The project is focused on identifying the role of hypoxia or lack of oxygen to the cells and tissues in the body, and oxygen on the formation of the eye lens.
Animal-assisted therapy has many benefits in health care settings. Yet, its biological and psychosocial effects in the military are limited, especially for injured, airlifted patients. Researchers teamed up with a not-for-profit animal organization that trains therapy dogs to see if an animal-assisted intervention is feasible and effective at reducing stress in this setting. Results showed that levels of the stress biomarkers cortisol, alpha-amylase, and immunoglobulin A, significantly decreased following a 20-minute intervention with these dogs, regardless of post-traumatic stress symptom severity.
What would you get if you combined Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa with Boston Dynamic’s quadraped robots? You’d get “Astro,” the four-legged seeing and hearing intelligent robodog. Using deep learning and artificial intelligence (AI), scientists are bringing to life one of about a handful of these quadraped robots in the world. Astro is unique because he is the only one of these robots with a head, 3D printed to resemble a Doberman pinscher, that contains a (computerized) brain.
The U.S. is the largest importer of seafood products in the world – importing 5.9 billion pounds of seafood in 2017 alone, resulting in about $14 billion of the U.S. trade deficit. More than 50 percent of seafood consumed comes from aquaculture. Yet, less than 1 percent is produced in the U.S. This year, FAU’s Harbor Branch has received $2.4 million from the USDA to help initiate a project that will boost the nation’s aquaculture industry.
One of the largest longitudinal studies to date examined evening consumption of alcohol, caffeine and nicotine among an African-American cohort and objectively measured sleep outcomes in their natural environments instead of laboratory or observatory settings. The study involved 785 participants and totaled 5,164 days of concurrent actigraphy and daily sleep diaries that recorded how much alcohol, caffeine or nicotine they consumed within four hours of bedtime. Results may be good news for coffee lovers, bad news for smokers.
A study is the first to examine the relationship between parental mental illness like anxiety and depression in childhood and the risk of suicide and self-harm in adults who suffer from tinnitus, noise or ringing in the ears, and hyperacusis, extreme sensitivity to noise. Results show that among patients seeking help for these debilitating hearing disorders, poor mental health in their parents was associated with suicide and self-harm risk across the life span in addition to their own current depression level.
Engaging a wider range of resources to connect patients with organizations within their community can help transform healthcare and improve overall well-being, according to new research. The authors have introduced “patient ecosystem management,” an organizational process that focuses on treating patients differently in terms of assessing, managing and expanding resources to achieve patient health and well-being goals in hospitals, at home and at work.
Although sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) has been on the decline, a new study shows that infant deaths from accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed have more than tripled between 1999 and 2016 in the U.S. with increases in racial inequalities. Results reveal similar risk factor profiles for non-Hispanic black infants and non-Hispanic white infants, though in every instance, non-Hispanic black rates were higher than those for non-Hispanic whites. All increases over time were statistically significant.
The good news is that adolescent sexting is not at epidemic levels as reported in some media headlines. The bad news is that it also has not decreased despite preventive efforts by educators and others, according to a much-needed update to what is currently known about the nature and extent of sexting among youth today.
Coral bleaching is not just due to a warming planet, but also a planet that is simultaneously being enriched with reactive nitrogen from sources like improperly treated sewage, and fertilizers. Nitrogen loading from the Florida Keys and greater Everglades ecosystem caused by humans is the primary driver of coral reef degradation in Looe Key. These coral reefs were dying off long before they were impacted by rising water temperatures. Elevated nitrogen levels cause phosphorus starvation in corals, reducing their temperature threshold for bleaching.
Scientists have discovered a novel mechanism and role in the brain for hyaluronic acid -- a clear, gooey substance popularized by cosmetic and skin care products. Findings from this study have important implications for better treatments for stroke, neurodegenerative diseases, as well as head injuries.
New evidence suggests that adolescent bullying and victimization may have origins in the home. Many bullies have parents who are hostile, punitive and rejecting. A unique longitudinal study provides a more complete understanding of how parents’ belittling and critical interactions with adolescents thwart their ability to maintain positive relationships with peers. Derisive parenting precipitates a cycle of negative affect and anger between parents and adolescents, which ultimately leads to greater adolescent bullying and victimization.
Researchers examined the impact of preterm birth on language outcomes in preschoolers born preterm and full-term, using both standardized assessment and language sample analysis. They also explored semantic skills and grammatical ability, and nonlinguistic developmental skills of nonverbal intelligence, attention, and hyperactivity. Results show that language difficulties at the discourse level may still exist even when children who are born preterm appear to be developing typically when they are evaluated by standardized assessments of global language ability, cognition, and attention.
Nurses who have served in the military themselves are uniquely positioned to care for other veterans. With a grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, FAU’s Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing will form a primary care workforce of practicing registered nurses who understand the unique needs of military veterans, and are practice ready and willing to serve rural and underserved communities.
Researchers have introduce supervised machine learning as a modern approach and new value-added complementary tool in cognitive brain health assessment and related patient care and management.
HIV testing is expensive ($50 to $200 per test), technically complex, and requires trained technicians. Researchers are developing a rapid, disposable, automated, and low-cost HIV viral load assay to increase timely access to HIV care and to improve treatment outcomes. The technology is highly sensitive, inexpensive (less than $1), and quick (results in 45 minutes or less). Moreover, the technology is highly stable, and doesn’t require refrigeration or a regular electric supply to enable HIV viral load at point-of-care settings.
Researchers have developed a rapid and reliable new method to continuously monitor sickle cell disease using a microfluidics-based electrical impedance sensor. This novel technology can characterize the dynamic cell sickling and unsickling processes in sickle blood without the use of microscopic imaging or biochemical markers. The technology is being developed with the hope of providing patients with a portable, standalone sensor to conveniently self-monitor the hematological parameters of their disease and evaluate their risk of vaso-occlusion.
Snow leopards are perfectly adapted to cold and dry habitats like the Himalayas in Central Asia. However, for one local snow leopard, making him feel at home in South Florida required replicating his natural environment to keep him “chill.” An engineering team found an innovative way to keep Dante, a rescue snow leopard at McCarthy’s Wildlife Sanctuary in West Palm Beach, comfortable as temperatures rise during the dog days of summer as well as year-round.
Gregg B. Fields, Ph.D., has been named executive director of FAU’s Institute for Human Health and Disease Intervention (I-HEALTH), created to advance health through pioneering research and practical applications.
The next generation of nurses need the right tools to ensure that they are poised to deliver age-appropriate care and address the specialized needs of an older population. Researchers have developed and tested an innovative new curricular approach to educate undergraduate nursing students in geriatric care.
With the help of the common fruit fly (D. melanogaster), which ages quickly because it only lives about 60 days, FAU neuroscientists provide insights into healthy aging by investigating the effects of a foraging gene on age and stress tolerance.
A commentary by researchers addresses the specter of clinical, ethical, public health and legal concerns that have been raised because of the recent measles outbreaks in New York. So far, the outbreaks seem to have emanated from ultra-Orthodox Jewish residents whose affected children were never vaccinated. Their commentary is motivated in part by the availability of important and relevant data from a small case series of interviews conducted with ultra-Orthodox Jewish mothers in Williamsburg and Rockland counties.
Florida Atlantic University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science received a $750,000 gift from the GANGALS nonprofit Foundation, Inc. (GnF) to name the Lata and Shiva Gangal Global Innovation Hall in the Engineering East building.
Some patients with atrial fibrillation or A-Fib need an ablation, which requires a catheter and an advanced 3D map of the heart. Researchers have developed the first algorithm that guides catheter movements and accurately detects A-Fib targets without 3D maps of the heart. In human simulations, this technique stops the catheter at the right target and identifies the source type with a 95.25 percent success rate and a 99 percent detection rate of scar tissue, regardless of scar size.
More than 50 percent of cancer drugs currently used have originated from natural products. Researchers have received $801,000 from the Florida Department of Health for a project to investigate the use of marine natural compounds as potential treatments of triple negative breast cancers. This form of breast cancer, which represents about 12 percent of breast cancers diagnosed in the U.S., can be very aggressive and easily spread to other organs, particularly the brain and the lungs.
Researchers conducted a study to determine if there are differences in speech intelligibility (a listener’s ability to recover a speaker’s message) in healthy voices compared to those who have voice disorders like hoarseness. They also wanted to know if using listener strategies such as paying close attention to the words or using other words to try to figure out the message would increase speech intelligibility. To date, no studies have investigated if listener strategies improve intelligibility scores in speakers with voice disorders.
Safiya George, Ph.D., has been appointed as the new dean of the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing. She is only the third dean to be appointed in the college’s 40-year history.
“Is amyloid precursor protein the mastermind behind Alzheimer’s or is it just an accomplice?” Researchers devised a multi-functional reporter for amyloid precursor protein and tracked its localization and mobility, noticing a strange association between the protein and cholesterol that resides in the cell membrane of synapses. With cholesterol’s broad involvement in almost all aspects of neurons’ life, they propose a new theory on the amyloid precursor protein connection in AD, especially in the surface of those tiny synapses, which triggers neurodegeneration.
Adjusting the frequency and dosage of Parkinson’s patients’ medication is complex. In their “ON” state they respond positively to medication and in their “OFF” state symptoms return. Addressing these fluctuations requires a clinical exam, history-taking or a patient’s self-report, which are not always practical or reliable. A new technology that combines an algorithm with a senor-based system using wearable motion sensors, automatically, continuously and reliably detects a patient’s medication ON and OFF states without patient or physician engagement.
Contracted private agencies provide approximately 33 percent of foster care placement services and 59 percent of family preservation services. State child welfare agencies are increasingly turning to them for a range of services. While turnover and burnout among child welfare case managers is well-understood, little is known about the challenges private agency therapists experience working in child welfare systems.
Dangers of policing have dramatically declined since 1970 with a 75 percent drop in police officer line-of-duty deaths. In the context of nearly 50-year monthly trends, the study also shows a statistically significant decline in felonious killings of police following the Ferguson effect and Michael Brown’s death in 2014, which directly contradicts the war on cops’ theory.
Nursing researchers have developed a novel tool called the “Basic Knowledge of Alzheimer’s Disease,” to measure and assess Alzheimer’s knowledge in rural and underserved communities, in a way that matches their socioeconomic, educational and cultural needs. They put the survey to a test at senior centers in the Florida Glades and Appalachian Virginia, West Virginia, Alabama and North Carolina.
A researcher from FAU and a neurosurgeon from BRRH have joined forces to combine a breakthrough interventional procedure for stroke with a novel drug compound that has neuroprotective properties.
Alex Keene, Ph.D., a leading neuroscientist, has been named a Kavli Fellow by The National Academy of Sciences. He is only the second faculty member at FAU to receive this recognition.
From 1999 to 2017, 38,942 U.S. children ages 5 to 18 years old were killed by firearms, averaging more than 2,000 deaths a year. In 2017 alone, 2,462 school-age children were killed by firearms compared to 144 police officers and 1,000 active military worldwide who died in the line of duty. The study finds significant increases that began with an epidemic in 2009, followed by another one in 2014. Each of these epidemics has continued through 2017.
New research addresses limitations of prior autism spectrum disorder (ASD) studies on facial emotion recognition by using five distinct facial emotions in unfamiliar and familiar (mom) faces to test the influence of familiarity in children with and without ASD. Findings show no differences in the two groups of children and reveal that children with ASD are perceptive to their mother’s emotions, which may indicate greater potential to learn and socialize with people they know rather than with strangers.
Deciding when an athlete can return to the game after a head injury makes managing the treatment of sports-related concussions very complicated. A team of scientists are teaching machines how to predict recovery time from sports-related concussions based on symptoms like headache, dizziness and fatigue. Results from their study can be used as the foundation for a decision support system that would help clinicians to develop individualized treatment for injured athletes.
FAU’s new BSN degree is designed to prepare working professionals with a bachelor’s degree or higher in another discipline, as professional nurses who are eligible to take the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses to secure licensure as a registered nurse.
A grant from The Harry T. Mangurian, Jr. Foundation will expand FAU’s Dementia Prevention Initiative, a large longitudinal study of brain aging and dementia. Using genetics, biology and the molecular bases of disease, the program incorporates personalized evaluation and prevention plans to reduce risk. Researchers are examining novel biomarkers and peripheral predictors of disease like physical performance, retinal imaging, and gait analyses, and are working with companies to develop novel blood tests to improve diagnosis and prediction.
Hunter Hines has turned to Instagram to engage audiences in scientific exchange across the world and has come up with the right formula for success. He is encouraging other scientists to follow suit. His Instagram account @microbialecology currently has 55,000 followers and at the end of 2018, his account received more than 1.4 million views in a single week. The authors share their experience and knowledge about using social media in microbiology outreach at a global scale.
Annual blacktip shark migration season is in full force along South Florida’s Atlantic coast as thousands of them head south for warmer weather. FAU shark researcher has been tracking the migration patterns of these top predators by air and by sea. Now, the latest addition to his arsenal of tools is providing personal and intimate details about them.
The most extensive radio-tracking effort of bottlenose dolphins in the Indian River Lagoon using radio-telemetry reveals new and surprising information about how they use their habitats, how they spend their time, and how they interact with their own species. Researchers conducted radio-tracking by boat, with assistance from a Cessna 172 aircraft, and visually located and followed nine dolphins several times per week. Over the course of 122 hours of observation, they compiled a total of 1,390 scan samples.
The stealthy and exceptionally large Goliath grouper is the focus of a novel smart-sensing system that will remotely alert authorities of incoming manned and unmanned underwater vehicles. The non-invasive undersea surveillance and monitoring technologies developed at FAU’s Harbor Branch will be subtly integrated into goliath grouper habitats. An acoustic response will alert authorities to the presence of a potential threat, intruder or any suspicious object that is “out of place” within this species’ usual visual and acoustic landscape.
The FAU project is part of a $1.2 million collaborative initiative with researchers from George Mason University and the University of South Florida. FAU researchers will focus on efficient hardware and software implementations as well as side-channel investigations of quantum-safe candidates.
Smartphones aren’t just for “selfies” anymore. A novel cell phone imaging algorithm developed at FAU can now analyze assays typically evaluated via spectroscopy, a powerful device used in scientific research. Researchers analyzed more than 10,000 images and found that their method consistently outperformed existing algorithms under a wide range of operating field conditions. This technique reduces the need for bulky equipment and increases the precision of quantitative results.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force concluded that aspirin reduces the risk of colorectal cancer by 40 percent as well as recurrence of advanced polyps, which are a major risk factor. To explore whether high risk patients are adhering to USPSTF guidelines, FAU researchers analyzed data from structured interviews with 84 patients and found that less than half (42.9 percent) reported taking aspirin. These findings pose major challenges that require multifactorial approaches by physicians and patients.
While there is much research on the LGBT community’s relationship with police, there is scant research on how they perceive police legitimacy and what predicts their willingness to obey, cooperate, and recognize police authority. A new study examines the relationship between fairness and perceived respect of the police-citizen encounter and willingness to recognize police authority among a historically marginalized population.
A study finds a surprising response to cocaine in a novel strain of mutant mice – they failed to show hyperactivity seen in normal mice when given cocaine and didn’t run around. In other tests, they still found cocaine appealing, but displayed an inability to shake the memory of cocaine’s actions when the drug was no longer administered. The key change that blocks cocaine’s stimulant effects in these mice is serotonin, not dopamine, which is responsible for producing a high.
FAU has received a $652,820 grant to establish the first NSF-funded Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning Training and Research Laboratory in Florida.
A study is the first to examine the differences in the risk of death associated with osteoarthritis in people with certain characteristics such as age, gender, ethnicity, body mass index, physical activity and smoking.
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