A study conducted by researchers affiliated with the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil concluded that particles of glitter can hinder the growth of organisms at the base of aquatic ecosystems, such as cyanobacteria (blue-green algae), which play a key role in the biogeochemical cycles of water and soil, as well as being eaten by other organisms. An article on the study is published in the journal Aquatic Toxicology. Ubiquitous in makeup, nail polish, holiday decorations, greeting cards, Carnival costumes and many other places, glitter sticks to skin and clothes and requires a lot of effort to remove. It is made up of microplastics, tiny particles ...

Paper Title: Outpatient cervical ripening and labor induction with low-dose vaginal misoprostol reduces the interval to delivery: A systematic review and network meta-analysis Journal: American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, July 2023 Authors: Joanne L. Stone, MD, MSHCDL, Professor and System Chair of the Raquel and Jaime Gilinski Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Rachel Meislin, MD, Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellow at Mount Sinai Hospital; and other coauthors. Bottom Line: While prior research and analysis have evaluated methods of outpatient labor ...

HOUSTON (Aug. 22, 2023) — The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) recently awarded The Texas Heart Institute® (THI) a two-year, $1.14 million grant to develop a novel, first-in-class drug to treat cardiovascular disease (CVD) as a significant improvement to current treatment regimens — specifically for adverse events arising from atherosclerosis.   Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimating that one person dies from CVD every 33 seconds in the United States, accounting for one in every five deaths in 2021.   CVD leads to heart ...

SAN ANTONIO (Aug. 22, 2023) — The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (also called UT Health San Antonio) and seven regional collaborators will leverage $46 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) over the next five to seven years to translate scientific discoveries into therapeutic benefits for human health and well-being. A key focus will be reducing health disparities among Mexican Americans, active military personnel and veterans. William L. Henrich, ...

The management of working capital — or a firm’s current assets minus its current liabilities — aids organizations in making efficient use of their existing assets and maximizing cash flow. The relationship between efficient working capital management and firm performance can be complex due to globally dispersed supply chains, number of suppliers and product variety, and technological uncertainty, among other factors. New research from the University of Notre Dame shows that information technology represents a critical investment that ...

BERLIN, Germany – Stealth BioTherapeutics, a front-runner in the world of mitochondrial medicine, is set to unveil its latest breakthroughs at the much-anticipated Targeting Mitochondria 2023 conference in Berlin this October. Dr. David A. Brown, Vice President of Mitochondrial Research at Stealth BioTherapeutics, is slated to give an enlightening talk titled, “Translational insights from targeting mitochondria in rare diseases.” His presentation promises to provide insights into Stealth’s progress in clinical programs, with updates on their advancements in addressing rare mitochondrial diseases across several Phase 2/3 clinical trials. ...

Cellular solids are materials composed of many cells that have been packed together, such as a honeycomb. The shape of those cells largely determines the material’s mechanical properties, including its stiffness or strength. Bones, for instance, are filled with a natural      material that enables them to be lightweight, but stiff and strong.  Inspired by bones and other cellular solids found in nature, humans have used the same concept ...

A University of Houston researcher is launching a new study to examine how elementary schools across Texas and Florida identify specific learning disabilities in students, with the goal of improving processes so children with significant academic difficulties can succeed. Jeremy Miciak, research associate professor of psychology at the University of Houston’s Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics, was awarded a $1.7 million grant from the National Center for Special Education Research at the Institute of Education Sciences, the research arm ...

“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to have demonstrated the preventive effect of AF ablation on long-term AF-related cardiovascular events in very old patients with NVAF.” BUFFALO, NY- August 22, 2023 – A new research paper was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 15, Issue 15, entitled, “Cardiovascular events and death after catheter ablation in very old patients with nonvalvular ...

More and more bacterial pathogens are developing resistance. There is an increasing risk that common drugs will no longer be effective against infectious diseases. That is why scientists around the world are searching for new effective substances. Researchers from the University of Bonn, the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Utrecht University (Netherlands), Northeastern University in Boston (USA) and the company NovoBiotic Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge (USA) now have discovered and deciphered the mode of action of a new antibiotic. Clovibactin is derived from ...

PHILADELPHIA—(August 22, 2023)—Now, scientists at The Wistar Institute have discovered a potential target for gastric cancers associated with Epstein-Barr Virus; study results were published in the journal mBio. In the paper, Wistar’s Tempera lab investigates the epigenetic characteristics of gastric cancer associated with the Epstein-Barr Virus: EBVaGC. In evaluating EBVaGC’s epigenetics — the series of biological signals associated with the genome that determines whether a given gene is expressed — the Tempera lab ...

– By Alison Hatt The prospect of a quantum internet, connecting quantum computers and capable of highly secure data transmission, is enticing, but making it poses a formidable challenge. Transporting quantum information requires working with individual photons rather than the light sources used in conventional fiber optic networks. To produce and manipulate individual photons, scientists are turning to quantum light emitters, also known as color centers. These atomic-scale defects in semiconductor materials can emit single photons of fixed wavelength or color and allow photons to interact with electron spin properties in controlled ways.  A team ...

Scientists and imaging specialists have teamed up to help save one of the world’s most endangered groups of animals: freshwater mussels. With funding provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Conservation Training Center, imaging experts will create 3D shell models based on specimens from the Florida Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. Once complete, the models will be available online for free to educate the public about these amazing yet little-known creatures that ...

Bacteria live in nearly every habitat on earth including within soil, water, acidic hot springs and even within our own guts. Many are involved in fundamental processes like fermentation, decomposition and nitrogen fixation. But scientists don’t understand a fundamental process within bacteria cells: how they organize themselves before division. Driving vs. surfing When cells divide the cell splits into two “daughter cells” with the same genetic material as the original cell. During this process, the DNA and other cellular components replicate, and then this “cargo” ...

JMIR Nursing Editor-in-Chief: Elizabeth Borycki RN, PhD, FIAHIS, FACMI, FCAHS and theme editor Kenrick Dwain Cato, PhD, RN, CPHIMS, FAAN welcome submissions to a special theme issue examining "Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Nursing." AI is revolutionizing health care. Nurse informaticist developers, researchers, practitioners, clinicians, educators, and innovators have designed, developed, implemented, and used AI to support patients, their families, nurses and health care activities.  AI has been used to support ...

In humans, the SLC29A3 gene regulates the function of lysosomes to control waste recycling in cells such as macrophages (that engulf and destroy foreign bodies). This gene encodes for the lysosomal protein that transport nucleosides — degradation products of RNA and DNA — from lysosomes to the cytoplasm.  Loss-of-function mutations in the SLC29A3 gene lead to aberrant nucleoside storage, resulting in a spectrum of conditions called SLC29A3 disorders. These disorders can manifest in the form of pigmented skin patches, enlargement of the liver/spleen, hearing loss, or type 1 diabetes. A key manifestation of this group of disorders is histiocytosis, ...

Max Planck Florida will be able to expand their research program to investigate the neural circuits underlying Alzheimer’s disease with new support. The National Institute on Aging of the NIH has awarded Dr. Yingxue Wang $1,038,819 over three years as part of the Alzheimer’s Disease Initiative Fund. The research will shed new light on how the brain forms new memories and maintains them over time and what can lead to memory decline during Alzheimer’s Disease. Turning our daily experiences ...

Bottom Line: The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends that clinicians prescribe preexposure prophylaxis using effective antiretroviral therapy to persons at increased risk of HIV acquisition to decrease the risk of acquiring HIV. An estimated 1.2 million persons in the U.S. currently have HIV, and more than 760,000 persons have died of complications related to HIV since the first cases were reported in 1981. Although treatable, HIV is not curable and has significant health consequences. Therefore, effective strategies to prevent HIV are an important public health and ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- A few years ago while on a fishing trip in the Florida Keys, biologist Lori Schweikert came face to face with an unusual quick-change act. She reeled in a pointy-snouted reef fish called a hogfish and threw it onboard. But later when she went to put it in a cooler she noticed something odd: its skin had taken on the same color and pattern as the deck of the boat. A common fish in the western Atlantic Ocean from North Carolina to Brazil, the hogfish is known for its color-changing skin. ...

A new powerful antibiotic, isolated from bacteria that could not be studied before, seems capable to combat harmful bacteria and even multi-resistant ‘superbugs’. Named Clovibactin, the antibiotic appears to kill bacteria in an unusual way, making it more difficult for bacteria to develop any resistance against it. Researchers from Utrecht University, Bonn University (Germany), the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Northeastern University of Boston (USA), and the company NovoBiotic Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, USA) now share the discovery of Clovibactin and its killing mechanism in the scientific journal Cell. Urgent need for new antibiotics Antimicrobial ...

About The Study: In this randomized clinical trial that included 626 children, maternal structured lifestyle interventions during pregnancy based on a Mediterranean diet or mindfulness-based stress reduction significantly improved child neurodevelopmental outcomes at age 2.  Authors: Francesca Crovetto, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain, 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.2023.30255) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including ...

About The Study: In this study of human-written and artificial intelligence (AI)-generated responses to 200 eye care questions from an online advice forum, a chatbot appeared capable of responding to long user-written eye health posts and largely generated appropriate responses that did not differ significantly from ophthalmologist-written responses in terms of incorrect information, likelihood of harm, extent of harm, or deviation from ophthalmologist community standards.   Authors: Sophia Y. Wang, M.D., M.S., of Stanford University in Stanford, California, is the corresponding author.   To access the embargoed ...

WASHINGTON, August 22, 2023 – Millions of people around the world experience some form of hearing loss, resulting in negative impacts to their health and quality of life. Treatments exist in the form of hearing aids and cochlear implants, but these assistive devices cannot replace the full functionality of human hearing and remain inaccessible for most people. Auditory experiences, such as speech and music, are affected the most. In JASA, published on behalf of the Acoustical Society of America by AIP Publishing, researchers from the University of Oldenburg studied the impact of hearing loss on subjects’ enjoyment of different ...

LA JOLLA (August 22, 2023)—The prevalence of colorectal cancer in people under the age of 50 has risen in recent decades. One suspected reason: the increasing rate of obesity and high-fat diets. Now, researchers at the Salk Institute and UC San Diego have discovered how high-fat diets can change gut bacteria and alter digestive molecules called bile acids that are modified by those bacteria, predisposing mice to colorectal cancer.   In the study, published in Cell Reports on August 22, 2023, the team found increased levels of specific gut bacteria in mice fed high-fat diets. Those gut bacteria, they ...

(Boston)—For more than 100 years, it has been believed that sunlight and vitamin D deficiency were associated with the risk for many deadly cancers including colorectal, prostate and breast. But some scientists remained skeptical that this nutrient provides any benefit for reducing cancer risk and morbidity and mortality and several randomized controlled trials that have supported this doubt.  However, in a new commentary in JAMA Network Open, Michael F. Holick, PhD, MD, professor of medicine, pharmacology, physiology & biophysics and molecular medicine at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, explores the controversy as to ...