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Medicine9 Dec 2024

RSV disease burden and nirsevimab effectiveness in young children from 2023-2024

About The Study: This analysis documented the continued high burden of medically attended respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)-associated acute respiratory illness among young children in the U.S. Nirsevimab and maternal RSV vaccine uptake was low, but nirsevimab was effective against RSV-associated hospitalization. There is a potential for substantial public health impact with increased and equitable prevention product coverage in future seasons. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Heidi L. Moline, MD, MPH, email ick6@cdc.gov. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2024.5572) Editor’s ...

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Medicine9 Dec 2024

Brain tumor organoids accurately model patient response to CAR T cell therapy

PHILADELPHIA— For the first time, researchers used lab-grown organoids created from tumors of individuals with glioblastoma (GBM) to accurately model a patient’s response to CAR T cell therapy in real time. The organoid’s response to therapy mirrored the response of the actual tumor in the patient’s brain. That is, if the tumor-derived organoid shrunk after treatment, so did the patient’s actual tumor, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, published today in Cell Stem Cell. “It’s hard to measure how a patient with GBM responds to treatment because we can’t regularly ...

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Medicine9 Dec 2024

New method enables protein analysis accounting for population diversity

Analyzing the sequence of proteins in cohort studies is done by comparing participant data against protein sequences predicted from the human genome. – Today, the same reference proteins are used for all participants, says associate professor Marc Vaudel at the department of Clinical Science of the University of Bergen – but we are all different! We found that the small genetic changes that make us who we are create a bias: for those who differ from the reference, current informatic methods are blind to parts of their proteins. To solve this problem, the researchers in Bergen developed new models to build sequences from large genetic ...

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Medicine9 Dec 2024

Breaking new ground in health care: Setting the standard for XR clinical research with the RATE-XR guideline

(Toronto, December 9, 2024) In a pivotal step toward improving research standards in health care technologies, the Journal of Medical Internet Research has published the RATE-XR guideline. This new tool aims to standardize reporting for early-phase clinical studies involving extended reality (XR) technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality. Developed through a robust, expert-driven process, RATE-XR addresses critical gaps in transparency, safety, and ethical reporting, ensuring XR applications meet the needs of patients and researchers alike. Led by a multidisciplinary team of international experts, RATE-XR offers a checklist comprising 17 XR-specific ...

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Medicine9 Dec 2024

Unlocking worm strategies: A path to innovative vaccines and therapies

A research team led by Prof. Julia Esser-von Bieren from the Center of Allergy and Environment (ZAUM) at Helmholtz Munich and the Technical University of Munich, as well as the University of Lausanne (UNIL) has uncovered a molecular strategy employed by worm parasites (helminths) to evade host immune defenses. This discovery opens new avenues for the development of innovative vaccines and therapies. Published in Science Immunology, the study offers promising solutions for addressing major infectious diseases, allergies, and asthma by leveraging ...

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Social Science9 Dec 2024

Students are less likely to feel safe at their schools, compared to staff and parents

AUSTIN, TX, Dec 9, 2024 – School shooting incidents have doubled in the last three years, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database, which tracks each time a firearm is discharged on school property. Many schools have taken measures to improve safety, including metal detectors, interior door locks, emergency drills, and undercover security. But do students and staff feel any safer? Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) conducted a nationwide study of K-12 parents, K-12 teachers, and recently graduated high school students to test their responses ...

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Technology9 Dec 2024

SwRI announces joint industry program aimed at advancing heavy-duty hydrogen refueling infrastructure

SAN ANTONIO — December 9, 2024 —Southwest Research Institute has announced a groundbreaking joint industry project (JIP) to help spur the growth and innovation of fueling technologies and infrastructure for hydrogen-powered heavy-duty vehicles. SwRI’s H2HD REFUEL (Hydrogen Heavy Duty Refueling Equipment and Facilities Utilization Evaluation Laboratory) JIP aims to strengthen the acceptance of hydrogen fuel use by heavy-duty vehicles to help the mobility industry meet its decarbonization and zero-emissions goals by advancing hydrogen refueling station (HRS) technologies. Over the next four years, SwRI researchers will use hands-on ...

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Space9 Dec 2024

Webb telescope’s largest study of universe expansion confirms challenge to cosmic theory

New observations from the James Webb Space Telescope suggest that a new feature in the universe—not a flaw in telescope measurements—may be behind the decadelong mystery of why the universe is expanding faster today than it did in its infancy billions of years ago. The new data confirms Hubble Space Telescope measurements of distances between nearby stars and galaxies, offering a crucial cross-check to address the mismatch in measurements of the universe’s mysterious expansion. Known as the Hubble tension, the discrepancy remains unexplained even by the best cosmology models. “The ...

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Technology9 Dec 2024

By age six, children think boys are better than girls at computing and engineering, new American Institutes for Research study shows

Arlington, Va. – Children as young as age 6 develop gender stereotypes about computer science and engineering, viewing boys as more capable than girls, according to new results from an American Institutes for Research (AIR) study. However, math stereotypes are far less gendered, showing that young children do not view all science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields as the same. These new findings come from the largest-ever study on children’s gender stereotypes about STEM and verbal abilities, based on data from 145,000 children across 33 nations, synthesizing more than 40 years of ...

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Medicine9 Dec 2024

Hair growth drug safe at low doses for breast cancer patients

Hair loss during chemotherapy can cause enough distress for some women to lose self-confidence, which experts say may discourage them from seeking chemotherapy in the first place. Oral minoxidil is a commonly prescribed treatment for hair loss. The drug is also the active ingredient in over-the-counter Rogaine. The prescription treatment is known, however, to dilate blood vessels, and experts worry that this could increase the heart-related side effects of chemotherapy and lead to chest pain, shortness of breath, or fluid buildup. Now, a study in women with breast cancer suggests that low oral doses of minoxidil, taken during ...

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Science9 Dec 2024

Giving a gift? Better late than never, study finds

COLUMBUS, Ohio – If you feel terrible about giving a late gift to a friend for Christmas or their birthday, a new study has good news for you. Researchers found that recipients aren’t nearly as upset about getting a late gift as givers assume they will be. “Go ahead and send that late gift, because it doesn’t seem to bother most people as much as givers fear,” said Cory Haltman, lead author of the study and doctoral student in marketing at The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business. In a series of six studies, Haltman and his colleagues explored the mismatch between givers’ ...

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Science9 Dec 2024

Judging knots throws people for a loop

We tie our shoes, we put on neckties, we wrestle with power cords. Yet despite deep familiarity with knots, most people cannot tell a weak knot from a strong one by looking at them, new Johns Hopkins University research finds. Researchers showed people pictures of two knots and asked them to point to the strongest one. They couldn’t. They showed people videos of each knot, where the knots spin slowly so they could get a good long look. They still failed. People couldn’t even manage it ...

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Engineering9 Dec 2024

Not so simple machines: Cracking the code for materials that can learn

It's easy to think that machine learning is a completely digital phenomenon, made possible by computers and algorithms that can mimic brain-like behaviors. But the first machines were analog and now, a small but growing body of research is showing that mechanical systems are capable of learning, too. Physicists at the University of Michigan have provided the latest entry into that field of work. The U-M team of Shuaifeng Li and Xiaoming Mao devised an algorithm that provides a mathematical framework for how learning works in lattices called ...

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Science9 Dec 2024

Finding the weak points: New method to prevent train delay cascades

[Vienna, 09.12.2024] —Train delays are not only a common frustration for passengers but can also lead to significant economic losses, especially when they cascade through the railway network. When a train is delayed, it often triggers a chain reaction, turning minor issues into widespread delays across the system. This can be costly. A report from the Association of American Railroads (AAR) indicates that a nationwide rail disruption in the US could cost the economy over $2 billion per day. Therefore, the pressing question for railway operators is: How to manage the cascading effect of delays efficiently ...

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Technology9 Dec 2024

New AI cracks complex engineering problems faster than supercomputers

Modeling how cars deform in a crash, how spacecraft responds to extreme environments, or how bridges resist stress could be made thousands of times faster thanks to new artificial intelligence that enables personal computers to solve massive math problems that generally require supercomputers. The new AI framework is a generic approach that can quickly predict solutions to pervasive and time-consuming math equations needed to create models of how fluids or electrical currents propagate through different ...

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Science9 Dec 2024

Existing EV batteries may last up to 40% longer than expected

The batteries of electric vehicles subject to the normal use of real­ world drivers - like heavy traffic, long highway trips, short city trips, and mostly being parked - could last about a third longer than researchers have generally forecast, according to a new study by scientists working in the SLAC-Stanford Battery. Center, a joint center between Stanford University's Precourt Institute for Energy and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, This suggests that the owner of a typical EV may not need to replace the expensive battery pack or buy a new car for several additional years. Almost always, battery scientists and engineers have tested ...

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Technology9 Dec 2024

Breakthrough AI model can translate the language of plant life

A pioneering Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered model able to understand the sequences and structure patterns that make up the genetic “language” of plants, has been launched by a research collaboration. Plant RNA-FM, believed to be the first AI model of its kind, has been developed by a collaboration between plant researchers at the John Innes Centre and computer scientists at the University of Exeter. The model, say its creators, is a smart technological breakthrough that can drive discovery and innovation in plant science and potentially across the study of invertebrates ...

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Medicine9 Dec 2024

MASH discovery redefines subtypes with distinct risks: shaping the future of fatty liver disease treatment

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), formerly referred to as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), impacts roughly 30% of the global adult population. The disease spans from benign fat accumulation in the liver (steatosis) to its more severe form, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH, formerly nonalcoholic steatohepatitis or NASH). MASH represents a dangerous progression, with the potential to cause cirrhosis, liver cancer, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Despite ...

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Science9 Dec 2024

Three-quarters of Earth’s land became permanently drier in last three decades: UN

Even as dramatic water-related disasters such as floods and storms intensified in some parts of the world, more than three-quarters of Earth’s land became permanently drier in recent decades, UN scientists warned today in a stark new analysis. Some 77.6% of Earth’s land experienced drier conditions during the three decades leading up to 2020 compared to the previous 30-year period, according to the landmark report from the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Over the same period, drylands expanded by about 4.3 million km2 – an area nearly a third larger than India, the world’s ...

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Environment9 Dec 2024

Lower-quality public housing is at high risk of flood damage

AUSTIN, TX, Dec 09, 2024 – Hurricane Helene highlighted the increasing intensity of extreme weather events and the catastrophic flooding they can bring. A new study finds that many Americans residing in lower-quality public housing face a high risk of experiencing flood-related damages as their homes are disproportionately located in areas of high flood risk. A study by scientists from the Ohio State University and Texas A&M University has combined HUD’s physical inspection scores of public housing units across the country (from 2013-2020) with ...

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Science9 Dec 2024

Study compares soft tissue sarcoma rates among U.S. military servicemen and men in the general population

A recent analysis reveals that the incidence rates of soft tissue sarcomas—cancers in muscle, fat, blood vessels, nerves, and tendons—are lower in young U.S. active-duty military servicemen compared with those in the general population, but higher in middle-aged servicemen, perhaps due to greater cumulative exposure to toxins. The findings are published by Wiley online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. Soft tissue sarcomas are rare cancers arising all over the body, in various organs and tissues such as muscle, fat, and viscera. Most sarcomas arise sporadically, but a small subset arise from exposure to ...

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Technology9 Dec 2024

Toxic air in Texas high schools

AUSTIN, TX, Dec 9, 2024 – Semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs) are found in building materials and consumer products like carpeting, furniture and electronics. Gases released by these chemicals in homes, offices and schools pose potential human health risks such as cancers, reproductive disorders, and nervous system damage. A recent study of the indoor air in central Texas high schools revealed that two groups of SVOCs, phthalates and PBDEs, are prevalent in high school environments. The ...

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Science9 Dec 2024

What motivates Americans to eat less red meat?

AUSTIN, TX, Dec 9, 2024 – Limiting red meat consumption is key to a sustainable and healthy diet, yet Americans are among the world’s largest consumers of red meat. A new study reveals the demographics of American adults who choose not to eat red meat and finds that environmental concerns may matter more to them than health risks. Researchers at Baruch College and the University of Southern California (USC) surveyed more than 7,500 adults as part of the Understanding America Study – a probability-based Internet panel of individuals 18 and older. They will present ...

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Medicine9 Dec 2024

Sugary drinks significantly raise cardiovascular disease risk, but occasional sweet treats don’t, scientists find

A little of what you fancy does you good… unless it’s a fizzy drink. Scientists studying the impact of sugar on the risk of cardiovascular disease have found that eating too much added sugar increases your risk of stroke or aneurysm, but eating a few treats is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular diseases. Meanwhile, drinking sweetened beverages raises your risk of stroke, heart failure, and atrial fibrillation. “The most striking finding from our study is the divergent relationship between different sources of added sugar and cardiovascular ...

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Science9 Dec 2024

Falsifying anthropics

In short: “We exist, therefore the universe is made to host us”: the anthropic principle has sparked intense debate in cosmology since its first formulation. A new paper published in JCAP proposes a way to test it. To falsify it, all three of the following conditions must be confirmed by observations: • Cosmic inflation occurred • Axions exist • Dark matter is not made of axions If all these conditions are proven true, the anthropic principle would lose its validity, and our universe would appear ...

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