Tobacco exposure in kids, risk of increased blood pressure

WASHINGTON, February 23, 2021 -- COVID-19 can spread from asymptomatic but infected people through small aerosol droplets in their exhaled breath. Most studies of the flow of exhaled air have focused on coughing or sneezing, which can send aerosols flying long distances. However, speaking while near one another is also risky since the virus can be ejected by merely talking. In Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, scientists in Japan use smoke and laser light to study the flow of expelled breath near and around two people conversing in various relative postures commonly found in the service industry, such as in hair salons, medical exam rooms, or long-term care facilities. ...

WASHINGTON, February 23, 2021 -- As one of the leading sources of clean and renewable energy, global wind power capacity has increased more than fivefold over the past decade, leading to larger turbines and pushing wind technology to its limits. "These much larger turbines are operating in very different atmospheric layers than smaller turbines used 5-10 years ago," said Srinidhi Gadde, one of the authors of a paper in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, from AIP Publishing, that examines the impacts of turbine height. "At these scales, local meteorology and extreme shear events, which frequently occur, can impact ...

The plant that encourages kissing at Christmas is in fact a parasite, and new research reveals mistletoe has an unusual feeding strategy. Like other plants, mistletoe is capable of using sunlight to create its own food, a process called photosynthesis. However, it prefers to siphon water and nutrients from other trees and shrubs, using "false roots" to invade its hosts. "Plants are autotrophic, they make their own food. Humans are heterotrophic, we eat it," explained UC Riverside plant-insect ecologist Paul Nabity. "Mistletoe are mostly heterotrophic, but they can switch if they want to." Nabity's team found when two mistletoes invade the same tree, they increase photosynthesis to get the nutrients they need, essentially sharing the ...

Kittens could be the model for understanding infectious, sometimes deadly, diarrheal disease in both animals and children, according to new research from North Carolina State University. Diarrheagenic Escherichia coli (DEC) bacteria cause lethal diarrheal disease in children worldwide, killing up to 120,000 children under the age of five annually. Atypical enteropathic Escherichia coli (aEPEC) are a form of DEC increasingly associated with diarrheal disease in humans and in kittens. "We were looking for causes of infectious diarrhea in kittens, which has a high mortality rate, and came across this pathogen," says Jody Gookin, FluoroScience Distinguished Professor in Veterinary Scholars Research Education at NC State and corresponding ...

Building upon previous research, an international team led by scientists at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, has validated a more inclusive and comprehensive genetic tool for predicting age of onset of aggressive prostate cancer, a disease that killed more than 33,000 American men in 2020. Reporting in the February 23, 2021 online edition of Nature Communications, the researchers describe the performance of a polygenic hazard score (PHS) -- a mathematical estimate of an individuals' age-specific genetic risk for developing a disease -- in a multi-ethnic patient population. "Genetic tools to predict a man's lifetime risk of prostate cancer might allow us to target cancer screening efforts to the men who are most likely to need it. We are ...

MINNEAPOLIS/ST.PAUL (02/23/2021) -- University of Minnesota Medical School researchers have developed two new rapid diagnostic tests for COVID-19 - one to detect COVID-19 variants and one to help differentiate with other illnesses that have COVID-19-like symptoms. The findings were recently published in the journal Bioengineering. Although many people are hopeful about COVID-19 vaccines, widespread vaccine distribution isn't predicted to be available until several months from now. Until that happens, the ability to diagnose COVID-19 quickly and accurately is crucial to help minimize loss of life and ...

Shipping traffic can be a major source of tiny plastic particles floating in the sea, especially out in the open ocean. In a paper published in the scientific journal Environmental Science & Technology, a team of German environmental geochemists based at the University of Oldenburg's Institute of Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment and led by Dr Barbara Scholz-Boettcher for the first time provides an overview of microplastics mass distribution in the North Sea. The scientists found that most of the plastic particles in water samples taken from the German Bight, an area in the south-eastern corner of the North Sea which encompasses some of the world's busiest shipping lanes, originate from binders used in marine paints. "Our hypothesis is that ships leave ...

A recommendation for more intensive blood pressure management from an influential global nonprofit that publishes clinical practice guidelines in kidney disease could, if followed, benefit nearly 25 million Americans, according to an analysis led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The new recommendation from Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes, a global nonprofit that develops evidence-based clinical practice guidelines in kidney disease, is aimed at doctors to help them to reduce blood pressure for chronic kidney disease patients whose systolic blood pressure levels are over 120 mmHg. Blood pressure can be reduced using antihypertensive medications and lifestyle modifications. ...

Multi-ethnic neighborhoods in England retain their diversity and are much more stable than such neighborhoods in the U.S., according to geographers from the U.S. and U.K. The team examined how neighborhood diversity has changed on a national scale from 1991 to 2011 using U.K. Census data. Past studies of this kind have often focused on neighborhoods in which the presence of two or three different ethnic groups constituted a diverse neighborhood but this study applied a more rigorous standard. A multi-ethnic neighborhood had to have at least five or more ethnic groups represented and no group could represent more ...

The cocktail of beneficial bacteria passed from mother to infant through breast milk changes significantly over time and could act like a daily booster shot for infant immunity and metabolism. The research, conducted by scientists from Montreal and Guatemala and published in Frontiers in Microbiology, has important implications for infant development and health. Researchers discovered a range of microbiome species never before identified in human milk. Until now, relatively little was known about the role microbiome bacteria play in breast milk. These bacteria are thought to protect the infant gastrointestinal tract and improve aspects of long-term health, such as allergy ...