Feature Channels: All Journal News

• share
• favorite_border

An extremely fast “electron camera” at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has produced the most detailed atomic movie of the decisive point where molecules hit by light can either stay intact or break apart. The results could lead to a better understanding of how molecules respond to light in processes that are crucial for life, like photosynthesis and vision, or that are potentially harmful, such as DNA damage from ultraviolet light.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that inhibiting a receptor on immune cells called macrophages may help relieve pain in some patients, particularly those with chronic neuropathic pain, such as those with conditions like diabetic neuropathy.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at University of California San Diego have found that the cost for the 10 “highest spend” medications in Medicare Part D — the U.S. federal government’s primary prescription drug benefit for older citizens — rose almost one-third between 2011 and 2015, even as the number of persons using these drugs dropped by the same amount.

• share
• favorite_border

Mayo Clinic researchers are using precision genomics to search for undiscovered, inheritable genetic mutations that cause accelerated aging. In a study recently published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, researchers conducted a study assessing 17 patients with short telomere syndromes — rare conditions that result in premature DNA and cellular deterioration. The ability to pinpoint the genetic abnormalities associated with short telomere syndromes is key to finding better ways to screen, diagnose and treat patients.

• share
• favorite_border

An article published today in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology reviews the available research into chemical ultraviolet filters found in U.S. sunscreens.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have identified a physical basis for the spread of corrupted proteins known as prions inside cells. Their research findings are reported in the July 5, 2018, issue of the scientific journal Molecular Cell.

• share
• favorite_border

In an article published today in the journal Stem Cell Reports, Professor of Biological Science Hengli Tang and his postdoctoral researcher Jianshe Lang take a deep dive into the differences between Zika and the Dengue virus. Tang and Lang found Zika has a unique ability to ferry the virus throughout the body when most viruses would be stopped.

• share
• favorite_border

Spine surgeons earn high ratings for their skill and good clinical outcomes on internet review sites – but are more likely to receive negative ratings and comments on factors pertaining to clinic staff, billing, and wait times, reports a landmark study in Spine. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

• share
• favorite_border

The ability to recognize emotion in others’ facial expressions is an important social skill for interpersonal relationships, work interactions, and family life. Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) are linked to a number of deficits in reasoning and emotional functions, including difficulty in identifying emotional facial expressions. This study examined the emotion-recognition abilities of individuals with an AUD and whether the expected deficits were associated with drinking or anxious and depressive symptoms.

• share
• favorite_border

Alcohol-related problems often begin in the late teens to early twenties, then decrease as drinkers grow older. However, recent reports indicate greater-than-expected problematic drinking by older populations. There are limited ways to predict which older individuals may develop alcohol-related problems, including those with earlier-onset alcohol use disorders (AUDs). This analysis evaluated predictors of alcohol outcomes among individuals who earlier reported AUDs while participating in the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA).

• share
• favorite_border

The innate NK-cell response requires a rather carefully choreographed interaction of three cell types.

• share
• favorite_border

NIBIB-funded researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created an ingestible sensor to non-invasively monitor indicators of disease in the stomach and intestines.

• share
• favorite_border

Nearly all major neurodegenerative diseases are defined by the presence of one of four proteins that have gone rogue. As such, investigational drugs aimed at preventing or slowing the disease often hone in on just one of these proteins. However, targeting multiple proteins at once may be the real key, according to a recent Penn Medicine study.

• share
• favorite_border

A first-of-its-kind study has found that “skinny fat” – the combination of low muscle mass and strength in the context of high fat mass – may be an important predictor of cognitive performance in older adults. Results show that sarcopenic obesity or “skinny fat” was associated with the lowest performance on global cognition.

• share
• favorite_border

An international team of astronomers, which includes Duncan Lorimer, West Virginia University professor of physics and astronomy, has tested Einstein’s theory using three stars orbiting each other: a neutron star and two white dwarfs. Their findings prove that Einstein’s theory still passes the test in such extreme conditions.

• share
• favorite_border

A drug used in stem cell therapy to treat certain cancers may also protect against cigarette smoke-induced lung injury. The study, published ahead of print in the American Journal of Physiology—Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology, was chosen as an APSselect article for July.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers from Bangor University in the UK and the University of Antananarivo in Madagascar show that new conservation restrictions in Madagascar bring very significant costs to local people. In their paper published in PeerJ – the Journal of Life & Environmental Sciences, the researchers estimate that 27,000 people have been negatively impacted by the conservation project.

• share
• favorite_border

University of Adelaide research shows that the results of the most widely used test for prostate cancer may be affected by obesity.

• share
• favorite_border

Astronomers have given one of Einstein’s predictions on gravity its most stringent test yet. By precisely tracking the meanderings of three stars in a single system – two white dwarf stars and one ultra-dense neutron star – the researchers determined that even phenomenally compact neutron stars “fall” in the same manner as their less-dense counterparts

• share
• favorite_border

People who have been exposed to paint, varnish and other solvents and who also carry genes that make them more susceptible to developing multiple sclerosis (MS) may be at much greater risk of developing the disease than people who have only the exposure to solvents or the MS genes, according to a study published in the July 3, 2018, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

• share
• favorite_border

A Smidt Heart Institute patient is the first in the country to receive a new device to fix a leaky heart valve. The patient, Sheldon Kardener, MD, received the device July 1 during a 30-minute minimally invasive procedure in Cedars-Sinai’s Cardiac Catheterization Lab as a treatment for mitral valve regurgitation. The procedure was performed by Saibal Kar, MD, widely regarded as one of the foremost experts in mitral valve repair. Kardener was discharged and returned home Monday morning.

• share
• favorite_border

Florida State scientists have devised a new strategy for synthesizing notoriously difficult carbocyclic 5-8-5 fused ring systems, a molecular structure with broad therapeutic potential.

• share
• favorite_border

Older adults living in public senior housing communities experience a large degree of loneliness, finds a new study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.Nevertheless, senior housing communities may be ideal locations for reducing that loneliness, the study finds.“There are many studies on loneliness among community-dwelling older adults; however, there is limited research examining the extent and correlates of loneliness among older adults who reside in senior housing communities,” wrote Harry Chatters Taylor, doctoral student at the Brown School and lead author of “Loneliness in Senior Housing Communities,” published in the Journal of Gerontological Social Work.

• share
• favorite_border

Mount Sinai researchers use data science and genomics to help determine best treatment options for specific types of disease

• share
• favorite_border

As climate change continues to push summer temperatures ever higher, the increased use of air conditioning in buildings could add to the problems of a warming world by further degrading air quality and compounding the toll of air pollution on human health, according to a new study.

• share
• favorite_border

Sex plays a role in hypertension, diabetes, arthritis – and in many neurological and psychiatric disorders. To better understand the molecular underpinnings of this disparity, Tracy Bale of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, along with several colleagues, focused on a molecule that plays a key role in placental health. In a study of mice, they found that the molecule, O-linked N-acetylglucosamine transferase (OGT) works by establishing sex-specific patterns of gene expression.

• share
• favorite_border

A collaboration between researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health, RTI International and the UNC School of Medicine has resulted in the first study to assess and compare United States travelers’ knowledge levels about the Zika virus across three regions

• share
• favorite_border

Past research has shown a link between interstitial fluid flow and an increased invasion rate of glioblastoma cells, and a team of biomedical researchers and electrical engineers recently developed a new method to measure and reconstruct interstitial fluid flow velocities in the brain. This method gives researchers a first look at interstitial fluid flow dynamics in glioma models, and the technique can readily translate to clinical models already using contrast-enhanced MRI. The team describes their method in APL Bioengineering.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) have discovered a new metabolic vulnerability in small cell lung cancer (SCLC) that can be targeted by existing drug therapies.

• share
• favorite_border

Without exploring how white youth are socialized about race and ethnicity current race relations will remain unbalanced

• share
• favorite_border

Mothers want the best for their sons, but what happens to a mother’s hopes and dreams when her son is charged as a juvenile offender? A new study from Michigan State University published in the Journal of Research on Adolescence reveals that mothers don’t lose hope for their sons’ futures and potential – even if they are arrested as a minor.

• share
• favorite_border

Using oscillating liquid streams, breakup and drop formation can be improved compared to common straight jets, but the many dynamic interactions make it difficult for scientists to understand the mechanisms behind this breakup. Now, researchers have simulated the breakup of an oscillating stream using numerical modelings. Their findings, published in Physics of Fluids, give researchers a better understanding of how an oscillating jet achieves these results. The report also offers a way to predict the device’s behavior numerically, which could save time and money in industry.

• share
• favorite_border

An international team is running tests on the largest and most sophisticated stellerator, the Wendelstein 7-X fusion experiment. This complex machine is housed at the Max-Planck-Institute of Plasma Physics, and researchers are analyzing data from the first experiment campaign that took place in 2016, hoping to understand the science of fusion reactors. In a new report in Physics of Plasma, the scientists recount the first detailed characterization of plasma turbulence at the outer edge of the stellerator.

• share
• favorite_border

Using a new computational strategy, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have identified 29 genetic changes that can contribute to rhabdomyosarcoma, an aggressive childhood cancer.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study finds surgeon attitudes about genetic testing have a big impact on whether women receive testing after a breast cancer diagnosis.

• share
• favorite_border

A new microfluidics innovation shows hope to improve artificial placentas so preterm newborns can properly develop lungs following birth. An international team demonstrated the new technique to construct microchannels with a more efficient gas exchange between infant blood and air. The improved design uses both sides of the membrane for gas exchange; the group used this design to develop a prototype that oxygenates blood through a thin membrane. They report their findings in Biomicrofluidics.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have found that cancer stem cells exist in more than one state and can change form, sliding back and forth between a dormant state and a rapidly growing state. The cell's metabolism controls this change, suggesting a possible way in to attack the stem cells.

• share
• favorite_border

Harmful gender, religious and cultural norms contribute to risky pregnancies in older women and women who already have five or more children, endangering the lives of these women and their babies, suggests new research from the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs. CCP is based at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

• share
• favorite_border

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, or NAFLD, which affects roughly 100 million Americans, costs the United States healthcare system $32 billion annually, according to a first-of-its-kind study by Intermountain Healthcare researchers on the economic impact of the disease.

• share
• favorite_border

University of Adelaide-led research has moved the world one step closer to reliable, high-performance quantum computing.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers from the University of Michigan found that serum levels of two biomarkers of traumatic brain injury, tau and ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase L1, are elevated following high-acceleration head impacts, even when there is no clinical diagnosis of concussion.

• share
• favorite_border

In new research, Cornell University psychologists find that study participants, on average, were more than twice as likely to call male professionals – even fictional ones – by their last name only, compared to equivalent female professionals. This example of gender bias, say researchers, may be contributing to gender inequality.

• share
• favorite_border

Brain activity is driven by encounters with external stimuli and situations, simultaneously occurring with internal mental processes. A team of researchers from Stanford University, with funding from the NIH BRAIN Initiative, has discovered how the brain dynamically handles cognitive tasks while it also is engaged in internal mental processes.

• share
• favorite_border

Experiments at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have confirmed the predictive power of a new computational approach to materials synthesis. Researchers say that this approach, developed at the DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, could streamline the creation of novel materials for solar cells, batteries and other sustainable technologies.

• share
• favorite_border

Therapist- and computer-led alcohol interventions held in the emergency department also can reduce teenage dating violence perpetration and depression symptoms, a new study finds.

• share
• favorite_border

Areas of the Arctic seas are becoming ice-free in late summer and early fall. A new study considers impacts on all the marine mammals that use this region and finds narwhals will be the most vulnerable.

• share
• favorite_border

Lawns in the Salt Lake Valley up to 100 years old are not yet saturated in the nutrient nitrogen, which is added by fertilizer, according to a new study from University of Utah researchers. The result is surprising, since previous studies in the Eastern U.S. suggested that fertilized soil would become saturated with nitrogen within a few decades.

• share
• favorite_border

Marine research could soon be possible without the risk of polluting either the air or the ocean. It’s thanks to a new ship design and feasibility study led by Sandia National Laboratories. Despite many advantages, the feasibility of a hydrogen-powered research vessel has never been studied or proven. Until now.

• share
• favorite_border

In this study, BIDMC researchers developed a means of tracking the activity of the far-reaching ends of retinal neurons (called boutons) as they deliver visual information to the thalamus, a brain region involved in image processing.

• share
• favorite_border

A research team with funding from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering has developed an advanced computing technique for rapidly and cost effectively improving the quality of biomedical imaging. The technology, called AUTOMAP finds the best computational strategies to produce clear, accurate images for various types of medical scans.