Even when their parents are lawyers, doctors, or executives, Black Britons are substantially more likely to end up in working class jobs than their White peers, a new study from the University of Kent reveals.   Funded by the Leverhulme Trust, this research shows that Black men from the most advantaged families are three times more likely than White men from similar backgrounds to be in working class jobs beyond age 30. Black women are also twice as likely as White women to experience this kind of downward mobility. This is true even after removing ...

Fukuoka, Japan—We all age. And while humanity’s life expectancy has increased dramatically in the modern era, we still struggle with the inevitable health issues our bodies face as we get up in the years. For example, the decrease of muscle mass and function, leading to weakness and atrophy. This is a pressing concern in a super-aging society like Japan where—while people live longer—without proper muscle strength, quality of life can be drastically diminished. In findings that may eventually lead to targeted ...

“Brain aging is a biological process that comprehends degenerative, adaptive, and regenerative brain changes that elapse through maturity until the elderly.” BUFFALO, NY- November 19, 2024 – A new review was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science), on October 29, 2024, Volume 16, Issue 20, titled, ”Brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease, a perspective from non-human primates.“ In the review, Ferrer Isidro from the University of Barcelona and Reial Acadèmia de Medicina de Catalunya, explores the differences in ...

Individual cells appear capable of learning, a behaviour once deemed exclusive to animals with brains and complex nervous systems, according to the findings of a new study led by researchers at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona and Harvard Medical School in Boston.    The findings, published today in the journal Current Biology, could represent an important shift in how we view the fundamental units of life.   “Rather than following pre-programmed genetic instructions, cells are elevated to entities equipped ...

A dog learns to sit on command, a person hears and eventually tunes out the hum of a washing machine while reading … The capacity to learn and adapt is central to evolution and, indeed, survival. Habituation — adaptation’s less-glamorous sibling — involves the lessening response to a stimulus after repeated exposure. Think the need for a third espresso to maintain the same level of concentration you once achieved with a single shot. Up until recently, habituation — a simple form of learning — was deemed ...

Viruses are lean, mean, infection machines. Their genomes are tiny, usually limited to a handful of absolutely essential genes, and they shed extra genomic deadweight extremely fast. Usually. Coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19), appear at first glance to be an exception. They have some extra “accessory” genes in addition to the usual minimal viral set, and scientists don’t know what most of them do. Scientists believe these extra genes must be doing something important, though, or they would be rapidly lost as the viruses evolved. Now, University of Utah Health researchers have found that some of these viral genes have stuck around ...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19, 2024 – Hurricanes, or tropical cyclones, can be devastating natural disasters, leveling entire cities and claiming hundreds or thousands of lives. A key aspect of their destructive potential is their unpredictability. Hurricanes are complex weather phenomena, and how strong one will be or where it will make landfall is difficult to estimate. In a paper published this week in Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, a pair of researchers from the City University of Hong Kong employed machine learning to more accurately model the boundary layer wind field of tropical cyclones. In atmospheric science, the boundary layer ...

WASHINGTON, Nov 19, 2024 – Champatis, the seeds of the Lapsi tree, are valued in Nepal for their medical, economic, social, and cultural significance. They are also popular among children as simple playthings. But for a group of physicists, these unique seeds—and the way they bounce and roll down slopes—could help them better understand landslides and avalanches, leading to research that could save lives. In a study published this week in Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, a team ...

About The Study: In this cohort study of adults with outpatient medically attended-respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections from 3 large deidentified U.S. databases across 6 RSV seasons, approximately 1 in 20 adults experienced all-cause hospitalization within 28 days. The results of this study highlight the public health need for RSV prevention and treatment.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Joshua T. Swan, PharmD, MPH, email swan.joshua@gmail.com. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media ...

In recent years, employers across North America have introduced or boosted equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) programs in hopes of creating a more diverse and inclusive workplace culture. But studies have shown that fostering diversity can come with a steep cost, as employees from dominant groups often felt threatened, leading to a backlash against the very groups the employers are seeking to support. But could those feelings of threat also lead to learning and change, and eventually allyship? ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – Using data collected over a 10-year period from four emergency departments, researchers at the University of Toronto found that short-term exposure to ambient heat and air pollution levels was associated with increased utilization of X-rays and computed tomography (CT). Results of the study were published today in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). “Extreme climate exposures are associated with higher demand for health care including emergency department visits,” ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – When making diagnostic decisions, radiologists and other physicians may rely too much on artificial intelligence (AI) when it points out a specific area of interest in an X-ray, according to a study published today in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). “As of 2022, 190 radiology AI software programs were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration,” said one of the study’s senior authors, Paul H. Yi, M.D., director of intelligent imaging informatics and associate member in ...

Fukuoka, Japan— Microfluidic technology has become increasingly important in many scientific fields such as regenerative medicine, microelectronics, and environmental science. However, conventional microfabrication techniques face limitations in scale and in the construction of complex networks. These hurdles are compounded when it comes to building more intricate 3D microfluidic networks. Now, researchers from Kyushu University have developed a new and convenient technique for building such complex 3D microfluidic networks. Their tool? Plants and fungi. The team developed a ‘soil’ medium using nanoparticles of glass (silica) and a cellulose ...

A different mix of fuels with enhanced properties could overcome some of the major barriers to making fusion a more practical energy source, according to a new study.  The proposed approach would still use deuterium and tritium, which are generally accepted as the most promising pair of fuels for fusion energy production. However, the quantum properties of the fuel would be adjusted for peak efficiency using an existing process known as spin polarization. In addition to spin polarizing half the fuels, the percentage of deuterium would be increased from the usual amount of roughly 60% or more.  Models created by scientists at the U.S. Department ...

The American Pediatric Society (APS) is pleased to announce Beth A. Tarini, MD, MS, MBA, as the 2025 Norman J. Siegel New Member Outstanding Science Award recipient for her considerable contributions to pediatric science. The award will be presented to Dr. Tarini during the APS Presidential Plenary at the Pediatric Academic Societies 2025 Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 24 – April 28. The award was created in honor of one of the world’s leading nephrologists, Norman J. Siegel, MD, FASN. Dr. Siegel was an outstanding ...

Approximately 16% of the global population, or about 890 million people, suffer from obesity. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recognized obesity as a significant health issue and highlighted its impact on the quality of life and overall health of individuals across the world. In response to this, the World Institute of Kimchi, South Korea, has been publishing a series of articles on the anti-obesity effects of kimchi in international journals. These articles, based on research studies on the subject, indicate that the regular consumption of kimchi, a traditional ...

Researchers delved deep into the regulation of cobalt active sites to enhance the selectivity of propylene to improve scalability and affordability of the production of this important chemical.   Chemical reactions are not always naturally optimized to yield the products in the quantities needed, especially on the scale needed for the amount of industry in the world today. Researchers from East China University of Science and Technology explored the options available to develop a more cost-effective, scalable and straightforward ...

A recent study published in the Journal of Translational Internal Medicine (https://doi.org/10.1515/jtim-2024-0017) reveals significant insights into the broader impact of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) on cardiovascular health. By using a rigorous bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) approach, the research provides compelling evidence that GERD—a condition traditionally recognized as a digestive disorder characterized by acid reflux and heartburn—may influence key cardiovascular risk factors, including blood pressure, lipid ...

Repeated exposure to lies online may influence the beliefs of professional content moderators, with consequences for online platforms. Hundreds of thousands of content moderators, typically based in non-Western countries, identify and weed out problematic and false content on social platforms. However, constant exposure to misinformation could convince some content moderators that false claims are true, in what is known as the “illusory truth effect.” Hause Lin and colleagues assessed the extent of this effect among professional content moderators in India and the Philippines and explored whether encouraging an accuracy mindset reduces the effect. ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – While comics have become a culturally popular and widely studied art form in recent decades, one format remains overlooked: the single-panel comic.   Comics like “The Family Circus,” “Ziggy” and “Little Lulu” are often seen as simplistic and not worthy of critical attention, argues Michelle Ann Abate, author of the new book Singular Sensations: A Cultural History of One-Panel Comics in the United States.   “There tends to be a belief there ...

PULLMAN, Wash. — Unlike kids in the United States, hunter-gatherer children in the Congo Basin have often learned how to hunt, identify edible plants and care for babies by the tender age of six or seven. This rapid learning is facilitated by a unique social environment where cultural knowledge is passed down not just from parents but from the broader community, according to a new Washington State University-led study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research helps explain how many cultural traits have been preserved for thousands of years among ...

US Latinos who rely on social media in Spanish for their news are more vulnerable to political misinformation than those who use English-language social media, according to a study. Misinformation swirls on social media in every language, but social media companies struggle to combat disinformation circulating in Spanish on major social media platforms. In a study done in partnership with Jonathan Nagler of NYU’s Center for Social Media and Politics as part of the group’s Bilingual Election Monitor project, Marisa Abrajano and colleagues surveyed over 1,000 English-dominant, bilingual, and Spanish-dominant Latino users of ...

A new study led by RMIT University in Australia measuring access to nature for eight major global cities found most still have inadequate canopy cover, despite access to an abundance of trees. Less than 30% of buildings in New York City, Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, Denver, central Sydney and central Melbourne were in neighbourhoods with adequate canopy cover. New York and Amsterdam both scored almost 0% for canopy cover despite 92% and 50% of buildings having views of at least three trees, respectively. The research, a collaboration with the Technical University of Munich, studied over 2.5 million buildings across ...

Genes aren’t the sole driver instructing cells to build multicellular structures, tissues, and organs. In a new paper published in Nature Communications, USC Stem Cell scientist Leonardo Morsut and Caltech computational biologist Matt Thomson characterize the influence of another important developmental driver: cell density, or how loosely or tightly cells are packed into a given space. In both computational models and laboratory experiments, the team of scientists used cell density as an effective tool for controlling how mouse cells pattern themselves into complex structures.  “This paper represents progress towards our big picture goal of engineering synthetic ...

Bethesda, MD (Nov. 15, 2024) — The American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) has released a new clinical guideline on the pharmacological management of moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis, published today in Gastroenterology. This guideline groups the 12 currently available advanced treatments based on efficacy, to simplify the decision-making process for gastroenterologists and the approximately 1.25 million patients in the U.S. living with ulcerative colitis.  “Since the first biologic ...