More than 80% of New Yorkers who inject drugs test positive for the opioid fentanyl, despite only 18% reporting using it intentionally, according to a new study by researchers at the NYU School of Global Public Health.   The findings, published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, suggest that many people who inject drugs are unknowingly using fentanyl, which may increase their risk for overdose and potentially their tolerance to fentanyl if it is used over time.   In 2021, more than 100,000 people died of a drug overdose in the United States, with 66% of these deaths involving illicit fentanyl—a synthetic opioid that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.   In ...

Washington, DC – Cats can play a role in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and their contaminated environment (pens in this study) can be infectious, according to new research. The study was published in Microbiology Spectrum, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.  “In practice, after introduction of SARS-CoV-2 in our household, we should see our cat as part of the family regarding virus transmission,” said study coauthor Wim van der Poel DVM, Ph.D., Professor of Emerging and Zoonotic Viruses, Wageningen University and Research, in the Netherlands.  Van der Poel and colleagues conducted the study to gain better insight ...

Researchers from University of Connecticut, Texas A&M University, University of Colorado at Boulder, and University of Florida published a new Journal of Marketing article that examines whether price promotions on some products differentially impact demand for other products depending on their relative locations within a display. The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled “The Negative and Positive Consequences of Placing Products Next to Promoted Products” and ...

Some foods and medicines, such as many COVID-19 vaccines, must be kept cold. As a step toward a robust, stable technique that could indicate when these products exceed safe limits, researchers in ACS Nano report a class of brilliantly colored microcrystals in materials that become colorless over a wide range of temperatures and response times. As a proof of concept, the team packaged the color-changing materials into a vial lid and QR code. Walk-in freezers and refrigerated trucks generally maintain their set temperatures, but ...

As more and more electric cars are travelling on the roads of Europe, this is leading to an increase in the use of the critical metals required for components such as electric motors and electronics. With the current raw material production levels there will not be enough of these metals in future – not even if recycling increases. This is revealed by the findings of a major survey led by Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, on behalf of the European Commission. Electrification and digitalisation are leading to a steady increase in the need for critical metals* in the EU’s vehicle fleet. Moreover, only a small proportion of the metals are ...

Analysis of a British spinosaur tooth by palaeontologists at the EvoPalaeoLab of the University of Southampton shows that several distinct spinosaur groups inhabited Cretaceous Britain.      Stored within the collections of the Hastings Museum and Art Gallery in East Sussex, the fossil that forms the basis of the new study was gifted to the museum in 1889. It was collected from the local Lower Cretaceous rocks of the Wealden Supergroup, a thick, complicated rock sequence deposited across south-eastern England between 140 and 125 million years ago.    The ...

IMDEA Software and IMDEA Networks Institutes participate together with six other partners (Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial, Centro Español de Metrología, Fundación Vithas, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and Universidad Complutense de Madrid) in the MADQuantum-CM project, funded by the Community of Madrid, the Spanish State through the Plan for Recovery, Transformation and Resilience, and the European Union through the NextGeneration EU funds. The objective ...

Research Highlights: One-third of adults in the U.S. with Type 2 diabetes may have symptomless or undetected cardiovascular disease. Adults with Type 2 diabetes who do not have any signs or symptoms of cardiovascular disease are more likely to have elevated levels of two proteins linked to heart disease than peers without Type 2 diabetes. These cardiac biomarkers are associated with an increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease and any cause. The findings suggest that routine screening for these two cardiac biomarkers and more tailored interventions may help to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease ...

Statement Highlights: In its first scientific statement addressing cardiovascular health in American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) women of childbearing age, the American Heart Association reports that more than 60% of AI/AN women already have suboptimal heart health when they enter pregnancy, which is strongly related to the development of heart disease later in life. In addition, more than 4 in 5 AI/AN women reported they have experienced violence, and they are disproportionately likely to have also experienced a high number of adverse childhood experiences, which contribute to higher heart disease risk. Type 2 diabetes is the predominant, traditional cardiovascular ...

The term ‘well-being’ entered popular vocabulary during the Covid-19 pandemic soon after ‘lockdown’ and ‘quarantine’. We quickly discovered that without the ability to take walks, socialize, and work, our well-being suffered. Health was suddenly more than just the state of our bodies – it also depended on our ability to engage in activities that matter to us. Though this was a revelation to many, the World Health Organization (WHO) had already begun this rethinking of health. It created a new concept and assessment ...

BOSTON—In the United States, federal legislation mandates that all states track data on all newborns who have been exposed to substances during pregnancy and ensure that a plan of Safe Care is created for each family. Yet each state manages those regulations differently. In Massachusetts, the Department of Children and Families (DCF) has issued guidance that any prenatal substance exposure—including exposure to medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD)—is an indication to file a report for alleged child abuse/neglect upon the birth of the child. MOUD ...

Did you know that wires can be used to ionize air to make a loudspeaker? Simply put, it’s possible to generate sound by creating an electric field in a set of parallel wires, aka a plasma transducer, strong enough to ionize the air particles. The charged ions are then accelerated along the magnetic field lines, pushing the residual non-ionized air in a way to produce sound. If a loudspeaker can generate sound, it can also absorb it. While this plasma loudspeaker concept is not new, EPFL scientists went ahead and built a demonstration of the plasma transducer, with the aim to study noise reduction. They came up with a new concept, ...

Classroom education, in an ideal sense, must engage all students in a constructive discussion with the teacher, making it the latter’s responsibility to utilize different inclusive strategies. To bring the attention of distracted students back to the classroom discussion, teachers often have to use different methods to remind them that they are an equal and important part of this shared activity. This task can be tricky since most teachers attend to multiple students in a classroom. What strategies do teachers use to draw the attention of all the students to the ...

The Covid pandemic shutdowns in South Asia greatly reduced the concentration of short-lived cooling particles in the air, while the concentration of long-lived greenhouse gases was barely affected. Researchers were thus able to see how reduced emissions of air pollution leads to cleaner air but also stronger climate warming. It is well known that emissions of sulfur and nitrogen oxides and other air pollutants lead to the formation of aerosols (particles) in the air that can offset, or mask, the full climate warming caused by greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. But there has been a lack of knowledge about this ‘masking effect’. ...

U.S. teachers are divided on whether arming themselves would make schools safer, with one in five saying they would be interested in carrying a gun to school, according to a nationally representative survey conducted by the RAND Corporation. The survey found that 54% of teachers believe teachers carrying firearms would make schools less safe, 20% believe teacher-carry would make schools safer, and 26% feel it would make schools neither more nor less safe. Yet even more concerning to teachers than guns is bullying, which teachers listed as their top safety concern. The survey, conducted in October and November 2022, focused on how K-12 teachers view safety ...

Municipal climate action plans often identify equity and justice as goals, but engagement with these concepts is mostly rhetorical. A new study from the University of Waterloo details how planners can bridge the gap and challenge the current state of climate change and social inequity.    The study asserts that developing participatory approaches to public consultation and community engagement that actively and intentionally involve vulnerable populations who are most affected by climate change is critical. Expanding the sphere of knowledge we ...

University of California, Riverside, chemical and environmental engineering scientists have identified two species of bacteria found in soil that break down a class of stubborn “forever chemicals,” giving hope for low-cost biological cleanup of industrial pollutants.  These bacteria destroy a subgroup of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, that have one or more chlorine atoms within their chemical structure, Yujie Men, an assistant professor in the Bourns College of Engineering, and her UCR colleagues, reported in the journal Natural Water. Unhealthful forever chemicals persist in the environment ...

Sophia Antipolis, 31 May 2023:  Cancer patients who continue smoking after their diagnosis have a nearly doubled risk of heart attack, stroke or death due to cardiovascular disease compared with non-smokers, according to research published on World No Tobacco Day in European Heart Journal, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).1 According to the World Health Organization, there were more than 50.5 million cancer survivors worldwide in 2020.2 Study author Dr. Hyeok-Hee Lee of Yonsei University College ...

New research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London has used an assessment of gene expression involved in the immune response to show that there could be more patients with MDD with activated immune systems than research has previously estimated.    By identifying the molecular mechanisms involved in this association, the research could pave the way to better identify those patients with an immune component to their depression which would potentially help to provide more personalised approaches to treatment ...

Science is well aware of the important role that gut bacteria and their interactions with the gastrointestinal tract play in our overall health. Villi, tiny finger-like structures that line the inside of the small intestine (SI), are known to interact with the gut bacteria and trigger a protective immune response. Despite researching into the molecular mechanisms underlying these interactions, however, not much is known about the dynamics of liquid flow around the villi. While computer simulations have aided such observations, ...

The British Junior Cardiologists’ Association (BJCA) and the British Cardiovascular Society (BCS) have issued a joint position statement in a bid to stamp out bullying, harassment, discrimination and other “unacceptable” and “unprofessional” behaviours in the specialty. The statement, published online in the journal Heart, urges every cardiology team member to call out these behaviours to drive culture change. Endorsed by 19 organisations affiliated with the BCS, the statement represents a specialty-wide response to the issue. It comes in the wake of evidence suggesting ...

The largest clinical case series to date of recreational users of nitrous oxide, popularly known as laughing gas, has found a predominance of young men of Asian ethnicity among those with neurological side effects who were seen at hospitals in 3 major cities in England. This may indicate genetic susceptibility to the nerve damage caused by exposure to the gas, or other, as yet unidentified, social factors, suggest the researchers by way of an explanation for the finding, published online in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.  Nitrous oxide is widely used as an anaesthetic in people and animals, ...

Ketamine taken in the form of a nasal spray may prove a safe and effective treatment for refractory chronic migraine, suggests a single centre study, published in the open access journal Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine.  It’s a more convenient alternative to intravenous infusion—the usual method of administration for these patients—but the potential for overuse means that it should be reserved for those in whom other treatment approaches have failed, caution the researchers. Several clinical trials have shown ...

Every so often, life on Earth steps onto a nearly empty playing field and faces a spectacular opportunity. Something major changes—in the atmosphere or in the oceans, or in the organisms themselves —and the existing species begin to branch out into a brand-new world. Scientists are fascinated by this process, because it’s a unique look into evolution at pivotal moments in the history of life. A new study led by scientists with the University of Chicago examined how bivalves—the group that includes clams, mussels, scallops, and oysters—evolved among many others in the period of rapid evolution known as the Cambrian Explosion. The team found ...

Clinician burnout and overwork are known to adversely affect patient safety and junior doctors may be particularly vulnerable, research suggests. The UK is facing a crisis in recruitment and retention in medicine, with a recent survey by the British Medical Association reporting that 4 in 10 junior doctors will quit their roles as soon as they find another job. Considering the immense pressure doctors are under, with their decisions having the potential to shape the course of patients’ illnesses and even their lives, is a balanced and happy life as a doctor still possible? In a new book released today titled The Bleep Test, junior doctor Luke Austen has combined ...