A $450,000 grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Peanut Research will aid researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences as they explore the potential to empower women farmers in northern Ghana through peanut production.

Gabriella Pinto provides a great example of what undergraduate research can do for a student. The Penn State food science major, who graduates this month, is headed for a good job armed with a wealth of experience and knowledge from her research, which gives her a leg up on her career.

Chagas disease, caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, is one of the main causes of death due to cardiomyopathy and heart failure in Latin American countries. The treatment of Chagas disease is directed at eliminating the parasite, decreasing the probability of cardiomyopathy, and disrupting the disease transmission cycle. Benznidazole (BZ) and nifurtimox (NFX) are recognized as effective drugs for the treatment of Chagas disease by the World Health Organization, but both have high toxicity and limited efficacy, especially in the chronic disease phase. At low doses, aspirin (ASA) has been reported to protect against T. cruzi infection. We evaluated the effectiveness of BZ in combination with ASA at low doses during the acute disease phase and evaluated cardiovascular aspects and cardiac lesions in the chronic phase. ASA treatment prevented the cardiovascular dysfunction (hypertension and tachycardia) and typical cardiac lesions. Moreover, BZ+ASA-treated mice had a smaller cardiac fibrotic area than that in BZ-treated mice. These results were associated with an increase in the number of eosinophils and reticulocytes and level of nitric oxide in the plasma and cardiac tissue of ASA-treated mice relative to respective controls. These effects of ASA and BZ+ASA in chronically infected mice were inhibited by pretreatment with the LXA₄ receptor antagonist, Boc-2, indicating that the protective effects of ASA are mediated by ASA-triggered lipoxin. These results emphasize the importance of exploring new drug combinations for treatments of acute phase of Chagas disease that are beneficial for chronic patients.

Led by Serge Gnabry's first-leg double, Bayern München have one foot in the quarter-finals as Chelsea come to Germany.

In an effort to help mitigate the disruptive effects of the deadly COVID-19 virus, an interdisciplinary team of Penn State researchers are developing a novel methodology to analyze its spread and the impacts on policy to create better-prepared and more-resilient health care systems.

Penn State University Libraries has developed a curated guide to COVID-19 related resources for researchers, including ongoing research at Penn State.

With speed and ingenuity, more than 100 researchers across Penn State are shifting their research programs to address the COVID-19 crisis, thanks to funding from a seed grant initiative led by the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. In total, the initiative awarded $2.25 million to 47 teams of researchers from three campuses, 10 colleges and more than 25 departments.

To assess public perceptions about COVID-19 and identify populations whose behaviors put them at risk of infection, researchers at Penn State have released an online survey for the general public.

The Penn State Center for Structural Oncology is shifting some of its focus from fighting cancer to fighting COVID-19, with three projects.

Sabric, a financial crime information centre, shares its tips on staying safe over the festive season.

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Cristiano Ronaldo's overhead kick for Real Madrid against his current club Juventus has been voted UEFA.com Goal of the Season.

Wine, fish, and excessive use of social media were a few of the topics that earned students top honors in Penn State Hazleton's first-ever virtual Undergraduate Research Fair.

CONTEXT:

Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) (pneumococcal 13-valent conjugate vaccine [PCV-13] and pneumococcal 10-valent conjugate vaccine [PCV-10]) are available for prevention of pneumococcal infections in children.

Want to contribute to Apple's health research studies? You can sign up for programs on women's health, your heart and movement, and hearing using the Research app.

The Windows 10 search feature seems pretty simple, but it can be even more effective. Here are some ways to control your searches and find things faster.

Today you can save up to 30 percent on select laptops, networking devices, and storage drives at Amazon. Also, the highly anticipated game Cyberpunk 2077 is $10 off when you pre-order it.

As educators, we need to be critical consumers of educational research before assuming that findings present the "truth."

The Every Student Succeeds Act will give states and districts more authority to be creative in improving schools, but they will need support to use research and data effectively, according to a report by the Center for American Progress think tank and the Knowledge Alliance, a professional group for

When reading articles that reference empirical research, we need to examine how the author makes assumptions before considering the study as "proof."

To better understand educational research, start by asking "who?" Who wrote the study; who published it; and who did the authors intend as their audience?

The research behind growth mindset and grit is familiar to many educators, but when misrepresented, can be harmful. The executive director of the Mindset Scholars Network, explains.

Without rigorous research that accurately reflects the current population, early education won't deliver for all students, write two education researchers.

How a public research event can bring education stakeholders together to discuss important early education issues.

The Society for Research in Educational Effectiveness' annual conference here last week highlighted new ways the United States is learning from the United Kingdom both in research development and use in education.

In response to Nonie K. Lesaux and Stephanie M. Jones' Commentary on early education's need for more exacting research ("Early-Childhood Research Is Out of Touch," Feb. 14, 2018), better research is certainly welcome.

Understanding how research is actually used by district leaders is essential for research-practice partnerships to effectively bridge research and practice in education.

If researchers hope to identify programs that will prepare students for the future, then they cannot continue to measure innovation based on the ideas from the past.

A recap of recent research conducted by research-practice partnerships across the country reveals current high priority topics in education.

A number of studies over the past decade offer best practices and solutions for making better use of time in the school day to aid student learning. Education Week honed in on several that have definitive findings and focus on areas that might be actionable and effective for K-12.

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Penn State Abington students involved in undergraduate research quickly designed ways to present their findings online. It mirrors a global effort as many academic conferences transitioned to online due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Denver Newsroom, Apr 28, 2020 / 05:17 pm (CNA).- Archbishop Michael Miller of Vancouver has announced that he is donating to the University of British Columbia’s research toward a COVID-19 vaccine.

“May the search for COVID-19 solutions also be a moment of solidarity, of collaboration, and of growing together as a visible sign to the world of the healing and reconciliation so needed right now,” Archbishop Miller said April 27 as reported by the B.C. Catholic.

Ryan Thomas, a special advisor to the archdiocese, told CNA that Archbishop Miller wanted to express, through his donation, the Catholic Church’s support for science and medicine that contribute to the common good.

“The Church— as Pope Francis has said from the beginning of his pontificate— is called to go out, we're called to engage, not called to retreat,” Thomas told CNA.

“From a scientific standpoint, that means identifying the research that is worthy of our investment, that meets the high standards that we have to protect life,” he said.

Thomas declined to specify the amount of the donation, but said that it was in the thousands of dollars.

The global effort to develop a COVID-19 vaccine includes at least 50 other research teams, the university says, many of which in the U.S. and Canada have received government funding and are being conducted by large pharmaceutical companies.

Pro-life leaders have warned in recent months that among the many COVID-19 vaccines currently in development worldwide, in some cases researchers are using old cell lines derived from the cells of aborted babies.

It was important to Archbishop Miller, Thomas said, that the Church be seen to be promoting research into a vaccine that Catholics can support in good conscience.

A group of Evangelical Christians and Catholics in Vancouver began to rally around the idea of supporting a vaccine that corresponded to Christian ethical standards, and eventually presented the idea of supporting UBC’s research to Archbishop Miller.

Thomas said Miller made sure to inquire about whether UBC’s vaccine research makes use of aborted fetal cells, which it does not.

Dr. Wilf Jefferies, the project’s lead researcher, told CNA via email that his research team is currently in the process of validating the potency of vaccine candidates in preclinical trials, in order to assess their potential toxicity before trying them in human subjects.

The UBC lab is using immune-boosting components called adjuvants in its vaccine candidate, with the hopes of reducing the dosage of vaccine required for complete protection against the disease. In addition, Jefferies hopes that UBC’s vaccine will continue to provide protection against COVID-19 even if the virus mutates over time.

“I am heartened by the unity and kindness that is being demonstrated during this pandemic,” Jefferies told CNA.

“I think the response by the archdiocese is an affirmative and practical way to address the critical need in our society to develop a vaccine...I am sincerely humbled by the support we have received from the archdiocese and from other groups and individuals.”

So far, Jefferies’ lab has received grants from the government-funded Michael Smith Health Research Foundation and the Sullivan Urology Foundation affiliated with the University of British Columbia, as well as a number of private donations.

There are at least 1,000 clinical trials currently taking place around the world to test potential COVID-19 vaccines.

A group of pro-life leaders in a letter to the Trump administration earlier this month reiterated that development of a COVID-19 vaccine should avoid unethical links to abortion.

“No American should be forced to choose between being vaccinated against this potentially deadly virus and violating his or her conscience,” reads the April 17 letter to Dr. Stephen M. Hahn, commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

“Fortunately, there is no need to use ethically problematic cell lines to produce a COVID vaccine, or any vaccine, as other cell lines or processes that do not involve cells from abortions are available and are regularly being used to produce other vaccines,” it continued.

The letter’s signers include Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City in Kansas, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities; the heads of three other bishops’ conference committees; and leaders of many other Catholic and non-Catholic groups.

The Pontifical Academy for Life has noted that Catholics have an obligation to use ethically-sourced vaccines when available, and have an obligation to speak up and request the development of new cell lines that are not derived from aborted fetuses.

The 2008 Vatican document Dignitatis personae strongly criticized aborted fetal tissue research. However, as regards common vaccines, such as those for chicken pox and measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR), that may be derived from cell lines of aborted babies, the Vatican said they could be used by parents for “grave reasons” such as danger to their children’s health.

In a 2017 document on vaccines, the academy noted a “moral obligation to guarantee the vaccination coverage necessary for the safety of others… especially the safety of more vulnerable subjects such as pregnant women and those affected by immunodeficiency who cannot be vaccinated against these diseases.”

 

Google's reverse image search is a breeze on a desktop, but what about when you're on a mobile device? Google, Bing, and others have options.

We're living through a moment that will be written about in history books. Personal journals, blogs and oral histories could help shape the narrative, according to historians at Penn State Behrend.

Jason Williams, an assistant teaching professor of engineering at Penn State Behrend, helped develop a plastic face shield for use in COVID-19 environments. More than 50,000 of his shields have been shipped to health-care providers in three states.

Seed funding provided by the Huck Institute of the Life Sciences and the Institute for Computational and Data Science is supporting two research teams from the College of Information Sciences and Technology in their efforts to provide faster and more efficient search results to COVID-19 research queries.

Giving users of smart assistants the option to adjust settings for privacy or content delivery, or both, doesn’t necessarily increase their trust in the platform, according to a team of Penn State researchers. In fact, for some users, it could have an unfavorable effect.

When Kaylee Kishbaugh arrived at Penn State four years ago, she didn’t even know what prosciutto was, let alone that it could be made from duck. But now, looking back over her undergraduate experience and looking ahead to her career, she realizes the odd meat product was pivotal for her.

Louisiana and New Hampshire are among the handful of states that have stepped up to experiment with crafting new student assessments under the Every Student Succeeds Act.

The Coronavirus and International Affairs Roundtable, taking place 9:30 a.m. Friday, April 17, via Zoom, will bring together experts in law and international affairs from Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North America, and the Caribbean to discuss the broader impact of COVID-19.