The AI tool AlphaFold has been improved so that it can now predict the shape of very large and complex protein structures. Linköping University researchers have also succeeded in integrating experimental data into the tool. The results, published in Nature Communications, are a step toward more efficient development of new proteins for, among other things, medical drugs. In all living organisms, there is a huge variety of proteins that regulate cell functions. Basically, everything that happens in the body, from controlling muscles and forming hair to transporting ...

**EMBARGOED UNTIL RELEASE MONDAY, NOV. 4, AT 1 A.M. ET** Researchers including a Johns Hopkins University evolutionary biologist report they have analyzed a fossil of an extinct giant meat-eating bird — which they say could be the largest known member of its kind — providing new information about animal life in northern South America millions of years ago. The evidence lies in the leg bone of the terror bird described in new paper published Nov. 4 in Palaeontology. The study was led by Federico J. Degrange, a terror bird ...

We use our lips to talk, eat, drink, and breathe; they signal our emotions, health, and aesthetic beauty. It takes a complex structure to perform so many roles, so lip problems can be hard to repair effectively. Basic research is essential to improving these treatments, but until now, models using lip cells — which perform differently to other skin cells — have not been available. In a new study published in Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, scientists report the successful immortalization of donated lip cells, ...

About 1 in 3 patients diagnosed with cancer in Ontario visited an emergency department (ED) in the 90 days before diagnosis, found a new study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.240952. In a study that included more than 650 000 patients diagnosed with cancer between 2014 and 2021 in Ontario, 35% (229 683) had visited an ED in the 90 days before diagnosis. Among patients with ED visits before their cancer diagnosis, 64% had visited once, 23% had visited twice and 13% had 3 or more visits. ...

Former teacher Professor of Education David Putwain says ‘heavy-handed’ messages around test results can fuel extreme worry among some 16 to 18-year-olds, even when others respond well to such messages. Putwain identifies several risk factors, for example students with certain personality traits, including those who are highly self-critical, can underachieve because of severe anxiety in exams. Certain demographics also report higher exam anxiety, including female persons and those from economically deprived backgrounds. ‘Temperature checks’ to identify at-risk ...

About The Study: A health literacy-informed digital intervention improved child weight-for-length trajectory across the first 24 months of life and reduced childhood obesity at 24 months. The intervention was effective in a racially and ethnically diverse population that included groups at elevated risk for childhood obesity.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, William J. Heerman, MD, MPH, email Bill.Heerman@vumc.org. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2024.22362) Editor’s ...

A study co-led by a Johns Hopkins Children’s Center clinician-researcher shows that adding text messaging and other electronic feedback to traditional in-clinic health counseling for parents about feeding habits, playtime and exercise prevents very young children from developing obesity and potentially lifelong obesity-related problems. Findings from the study, which was co-led by Eliana Perrin, M.D., M.P.H., Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Primary Care at the Johns Hopkins University Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Public Health, will be published in JAMA and presented at the Obesity Society’s “Obesity Week” in San Antonio, both on Nov. ...

Tokyo, Japan – Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have created a mathematical model that models how the evolutionary strategies of organisms are affected by the environment. They studied salmonid fishes which choose either to migrate to the sea then return to lay eggs or stay in the river depending on their individual features. Their model correctly predicts how the proportion choosing to migrate changes with environmental conditions, predicting how environmental change can trigger eco-evolutionary responses.   Salmonids (or salmon-like) fish are known to face a tough choice early in their lives. They can either stay where they are ...

HOUSTON-(Nov. 1, 2024) – A concerning increase in global rates of severe invasive infections becoming resistant to key antibiotics has a team of infectious disease researchers at the Houston Methodist Research Institute studying a recently emerged strain of bacteria called Streptococcus dysgalactiae subspecies equisimilis (SDSE). SDSE infects humans via the skin, throat, gastrointestinal tract and female genital tract to cause infections ranging in severity from strep throat (pharyngitis) to necrotizing fasciitis (flesh-eating disease).   Closely related to group A streptococcus (also commonly known as Streptococcus pyogenes), which has been very well studied, ...

AUBURN, Ala. – The NIH Center for Macromolecular Modeling and Visualization and Auburn University are pleased to announce the 62nd Hands-On Workshop on Computational Biophysics, taking place from December 16-20, 2024, at Auburn University’s Department of Physics. This prestigious workshop series, first launched in June 2003 by the Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has become a premier global training event in molecular modeling. Supported by NIH, the workshop provides a unique platform for researchers across disciplines to master the latest computational biophysics techniques. This year’s ...

Windblown dust from the shrinking Salton Sea harms the respiratory health of children living nearby, triggering asthma, coughing, wheezing and disrupted sleep, USC research shows. The findings also indicate that children living closest to the sea, who are exposed to more dust in the air, may be the most affected. The study, published in Environmental Research, found that 24% of children in the area have asthma — which is far higher than the national rate of 8.4% for boys and 5.5% for girls. The abnormally high rate raises health experts’ concerns about the children’s health in this predominantly low-income community of color 150 miles southeast of Los Angeles. Furthermore, ...

With only days to go in the 2024 general election, the Applied Political Analytics Program (APAN) at the University of Maryland, in partnership with the public opinion firm YouGov, released today the results from an Oct. 23-27, 2024 poll of 500 likely Maryland voters that finds broad support for reproductive freedom, and Angela Alsobrooks (D) with a sizeable lead over former Maryland governor Larry Hogan (R) in the race to fill a U.S. Senate seat.  The poll found that across the state, Kamala Harris (D, 60.9%) holds a 27 percentage-point lead over Donald Trump (R, 33.9%). The data also show Angela Alsobrooks (D, 57.4%) with a ballooning 23 percentage-point ...

A new USC study involving 8,500 children from across the country reveals that a form of air pollution, largely the product of agricultural emissions, is linked to poor learning and memory performance in 9- and 10-year-olds. The specific component of fine particle air pollution, or PM2.5, ammonium nitrate, is also implicated in Alzheimer’s and dementia risk in adults, suggesting that PM2.5 may cause neurocognitive harm across the lifespan. Ammonium nitrate forms when ammonia gas and nitric acid, produced by agricultural activities and fossil fuel combustion, respectively, react in the atmosphere. The findings appear in Environmental Health Perspectives. “Our study ...

Medicare-certified home health agencies, which are key to allowing older adults to age in place, are increasingly going through ownership changes, raising concerns about health care spending, workforce, and quality of care, according to a study by UTHealth Houston. The research was published in JAMA Health Forum, part of the Journal of the American Medical Association. “The ownership change in health care sectors — including various forms of acquisitions by health systems, insurers, private equity firms, and other corporate investors — is increasingly reshaping U.S. health care system and causing concerns about quality of care,” said Yucheng Hou, PhD, assistant ...

Member states of the European Union are obliged to designate Special Protection Areas (SPAs) as part of the Natura 2000 network. These areas are designed to guarantee the preservation and restoration of bird populations. However, due to the paucity of data about rare species, it was not known how well these areas worked. Researchers at the University of Göttingen and Dachverband Deutscher Avifaunisten (DDA) developed citizen science platforms as a new data source to evaluate the effectiveness of the 742 protected areas for birds ...

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER (FL), November 1, 2024 – More than 25 payloads sponsored by the International Space Station (ISSInternational Space Station) National Laboratory, including technology demonstrations, in-space manufacturing, student experiments, and multiple projects funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), are bound for the orbiting outpost. These investigations, launching on SpaceX’s 31st Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) mission for NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration, aim to improve life on Earth through space-based research and foster a sustainable economy in low Earth orbit(Abbreviation: ...

East Hanover, NJ – November 1, 2024 – Following significant gains since the post-pandemic lockdown, employment rates for people with disabilities may have plateaued, remaining near historic high levels over the past 18 months despite the Federal Reserve’s efforts to slow the economy, according to today’s National Trends in Disability Employment – semi-monthly update (nTIDE) issued by Kessler Foundation and the University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability Year-to-Year nTIDE Numbers (comparing October 2023 to October 2024) The employment-to-population ratio for people with disabilities (ages 16-64) ...

A University of Rochester research team is reporting a new way to detect cancer cells with a “liquid biopsy” that’s designed to be simpler, faster, and more informational than current methods. What is a liquid biopsy? It is a non-invasive test that uses blood, urine, and other bodily fluids as a vehicle for finding cancer cells or other molecules released by tumors. A liquid biopsy can detect or screen for cancer or monitor progression of the disease and how the body responds to cancer treatment. James ...

Scientists at Northwestern and Case Western Reserve universities have developed the first polymer-based therapeutic for Huntington’s disease, an incurable, debilitating illness that causes nerve cells to break down in the brain. Patients with Huntington’s disease have a genetic mutation that triggers proteins to misfold and clump together in the brain. These clumps interfere with cell function and eventually lead to cell death. As the disease progresses, patients lose the ability to talk, walk, swallow and ...

Embargoed: Not for Release Until 2:00 pm U.S. Eastern Time Friday, 01 November 2024. Researchers at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) are collaborating with colleagues from Frankfurt/Main, Oxford and Würzburg to investigate how the complex, cooperative behaviour of honey bees (Apis mellifera) is genetically programmed so that it can be passed on to subsequent generations. As they explain in the scientific journal Science Advances, they found an answer in what is known as the doublesex gene (dsx). Behavioural interactions between organisms are fundamental and often inherited. ...

HOUSTON ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center today announced the selection of Jennifer Bickel, M.D., as the institution’s inaugural vice president and chief wellness officer (CWO). She will begin on January 6, 2025. Working closely with the senior vice president of people, culture and infrastructure, as well as the chief academic officer, she will spearhead initiatives that prioritize employee well-being, professional fulfillment and community resilience.  In her new role, Bickel will implement a three-component model focusing on a culture of wellness, efficiency ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – New Cornell University research has found that, unlike birds, the evolution of bats’ wings and legs is tightly coupled, which may have prevented them from filling as many ecological niches as birds. “We initially expected to confirm that bat evolution is similar to that of birds, and that their wings and legs evolve independently of one another. The fact we found the opposite was greatly surprising,” said Andrew Orkney, postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Brandon Hedrick, assistant professor biomedical sciences. Both researchers ...

Political campaigns spend big bucks hiring consultants to craft persuasive messaging, but a new study coauthored by Yale political scientist Joshua L. Kalla demonstrates that political professionals perform no better than laypeople in predicting which messages will sway voters. In the study, Kalla and his coauthors evaluated how well sample groups of political practitioners — professionals who work for political campaigns, polling firms, and advocacy organizations — and members of the public could predict the effectiveness of 172 campaign messages concerning 21 political issues, including legalizing marijuana, cancelling student debt, and increasing ...

In emergencies, children have distinct needs because of their unique physiological, emotional and developmental characteristics. But 83% of emergency departments nationwide are not fully prepared to meet those needs — which can be life-threatening for a child in cases of severe illness or injury. A new Oregon Health & Science University-led study, published today in JAMA Network Open, found that bridging that gap, known as becoming “pediatric ready,” could prevent the deaths of more than 2,100 children each year with modest financial investment. ...

Black holes continue to captivate scientists: they are purely gravitational objects, remarkably simple, yet capable of hiding mysteries that challenge our understanding of natural laws. Most observations thus far have focused on their external characteristics and surrounding environment, leaving their internal nature largely unexplored. A new study, conducted through a collaboration between the University of Southern Denmark, Charles University in Prague, Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA) in Trieste, and Victoria University of Wellington ...