Media Contact: Robin.Marks@ucsf.edu, (415) 502-6397 Subscribe to UCSF News Taming Parkinson’s Disease with Intelligent Brain Pacemakers UCSF studies show personalized, self-adjusting, neuromodulation has the potential to enhance movement and sleep. Two new studies from UC San Francisco are pointing the way toward round-the-clock personalized care for people with Parkinson’s disease through an implanted device that can treat movement problems during the day and insomnia at night.  The approach, called adaptive deep brain stimulation, or aDBS, uses methods derived from AI to ...

A small feasibility study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that an implanted device regulated by the body’s brain activity could provide continual and improved treatment for the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD) in certain people with the disorder. This type of treatment, called adaptive deep brain stimulation (aDBS), is an improvement on a technique that has been used for PD and other brain disorders for many years. The study found aDBS was markedly more effective at controlling PD symptoms compared to conventional DBS treatments. “This study marks a big step forward towards ...

About The Study: Although firearm homicide mortality increased after Florida’s red flag law enactment (permitting the temporary removal of firearms by law enforcement officers from individuals posing a danger to themselves or others), this increase was lower than expected compared with its synthetic control, resulting in an 11% rate reduction (0.73 fewer deaths per 100,000). There were no differences from expected mortality rates for nonfirearm homicide, firearm suicide, or nonfirearm suicide. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Catherine Gimbrone, MPH, email c.gimbrone@columbia.edu. To ...

U.S. pediatric inpatient psychiatric bed capacity did not change 2017 – 2020, despite increases in pediatric mental health emergency visits, according to a study published in JAMA Pediatrics. Researchers also found substantial geographic variation in inpatient psychiatric bed capacity per 100,000 children, ranging from zero in Alaska to 75 in Arkansas. Over 90 percent of pediatric inpatient beds are in urban centers, raising concerns for youth living in rural areas. “Access to psychiatric inpatient care for youth is insufficient to meet the growing demand, forcing patients to wait for hours or even days in emergency departments or on medical units until a psychiatric bed becomes ...

A new study led by the University of Southampton has found that using temporary nursing staff to fill rotas only partially combats an increased risk of patient death associated with staff shortages. Researchers found that avoiding low nurse staffing levels lowers the risk of death among patients – particularly even when drafting in temporary registered nurses to maintain staffing levels. However, despite this, the risk of death remains elevated compared to when the ward is fully staffed by permanent nurses. Findings from the ...

About The Study: Scalable telehealth mindfulness-based interventions improved pain-related function and biopsychosocial outcomes compared to usual care among veterans with chronic pain in this randomized clinical trial. Relatively low-resource telehealth-based mindfulness-based interventions could help accelerate and improve the implementation of nonpharmacological pain treatment in health care systems. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Diana J. Burgess, PhD, email diana.burgess@va.gov. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website ...

About The Study: Expanded Child Tax Credit (ECTC) enactment was associated with substantially lower food insecurity, and ECTC expiration was associated with substantially greater food insecurity in this cohort study. Key features of the ECTC—monthly payments and no earnings requirements—may be important for food insecurity prevention. Future studies should examine this, along with income as a potential effect modifier.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, ...

About The Study: The machine learning model developed in this study shows promise in the early identification of individuals with an elevated likelihood of autism spectrum disorder, using minimal information, which could affect early diagnosis and intervention strategies.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Kristiina Tammimies, PhD, email kristiina.tammimies@ki.se. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.29229) Editor’s ...

A new machine learning model can predict autism in young children from relatively limited information. This is shown in a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in JAMA Network Open. The model can facilitate early detection of autism, which is important to provide the right support. “With an accuracy of almost 80 percent for children under the age of two, we hope that this will be a valuable tool for healthcare,” says Kristiina Tammimies, Associate Professor at KIND, the Department of Women's and Children's Health, Karolinska Institutet and last author of the study. The research team used a large US database (SPARK) ...

More than half of women globally experience bacterial vaginosis (BV) — an imbalance of naturally occurring microbes in the female genital tract — at least once in their life. The condition can cause painful symptoms and vaginal discharge, and although treatable with antibiotics, it frequently comes back within a short time. If left untreated, BV can lead to problems with pregnancy and an increased risk of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. A team of researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; the Ragon Institute of Mass General ...

Mitral regurgitation (MR) is a serious heart condition that often requires corrective surgery. It is characterized by the backflow or "regurgitation" of blood from the heart's left ventricle into the left atrium. Atrial Functional Mitral Regurgitation (AFMR), characterized by normal mitral valve (MV) function and left ventricular function but with atrial dilation and defects in the ring-like structure that supports the MV leaflets (mitral annulus), poses diagnostic and therapeutic challenges due to its distinct pathophysiological mechanisms. Historically, studies on AFMR have been limited by small ...

The sea anemone Nematostella vectensis is potentially immortal. Using molecular genetic methods, developmental biologists led by Ulrich Technau from the University of Vienna have now identified possible candidates for multipotent stem cells in the sea anemone for the first time. These stem cells are regulated by evolutionary highly conserved genes, which in humans are usually only active in the formation of egg and sperm cells, but give ancient animal phyla such as cnidarians a high degree of regenerative capacity to even escape ageing. The results are currently being published in Science Advances and could also provide insights into the human ...

Proteins left behind by COVID-19 long after initial infection can cause cortisol levels in the brain to plummet, inflame the nervous system and prime its immune cells to hyper-react when another stressor arises, according to new animal research by University of Colorado Boulder scientists. The study, published in the journal Brain Behavior and Immunity, sheds new light on what might underly the neurological symptoms of Long COVID, an intractable syndrome which impacts as many as 35% of those infected with the ...

What time the malaria-bearing mosquito bites you might make a difference Circadian rhythms appear to influence vulnerability to malaria parasites A discovery by McGill-affiliated researchers could lead to more effective treatment of malaria and other parasitic diseases. When mice are infected in the middle of the night with the parasites causing cerebral malaria, the symptoms of the disease are less severe than for those inflected during the day, and the spread of the parasites within the hosts is more limited, research teams from McGill University, the Douglas Research Centre ...

SAN ANTONIO — August 19, 2024 —Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has developed a unique technology to screen new DNA-targeting therapeutics designed to treat cancer and other diseases. Combining SwRI’s 3D drug screening software tool and machine learning techniques, SwRI scientists successfully predicted the DNA binding affinity and cancer cell toxicity for a variety of relevant drug compounds under development. SwRI expanded the capabilities of its Rhodium™ drug development tool to visualize and rapidly predict how ...

Swiping through online videos to relieve boredom may actually make people more bored and less satisfied or engaged with the content, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.    The study included seven experiments with a total of more than 1,200 participants from the United States or college students at the University of Toronto. In two baseline experiments, participants switched from one online video to the next when they were bored, and they predicted they would feel less bored by switching videos instead ...

Editor’s note: NCSA is cohosting an International Summit on a Computational System for Frontier Earth System Science and Climate Simulation & Projection September 29 through October 2, 2024 at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Toward a Computational Framework for Earth System Models at Kilometer Resolution to Support Earth System Science and Climate Projection By Kelvin K. Droegemeier, Professor of Atmospheric Science and Special Advisor to the Chancellor for Science and Policy at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Almost daily, and often without realizing it, we rely upon computers to guide our decisions. Whether finding the fastest ...

As of 2024, approximately 2.7 million Americans aged 12 and older were estimated to have misused prescription opioids in the past year. Moreover, alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, methamphetamines, among other substances, reflect a complex landscape that requires ongoing efforts aimed at prevention, treatment and policy changes to address the various issues associated with each substance. Florida Atlantic University was recently selected to participate in the National Academy of Medicine’s (NAM) Action Collaborative on Combatting Substance Use Opioid Crises Core Competency Implementation Pilot Project. To improve coordination ...

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and the epigenetics company TruDiagnostic have uncovered DNA markers associated with retroelements, remnants of ancient viral genetic material, in our genes that act as highly accurate epigenetic clocks predicting chronological age. The results support the idea that certain retroelements in the human genome may be involved in aging. Retroelements have been known to impact gene regulation, gene expression, genomic stability and the trajectory of various human diseases, but their potential as biomarkers for aging had been largely unexplored. The ...

DENVER, Aug. 19, 2024 — Heart failure is a leading cause of death worldwide and is especially fatal for people who don’t have access to medical facilities. So, a team of researchers aims to bring heart failure screening from the lab to the home. Their point-of-care electrochemical biosensor prototype, which resembles a see-through lateral flow test for COVID-19, can measure levels of two biomarkers for heart failure in as little as 15 minutes from just a drop of saliva. Trey Pittman, a graduate student at Colorado State University, will present his team’s research at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS Fall 2024 is a hybrid ...

DENVER, Aug. 19, 2024 — Children born with defects that impair the heart’s lower chambers undergo a series of invasive surgeries early in life. The first surgery includes implantation of a plastic tube called a shunt to improve blood flow. However, as children grow, the shunt is often replaced to accommodate their changing bodies. Now, researchers have designed a shunt that expands when activated by light. If developed successfully, this device could reduce the number of open-chest surgeries these children receive. The researchers will present their results at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS Fall 2024 ...

In recent years, public health measures, surveillance, and vaccination have helped bring about significant progress in reducing the impact of seasonal flu epidemics, caused by human influenza viruses A and B. However, a possible outbreak of avian influenza A (commonly known as ‘bird flu’) in mammals, including humans, poses a significant threat to public health.  The Cusack group at EMBL Grenoble studies the replication process of influenza viruses. A new study from this group sheds light on the different mutations that the avian influenza virus can undergo to be able to replicate in mammalian cells.  Some avian influenza ...

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- Energy companies use persistent and personalized pressure to get landowners to give permission for hydraulic fracturing (fracking), and even when landowners decline, companies use legalized compulsion to conduct fracking anyway, according to a new study led by researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York and UNLV. “Hydraulic fracturing is a controversial issue, but a lot of the controversy has been focused on the big-picture consequences, for the climate and the economy,” said Benjamin Farrer, lead author and former PhD student at Binghamton University. “One of our hopes for this paper is that it will encourage policymakers ...

Irvine, Calif., Aug. 19, 2024 — Cities around the globe are experiencing increased flooding due to the compounding effects of stronger storms in a warming climate and urban growth. New research from the University of California, Irvine suggests that urban form, specifically the building density and street network of a neighborhood, is also affecting the intensity of flooding. For a paper published today in Nature Communications, researchers in UC Irvine’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering turned to statistical mechanics ...

Statement Highlights: The latest research indicates that 16% to 85% of people recovering from a stroke experience at least one psychosocial symptom, including depression, anxiety, stress, fatigue and/or decreased quality of life. Critical nursing interventions, such as regular mental health screenings, education, symptom management and follow-up care, are key to reducing the negative effects on a patient’s mental well-being after a stroke, yet only a small proportion of patients receive treatment. ...