Moisture levels in the soil can impact the effects that microplastic pollution has on soil fungi, according to new research published in Environmental Microbiology. By studying soil samples mixed with microplastics under different conditions, investigators found that when soil is well-watered, toxic chemicals in microplastics can leach into the soil and hinder soil fungal richness. With dry soil, however, the leaching of water-extractable chemicals is less pronounced and therefore less impactful on soil fungal structure. The researchers also noted that under dry conditions, microplastics help soil hold water for longer, which could help ...

A screening tool often used in primary care clinics to detect cognitive impairment has shortcomings when applied to ethnically and linguistically diverse older adults, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The study looked to see whether currently published English and Spanish cut points for cognitive impairment in the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) are appropriate in diverse community-based adults aged 65 years or older with cognitive concerns in the Bronx, New York. There were 231 participants (43% ...

Many businesses are making efforts to promote workers’ wellbeing, and numerous interventions are available at the individual and organizational levels. New research published in the Industrial Relations Journal found no evidence that individual-level mental wellbeing interventions like mindfulness, resilience and stress management, relaxation classes, and wellbeing apps benefit employees. The study was based on survey data from 46,336 workers in 233 organizations in the UK. Across multiple subjective wellbeing indicators, participants in individual-level mental wellbeing interventions appeared no better off than other workers. The study’s ...

The North Arabian Desert oases were inhabited by sedentary populations in the 4th and 3rd millennia BCE. A fortification enclosing the Khaybar Oasis—one of the longest known going back to this period—was just revealed by a team of scientists from the CNRS1 and the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU). This new walled oasis is, along with that of Tayma, one of the two largest in Saudi Arabia. While a number of walled oases dating back to the Bronze Age had already been documented, this major discovery sheds new light on human occupation in north-western Arabia, and provides ...

A new paper in Molecular Biology and Evolution, published by Oxford University Press, finds that HIV populations in people with higher viral loads also have higher rates of viral recombination. In effect, the more HIV in the blood, the easier it is for the virus to diversify. One of the reasons HIV has historically been so difficult to combat is the virus’s exceptionally high rate of recombination. Recombination enables the exchange of genetic information across strains of the virus and drives HIV’s evolution within people. This genetic exchange ...

With tens of thousands of synthetic chemicals on the market, and new ones in development all the time, knowing which ones might be harmful is a challenge both for the federal agencies that regulate them and the companies that use them in products. Now scientists have found a quick way to predict if a chemical is likely to cause breast cancer based on whether the chemical harbors specific traits. “This new study provides a roadmap for regulators and manufacturers to quickly flag chemicals ...

The intense changes in our modern society and the associated challenges are constantly increasing, not least due to the meta-crisis of climate change. Yet our approach to cultural heritage is still strongly influenced by the narrative of preservation. The article aims to find solutions within the interplay of preservation and change. Based on the psychological impact on society resulting from the current challenges, it is argued that cultural heritage experts need competencies in dealing with uncertainty and tolerance of ambiguity in order to provide security of action. The article applies insights from multiple disciplines to urban environment studies and advocates for a systemic understanding ...

Tore Olsson put his students in touch with American history through his popular and award-winning class “Red Dead America: Exploring America’s Violent Past Through the Hit Video Games.” Now this engagement has reached beyond the classroom—the historical profession’s most prestigious journal, the American Historical Review, just published a major feature on the class as an example of creative and innovative history teaching. Olsson is an associate professor and director of graduate studies in UT’s Department of History. His focus as a historian is the United States since the Civil War, with a particular interest in the US South, ...

Infrared vibrational spectrum of a single protein is observed using advanced measurement techniques based on near-field optical microscopy. This method utilizes light confined at the nanometer scale, allowing for the detailed analysis of extremely small samples, which was previously challenging with conventional infrared spectroscopy. The achievement represents a major advancement towards technological innovations such as ultra-sensitive and super-resolution infrared imaging, as well as single-molecule vibrational spectroscopy. Infrared ...

New research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience has found an association between a reduction in grey matter in the brain and Early Onset Psychosis (EOP). The study, published in Molecular Psychiatry, is the largest ever brain imaging study in EOP and has provided unprecedented levels of detail about the illness. It shows that, in contrast to other mental health disorders, people with EOP have a reduced volume of grey matter across nearly all regions of their brain. Researchers hope that this detailed mapping ...

Novel findings from a preclinical head-to-head comparison show that administering a COVID-19 vaccine as a nasal spray rather than a subcutaneous injection enhances the body’s long-term immune memory, thereby increasing the vaccine’s overall effectiveness. This research could pave the way for a COVID-19 vaccination strategy that depends on fewer boosters to achieve the same level of protection against SARS-CoV-2 viruses. SINGAPORE, 10 January 2024 – A team of scientists, led by Duke-NUS Medical School, has discovered a potential intranasal vaccine candidate that provides improved, ...

DURHAM, N.C. – Adults with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have smaller cerebellums, according to new research from a Duke-led brain imaging study. The cerebellum, a part of the brain well known for helping to coordinate movement and balance, can influence emotion and memory, which are impacted by PTSD. What isn’t known yet is whether a smaller cerebellum predisposes a person to PTSD or PTSD shrinks the brain region. “The differences were largely within the posterior lobe, where a lot of the more cognitive functions attributed to the cerebellum seem to localize, as well as the vermis, which is linked to a lot of emotional processing ...

Psilocybe fungi, known colloquially as “magic mushrooms,” have held deep significance in Indigenous cultures of Mesoamerica for centuries. They captured the wider world’s attention as a psychedelic staple in the 60s and 70s. Now, these infamous organisms are at the forefront of a mental health revolution. Psilocybin and psilocin, the psychoactive compounds found in nearly all species of Psilocybe, have shown promise as a treatment for conditions including PTSD, depression, and for easing end-of-life care. To ...

A sex-specific panel of 10 proteins can pick up 18 different early stage cancers, representing all the major organs of the human body, finds a proof of concept study published in the open access journal BMJ Oncology. The findings could kick-start a new generation of screening tests for early detection of the disease, say the researchers, particularly as there are many sex specific differences in cancer—including age at occurrence, cancer types, and genetic alterations—points out a linked editorial. Cancer accounts for 1 in every 6 deaths around the globe, with nearly 60% of these deaths ...

A predominantly plant-based or vegetarian diet is linked to 39% lower odds of COVID-19 infection, finds research published in the open access journal BMJ Nutrition Prevention & Health.   The findings prompt the researchers to suggest that a diet high in vegetables, legumes, and nuts, and low in dairy products and meat may help to ward off the infection. Several studies have suggested that diet may have an important role in the evolution of COVID-19 infection, as well as in the factors that heighten the risk of its associated ...

Early menopause—before the age of 45—taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT), and having 4 or more children are among several hormonal and reproductive factors linked to a heightened risk of rheumatoid arthritis in women, finds a large long term study published in the open access journal RMD Open.   Women are more susceptible to this autoimmune disease than men, note the researchers. They are 4–5 times as likely as men to develop rheumatoid arthritis under the age of 50, and twice as likely to do so between the ages of 60 and 70. And the disease seems to take a greater physical toll on women than it does on men. While ...

LOS ANGELES — Physicians at City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States, in cooperation with the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), have conducted the largest clinical trial to date seeking to reduce the risk of people who have survived childhood cancer from developing heart failure. The findings published in The Lancet Oncology show that the blood vessel relaxing medication carvedilol is safe for childhood cancer survivors to take and may improve important markers of heart injury sustained as a result of chemotherapy exposure. One devastating ...

New York, January 9, 2024 — A research paper published in Royal Society’s Biology Letters on January 10 has revealed that picrodontids —an extinct family of placental mammals that lived several million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs—are not primates as previously believed. The paper—co-authored by Jordan Crowell, an Anthropology Ph.D. candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center; Stephen Chester, an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center; ...

Frontline healthcare workers in busy hospitals feel that they are “just rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic” according to new research into the impact of under-resourced and high-pressure emergency hospital departments in the UK. A study from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine and University of Bath, led by clinical psychologist Dr Jo Daniels in collaboration with colleagues at UWE Bristol and the University of Bristol, argues that hospitals need better leadership to help change cultures and support people’s basic needs. In addition to reflections ...

The acidity of Antarctica’s coastal waters could double by the end of the century, threatening whales, penguins and hundreds of other species that inhabit the Southern Ocean, according to new research from the Univeristy of Colorado Boulder. Scientists projected that by 2100, the upper 650 feet (200 meters) of the ocean—where much marine life resides—could see more than a 100% increase in acidity compared with 1990s levels. The paper, appeared Jan. 4 in the journal Nature Communications.  “The findings are critical for our understanding ...

HOUSTON (Jan 9, 2024)— A breakthrough study led by Dr. Mehdi Razavi at The Texas Heart Institute (THI), in collaboration with a biomedical engineering team of The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) Cockrell School of Engineering led by Dr. Elizabeth Cosgriff-Hernandez, sets the foundation of a ground-breaking treatment regimen for treating ventricular arrhythmia.  Their study published in Nature Communications demonstrates the design and feasibility of a new hydrogel-based pacing modality. The urgent need for an effective therapeutic ...

JUPITER, Fla. — Like the Greek mythological beast with a snake’s tail and two ferocious heads, a potential Parkinson’s medicine created in the lab of chemist Matthew Disney, Ph.D., is also a type of chimera bearing two heads. One seeks out a key piece of Parkinson’s-causing RNA, while the other goads the cell to chop it to pieces for recycling. The research is described in the Jan. 9 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, or PNAS. Parkinson’s is a frustrating and all too common disease. Slowly, people with Parkinson’s lose brain cells and other neurons needed to make the neurotransmitter dopamine. This progressive ...

In the fascinating world of plant biology, an innovative study recently featured on the cover of The Plant Journal has been turning heads. The research delves into the intricate defense mechanisms of tomatoes against the notorious bacterial pathogen, Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst). It's a classic tale of nature's arms race: as pathogens evolve to outsmart plant defenses, plants counter with more sophisticated immune responses. The study is based on research conducted by scientists in Dr. Greg Martin’s lab ...

Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have found a brown dwarf (an object more massive than Jupiter but smaller than a star) with infrared emission from methane, likely due to energy in its upper atmosphere. This is an unexpected discovery because the brown dwarf, W1935, is cold and lacks a host star; therefore, there is no obvious source for the upper atmosphere energy. The team speculates that the methane emission may be due to processes generating aurorae. These findings are being presented at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans. To help explain the mystery of the infrared ...

Beer pong. Quarters. Flip cup. The drinking games college students play can seem like an alcohol-laced version of intramural sports. When college-aged drinkers imbibe too heavily, the risk for physically harming a romantic partner rises considerably. What if there was a way for heavy drinkers to monitor their alcoholic intake and blood-alcohol levels in real time, before an intimate situation cascades into physical violence? Or, as Virginia Tech researcher and assistant professor of psychology Meagan Brem put it: “If we can identify ...