Focus: Hidden - DC Metro

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From the Brett M. Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination hearing to people burning their Nike products, as the country approaches the 2018 midterm elections, our national rhetoric is more polarized than ever. Rudeness, name-calling, bullying and insults have become so commonplace that many Americans have tuned out. Can these behaviors be curbed, and can we learn to disagree civilly? To address these and other questions, the American Psychological Association and the National Institute for Civil Discourse have partnered to present “A National Conversation on Civility.”

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The Endocrine Society today announced it has chosen 13 leading endocrinologists as winners of its prestigious 2018 Laureate Awards, the top honors in the field.

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Researchers at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), part of the National Institutes of Health, have developed a system to accelerate the discovery of chemical compounds that inhibit an enzyme implicated in a number of cancers. The set of tools and methods, which the researchers used to test more than 16,000 compounds, is described in a new paper published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

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High volume and fast throughput screening at public venues and urban environments high in pollutants and background substances can impede detection capabilities of explosives trace detectors. The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate aims to change all that.

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Spiderwebs can withstand a predator’s impact while still helping catch and detect small prey. Spiders architect these lightweight networks for strength and elasticity using different silks and geometric structures. Recently, researchers unraveled a new energy absorption mechanism that explains how spiderwebs can be simultaneously sensitive and impact-resistant. The research team reports their findings in Applied Physics Letters.

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Paul Brindley, PhD, at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences, has received more than $1.7 million from the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health to investigate the cellular and molecular links between liver fluke infection and bile duct cancer.

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DHS S&T, in collaboration with the U.S. Coast Guard Research and Development Center (RDC), launched the U.S. Coast Guard Ready for Rescue Challenge, a $255,000 prize competition that seeks boater safety solutions that will help make it easier to find people in the water.

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Laboratory automation applied to complex radiochemical isolation of astatine-211 from cyclotron-bombarded targets.

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The Endocrine Society has confirmed the plenary program speaker line-up for ENDO 2019, the world's largest event for endocrine science and medicine. This year features a presidential plenary from Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the largest supporter of biomedical research in the world. Other noteworthy speakers are Robert Califf, M.D., Duke University School of Medicine and former Food & Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner, and Cori Bargmann, Ph.D., Rockefeller University and head of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s science work.

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Losing a single night’s sleep may affect the liver’s ability to produce glucose and process insulin, increasing the risk of metabolic diseases such as hepatic steatosis (fatty liver) and type 2 diabetes. The findings of the mouse study are published ahead of print in the American Journal of Physiology—Endocrinology and Metabolism. The research was chosen as an APSselect article for September.

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Papers on stem cell methods and models in toxicology; comparative toxicogenomics and AOPs; machine vs. animal models; pesticides and asthma; and estimating risk without animals featured in latest issue of Toxicological Sciences.

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A new paper from Johns Hopkins APL Senior Fellow Dr. Paul Stockton examines how power companies can partner with the Department of Energy to defeat attacks on the U.S. electric system.

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Titanium-based materials are widely used in medical implant technology, and coating the surface of titanium materials with biologically active molecules has recently shown promise to improve how cells adhere to implants and promote tissue regeneration. The mechanisms behind how peptides stick to titanium, however, are not fully understood. Researchers have now found how calcium ions present at the interface between titanium oxide and tissues affect how well peptides bind to the metal. The team reports their findings in Biointerphases.

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Scientists seek to better understand protein folding to cure misfolding diseases, but this incredibly complex process requires sophisticated algorithms to identify the folding mechanisms. Computational biophysicists have proposed a new way to identify the most crucial factors for protein folding. They demonstrated the short simulation time of their approach on a small but intriguing protein, “GB1 beta-hairpin,” in The Journal of Chemical Physics.

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The DHS Science and Technology Directorate has awarded a total of nearly $3.5 million in funding to three new R&D projects designed to improve the threat detection capabilities of current X-ray technologies for checked baggage systems.

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Comparing new prediction to measurements of muons’ precession could potentially help scientists discover new subatomic particles.

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Many teens returning to school this month will likely face stressful situations that lead to depression and anxiety— a Georgetown psychiatrist offers important steps parents and other loved ones can take to ensure they maintain good mental health.

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One of the world’s most powerful x-ray machines offers scientists studying insects a unique resource to see inside of them. Using the Advanced Photon Source, researchers can watch and record how insects’ internal mechanisms work in real-time.

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The personal papers of John Hanson Briscoe (1934-2014), former speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates and longtime St. Mary’s County lawyer and judge, will be preserved at St. Mary’s College of Maryland Archives.

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Results of a clinical trial led by MedStar Heart & Vascular Institute using transcatheter aortic valve replacement provided a “strong signal” that it is safe for patients with low surgical risk, potentially helping to open the way for broader use of the minimally invasive procedure, also known as TAVR.

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The recurrence plot is a vital tool for analyzing nonlinear dynamic systems, especially systems involving empirically observed time series data. RPs show patterns in a phase space system and indicate where data visit the same coordinates, and can mimic some types of inferential statistics and linear analyses. A paper in Chaos provides a proof of concept for using RPs to mimic the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, which scientists use to determine if two data sets significantly differ.

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CMS observes Higgs boson decays into bottom quarks, furthering our knowledge of how the particles that make up matter behave.

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In the first study of independent in-home use of a brain-computer interface by a group of advanced ALS patients, the BCI system was found to be reliable; and of the eight individuals who completed the study, seven chose to keep the device for future use.

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S&T recently demonstrated a new Federated Command and Control infrastructure that can protect from potential threats using a variety of preventative measures and automated responses.

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Flashes of brightness known as solar flares can be followed by coronal mass ejections that send plasma from the sun into space. These charged particles can then travel to Earth, and when they arrive they wreak havoc on Earth’s magnetic field. The result can be beautiful but also destructive: auroras and geomagnetic storms. In the journal Chaos, researchers report a method for analyzing magnetic field data that might provide better short-term forecasting of geomagnetic storms.

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New direct evidence for Higgs interactions with top and bottom quarks confirms its role in generating mass for constituents of matter.

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Regardless of whether or not they have had a prior mental health diagnosis, risk factors were still similar among soldiers who attempted suicide, according to a new JAMA Psychiatry study published Aug. 29.

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Collaborative, open-source software and data platform accelerates systems biology research.

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Routine oral care to treat gum disease (periodontitis) may play a role in reducing inflammation and toxins in the blood (endotoxemia) and improving cognitive function in people with liver cirrhosis. The study is published ahead of print in the American Journal of Physiology—Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology.

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To promote transparency in scientific research, the basic research journal of the American Society for Cell Biology, Molecular Biology of the Cell (MBoC), will begin publishing peer review reports along with articles beginning in early 2019.

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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has awarded $199,260 to Boston-based Protect the Force, Inc. for the development of photovoltaic (PV) energy harvesting fabrics.

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The element’s unusual electron structure and behavior are vital to understanding and exploiting the chemical bonding and reactivity of the heavy elements.

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Research offers new insights for maximizing sugar production in biofuel crops.

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TMA hosts its Annual Patient Conference at the Louisville Marriott Downtown on September 6-9. With more than 500 myositis patients and family members in attendance, this conference promises to be the largest in TMA history.

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Model predicts smaller decrease in total corn yields than previous estimates.

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Cancer researchers struggle to identify tumor cells that are interspersed within nonmalignant tissues because tumor cells exploit the tissue environment and monopolize available resources to continue growing. Researchers attribute cancer cell’s ability to use cell signaling and metabolic pathways that override normal cell growth restrictions to complicated chemical exchanges between tissue and tumor cells. A new approach shows promise to begin analyzing cell-to-cell interactions in this complex environment. The researchers discuss their work in Biointerphases.

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Designing lightweight materials -- a goal in the automotive and airline industries -- requires carefully joining together different types of materials like metals and polymers, and these additional steps drive up manufacturing costs. New work in laser technology recently increased the adhesion strength of metal-plastic hybrid materials; engineers demonstrated a technique for binding plastic to aluminum by pretreating sheets of aluminum with infrared lasers. They discuss their work in the Journal of Laser Applications.

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Pulmonary fibrosis is one of the most common and serious types of lung disease. Now researchers have developed an in vitro lung tissue-on-a-chip system that mimics lung fibrosis, offering rapid testing of potential new anti-fibrotic treatments.

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Since 2010, the U.S. government has invested more than $20 million into understanding all forms of radicalization to violence, as well as effective prevention and intervention measures. Federal agencies such as the DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) and the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) are at the forefront of this work.

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Researchers are reporting the protein/protein interactome of Zika virus and its human host cells with a proteomic approach that gives unprecedented insight into membrane-bound protein interactions. The data reveal a new role for a familiar organelle in viral replication.

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Researchers developed a new self-generating lubricant with great potential for industrial applications.

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Drugs most commonly prescribed to patients seen by primary care physicians are not often tested in the patients who go to these clinics, where most people receive their care, say investigators at Georgetown University Medical Center and Yale School of Medicine.

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Crests of watery waves breaking in oil may be the gatekeepers to transport vital chemicals in industrial separation process.

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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $8 million in funding for 12 research awards on a range of topics in both basic and use-inspired research in particle accelerator science and technology.

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The American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) has teamed with immigration law firm Getson and Shatz to offer a free webinar—Green Cards for Scientific Researchers: How to Win Your EB-1A/NIW Case—on Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018, from 1:30-2:30 pm EDT.

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By the time toddlers are forming two-word sentences, they are already aware that they may be judged by others, behavior that previously wasn’t believed to emerge until years later, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

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Projects focused on providing simple, low-cost modifications to surgical techniques that could reduce pain or damage from these procedures dominated this year’s Design by Biomedical Undergraduate Teams (DEBUT) challenge.

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Charged particles emanating from Jupiter’s magnetosphere are powered up to create the northern and southern lights on Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon.

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AACN is pleased to announce the launch of a newly redesigned NursingCAS website, www.nursingcas.org, which will simplify the application process to nursing schools nationwide. Similar to services in place for other health professions, NursingCAS offers students a convenient way to discover and apply to multiple nursing programs offered by more than 250 schools using a single online application.

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•On a national level, implementation of antimicrobial stewardships in outpatient dialysis facilities would result in 2182 fewer infections caused by multidrug-resistant organisms and Clostridium difficile (a 4.8% reduction) per year. • It would also lead to 629 fewer infection-related deaths (a 4.6% reduction) and a cost savings of $99,804,603 (a 4.7% reduction) per year.