochsner Medical Center, inclusive of Ochsner Medical Center and Ochsner Medical Complex- Clearview, received accreditation as a Center of Excellence in Continence Care for Women by SRC (Surgical Review Corporation). This accreditation recognizes Ochsner Health’s commitment to a high standard of quality patient care delivery and safety. “Robotic ...

CLEVELAND--For the past 38 years, Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) and University Hospitals (UH) have worked closely with a variety of institutions in Uganda to advance medical research and education across a range of fields. Their facilities have remained scattered across the campuses of local partners but now, the collaboration will have a permanent home. A $2 million gift from The Roe Green Foundation, jointly awarded to CWRU and UH, will advance global health initiatives from each institution and establish a state-of-the-art research hub and gathering ...

Despite significant progress in developing AI systems that can understand the physical world like humans do, researchers have struggled with modelling a certain aspect of our visual system: the perception of light.  “Determining the influence of light in a given photograph is a bit like trying to separate the ingredients out of an already baked cake.” explains Chris Careaga, a PhD student in the Computational Photography Lab at SFU. The task requires undoing the complicated interactions between light and surfaces in a scene. This problem is referred to as intrinsic decomposition, and has been ...

Minority ethnic NHS staff were more likely to face workplace harassment, discrimination, and unavailability of personal protective equipment (PPE) than their White British colleagues during the pandemic, reveals research published online in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine.   Urgent action is needed to redress ongoing race inequalities in the health service, insist the researchers, who call for the inclusion of diversity and inclusion training in professional development, and the expansion of the NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard. Staff from minority ethnic groups make up nearly ...

There seems to be a J-shaped curve between dietary thiamine (vitamin B1) and worsening mental acuity among cognitively healthy older people, suggests research published in the open access journal General Psychiatry.   The sweet spot seems to be a daily intake of 0.68 mg, below which there is relatively little impact. But higher daily intake was strongly associated with cognitive decline, with the optimal maintenance dose 0.6 to less than 1 mg/day, the findings show. Thiamine is an essential water-soluble B vitamin involved in energy metabolism and brain neurotransmitter activity. Good dietary sources include whole grains, fortified ...

Adopting a healthy lifestyle is strongly linked to a lower risk of irritable bowel syndrome or IBS for short, finds research published online in the journal Gut. Of the big 5 healthy behaviours, not smoking, a high level of vigorous physical activity, and getting enough sleep were independently associated with keeping the condition at bay. Characterised by abdominal pain, bloating, and abnormal bowel habit, IBS is thought to affect up to 1 in 10 people worldwide. Exactly what causes IBS isn’t fully understood, but disordered functioning of the gut–brain ...

An enthusiastic response to food in early childhood may be linked to a higher likelihood of experiencing eating disorder symptoms in adolescence, according to a new study led by researchers at UCL and Erasmus University Rotterdam. The study, published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, looked at survey data from 3,670 young people in the UK and the Netherlands to investigate how appetite traits in early childhood might relate to the likelihood of developing eating disorder symptoms up to 10 years later. The researchers found that a particularly high food responsiveness, defined as the urge to eat when you see, smell ...

The researchers found that 670 nanometres (nm) of red light stimulated energy production within mitochondria, the tiny powerhouses within cells, leading to increased consumption of glucose. In particular, it led to a 27.7% reduction in blood glucose levels following glucose intake, and it reduced maximum glucose spiking by 7.5%. While the study was conducted in healthy individuals, the non-invasive, non-pharmacological technique has the potential to have an impact on diabetes control after meals, as it can reduce damaging fluctuations of blood glucose in the body that contribute to ageing. The study also highlights the significant long-term consequences for human health, including ...

Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s managing contractor, UT-Battelle, presented a donation of $186,000 to Socially Equal Energy Efficient Development, or SEEED, to support the nonprofit’s third green solar home as part of their Green Construction Program. “We are committed to serving the communities that we live in,” UT-Battelle CEO and ORNL Director Stephen Streiffer said. “Our partnership with SEEED has provided a tremendous opportunity to share our scientific expertise, and we are excited that our support will help make this green solar home become a reality.” Streiffer joined SEEED for a groundbreaking ceremony in Knoxville, Tenn., at the home project ...

Researchers at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and the Department of Chemistry at the University of Chicago have engineered tiny, spinning micro-robots that bind to immune cells to probe their function. The robot, or “hexapod,” gives scientists a new, highly adaptable way to study immune cells and to aid in the design of immunotherapies against cancer, infection, or autoimmune diseases. Each hexapod robot has six arms containing molecules that might be recognized as foreign by the immune system — such as protein fragments from a tumor, virus, or ...

Individuals with eating disorders who have low income are frequently misdiagnosed and lack adequate access to appropriate therapy, according to researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Their paper, published in The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist on Feb. 19, identified the barriers to care that come with having low income and offered guidelines on how therapists can make accommodations for these patients to improve diagnoses and access to treatment.   Approximately 30 million people in the United States experience ...

Medical University of South Carolina scientists report in Neuron that they have uncovered a way to restore an opioid-weakened brain pathway in a preclinical model. With funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health, the MUSC research team, led by neuroscientist James Otis, Ph.D., used advanced neuroscience tools to return a pathway between the thalamus and basal ganglia to healthy functioning in mice. As a result, this restoration prevented mice that were opioid-dependent from seeking or self-administering heroin. Results also suggested that sustained opioid use was the cause of this weakened pathway, rather than being caused by ...

By Beth Miller Two teams of engineers led by faculty in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis will work toward developing products to monitor drinking water quality and to detect explosives with an electronic nose with one-year, $650,000 Convergence Accelerator Phase 1 grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Barani Raman, professor of biomedical engineering, and Daniel Giammar, the Walter E. Browne Professor of Environmental Engineering, will lead teams of researchers from Washington University and other institutions and entities funded under the NSF’s Convergence Accelerator program, designed to address national-scale ...

Contact: Jillian McKoy, jpmckoy@bu.edu Michael Saunders, msaunder@bu.edu ## As a proposal to reinstate expanded Child Tax Credits (CTC) in the United States awaits a vote in the Senate, a new study led by Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) researchers reveals that the now-expired 2021 CTC expansion benefitted families experiencing financial setbacks due to health or employment challenges spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. Published in the journal Health Affairs Scholar, the study found that monthly advance payments included in the 2021 CTC ...

Fashioned from the same element found in sand and covered by intricate patterns, microchips power smartphones, augment appliances and aid the operation of cars and airplanes. Now, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) are developing computer simulation codes that will outperform current simulation techniques and aid the production of microchips using plasma, the electrically charged state of matter also used in fusion research. These codes could help increase the efficiency of the manufacturing process and potentially stimulate ...

Hepatoblastoma (HB) is the most common liver cancer in children. Researchers and physicians in the field are concerned because in the last decade HB has been rising rapidly worldwide and has seen the most rapid increase among all pediatric solid tumors. A team led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine has been working on improving therapies for this devastating disease. They recently reported in the Journal of Hepatology a novel treatment strategy that produced encouraging results in animal models. “High-risk disease leads to high rates of relapse and mortality,” said first author Dr. Andrés F. Espinoza, general ...

“In sum, we have defined what a premature aging disease is and developed tools to allow diagnostics of patients and disease population.” BUFFALO, NY- February 20, 2024 – A new research paper was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 16, Issue 3, entitled, “Defining the progeria phenome.” Progeroid disorders are a heterogenous group of rare and complex hereditary syndromes presenting with pleiotropic phenotypes associated with normal aging. Due to the ...

Abigail Lewis traveled all across the United States for college and graduate school, and she ended up researching lakes in her own hometown.  For one of her graduate research projects, Lewis analyzed 656 lakes across five continents with an international research team. The lakes in her hometown of Waukesha, Wisconsin, were among those included.  “To look back and pull together these two parts of my life has been really satisfying,” said Lewis, who will earn her Ph.D. in biological sciences this spring.  In a paper recently published in Global Change Biology, ...

Dr. Mustafa Akbulut, professor of chemical engineering, has teamed up with horticultural science professor Luis Cisneros-Zevallos to engineer longer-lasting, bacteria-free produce. According to Akbulut’s recent publication in Current Research in Food Science, the global fruit and vegetable market loses over 50% of agricultural fruit production during various stages of produce handling and post-harvest treatments. Many fruits and vegetables already have a layer of food-grade wax that is applied for cosmetic reasons and to prevent water loss. Akbulut’s research combines such wax with nano-encapsulated cinnamon-bark ...