What The Study Did: The SARS-CoV-2 BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine appeared to be safe and achieve satisfactory serologic status in patients with cancer. While there was a lag in antibody production compared with the rate in the noncancer control group, seroconversion occurred in most patients after the second dose. Authors: Irit Ben-Aharon, M.D., Ph.D., of the Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa, Israel, 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/jamaoncol.2021.2675) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please ...

Tumor fragments in the lab are able to predict whether the corresponding real-life patients will benefit from immunotherapy. "We've solved a major problem many scientists had been facing: preserving a tumors original composition and structure outside of the patient in the lab", says cancer researcher Daniela Thommen from the Netherlands Cancer Institute. On 8 July, the results of her study are published in Nature Medicine. While some cancer patients experience incredible results from immunotherapy, many others do not benefit from this treatment, which puts patients' ...

What The Study Did: A decline in COVID-19 cases after the vaccination of health care workers in a region of California that experienced high rates of COVID-19 disease over the winter is reported in this single-center study. Authors: Shruti K. Gohil, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, 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.2021.15980) Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other ...

A research team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has identified potential new treatment targets for Alzheimer's disease, as well as existing drugs that have therapeutic potential against these targets. The potential targets are defective proteins that lead to the buildup of amyloid in the brain, contributing to the onset of problems with memory and thinking that are the hallmark of Alzheimer's. The 15 existing drugs identified by the researchers have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for other purposes, providing the possibility of clinical trials that could begin sooner than is typical, according to the researchers. In addition, the experiments yielded seven drugs that may be useful for treating faulty proteins linked to Parkinson's ...

HOUSTON - Researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center found specific intestinal microbiota signatures correlate with high-grade adverse events and response to combined CTLA-4 and PD-1 blockade treatment. The study, published today in Nature Medicine, also identified a potential new strategy to treat toxicity - while maintaining response - to combined immune checkpoint blockade through either IL-1R inhibition or manipulation of the gut microbiota. Dual immune checkpoint therapy has contributed to progress in overall survival for many cancer types, including ...

One of the things the human brain naturally excels at is recognizing all sorts of patterns, such as stripes on zebras, shells of turtles, and even the structure of crystals. Thanks to our progress in math and the natural sciences, we are not limited to just seeing the patterns; we can also understand how they readily originate out of pure randomness. A notable example of different natural patterns with a single mathematical explanation are Turing patterns. Conceived in 1952 by the renowned mathematician Alan Turing, these patterns arise as the solutions to a set of differential equations that describe the diffusion and reaction of chemicals satisfying a few conditions. Going well beyond pure chemistry, Turing demonstrated ...

Though writing by hand is increasingly being eclipsed by the ease of computers, a new study finds we shouldn't be so quick to throw away the pencils and paper: handwriting helps people learn certain skills surprisingly faster and significantly better than learning the same material through typing or watching videos. "The question out there for parents and educators is why should our kids spend any time doing handwriting," says senior author Brenda Rapp, a Johns Hopkins University professor of cognitive science. "Obviously, you're going to be a better hand-writer if you practice it. But since people are handwriting less then maybe who cares? The real question is: Are there other benefits to handwriting that have to do with reading and spelling and ...

Seismic waves passing through the ground near Longyearbyen in the Adventdalen valley, Svalbard, Norway have been slowing down steadily over the past three years, most likely due to permafrost warming in the Arctic valley. The trend, reported in a new study published in Seismological Research Letters, demonstrates how seismic monitoring can be used to track permafrost stability under global climate change. The study is part of a focus section in an upcoming issue of the journal on Arctic and Antarctic seismology. Julie Albaric of the University of Bourgogne Franche-Comté, while employed at NORSAR (Norway), and colleagues ...

Coastal wetlands - such as salt marshes - provide even more flood protection than previously thought, reducing the risk to lives and homes in estuaries, a new study has revealed. The researchers' simulations showed that wetlands that grow in estuaries, such as salt marshes, can reduce water levels by up to 2 metres and provide protection far inland up estuary channels. This subsequently saved up to $38 (£27) million in avoided flood damage costs per estuary during a large storm thanks to the wetlands' role in preventing storm floods. The research is timely as wetlands are facing growing threats from continued urban development. 22 of the largest 32 cities in the world - including London, New York and Tokyo - are built on low-lying land around estuaries, ...

Populist anti-foreign aid rhetoric works - but only fans of populist politicians are convinced by hostile messages about charity abroad, a new study shows. Those who distrust populist politicians are significantly less susceptible to these messages. The research shows international aid institutions and non-populist politicians should not be unduly worried about the impact of populism on global development cooperation. Those wanting to convince the public about the importance of foreign aid should focus on communicating their message transparently and clearly, and using local partnerships. The research, by A. Burcu Bayram from the University of Arkansas and Catarina Thomson from ...

Concerns have been raised about the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines regarding very rare but potentially fatal side effects related to low blood platelet counts and blood clots. Recently, reports also emerged that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine may cause a rare yet serious side effect: heart inflammation. Concerns about side effects may trigger vaccine hesitancy, which the WHO considers one of 'Ten threats to global health'. Securing sufficient acceptance of vaccines is a key challenge in defeating the coronavirus pandemic, both now and in the future. How ...

What happens when climate change affects the abundance and distribution of fish? Fishers and fishing communities in the Northeast United States have adapted to those changes in three specific ways, according to new research published in Frontiers in Marine Science. Becca Selden, Wellesley College assistant professor of biological sciences, and a team of colleagues examined how fishing communities have responded to documented shifts in the location of fluke and of red and silver hake. The team found that fishers made three distinct changes to their approaches: following the fish to a new location; fishing for a different kind of fish; and bringing their catch to shore at another port of landing. Selden began this research as a postdoctoral ...

July 8, 2021 - Until relatively recently, opioids were a mainstay of treatment for pain following total hip or knee replacement. Today, a growing body of evidence supports the use of multimodal analgesia - combinations of different techniques and medications to optimize pain management while reducing the use and risks of opioids, according to a paper in The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio in partnership with Wolters Kluwer. "Multimodal analgesia has become the standard of care for total joint arthroplasty as it provides superior analgesia with fewer side effects than opioid-only protocols," write Javad Parvizi, ...

Augmented reality (AR) is poised to revolutionise the way people complete essential everyday tasks, yet older adults - who have much to gain from the technology - will be excluded from using it unless more thought goes into designing software that makes sense to them. The danger of older adults falling through the gaps has been highlighted by research carried out by scientists at the UK's University of Bath and the Bath-based charity Designability. A Paper describing their work has received an honourable mention at this year's Human Computer Interaction Conference (CHI2021) - the world's largest conference of its kind. The study concludes that adults aged 50+ are more likely to be successful at completing AR-prompted tasks (such as 'pick up the cube' followed by 'move the cube to the blue ...

Skoltech biologists and their colleagues from Koltzov Institute of Developmental Biology, Russia, and the Chemistry Department of Taras Shevchenko University in Ukraine have discovered fairly unlikely drug candidates for treating liver fibrosis and other pathologies -- among pest control chemicals. In addition, the team looked at modifications of the medication called hymecromone, deeming them promising for anti-fibrotic drugs, too. Published in Glycobiology, the study also sheds light on the possible mechanism of action of the investigated compounds, all of which inhibit the synthesis of hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid is an important biological compound that is a key component ...

The plates of the Earth's crust perform complicated movements that can be attributed to quite simple mechanisms. That is the short version of the explanation of a rift that began to tear the world apart over a length of several thousand kilometers 105 million years ago. The scientific explanation appears today in the journal Nature Geoscience. According to the paper, a super volcano split the Earth's crust over a length of 7,500 kilometers, pushing the Indian Plate away from the African Plate. The cause was a "plume" in the Earth's mantle, i.e. a surge of hot material that wells upwards like an atomic mushroom cloud in super slow motion. It has long been known that the ...

WASHINGTON--Tidal stresses may be causing constant icequakes on Saturn's sixth largest moon Enceladus, a world of interest in the search for life beyond Earth, according to a new study. A better understanding of seismic activity could reveal what's under the moon's icy crust and provide clues to the habitability of its ocean. Enceladus is about 500 kilometers in diameter and almost entirely covered in ice. The moon is nearly 10 times as far away from the Sun as Earth and its bright surface reflects most sunlight, making it very cold, yet researchers have long ...

Newborn infants and babies aged up to three months should be stimulated to manipulate objects and observe adults performing everyday tasks. This incentive helps their social, motor and cognitive development, researchers note in an article published in the May 2021 issue of the journal Infant Behavior & Development. According to the authors, from the earliest age babies watch adults carrying out activities such as handling utensils and putting them away in drawers or closets. They should themselves have frequent contact with objects to develop the ability to hold things and reach out for them. Through social interaction, ...

Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure in the United States, but identifying type 1 or type 2 diabetes patients at high risk for progressive kidney disease has never had a sure science behind it. Historically, assessing kidney function meant looking at estimated glomerular filtration rate, a calculation that determines how well blood is filtered by the kidneys, and urine albumin excretion, a urine test to detect the amount of the protein albumin, which is filtered by the kidneys. However, both tests have limited predictive power in early stage diabetes when kidney function is normal. The therapeutic approach to both type 1 and type 2 diabetic ...

A multi-institutional study has discovered spontaneous mutations in RNF2 (RING2) gene as the underlying cause of a novel neurological disorder. This Undiagnosed Diseases Network (UDN) study was led by Dr. Shinya Yamamoto, investigator at the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (NRI) at Texas Children's Hospital and assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine, and Dr. Vandana Shashi at Duke University Medical Center. Using a combination of comprehensive clinical tests, trio genome sequencing and functional studies in the fruit flies, and global gene matchmaking efforts, the teams found ...

Amsterdam, July 8, 2021 - While the literature on the digital divide has widely addressed the digital gender gap, its potential implications for electronic government (e-government) / digital government research and practice have hardly been studied. In this Special Issue of Information Polity experts characterize the current state of understanding of the issues surrounding digital government and gender and present an agenda for future research. Gender is a neglected topic in the literature on digital government. According to the International Telecommunications Union, women are lagging behind men in making ...

demic have already had a dramatic impact on the prevailing oral health care model and will continue to do so. The paper "Advocacy for a Digital Oral Health That Leaves No One Behind," published in the JDR Clinical & Translational Research (JDR CTR), promotes the use of digital tools to offer opportunities to improve healthy behavior, lower risk factors common to oral diseases and other noncommunicable diseases and contribute to reducing oral health inequalities. To mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, systems were quickly put in place in most countries to respond to dental emergencies, ...

Consuming a protein supplement, specifically protein hydrolysate, during carbohydrate-restricted training was helpful for improving training intensity in women, but not in men. That's according to new research which will be part of a presentation this week at The Physiological Society's Annual Conference Physiology 2021. Most nutrition guidelines for athletes are based on research in men only. This study, by Tanja Oosthuyse and her colleagues, emphasizes that this shouldn't be the case, because nutritional research findings in men don't always apply to women. While the protein supplement helped training intensity in women, it did not improve training intensity and instead resulted in modest negative effect in men. It made exercise ...

July 8, 2021 - Women with recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs) experience frustration related to their treatment - particularly the risks from repeated use of antibiotics, according to a focus group study in The Journal of Urology®, Official Journal of the American Urological Association (AUA). The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer. "This study was prompted by our experience treating countless women with recurrent UTIs referred to our specialized Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery center," comments senior author Ja-Hong Kim, MD, of UCLA Center of Women's Pelvic Health. "The vast majority were understandably dissatisfied with their care pathway, which was primarily antibiotic-focused ...

Ibaraki, Japan - Most kids dream of growing up to be astronauts; but the downside of spending extended amounts of time in low gravity is that astronauts' muscles tend to shrink and weaken through disuse. Now, researchers from Japan have identified a protein that affects how muscles respond to space flight. In a study published in June 2021 in Communications Biology, researchers from the University of Tsukuba have revealed that nuclear factor E2-related factor 2, or NRF2, helps keep muscles from becoming weak in low gravity. Muscle atrophy, or weakening, is a common feature of disease and aging. It can also occur after a long period of inactivity, such as during space flight, when astronauts don't need to use their muscles as much as they do on Earth to support ...