A new study led by investigators at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has revealed that common breast cancer treatments, including chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery, may accelerate the biological aging process in breast cancer survivors.  The findings, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, show that markers of cellular aging—such as DNA damage response, cellular senescence, and inflammatory pathways—significantly increased in all breast cancer survivors, regardless of the type of treatment received. This suggests that the impact of breast cancer treatments ...

Damage to the brainstem – the brain’s ‘control centre’ – is behind long-lasting physical and psychiatric effects of severe Covid-19 infection, a study suggests. Using ultra-high-resolution scanners that can see the living brain in fine detail, researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford were able to observe the damaging effects Covid-19 can have on the brain. The study team scanned the brains of 30 people who had been admitted to hospital with severe Covid-19 early in the pandemic, ...

A new paper from the University of California San Diego details how China faces numerous political, economic and technological obstacles as it tries to transition away from coal—the country’s primary energy source—while balancing the need to combat climate change with the need for energy security.  Despite its commitment to "phase down" coal, China recently has been permitting and constructing coal plants at rates not seen in a decade. “There is an increased focus on energy security in China—in 2021, the country experienced its worst power outages in decades, affecting ...

The Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) is a PhD-granting research institute near Vienna. It was founded in 2009, with the bold ambition of providing the best possible environment to conduct innovative frontier research. It is dedicated to transcending traditional boundaries of disciplines, cutting-edge infrastructure, training the next generation of scientific leaders, and increasing the impact of science through science engagement as well as technology transfer. It is home to 82 research groups across all fields, ...

Could the butterfly effect - in which a small change in one state of a system can result in large differences in a later state - also apply to the earth’s oceans, as well as its skies? Some species of zooplankton are on the order of one millimeter, but don’t let their size fool you. It’s possible these small creatures can create quite a wave.    While it’s long been understood that large marine animals, like fish or whales, can stir up the ocean’s water columns, the impact ...

At a time when data are doubling every two years, the U.S. is projected to create over 40 billion gigabytes of data by 2025. To prepare for the influx, Kennesaw State University associate professor Yong Shi, an expert in quantum machine learning (QML), aims to unlock insights from the data surge and educate future QML researchers. Shi, along with colleagues Dan Lo, professor of computer science, and Luisa Nino, assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering, recently secured a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to develop open-source, hands-on QML training materials ...

OXFORD, Miss. – America’s obsession with grades is failing students and jeopardizing the future of education, a University of Mississippi professor argues in his new book.   Josh Eyler, director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, recently released “Failing Our Future: How Grades Harm Students, and What We Can Do About It” (Johns Hopkins University Press), in which he argues that the traditional system of grading is harmful to students.   “This book looks at the issues with grades in learning, the kinds of Issues grades ...

AMHERST, Mass. – The National Institutes of Health recently awarded $2.2 million to Alissa Rothchild, assistant professor in the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and an expert in tuberculosis (TB) immunology, to study the very first cells that respond to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the bacteria causing TB. How those initial cells, known as alveolar macrophages, or AMs, respond to the bacteria is not entirely known, though Rothchild and her lab have shown in a previous study that AMs don’t respond to Mtb infection the way other macrophages do. Instead of mounting a strong inflammatory response, AMs turn on a cell-protective ...

Imagine a world where your own immune cells are transformed into cancer-fighting superheroes. This is the promise of CAR-T cell therapy, a groundbreaking treatment that’s already saving lives. In this therapy, patients’ own immune cells are collected, genetically engineered so that they specifically target cancer cells, then returned to the body. The result is a potent new option for battling blood cancers. However, as with any superhero journey, the process of harnessing this incredible power comes with ...

Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday 7 October 2024   @Annalsofim        Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also on behalf of the organization they represent.        ----------------------------        1. First ...

PHILADELPHIA (October 7, 2024) – A new Penn Nursing Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research (CHOPR) study – published in INQUIRY – has found a strong association between the quality of the nurse work environment and COVID-19 mortality rates among socially vulnerable Medicare beneficiaries. The study examined data from 238 acute care hospitals across New York and Illinois. The researchers found that patients from socially vulnerable communities, including those facing higher levels of poverty, housing insecurity, and limited transportation, were more likely to die from COVID-19 if they were ...

Key Takeaways: A new systematic review led by the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute examined a wide body of evidence documenting pediatric mental health outcomes in the period following FDA Black-Box Warnings that antidepressants may be associated with suicidal thoughts and behaviors among youth. The data indicate that these warnings, meant to increase monitoring of suicidal thoughts and behaviors, resulted in reduced essential medication use and mental health treatment of pediatric depression and increased suicide attempts and deaths. The findings support a re-evaluation of the Black-Box ...

Embargoed for release: Monday, October 7, 4:00 PM ET Key points: Among more than 15,000 SNAP participants across 35 states, food insufficiency increased by 8.4% after pandemic-era Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) emergency allotments expired. Emergency allotments provided participants up to $250 additional support per month. Emergency allotment expiration also led to a 2.1% increase in use of food pantries and a 2% increase in difficulty paying expenses, as well as greater anxiety symptoms among Black SNAP participants. According to the researchers, the findings ...

Most U.S. hospital emergency departments — lacking staffing, training and equipment — are not fully prepared to care for children. Maximizing their readiness to handle pediatric emergencies would be a cost-effective way to save children’s lives, according to a new Stanford Medicine-led study. The study, which will publish Oct. 7 in Health Affairs, is based on data from hundreds of hospitals in 11 states. About 80% of emergency departments are not highly prepared to treat children, they found. The research team studied whether it would be cost-effective to upgrade these less-prepared emergency departments to make them more ready to treat babies, ...

Lower-income adults with Medicare Advantage plans are more likely to have difficulty paying for dental, vision, and hearing services than higher-income beneficiaries—despite enrolling in plans that cover these benefits, according to a new study published in Health Affairs. Medicare Advantage plans offer a private insurance alternative to traditional Medicare coverage for health insurance. The most common supplemental benefits are dental, vision, and hearing, with more than 90 percent of Medicare Advantage plans providing coverage for one or more. These supplemental benefits, which are ...

MADISON — For years, cancer researchers have noticed that more men than women get a lethal form of brain cancer called glioblastoma. They’ve also found that these tumors are often more aggressive in men. But pinpointing the characteristics that might help doctors forecast which tumors are likely to grow more quickly has proven elusive. University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers are turning to artificial intelligence to reveal those risk factors and how they differ between the sexes. Radiology and biomedical engineering professor Pallavi Tiwari and her colleagues have published ...

George Mason Researchers Conducting AI Exploration For Snow Water Equivalent Forecasting In Western U.S. With Physics-Informed Neural Network & GeoWeaver Ziheng Sun, Research Assistant Professor, Center for Spatial Information Science and Systems (CSISS), Geography and Geoinformation Science, College of Science; Mingrui Liu, Assistant Professor, Computer Science, College of Engineering and Computing (CEC); and Keren Zhou, Assistant Professor, Computer Science, CEC, are studying the dynamics of snow water equivalent (SWE).  SWE measures the amount of water available in snow.  The researchers will use ...

Sarah Huskisson, PhD candidate, Environmental Science and Policy, College of Science, is characterizing the gastrointestinal (GI) health of red pandas using short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) concentrations. Huskisson is advised by Elizabeth Freeman, Associate Professor, School of Integrative Studies. Huskisson is co-Principal Investigator on the project. Huskisson and Freeman aim to provide the first characterization of SCFA concentrations for red pandas and hope that differences in concentrations can be pinpointed between healthy and mucoid/loose stools.  They have two hypotheses.  First, they hypothesize that ...

Scientists have long theorized about a network of pathways in the brain that are believed to clear metabolic proteins that would otherwise build up and potentially lead to Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. But they had never definitively revealed this network in people — until now. A new study involving five patients undergoing brain surgery at Oregon Health & Science University provides imaging of this network of perivascular spaces — fluid-filled structures along arteries and veins — within the brain for the first time. “Nobody has shown it before now,” said senior author Juan Piantino, ...

EXPERT AVAILABLE  Embargoed until Tuesday 8 October at 06:00 AEDT New research from the University of Sydney shows that international conservation efforts account for approximately 10 percent of fish stocks on coral reefs.   The global study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was led by Professor Joshua Cinner from the School of Geosciences and lead analyst Dr Iain Caldwell from the Wildlife Conservation Society. The international research team also included scientists from US, UK, Kenya, France and Germany among others.    Looking at fish survey data across nearly 2,600 tropical ...

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, ...