In just a few months, hospitals and health systems nationwide will start working to vaccinate as many staff as possible against the flu.  And a new study suggests that more of those hospitals than ever before will require employees to get vaccinated, or seek an exemption. That means more patients could avoid catching the flu while receiving health care -- a key goal for improving patient safety. In all, the new study shows that 96% of the hospitals that serve America’s veterans, and ...

Analysis of more than 1,500 natural conversations suggests that humans may have evolved more complex facial muscle movements to help us bond with each other. In the first part of the study, researchers posed as participants in semi-structured video calls with 52 people to record natural reactions and expressions during various everyday scenarios. The conversations were designed to involve a range of behaviours, including listening, humour, embarrassment, and conflict. To test ability to inhibit facial expression, participants were also asked to keep a still face while their partner tried to make them move. The same individuals ...

Of all the polar regions, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is the most sensitive to a warming ocean due to climate change. This is already causing a long-term ice sheet melt, and the question is how fast that melting process will take place. It may be that this enormous mass of ice already passed the tipping point, with irreversibly fast melting. This has the potential to sharply accelerate sea level rise in the near future, but the processes causing this are not yet well understood. That is why paleoclimatologists from the Faculty ...

(Toronto, June 13, 2024) JMIR Publications invites submissions to a new theme issue titled “Addressing Digital Ageism in the Modern Era” in its premier open access journal JMIR Aging, indexed in PubMed, SCOPUS, Web of Science, and DOAJ. The theme for this call was selected by the journal’s diverse audiences through a social media poll.  While digital technologies offer immense opportunities for societal progress and individual empowerment, they also bring forth new challenges, such as digital ageism. Digital ageism is discrimination against individuals based on their age within the context ...

WASHINGTON — Researchers have demonstrated a new intelligent photonic sensing-computing chip that can process, transmit and reconstruct images of a scene within nanoseconds. This advance opens the door to extremely high-speed image processing that could benefit edge intelligence for machine vision applications such as autonomous driving, industrial inspection and robotic vision. Edge computing, which performs intensive computing tasks like image processing and analysis on local devices, is evolving into edge intelligence by adding artificial intelligence (AI) driven analysis and decision-making. “Capturing, processing and analyzing images ...

ABSTRACTS: LB3439, LB3442, S131, S132, S136, S164, S222 MADRID – The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights showcases the latest breakthroughs in cancer care, research, and prevention. These advances are made possible through seamless collaboration between MD Anderson’s world-leading clinicians and scientists, bringing discoveries from the lab to the clinic and back. This special edition features presentations by MD Anderson researchers at the 2024 European Hematology Association (EHA) Congress. Triplet therapy significantly improves response rates ...

Australian researchers are developing solutions to recycle solar panels and recover strategic metals including silver and copper. In Australia alone, it’s estimated more than 100,000 tonnes of solar panels will enter the waste stream by 2035, along with billions of dollars’ worth of materials that could be recaptured. RMIT University is leading an international network of researchers working to advance the reuse and recycling of solar panels, which can contain valuable materials like lead and tin. Thursday 13 June was the opening of a work and exhibition space at engineering company EDIPAE’s ...

Ravinder Bhatia, a leader and engineer with three decades of experience managing collaborative science initiatives, is the new head of ITER projects at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL).  In this role, Bhatia oversees the design and fabrication of six diagnostic systems, or sensor systems, that PPPL is building for ITER, the multinational facility under assembly in France to study plasma that can heat itself and sustain its own fusion reactions. The diagnostics will observe the plasma within ITER to measure properties that include temperature, ...

The Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative (DAC), the global organization seeking to cure Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, today announced a new initiative in health systems in five countries to deploy blood biomarkers (BBMs) and confirmatory diagnostic testing to increase timely and accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). Led by the DAC Healthcare System Preparedness (DAC-SP) team, the Accurate Diagnosis project is the first-ever global implementation research program to study the use of blood biomarkers as part of the ADRD diagnostic ...

Researchers have engineered nanosized cubes that spontaneously form a two-dimensional checkerboard pattern when dropped on the surface of water. The work, published in Nature Communications, presents a simple approach to create complex nanostructures through a technique called self-assembly. “It’s a cool way to get materials to build themselves,” said study co-senior author Andrea Tao, a professor in the Aiiso Yufeng Li Family Department of Chemical and Nano Engineering at the University of California San Diego. “You ...

In current clinical care, most critically ill adults undergoing emergency tracheal intubation receive preoxygenation through an oxygen mask. Administering supplemental oxygen to patients prior to the start of an intubation procedure increases the oxygen content in the patient’s lungs and decreases the risk of hypoxemia, low levels of oxygen in the blood. However, hypoxemia occurs during 10% to 20% of tracheal intubations in the emergency department or intensive care unit and may lead to cardiac arrest and death.  The University of Colorado co-led a trial with Vanderbilt University that compared the two most ...

Data assimilation is a mathematical discipline that integrates observed data and numerical models to improve the interpretation and prediction of dynamical systems. It is a crucial component of earth sciences, particularly in numerical weather prediction (NWP). Data assimilation techniques have been widely investigated in NWP in the last two decades to refine the initial conditions of weather models by combining model forecasts and observational data. Most NWP centers around the world employ variational and ensemble-variational data assimilation methods, which iteratively reduce cost functions via gradient-based optimization. However, these methods require significant computational resources.   Recently, ...

When it comes to the ocean’s response to global warming, we’re not in entirely uncharted waters. A UC Riverside study shows that episodes of extreme heat in Earth’s past caused the exchange of waters from the surface to the deep ocean to decline. This system has been described as the "global conveyer belt," because it redistributes heat around the globe through the movement of the ocean waters, making large portions of the planet habitable.  Using tiny, fossilized shells recovered from ancient deep-sea sediments, the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences demonstrates how the conveyor belt responded around 50 ...

SAN DIEGO – June 13, 2024 – A combination of GLP-1 agonists taken before metabolic and bariatric surgery may help patients with extreme obesity lower the risk of post-operative complications, according to a new study* presented today at the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) 2024 Annual Scientific Meeting Patients with extreme obesity, a body mass index (BMI) of 70 or more, face a higher risk of complications from surgery compared to patients with lower BMIs. Studies have shown weight loss before surgery can mitigate risk but lifestyle intervention ...

The reason why targeted treatment for non-small cell lung cancer fails to work for some patients, particularly those who have never smoked, has been discovered by researchers from UCL, the Francis Crick Institute and AstraZeneca. The study, published in Nature Communications, shows that lung cancer cells with two particular genetic mutations are more likely to double their genome, which helps them to withstand treatment and develop resistance to it. In the UK, lung cancer is the third most common type of cancer and the leading cause of cancer death.  Around 85% of patients with lung cancer have non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and this is the most common type found in patients ...

Younger workers are struggling with feelings of loneliness and a lack of appreciation at work and tend to feel more comfortable working with people their own age, according to a survey by the American Psychological Association. The 2024 Work in America survey, conducted online by The Harris Poll of more than 2,000 working U.S. adults, found that three in 10 U.S. workers reported that people in their organization who are not close to their age do not see the value in their ideas (32%). That number was significantly higher for workers aged ...

Early detection and treatment of hereditary transthyretin-related amyloidosis via genetic counseling are crucial. Yet, not all at-risk individuals seek genetic counseling, and management for presymptomatic carriers remains unclear. To tackle these knowledge gaps, a research team from Japan conducted a retrospective study on over 200 people who sought genetic counseling at a medical center, shedding light on the current advantages and limitations of current practices.    Hereditary transthyretin-related amyloidosis (AATRv amyloidosis) is a rare inherited ...

Bottom Line: The MEK inhibitor trametinib (Mekinist) was an effective treatment for pediatric patients with relapsed or refractory juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML) enrolled in a phase II clinical trial, with seven of 10 patients alive after a median of two years. Journal in Which the Study was Published: Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Authors: The senior author is Mignon Loh, MD, who is the director of the Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer Research and the head of the Division of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology, Bone ...

A new machine-learning system developed at the University of Alaska Fairbanks can automatically produce detailed maps from satellite data to show locations of likely beetle-killed spruce trees in Alaska, even in forests of low and moderate infestation where identification is otherwise difficult. The automated process can help forestry and wildfire managers in their decisions. That’s critical as the beetle infestation spreads. The Alaska Division of Forestry and Fire Protection calls the spruce beetle “the most damaging ...

Alzheimer's disease is the world’s most common neurodegenerative disease, affecting more than 50 million people globally. Alzheimer’s disease is also among the most fatal, landing as one of the top five causes of death worldwide. However, most currently available treatments are limited to alleviating the disease’s symptoms. Now, a new study led by Chapman University researchers has explored the efficacy of using two existing Alzheimer’s disease drugs simultaneously to reduce mortality. It is one of the largest and ...

The number of people aged 65 and older with type 1 diabetes increased from 1.3 million in 1990 to 3.7 million in 2019, while death rates fell 25% from 4.7 per 100,000 population in 1990 to 3.5 in 2019, finds an analysis of data from over 200 countries and regions in The BMJ today. Overall, the results show that more people with type 1 diabetes are living longer. However, death rates fell 13 times faster in high income countries compared with low and middle income countries, indicating that substantial ...

Momentary shifts in mood, even those lasting just a matter of seconds, profoundly alter the brain’s response to pleasurable experiences in people with bipolar disorder, finds a new study by UCL researchers. Previous research shows that mood can make us experience events in more positive or negative light – irrespective of having bipolar disorder. When we are in a good mood, we are drawn to viewing things more favourably – causing the good mood to rollover and gain momentum. Equally, when we are upset we get drawn into perceiving bad outcomes as even worse, causing us to remain upset or get even more upset. This “momentum” in mood can bias how we perceive events ...

LAWRENCE — A partnership between scientists at the University of Kansas and collaborators in Europe, including war-torn Ukraine, will result in computer models of biological cells likely to hasten health breakthroughs by simulating molecular interactions inside cells with near experimental accuracy at vastly longer timescales than similar efforts. The research is supported by the National Science Foundation’s IMPRESS-U (International Multilateral Partnerships for Resilient Education and Science System in Ukraine) program that aims to “support excellence in science and engineering research, education, and innovation through international collaboration and ...

DETROIT — Alice Walker, Ph.D., assistant professor of chemistry in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Wayne State University, received a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation to fund her research on applying computational chemistry to the understanding and rational design of new fluorescent protein (FP) sensors. “A sensor, chemically speaking, is a molecule that turns on or off in response to certain stimuli,” said Walker. “Proteins are good sensors because they have a florescent element; they essentially glow in the dark in response to when it touches something. ...

Why do politicians lie and deny when they are caught up in political scandal? According to a newly published study led by a University of Nebraska–Lincoln political scientist, the answer may be that their supporters prefer a less-than-credible denial to losing political power and in-group status because of a discredited standard-bearer. “The driving question of our research is whether people are actually incentivizing politicians to deny wrongdoing and escape accountability,” said Pierce Ekstrom, assistant professor of political science at Nebraska. “Certainly, there’s a very strong norm ...