The research team, led by Durham University’s Department of Anthropology, studied two groups of wild bearded capuchin monkeys in Brazil’s Serra da Capivara National Park.  The researchers installed a large box in the park which contained food that the monkeys could access by either lifting a door or pulling a knob.  The team observed which monkeys learned how to access the food, and how that information then spread to the rest of their group.  The researchers specifically focused on the role played by social tolerance in the learning of the problem-solving behaviour.  Social tolerance determines who is allowed ...

Climate change is making water scarcer. A promising method to combat this problem is desalination technology because it can tap seawater. Though desalination has potential, it also brings risks with environmental impact, cost, and accessibility.  Zero liquid discharge (ZLD) technology aims to increase water recovery from desalination by squeezing more water out of desalination brine. ZLD can help reduce water scarcity and waste from desalination plants, but comes at increased costs and, potentially, increased environmental effects from desalination.  In ...

WASHINGTON — Cmdr. J. Aaron Roberts relinquished command of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory’s (NRL) Scientific Development Squadron (VXS) 1, the Warlocks, to Cmdr. Luis A. Levine, the new Commanding Officer (CO), during a change of command and retirement ceremony Nov. 14 at Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River, Maryland. NRL’s CO Capt. Jesse Black presented Roberts with the Meritorious Service Medal. Roberts served as the VXS-1 CO from May 2023 to November 2024 and the U.S. Navy for 21 years. Black said Roberts’ distinguished leadership was instrumental to the squadron’s continued record of exceptional support to NRL’s airborne ...

PHILADELPHIA, PA – November 18, 2024 – Opertech Bio, Inc., a leading innovator in taste assessment, today announced the publication of a research article in which the TāStation® rapid throughput taste evaluation system was used to resolve a central question about sweet taste perception. It has been well established that sweeteners impart their taste by activating the TAS1R2/TAS1R3 “sweet taste receptor” in the tongue. A second signaling pathway involving the activity of glucose transporters, operating independently of the receptor, recently has been proposed for metabolizable caloric sweeteners. In a powerful demonstration of the analytical ...

Southwest Research Institute has won a $60 million contract to build three coronagraphs for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). SwRI’s novel Space Weather Solar Coronagraph (SwSCOR) is NOAA’s next-generation instrument to provide early detection and characterization of Earth-directed coronal mass ejections (CMEs). CMEs are huge bursts of coronal plasma threaded with intense magnetic fields ejected from the Sun over the course of several hours. CMEs arriving at Earth can generate geomagnetic storms, which can cause anomalies in and disruptions ...

Between 2019 and 2023, antibiotic consumption in the EU increased by 1%, moving further away from the 2030 target of a 20% reduction recommended by the Council of the European Union. Although there have been significant reductions in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections during the same period, the situation in other critical areas, such as carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae bloodstream infections, has worsened, with an increase in incidence by almost 60% between 2019 and 2023. This represents a growing threat to patients in hospitals across the EU, particularly since very few therapeutic options remain available to treat patients infected with ...

So maybe the naysayers and detractors of online gaming and its ill effects on youth need to stand down. That’s what science is telling us in a new report in the journal Human Resource Development International from Melika Shirmohammadi, assistant professor at the UH College of Technology.     The article reports that - contrary to popular belief - massive multiplayer online gamers learn by gaming and their skills in the workplace are enriched by those seemingly endless hours previously thought of as frittering away time.   "Online gaming often ...

About The Study: In this study of discharge prescription of a sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitor (SGLT2i) among patients hospitalized for heart failure, prescription rates increased substantially within 2 years after publication of clinical trial evidence documenting benefit, although considerable variation in rates was found, highlighting the need to understand strategies used by higher prescribing centers to increase SGLT2i adoption. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, ...

A new study by researchers at Intermountain Health in Salt Lake City finds that 40 percent of newly diagnosed heart failure patients also have atrial fibrillation – a combination of cardiac disorders that researchers found results in significantly poorer outcomes for patients. Findings from the Intermountain Health study demonstrate the need for physicians to screen newly diagnosed heart failure patients for atrial fibrillation to ensure patients are getting the best care possible, researchers said. “Atrial fibrillation can make heart failure much more problematic, and more complex to treat,” said Heidi T. May, PhD, principal investigator of the study and cardiovascular ...

Parag Chitnis, Associate Professor, Bioengineering, College of Engineering and Computing (CEC), received funding for the project: “MTEC-23-06-USAMRDC-MultiTopic-105; Tendon and Joint Injury Prevention and Reduction using Wearable Ultrasound Systems.”  He leads a multi-disciplinary team that aims to produce a new class of wearable hands-free ultrasound systems. Specifically, this system builds on patented technology to provide structural and functional measures for assessing muscle-tendon interactions for preventing tendon overuse injury and assessing joint function, injury, and recovery.  Chitnis received $1,856,023 from Advanced Technology ...

David Weisburd, Distinguished Professor, Criminology, Law and Society, College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS); Executive Director, Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy (CEBCP), received funding for: “Safer Stronger Together (SST) Initiative: An evaluation of the impact of a place-based social intervention on youth and their families.”  Weisburd will evaluate baseline behaviors and attitudes of clients in the recently launched Safer Stronger Together (SST) Initiative in Maryland. A future proposal will be geared toward gaining outcome data.  He ...

Erdogan Kaya, Assistant Professor, College of Education and Human Development (CEHD), received funding for the project: “EducateAI DCL: Cultivating Artificial Intelligence Literacy through Linguistically Inclusive Integrated Elementary Curriculum via Educational Robotics.” He and his colleagues aim to develop a linguistically inclusive integrated Artificial Intelligence (AI) curriculum that specifically supports emergent multilingual learners (EMLs), using educational robotics to teach ...

Dongqing Wang, Assistant Professor, Global and Community Health, College of Public Health, received funding for the project: “Effects of micronutrient supplementation on maternal and infant micronutrient status: a secondary analysis for Tanzania, and a systematic review and meta-analysis for low- and middle-income countries.” Wang will lead the secondary analysis using existing data from a randomized controlled trial in Tanzania.  He aims to investigate the effect of multiple micronutrient ...

On 13th of November 2024, Quandela, the CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, and Université Paris Cité inaugurated at the Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (CNRS/Université Paris-Saclay/Université Paris Cité) the QDlight associated research laboratory focusing on research in quantum photonics, which is to say the art of controlling light in the quantum regime inside nanoscale devices. Over the course of six years, the teams will expand scientific cooperation ...

About The Study: Among patients with persistent atrial fibrillation, linear ablation combined with ethanol infusion of the vein of Marshall in addition to pulmonary vein isolation significantly improved freedom from atrial arrhythmias within 12 months compared with pulmonary vein isolation alone.  Corresponding Authors: To contact the corresponding authors, email Changsheng Ma, MD, (chshma@vip.sina.com) and Chenyang Jiang, MD, (jiangchenyangmail@163.com). To access the embargoed study: Visit our ...

Coronary artery calcium (CAC) scores have become a non-invasive way for physicians to easily determine how much plaque has built up inside a patient’s coronary arteries, but the question has been how accurate the score is in identifying women, as well as men, who are at high risk for a heart attack or death. Now, a major new study by researchers at Intermountain Health in Salt Lake City finds coronary artery calcium scores are not only highly effective in identifying those at risk for future heart attacks, but also for death, and risk prediction ...

The pterosaurs are extinct flying reptiles that lived alongside their close relatives, the dinosaurs. The largest of these reached 10 m in wingspan, but early forms were generally limited to around 2 m. In a new paper today, a team led by palaeontologist Dr David Hone of Queen Mary University of London and published in the journal Current Biology describes a new species of pterosaur that helps to explain this important transition. They named the animal Skiphosoura bavarica meaning ‘sword tail from Bavaria’ because it comes from southern Germany and has a very unusual short, but ...

In a new study,1 led by the University of Oxford’s Department of Physics and published today (18 November) in Nature, an international group of authors who developed the science behind net zero demonstrate that relying on ‘natural carbon sinks’ like forests and oceans to offset ongoing CO2 emissions from fossil fuel use will not actually stop global warming. The science of net zero, developed over 15 years ago,2 does not include these natural carbon sinks in the definition of net human-induced CO2 emissions. Natural sinks play a vital role to moderate the impact of current emissions and draw down atmospheric CO2 concentrations after the date of net zero, ...

About The Study: The results of this study suggest a disproportionate burden of cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome by social determinants of health and sex. These findings highlight the need to address inequities in cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome through targeted interventions.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Jie Guo, PhD, email jie.guo@ki.se. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.45309) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for ...

Everyone has a past. That includes the millions of species of insects, arachnids, and nematode worms that make up a major animal group called the Ecdysozoa. Until recently, details about this group’s most distant past have been elusive. But a UC Riverside-led team has now identified the oldest known ecdysozoan in the fossil record and the only one from the Precambrian period. Their discovery of Uncus dzaugisi, a worm-like creature rarely over a few centimeters in length, is described in a paper published today in Current ...

Anyone who has ever tried to get rid of a few extra kilos knows the frustration: the weight drops initially, only to be back within a matter of weeks – the yo-yo effect has struck. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now been able to show that this is all down to epigenetics. Epigenetics is the part of genetics that’s based not on the sequence of genetic building blocks but on small yet characteristic chemical markers on these building blocks. The sequence of building blocks has evolved over a long period of time; we all inherit them from our parents. Epigenetic markers, on the other hand, are more dynamic: environmental factors, our eating habits and the condition of our body ...

LOS ANGELES — New research published in JAMA Network Open from USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of Keck Medicine of USC, suggests that among all cancer survivors, male adolescents and young adults (AYA) have the highest rate of death by suicide.  The study also reports that the number of suicide deaths in the AYA male cancer survivor group (ages 15-39) increased three-fold during the 21-year-study period. In 2021, one in 65 deaths among the group was attributed to suicide. Suicide deaths have also increased for other cancer ...

Achalasia is primarily caused by the degeneration of the myenteric plexus in the esophageal wall, leading to impaired relaxation of the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) and loss of esophageal peristalsis. Although the exact etiology is not fully understood, it is believed to involve autoimmune mechanisms and viral infections. Key pathological features include the absence of peristalsis, LES hypertonicity, and symptoms such as dysphagia and regurgitation. In this condition, the esophagus fails to contract and move food toward the stomach, while the LES ...

2024 marks an important milestone with the publication of a comprehensive review in Chemical Reviews on electron density-based methods. The review, authored by an international team, was spearheaded by leading researchers from Institute of Science Tokyo (Sergei Manzhos and Manabu Ihara of the Ihara-Manzhos lab) and included collaborators from Canada (Paul Ayers of McMaster University and Cherif Matta of Mount Saint Vincent University), China (Samantha Jenkins of Hunan Normal University), and the USA (Michele Pavanello from Rutgers University). The project also saw significant contributions from young researchers, Daniel Koch from ...

Researchers from Peking University have conducted an in-depth study on the epidemic status, secular trends, and risk factors of 15 common neonatal infectious diseases across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) from 1990 to 2019. The study, published in Health Data Science, provides a comprehensive overview of the changes in incidence and mortality rates, identifying key trends and potential areas for targeted public health interventions to improve neonatal health outcomes. Neonatal infectious diseases remain a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in LMICs, where newborns are particularly vulnerable to infections due to underdeveloped immune systems ...