University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science professor Nikolaos Sidiropoulos has introduced a breakthrough in graph mining with the development of a new computational algorithm.  Graph mining, a method of analyzing networks like social media connections or biological systems, helps researchers discover meaningful patterns in how different elements interact. The new algorithm addresses the long-standing challenge of finding tightly connected clusters, known as triangle-dense subgraphs, within large networks — a problem that is critical in fields such as fraud detection, computational biology and data ...

New Rochelle, NY, October 17, 2025—Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., is pleased that Wai Hong (Kevin) Lo, PhD, has been appointed the new Editor-in-Chief of the journal ASSAY and Drug Development Technologies. Dr. Lo is replacing Bruce Melancon, PhD as Editor-in-Chief. ASSAY and Drug Development Technologies provides access to novel techniques and robust tools that enable critical advances in early-stage screening. This research published in the Journal leads to important therapeutics and platforms for drug discovery and development. This peer-reviewed journal features original papers application-oriented technology reviews, topical issues on ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 2 P.M. EDT ON FRIDAY, OCT. 18 Trees are the most abundant natural resource living on Earth’s land masses, and North Carolina State University scientists and engineers are making headway in finding ways to use them as sustainable, environmentally benign alternatives to producing industrial chemicals from petroleum. Lignin, a polymer that makes trees rigid and resistant to degradation, has proven problematic. Now those NC State researchers know why: They’ve identified the ...

The University of Texas at Arlington will host GridNEXT DFW 2024: Meeting the Demand, an event dedicated to envisioning the future of energy infrastructure, on Oct. 25 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The one-day seminar will bring together industry partners, leaders, government officials and private stakeholders across the Texas energy space to discuss growing power needs and how to better support the Texas power grid. It will be held at UTA’s Rio Grande Ballroom, 300 W. First St. in Arlington. Woody Rickerson, ERCOT senior vice ...

Jennifer Martindale-Adams, EdD, and Linda Nichols, PhD, professors in the Department of Preventive Medicine in the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, are members of a team led by Xiaopeng Zhao, PhD, professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, that was recently awarded $401,090 grant from the National Institute on Aging for the development of the RISE project, “Robot-based Information and Support to Enhance Alzheimer’s Caregiver ...

The full moon has a bad reputation for bringing out the worst in people, from werewolves to lunatics. However, it turns out that the lunar cycle can impact behavior – at least in tropical mammals.     New research appearing in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B reveals that half of the mammal species in tropical forests adjust their behaviors in response to the moon's phases and corresponding variations in light.   By Caleb Hess, Cathrine Glosli Michigan State University ecologist Lydia Beaudrot, who studies tropical ecology and conservation, was among the international cohort of researchers who contributed to the study. ...

Dr. Ursula White, an associate professor of Clinical Science at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, is taking a deep dive into the lasting health effects of short-term weight gain and weight loss. The ability for the fat tissue to expand or contract to accommodate changes in body weight is important for sustained health. Dr. White’s clinical study at Pennington Biomedical, the EAT2 study, will allow her to explore how changes within the adipose tissue are affected by weight gain and weight loss, and what that means for a person’s health.   The EAT2 study is recruiting participants now, and participants will be randomly assigned ...

A species of tropical butterfly with unusually expanded brain structures display a fascinating mosaic pattern of neural expansion linked to a cognitive innovation. The study, published today in Current Biology, investigates the neural foundations of behavioural innovation in Heliconius butterflies, the only genus known to feed on both nectar and pollen. As part of this behaviour, they demonstrate a remarkable ability to learn and remember spatial information about their food sources—skills previously connected to the expansion of a brain structure called the mushroom bodies, responsible for learning and memory. Lead author Dr Max ...

About The Study: In this randomized clinical trial of outpatients with mild to moderate COVID-19, treatment with montelukast did not reduce duration of COVID-19 symptoms. These findings do not support the use of montelukast for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Susanna Naggie, MD, MHS, email susanna.naggie@duke.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.39332) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author ...

Maize, or corn, grows tall, with thin stalks that boast ears of the cereal grain used in food production, trade and security globally. However, due to rain, wind and other increasingly extreme weather events, the maize falls down, risking the entire crop. Called lodging, the physical fall results in shorter plants and overlapping leaves — both of which negatively impact the plant’s ability to grow.   Conventional lodging prevention and mitigation requires many agricultural technicians significant time to investigate the crop fields, according to a team of researchers based in China. They ...

"The perspective is enormous, because you’re taking something that is currently waste and making high-value products from it."   This is what Professor Per Halkjær Nielsen, Department of Chemistry and Bioscience at Aalborg University in Denmark, says about the results of a research project that utilizes surplus biomass in wastewater treatment plants in new ways. The focal point is biopolymers that can be described as long chains of molecules that are bound to each other and that are produced by living organisms, including bacteria. Today, synthetic ...

“In the last decade, immunotherapy agents changed the treatment landscape for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC).” BUFFALO, NY - October 18, 2024 – A new case report was published in Oncoscience (Volume 11) on October 8, 2024, entitled, “Complete and long-lasting response to immunotherapy in a stage IV non-small cell lung cancer with brain metastasis.” As highlighted in the abstract of this report, approximately 20% of lung cancer patients have brain metastases at diagnosis, which is associated with a worse prognosis and negatively impacts quality ...

American lobsters along Maine’s coast have relocated to new habitats, while the population simultaneously shrunk in abundance and grew older, according to a new study by University of Maine researchers. For decades, the vast majority of adult lobsters resided in boulder shelter habitats. This knowledge helped inform longtime conservation efforts and regulations within the more than $740 million fishery.  A team of UMaine scientists, however, found that from 1995-2021, occupancy of boulder habitats dropped 60%. Meanwhile, the number ...

MELVILLE, N.Y., Oct. 17, 2024 – The Acoustical Society of America is hosting a virtual meeting Nov. 18-22. Journalists are invited to virtually attend press conferences on Monday, Nov. 18 and attend technical sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. This scientific conference brings together interdisciplinary groups of acoustics professionals, spanning many fields, including physics, medicine, and music, to discuss the latest advancements. From dinosaurs to pipe organs, the virtual conference will cover a wide range of topics. Experts will present ...

In an article in the journal BioScience, an international team of researchers led by Dr. Cleo Bertelsmeier from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, argue that the global spread of nonnative plants is a key factor driving the growing number of insect invasions worldwide. The research challenges traditional assumptions about the principal causes of nonnative insect invasions. The authors note that when nonnative plants become established in new regions, they create ecological niches that permit the establishment of insect species from the plants' native ranges, which can produce further cascading effects: "Plant invasions ...

Key Takeaways  Music may have a calming effect on patients recovering from surgery– reducing anxiety, perceived pain, and heart rate.  A reduction in cortisol levels when listening to music may play a role in easing patients’ recovery.  Looking for a creative way to quicken your recovery from surgery? The key may be found in listening to music, according to research presented at the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Clinical Congress 2024 in San Fransisco, California. Researchers at California Northstate ...

 Key Takeaways  Analysis of Reddit posts shows that many breast cancer patients often struggle with multiple emotional and financial concerns during treatment and long after.  There is a need for increased access to education and workshops on coping, treatment decision-making, and understanding diagnoses and prognoses.  Although breast cancer is the most common non-skin cancer diagnosed in women, finding support during treatment and through survivorship can be incredibly challenging. An analysis of posts from breast cancer patients on the ...

Key Takeaways  The American College of Surgeons Geriatric Surgery Verification program is a quality-improvement program aimed at improving the care of older adult patients. The program consists of 32 evidence-based standards.   The death rate after surgery was reduced by nearly half — from 10.2% to 5.7% — at one hospital after implementing the ACS GSV program standards.  The proportion of patients with documented care preferences, including advanced-care directives, nearly tripled after implementing the program standards.   Implementing ...

Key Takeaways  Cancer patients are nearly 5 times more likely to experience bankruptcy.  Studies are the first to use objective data to evaluate the financial fallout for patients with cancer.  For patients with bladder, liver, lung, and colorectal cancers, the impact on credit scores was larger compared with other types of cancers.   A diagnosis of cancer can take a toll on more than a person’s health. Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston found that financial fallout can follow patients with cancer ...

Key Takeaways  The world's first combined face and whole-eye transplantation used personalized surgical cutting guides and a novel “shortcut” to maintain blood flow to the transplanted eye.   Innovative surgical techniques ensured optimal blood flow to the retina, safeguarding the viability of the transplanted eye during the procedure.  An explanation of how an NYU Langone Health surgical team performed the world’s first combined face and whole-eye transplantation will be presented at the American ...

Key Takeaways  Two new studies shed light on the costs associated with newer weight loss drugs and their use before bariatric surgery.   Long term, the cost effectiveness of bariatric surgery is greater than that of GLP-1 RA weight loss drugs alone, but a combination of the two treatments is more cost effective than surgery alone.  Taking GLP-1 RA weight loss drugs in the year before bariatric surgery is not linked to worse health outcomes within one month after surgery, or significantly different weight loss one year after the operation.  Newer ...

Key Takeaways:  Microgravity Innovation: The unique conditions of low Earth orbit help to self-assemble human liver tissues with enhanced functionality, compared to Earth-based methods.  Advanced Tissue Preservation: The project includes developing a bioreactor for the stable supercooling preservation of tissues, a critical step toward transporting viable tissues back to Earth.  Clinical Implications: This research could lead to novel stem cell-derived liver tissues, providing ...

Key Takeaways  Implementing a system-wide preoperative nutrition program projected an 18% decrease in hospitalization days and a 33% decrease in postoperative complications across multiple surgical specialties.  The program’s financial implications include a projected annual savings of $7.8 million for the payer/insurance sector.  Preoperative nutrition interventions are shown to reduce "outlier days" — hospital days exceeding the expected number — which significantly contributes ...

Key Takeaways  Young adults with colon cancer are typically diagnosed at a later stage and with a more aggressive type of the disease. There are also racial and ethnic disparities, including a significantly higher rate of colon cancer among non-Hispanic Black adults.   Obesity, family history, inflammatory bowel disease, and symptoms, such as abdominal pain or rectal bleeding, are factors strongly associated with colon cancer in younger adults.   Important concerns for ...

Researchers at the University of California San Diego Center for Epigenomics (C4E) have developed a new technique, called Droplet Hi-C, that allows scientists to rapidly determine chromatin organization, the arrangement of genetic material within cells. Chromatin organization influences how genes are activated in our cells and, in turn, how those cells function. In addition to being faster than existing methods for studying chromatin organization, droplet Hi-C is more affordable, which could make it significantly easier for scientists to understand how genes influence the progression of complex diseases, such as cancer and neurological disorders. The ...