As COVID-19 becomes endemic, an important group of people who continue to require vaccination is future birth cohorts of children. Yet, in the face of ever-changing variants, as well as the waning of antibodies with time after each dose, key questions remain: What is the threshold of immune response against SARS-CoV-2 needed to protect against COVID-19 and how many doses of mRNA vaccination are required to reach that threshold?   Researchers answered this question in a joint study conducted by the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS Medicine) and Duke-NUS Medical School. With parental consent ...

People with Lower Income and Pre-Existing Conditions at Greater Risk of STEMI in the United States Women, Black, and Hispanic Patients Up to 25% Less Likely to Receive Treatment for Heart Attacks Compared Men and White Patients   Long Beach, Calif. – May 3, 2024 – New data focusing on heart attack, specifically ST‐segment–elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), uncovered socio-economic, racial, and gendered disparities associated with greater risk and are less likely to receive certain procedures. The data were presented today at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions (SCAI) 2024 Scientific Sessions.   STEMI, caused by ...

Long Beach, Calif. – May 4, 2024 – A nationwide observational analysis of patients with aortic stenosis (AS) and cardiogenic shock (CS) who underwent transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) or surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) determined that patients who underwent TAVR had lower in-hospital complications and resource utilization compared with SAVR. The results were presented today at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions (SCAI) 2024 Scientific Sessions.   As many as 300,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with AS every year. It predominantly affects those ...

Hispanic Population Largely Remains Underrepresented in Studies of Treatment Devices for PAD Despite Being Dominant Minority Population Affected by PAD Studies Evaluating Usage of Drug-Coated Balloon for PAD Include Disproportionate Amount of Women by One-Third Compared to Men Analysis Shows 51% of PAD Cases Involve Women Despite Experiencing Less Severe Outcomes   Long Beach, Calif. – May 4, 2024 – New study findings underscore gaps in clinical trial representation of women and Hispanics for peripheral artery disease (PAD) and chronic limb-threatening ...

ROCHESTER, NY, May 2, 2024 – Empire Discovery Institute (EDI) has entered into a collaborative research partnership with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and its commercial development program Fast Forward, LLC. Through a competitive application and review process, EDI was awarded $791,933 from Fast Forward along with technical support from its network of key opinion leaders in multiple sclerosis (MS) who will help contribute to the advancement of EDI’s technology. Fast Forward provides research funding to commercial entities who develop promising new therapies for the treatment of MS, a demyelinating disease of the central nervous system impacting ...

The shareholders' meeting of the WZB has appointed Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln as the institute's future president. She succeeds Jutta Allmendinger, who has headed the institute since 2007. Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln is Professor of Macroeconomics and Development at Goethe University Frankfurt. The handover of office will take place on September 4, 2024 at the WZB. Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln is a nationally and internationally renowned scientist who returned to Germany in 2009 after several years at Yale and Harvard. Since then, ...

Swedish researchers at Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg have developed an AI method that improves the identification of toxic chemicals – based solely on knowledge of the molecular structure. The method can contribute to better control and understanding of the ever-growing number of chemicals used in society, and can also help reduce the amount of animal tests. The use of chemicals in society is extensive, and they occur in everything from household products to industrial processes. Many chemicals reach our waterways and ecosystems, where they may cause negative effects on humans and other ...

Parents often worry about the use of social media among children and young people. Caring about this is a good thing, and there are several reasons why you should pay attention, but there is one thing that parents needn’t worry about: young people spending time on social media does not impair their interaction with friends offline, according to a new study. “On the contrary, we find that people who use social media a lot spend more time with friends offline,” says Professor Silje Steinsbekk at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU’s) Department of Psychology. The results are ...

Climate change is transforming dust storms—a natural phenomenon in the Middle East—into a more frequent and widespread threat to health and economies throughout the region, a new study shows. Dust levels have increased in many parts of the Middle East chiefly due to global warming, but other human activities also share credit, says Zahra Kalantari, associate professor at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. She cites such factors as oil extraction, military conflicts and lack of cross-border ...

(LOS ANGELES) – May 2, 2024 - An extensive analytical study conducted at the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI) has revealed an association between favorable survival outcomes for melanoma patients and the presence of higher populations of tissue-resident memory T cells (TRM). Data obtained from this study could be used not only for a TRM-based machine learning model with predictive powers for melanoma prognosis but could also elucidate the role TRM cells can play in the tumor immune microenvironment. This could guide the development of more effective and personalized anti-tumor immunotherapeutic treatment regimens for cancer ...

In recognition of a rapidly growing field, Florida Atlantic University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science (COECS) has created a Department of Biomedical Engineering. The newly established department will focus on three key areas: biomaterials and tissue engineering; smart health systems; and bio-robotics. Biomedical engineering integrates fundamental and practical concepts in electrical and mechanical engineering, biology, computer science and medicine into a cross-disciplinary field focused on improving human health and solving problems in the delivery of health care.  The COECS faculty are already performing ...

Reporters are invited to join leading nutrition researchers and professionals at NUTRITION 2024, the annual flagship meeting of the American Society for Nutrition. The meeting will bring together thousands of experts from around the globe to share and discuss emerging scientific and policy developments in food, nutrition and public health June 29–July 2 in Chicago.   The meeting program features exciting scientific symposia, award lectures, networking events and more, offering an up-close view into the latest findings, opportunities and debates. More than 1,600 original research studies will be presented ...

Women’s health is often talked about in terms of major, life-altering events like pregnancy and menopause. A new study from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) underscores the importance of considering everyday occurrences’ impact on women’s well-being. CSHL researchers have made a surprising discovery involving urinary tract infections (UTIs). The scientists found that UTIs in mice can provoke a bodily response that results in structural changes in breast tissue. Remarkably, these changes are reversible ...

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (05/02/2024) — For the first time, chemists in the University of Minnesota Twin Cities College of Science and Engineering have created a highly reactive chemical compound that has eluded scientists for more than 120 years. The discovery could lead to new drug treatments, safer agricultural products, and better electronics. For decades, researchers have been investigating molecules called N-heteroarenes, which are ring-shaped chemical compounds that contain one or more nitrogen atoms. Bio-active molecules having a N-heteroarene core are widely ...

Four proposed state-of-the art image search engines for automating search and retrieval of digital histopathology slides were found to be of inadequate performance for routine clinical care, new research suggests.   The performance of the artificial intelligence algorithms to power the histopathology image databases was worse than expected, with some having less than 50% accuracy, which is not suitable for clinical practice, said Dr. Helen Shang, a third-year internal medicine resident and incoming hematology-oncology fellow at the David Geffen School ...

A new study examined the drinking levels and patterns of young adults before, during and after the pandemic. The researchers found alcohol use and alcohol-related problems substantially decreased in heavy-drinking young adults during the pandemic, and these decreases were still evident as the pandemic began to wane. The results are available in the May 2 issue of the journal Nature Mental Health.   “The pandemic gave us a unique opportunity to see how wide-spread mitigation measures like social distancing and bar/restaurant closures may have affected alcohol consumption,” said lead ...

Northwestern University engineers have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm designed specifically for smart robotics. By helping robots rapidly and reliably learn complex skills, the new method could significantly improve the practicality — and safety — of robots for a range of applications, including self-driving cars, delivery drones, household assistants and automation. Called Maximum Diffusion Reinforcement Learning (MaxDiff RL), the algorithm’s success lies in its ability to encourage robots to explore their environments as randomly as possible in order to gain a diverse set of ...

Play is widespread, but far from ubiquitous, across the animal kingdom. Especially common in mammals, play is also known to occur in taxa as diverse as birds, fish, octopuses, and even insects. But what is its function, given that natural selection never selects fun for its own sake? One prominent hypothesis is that play is beneficial to individuals because it allows them to practice skills needed later in life. Now, a study in Frontiers in Ethology has shown that male baby chickens play far more than females. This result is of interest given that domestic ...

Osaka, Japan – Probiotics offer a range of health benefits, but their adverse effects can occasionally lead to bacteremia, wherein bacteria circulate in the bloodstream throughout the body. In Japan, Clostridium butyricum (C. butyricum) MIYAIRI 588 is commonly used, yet the prevalence and characteristics of bacteremia caused by this strain, as well as its bacteriological and genetic profile, remain unknown. A research team from the Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, found an association between bacteremia and probiotics from a study of the genetic materials of bacteria in hospitalized patients with bacteremia. From September 2011 to February 2023, ...

Medical College of Georgia scientists report that a gene previously implicated in the development of atherosclerotic lesions in coronary arteries could be key to understanding why many people don’t benefit from the most used therapy for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness. AMD is a condition characterized by abnormal blood vessel growth in the back of the eye. It is highly prevalent in the elderly and people with diabetes, obesity, and many other chronic metabolic diseases. Excessive vascular growth damages the macula, the part of the eye that translates light into image signals. Anti-VEGF therapy, which blocks vascular ...

Osaka, Japan – It might start simply, with a cough or sneeze…but in some cases, the flu virus can make its way to your brain, causing serious symptoms or even death through a disease known as influenza-associated encephalopathy (IAE). Now, in a study published in Acta Neuropathologica, researchers have revealed that IAE may be caused by the virus entering the brain through a specific cell type, and have identified possible treatment strategies. Although IAE is increasingly common, surprisingly little is known about ...

In the shadowy world of counterfeit alcoholic spirit production, where profits soar and brands are exploited, the true extent of this illegal market remains shrouded. Now scientists from the International Centre for Brewing and Distilling (ICBD) at Heriot-Watt University, in Edinburgh, Scotland, working alongside Dr John Edwards of Process NMR Associates, based in New York, are compiling a database to test, compare and log counterfeit spirits. The research has featured in a paper, titled, Worldwide Illicit and Counterfeit ...

Charge-recharge cycling of lithium-superrich iron oxide, a cost-effective and high-capacity cathode for new-generation lithium-ion batteries, can be greatly improved by doping with readily available mineral elements. The energy capacity and charge-recharge cycling (cyclability) of lithium-iron-oxide, a cost-effective cathode material for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, is improved by adding small amounts of abundant elements. The development, achieved by researchers at Hokkaido University, Tohoku University, and Nagoya Institute of Technology, is reported in the journal ACS Materials Letters. Lithium-ion batteries have become indispensable in modern life, used in a multitude ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Artificial intelligence analysis of data gathered by acoustic recording devices is a promising new tool for monitoring the marbled murrelet and other secretive, hard-to-study species, research by Oregon State University and the U.S. Forest Service has shown. The threatened marbled murrelet is an iconic Pacific Northwest seabird that’s closely related to puffins and murres, but unlike those birds, murrelets raise their young as far as 60 miles inland in mature and old-growth forests. “There are very few species like it,” said co-author Matt Betts of the OSU College of Forestry. “And there’s no ...

Professor Dong-Woo Cho from the Department of Mechanical Engineering along with Jae Yun Kim, a PhD candidate, from the School of Interdisciplinary Bioscience and Bioengineering and Tugce Sen, a PhD student, from Department of Mechanical Engineering at POSTECH, teamed up with Professor Jae Yeon Lee from Daegu Haany University's Department of Companion Animal Health. Together, they crafted a material aimed at swiftly staunching kidney bleeding and facilitating wound recovery. Their research featured in the online edition of Biomaterials, an ...