An international research team led by the University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna has used long-term demographic data from Japanese macaques – a monkey species within the family of Old World monkeys – to show that, unlike humans, there is no maternal mortality in these primates linked to childbirth. The results of the study were recently published in the renowned scientific journal PNAS. The evolution of large brains and associated large fetal heads are key factors linked to maternal mortality in primates during childbirth. For humans, the baby's large head in relation ...

Five George Mason Researchers Receive Funding For Center For Climate Risks Applications Luis Ortiz, Assistant Professor, Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences (AOES), College of Science; Fengxui Zhang, Assistant Professor, Schar School of Policy and Government; Edward Oughton, Assistant Professor, Geography and Geoinformation Science, College of Science; Natalie Burls, Associate Professor, AOES, and Director, Climate Dynamics Program, College of Science; and James Kinter, Director, Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies (COLA); Director, ...

CRISPR is a revolutionary tool that allows scientists to precisely modify the genome and gene expression of cells in any organism. It’s a reagent—a substance that facilitates a reaction—that combines an enzyme with a programmable RNA capable of locating specific genetic sequences. Once guided to the correct spot, the enzyme acts like a pair of scissors, cutting, replacing, or deleting sequences of DNA. Researchers are now using the technology to, among many things, treat genetic diseases, develop medical therapeutics, and design diagnostic tools. “CRISPR is very powerful, but it comes with side effects,” says Lehigh University ...

Weill Cornell Medicine researchers found that the possibility of parental disclosure through online patient portals led older adolescents to hesitate in sharing complete health information with doctors, putting them at risk of missed diagnoses and treatments. The paper noted that confidentiality concerns were increased among females and those who are sexual and gender minorities. The results, published Oct. 7 in JAMA Pediatrics, are based on a national online survey that targeted 18 to 26 years olds who ...

Benjamin Gatling, Associate Professor, English, College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS), is set to receive funding for a project in which he will digitize a significant portion of the archive of the Folklore Fund at the Rudaki Institute of Language and Literature in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.  Gatling aims to train local archive staff in best practices, the preservation of materials, and digitization and metadata creation for the majority of the archive’s holdings, as well as the curation of digitized materials. The archive’s holdings include bound notebooks, notecards, ...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Jill Inderstrodt, PhD, MPH, has received notification of a five-year, $1.9 million collaborative grant to improve health and the care of people living with congenital heart defects (CHD). Awarded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr, Inderstrodt will lead a multidisciplinary team from the Indiana University Fairbanks School of Public Health and the Regenstrief Institute. Also part of the research team is Brian Dixon, PhD, MPA, a Regenstrief researcher, Fairbanks School professor and interim director of the Regenstrief Center for Biomedical Informatics. “I am honored to lead this initiative alongside ...

The European Commission (EC) has released the 10-year assessment of the Human Brain Project (HBP), an EU-Flagship initiative that concluded in 2023. The report was authored by a panel of independent scientific experts. Their assessment of the HBP’s development and results over the full 10 years comes to a strongly positive conclusion. The report highlights that the HBP made major contributions and had a transformative impact on brain research. One of the main outcomes of the HBP is EBRAINS, the open research infrastructure ...

Yuntao Wu, Professor, Molecular and Microbiology, School of Systems Biology, College of Science, is studying the structure of dicameric repeats (DR) of PSGL-1, a host protein that inhibits HIV virion infectivity. These are repeated stretches of 10 amino acids with numerous O-glycosylated threonines and prolines. Wu and his collaborators hypothesize that the structural rigidity and glycosylation of dicameric repeats affect anti-HIV activity. The researchers have two aims. First, they aim to determine the structure-function of DR. Second, they intend to test and validate the anti-HIV activity of PSGL-1 (P-selectin glycoprotein ligand 1) that inactivates ...

Thanhvu Nguyen, Associate Professor, Computer Science, College of Engineering and Computing (CEC), received funding from the National Science Foundation for the project: “Collaborative Research: FMitF: Track II: From Theory to Practice: Making Complex Invariants Accessible with DIG.” Nguyen and his collaborators are developing the invariant generator DIG-I, which is more efficient and scalable than other invariant generators. It also has applications beyond just invariant discovery. The researchers hold that DIG-I will be ...

The current expectation is that every ovulatory menstrual cycle will have a luteal phase (the time from egg released until the next flow) that lasts approximately 14 days. It is simple, ovulation covers half of the expected, classical 28-day menstrual cycle. That fits with another current concept, “All regular month-apart menstrual cycles are ovulatory.” “We discovered a wide variety of luteal phase lengths, even in healthy premenopausal women who needed two cycles in a row that were both of normal cycle length and ovulatory in order to join the original study,” said this study’s first author, ...

It’s not a bad thing if you pick a toasted bagel for breakfast, while your partner chooses eggs. In fact, according to a new study from the University of Waterloo, that difference could help you lose some weight.  The study, which employed a mathematical model of men’s and women’s metabolisms, showed that men’s metabolisms respond better on average to a meal laden with high carbohydrates like oats and grains after fasting for several hours, while women are better served ...

SAN ANTONIO — October 7, 2024 —Southwest Research Institute’s Nathan Andrews has been named an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). AIAA Associate Fellows are recognized for overseeing important engineering or scientific work and outstanding contributions to their field. To receive this honor, nominees must be recommended by at least three other associate fellows, be a senior member in good standing of the AIAA and have at least 12 years of professional experience. AIAA selects only one Associate Fellow for each 150 members each ...

The invasive mosquito species, the tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus), poses significant threats to human and animal health due to its ability to spread over large geographic areas and act as a vector for numerous pathogens. Understanding the ecological relationships this species establishes in different locations is crucial for assessing its worldwide dispersion success and its role in disease transmission. To uncover how invasiveness couples with the ability to adapt to various food sources László Zsolt Garamszegi from the ...

Researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on October 7 have made the surprising discovery that one species of comb jelly (Mnemiopsis leidyi) can fuse, such that two individuals readily turn into one following an injury. Afterwards, they rapidly synchronize their muscle contractions and merge digestive tracts to share food. “Our findings suggest that ctenophores may lack a system for allorecognition, which is the ability to distinguish between self and others,” says Kei Jokura (@Ctenophore18) of the University of Exeter, UK, and National Institutes of Natural Sciences in Okazaki, ...

EMBARGOED: NOT FOR RELEASE UNTIL 07 OCTOBER 2024 AT 16:00 (LONDON TIME), 07 OCTOBER 2024 AT 11:00 (US EASTERN TIME). Global warming could increase the threat posed to whale sharks from large ships, according to a new study published in Nature Climate Change. Researchers from the University of Southampton and Marine Biological Association (MBA) predict that increased ocean temperatures will see this already endangered species driven into new habitats crossed by busy shipping lanes. The study predicts that the co-occurrence of whale sharks and large ships could be 15,000 times higher by the end of the century compared to the present day. Lead author Dr ...

We’ve seen dramatic increases in life expectancy over the 19th and 20th centuries, thanks to healthier diets, medical advances and many other quality-of-life improvements. But after nearly doubling over the course of the 20th century, the rate of increase has slowed considerably in the last three decades, according to a new study led by the University of Illinois Chicago. Despite frequent breakthroughs in medicine and public health, life expectancy at birth in the world’s longest-living populations has increased only an ...

A study led by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers concludes that commonly used ways of positioning the patient’s arm during blood pressure (BP) screenings can substantially overestimate test results and may lead to a misdiagnosis of hypertension. In a report on the study, which will be published Oct. 7 in JAMA Internal Medicine, investigators examined the effects of three different arm positions: an arm supported on a desk, arm supported on a lap, and an unsupported arm hanging at the patient’s side. ...

About The Study: This crossover randomized clinical trial showed that commonly used arm positions (lap or side) resulted in substantial overestimation of blood pressure readings and may lead to misdiagnosis and overestimation of hypertension.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Tammy M. Brady, MD, PhD, email tbrady8@jh.edu To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2024.5213) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of ...

About The Study: The transition from childhood to adolescence may represent a sensitive developmental period when racism can have long-term deleterious impacts on healthy human development across the life span. Future research should build on the present study and interrogate which social regularities and policies may be perpetuating discrimination against ethnically and racially minoritized adolescents. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Juan Del Toro, PhD, email jdeltoro@umn.edu. To ...

A blood test, performed when metastatic prostate cancer is first diagnosed, can predict which patients are likely to respond to treatment and survive the longest. It can help providers decide which patients should receive standard treatment versus who might stand to benefit from riskier, more aggressive new drug trials. The research, part of a phase 3 clinical trial funded in part by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health, was just published in JAMA Network Open. Before it spreads, prostate cancer can be cured with surgery or ...

October 7, 2024—(BRONX, NY)—Metastatic disease—when cancer spreads from the primary tumor to other parts of the body—is the cause of most cancer deaths. While researchers understand how cancer cells escape the primary site to seed new tumors, it’s not well understood why some of these wayward cancer cells spawn new tumors— sometimes decades later—while others do not.   Now, a research team at the National Cancer Institute-designated Montefiore Einstein ...

Since the 1950s, a chemotherapy drug known as 5-fluorouracil has been used to treat many types of cancer, including blood cancers and cancers of the digestive tract.  Doctors have long believed that this drug works by damaging the building blocks of DNA. However, a new study from MIT has found that in cancers of the colon and other gastrointestinal cancers, it actually kills cells by interfering with RNA synthesis.  The findings could have a significant effect on how doctors treat many cancer patients. Usually, 5-fluorouracil is given in combination with chemotherapy drugs that damage ...

(WASHINGTON – October 7, 2024) - A new study finds that preschool-aged children with sickle cell disease (SCD) who live in food deserts and have limited access to transportation are at greater risk for acute complications and hospitalizations, despite receiving free evidence-based therapy and social support, according to results published today in Blood Advances. “Despite the level of care received by the families and patients within our clinic, we still have a gap in terms of being able to address the barriers ...

Researchers have discovered the most distant Milky-Way-like galaxy yet observed. Dubbed REBELS-25, this disc galaxy seems as orderly as present-day galaxies, but we see it as it was when the Universe was only 700 million years old. This is surprising since, according to our current understanding of galaxy formation, such early galaxies are expected to appear more chaotic. The rotation and structure of REBELS-25 were revealed using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which the European ...

A common theory that guides financial investment strategies may be a handy tool to protect an endangered Puerto Rican frog. A new study uses modern portfolio theory to identify future “investments” in natural resource management that may help managers decide which actions to take to protect coquí llanero populations in Puerto Rico. The 17 species of coquí frogs, and their signature high-pitched chirp, are considered unofficial mascots of Puerto Rico. The entire population of coquí llanero frogs, the smallest and possibly most endangered of the island’s coquís, ...