Latest News Releases 14 September

The University of Notre Dame-led SpectrumX project is bringing together experts from 29 organizations to transform the landscape of spectrum research, education, collaboration and management.

Physicians prescribed opioids more often to their white patients who complained of new-onset low back pain than to their Black, Asian and Hispanic patients during the early days of the national opioid crisis, when prescriptions for these powerful painkillers were surging but their dangers were not fully apparent.

Researchers at Purdue University discovered that in Nav1.2 deficient neurons, the expressions of many potassium channels are surprisingly reduced. The Nav1.2 deficiency itself doesn’t cause seizures; the issue arises when the potassium channels over-compensate for the sodium channels’ deficiency by shutting down too many potassium channels, making the neuron hyperexcitable, which causes seizures

A University at Buffalo-led research team has shown that a protein named for the mythical land of youth in Irish folklore is effective at reversing aging in skeletal muscle cells.

– To SMU math curriculum researcher Candace Walkington, the best way for students to understand math is to make it part of their lives. She’ll use her recent $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to help students see that math is in the angle of a giraffe’s neck at the Dallas Zoo and in the flutter of the leaves of the cottonwood trees at Twelve Hills Nature Center in Oak Cliff.

Heart rate patterns fluctuate under many conditions. Meditation reduces heart rate while being surprised increases it. Listening to stories also affects heart rate. These changes occur synchronously among people listening individually, not only in groups, indicating cognitive processing of the story affects us on a physiological level separate from relational dynamics. Conversely, narratives do not seem to affect respiratory rate. Heart rate pattern changes also occur in patients suffering from disorders of consciousness when audio narratives are played. These fluctuations could be effective indicators of level of consciousness and provide tools for determining prognosis.

A study carried out at 19 workplace cafeterias has shown that reducing portion sizes and replacing higher calorie food and drinks with lower calorie options led to workers buying food and drink with fewer calories. Researchers at the University of Cambridge, who led the study, say that even simple interventions such as these could contribute towards tackling levels of obesity.