Feature Channels: All Journal News

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The nation’s overall cardiovascular health worsened from 1988 to 2014, with disparities among racial and ethnic groups dropping slightly. But the reduction in disparities was due to worsening health among whites — not improvements among African-Americans and Mexican-Americans, a new UCLA-led study suggests. “The reason for the reduction in disparities was unexpected,” said lead author Dr.

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Four faculty members at New Mexico State University have published findings of their study involving effective measures to remedy stress among adolescents.

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Understanding strontium titanate’s odd behavior will aid efforts to develop materials that conduct electricity with 100 percent efficiency at higher temperatures.

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A new study from the University of Iowa finds firms headquartered in more religiously observant counties have higher credit ratings and lower debt costs, evidence that suggests lenders and bondholders consider the company’s culture when deciding whether to give them money.

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Chemical genomic-guided engineering of gamma-valerolactone-tolerant yeast.

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Researchers have discovered a “missing mutation” in severe infant epilepsy—long-suspected genetic changes that might trigger overactive, brain-damaging electrical signaling leading to seizures. They also found early indications that specific anti-seizure medications might prevent disabling brain injury.

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In a striking new finding, researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute found that typically-developing children gain more neurons in a region of the brain that governs social and emotional behavior, the amygdala, as they become adults. This phenomenon does not happen in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Instead, children with ASD have too many neurons early on and then appear to lose those neurons as they become adults. The findings were published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

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Understanding of tuberculosis is associated with higher, not lower, stigmatization of TB patients in Brazil, according to a new “Insights” report from Vanderbilt’s Latin American Public Opinion Project.

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Weather patterns, brain activity and heartbeats each generate lines of complex data. To analyze this data, researchers must first divide up this continuous data into discrete pieces -- a task difficult to perform simply and accurately. Researchers have devised a method to transform data from complex systems, reducing the amount of important information lost, while still using less computing power than existing methods. They describe this new method in the current issue of Chaos.

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In this week’s issue of Journal of Applied Physics, investigators report the discovery of a new material that may be able to directly detect dark matter. The material, known as a scintillator, should be sensitive to dark matter that is lighter than a proton. This will allow the search for dark matter to enter a largely unexplored mass range, below that of the proton.

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A new particle detector design proposed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Berkeley Lab could greatly broaden the search for dark matter – which makes up 85 percent of the total mass of the universe yet we don’t know what it’s made of – into an unexplored realm.

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Limiting first-year medical residents to 16-hour work shifts, compared to “flexing” them to allow for some longer shifts, generally makes residents more satisfied with their training and work-life balance, but their training directors more dissatisfied with curtailed educational opportunities. That’s one conclusion of a new study published online March 20 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Limiting first-year medical residents to 16-hour work shifts, compared to “flexing” them to allow for some longer shifts, generally makes residents more satisfied with their training and work-life balance, but their training directors more dissatisfied with curtailed educational opportunities. That’s one conclusion of a new study published online March 20 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Increasing the availability of effective pain management in low- to middle-income countries will be an essential part of ongoing efforts to expand global access to safe surgery and anesthesia, according to a special article in the April issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia.

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Researchers at Case Western Reserve University have cracked the evolutionary mystery of why chimpanzees and gorillas walk on their knuckles: The short explanation is that these African apes climb trees and they are mobile on the ground.

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On any given day, 20 percent of Americans account for nearly half of U.S. diet-related greenhouse gas emissions, and high levels of beef consumption are largely responsible, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Michigan and Tulane University.

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A new report finds that extremely obese people who have a band surgically strapped around their stomachs to restrict food intake not only lose weight but also suffer less from arthritic knee pain.

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From floral perfume to fruity body wash and shampoos, scents heavily influence consumer purchases. But for most, the smell doesn’t last long after showering before it fades away. Scientists have now developed a way to get those fragrances to stick to the skin longer instead of washing down the drain immediately after being applied.

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Technion researchers have discovered a mechanism which may serve the foundation for the resistance of FIV, the virus that causes “Feline AIDS.” Because of the parallels between FIV and HIV-1, the researchers say the discovery could also assist in the ongoing fight against AIDS.

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Certain species of trees retain stored water, limit root growth to survive three months without water.

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Scientists have gained new insights into a fundamental mystery about hybrid perovskites, low-cost materials that could enhance or even replace conventional solar cells made of silicon.

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Minoxidil, a popular drug used on the scalp to treat hair loss, might improve blood flow to the brain, lower blood pressure and increase elasticity in the blood vessels if taken in an oral form, according to a new study in mice.

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New research from a UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute-affiliated team from the Jack Baskin School of Engineering just published in the journal Nature Biotechnology attempts to close huge gaps in our genomic reference map. The research uses nanopore long-read sequencing to generate the first complete and accurate linear map of a human Y chromosome centromere. This milestone in human genetics and genomics signals that scientists are finally entering a technological phase when completing the human genome will be a reality.

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Saint Louis University researchers have uncovered new answers about why cells rapidly age in children with a rare and fatal disease.

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Research by Berkeley Haas Prof. Ross Levine, the Willis H. Booth Chair in Banking and Finance, is the first to show that when lending conditions ease, businesses invest more in projects to cut pollution.

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Three tumor samples collected over time from a single patient show how cancer evolves in response to treatment.

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Jonathon Schuldt, assistant professor of communication at Cornell University, says it is possible to make faraway climate impacts feel closer. But that doesn’t automatically inspire the American public to express greater support for policies that address it. The paper appeared in the Journal of Environmental Psychology.

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Every year, approximately 12 million adults in the U.S. are diagnosed with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, and 120,000 die from it. For people with COPD, Haemophilus influenzae, a bacterium, can be particularly dangerous. Now, researchers have unraveled how the bacterium adapts quickly, which may open new avenues for therapy for COPD and other diseases such as ear infections or pneumonia.

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Our faces broadcast our feelings in living color—even when we don’t move a muscle. That’s the conclusion of a groundbreaking study into human expressions of emotion, which found that people are able to correctly identify other people’s feelings up to 75 percent of the time—based solely on subtle shifts in blood flow color around the nose, eyebrows, cheeks or chin.

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A team of physicists has developed a method to generate and self-organize liquids into well-defined patterns, a breakthrough that offers potential new pathways for the development of more sophisticated pharmaceuticals and other consumer products.

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Researchers have identified a therapeutic target to prevent or delay heart failure from pressure overload of the heart, and a potential biomarker for the same. They say their animal studies carry clinical and translational potential.

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A decade ago, the late Seattle Children’s surgeon, Dr. Richard Grady, began traveling to India to provide urgent surgical care to children with a complex disorder called bladder exstrophy. An article in JAMA Surgery documents Grady's work through an international collaborative aimed at alleviating the global burden of this treatable disease.

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Reproductive hormones that develop during puberty are not responsible for changes in social behavior that occur during adolescence, according to the results of a newly published study by a University at Buffalo researcher. “Changes in social behavior during adolescence appear to be independent of pubertal hormones. They are not triggered by puberty, so we can’t blame the hormones,” says Matthew Paul, an assistant professor in UB’s Department of Psychology.

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Tissue-engineering technique based on a novel cylindrical scaffolding design seeded with collagen-secreting cells yields grafts for articular cartilage repair with superior mechanical strength and durability.

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Children with mild to moderate asthma do not benefit from a common practice of increasing their inhaled steroids at the first signs of an asthma exacerbation, according to clinical trial results published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers found short-term increases in inhaled steroids did not prevent attacks in children aged 5 to 11, and may even slow a child’s growth.

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A new study shows that pregnant women and new moms aware of the 2017 guidelines on early introduction of peanuts to prevent allergy are still hesitant to put them in place. And not everyone has heard about them.

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A first of its kind study shows typical interruptions experienced by on-call radiologists do not reduce diagnostic accuracy but do change what they look at and increase the amount of time spent on a case. The implication of the finding is that as radiologists contend with an increasing number of workplace interruptions, they must either process fewer cases or work longer hours — both of which have adverse effects in terms of patient outcomes, said Trafton Drew, the study's lead author. They also may spend more time looking at dictation screens than reviewing medical images.

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Japanese researchers have optimized the design of laboratory-grown, synthetic diamonds. This brings the new technology one step closer to enhancing biosensing applications, such as magnetic brain imaging. The advantages of this layered, sandwichlike, diamond structure are described in a recent issue of Applied Physics Letters.

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A research team at the University of Delaware has developed technology to program strands of DNA into switches that turn proteins on and off. This technology could lead to the development of new cancer therapies and other drugs.

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In Nature Biotechnology, an international team including JGI scientists presents a reference catalog of rumen microbial genomes and isolates, one of the largest targeted cultivation and sequencing projects to date.

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Fish, mice and likely all modern-day vertebrates share genetic elements first used to develop the unpaired dorsal fin in ancient fish. They later copied these elements to produce paired appendages, like pelvic and pectoral fins, arms and legs.

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Using neutrons at ORNL, researchers identified a multiferroic material that exhibits a rare combination of magnetic and electrical properties. Studying these dual characteristics could lead to significant advances in information storage and power performance in new devices.

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Scientists are bringing precision medicine to rheumatoid arthritis for the first time by using genetic profiling of joint tissue to see which drugs will work for which patients, reports a new Northwestern Medicine multi-site study.In the near future, patients won’t have to waste time and be disappointed with months of ineffective therapy, scientists said.

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If Americans fulfilled their java urges the same way they carefully shopped for groceries, they would visit five to seven various chain coffee shops regularly — for a blend of different categories. In fact, it turns out that grocery categories such as dessert toppings, motor oil, candles and refrigerated ethnic foods were some of the leading products that lure customers to separate stores.

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Increased letter spacing helps individuals read faster, but not due to visual processing, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University at New York.

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n a new study, researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne and Brookhaven National Laboratories observed the formation of two kinds of defects in individual nanowires, which are smaller in diameter than a human hair.

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Clever, fundamental engineering could go a long way toward preventing waterborne illness and exposure to carcinogenic substances in water.

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Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) have found that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can be accurately diagnosed in young children via remote, telemedicine assessments, a method that could significantly increase access and reduce wait times for autism services.

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It defies conventional wisdom about semiconductors. It's baffling that it even works. It eludes physics models that try to explain it. This newly tested class of light-emitting semiconductors is so easy to produce from solution that it could be painted onto surfaces to light up our future in myriad colors shining from affordable lasers, LEDs, and even window glass.

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Setting out to establish whether burning calories doing cardiovascular exercise was the same as burning calories doing resistance training, the study looked at physiological and hormonal responses to the two different workouts, when the number of calories burned and the duration of the two sessions was exactly the same. The study showed that resistance training triggers far greater fat-burning responses in the body than simple calorie counting suggests.