A machine learning model equipped with only data on people’s age, smoking duration and the number of cigarettes smoked per day can predict lung cancer risk and identify who needs lung cancer screening, according to a new study publishing October 3rd in the open access journal PLOS Medicine by Thomas Callender of University College London, UK, and colleagues. Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death worldwide, with poor survival in the absence of early detection. Screening for lung cancer among those at highest risk could reduce ...

Residents of rural counties have overall worse health outcomes than their urban counterparts. A study published in PLOS Global Public Health  by William Weeks at Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington, United States and colleagues introduces a Health Equity Dashboard for policy makers to visualize health disparities in specific locations, and to examine the relationship between health-related measures and socio-demographic characteristics. Despite overall decreasing mortality rates prior to 2020, health disparities between rural and urban areas in the United States have increased. To better understand inequities in health-related measures between rural and non-rural populations, ...

Food insecurity is four times higher in Brazilian households headed by single women of colour than those headed by married white men, according to research published in the open access journal PLOS Global Public Health. Gender inequities, skin colour and children in the home increase the risk of food insecurity and the authors argue that policy makers need to consider intersectionality in programmes to reduce it. In 2021 there were 2.37 billion people suffering from food insecurity, with prevalence higher among women than men. The gender gap has increased in recent years, especially in the economic crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — A recent study based on real-world community patient data confirms the effectiveness of the Pooled Cohort Equation (PCE), developed by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology in 2013. The PCE is used to estimate a person's 10-year risk of developing clogged arteries, also known as atherosclerosis, and guide heart attack and stroke prevention efforts. Study findings are published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The new study highlights to patients and clinicians the continued reliability and effectiveness of the PCE as a tool for assessing cardiovascular risk, regardless of statin use to lower ...

On 27 September 2023, during a specialised symposium on DNA barcoding at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the Bulgarian Barcode of Life (BgBOL), a Bulgarian DNA barcoding consortium, was founded. By becoming the latest national node to join the International Barcode of Life Consortium (iBOL), the main task before BgBOL will be to coordinate, support, and promote DNA barcoding research in Bulgaria, with a primary focus on the study and preservation of the country's biodiversity. “The Bulgarian Barcode of Life opens up new horizons and opportunities to study and understand the biodiversity ...

On-Yee Lo, PhD, Assistant Scientist II at the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife and Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, is among the awardees of the 2023 Healthy Longevity Catalyst Awards by the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) together with eight global collaborators representing over 50 countries and territories. Lo, the principal investigator, and her colleagues were honored for the work with brain stimulation targeting shared networks to improve physical and cognitive ...

University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) researchers, as part of the Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Consortium (IDCRC), provided an interim analysis showing that the pentavalent (NmCV-5) meningitis vaccine is safe for use in 9-month-old infants in the meningitis belt of sub-Saharan Africa. They presented their results to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization on September 26. SAGE recommended that all countries in the African meningitis belt introduce the novel pentavalent meningococcal ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – A renter doesn’t generally hold much sway with a landlord or management company, but when tenants organize, their power can be formidable. Jamila Michener, associate professor of government and public policy, who has spent years researching tenant organizing, asserts that tenants acting collectively can wield power in “Racism, Power, And Health Equity: The Case Of Tenant Organizing,” which published Oct. 2 in Health Affairs. “It can feel like these families ...

Targeting Mitochondria 2023 Location: Steigenberger Hotel Am Kanzleramt, Berlin  Date: October 11-13 Network with over 210 participants and stay updated with the latest advancements and research on mitochondria. With more than 83 communications, this year's event promises to expand your understanding of mitochondria and its pivotal role in health and disease. Mitochondria will pave the way for the next breakthroughs in medicine, stated Prof. Volkmar Weissig, president of the World Mitochondria Society (WMS), and Prof. Marvin Edeas Chairman of the scientific committee. We are impressed with the caliber of speakers and the groundbreaking ...

A new compound developed at the University of Illinois Chicago potentially could offer an alternative to injections for the millions of people who suffer from an eye condition that causes blindness. Wet age-related macular degeneration causes vision loss due to the uncontrolled growth and leakage of blood vessels in the back of the eye. A new paper in Cell Reports Medicine led by UIC researcher Yulia Komarova finds that a small-molecule inhibitor can reverse damage from AMD and promote regenerative and healing processes.  The drug can also be delivered via eyedrops — an improvement over current ...

Graduate Suraj Sudera created an AI powered grill to cook the perfect steak. His love of engineering led him to create the device called Perfecta™ He founded Birmingham based start-up SEERGRILLS which applies AI and advanced technologies to improve cooking.   An Aston University engineering graduate has created the world’s first AI powered grill. Suraj Sudera has created a cooking device called Perfecta™ which cooks the perfect steak in 90 seconds. Suraj graduated from Aston University in 2015 with a BEng in Mechanical Engineering and ...

INDIANAPOLIS— A breast cancer researcher at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center received a five-year, $2.2 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to examine how certain immune cells support metastatic breast cancer development—and how to stop it. Cells called macrophages usually perform essential tasks as part of the immune system, but breast cancer cells can hijack them to protect cancer cells and help them grow. When this happens, they become tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). “Our goal is to interrupt that communication process between those two cell ...

SAN DIEGO, October 3, 2023 — Using previously taken diagnostic computed tomography (CT) scans in place of CT simulation scans to plan simple palliative radiation treatments can substantially reduce the time some people spend waiting for urgent treatment, improving the patient experience, a new study suggests. Patients who may benefit from this expedited process typically are experiencing pain or other debilitating symptoms, such as an airway blockage. Relying upon existing, recent scans instead of taking new ones reduced the time these patients spent at a cancer treatment center, from nearly five hours to under 30 minutes, ...

New findings may take scientists a step closer to understanding what causes SUDEP—Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy—a rare but fatal complication of epilepsy.  There are about 3,000 deaths from SUDEP each year in the U.S. The biggest risk factor is epilepsy that is not well controlled with medication or surgery, but the exact cause of SUDEP is not known. However, increasing evidence suggests that loss of breathing, or apnea, that persists after a seizure is a major cause of SUDEP.  In the new study, University of Iowa neuroscientists found that stimulating a specific ...

Using laboratory-grown cells from humans and genetically engineered mice, scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine say they have evidence that modifying a specific protein in immune white blood cells known as CD8+ T cells can make the cells more robust, potentially opening the door for better use of people’s own immune system T cells to fight cancer. The findings were published Oct. 3 in the journal JCI-Insight. “Maximizing the effectiveness of T-cell-based therapies remains a critical challenge,” says David Kass, M.D., Abraham and Virginia Weiss Professor of Cardiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of ...

Crop modification can be traced to the beginning of agriculture and human civilization. Native Americans, for example, developed corn from a wild grass called teosinte more than 7,000 years ago. Methods to increase crop resiliency and sustainability have evolved, and improved, over time. Biotechnology, or the use of biology to develop new products and organisms, is an application that holds great promise for impactful changes to the agricultural systems. Through this method, the DNA in plant cells is modified — for instance ...

Washington, D.C. – Registration is open for the 34th National Science Bowl® (NSB), hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science. Thousands of students compete in the contest annually as it has grown into one of the largest academic math and science competitions in the country. Teams – four or five students and a teacher who serves as a coach – can sign up to participate in the NSB by registering with the coordinator for their regional competition. Details can be found on the NSB registration page. The competition is divided into two categories: high school and middle school. Regional competitions typically last one or two days ...

Individual neighbourhoods will be intimately involved in providing local solutions to collective problems. One measure will be distributed renewable energy production — energy produced at local levels, either by solar technology, wind or other methods, will push cities to achieve their net-zero targets. However, even these power-generating neighbourhoods will remain vulnerable to power outages resulting from natural disasters such as hurricanes, fires or floods. And all of these are likely to become increasingly common due to the effects of climate change. ...

The increasingly urgent climate crisis has led to a boom in commercial tree plantations in an attempt to offset excess carbon emissions. However, authors of a peer-reviewed opinion paper publishing October 3 in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution argue that these carbon-offset plantations might come with costs for biodiversity and other ecosystem functions. Instead, the authors say we should prioritize conserving and restoring intact ecosystems. “Despite the broad range of ecosystem functions and services provided ...

CINCINNATI—Until the COVID-19 pandemic exploded, few people outside of research labs and intensive care units had heard of a cytokine storm. But once this dangerous form of infection-triggered runaway inflammation started claiming lives by the thousands, a legion of scientists jumped into the hunt for ways to calm these storms. Now, a study led by immunobiology experts at Cincinnati Children’s, offers important new details on how two elements of our body’s immune system clash with each other to prompt a chain of reactions that can release deadly floods of cell-killing, organ-damaging ...

About The Study: The results of this meta-analysis indicate that adherence to continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) was associated with a reduced major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular event recurrence risk, suggesting that treatment adherence is a key factor in secondary cardiovascular prevention in patients with obstructive sleep apnea. Authors: Ferran Barbé, M.D., of the Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Respiratorias (CIBERES) in Madrid, is the corresponding author. To access the ...

Spending on mental health services for children and adolescents has risen by more than one-quarter since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, continuing to rise even as the use of telehealth plateaued, according to a new RAND Corporation study.   Spending on mental health for people aged 19 and younger rose by 26% from March 2020 to August 2022 among a large group whose families have employer-provided insurance. During the same period, use of mental health services increased by 22%.   The study found that use of telehealth for pediatric patients increased more than 30-fold during the early months of the pandemic and remained ...

Key takeaways  A tool for evaluating the overall cost of a surgical procedure, called a scorecard, helps reduce costs of surgical procedures between 5% and 20% without adversely affecting clinical outcomes.   Further implementation of scorecards may move surgeons toward energy-efficient operating rooms, which are the largest hospital producer of emissions and waste.    CHICAGO (October 3, 2023): Surgical scorecards, a tool that gives direct feedback ...

About The Study: After comparing mental health care service utilization and spending rates for children and youths with commercial insurance across three periods from January 2019 through August 2022, this study found differences between periods as well as different rates of change within each period for both visit types (in-person and telehealth), even after accounting for state and patient sex. Utilization and spending increased over the entire timeframe. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, anxiety disorders, and adjustment disorder accounted for most visits and spending in all phases. Authors: Mariah ...

About The Study: This study found an increasing trend in psychotropic medication dispensation among Swedish children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes from 2006 to 2019, persistently higher than those without type 1 diabetes. These findings call for further in-depth investigations into the benefits and risks of psychotropic medications within this population and highlight the importance of integrating pediatric diabetes care and mental health care for early detection of psychological needs and careful monitoring of medication use. Authors: Shengxin ...