INDIANAPOLIS – The pandemic has placed a spotlight on public health -- its workforce, infrastructure and underlying information systems designed to collect, analyze and manage public health data.  Informatics, health information technology and public health experts from across the nation convened at an American College of Medical Informatics symposium concluded that how information is received and shared by public health agencies is overdue for “a strategically designed, technology-enabled, information infrastructure for delivering day-to-day essential public health services and to respond effectively to ...

Quantum computing uses the principles of quantum mechanics to encode and elaborate data, meaning that it could one day solve computational problems that are intractable with current computers. While the latter work with bits, which represent either a 0 or a 1, quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits – the fundamental units of quantum information. “With applications ranging from drug discovery to optimization and simulations of complex biological systems and materials, quantum computing has the potential to reshape vast areas of science, industry, and society,” says ...

Eczema is an inflammatory skin condition that often affects infants as young as one to two months. Among the various types of eczema seen in infants, early-onset atopic dermatitis (AD), characterized by psychological stress and sleep disorders, is particularly concerning. Studies have, in fact, identified that if left untreated, AD can increase the risk of allergic diseases such as food allergies and asthma—a progression also known as the “atopic march”. Early diagnosis and intervention of early-onset AD is needed to ensure the infant’s psychological and physical ...

The skies aircraft fly through are bumpier today than four decades ago, scientists have found, after producing a new analysis showing that turbulence has increased as the climate changed.  New research from the University of Reading shows that clear-air turbulence, which is invisible and hazardous to aircraft, has increased in various regions around the world.  At a typical point over the North Atlantic – one of the world’s busiest flight routes – the total ...

Washington, June 8, 2023—For years, parents looking for data to compare the academic quality of schools for their children had one primary measure to turn to: average student scores on standardized tests. However, these scores are often related to factors that have nothing to do with instructional quality—such as family income or racial and ethnic background—and push parents toward schools that are Whiter and more affluent, exacerbating school segregation in the U.S. As a result, many education ...

A University of Massachusetts Amherst public health researcher has updated and validated the widely used Pregnancy Physical Activity Questionnaire (PPAQ) to improve the measurement performance of this self-report physical activity method. Lisa Chasan-Taber, professor and chair of biostatistics and epidemiology, and her research group used novel and innovative tools – an advanced accelerometer and wearable camera – to assess PPAQ performance. The researchers developed the PPAQ in 2004 as the first validated pregnancy physical activity questionnaire. Listed on the UMass Amherst timeline ...

A team led by University of Minnesota Twin Cities scientists and engineers discovered a new method for tuning the thermal conductivity of materials to control heat flow ”on the fly.” Their tuning range is the highest ever recorded among one-step processes in the field, and will open a door to developing more energy-efficient and durable electronic devices. The researchers’ paper is published in Nature Communications, a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering the natural sciences. Just as electrical ...

An international team led by researchers at Nankai University in China and at University of Zagreb in Croatia, along with team at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) in Canada, led by Roberto Morandotti has made an important breakthrough in the study of topological phases. Their findings were recently published in Nature Physics – a journal published by Nature Publishing Group. In the last decade, topological photonics has attracted increasing attention due to the unique prospects to achieve light manipulation with high performance in terms of robustness and stability. Discoveries in topological photonics ...

Statement Highlights: A new American Heart Association scientific statement focuses on treatment strategies for pediatric cardiomyopathy (diseases of the heart muscle’s structure and function that may lead to heart failure and death) and is a companion to a 2019 scientific statement focused on diagnosis of the condition. There are several types of cardiomyopathies in children, and treatment should include personalized therapies based on the root cause, symptoms and progression of the condition in each child, according to the new scientific statement. Embargoed until 4 a.m. CT/5 a.m. ET, Thursday, June 8, 2023 DALLAS, June 8, 2023 — Treating ...

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies have discovered that variations in the thickness of tectonic plates relate directly to the distribution of earthquakes in Britain, Ireland and around the world. The study also solves an enduring mystery as to why small earthquakes happen frequently in Britain but are almost completely absent from neighbouring Ireland. The researchers produced a computer-generated image of Earth’s interior using a technique called seismic tomography, which works in a similar way to a medical CT scan. The data they collected revealed variations in the thickness of the ...

University of Leeds Press Release   Under embargo until 09.00 am (British Summer Time) on Thursday, June 8   **With details of a linked press conference at the UNFCC meeting in Bonn - see under notes to journalists** Greenhouse gas emissions at ‘an all-time high’ - and it is causing an unprecedented rate of global warming, say scientists   Human-induced ...

University of Birmingham spinout Linear Diagnostics has received funding to finesse a point-of-care test for rapid diagnosis of gonorrhoea and Chlamydia in men who have sex with men (MSM), and women who have sex with women (WSW).  The funding from the National Institute of Health and Social Care Research (NIHR) will cover essential work to optimise and validate Linear’s platform technology (LDx-CTNG), so it can diagnose infection from rectal and pharyngeal (throat) swabs.  Gonorrhoea and Chlamydia are both major public health concerns.  While Chlamydia remains the most commonly detected sexually ...

Researchers have tested one of the ideas put forward to explain how humanity evolved to become smarter, on non-human primates. The study, led by a team at the University of Portsmouth, found a significant connection between social organisation and cognitive skills in monkeys.  They assessed three species of macaques with different social tolerance levels, from authoritarian to more relaxed societies, in a series of cognitive touchscreen touchscreen tasks to work out how impulsive and reactive ...

Today, an estimated 41,000 people in the United States live with the loss of an upper limb, including hundreds of service men and women. Although significant progress has been made in the durability, control and function of upper-limb prosthetic devices, they lack complete integration into the body and, importantly, do not enable their users to feel. Now, with the award of an $8.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Shirley Ryan AbilityLab — the top-ranked physical medicine and rehabilitation hospital — and its research partners have an opportunity ...

Professor Laurence Hurst, Director of the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath, has been recognised for his world-leading research into genetics and evolution with a prestigious Humboldt Prize. The Humboldt Prize, also known as the Humboldt Research Award, is an award given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany to internationally renowned scientists and scholars who work outside of Germany in recognition of their lifetime's research achievements. Named after the Prussian naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt, recipients of the prize are academics whose “fundamental discoveries, new ...

In fast-paced and often rapidly changing work environments, employers continue to seek new and improved ways to recognize employees in the workplace. However, new research from the University of Waterloo suggests that public peer recognition may backfire by enabling comparisons among employees, and these comparisons may make some employees feel unfairly treated.   “Employers have sought out various peer recognition systems in an effort to promote employee helping behaviour,” said Pei Wang, PhD ...

Have you ever wondered how drugs reach their targets and achieve their function within our bodies? If a drug molecule or a ligand is a message, an inbox is typically a receptor in the cell membrane. One such receptor involved in relaying molecular signals is a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR). About one-third of existing drugs work by controlling the activation of this protein. Japanese researchers now reveal a new way of activating GPCR by triggering shape changes in the intracellular region of the receptor. This new process can help researchers design drugs with fewer or no side effects.  If the ...

Niigata, Japan - The research group of Professor Kamimura in Niigata University have applied the novel, liver lobe-specific hydrodynamic delivery procedure to primates (baboons) for the first time. “Delivery of a plasmid that expresses a therapeutic gene for human hemophilia achieved therapeutic levels of human factor IX gene expression lasting for 200 days after the delivery of a plasmid”, says Prof. Kamimura. In addition, the results demonstrated the efficacy of repeated hydrodynamic gene delivery into the same liver lobes. Furthermore, no plasmid was introduced into organs other than the livers ...

Sophia Antipolis, 8 June 2023:  Patients who had heart attacks during the first COVID-19 lockdown in the UK and Spain are predicted to live 1.5 and 2 years less, respectively, than their pre-COVID counterparts. That’s the finding of a study published today in European Heart Journal – Quality of Care and Clinical Outcomes, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).1 The additional costs to the UK and Spanish economies are estimated at £36.6 million (€41.3 million) and €88.6 million, respectively, largely due to absence from work. “Restrictions to treatment of life-threatening conditions have immediate and long-term ...

Fatigue is the symptom that most significantly impacts the daily lives of long Covid patients, and can affect quality of life more than some cancers, finds a new study led by researchers at UCL and the University of Exeter. The research, published in BMJ Open and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), examines the impact of long Covid on the lives of over 3,750 patients who were referred to a long Covid clinic and used a digital app as part of their NHS treatment for the condition. Patients were asked to complete questionnaires on the app about how long Covid was affecting them – considering the impact of long Covid on their day-to-day activities, ...

Gradually re-introducing primates into the wild with post-release support has, for the first time, been scientifically shown to improve their well-being. Every year, rescue centres release animals, that are deemed ready, into the wild, based on the assumption that the animals will thrive most in their natural habitat, but this assumption has never been scientifically tested with primates. A team from Durham University, Disney’s Animals, Science and Environment and the Jane Goodall Institute ...

Development of an exciting, ground-breaking plant and microbial science and innovation hub can go ahead with confirmation of funding announced today.   The transformational investment will fund new cutting-edge, world-class facilities for the John Innes Centre (JIC) and The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL) at the heart of the Norwich Research Park. This will deliver a step change in our capability to translate scientific knowledge into bio-based solutions in response to some of society’s most pressing challenges.   As well as transforming the existing capabilities of the John Innes Centre and The Sainsbury Laboratory, both internationally recognised ...

Missing from partisan political debates over regulations affecting the energy sector is the stunning success of the federal government’s signature environmental laws. A prime example: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s rules aimed at reducing the harmful effects of hazardous air pollutant (HAP) emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants known as the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, or MATS. A new study from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) shows that in the decade since the standard was ...

The myriad ways in which we use social media can be grouped into four broad categories, each of which is associated with a cluster of specific personality and behavioral traits, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis. “Social media is here to stay, so clarifying how people use social media and raising awareness of these findings are crucial first steps toward ultimately helping people understand how they can avoid the negative aspects of social networking and engage in healthier social media usage,” said Alison B. Tuck, first author of the study and a PhD candidate in clinical psychology in Arts & Sciences. The study, published online ...

The Science Targeted alpha therapy can destroy cancerous cells without harming healthy cells. It’s especially useful for treating metastasized cancers. The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science’s Isotope Program is developing and marketing novel radioactive isotopes for targeted alpha therapy. One method of making one isotope, actinium-225, involves bombarding radium targets with neutrons. This method poses a challenge: how to chemically separate the radium from the actinium. This can destroy typical separation equipment due to a radioactive process called alpha decay. Now, researchers ...