NEW ORLEANS – For the fourth year running, Ochsner Children’s Hospital upholds its position as the No. 1 hospital for kids in Louisiana according to the 2024-2025 Best Children’s Hospital rankings by U.S. News & World Report. Ochsner Children’s Hospital continues to shine nationally with Top 50 rankings in three specialties: pediatric cardiology and heart surgery, pediatric gastroenterology and gastrointestinal surgery and pediatric orthopedics. This prestigious recognition marks eight consecutive years on the ranking list, a unique achievement ...

HERSHEY, Pa. — Rates of babesiosis, a tick-borne parasitic disease, increased an average of 9% per year in the United States between 2015 and 2022 and four in 10 patients were found to be co-infected with another tick-borne illness such as Lyme disease, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and Penn State College of Medicine. “These findings suggest that clinicians should have a heightened vigilance of co-infection of other tick-borne illness among patients admitted with babesiosis,” said Paddy Ssentongo, infectious disease fellow, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and lead author of the study. ...

NEW YORK, NY – October 8, 2024 - The Crohn's & Colitis Foundation released findings from its latest healthcare access survey, revealing that more than 40% of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients have made significant financial trade-offs to afford their healthcare. The survey highlighted that among all respondents, 30% reported giving up vacations or major household purchases, 22% increased their credit card debt, and 21% cut back on essential items such as food, clothing, or basic household items.    The survey, published today in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, included responses ...

A PeerJ Life and Environment study has revealed a significant departure of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) from the central portion of the Gulf of California, linked to the collapse of the jumbo squid (Dosidicus gigas) population, their primary prey. The study, led by researchers Msc. Héctor Pérez-Puig and Dr. Alejandro Arias Del Razo, offers insight into the relationship between apex marine predators and their environment, highlighting sperm whales as key indicators of oceanic health. The research, conducted over a 9-year period in the eastern Midriff Islands Region of the Gulf of California, utilized extensive survey ...

Two new apps will enable blind people to navigate indoor buildings with spoken directions from a smartphone app, providing a safe method of wayfinding where GPS doesn’t work.  UC Santa Cruz professor of Computer Science and Engineering Roberto Manduchi  has devoted much of his research career to creating accessible technology for the blind and visually impaired. Throughout years of working with these communities, he has learned that there is a particular need for tools to help with indoor navigation of new spaces. “Moving about independently in a place that you don't know is particularly ...

Researchers from IOCB Prague are furthering the understanding of how medicines work and what it takes to develop their most effective variants. In one current study, they have focused on the disease caused by the protozoan parasite Trichomonas vaginalis, especially because of the recent appearance of strains that are resistant to conventional treatment. In an effort to find a new weak spot of this parasite, the research group led by Dr. Evžen Bouřa has succeeded in preparing a key enzyme complex – the proteasome. This has made it possible to gain knowledge that is indispensable for the development of new effective ...

Lewy bodies are a hallmark of Parkinson's disease (PD) and other related neurological conditions. Understanding why and how they develop is critical to developing better treatments. A study from The Neuro (Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital) of McGill University, in collaboration with its Early Drug Discovery Unit, has recreated the growth of Lewy bodies in human neurons and followed their formation to gain important insight into why and how they form. Critically, they find that immune challenge is important for this process, identifying a previously unknown link between the immune system and neurological disease.    Lewy ...

MIT engineers have built a new desalination system that runs with the rhythms of the sun.  The solar-powered system removes salt from water at a pace that closely follows changes in solar energy. As sunlight increases through the day, the system ramps up its desalting process and automatically adjusts to any sudden variation in sunlight, for example by dialing down in response to a passing cloud or revving up as the skies clear.  Because the system can quickly react to subtle changes in sunlight, it maximizes the utility of solar energy, producing large quantities of clean water despite ...

Generative AI still needs to find the right balance between too little and too much care before it can help doctors make decisions in the Emergency Department.  If ChatGPT were cut loose in the Emergency Department, it might suggest unneeded x-rays and antibiotics for some patients and admit others who didn’t require hospital treatment, a new study from UC San Francisco has found.   The researchers said that, while the model could be prompted in ways that make its responses more accurate, it’s still no match for the clinical judgment of a human doctor.  “This ...

7 October 2024. Doha, Qatar – The World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) has today released the first details of speakers confirmed for its upcoming global conference, to be held on 13 and 14 November 2024. Among those featured at the summit will be WISH executive chair Lord Ara Darzi of Denham and Médecins Sans Frontières’ international president Christos Christou. Lord Darzi, who recently led an independent investigation on the state of the National Health Service in England, will ...

A cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) app has been found to significantly prevent increases in depression in young people who are at high risk - and could be implemented as a cost effective public mental health measure. Globally, concern is growing about the high and steadily increasing rates of anxiety and depression in young people. Effective and scalable ways of preventing poor mental health in this group are needed, and digital tools such as mobile apps have been proposed as part of the solution. Whilst there is emerging evidence ...

Most dog owners didn’t know that flea and tick treatments are dangerous to aquatic life, suggesting more awareness could ease the problem. A study on Hampstead Heath shows that ponds where dogs are allowed to swim contain levels of two pesticides harmful to invertebrate life. These pesticides, imidacloprid and fipronil, are used as parasite treatments for flea and tick infestations in cats and dogs, using ‘spot-on’ formulas and flea collars. This is despite these chemicals being banned for agricultural use in 2018 due to their toxicity to bees and other ...

Growing pains are common in maturing children, but sometimes this growth can be irregular and cause injury. Discoid lateral meniscus (DLM), a misshapen knee cartilage, is one such occurrence that can degenerate into osteochondritis dissecans, a joint disorder where the bone and joint begin to separate from the rest of the bones. It has been reported that osteochondritis dissecans of the femoral condyle occurs in approximately 14.5% of cases of DLM, but there has been little analysis of its treatment to date. Dr. Ken Iida and Specially ...

Although access to nature is a basic human right, people’s actual use of green spaces is subject to inequalities. A Kobe University-led research team analyzed what conditions make it more likely that people are exposed to nature across generations: the availability of green spaces around where they live, work and shop, as well as nature relatedness and past natural experiences. Their findings may inform policies for urban planning and education for the improvement of human health. Visiting green spaces is good for people’s health, both psychologically and physiologically. ...

Researchers from Tohoku University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have unveiled a new AI tool for high-quality optical spectra with the same accuracy as quantum simulations, but working a million times faster, potentially accelerating the development of photovoltaic and quantum materials. Understanding the optical properties of materials is essential for developing optoelectronic devices, such as LEDs, solar cells, photodetectors, and photonic integrated circuits. These devices are pivotal in the semiconductor industry's current resurgence. Traditional means of calculation using the basic laws of physics involve complex ...

Successful reduction of the chemical manufacturing industry’s environmental impact relies on finding a greener way to make the chemical building blocks for common and massively consumed compounds. It’s no secret manufacturing processes have some of the most impactful and intense effects on the environment, with the chemical manufacturing industry topping the charts for both energy consumption and emissions output. While this makes sense thanks to the grand scale in which manufactured chemicals are involved in daily life, it still leaves a lot to be desired for sustainability’s sake. By focusing on renewable energy sources and alternative methods for creating the ...

A new study led by investigators at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has revealed that common breast cancer treatments, including chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery, may accelerate the biological aging process in breast cancer survivors.  The findings, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, show that markers of cellular aging—such as DNA damage response, cellular senescence, and inflammatory pathways—significantly increased in all breast cancer survivors, regardless of the type of treatment received. This suggests that the impact of breast cancer treatments ...

Damage to the brainstem – the brain’s ‘control centre’ – is behind long-lasting physical and psychiatric effects of severe Covid-19 infection, a study suggests. Using ultra-high-resolution scanners that can see the living brain in fine detail, researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford were able to observe the damaging effects Covid-19 can have on the brain. The study team scanned the brains of 30 people who had been admitted to hospital with severe Covid-19 early in the pandemic, ...

A new paper from the University of California San Diego details how China faces numerous political, economic and technological obstacles as it tries to transition away from coal—the country’s primary energy source—while balancing the need to combat climate change with the need for energy security.  Despite its commitment to "phase down" coal, China recently has been permitting and constructing coal plants at rates not seen in a decade. “There is an increased focus on energy security in China—in 2021, the country experienced its worst power outages in decades, affecting ...

The Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) is a PhD-granting research institute near Vienna. It was founded in 2009, with the bold ambition of providing the best possible environment to conduct innovative frontier research. It is dedicated to transcending traditional boundaries of disciplines, cutting-edge infrastructure, training the next generation of scientific leaders, and increasing the impact of science through science engagement as well as technology transfer. It is home to 82 research groups across all fields, ...

Could the butterfly effect - in which a small change in one state of a system can result in large differences in a later state - also apply to the earth’s oceans, as well as its skies? Some species of zooplankton are on the order of one millimeter, but don’t let their size fool you. It’s possible these small creatures can create quite a wave.    While it’s long been understood that large marine animals, like fish or whales, can stir up the ocean’s water columns, the impact ...

At a time when data are doubling every two years, the U.S. is projected to create over 40 billion gigabytes of data by 2025. To prepare for the influx, Kennesaw State University associate professor Yong Shi, an expert in quantum machine learning (QML), aims to unlock insights from the data surge and educate future QML researchers. Shi, along with colleagues Dan Lo, professor of computer science, and Luisa Nino, assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering, recently secured a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to develop open-source, hands-on QML training materials ...

OXFORD, Miss. – America’s obsession with grades is failing students and jeopardizing the future of education, a University of Mississippi professor argues in his new book.   Josh Eyler, director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, recently released “Failing Our Future: How Grades Harm Students, and What We Can Do About It” (Johns Hopkins University Press), in which he argues that the traditional system of grading is harmful to students.   “This book looks at the issues with grades in learning, the kinds of Issues grades ...

AMHERST, Mass. – The National Institutes of Health recently awarded $2.2 million to Alissa Rothchild, assistant professor in the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and an expert in tuberculosis (TB) immunology, to study the very first cells that respond to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the bacteria causing TB. How those initial cells, known as alveolar macrophages, or AMs, respond to the bacteria is not entirely known, though Rothchild and her lab have shown in a previous study that AMs don’t respond to Mtb infection the way other macrophages do. Instead of mounting a strong inflammatory response, AMs turn on a cell-protective ...

Imagine a world where your own immune cells are transformed into cancer-fighting superheroes. This is the promise of CAR-T cell therapy, a groundbreaking treatment that’s already saving lives. In this therapy, patients’ own immune cells are collected, genetically engineered so that they specifically target cancer cells, then returned to the body. The result is a potent new option for battling blood cancers. However, as with any superhero journey, the process of harnessing this incredible power comes with ...