Curated News: Top Clipped Stories

• share
• favorite_border

More than a dozen scientists from multiple disciplines across the university collaborated on the Zoonomia Project.

• share
• favorite_border

Bacterial spores can survive for years, even centuries, without nutrients, resisting heat, UV radiation, and antibiotics. How inert, sleeping bacteria — or spores — spring back to life has been a century-long mystery.

• share
• favorite_border

Illinois researchers identified cells in the hippocampus that could be chemogenetically turned off to make young mice show signs of cognitive decline associated with aging. They are using this new mouse model to search for ways to prevent or reverse age-related learning and memory problems.

• share
• favorite_border

Those who experience brain fog, memory issues or other neuropsychiatric symptoms for months after a COVID-19 diagnosis were found to have abnormal brain activity during memory tests on functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), according to a new study led by University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) researchers.

• share
• favorite_border

Months after COVID-19, previously infected people with persistent neuropsychiatric symptoms had abnormal brain activity during memory tests, with less activity in brain regions normally used for the memory tasks, but more activity in other areas of the brain, according to new research published in the April 26, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

• share
• favorite_border

A fossil of a ‘royal fish’ - estimated to be over 66 million years old - is the first ever to be found in Africa.

• share
• favorite_border

Retail investors typically lose with zero-commission complex or multi-leg options, especially around earnings announcements.

• share
• favorite_border

Knowing how cultural evolution happens also means we can harness it for the larger good, creating a more just and sustainable world, according to a new article from a research team including faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

• share
• favorite_border

New research suggests that even mild cases of COVID-19 can have long-term detrimental effects on cardiovascular health. The study was the first to compare pre and post COVID-infection levels of arterial stiffness; a marker associated with the ageing and function of our arteries.

• share
• favorite_border

In Physics of Fluids, researchers model the behavior of blood drops during secondary atomization to examine how the phenomenon affects a crime scene. The team examined different starting droplet sizes, confirming their model with experiments. They found the effect of secondary atomization was significant and predictable: The smaller droplets were easier to sweep up by the firearm’s gases and turn around toward the victim. This discovery could explain how a short-range shooter might stay clean from blood stains.

• share
• favorite_border

In Physics of Fluids, researchers develop a model to describe the interaction between a rocket plume and the surface of a planetary body in near-vacuum conditions. The computational framework takes in information about the rocket, its engines, and the surface composition and topography, as well as the atmospheric conditions and gravitational forces at the landing site, and the results can be used to evaluate the safety and feasibility of a proposed landing site and to optimize the design of spacecraft and rocket engines for planetary landings.

• share
• favorite_border

In Physics of Fluids, researchers develop an early warning system that combines acoustic technology with AI to immediately classify earthquakes and determine potential tsunami risk. They propose using underwater microphones, called hydrophones, to measure the acoustic radiation produced by the earthquake, which carries information about the tectonic event and travels significantly faster than tsunami waves. The computational model triangulates the source of the earthquake and AI algorithms classify its slip type and magnitude. It then calculates important properties like effective length and width, uplift speed, and duration, which dictate the size of the tsunami.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists carried out an analysis of hundreds of popular song recordings from 1946 to 2020 to determine the lead vocal to accompaniment ratio, or LAR. The study considered the four highest-ranked songs from the Billboard Hot 100 chart for each year and the results show that, contrary to expectations, the LAR for popular music decreased over the decades in question. This means that, relative to their bands, lead singers are getting quieter.

• share
• favorite_border

Helping your mother make pancakes when you were three…riding your bike without training wheels…your first romantic kiss: How do we retain vivid memories of long-ago events? As described in a paper published online on April 25 in Neuron, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have found the explanation.

• share
• favorite_border

People who first experience problems with alcohol after the age of 60 may have better mental health functioning than those whose drinking problems start sooner, and the benefits of alcohol treatment are not conditional on when hazardous drinking began, a new study suggests.

• share
• favorite_border

The Webb Space Telescope's latest findings are the first to spectroscopically confirm distances for a young protocluster of galaxies just 650 million years after the big bang. Astronomers think the protocluster represents the earliest stages of what will develop into a massive conglomeration like the Coma Cluster, which includes thousands of gravitationally bound member galaxies.

• share
• favorite_border

In the first few days after a traumatic brain injury (TBI), food is often an afterthought as clinicians focus on minimizing the damage to the brain.

• share
• favorite_border

Neutrinos are involved in a process named beta decay that involves a neutron converting into a proton emitting an electron and an antineutrino. There may also be an ultra-rare kind of beta decay that emits two electrons but no neutrinos, called neutrinoless-double beta decay (NLDBD). Researchers are using the Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) to search for these rare NLDBD processes using different nuclei. Scientists have reported new tests using Tellurim-128 to look for NLDBD.

• share
• favorite_border

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) contribute to reduced vascular function and diminished sleep quality in young adults, according to a study at the University of Iowa.

• share
• favorite_border

Repeated use of cannabigerol caused a drop in the blood pressure of healthy mice, according to a new study at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine.

• share
• favorite_border

What you eat might influence when you go to sleep, according to a new study of elite female college athletes.

• share
• favorite_border

The drug atogepant may help prevent migraines for people who have had no success with other preventive drugs, according to a preliminary study released April 20, 2023, which will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 75th Annual Meeting being held in person in Boston and live online from April 22-27, 2023. The study involved people with episodic migraine, which is defined as having up to 14 headache days per month with migraine characteristics.

• share
• favorite_border

A study, led by University of Oregon neuroscientist Shawn Lockery, points to worms as a useful tool for understanding more about the many roles that cannabinoids naturally play in the body. And it could help researchers develop better drugs that target this system.

• share
• favorite_border

Astronomers are celebrating the Hubble Space Telescope’s 33rd launch anniversary with an ethereal photo of the star-forming region NGC 1333. Hubble’s colorful view unveils an effervescent cauldron of glowing gasses and dust stirred up and blown around by several hundred newly forming stars embedded within the dark cloud.

• share
• favorite_border

Two doses of an FDA-approved sleeping pill reduced levels of Alzheimer’s proteins in a small study of healthy volunteers led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The study hints at the potential of sleep medications to slow or stop the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, although much more work needs to be done to confirm the viability of such an approach.

• share
• favorite_border

In people with no thinking and memory problems, a simple test may predict the risk of developing cognitive impairment years later, according to a study published in the April 19, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

• share
• favorite_border

A drug called teriflunomide may delay first symptoms for people whose magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans show signs of multiple sclerosis (MS) even though they do not yet have symptoms of the disease. The preliminary study, released April 19, 2023, will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 75th Annual Meeting, being held in person in Boston and live online from April 22-27, 2023. Called radiologically isolated syndrome, the condition is diagnosed in people who do not have MS symptoms but who have abnormalities in the brain or spinal cord called lesions, similar to those seen in MS.

• share
• favorite_border

People with epilepsy living in disadvantaged neighborhoods—areas with higher poverty levels and fewer educational and employment opportunities— may be more likely to have memory, thinking, and mental health problems compared to people with epilepsy living in neighborhoods with fewer disadvantages, according to new research published in the April 19, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study does not prove that living in disadvantaged neighborhoods causes memory and mental health problems. It only shows an association.

• share
• favorite_border

What if, by adding a couple of cell layers inside a corn kernel, the grain could become significantly richer in essential nutrients like iron, zinc, and protein? Such an improvement could benefit people who rely on corn for a large portion of their diet, as in many parts of the global south. In a new study, University of Illinois scientists show it’s possible to increase iron up to 35% and zinc up to 15% compared to parent lines simply by adding cell layers in the bran.

• share
• favorite_border

In early 2022, long-spined sea urchins in St. Thomas began to quickly die in large numbers. Scientists rushed in to find the cause and have discovered that a microscopic parasite swarms the body and spines of the urchins, eating them alive.

• share
• favorite_border

Today, foldable phones are ubiquitous. Now, using models that predict how well a flexible electronic device will conform to spherical surfaces, University of Wisconsin–Madison and University of Texas at Austin engineers could usher in a new era in which these bendy devices can integrate seamlessly with parts of the human body.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis reveals that a connection between the body and mind is built into the structure of the brain. The study shows that parts of the brain area that controls movement are plugged into networks involved in thinking and planning, and in control of involuntary bodily functions such as blood pressure and heart rate.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study shows that cardiovascular strain begins at lower temperature and humidity levels than those that cause increases in the body’s core temperature, and could inform revisions to safety guidelines and policies that help protect people during heat waves.

• share
• favorite_border

The computational power of ecosystems -- or ecological reservoir computing -- is providing a new direction for rapidly developing AI technologies. Simulations have confirmed that ecological networks, such as prey-predator interactions, can efficiently process information and be utilized as a computational resource.

• share
• favorite_border

People who have an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation that is treated with a procedure called catheter ablation may have a reduced risk of dementia compared to those who are treated with medication alone. The preliminary study released April 18, 2023, will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 75th Annual Meeting being held in person in Boston and live online from April 22-27, 2023.

• share
• favorite_border

In a unique analysis of experimental data, nuclear physicists have made the first-ever observations of how lambda particles, so-called “strange matter,” are produced by a specific process called semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS). What’s more, these data hint that the building blocks of protons, quarks and gluons, are capable of marching through the atomic nucleus in pairs called diquarks, at least part of the time.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have developed a drug that undercuts antibiotic resistance

• share
• favorite_border

Scrap aluminum can now be collected and transformed directly into new vehicle parts using an innovative process being developed by the automotive industry, in particular for electric vehicles.

• share
• favorite_border

University of Minnesota Twin Cities computer science researchers found that the nature of TikTok’s algorithm can have both positive and negative outcomes for users’ mental health and sense of belonging on the platform.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center discovered that co-occurring mutations in three tumor suppressor genes – KEAP1, SMARCA4 and CDKN2A – are linked with poor clinical outcomes in patients with KRAS G12C-mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with the KRAS G12C inhibitors adagrasib or sotorasib.

• share
• favorite_border

An international phase 3 clinical trial led by physicians at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has shown that the investigational drug motixafortide — when combined with the standard therapy for mobilizing stem cells — significantly increases the number of stem cells that can be harvested, compared with treatment with the standard agent alone.

• share
• favorite_border

The CD70-targeting allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, ALLO-316, demonstrated encouraging response rates and disease control rates in patients with metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), according to results of a Phase I trial led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and presented today at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2023.

• share
• favorite_border

The first-in-class YAP/TEAD inhibitor VT3989 was well tolerated with durable antitumor responses in patients with advanced malignant mesothelioma and other tumors with NF2 mutations, according to results of a Phase I trial led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

• share
• favorite_border

A regimen of pre-surgical immunotherapy and chemotherapy followed by post-surgical immunotherapy significantly improved event-free survival (EFS) and pathologic complete response (pCR) rates compared to chemotherapy alone for patients with operable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to Phase III trial results presented today by researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2023.

• share
• favorite_border

New UCLA research suggests that a novel machine-learning technique known as "causal forest" was about five times more efficient than the current clinical practice of treating patients with high blood pressure.

• share
• favorite_border

New AI tool accurately predicts both overall survival and disease-free survival after colorectal cancer diagnosis. The model uses visual markers on pathology images to glean insights into a tumor’s genomic profile and predicts tumor behavior, disease progression, treatment response. The new model could help augment clinical decision-making. Because the AI tool relies on images alone, it could be particularly valuable for hospitals lacking the technology or expertise to perform sophisticated genomic profiling of tumor tissues.

• share
• favorite_border

Using rigorous and detailed collection methods, a University of Minnesota Twin Cities-led research team was able to place the remains of fossil apes, such as Morotopithecus, within detailed habitat reconstructions.

• share
• favorite_border

Using first-of-their-kind observations from the James Webb Space Telescope, a University of Minnesota Twin Cities-led team looked more than 13 billion years into the past to discover a unique, minuscule galaxy that could help astronomers learn more about galaxies that were present shortly after the Big Bang.

• share
• favorite_border

A lot of galaxies look like cotton balls when seen through a telescope. They are classified as elliptical galaxies. Now, with the help of Hubble, astronomers have estimated that the nearby elliptical galaxy M87 is "triaxial," or potato-shaped, if it could be viewed in 3D.