The most climate-vulnerable countries with the highest hunger rates are significantly under-represented in agrifood research – sparking a need for urgent action and increased investments to redress this imbalance, a major new study has found. The ‘State of the Field for Research on Agrifood Systems’ report, published by The Juno Evidence Alliance – a partnership of CABI, Havos.Ai and the University of Notre Dame, USA – found that only one out of eight research papers is led by scientists from ...

A team led by University of Maryland computer scientists invented a camera mechanism that improves how robots see and react to the world around them. Inspired by how the human eye works, their innovative camera system mimics the tiny involuntary movements used by the eye to maintain clear and stable vision over time. The team’s prototyping and testing of the camera—called the Artificial Microsaccade-Enhanced Event Camera (AMI-EV)—was detailed in a paper published in the journal Science Robotics in May 2024. “Event cameras are a relatively new technology better at tracking ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — To advance soft robotics, skin-integrated electronics and biomedical devices, researchers at Penn State have developed a 3D-printed material that is soft and stretchable — traits needed for matching the properties of tissues and organs — and that self-assembles. Their approach employs a process that eliminates many drawbacks of previous fabrication methods, such as less conductivity or device failure, the team said.   They published their results in Advanced Materials.    “People have been developing soft and stretchable conductors for almost a decade, but the conductivity ...

Waltham — July 1, 2024 — For patients with severe obesity undergoing knee or hip replacement, commonly obtained laboratory values – including markers of anemia and inflammation – are independent predictors of the risk of periprosthetic joint infection (PJI), reports a study in The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.  Hemoglobin level, platelet count, and several markers of systemic inflammation may be relevant to the elevated ...

Chicago (July 1, 2024) — According to new research looking at every U.S. state, programs that deliver medically tailored meals (MTMs) to people with diet-sensitive conditions such as diabetes and heart disease along with limitations in the ability to perform daily activities could lead to substantial savings in healthcare costs. Using computer models to estimate the benefits of such programs minus the expense of implementing them, researchers found significant variation between U.S. states but an overall net cost savings in almost every state. “By ...

When power plants burn fossil fuels at high temperatures, nitrogen and oxygen molecules break apart and then recombine to form a class of compounds called nitrogen oxides, or NOx. These gasses are major pollutants and contribute to—among other things—acid rain and global warming. One way to curb such emissions is with a catalytic converter, similar to what’s used in a vehicle. “The catalytic converter injects ammonia into the plant’s emissions stream, and the hydrogen in the ammonia reacts with the oxygen in the NOx, and the products ...

About The Study: In this phase 2 prospective validating paired cohort study, fluorine-18 PSMA-1007 PET/computed tomography was superior to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the locoregional staging of prostate cancer. These findings support PSMA PET in the preoperative workflow of intermediate-risk and high-risk tumors.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Adam Kinnaird, M.D., Ph.D., email ask@ualberta.ca. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at ...

Hong Xue, Associate Professor, Health Administration and Policy, received funding for the project: “Innovating and Implementing Youth Tobacco Prevention in Virginia.” Xue will leverage the forefront of technological innovation, utilizing generative artificial intelligence (AI) and state-of-the-art immersive technologies, integrating them with novel just-in-time adaptive intervention strategies, to tackle the pressing public health issue of electronic cigarette/tobacco use among the youth in Virginia. Xue will receive $450,000 from Virginia ...

Emanuel Petricoin, Co-Director, Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (CAPMM), received funding for the project: “Protein Pathway Activation Based Signaling Mapping of Head And Neck Cancers.” CAPMM researchers will receive laser microdissected tumor samples from banked Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded (FFPE) clinical biopsy samples from patients with HPV‐positive head and neck cancers who were treated for newly diagnosed disease. The researchers will utilize comprehensive reverse‐phase ...

Emanuela Marasco, Assistant Professor, Center for Secure Information Systems, received funding for the project: “Identity Verification in Smartphones as Social Intersectionality: Inclusive Design of Contactless Fingerprints to Mitigate Skin Tone and Gender Bias.” She is developing a contactless biometric mobile security application that can mitigate the vulnerabilities of deep artificial intelligence and optical sensors and allow marginalized identities the same access to data security.  As part of their work, members of the project team will identify the impact of physical vulnerabilities; their ...

Cancer treatments often cause nerve damage that can lead to long-lasting symptoms. Medication has proven ineffective in these cases. A sports scientist at the University of Basel, together with an interdisciplinary team from Germany, has now shown that simple exercises can prevent nerve damage. Cancer therapies have improved over the years. It is no longer just about sheer survival: quality of life after recovery is gaining more importance. Unfortunately, many cancer medications, from chemotherapy to modern immunotherapies, attack the nerves as well as the tumor cells. Some therapies, such as oxaliplatin or vinca alkaloids, leave 70 to 90 percent of patients complaining of pain, balance ...

New UCSF study shows that suppressing a protein turns ordinary fat into a calorie burner and may explain why drug trials attempting the feat haven’t been successful. Researchers at UC San Francisco have figured out how to turn ordinary white fat cells, which store calories, into beige fat cells that burn calories to maintain body temperature.     The discovery could open the door to developing a new class of weight-loss drugs and may explain why clinical trials of related therapies have ...

Politicians around the world are increasingly mobilizing anti-immigrant sentiment to garner support and votes—a trend that is especially evident as the US presidential election approaches. While political rhetoric that stereotypes and scapegoats immigrants is well-documented, less attention has been given to the impact of these sentiments on immigrants themselves. In an article published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and in a recently published book, Migration Stigma (MIT Press), scholars identify “migration ...

About The Study: The mortality gap between the U.S. and comparison countries widened in the last decade. Each year, nearly 20,000 deaths among youths ages 0 to 19 years would not have occurred had U.S. youths experienced the median mortality rates of 16 comparison countries. More than half of these deaths involved infants, reflecting disproportionately high U.S. infant mortality rates. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Steven H. Woolf, M.D., M.P.H., email steven.woolf@vcuhealth.org. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2024.1869) Editor’s ...

About The Study: Among live-born infants, first-trimester mRNA COVID-19 vaccine exposure was not associated with an increased risk for selected major structural birth defects in this multisite cohort study. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Elyse O. Kharbanda, M.D., M.P.H., email elyse.o.kharbanda@healthpartners.com. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2024.1917) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional ...

With Donald Trump and other right-wing politicians increasingly using dehumanizing rhetoric to stigmatize immigrants coming to our nation's borders, doctors and other health officials should prepare for the resulting health consequences. Such is the message of a “Viewpoint” article co-authored by UC Riverside professor Bruce Link and published Monday, July 1, in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Link and his co-authors quote Trump as saying, “No, they’re not humans. They’re not humans. They’re ...

State-of-the-art prosthetic limbs can help people with amputations achieve a natural walking gait, but they don’t give the user full neural control over the limb. Instead, they rely on robotic sensors and controllers that move the limb using predefined gait algorithms. Using a new type of surgical intervention and neuroprosthetic interface, MIT researchers, in collaboration with colleagues from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, have shown that a natural walking gait is achievable using a prosthetic leg fully driven by the body’s own nervous system. ...

The earlier a cancer is detected, the better the chances that treatment will be effective. This applies to almost all types of cancer. Another crucial element in successfully treating patients is to individually assess the benefits and risks of individual forms of therapy and to regularly monitor treatment success. To do this, oncologists have a range of methods at their disposal, most notably imaging technology and invasive measures such as tissue biopsies, punctures and endoscopic procedures. Analyzing gene fragments in the bloodstream Researchers ...

Korea University's College of Medicine (Dean Pyun, Sung Bom) hosted the 1st Research Nexus Program in order to enhance international research network cooperation and vitalize global joint research.   This program shares the latest research trends and aims to invigorate international joint research by opening a seminar inviting top global scholars to promote international research performances.   The 1st program held an invitation seminar of Prof. Jeffrey D. Macklis, the "global authority in the field of neurogenesis" (Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University).   Prof. Macklis ...

A study at Umeå University, Sweden, provides new clues in the understanding of how antibiotic resistance spreads. The study shows how an enzyme breaks down the bacteria's protective outer layer, the cell wall, and thus facilitates the transfer of genes for resistance to antibiotics. "You could say that we are adding a piece of the puzzle to the understanding of how antibiotic resistance spreads between bacteria," says Ronnie Berntsson, Associate Professor at Umeå University and one of the authors behind the study. The Umeå researchers have studied Enterococcus faecalis, which is a bacterium that often ...

The debate has raged for decades: Was it humans or climate change that led to the extinction of many species of large mammals, birds, and reptiles that have disappeared from Earth over the past 50,000 years? By "large," we mean animals that weighed at least 45 kilograms – known as megafauna. At least 161 species of mammals were driven to extinction during this period. This number is based on the remains found so far. The largest of them were hit the hardest – land-dwelling herbivores weighing over a ton, the megaherbivores. Fifty thousand years ago, there were 57 species of megaherbivores. Today, only 11 remain. These remaining ...

Analyzing nasal swabs taken during the pandemic, researchers at Yale School of Medicine suggest that the frequent presence of other viruses and bacteria may have helped to protect children from the worst effects of COVID-19 by boosting their immune systems. Their results will be published July 1 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM). Children are generally more susceptible than adults to respiratory infections such as the common cold, and yet, for unknown reasons, the SARS-CoV-2 virus tends to cause less severe ...

BATON ROUGE, La. – Ochsner Medical Center – Baton Rouge now offers robotic-assisted bronchoscopy using the Ion robotic platform, a new, minimally invasive option for lung biopsy. With bronchoscopy, doctors insert a long, thin tube with a camera to examine lung tissue and retrieve a biopsy sample. The Ion robot enables doctors to perform a biopsy quicker and safer than ever before. These advancements are especially critical for treating lung cancer, since early detection is key to achieving the best outcome. Every six weeks of delayed treatment lowers ...

Chicago (July 1, 2024) — New research performed with mice suggests that daily time in a warm environment such as a sauna might help older adults, especially women, combat age-related obesity and insulin resistance. The study shows the potential of heat treatments as a simple way to promote healthier aging. The researchers found that older female mice receiving a daily 30-minute whole-body heat treatment gained less weight and showed improved use of insulin, which helps control blood sugar. The investigators ...

Antibiotic resistant bacteria are experts in evolving new strategies to avoid being killed by antibiotics. One such bacterium is Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is naturally found in soil and water, but also hospitals, nursing homes and similar institutions for persons with weakened immune systems are home for strains of this bacterium. As many P. Aeruginosa strains found in hospitals are resistant to most antibiotics in use, science is forced to constantly search for new ways to kill them.   Now, at team of researchers from Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Department of ...