Research Highlights: Adults at risk for heart disease who participated in produce prescription programs for an average of six months increased their consumption of fruits and vegetables and had reduced blood pressure, body mass index and blood sugar levels. Among adults and children, produce prescription programs also appeared to decrease food insecurity — the lack of equitable and stable availability, access, affordability and consumption of healthy foods and drinks — and improve self-reported health status. Embargoed until 4 a.m. CT/5 a.m. ET Tuesday, August 29, 2023 DALLAS, August 29, 2023 — ...

Satellite data from across California’s landscapes reveal an increase in nitrogen dioxide levels in remote forest areas, and wildfire and soil emissions are likely the reasons why, according to a paper from University of California, Davis, published today in the journal Environmental Research Letters. Nitrogen dioxide is short-lived in the atmosphere but plays a central role in the formation of the pollutants ozone and particulate matter, which can lead to respiratory issues and asthma in humans, as well as harm plants and crop yields. The researchers looked at summertime surface and satellite concentrations of nitrogen dioxide between 2009 ...

Scientists at UC San Francisco are working on a new approach to treating kidney failure that could one day free people from needing dialysis or having to take harsh drugs to suppress their immune system after a transplant. They have shown for the first time that kidney cells, housed in an implantable device called a bioreactor, can survive inside the body of a pig and mimic several important kidney functions. The device can work quietly in the background, like a pacemaker, and does not trigger the recipient’s immune system to go on the attack. The ...

Several major childhood allergies may all stem from the community of bacteria living in our gut, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of British Columbia and BC Children’s Hospital.  The research, published in Nature Communications, identifies gut microbiome features and early life influences that are associated with children developing any of four common allergies — eczema, asthma, food allergy and/or hay fever. The findings could lead to methods of predicting whether a child will develop allergies, and ways to prevent them from developing at all. “We’re ...

Around the country, non-profits and local governments are testing the idea of food as medicine through “produce prescription programs”—with promising results, according to researchers from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. By prescribing free, healthy foods similar to how doctors prescribe medications, clinicians and policy makers hope to remove financial barriers to accessing fruits and vegetables to individuals with diet-related illness. Specifically, produce prescriptions offer vouchers, debit cards, or loyalty cards to access free or discounted produce at grocery retail ...

**EMBARGOED UNTIL 3:00am CT TUESDAY, AUGUST 29, 2023**   Tulsa, Okla. – A trailblazing study conducted by researchers at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research (LIBR) in Tulsa, Okla., has made significant strides with a novel technique for treating anorexia nervosa (AN), an eating disorder characterized by low body weight, body image abnormalities, and anxiety. The study, “The impact of floatation therapy on body image and anxiety in anorexia nervosa: a randomized clinical efficacy ...

Launched in 2019, the Botnar Research Centre for Child Health (BRCCH) aims to drive innovative health research that benefits children and adolescents globally – especially those living in low- or middle-income countries. Within this centre, the University of Basel and ETH Zurich work in partnership with the University Children’s Hospital Basel (UKBB) and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH). Over the past four years, the BRCCH has supported around 80 researchers and 29 research projects worldwide. For example, researchers improved the treatment of cleft lip and palate and developed biotechnology to monitor paediatric gut ...

Reaching the age of 90, 95 or 100, known as exceptional longevity, was more likely for women who maintained their body weight after age 60, according to a multi-institutional study led by University of California San Diego. Older women who sustained a stable weight were 1.2 to 2 times more likely to achieve longevity compared to those who experience a weigh loss of 5 percent or more. Reporting in the Aug. 29, 2023 online issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences, researchers investigated the associations of weight changes later in life with exceptional longevity ...

As global pollution edged upward in 2021, so did its burden on human health, according to new data from the Air Quality Life Index (AQLI). If the world were to permanently reduce fine particulate pollution (PM2.5) to meet the World Health Organization’s (WHO) guideline, the average person would add 2.3 years onto their life expectancy—or a combined 17.8 billion life-years saved worldwide. This data makes clear that particulate pollution remains the world’s greatest external risk to human health, with the impact on life expectancy comparable to that of smoking, more than 3 times that of alcohol use and unsafe water, and more than ...

Fe–S clusters, which are a part of Fe–S proteins, are found across all forms of life. They play a significant role as biological cofactors—helper molecules that assist these proteins in different biochemical transformations—that are involved in respiration and metabolism. These clusters are of keen research interest since they are considered to be a critical part of evolution. They serve as a link between pre-biotic chemistry (chemical processes that existed prior to the emergence of life forms) and the complex molecular and biological systems we know today. Put simply, they ...

The number of women imprisoned in Australia has jumped by 64% in the past decade, leaving thousands of children separated from their mothers and causing huge stress to both parties. In a bid to ease the strain of separation and maintain the mother-child bond, a new prison parenting program has been developed in close collaboration with women in prison as well as prison staff and key members of the Aboriginal community in South Australia. The Mothers Matter program, led by University of South Australia midwife and researcher Belinda Lovell, includes direct input from Aboriginal and/or Torres ...

After a nearly threefold drop in prescriptions for the antibiotic ciprofloxacin between 2015 and 2021, the rates of ciprofloxacin-resistant E. coli bacteria circulating in the community did not decline. In fact, a study of Seattle-area women over age 50 who had not taken any antibiotics for at least a year discovered that the incidence of gut-colonizing ciprofloxacin-resistant E. coli actually increased. About 1 in 5 women in the study were affected. Scientists at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute and Seattle Children’s Hospital ...

National University of Singapore (NUS) physicists have developed a technique to precisely control the alignment of supermoiré lattices by using a set of golden rules, paving the way for the advancement of next generation moiré quantum matter. Moiré patterns are formed when two identical periodic structures are overlaid with a relative twist angle between them or two different periodic structures but overlaid with or without twist angle. The twist angle is the angle between the crystallographic orientations of the two structures. For example, when graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) which are layered materials are overlaid on each other, the atoms in the ...

A team of clinicians, exercise scientists, pharmaceutical scholars, ethicists and behavioral experts at the University of California, Irvine, outlined their concerns that the use of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) to treat childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes may have unintended and adverse consequences for children’s health. The commentary, Unintended Consequences of Glucagon-like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonists Medication in Children and Adolescents – A Call to Action, was published as a perspective in the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science. The article was led by Dan M. Cooper, MD, distinguished professor in the Department of Pediatrics ...

Playing a Mozart lullaby may help reduce the pain experienced by newborn babies undergoing a heel prick blood test, according to a randomised, blinded clinical trial involving 100 infants published in Pediatric Research. Saminathan Anbalagan and colleagues measured the pain levels of newborn infants undergoing a heel prick blood test as part of routine screening for conditions such as jaundice and phenylketonuria (PKU) in New York City, New York, USA between April 2019 and February 2020. Infants were, on average, two days old and born at 39 gestational weeks, while 53% were male and 61% were Hispanic. As part of standard care, all infants ...

  High-quality sequencing of nearly the entire kākāpō population, funded through a Genomics Aotearoa project, is helping New Zealand to manage the health of this critically endangered species. Not only is it already making a difference to kākāpō survival, but establishing sequencing methods to work with populations under threat is also likely to be the foundation for the future of endangered wildlife science in New Zealand and the rest of the world. The state-of-the-art methods developed by Dr. Joseph Guhlin ...

Transferring optical information in free space with large bandwidth and high transmission capacity has gained significant attention in various applications, such as remote sensing, underwater communication, and medical devices. Nevertheless, unpredictable, unknown phase perturbations or random diffusers within the optical path pose great challenges, limiting the high-fidelity transmission of optical data in free space. Adaptive optics presents a potential solution that can correct for random distortions ...

Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday 28 August 2023 Annals of Internal Medicine Tip Sheet @Annalsofim Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also on behalf of the ...

Imagine if you could build an electronic device made entirely of paper. A nontoxic, cost-effective and biodegradable alternative to silicon- and plastic-based components would be a game-changer for a planet quickly filling up with the “e-waste” of discarded gadgets and single-use sensors. That’s the vision of Binghamton University Professor Seokheun (Sean) Choi. He’s worked for years creating better biobatteries that use bacteria or human sweat to generate energy. Some of those batteries have been paper-based, and now he hopes to apply that knowledge to ...

DURHAM, N.C. – Researchers at Duke University have implemented a quantum-based method to observe a quantum effect in the way light-absorbing molecules interact with incoming photons. Known as a conical intersection, the effect puts limitations on the paths molecules can take to change between different configurations. The observation method makes use of a quantum simulator, developed from research in quantum computing, and addresses a long-standing, fundamental question in chemistry critical to processes such as photosynthesis, vision and photocatalysis. It is also an example of ...

Before heading to work each day, most people have spent the night dreaming. Studies show that on any given morning, about 40 percent of the working population recalls their dreams. New research from the University of Notre Dame shows that when dreams are first recalled, people often draw connections between their dreams and waking lives, and the connections they draw alter how they think, feel and act at work. “A Spillover Model of Dreams and Work Behavior: How Dream Meaning Ascription Promotes Awe and Employee Resilience” is forthcoming in the Academy of Management Journal from lead author Casher Belinda, assistant professor ...

In the innovation economy, individuals with STEM PhDs are a critical source of human capital, with nearly 60 percent of PhDs in STEM fields— such as engineering, chemistry and biology—being employed outside of universities. These  students are increasingly contributing to commercial science through patenting. New research from MIT Sloan School of Management and Copenhagen Business School investigated the training of these PhD students to better understand the pipeline and preparation of new inventors.    Conducted by Fiona Murray, MIT Sloan professor and associate dean for Innovation and Inclusion, ...

Four new innovators recently joined Chain Reaction Innovations (CRI), the Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Argonne National Laboratory, as part of the program’s seventh cohort.  Each innovator will collaborate with a host scientist at Argonne while embedded full-time at the laboratory. Innovators plan to develop clean energy startups that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase U.S. competitiveness in emerging energy technologies. The ...

An international research team including the University of Göttingen has described seven previously unknown species of leaf insects, also known as walking leaves. The insects belong to the stick and leaf insect order, which are known for their unusual appearance: they look confusingly similar to parts of plants such as twigs, bark or – in the case of leaf insects – leaves. This sophisticated camouflage provides excellent protection from predators as well as presenting a challenge to researchers. Genetic analysis enabled the researchers to discover “cryptic species”, which cannot be distinguished by their external appearance alone. The findings are not only ...

Contact: Maria Ober, 617-224-8963, mpober@bu.edu Preparing Clinicians for the International Anti-LGBTQI+ Crisis Medical community should build systems that are responsive to this population (Boston)—Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and additional sexual and gender minority (LGBTQI+) people in every region of the world face marginalization and oppression. At least 67 countries ban sexual conduct between consenting adults of the same sex. According to a report from the ...