New research suggests cannabis may actually be good for memory, especially on the elderly, reversing brain aging and restoring learning ability. READ MORE»
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for a Livable Future calculated the nutritional value of food wasted in the U.S. at the retail and consumer levels, shining a light on just how much protein, fiber and othe...
A new study by researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City found that using long-term aspirin therapy to prevent strokes among patients who are considered to be at low risk for stroke may not be effective as prev...
A new study has found that dementia rates increase when anticoagulation treatment is delayed for patients with atrial fibrillation, the most common heart arrhythmia in the world that affects more than 2.7 million American adults.
In a new study presented today at the Heart Rhythm Society’s 38th Annual Scientific Session in Chicago, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have found that CHD patients—even with complex defects—ca...
– Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
Francis Marchlinski, MD, FHRS, director of Electrophysiology for the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS), has been selected to receive the Distinguished Teacher Award from the Heart Rhythm Society, the leading international professional o...
– Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
A new study suggests that the use of tomato — a key food of the Mediterranean diet — should be explored to develop supportive strategies against gastric cancer
– Sbarro Health Research Organization (SHRO)
Journal of Cellular Physiology, online May 10, 2017
A study of more than 80,000 women with heart disease from 2003 to 2012 reveals that the prevalence of women with heart disease delivering babies increased by 24 percent over that 10-year period.
The University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health will expand its rapid testing program at Chicago beaches this summer to detect dangerous levels of bacteria.
– The 18th Annual Women’s Health Week kicks off on Mother’s Day this Sunday, May 14, in a continued effort to empower women to make their health a priority. To get the week started, NewYork-Presbyterian physicians across multiple disciplines sh...
At the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, managing body donations for education and research is no small undertaking. As Dwayne Hallman, manager of the morgue at PSOM shares, body donations are an essential part of medical...
– Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
Ryan Dant was afraid. He knew he likely wouldn’t live to see his 11th birthday due to a virulent disease that would stiffen his limbs, attack his heart, and destroy his brain.
A group of six Binghamton University engineering students has created a functional biomechanical hand using 3D printing technology for an amputee who works on campus, as an opportunity to improve her life.
The Endocrine Society praised the reintroduction of a Senate bill to ensure consumers are protected from hazards associated with exposure to chemicals in personal care products such as cosmetics and lotions.
Hu, a researcher at the Virginia Piper Center for Personal Diagnostics at ASU’s Biodesign Institute and faculty at the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, was Tony Hu was recently awarded a five-year, $2.7 million grant from the Eunice Kennedy Sh...
The Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH) announced today it has been recognized by ASAE with a 2017 Gold Circle Award in the Convention/Meetings Marketing category.
Researchers from Missouri University of Science and Technology are working with physicians and clinicians from Phelps County Regional Medical Center on medical research that could lead to new treatments for cancer and traumatic brain injury, a new wa...
The agenda for the TVT (Transcatheter Valve Therapies) is now available online: http://www.crf.org/tvt/the-conference/agenda. TVT 2017 is a practical three-day course featuring the latest research and state-of-the-art techniques for transcatheter aor...
The running and collision demands change for rugby union players as they progress into an older age category, according to research by Leeds Beckett University.
Termites may be “pretty” in the eyes of a scientist, but don’t let good looks fool you: The prettier termites are more destructive than their uglier counterparts, a University of Florida researcher says.
– University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences
As computer chips become smaller, faster and more powerful, their insulating layers must also be much more robust -- currently a limiting factor for semiconductor technology. A collaborative University of Kentucky-Texas A&M University research team s...
In a new study, a team of researchers from Case Western Reserve University and Gebze Technical University (GTU) in Turkey used data science to determine and predict the effects of exposure to weather and other conditions on materials in solar panels....
Genetic research by a University of Arkansas at Little Rock student that could one day aid Mars colonists was one of only 10 student projects highlighted during a national NASA Space Grant conference.
The California State University gave alumnus Victor Glover the grounding to become a NASA astronaut and possibly one of the first Americans to lead a mission to Mars.
– California State University (CSU) Chancellor's Office
Through a partnership with the Texas Tech University College of Education and the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET), the teachers at Slaton Junior High School in Slaton, Texas, are learning how to engage students with high-cognitiv...
Following the launch of the Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) program at the Wellesley campus, Babson, ranked No. 1 for entrepreneurship, will now be offering the flexible part-time MSBA program at Babson San Francisco beginning in the s...
MOSCOW (AP) — Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Moscow on Sunday to rally against a bill to tear down Soviet-era low-rise apartment buildings. Protesters, mostly young and middle couples, gathered on a central street to rally against arguably Russia's largest redevelopment project to pull down entire neighborhoods of Soviet-era prefabricated blocks that were built under and named for former leader Nikita Khrushchev.
(1 of 3) Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, center, takes part in a rally in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, May 14, 2017. More than 10,000 people have taken to the streets in Moscow to protest against a controversial plant to tear down Soviet-era low-rise apartment blocks.
City Hall has insisted the buildings, known as "khrushchevki", are too dilapidated and outdated, while many residents and activists see the plans as a ruse to make way for high-rises in some of Moscow's leafiest neighborhoods.
The State Duma rushed to pass the first reading of a bill on the demolition in Moscow last month which will force the residents in what City Hall says are dilapidated blocks to vacate their apartments in exchange for other housing. Faced with growing criticism, the parliamentary speaker, however, suggested postponing the second reading pending a public debate.
Carrying placards "No to the demolition of the constitution!" and the flags of their neighborhoods, Muscovites chanted "Resign!" in reference to Moscow's mayor and City Hall. Police estimated turnout at Sunday's rally as low as 5,000 people while volunteers of the White Counter group, which attends opposition rallies to provide independent crowd tallies, said just over 20,000 people showed up.
Alexei Matveyev, a 36-year-old bank clerk from a north Moscow neighborhood, carried a placard reading "No to violation of the constitution and property law." He said the bill under discussion is rushed and disregards residents' interests.
"People who live in these blocks bought the apartments in order to live in quiet leafy low-rises," Matveyev said. "We are happy in our house. We don't want to live in tower blocks." Alexander Zeinin, 32, and his wife Natalya bought an apartment in Perovo, in the city's east, several years ago to start a family but now their building is slated for demolition.
"We spent a year and half on the remodeling. Why would I want to go anywhere?" Zeinin said. "We haven't had a good sleep these past two months. We're recently married and now we think if we can have children - what if they throw us onto the street tomorrow?"
The five-story pre-fabricated buildings to be torn down were built in the 1950s and 1960s to tackle an acute housing crisis. The demolition plans, however, ignored some of the city's most dilapidated housing in less attractive neighborhoods but included good quality apartment buildings in what have recently become expensive neighborhoods.
Under the plan proposed by Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, about 5,000 low-rises will be torn down in the next several years to make way for new developments. The mayor insisted that residents would be offered housing of the equal size in the same neighborhoods, but residents fear that they will be expelled from their quiet, comfortable neighborhoods to high-rises. The first blocks are due to be demolished before the end of the year, and Sobyanin said some residents would be relocated as early as this fall.
Sobyanin tweeted after the protest that City Hall would take into consideration "all substantiated statements made at the rally." While authorities insist that the buildings wouldn't be demolished if residents vote against it, residents have been skeptical pointing to how the voting on Moscow's government website has been rigged in the past.
Fyodor Markushevich, a 40-year-old father of four, lives in a neighborhood in Moscow's west which has been recently taken off the list for re-development but he fears that once the bill passes the redevelopment plans would be redrafted again.
"Everyone is sick of it," he said. "We understand that we live in a city where everything is done for profit and it's hard to change that
LONDON (AP) — An unprecedented global "ransomware" attack has hit at least 100,000 organizations in 150 countries, Europe's police agency said Sunday — and predicted that more damage may be seen Monday as people return to work and switch on their computers.
(1 of 11) A display panel with an error can be seen at the main railway station in Chemnitz, Germany. Germany’s national railway says that it was among the organizations affected by the global cyberattack but there was no impact on train services. Deutsche Bahn said early Saturday that departure and arrival display screens at its stations were hit Friday night by the attack. (P. Goezelt/dpa via AP)
The attack that began Friday is believed to be the biggest online extortion attack ever recorded, spreading chaos by locking computers that run Britain's hospital network, Germany's national railway and scores of other companies, factories and government agencies worldwide.
"It was essentially an indiscriminate attack across the world," Europol director Rob Wainwright said. "It's a massive reminder to sectors right across the world cyber security should be a topline strategic priority."
Jan Op Gen Oorth, spokesman for the Netherlands-based Europol, said the number of individuals who have fallen victim to the cyberextortion attack could be much higher. He said it was too early to say who is behind the onslaught and what their motivation was. The main challenge for investigators was the fast-spreading capabilities of the malware, he said, adding that so far not many people have paid the ransoms that the virus demands.
The attack held hospitals and other entities hostage by freezing their computers, encrypting their data and demanding money through online bitcoin payment — $300 at first, rising to $600 before it destroys files hours later.
The effects were felt across the globe, with Russia's Interior Ministry and companies including Spain's Telefonica, FedEx Corp. in the U.S. and French carmaker Renault all reporting disruptions. On Sunday, Chinese media reported that students at several universities were hit by the virus, which blocked access to their thesis papers and their dissertation presentations.
Had it not been for a young cybersecurity researcher's accidental discovery of a so-called "kill switch," the malicious software likely would have spread much farther and faster. Security experts say this attack should wake up every corporate board room and legislative chamber around the globe.
Nonetheless, the experts say such widespread attacks are tough to pull off. This one worked because of a "perfect storm" of conditions, including a known and highly dangerous security hole in Microsoft Windows, tardy users who didn't apply Microsoft's March software fix, and malware designed to spread quickly once inside university, business and government networks.
What's worse, those responsible were able to borrow a weaponized "exploit," apparently created by the U.S. National Security Agency, to launch the attack in the first place. Darien Huss, a 28-year-old research engineer who helped stop the malware's spread, said he was "still worried for what's to come in the next few days, because it really would not be so difficult for the actors behind this to re-release their code without a kill switch or with a better kill switch.
"Or we could potentially see copycats mimic the delivery or exploit method they used," he said. Now that this "WannaCry" malware is out there, the world's computer systems are vulnerable to a degree they haven't been before, unless people everywhere move quickly to install Microsoft's security patches.
The worldwide effort to extort cash from computer users is the first widely successful example of ransomware that self-replicates like a virus, and it prompted Microsoft to quickly change its policy, announcing free security patches to fix this vulnerability in the older Windows systems still used by millions of individuals and smaller businesses.
Security officials in Britain urged organizations to protect themselves by installing the security fixes, running antivirus software and backing up data elsewhere. Experts say this vulnerability has been understood among experts for months, yet too many groups failed to take it seriously.
The ransomware exploited a vulnerability that has been patched in updates of recent versions of Windows since March. "The problem is the larger organizations are still running on old, no longer supported operating systems," said Lawrence Abrams, a New York-based blogger who runs BleepingComputer.com. "So they no longer get the security updates they should be."
Britain's National Cyber Security Center said it could have been much worse if not for a 22-year-old Britain-based cybersecurity researcher. The researcher, identified online only as MalwareTech, explained that he spotted a hidden web address in the "WannaCry" code and made it official by registering its domain name. That inexpensive move redirected the attacks to the server of Kryptos Logic, the security company he works for. The server operates as a "sinkhole" to collect information about malware — and in Friday's case kept the malware from escaping.
That quick thinking may have saved governments and companies millions of dollars and slowed the outbreak before U.S.-based computers were more widely infected. But the kill switch couldn't help those already infected. Short of paying, options for these individuals and companies are usually limited to recovering data files from a backup, if available, or living without them.
The Windows vulnerability in question was purportedly identified by the NSA for its own intelligence-gathering purposes. Intelligence officials wouldn't comment on the authenticity of the claims. The tools appeared stolen by hackers, who dumped them on the internet.
British cybersecurity expert Graham Cluley doesn't want to blame the NSA for the attack. "There are other criminals who've launched this attack, and they are ultimately responsible for this," he said. "But there's clearly some culpability on the part of the U.S. intelligence services. Because they could have done something ages ago to get this problem fixed, and they didn't do it."
He said most people "are living an online life," and these agencies have a duty to protect their countries' citizens in that realm as well. "Obviously, they want those tools in order to spy on people of interest, on other countries, to conduct surveillance," Cluley said. "It's a handy thing to have, but it's a dangerous thing to have. Because they can be used against you. And that's what's happening right now."
Breed reported from Raleigh, North Carolina, and Burnett from Chicago. Jim Heintz in Moscow and AP Technology Writer Anick Jesdanun in New York also contributed to this story.
