Hepatic steatosis, often triggered by non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), is a leading cause of liver dysfunction globally, affecting approximately 30% of the population. The progression from steatosis to hepatic fibrosis, which may ultimately lead to cirrhosis, is a significant concern in liver disease management. This review highlights the critical role of solute carrier (SLC) family transporters in both hepatic steatosis and fibrosis. SLC transporters are membrane-bound proteins responsible for transporting a variety of molecules, including fatty acids, ...

Scientists have a new target to prevent cold sores after University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers discovered an unexpected way the herpes virus re-activates in the body. The finding could also have important implications for genital herpes caused by the same virus. The discovery from UVA’s Anna Cliffe, PhD, and colleagues seems to defy common sense. She and her team found that the slumbering herpes virus will make a protein to trigger the body’s immune response as part of its escape from dormancy. You’d think this would be bad for the virus – that activating the body’s ...

Glenview, Illinois – The American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST), the PF Warriors, the Rare Disease Diversity Coalition (RDDC)—a program at the Black Woman's Health Imperative—and the National Association of Community Health Workers (NACHW) announce their collaboration to address idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) as a chronic disease on Rare Disease Day 2025. Together, the organizations will employ designated activities that will build a knowledge base on the current IPF landscape ...

The study, which examined 121 babies aged three to twelve months in Accra, the capital of Ghana, demonstrates a remarkable variety of language input in the early months of life. The children are regularly exposed to two to six languages. Strikingly, the number of caregivers the children have also ranges between two and six, and babies who have more adults in their daily lives who regularly take care of them also hear more different languages. In Ghana, families often live in so-called “compound buildings”, where many ...

Virginia Tech is spearheading a research coalition to reveal the untapped potential of the greater Appalachian Mountains region. This coalition aims to accelerate the identification and characterization of unconventional critical mineral resources throughout the area. It brings together academic institutions, research laboratories, federal and state natural resource offices, and consultancies, all collaborating with the end goal of boosting regional economic growth and creating new jobs. The research team, led by Richard Bishop, professor of practice in ...

A recent study published in Engineering delves into the behavior of reinforced concrete beams strengthened with Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) and Ultra-High-Performance Concrete (UHPC) under thermocyclic loading. This research, conducted by Ju-Hyung Kim and Yail J. Kim, aims to understand the effects of multi-hazard loading on these strengthened structures, which is crucial for the maintenance and rehabilitation of existing buildings. Multi-hazards, such as the combination of seismic events and high temperatures, pose ...

Paul Armsworth, Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has received a 2025 Southeastern Conference Faculty Achievement Award for excellence in teaching, research and service. He and the 15 other recipients this year — one from each SEC member university — are now nominated for the SEC Professor of the Year Award, which will be announced later in the spring. “I am thrilled to receive this recognition, but it is also very humbling to be celebrated in this ...

A recent study published in Engineering presents a groundbreaking method for comprehensively evaluating the performance of aeroengines, the crucial components powering aircraft. Authored by Shubin Si and other researchers from esteemed institutions in China, this research addresses long-standing challenges in aeroengine performance assessment. Aeroengines are complex systems, and their performance directly impacts flight safety and efficiency. Traditional evaluation methods, such as airlines relying on single-parameter indicators like exhaust gas temperature or manufacturers conducting ...

A study led by UMass Chan researchers demonstrated that a gene therapy to correct a mutation that causes maple syrup urine disease (MSUD) prevented newborn death, normalized growth, restored coordinated expression of the affected genes and stabilized biomarkers in a calf as well as in mice.  “Simply put, we believe the gene therapy demonstrated in both animal species, especially in the cow, very well showcases the therapeutic potential for MSUD, in part because the diseased cow, without treatment, has a very similar metabolic profile as the patients,” said Dan Wang, PhD, assistant ...

Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is a significant concern in clinical practice, arising from medications, herbs, and dietary supplements. It can manifest in different forms, including hepatocellular, cholestatic, and mixed types, each associated with specific liver enzyme abnormalities and histological injury patterns. Hepatocellular DILI is characterized by inflammation, necrosis, and apoptosis, while cholestatic DILI involves bile plug formation and bile duct paucity. Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), a widely used treatment for cholestatic liver diseases, has recently been investigated for its potential therapeutic effects ...

Hepatic biliary adenofibroma (BAF) is a rare benign bile duct neoplasm that has garnered increasing attention due to its potential role as a precursor lesion for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA). Although it shares histopathological features with other biliary tumors, BAF is distinct in its composition, consisting of low-grade tubuloglandular and microcystic bile duct structures embedded in a dense fibrous stroma. Despite its classification as a benign tumor, emerging case reports suggest that BAF may undergo malignant transformation. However, its rarity and limited molecular characterization contribute to diagnostic ...

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), formerly known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), is a global health challenge, affecting nearly 30% of adults worldwide. A significant subset of MASLD patients progresses to metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), liver fibrosis, and even hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), yet no universally approved treatment exists outside resmetirom. The increasing prevalence of MASLD, driven by obesity and diabetes, highlights an urgent need for innovative therapeutic ...

McMaster University researchers have identified small molecules in the blood that may impact early childhood development, showing how dietary exposures, early life experiences, and gut health can influence a child's growth and cognitive milestones. A McMaster team collaborated with Brazilian scientists to conduct an untargeted metabolomic analysis of blood samples taken from more than 5,000 children between the ages of six months and five years as part of the Brazilian National Survey of Child Nutrition study. The McMaster team found several metabolites – small molecules that are by-products of human metabolism and microbial fermentation, ...

Giant pandas have digestive systems that are typical for carnivores. Yet, bamboo is their main source of food. They have evolved several features, for example pseudo thumbs to grasp bamboo and flat teeth that are well suited for crushing it, that make it possible for them to live off plants. All living organisms have DNA, which stores the genetic information in a cell, and RNA, which carries and transfers this information. MicroRNAs (miRNA) are small non-coding RNAs that play an important role in gene expression, the process of turning the information encoded in a gene into a function. ...

Stretchable display materials, which are gaining traction in the next-generation display market, have the advantage of being able to stretch and bend freely, but the limitations of existing materials have resulted in distorted screens and poor fit. General elastomeric substrates are prone to screen distortion due to the 'Poisson's ratio' phenomenon, in which stretching in one direction causes the screen to shrink in the vertical direction. In particular, electronics that are in close contact with the skin, such as wearable devices, are at risk of wrinkling or pulling on the skin during stretching and shrinking, resulting in ...

By Alistair Jones SMU Office of Research – Even by the standards of medical terminology, photoplethysmography (PPG) is a mouthful. Yet it is widely used in clinical settings as a non-invasive, optical technique for measuring the oxygen saturation level in the blood, and the pulse rate, as vital signs of a patient. It is commonly encountered as a clip-on oximeter attached to a finger. First developed in the 1930s, PPG emits light to illuminate the microvascular bed of the skin. Then a photodiode, positioned alongside the light emitter, captures the reflected light, termed the PPG waveform, which ...

By Vince Chong SMU Office of Research – With the surfeit of trackable, wearable devices in modern life, there is little problem locating things and people outdoors by leveraging Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) solutions (GPS is an example of this type of solution) that use signals from satellites. Indoors on the other hand, is a different matter as GNSS signals are unavailable and other possible signals such as those from Wi-Fi systems are inconsistent, and often distorted.  And when this ability to swiftly, accurately locate indoor objects is starkly crucial to essential services that make the difference between life and death, upgrading ...

No one should have to fear food poisoning every time they eat or drink, but the reality, even in the 21st century, is that risks remain. An Osaka Metropolitan University-led Egypt-Japan research team found E. coli prevalent in over 25% of popular milk and dairy products in Egypt. Of the 210 samples of raw milk, cheese, and yoghurt, 26.2% were positive for E. coli, with the highest being raw buffalo milk at 68%, and the lowest at 7.5% for rayeb, a type of fermented milk. The preference for raw milk instead of pasteurized milk and varying hygienic conditions at small dairies and markets could explain these results. Yet food poisoning ...

By Christie Loh SMU Office of Research – When his parents heard that he had won an award at his workplace, they were naturally delighted, showering their son with a confetti of questions like what the prize was for, whether there was a formal ceremony, and that he must keep up the good work. Indeed, Monit Sharma is well aware that as encouraging as the SMU Research Staff Excellence Award is, the professional road he is on calls for both hard work and stamina. The 23-year-old is a Research Engineer at SMU’s ...

A nationwide study has revealed that survivors of COVID-19 hospitalization face an increased risk of death or organ-related disorders for up to two-and-a-half years after discharge. Published today in Infectious Diseases, the study of nearly 64,000 French residents provides valuable insights into the long-term health effects of COVID-19 and emphasises the need for continued healthcare and monitoring for people who have been hospitalised with SARS-CoV-2 infection. “These findings are a stark reminder of the far-reaching impact of COVID-19, which extends far beyond the initial infection,” says lead author Dr Sarah Tubiana, who specializes ...

Document-level Role Filler Extraction exhibits a wide range of application value in natural language processing, including information retrieval, article summarization and trends analysis of world events. Existing document-level event role filler extraction methods face challenges in contextual modeling of long texts and ignore the explicit dependency relationships between event arguments displayed in long texts. To solve the problems, a research team led by Zhengtao YU published their new research on 15 Feb 2025 in Frontiers of Computer Science co-published by Higher Education Press and ...

New York, NY | February 27, 2025: Employee burnout is likely costing companies millions of dollars each year, ranging from approximately $4,000 to $21,000 per employee in the U.S., according to a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. That means a 1,000-employee company in the U.S. would on average be losing about $5 million annually. These estimates are based on a computational simulation model developed by the Public Health Informatics, Computational, and Operations Research (PHICOR) team based at ​​the CUNY Graduate ...

A new report reveals how domestic violence impedes women’s employment, often forcing them out of the workforce altogether. In many cases they work fewer hours, for less pay, than employed women who have not experienced domestic violence. This ‘employment gap’ can be as large as 9.4 per cent: 72 per cent of women who have endured economic abuse in the past five years are in employment compared with 81.4 per cent of women who have not been subject to such abuse. The report, The Cost of Domestic Violence to Women’s Employment and Education, draws on data that enables, for the first time, a quantification of the employment and educational ...

One in eight patients in hospitals in Africa is critically ill, and one in five of the critically ill die within a week, according to a new study in The Lancet. The researchers behind the largest study of critical illness in Africa to date conclude that many of these lives could have been saved with access to cheap life-saving treatments. Being critically ill means having severely affected vital functions, such as extremely low blood pressure or low levels of oxygen in the blood. In the new study, researchers show that one in eight patients in African hospitals, 12.5 percent, is in this condition. ...

Red blood cells carry oxygen from the lungs to every other organ, and blood-forming stem cells must make about 200 billion new red blood cells each day to keep the oxygen flowing.  For many years, scientists assumed that blood production took place in the bone marrow. But now, researchers at UCSF are showing it’s also happening in the lungs.  They found hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in human lung tissue that make red blood cells, as well as megakaryocytes, which produce the platelets that form blood clots. The findings appear Feb. 27 in Blood. The work, which was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute ...