Babies born preterm decreased and stillborn rates remained unchanged during the first four months of COVID-19 lockdowns, according to a largescale international study. The research of 52 million births from 26 countries, published in Nature Human Behavior, reported a 3-4 per cent reduction overall in preterm births, averting almost 50,000 preterm pregnancies during the first month of lockdown alone. But the decrease in preterm births was limited to only high-income countries including Australia. The International Perinatal Outcomes in the Pandemic (iPOP) Study, ...

The number of specialized immune cells available for fighting skin cancer doubled when a new treatment blocked their escape from melanoma tumors, experiments in mice and human cells show.  Researchers at NYU Langone Health and its Perlmutter Cancer Center who led the study found that combining a chemical blocker of immune cell exit with another drug type, an immunotherapy, stopped melanoma tumor enlargement in more than half of mice tested. Immunotherapy alone had previously failed to prevent the cancers’ growth. Recent advances in immunotherapies, medications designed to help the body’s immune defense system ...

Researchers have discovered that channeling ions into defined pathways in perovskite materials improves the stability and operational performance of perovskite solar cells. The finding paves the way for a new generation of lighter, more flexible, and more efficient solar cell technologies suitable for practical use. Perovskite materials, which are defined by their crystalline structure, are better at absorbing light than silicon is. That means that perovskite solar cells can be thinner and lighter than silicon solar cells without sacrificing the cell’s ...

Monday, February 27, 2023, Cleveland: New Cleveland Clinic research showed that erythritol, a popular artificial sweetener, is associated with an increased risk of heart attack and stroke. Findings were published today in Nature Medicine. Researchers studied over 4,000 people in the U.S. and Europe and found those with higher blood erythritol levels were at elevated risk of experiencing a major adverse cardiac event such as heart attack, stroke or death. They also examined the effects of adding erythritol to either whole blood or isolated platelets, which are cell fragments that clump together to stop bleeding and contribute to blood clots. Results revealed that ...

Patients receiving care from for-profit hospices have substantially worse care experiences than patients who receive care from not-for-profit hospices, according to a new RAND Corporation study.   Analyzing surveys completed by family caregivers of patients treated by more than 3,100 hospices nationally, RAND researchers found that family members reported worse care experiences on average from for-profit hospices across all of the domains assessed, including help for pain and other symptoms and getting timely care.   The study found ...

About The Study: The results of this study of 1.65 million doses of BNT162b2 (Comirnaty [Pfizer-BioNTech]) vaccinations among adolescents in Ontario, Canada, suggest that there was variation in the reported incidence of myocarditis or pericarditis. However, the risk of these events after vaccination remains very rare and should be considered in relation to the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination.  Authors: Sarah E. Wilson, M.D., M.Sc., of Public Health Ontario in Toronto, is the corresponding ...

About The Study: A high level of cardiovascular health (CVH) was associated with substantially longer life expectancy free of four major chronic diseases (cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and dementia) in both men and women in this study of 135,000 adults from the UK Biobank study. The disease-free life expectancy was similar between low and other socioeconomic groups among participants with high CVH. These findings support improvement in population health by promoting a high CVH level, which may also narrow health disparities associated with socioeconomic status.  Authors: Lu Qi, M.D., Ph.D., of Tulane University ...

About The Study: The Massachusetts comprehensive menthol flavor ban in 2020 was followed by a greater reduction in current cigarette smoking in the state than comparison states overall and among males and Hispanic females while increasing among Black females, according to information from statewide surveys. As the Food and Drug Administration plans to eliminate menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes, interventions should address possible increases in cigarette smoking among Black females.  Authors: Samuel Asare, Ph.D., of the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, ...

Glaciers - giant blocks of moving ice - along Antarctica’s coastline are flowing faster in the summer because of a combination of melting snow and warmer ocean waters, say researchers.  On average, the glaciers travel at around one kilometre a year. But a new study has found a seasonal variation to the speed of the ice flow, which speeded up by up to 22 % in summer when temperatures are warmer. This gives an insight into the way climate change could affect the behaviour of glaciers and the role they could play in raising sea levels.  Up to now, study of the rugged Antarctic peninsula ...

Textbooks will tell you that in dividing cells, the production of new DNA peaks during the S-phase, while production of other macromolecules, such as proteins, lipids, and polysaccharides, continues at more or less the same level. Molecular biologists at the University of Groningen, led by professor Matthias Heinemann, have now discovered that this is not true: protein synthesis shows two peaks, and lipid synthesis peaks once. These shifts could explain the metabolic oscillations that lead up to cell division, ...

More than 60% of adults in the United States report accessing the Internet for health-related questions. Social media and content platforms like YouTube offer a vast wealth of content on sleep health, from tips on how to get a good night's sleep to managing sleep disorders and insomnia. A new study from researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, identifies an alarming amount of medical misinformation in videos about sleep disorders on YouTube. Researchers identified that “popular” videos created by bloggers garnered significantly more views than expert-led videos and contained ...

Experts from the University of Barcelona, the Institute for Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia (IQAC-CSIC), the Institute of Microelectronics of Barcelona (IMB-CNM-CSIC) and the Aragon Nanoscience and Materials Institute of Aragon (INMA) —a joint institute of the CSIC and the University of Zaragoza— have developed a new method to detect RNA viruses based on the triplex-forming probe technology. This innovative methodology opens up new options for detecting viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, the influenza A virus (H1N1) or the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a pathogen that ...

Chaotic behavior is typically known from large systems: for example, from weather, from asteroids in space that are simultaneously attracted by several large celestial bodies, or from swinging pendulums that are coupled together. On the atomic scale, however, one does normally not encounter chaos – other effects predominate. Now, for the first time, scientists at TU Wien have been able to detect clear indications of chaos on the nanometer scale – in chemical reactions on tiny rhodium crystals. The results have been published in the journal ...

The most recent generation of chatbots has surfaced longstanding concerns about the growing sophistication and accessibility of artificial intelligence. Fears about the integrity of the job market — from the creative economy to the managerial class — have spread to the classroom as educators rethink learning in the wake of ChatGPT. Yet while apprehensions about employment and schools dominate headlines, the truth is that the effects of large-scale language models such as ChatGPT will touch virtually every corner of our lives. ...

(Boston)—Many pregnancy complications are associated with future heart disease. Such complications include gestational diabetes, preterm birth, fetal growth restriction and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (gestational hypertension, preeclampsia and related disorders), and together they are referred to as adverse pregnancy outcomes (APOs).  Although APOs are recognized as a useful way to identify individuals with increased risk for future heart disease, it is not known how often APOs occur before traditional heart ...

New Orleans, LA – A study led by Vinod Dasa, MD, Professor of Orthopaedics at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, reports that a novel surgical pain management strategy following total knee arthroplasty (TKA), or total knee replacement, provided pain relief without opioids. The researchers also found that changing prescriptions for opioids at discharge from automatic to upon request dramatically decreased opioid use. Their results are published in the Journal of Experimental Orthopaedics, available here.        “About 70% of opioid-naïve ...

New award from the U.S. Dept. of Energy will help researchers develop green technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions from power plants BALTIMORE, MD (February 27, 2022)—Researchers from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) and the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET) have been awarded a three-year, $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to understand how microalgae can be used to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. “Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing our society today and IMET is thrilled ...

Green leaves and photosynthesis were once considered key features of plants. However, some plants have since abandoned this process, obtaining their nutrients from other organisms. One such plant is the genus of Thismia, commonly known as fairy lanterns, which is characterised by its unusual appearance, elusiveness, and lack of photosynthesis. Fairy lanterns are rare and only grow in specific places. They live underground with their colourful flowers rising above the soil, which can sometimes make them look like mushrooms. Around 90 species of Thismia have been found, but many are ...

INDIANAPOLIS – Despite awareness that pain is common in nursing home residents, there has been minimal attention focused on how this pain changes over time. A new study from Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Nursing researchers presents compelling evidence of the existence of four distinct pain trajectories in this population. This new understanding of pain over time can help nursing home staff and clinicians better understand, recognize and respond to risk factors associated with persistent pain in individuals living in nursing homes. Ultimately, consideration of pain trajectories may alter courses of care and illness, ...

The use of space environment to carry out life science research is of great significance to issues affecting the occurrence and development of life on earth by space flight and space environment; however, there are limitations in complex manipulation, research models based on mammalian and 2D cell culture experiments, and etc. Microfluidic chips, also known as "lab-on-chip (LOC)", integrates the related functions of traditional laboratories on a micron-level chip with low energy consumption, high throughput, and automation, which can realize long-term experimental operation, and remote data recording and transmission, thus ...

What the United States midterm election results revealed about the current state of democracy in the country  – and the challenges that might lie ahead for both major parties – is examined in a new report led by a politics expert from London's Kingston University. Academics from institutions across the United Kingdom, United States and the Republic of Ireland have contributed to the Exploring the 2022 US Midterms briefing paper, recently published by the American Politics Group of the Political Studies Association. The report is designed to act as a bridge ...

People whose savings goals align well with their dominant personality traits are more likely to save money, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. In the U.S. and around the world, savings rates are critically low. In October 2022, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Americans save just 2.3% of their income, the lowest in nearly two decades. Although people report wanting to save more money, saving is difficult -- in part because it requires people to overcome the psychological hurdle of making a sacrifice in the present to ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study may reveal part of the reason why conservatives are more likely than liberals to reject some COVID-19 health measures: They see boundaries as restrictions.   Liberals were more likely to see some of the measures used in the pandemic – such as social distancing rules and plexiglass separators in restaurants and stores – as providing guidance, rather than restrictions.   “There seems to be a fundamental ideological difference in how people view boundaries,” said Selin Malkoc, co-author of the study and professor of marketing at The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business.   “Conservatives ...

OTHELLO, Wash. — Keeping queen bees chilled in indoor refrigeration units can make the practice of “queen banking” — storing excess queens in the spring to supplement hives in the fall — more stable and less labor-intensive, a Washington State University study found. It may also help strengthen honey bee survival in the face of a changing climate. In a paper published in the Journal of Apicultural Research, researchers compared queen banks stored in refrigerated units to those stored in the conventional ...

As an energy source that would help countries achieve carbon neutrality and energy security, hydrogen energy is being sought after globally as the energy source of the future. To this end, the European Union(EU) has introduced its strategy on hydrogen, implementing its plan to invest €470 billion(623 trillion Korean won) in 10 years to build a hydrogen-based society in the region. Germany, one of the most ardent supporters of global green initiatives, has put forward a national hydrogen strategy to invest a total of 1.2 trillion Korean won by 2030. The South Korean government is also investing in ...