Fifty million Americans are on a financing plan to pay off medical or dental bills, with one-quarter of those bearing some interest. Increasingly, medical payment products (MPPs) – which include credit cards and loans administered by hospitals, physician practices, or third-party companies – have come under scrutiny by the Consumer Financial Protections Bureau, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and the Treasury.  The agencies’ concern is that the products may be sidestepping a broad range of patient and consumer protections and inflating ...

This publication is a call to action for governments and agencies to develop, legislate and enforce IAQ standards. Boerstra: “Traditionally, governments have regulated outdoor air. But inhabitants of industrialized countries now spend more than 90% of their time indoors.” As a result, indoor pollutants have major consequences for our long-term health. Bluyssen: “For example, we now know that tiny airborne particles can pass directly from lungs to bloodstream, where they cause all kinds of diseases.” And indoor air is also a prime transmitter of pathogens, as demonstrated by the COVID-19 ...

Your ability to remember and recall moments in time is important for recording life-defining moments and everyday information like where you parked the car. Now researchers reporting in the journal Cell on March 29 have new insight into how those episodic memories are encoded in the brain based on studies of how chickadees store food. Their study finds that chickadees activate unique neural patterns, which they liken to barcodes, each time they cache food in a certain spot. When they go back to retrieve that stored food, their brains light back ...

NEW YORK, NY — Black-capped chickadees have extraordinary memories that can recall the locations of thousands of morsels of food to help them survive the winter. Now scientists at Columbia's Zuckerman Institute have discovered how the chickadees can remember so many details: they memorize each food location using brain cell activity akin to a barcode. These new findings may shed light on how the brain creates memories for the events that make up our lives. "We see the world through our memories of objects, places and people," said Dmitriy Aronov, PhD, a principal investigator at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute and an ...

Researchers Yuta Sunakawa, Ko Mochizuki, and Atsushi Kawakita of the University of Tokyo discovered the first orchid species pollinated by gall midges, a tiny fly species. This is the first documented case of an orchid species found to be pollinated by gall midges, and it makes the orchids the eleventh such plant family. The findings were published in the journal Ecology. The family of orchids is rich both in numbers and variety. Their range of shapes and sizes is due to having evolved to attract different animal pollinators. However, scientists have only mapped ...

In the ongoing fight against cancer, scientists around the globe are exploring innovative approaches to unlock the mysteries of the human immune system — the complex network of organs, cells and proteins that defends the body against disease.  A team led by Arizona State University scientists have developed an AI-based learning tool called HLA Inception that’s uncovered new information about how an individual person’s immune system responds to foreign cells.  Focusing on a group of proteins called Major Histocompatibility Complex-1(MHC-1), the AI-based tool, in seconds, can classify the specific group of proteins unique for ...

About The Study: This study found that the more states were inclined to vote Republican, the more likely their vaccine recipients or their clinicians reported COVID-19 vaccine adverse events. These results suggest that either the perception of vaccine adverse events or the motivation to report them was associated with political inclination.  Authors: David A. Asch, M.D., M.B.A., of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.4177) Editor’s ...

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that biosimilar competition was not consistently associated with lower out-of-pocket costs for commercially insured outpatients, highlighting the need for targeted policy interventions to ensure that the savings generated from biosimilar competition translate into increased affordability for patients who need biologics. Authors: Benjamin N. Rome, M.D., M.P.H., of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: ...

MRI of the prostate, combined with a blood test, can help determine if a prostate lesion is clinically significant cancer, new research suggests A new meta-analysis by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, suggests that doctors and patients can avoid unnecessary prostate biopsies by combining MRI of the prostate findings with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) density. This new approach to diagnosing clinically significant prostate cancer can decrease patient ...

PHILADELPHIA – When cells in the human body divide, they must first make accurate copies of their DNA. The DNA replication exercise is one of the most important processes in all living organisms and is fraught with risks of mutation, which can lead to cell death or cancer. Now, in a landmark finding, biologists from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and from the University of Leeds have identified a multi-protein “machine” in cells that helps govern the pausing or stopping of DNA replication to ensure its smooth progress. The discovery, published today in Cell, advances the understanding of DNA replication, helps explain ...

The lipids in some herbal teas have been identified in detail for the first time, preparing the ground for investigating their contribution to the health benefits of the teas. Herbal teas are enjoyed worldwide, not only for their taste and refreshment but also for a wide range of reputed health benefits. But the potential significance of a category of compounds called lipids in the teas has been relatively unexplored. Researchers at Hokkaido University, led by Associate Professor Siddabasave Gowda and Professor Shu-Ping Hui of the Faculty of Health Sciences, have now identified 341 different molecular species from five categories of lipids in samples of four types of herbal ...

As a green, sustainable, and competitive technology relative to batteries and electrochemical capacitors and featuring a high charge storage capability, the dielectric capacitors excel in low cost, long cycle-life, and a broad operating temperature range, as well as environmental friendliness, high security, and good reliability. Most importantly, they top other technologies in terms of ultra-high-power density due to their unrivaled charge-discharge speed. These features have created a number of applications for them in power electronic devices and pulsed power equipment. Among the dielectric capacitors, the ferroelectric ones can provide a high energy density due to ...

Joint Press Release with IPB University, WWF Indonesia, and WWF Japan <Summary Text> Appropriate fishery management requires an understanding of the target species' stock dynamics. However, in the Northern Hemisphere, illegal trade and IUU (Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated) fisheries make the assessment of recruiting glass eels extremely difficult. Contrary, we have successfully collected sufficient data on glass eel fisheries for detailed statistical analysis based on a community-based participatory assessment. This study was conducted by NGOs, experts, and a broad range of stakeholders ...

A second-generation melanoma vaccine being developed at UVA Cancer Center improves long-term survival for melanoma patients compared with the first-generation vaccine, new research shows. Interestingly, the benefit of the second-generation vaccine was greater for male patients than female patients. That finding could have important implications for other cancer vaccines, the researchers say. The vaccine developers, led by Craig L. Slingluff Jr., MD, found that they could enhance the effectiveness of their melanoma vaccine by simultaneously stimulating important immune cells known as “helper ...

Waltham — March 26, 2024 — Low health literacy is a problem for a substantial proportion of people with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), according to research published in The Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation (JHTR). The official journal of the Brain Injury Association of America, JHTR is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.  Angelle M. Sander, PhD, FACRM, Professor in the H. Ben Taub Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine and Director of TIRR Memorial Hermann’s Brain Injury Research Center, ...

A Canadian-led study has identified genes which may be partially responsible for the development of cerebral palsy.  Cerebral palsy (CP), a condition that affects the development of motor skills in children, is the most common childhood-onset physical disability. CP can have different causes, such as infections, injuries, or lack of oxygen before or during birth, but the genetic contributors to CP have remained largely unknown.  Novel research from scientists at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), the Research Institute of the McGill University ...

When people present themselves as capable or humble, the way this influences other people’s evaluations of one’s true ability and character depends on one’s usual performance. Kobe University and University of Sussex researchers thus add an important factor in our understanding of how the relationship between self-presentation and perception develops with age. People want to be liked. Amongst the many ways of achieving this, making statements about oneself to manipulate other people’s evaluation is called “self-presentation.” Both the ability to do so and the effect this has on others’ evaluation of one’s ability ...

University of Leeds news  Embargo: Thursday 28 March 2024, 23:30 UK time  Do sweeteners increase your appetite? New evidence from randomised controlled trial says no  Replacing sugar with artificial and natural sweeteners in foods does not make people hungrier – and also helps to reduce blood sugar levels, a significant new study has found.  The double blind randomised controlled trial found that consuming food containing sweeteners produced a similar reduction in appetite sensations and appetite-related hormone responses ...

The guidelines for weight gain during pregnancy in obese women have long been questioned. New research from Karolinska Institutet supports the idea of lowering or removing the current recommendation of a weight gain of at least 5 kg. The results are published in The Lancet. International guidelines from the US Institute of Medicine (IOM) state that women with obesity should gain a total of 5 to 9 kg during pregnancy, compared to 11.5 to 16 kg for normal-weight women. The guidelines have long been questioned, but there has been no evidence to warrant a re-examination. A new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden now shows that there are no increased health risks for either the mother or ...

Authors say the findings underscore the urgent need for preventive measures for people with MS who are inadequately protected by COVID-19 vaccination alone. *Please mention the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2024, Barcelona, 27-30 April) if using this material* New real-world research being presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2024) in Barcelona, Spain (27-30 April) reveals that people living with multiple sclerosis (MS) face a much higher ...

New research to be presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity in Venice, Italy (12-15 May) shows that having obesity in childhood is associated with a more than doubling of the risk of later developing multiple sclerosis. The study is by Professor Claude Marcus and Associate Professor Emilia Hagman, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, and colleagues. Emerging evidence implies a link between high BMI in adolescence and an increased risk of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Yet, most studies evaluating this association are cross-sectional, have retrospective design with self-reported data, have used solely genetic correlations, or use paediatric ...

Rice University’s Emerging Scholars Program (RESP) has received a five-year, $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The funding aims to bolster achievements in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) among students from under-resourced families and communities. The grant will enable RESP to expand its reach and impact, offering increased support to its scholars via summer tuition scholarships, housing subsidies and research stipends. The number of scholars in the program will increase from 40 to 50 in Summer 2024 and to 60 in Summer 2025. “Rice ...

A stroke often impacts a person’s ability to move their lower body from the hips down to the feet. This leads to diminished quality of life and mental health in addition to increased susceptibility to falls. But now, UBC Okanagan researchers are exploring new treatment methods to help bridge the service delivery gap, and recovery outcomes, for patients after a stroke. “Shortened length of inpatient stays and continued challenges in transitioning back to the community—including poor access to continued stroke rehabilitation services—have resulted in substantial unmet recovery needs,” ...

With nearly 5 million deaths linked to antibiotic resistance globally every year, new ways to combat resistant bacterial strains are urgently needed. Researchers at Stanford Medicine and McMaster University are tackling this problem with generative artificial intelligence. A new model, dubbed SyntheMol (for synthesizing molecules), created structures and chemical recipes for six novel drugs aimed at killing resistant strains of Acinetobacter baumannii, one of the leading pathogens responsible for antibacterial resistance-related deaths. The researchers described their model and experimental validation of these new compounds in a study published March 22 in the journal ...

A major global catastrophe could disrupt trade in liquid fuels used to sustain industrial agriculture, impacting the food supply of island nations like New Zealand that depend on oil imports. A new study in the journal Risk Analysis suggests that New Zealand and other island nations dependent on imported fuel can plan for future emergencies by stepping up their production of biofuel from locally grown crops (like canola) and farming more fuel-efficient crops (like wheat and potatoes rather than dairy). In the event of a major disruption in liquid fuel imports, results showed that New ...