Futurity.org » Brown University

Is middle class wealth in meltdown?

James Devitt-NYU — Mon, 13 May 2013 14:54:50 +0000

NYU / BROWN (US) —The collapse of home prices and the stock market has taken an immense toll on the assets of the middle class, hitting minorities and young adults especially hard, a new study suggests.

“Most telling is that the wealth of the average person by 2010 was at its lowest level since 1969,” says Edward Wolff, professor of economics at New York University. “Inequality of net worth, after almost two decades of little change, rose sharply between 2007 and 2010. Inequalities rose by income class, by race and ethnicity, and across age groups.”

Mutation timing counts for tuberous sclerosis

David Orenstein-Brown — Mon, 13 May 2013 12:27:12 +0000

BROWN (US) — Early genetic deletions in the thalamus may play an important role in the course and severity of a developmental disease that affects one in 6,000 people.

Doctors often diagnose tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) based on the abnormal growths the genetic disease causes in organs around the body. Those overt anatomical structures, however, belie the microscopic and mysterious neurological differences behind the disease’s troublesome behavioral symptoms: autism, intellectual disabilities, and seizures.

TSC can arise in humans and mice alike when both alleles (the one from mom and the one from dad) of the TSC1 gene are deleted. One bad gene is often inherited and the other accumulates a mutation some time during embryonic development.

Did water on moon come from Earth?

Kevin Stacey-Brown — Fri, 10 May 2013 15:54:25 +0000

BROWN (US) — Water inside the moon’s mantle came from primitive meteorites, the same source believed to have supplied most of the water on Earth, researchers report.

They say the findings raise new questions about how the moon was formed.

Guideposts in silicone unravel neuron growth

David Orenstein-Brown — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:25:20 +0000

BROWN (US) — By guiding nerve cells’ growth, scientists have optimized the branching, tendrilous neurons for applications such as reconstructive surgery.

Their work helps explain how neurons grow in new tissues in response to physical guideposts, called Schwann cells. The paper also provides medical device makers with an overt demonstration of how to craft the best artificial Schwann cell implants in silicone to make neurons grow as straight as possible in a desired direction.

“If you’ve got an injury in your arm or your leg then you’d like to have proper reconnection so you can get function,” says Diane Hoffman-Kim, associate professor of medicine in the department of molecular pharmacology, physiology, and biotechnology at Brown University.

Blood turns bat tongue into nectar ‘mop’

David Orenstein-Brown — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:06:51 +0000

BROWN (US) — A species of bat uses blood flow to reshape its tongue while feeding—a quick, dynamic action that lets it scoop up as much nectar as possible in a single stroke.

A new study describes the previously undiscovered technology employed by the bat Glossophaga soricina: a tongue tip that uses blood flow to erect scores of little hair-like structures exactly at the right time to slurp up extra nectar from within a flower.

Algorithms find ‘hot networks’ in cancer

Kevin Stacey-Brown — Thu, 02 May 2013 15:48:35 +0000

BROWN / WASHINGTON U.-ST. LOUIS (US) — Scientists have used two new algorithms to assemble the most complete genetic profile yet of an aggressive form of blood cancer.

The researchers hope the work will lead to new treatments for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) based on the genetics of each patient’s disease.

Estimated costs of ER care too low

David Orenstein-Brown — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:18:15 +0000

BROWN (US) — The cost of emergency care in the US may be more than two times higher than previously published estimates, a new study suggests.

“The ER has become increasingly important as a place where people go for acute unscheduled care, however there has been little rigorous analysis of its cost structure,” says Michael Lee, assistant professor of emergency medicine in the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and a physician at Rhode Island Hospital and The Miriam Hospital.

In Brazil, two crops are better than one

Kevin Stacey-Brown — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 20:48:03 +0000

BROWN (US) — Double cropping—planting two crops in a field in the same year— improves schools, helps advance public sanitation, raises median income, and creates jobs in rural Brazil.

New research focuses on the state of Mato Grosso, the epicenter of an agricultural revolution that has made Brazil one of the world’s top producers of soybeans, corn, cotton, and other staple crops.

To retain water, succulents pump up leaves

David Orenstein-Brown — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 12:49:22 +0000

BROWN (US) — To hang on to water in arid conditions, succulent plants have remodeled the vein structure of their leaves and gone 3D.

Leaves are food factories complete with plumbing to transport water and sugar. The farther those veins are from cells performing photosynthesis, the less efficient the process will be.

Seniors in US South get risky meds more often

David Orenstein-Brown — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 17:34:45 +0000

BROWN (US) — Seniors living in the Southeast US, women, and people in relatively poor areas are more likely to be prescribed high-risk medications, a new reports shows.

More than one in five seniors with Medicare Advantage plans received a prescription for a potentially harmful “high-risk medication” in 2009, according to a newly published analysis by Brown University public health researchers.