Tech
BOSTON - A team of scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has developed a software-based method of scanning electronic health records (EHRs) to estimate the risk that a healthy person will receive a dementia diagnosis in the future. Their algorithm uses machine learning to first build a list of key clinical terms associated with cognitive symptoms identified by clinical experts. Next, they used national language processing (NLP) to comb through EHRs looking for those terms. Finally, they used those results to estimate patients' risk of developing dementia.
TAMPA, Fla. - Genetically engineered mouse models are often used by scientists to study how the addition, deletion or mutation of genes affects the development of disease and effects of drugs. The process of creating these genetically modified mice is extremely time consuming and expensive, which limits the ability of scientists to use their models to perform important research. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers have developed a new platform for creating genetically engineered mice to study melanoma that is significantly faster than a normal mouse model approach.
In breakthrough method of creating solar material, NREL scientists prove the impossible really isn't
Scientists at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) achieved a technological breakthrough for solar cells previously thought impossible.
The scientists successfully integrated an aluminum source into their hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) reactor, then demonstrated the growth of the semiconductors aluminum indium phosphide (AlInP) and aluminum gallium indium phosphide (AlGaInP) for the first time by this technique.
BROOKLYN, New York, Tuesday, December 17, 2019 – Global warming could lead to hurricanes even more powerful than meteorologists currently forecast. That warning came from a physicist researching the behavior of tropical cyclones who noticed that one of the principles of physics — phase transition — did not appear in the scientific literature of meteorology.
The NREL scientists, along with colleagues at Yale University, Argonne National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, are part of the Department of Energy's Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines (Co-Optima) initiative. Co-Optima's research focuses on improving fuel economy and vehicle performance while also reducing emissions.
CHAPEL HILL, NC - A new study published in Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology details the first study of its kind in the U.S. to examine the use of genicular artery embolization (GAE) for extended treatment of knee pain caused by osteoarthritis (OA). Principal investigator of the study, Ari Isaacson, MD, clinical associate professor of vascular and interventional radiology in the UNC School of Medicine, says the results are positive.
"In this study we showed that GAE can be performed safely and that it demonstrates potential efficacy," Isaacson said.
Light provides the energy that plants and other photosynthetic organisms need to grow, which ultimately yields the metabolites that feed all other organisms on the planet. Plants also rely on light cues for developing their photosynthetic machinery and to sync their life cycles around daily and seasonal rhythms.
For example, photoreceptor pathways in plants allow them to determine how deep a seed is in the soil, to "measure" the waning daylight hours and to alter a plant's development to prepare it for the onset of summer or the beginnings of winter.
Particles can sometimes act like waves, and photons (particles of light) are no exception. Just as waves create an interference pattern, like ripples on a pond, so do photons. Physicists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their colleagues have achieved a major new feat -- creating a bizarre "quantum" interference between two photons of markedly different colors, originating from different buildings on the University of Maryland campus.
Researchers have identified a genetic signature with prognostic value for certain kinds of breast cancer. The discovery also contributes to a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of pathological angiogenesis, the aberrant proliferation of blood vessels that occurs during cancer and other diseases.
It starts off small, just a skin blemish. The most common moles stay just that way -- harmless clusters of skin cells called melanocytes, which give us pigment. In rare cases, what begins as a mole can turn into melanoma, the most serious type of human skin cancer because it can spread throughout the body.
Scientists are using powerful supercomputers to uncover the mechanism that activates cell mutations found in about 50 percent of melanomas. The scientists say they're hopeful their study can help lead to a better understanding of skin cancer and to the design of better drugs.
PHILADELPHIA, PA - Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States and approximately 75-80% of all cases are non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Of these, 30-40% are considered locally advanced and are categorized as either Stage IIIA or IIIB. The currently accepted standard of care for patients with locally-advanced NSCLC is radiation plus chemotherapy, which is known as chemoradiation. In recent years, most research has focused on which chemotherapy drugs to use in chemoradiation, and how to properly integrate them with the radiation component of therapy.
A large new study finds that women who lost weight after age 50 and kept it off had a lower risk of breast cancer than women whose weight remained stable, helping answer a vexing question in cancer prevention. The reduction in risk increased with the amount of weight lost and was specific to women not using postmenopausal hormones. The study appears in JNCI.
Researchers from Queen Mary University of London have developed new thermoelectric materials, which could provide a low-cost option for converting heat energy into electricity.
Materials known as halide perovskites have been proposed as affordable alternatives to existing thermoelectric materials, however so far research into their suitability for thermoelectric applications has been limited.
A parasitic plant has found a way to circumvent an evolutionary arms race with the host plants from which it steals nutrients, allowing the parasite to thrive on a variety of agriculturally important plants. The parasite dodder, an agricultural pest found on every continent, sends genetic material into its host to shut down host defense genes.
(Boston)--Researchers have discovered a novel parasitic gene in fruit flies that is responsible for destroying the eggs in the ovaries of their daughters.
Just like fruit flies, human genomes are filled with mobile parasitic genes called transposons and similar to fruit flies, humans use small RNA molecules to silence these genetic parasites so that they can generate proper germ cells for reproduction.