Experiences of Latinx individuals hospitalized for COVID-19

What The Study Did: This randomized clinical trial evaluated the effect on patient perceptions of communication, trust and empathy of surgeons who wore clear masks that showed their faces versus standard masks that obscured them during outpatient clinic visits. Authors: Muneera R. Kapadia, M.D., M.M.E., of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2021.0836) Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support. INFORMATION: Media advisory: The full ...

What The Study Did: Researchers sought to quantify cancer surgical backlog and determine whether there were differences in sociodemographic and hospital characteristics among patients undergoing cancer surgery before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Authors: Antoine Eskander, M.D., Sc.M., of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Canada, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.1104) Editor's Note: The article includes ...

What The Study Did: In this study of face mask fit among people in China, although most people used face masks in public places, compromised protection due to suboptimal airtightness was common. The simple approach of sealing the upper edge of the face mask with an adhesive tape strip was associated with substantially improved its airtightness. Authors: Lin Duo, Ph.D., of Fuwai Yunnan Cardiovascular Hospital in Kunming, China, and Chengye Sun, Ph.D., of the National Institute of Occupational Health and Poison Control, Chinese Center for Disease ...

S-acylation is the process of chemically linking a lipid to protein via a thioester bond. It is an important process of the cell that regulates the localization and function of numerous proteins. It promotes lipid membrane association of the protein, for instance to the plasma membrane, Golgi apparatus, or inner nuclear membrane. Like most biochemical processes in the cell, protein S-acylation is reversible to regulate the functions of acylated proteins. S-acylation is reversed by the enzymes acyl protein thioesterases (APTs). To do their work, APTs have to interact with the lipid membranes that their target proteins are bound to. But even though APTs are central to the important acylation deacylation process little is known about how APTs carry ...

Every year, a new growth layer is added to the narwhal's spiralled tusk. The individual layers act as an archive of data that reveals what and where the animal has eaten, providing a glimpse of how the ice and environmental conditions have changed over its long life span (up to 50 years). Same as rings in a tree trunk, every year a new growth layer is added to the narwhal's tusk, which grows longer and thicker throughout the animals life. Because the tusk is connected to the rest of body through blood, each new growth layer records aspects of animal physiology during the year it was formed. An international team of researchers ...

Philadelphia, March 11, 2021--Researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have identified genes responsible for hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) regeneration via the assembly of the ribosome, the protein factories in cells that translate mRNA sequences into amino acid sequences. The findings, which were published in Cell Stem Cell, highlight the importance of proper ribosome assembly in stem cell regeneration and identify possible targets for future therapies for ribosomopathies, childhood disorders that lead to bone marrow failure (BMF). "Although previous research showed that ...

BOSTON - In the last two decades, immunotherapy has emerged as a leading treatment for advanced renal carcinoma cancer (more commonly known as kidney cancer). This therapy is now part of the standard of care, but it doesn't work for all patients, and almost all patients, no matter how they respond initially, become more resistant to treatment over time. The immune system plays a critical role in kidney cancer disease progression and in response to therapies, and so a fundamental challenge in the field is to understand the underlying "immune circuitry" of this disease. In two new studies published today in Cancer Cell, researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard used the emerging ...

For decades, researchers assumed the cosmic rays that regularly bombard Earth from the far reaches of the galaxy are born when stars go supernova -- when they grow too massive to support the fusion occurring at their cores and explode. Those gigantic explosions do indeed propel atomic particles at the speed of light great distances. However, new research suggests even supernovae -- capable of devouring entire solar systems -- are not strong enough to imbue particles with the sustained energies needed to reach petaelectronvolts (PeVs), the amount of kinetic energy attained by very high-energy cosmic rays. And yet cosmic rays have been observed striking Earth's atmosphere at exactly those velocities, their passage marked, for example, by the detection ...

CHAPEL HILL, NC - A first-of-its-kind study out today in JAMA Surgery suggests that patients have a more difficult time understanding and building trust with their surgeons when they cannot see the surgeon's entire face due to masking requirements. These findings have major implications for not only how surgeons are viewed and rated by their patients, but also how well a patient does during and after a surgical procedure. "At beginning of pandemic I had a patient say, 'Dr. Kapadia, it's odd you've taken out a big part of my colon and I don't even know what you look like,'" Muneera Kapadia, MD, the study's senior author said. "It made me realize we don't have much information ...

Volcanologists do what they can to provide the public enough warning about impending eruptions, but volcanoes are notoriously unpredictable. Alerts are sometimes given with little time for people to react. That may soon change. Work led by research assistant professor Társilo Girona, with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, has revealed a method by which scientists -- and the public -- can have perhaps years of advance warning about a potential eruption. The solution lies in regular and widespread monitoring of the radiant temperature of a volcano's flanks before the appearance of any of the usual warning ...