DURHAM, N.C. – If you have a deep-seated, nagging worry over dropping your phone in molten lava, you’re in luck. A research team led by materials scientists at Duke University has developed a method for rapidly discovering a new class of materials with heat and electronic tolerances so rugged that they that could enable devices to function at lava-like temperatures above several thousands of degrees Fahrenheit. Harder than steel and stable in chemically corrosive environments, these materials ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Care for patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-related squamous cell cancers of the oropharynx (an area in back of the throat) is shifting toward community cancer centers, but patients treated in this setting may be less likely to survive, according to new research by investigators from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and its Head and Neck Cancer Center.  The study, published Jan. 3 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, raises concerns about the quality of care that patients with this type of head and neck cancer receive outside of academic medical centers. Patients treated ...

INDIANAPOLIS—A beta blocker typically used to treat heart problems, hemangioma, migraines and anxiety could be a new therapeutic for patients with sickle cell disease. Researchers led by Ankit A. Desai, MD, associate professor of medicine at the Krannert Cardiovascular Research Center (KCVRC) at Indiana University School of Medicine, have been awarded a $3 million grant by the U.S. Department of Defense to evaluate the efficacy of this drug. Patients with sickle cell disease, a red blood ...

Cleveland Clinic and the University of Western Ontario have been awarded a $4.9 million grant from Helmsley Charitable Trust to build a consortium to develop clinical trial outcome tools for patients with Crohn's disease and permanent ileostomy. A permanent ileostomy is a surgical procedure to divert stool from the intestine after removing part of or the whole colon. The new Endpoint Development for Ostomy Clinical Trial (EndO-trial) Consortium seeks to develop more effective drugs for patients with Crohn's disease who have undergone ...

Chlorophyll plays a pivotal role in photosynthesis, which is why plants have evolved to have high chlorophyll levels in their leaves. However, making this pigment is expensive because plants invest a significant portion of the available nitrogen in both chlorophyll and the special proteins that bind it. As a result, nitrogen is unavailable for other processes. In a new study, researchers reduced the chlorophyll levels in leaves to see if the plant would invest the nitrogen saved into other process that might improve nutritional quality. Over the past few decades, researchers ...

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- When water vapor meets metal, the resulting corrosion can lead to mechanical problems that harm a machine’s performance. Through a process called passivation, it also can form a thin inert layer that acts as a barrier against further deterioration. Either way, the exact chemical reaction is not well understood on an atomic level, but that is changing thanks to a technique called environmental transmission electron microscopy (TEM), which allows researchers to directly view molecules interacting ...

New research from the University of Warwick reveals that words like 'sex' endure in our language in a ‘survival of the fittest’ way, similar to natural selection. Whilst the recent announcement of Word of the Year explores new words, like ‘rizz’ or ‘situationship’, Professor Thomas Hills’ research delves into why some words survive in our modern linguistic landscape, while others don’t. The study concludes that words with the strongest lasting power are: Words acquired earlier in life Words associated with things people can see ...

NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s Vilcek Institute of Graduate Biomedical Sciences and Sarah Lawrence College today announced the launch of a master’s program in genome health analysis (GHA). Building on the strengths of both institutions, the new program will focus on analyses of patient genomes, the complete sets of genetic information in human cells. New tools have dramatically increased the amount and quality of genomic data available on each patient, but the field is constrained by the small number of experts trained to use and apply ...

A new study from researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus finds that older adult drivers who are recently diagnosed with migraines are three times as likely to experience a motor vehicle crash. Older adult drivers who reported having ever had migraines in the past were no more likely to have a motor vehicle crash than those without migraines. Additionally, study results, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, explored the relationships medications commonly prescribed for migraine management have with increased crash risk. “Migraine headaches affect ...

BOSTON – Preeclampsia and other hypertensive disorders of pregnancy—which are characterized by high blood pressure with or without organ dysfunction during the second half of pregnancy—carry considerable short- and long-term risks for both the mother and child. Treatment options (other than expedited delivery) remain limited. A team led by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Broad Institute recently identified several proteins with strong evidence of causal or protective roles for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, which could provide clues into how the conditions arise and how they might be prevented or treated. In the study, which ...

INFORMS Journal Marketing Science Study Key Takeaways: Crowdsourcing generates thousands of ideas for new products. AI can immediately help screen out bad ideas and narrow the field to the best ones in crowdsourcing to improve efficiency. Ultimately, AI could identify the best ideas or even design good ideas.   BALTIMORE, MD, January 3, 2024 – New research has found a way to leverage the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to more efficiently screen out bad ideas to focus on only good ideas in the crowdsourcing process within ideation. More specifically, the research has arrived at a simple model ...

Consider the cornea if you will – and most people won’t unless they’re having a problem. It is the transparent front surface of the eye which allows vision by focusing light as it enters. The cornea is densely packed with multi-tasking nerves that mediate pain, blink reflexes and tear production, all indispensable tasks in the proper maintenance of ocular surface health. Because it is highly innervated, meaning it has a lot of nerve connections, the cornea is a key area for understanding sensory functions.    But ...

Researchers at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester find that microglia—the brain’s immune cells—can trigger cognitive deficits after radiation exposure and may be a key target for preventing these symptoms. These findings, out today in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Biophysics, build on previous research showing that after radiation exposure microglia damage synapses, the connections between neurons that are important for cognitive ...

Mount Sinai researchers have shown for the first time that a person’s beliefs related to drugs can influence their own brain activity and behavioral responses in a way comparable to the dose-dependent effects of pharmacology. The implications of the study, which directly focused on beliefs about nicotine, are profound. They range from elucidating how the neural mechanisms underlying beliefs may play a key role in addiction, to optimizing pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatments by leveraging the power of human beliefs. The study was published in the journal Nature Mental Health. “Beliefs can have a powerful influence on our behavior, ...

Ear infections are a common childhood experience, but a new study suggests parents should take these infections seriously to preserve their children’s language development. That’s because each ear infection can potentially impair hearing with fluid building up behind the eardrum. New research from University of Florida scientists reveals that when ear infections become chronic, this repeated, temporary hearing loss can lead to deficits in auditory processing and language development in children years later. “Ear ...

About The Study: In this study of more than 1.3 million inpatient admissions for treatment of COVID-19 from March 2020 through March 2022, researchers estimated an average national medical resource use or hospital cost to deliver care per COVID-19 inpatient stay at $11,275. Hospital costs increased more than five times the rate of medical inflation over this period. This was explained partly by changes in the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, which also increased over time. Nonetheless, costs to provide inpatient care increased even as care practices changed, vaccination rates increased, and the variants of concern evolved. Authors: Kandice A. ...

About The Study: This study that included 525 Black adolescents found an association between individual online racial discrimination and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and between posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and suicidal ideation. These risk factors are important to consider in continuing studies of the cause of suicidal ideation for Black adolescents in the U.S.  Authors: Brendesha M. Tynes, Ph.D., of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, is the corresponding author. To ...

The average cost of providing care to hospitalized COVID-19 patients increased five times faster than the rate of medical inflation during the first two years of the pandemic, at least partly because of the application of additional medical technologies over the period, according to a new RAND Corporation study. Examining patients treated at academic medical centers across the nation, researchers found that the average cost of treatment for COVID-19 infection increased from $10,094 during the first weeks of the pandemic to $13,072 during March 2022. Significant ...

New Haven, Conn. — Yale researchers have identified a drug target that may alleviate joint degeneration associated with osteoarthritis, a debilitating condition that afflicts as many as 30 million people in the United States alone, which they report on Jan. 3 in the journal Nature. Pain relievers and lifestyle changes, such as exercise and reduced excess weight, have long been the therapies most commonly used to treat the joint stiffness and pain caused by degenerative disease, but there ...

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have created the world’s first functional semiconductor made from graphene, a single sheet of carbon atoms held together by the strongest bonds known. Semiconductors, which are materials that conduct electricity under specific conditions, are foundational components of electronic devices. The team’s breakthrough throws open the door to a new way of doing electronics. Their discovery comes at a time when silicon, the material from which ...

An atomic-level investigation of how Eastern equine encephalitis virus binds to a key receptor and gets inside of cells also has enabled the discovery of a decoy molecule that protects against the potentially deadly brain infection, in mice. The study, from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is published Jan. 3 in the journal Cell. By advancing understanding of the complex molecular interactions between viral proteins and their receptors on animal cells, the findings lay a foundation for treatments and vaccines ...

New study sheds light on the previously overlooked Mongolian Arc—a monumental wall system in eastern Mongolia spanning 405 kilometers. This discovery not only reveals the significance of this ancient architectural marvel but also prompts crucial questions about the motives, functionality, and broader implications of such colossal constructions. Their findings contribute to a larger multidisciplinary project exploring historical wall systems and their socio-political, economic, and environmental impacts, marking a pivotal milestone in understanding ancient civilizations and their enduring legacies. [Jerusalem, ...

The General Assembly 2024 of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) will be held at the Austria Center Vienna (ACV) in Vienna, Austria and online, from 14–19 April 2024. eLTER will organise the following session: BG8.14: Integrated solutions for landscape management of GHG balance and biodiversity in a changing environment Convener: Syed Ashraful Alam, Katri Rankinen, Thomas Dirnböck, Harry Vereecken, Olga Vindušková The session is co-sponsored by eLTER. The abstract submission deadline is Wednesday, 10 January 2024, 13:00 CET. Society is placing increasing and potentially competing demands on our environment. ...

As cities grow bigger and faster, water pollution is becoming a serious problem. We need good ways to clean the water. Traditional cleaning methods, Persulfate (PS)- Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs), are good at treating the bad stuff in the water, but they require a lot of energy and chemicals, like special light and metals ions. This is costly and environmentally harmful. It's urgent to find better and more eco-friendly ways to clean it. In a recent study published in Volume 18 of the journal Environmental Science and Ecotechnology, scientists ...

Peptide nanotubes are tubular-shaped structures formed by the controlled stacking of cyclic peptide components. These hollow biomaterials show inner and outer faces, allowing the control over their properties.  Led by Juan R. Granja, researchers from the Center for Research in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Materials (CiQUS) presented a novel kind of cyclic peptide that, when light-irradiated, induces the formation or desegregation of nanotubes on demand. At the appropriate wavelength, the peptide switches from a folded to a flat conformation. When the planar conformation is ...