HONG KONG (29 November 2024)—Similar social personalities strongly influence friendships in humans, yet we know relatively little about how animals choose their friends. But a new study by researchers at City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) investigating a unique free-ranging feral population of water buffalo on Lantau Island in Hong Kong has discovered that close spatial proximity serves as an indicator of friendship based on the predictive patterns of certain personality traits. “Our research provides evidence that friendships among water buffalo can form among individuals with similar behaviours. These findings ...

UNC researchers awarded up to $10M to leverage data science to accelerate cancer diagnosis and optimize delivery of precision oncology CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina—A team of UNC-Chapel Hill researchers has been awarded up to $10 million in Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) funding to develop the Cancer Identification and Precision Oncology Center (CIPOC). The project is designed to improve cancer diagnosis and support personalized treatments by quickly aggregating and analyzing ...

Many individuals seeking asylum in the United States show increased stress and pain symptoms that are associated with indications of cardiovascular disease according to Weill Cornell Medicine researchers.   “We would not have expected the rates of these illnesses or conditions to be this high in such a young, otherwise healthy population,” said the study’s senior author, Dr. Gunisha Kaur, associate professor of anesthesiology and an anesthesiologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The study, published Dec. 5 in Nature Mental Health, analyzed medical evaluations from 453 U.S. asylum seekers for symptoms associated with psychological ...

Why do adults make new brain cells? A new study published in Cell Stem Cell provides the first cellular evidence that making new brain cells in adults supports verbal learning and memory, which enables people to have conversations and to remember what they hear. This discovery could point to new approaches to restore cognitive function.  The study, led by scientists from USC Stem Cell and the USC Neurorestoration Center at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, relied on brain tissue from patients with drug-resistant cases of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE), which involves seizures as well as accelerated cognitive decline.  “Treating patients with epilepsy ...

Researchers have developed a new tool that will help scientists study how genes are expressed in our cells. The tool, called SigRM, is used to analyse data from single-cell epitranscriptomics, a method for studying RNA modifications in individual cells. This research could lead to important insights into health and disease. Recent advances in single-cell technology have enabled researchers to analyse thousands of individual cells at once, providing rich information about the expression and activity of genes and proteins, as well as chemical changes that affect gene expression. A major tool in these studies is single-cell epitranscriptomics, which studies RNA ...

Improvements in cancer prevention and screening have averted more deaths from five cancer types combined over the past 45 years than treatment advances, according to a modeling study led by researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study, published Dec. 5, 2024, in JAMA Oncology, looked at deaths from breast, cervical, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancer that were averted by the combination of prevention, screening, and treatment advances. The researchers focused on these five cancers because they are among the most common causes of cancer deaths and strategies ...

About The Study: In this model-based study using population-level cancer mortality data, an estimated 5.94 million cancer deaths were averted for breast, cervical, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancers combined from 1975 to 2020. Prevention and screening accounted for 8 of every 10 averted deaths, and the contribution varied by cancer site. Despite progress, efforts to reduce the U.S. cancer burden will require increased dissemination of effective interventions and new technologies and discoveries.  Corresponding ...

About The Study: In this cross-sectional study, projected annual savings from weight loss among U.S. adults with obesity were substantial for both Medicare and employer-based insurance.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Kenneth E. Thorpe, PhD, email kthorpe@emory.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.49200) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions ...

About The Study: The results of this cohort study of U.S. children suggest that higher levels of satellite-based normalized difference vegetation index greenness and percentages of street-level green space components (flowers, plants, and fields) were associated with lower adiposity. The findings support the exploration of increasing residential green space levels and adding specific green space components as an urban planning and public health intervention strategy to combat the prevalence of childhood obesity in the U.S. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Li Yi, PhD, email li_yi@hsph.harvard.edu. To access the embargoed study: ...

Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy resulted in significant reductions in depression among clinicians who provided front-line COVID-19 care in 2020 and 2021. These reductions were measurably greater than those experienced by the cohort of clinicians who received a placebo instead. Findings from this double-blind, randomized clinical trial are to be published in JAMA Network Open at 8 a.m. PST Thursday, Dec. 5.. “For doctors and nurses who feel burned out or disillusioned or disconnected from the patient care they want to provide, this study shows that psilocybin ...

Parents don't need to be blamed or shamed when providing sex education to their children, they need better support to help them safely parent their children in an increasingly complicated, digital world without compromising their values, say researchers from the University of Surrey.  In a new study, researchers from Surrey's School of Sociology found that self-identified feminist mothers across England unintendedly compromised their values about children's rights to comprehensive sex education due to societal pressures and fears of judgement.  While participants shared their ...

An emerging class of anticancer drugs called EZH2 inhibitors may greatly enhance the potency of some cancer immunotherapies, according to a preclinical study led by Weill Cornell Medicine lymphoma researchers. The inhibitors target the EZH2 enzyme, whose activity in tumor cells is now recognized as a significant factor in many cancers. The study, published Dec. 5 in Cancer Cell, found that EZH2 inhibition combined with T-cell based immunotherapy worked better at shrinking non-Hodgkin B-cell lymphomas ...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia —  As droughts fueled by human destruction of the environment are projected to affect 3 in 4 people by 2050, investing in sustainable land and water management is essential to reduce their costs, which already exceed $ 307 billion per year globally, according to a new report launched at the Conference of the Parties (COP16) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) earlier today.  Drawing on a wealth of evidence and case studies from countries all around the world —like Chile, India, Jordan, Kenya, Spain, and Tunisia— the report makes the economic ...

(Toronto, December 4, 2024) JMIR Publications invites submissions to a new theme issue titled “Clinician Wellness and Burnout in Perioperative Medicine” in its premier open access journal JMIR Perioperative Medicine. The premier, peer-reviewed journal is indexed in PubMed and focuses on how technology and data science can improve care delivery and surgical patient outcomes. Recognizing the unique challenges faced by perioperative clinicians—including anesthesiologists (trainees and attendings), perioperative advanced practice providers (nurse practitioners ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – A new risk score accurately predicts and categorizes the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events, such as heart attack, in women. The findings were published today in  Radiology: Cardiothoracic Imaging, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heart disease is the leading cause of death in U.S. women. The same can be said for women in Latin America, Europe, Asia and Pacific countries. However, since men are more likely to suffer from ...

Dr. Byungwook Hwang’s research team from the CCS Research Department at the Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) has successfully developed a process that applies the circulating fluidized bed technology, commonly used in coal-fired power plant boilers, to recycle waste plastics and produce pyrolysis oil on a large scale. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a sharp increase in household plastic waste worldwide. In response, countries around the globe are focusing on recycling technologies, such as pyrolysis, for eco-friendly waste plastic management. Recently, the Korean government announced plans to expand the ...

High-sensitivity climate models should not be excluded when predicting future regional climate impacts because the level of warming measured globally is not always the only good indicator of regional changes, a new study suggests.  Some models which scientists use to predict future changes in Earth's climate show faster global warming than others, leading to temperature projections that are considered unlikely. Some experts suggest that these more sensitive (or ‘hotter’) models should be omitted when studying future climate impacts.   New research published today (Thursday, ...

In everyday life, materials that conduct electricity well, like metals, also tend to conduct heat. For instance, a metal spoon left in a hot cup of tea will get hot, while the ceramic mug remains cool. This is because good electrical conductors are usually good heat conductors too. However, researchers at Drexel University and Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) in Belgium have discovered that MXenes, a type of material known for its excellent electrical conductivity, actually have very low ...

(CAMBRIDGE, MASS.) December 05, 2024 – Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide, with various subtypes affecting millions of people each year. Among these, ALK-positive lung cancer frequently strikes younger people who have never smoked, including those aged between 20 and 50. Upon diagnosis, 80% of individuals already have stage 4 metastatic cancer, spread beyond the lungs to other parts of the body. Despite initially effective ALK inhibitor treatments, the cancer recurs in most patients, and there are about 70,000 people living with ALK+ lung cancer in the ...

Extreme weather and pollution have increased the salt content in some soil, making growing conditions harsh for salt-sensitive crops like rice. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Nano detail a possible solution that doesn’t require genetic modification to make rice plants thrive in these conditions. In lab experiments, they determined that coating rice seedlings with magnesium-doped carbon dots — derived from durian peels — increased the seedlings’ antioxidant activity and photosynthesis, reducing the stress caused by salty soil.   To increase stress resistance in plants, the current ...

Despite the massive hype surrounding Power-to-X (PtX), most of the world's announced green hydrogen projects lack financing. The market is deemed far too risky by stakeholders. And, there are many potential pitfalls. According to the authors of a study from the University of Copenhagen, actors must be ‘compelled’ to invest in a genuinely green manner. Green hydrogen has long been touted as the climate-friendly energy solution of the future. Indeed, there has been no shortage of hype surrounding Power-to-X – which converts green electricity into hydrogen and other molecules. In Denmark, politicians have referred to PtX as a cornerstone of ...

In the split second that is needed to view a stop sign and react to it, our brain navigates a complex process that transitions seamlessly from perception to action control. This ability to halt or inhibit actions, known as response inhibition, is fundamental to human cognition. It plays a key role in decision-making and self-control, enabling us to suppress impulsive or inappropriate behaviors. Understanding the mechanisms underlying this process is essential for grasping how we manage our thoughts and actions and for treating impulse control disorders like attention deficit hyperactivity ...

From the 1960s to the 1980s, the use of lead in fuel, paints, and pipes caused widespread contamination. It is estimated that 170 million Americans alive today were exposed to high lead levels as children, which caused significant harm, including a measurable drop in IQ scores. While we now understand the dangers of these chemicals, large sections of the population are still exposed to them. UNICEF reports that about 800 million children globally, nearly half of whom live in South Asia, are still exposed to unsafe levels of lead resulting from the hazardous ...

Control systems are ubiquitous in modern day technology. In industrial contexts, these systems ensure that relevant variables remain within a desirable range to keep processes running safely and efficiently. A vast array of control strategies exists, and it is not uncommon to combine different types of controllers to improve performance. For instance, high-level controllers based on mathematical modeling of a given process are routinely combined with low-level controllers, such as the widely used ...

The Horner–Wadsworth–Emmons (HWE) reaction is a fundamental reaction in organic chemistry, widely used to create conjugated carbonyl compounds. Conjugated carbonyl compounds are used in many industries for synthesizing perfumes, plastics, and pharmaceuticals and are also involved in biological processes. Consequently, methods for improving HWE reactions are an active area of research. One potential application of HWE reactions is to develop (E)-isomers of conjugated carbonyl compounds that are useful for synthesizing chemicals called hynapene analogues with promising anti-cancer ...