Berkeley — A 20-year experiment in the Sierra Nevada confirms that different forest management techniques — prescribed burning, restoration thinning or a combination of both — are effective at reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire in California. These treatments also improve forest health, making trees more resilient to stressors like drought and bark beetles, and they do not negatively impact plant or wildlife biodiversity within individual tree stands, the research found. The findings of the experiment, called the Fire Surrogate Study, were published today in the journal Ecological Applications. “The research ...

Becoming a caregiver to an aging parent or spouse can be stressful, but a new study from a researcher at The University of Texas at Austin is questioning the idea that family caregiving is also a risk factor for depression. The study, published in the journal Advances in Life Course Research, found that depression in adult caregivers is mostly driven by having a loved one experiencing serious health problems, while becoming a caregiver is associated with fewer symptoms of depression. “Decades of research on this topic indicate that there are positive and negative aspects to being a caregiver,” said Sae Hwang Han, ...

University of Central Florida researcher Debashis Chanda, a professor at the NanoScience Technology Center, has developed a new technique to detect photons — elementary particles that span from visible light to radio frequencies and are instrumental in carrying cellular communication. The advancement could lead to more precise and efficient technologies in various fields, from improving medical imaging and communication systems to enhancing scientific research and even potentially bolstering security measures. Photon detection has typically relied on change/modulation of voltage or ...

Old, obese flies get healthier and live longer if put on a diet, University of Connecticut researchers report on Dec. 8 in PNAS. If the effect holds true for humans, it would mean it’s never too late for obese people to improve their health with diet. For way too many of us, eating too much goes along with getting old and a tendency to be obese. Different health organizations define obesity differently, but all agree it means having too much body fat, and is associated with a host of diseases related to metabolism including heart disease and diabetes. Many animal studies have shown that eating less—meaning sharply ...

ForestPaths’ first Policy Lab convened stakeholders in Helsinki, Finland, on 27-29 September 2023. Nineteen carefully selected participants with diverse expertise – including research, policy, governance, civil society, value chain professionals, and forestry practitioners – engaged in discussions on forest-based policymaking and modelling related to climate change and biodiversity. Tasked with considering policy actions given different timescales, governance paradigms, enablers, and barriers, participants contributed ...

“Mitochondrial dysfunction is a major cellular change observed in the hippocampus during aging.” BUFFALO, NY- December 12, 2023 – A new research paper was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 15, Issue 22, entitled, “Tat-heat shock protein 10 ameliorates age-related phenotypes by facilitating neuronal plasticity and reducing age-related genes in the hippocampus.” In this new study, researchers Hyo Young Jung, Hyun Jung Kwon, Kyu ...

In our everyday classical world, what you see is what you get. A ball is just a ball, and when lobbed through the air, its trajectory is straightforward and clear. But if that ball were shrunk to the size of an atom or smaller, its behavior would shift into a quantum, fuzzy reality. The ball would exist as not just a physical particle but also a wave of possible particle states. And this wave-particle duality can give rise to some weird and sneaky phenomena.  One of the stranger prospects comes from a thought experiment known as the “quantum bomb tester.” The experiment proposes that a quantum particle, such ...

Smoking shrinks the brain, according to a study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The good news is that quitting smoking prevents further loss of brain tissue — but still, stopping smoking doesn’t restore the brain to its original size. Since people’s brains naturally lose volume with age, smoking effectively causes the brain to age prematurely, the researchers said. The findings, published in Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science, help explain why smokers are at high risk of age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. “Up until recently, scientists have overlooked ...

PHILADELPHIA— Having the ability to self-schedule mammograms was associated with a 15 percentage point increase following through with getting the screening, according to research  from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The paper was published today in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. “Self-scheduling helps make the path to mammogram completion a little smoother, where you don’t have to find the time to call a scheduling line, wait on hold, or go back and forth trying to find an appointment that works for your schedule,” said the study’s lead author, Kimberly Waddell, ...

PORTLAND, Oregon -- New research from Oregon Health & Science University could one day lead to therapies that prevent or treat diseases and infections tied to a protein that’s found in all human cells. A study published today in the journal Molecular Cell describes how the protein ubiquitin is modified during a bacterial infection. The study details the steps taken to create a form of the protein known as lysine 6 polyubiquitin, where a long chain of ubiquitin molecules are linked through ...

More than one-eighth of the randomized trials of cancer drugs seeking regulatory approval in China in recent years used inappropriate controls to test the effectiveness and safety of the drugs, according to a new study published December 12th in the open access journal PLOS Medicine by Professor Xiaodong Guan of Peking University, China, and colleagues. In randomized trials, patients are assigned to either a control arm, in which they receive the current optimal treatment, or an experimental arm, in which they receive the new drug being tested. However, studies have previously ...

MADISON – An interdisciplinary team led by University of Wisconsin–Madison scientists has developed a new technique that could help farmers extract useful nutrients such as ammonia and potassium from livestock manure to efficiently make fertilizer and other useful chemical products. While the strategy still needs to be scaled up beyond a proof-of-concept stage, the group's preliminary analyses show it could offer considerable benefits by cutting water and air pollution while simultaneously creating products that farmers could use or sell. Manure stinks in part because it contains ammonia, one of the more ...

DENVER/Dec. 12, 2023 – A new article published in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution by Morris Animal Foundation-funded researchers describes a simplified method to detect a deadly fungus killing European salamanders. The ability to rapidly find the fungus is significant as the disease, although not detected in the U.S., could impact the millions of amphibians and salamanders annually imported.  The fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans, or Bsal, threatens salamander diversity. Initially identified in northern Europe, evidence suggests it was introduced from Southeast Asia via the pet trade.  “The impacts of Bsal ...

EMBO launches a new award for laboratory sustainability: The EMBO Lab Sustainability Award will recognize new and significant contributions to the development of sustainable wet and dry labs with a focus on their environmental impact. The award will be presented to an individual representing the initiative or project. Applications can be submitted between 15 January and 15 March 2024.  The award winner will have the opportunity to present their initiative or project at scientific events and publish a commentary in EMBO Reports. In addition, the winning project will be supported with a grant of 10,000 euros. The award is one of ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Stem cell-based therapy improved quality of life for patients with advanced heart failure, Mayo Clinic researchers and international collaborators discovered in a late-stage multinational clinical trial. In one of the largest studies of cell intervention after a heart attack, patients reported their daily hardship lessened when stem cells optimized for heart repair supplemented standard of care. This clinical study further documented lower death and hospitalization rates among those treated with cell therapy. This research ...

ABSTRACT: LBA-2 SAN DIEGO ― The targeted therapy combination of ibrutinib and venetoclax significantly improved progression-free survival (PFS) and achieved an overall remission rate in 82% of patients with relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), according to researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Results from the Phase III SYMPATICO trial were presented at the 2023 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting. At a median follow-up of 51.2 months, median PFS was 31.9 months with the combination compared to 22.1 months with ibrutinib plus placebo. PFS benefits were consistent across patient subgroups, including those with blastoid-variant ...

DURHAM, N.C. – Identifying an older patient who is at risk for post-operative cognitive dysfunction might be done in the blink of an eye – literally.   Researchers at Duke Health found that a simple EEG measurement detects a signal of cognitive vulnerability when patients are asked to close, then open their eyes. Conducted prior to surgery, the non-invasive readout of brain waves helps predict which patients are at risk of post-operative confusion and attention problems.   “Roughly half of seemingly normal older adults experience problems with thinking, memory or attention after surgery,” said Leah Acker, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in ...

In April 2015, looters sacked an ancient cave burial at a site called Urd Ulaan Uneet high within the Altai Mountains of western Mongolia. When police apprehended the criminals, they uncovered, among other artifacts, an elegantly carved saddle made from several pieces of birch wood. Now, in a new study, researchers from Mongolia collaborating with University of Colorado Boulder archaeologist William Taylor have described the find. The team’s radiocarbon dating pins the artifact to roughly the 4th Century ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Self-propelled nanoparticles could potentially advance drug delivery and lab-on-a-chip systems — but they are prone to go rogue with random, directionless movements. Now, an international team of researchers has developed an approach to rein in the synthetic particles. Led by Igor Aronson, the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry and Mathematics at Penn State, the team redesigned the nanoparticles into a propeller shape to better control their movements and increase their functionality. ...

Karandeep Singh, MD, has been recruited as the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Endowed Chair in Digital Health Innovation at University of California School of Medicine and named as the inaugural chief health artificial intelligence (AI) officer at UC San Diego Health, a newly developed position for the region’s only academic medical center. This new role will be effective December 29, 2023. In this position, Singh will focus on implementing change that advances safety and health outcomes in acute and ambulatory settings. His contributions will be pivotal in bringing innovation to ...

NEW YORK, NY--Many Black Americans who are thought to have a high risk of developing kidney disease possess a protective genetic variant that nullifies the extra risk, a new study from Columbia researchers has found. The study found that high-risk people who carry this variant have a risk of developing kidney disease much closer to that of the general population.  The findings will have an immediate impact on clinical practice, says study leader Simone Sanna-Cherchi, MD, associate professor of medicine at Columbia’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. “Physicians ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Using a “liquid biopsy” to study genetic material from tumors shed into the bloodstream together with immune cells could help clinicians predict which patients with advanced lung cancers are responding to immunotherapies and which patients may develop immune-related side effects several months later, according to research directed by investigators at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, the Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy and Allegheny Health Network Cancer Institute in Pittsburgh. By monitoring changes in circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) among 30 patients treated with immunotherapies for metastatic non-small cell lung cancers, ...

WASHINGTON, DC, 2023, December 12, 2023 – The problem of foodborne metal contamination has taken on new urgency, thanks in part to a 2021 US Congressional Report detailing high levels of metals found in infant food pulled off grocery shelves. (More recently, high levels of lead were discovered in children’s fruit puree pouches.) Now, two new studies provide information on the correlation between exposure to heavy metals in food and the risk of cancers and other serious health risks. The findings will be presented ...

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are often depicted as sentient agents poised to overshadow the human mind. But AI lacks the crucial human ability of innovation, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have found. While children and adults alike can solve problems by finding novel uses for everyday objects, AI systems often lack the ability to view tools in a new way, according to findings published according to findings published in Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of ...

Physician-scientist Omar Abdel-Wahab, MD, is being honored at the 2023 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting with the William Dameshek Prize, which recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the field of hematology. The award will be presented December 12. Dr. Abdel-Wahab, who chairs the Molecular Pharmacology Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), was selected for his “trailblazing research” characterizing the genetic mutations that drive blood ...