Culture

ORLANDO, Fla., March 31, 2019 -- The sugar maple tree yields autumn foliage, maple syrup and Tennessee whiskey. Wood from the tree is chopped into planks, stacked in piles and burned to form charcoal. Freshly distilled, un-aged whiskey is filtered over the charcoal in a mysterious, but necessary step known as the Lincoln County Process (LCP). By law, a product cannot be called Tennessee whiskey without it. Researchers now say they have some clues as to what the process imparts to the final product.

ORLANDO, Fla., March 31, 2019 -- As current antibiotics dwindle in effectiveness against multidrug-resistant pathogens, researchers are seeking potential replacements in some unlikely places. Now a team has identified bacteria with promising antibiotic activity against known pathogens -- even dangerous organisms, such as the microbe that causes MRSA infections -- in the protective mucus that coats young fish.

ORLANDO, Fla., March 31, 2019 -- The U.S. opioid epidemic is being driven by an unprecedented surge in deaths from fentanyl and other synthetic opiates. Fentanyl's powerful effects are long-lasting, and even tiny amounts of the drug can lead to an overdose. Antidotes, such as naloxone, do not last long enough in the body to fully counter the drug, requiring repeated injections. Now, scientists report that they are developing single-dose, longer-lasting opioid antidotes using polymer nanoparticles.

Yokohama, Japan 30 March 2019: Trips to the toilet at night are a sign of high blood pressure, according to results from the Watari study presented today at the 83rd Annual Scientific Meeting of the Japanese Circulation Society (JCS 2019).

Purely educating doctors about the importance of prescribing certain therapies may not be enough to make a meaningful impact, according to a new Penn Medicine study. Using acid suppression therapy--an effective method of reducing the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding in vulnerable cardiac patients--Penn researchers tested interventions that utilized both education and an electronic "dashboard" system linked to patients' electronic medical records (EMRs) which gave doctors up-to-date information on which patients would likely benefit from the therapy.

A new study published in the April 2019 issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR) considers several potential factors that might have led to disparities in follow-up imaging rates among patients with indeterminate initial abdominal imaging findings.

A new study published in the April 2019 issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR) investigates the safety of uterine artery embolization (UAE) for symptomatic leiomyomas in patients with various autoimmune diseases.

A team of researchers at Ehime University revealed the binding affinities of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) to Baikal seal peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPARα) using in vitro and in silico approaches. The finding was published on January 16 in the highly reputed environmental science journal, Environmental Science and Technology.

According to an independent study released today by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW), more than 674 million Indian citizens are likely to breathe air with high concentrations of PM2.5 in 2030, even if India were to comply with its existing pollution control policies and regulations.

"The fluorescent patterns are only visible to the human eye under a UV lamp. In nature, if they were visible to other animals, they could be used as intra-specific communication signals or as reinforcement of their aposematic coloration, warning potential predators of their toxicity," says Sandra Goutte

Starting routine colorectal cancer screening at age 45 rather than 50 would decrease U.S. cancer deaths by as much as 11,100 over five years, according to a new study led by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

The move would also decrease the number of cancer cases nationwide by up to 29,400 over that time period. However, screening a greater number of older and high-risk adults would avert nearly three times as many diagnoses and deaths at a lower cost, the study found.

It's a big question for many people in traffic-dense cities like Los Angeles: When will self-driving cars arrive? But following a series of high-profile accidents in the United States, safety issues could bring the autonomous dream to a screeching halt.

At USC, researchers have published a new study that tackles a long-standing problem for autonomous vehicle developers: testing the system's perception algorithms, which allow the car to "understand" what it "sees."

Staten Island residents have another reason to apply insect repellent and obsessively check for ticks this spring and summer: the population of a new, potentially dangerous invasive pest known as the Asian longhorned tick has grown dramatically across the borough, according to Columbia University researchers. And the tick--which unlike other local species can clone itself in large numbers--is likely to continue its conquest in the months ahead.

About 40 percent of the global population is at risk for contracting dengue - the most important mosquito-borne viral infection and a close "cousin" of the Zika virus - and yet, no effective treatment or safe licensed vaccine exists. But a new study, reported recently in the Lancet's open-access journal EBioMedicine, has uncovered details about the human immune response to infection with dengue that could provide much-needed help to the evaluation of dengue vaccine formulations and assist with advancing safe and effective candidate vaccines.

In March of 2011, a powerful earthquake off the coast of Japan triggered the automatic shutdown of reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and simultaneously disrupted electricity lines that supported their cooling. Had the earthquake been the only disaster that hit that day, emergency backup generators would have prevented a meltdown. Instead, a tsunami immediately followed the earthquake, flooding the generators and leading to the most serious nuclear accident in recent history.