About half of cigarette smokers and young adult non-smokers think that nicotine-based electronic cigarettes have the same amount or even more harmful chemicals than regular tobacco-based cigarettes, according to a Rutgers study.   The study, published in Addiction, measured perceived levels of harmful chemicals in e-cigarettes compared with cigarettes using national samples of more than 1,000 adults ages 18 and older who smoke cigarettes and 1,000-plus adults ages 18 to 29 who are nonsmokers. The study also measured associations with e-cigarette/cigarette relative harm perceptions, e-cigarette use and interest. About 20 percent of all participants ...

(Memphis, Tenn.—May 23, 2023) Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center studied the structure and function of a transporter involved in cancer and immunity. They captured six structures of the transporter, including when it was bound to an inhibitor, providing unprecedented insight into how it works. The findings, published in Cell, have implications for drug development.   Transporters escort substances across the cell membrane so that they can carry out their functions. Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) is an important signaling molecule that regulates the immune system, blood vessel formation, auditory ...

If you look at enough dinosaur fossils, you'll see that their skulls sport an amazing variety of bony ornaments, ranging from the horns of Triceratops and the mohawk-like crests of hadrosaurs to the bumps and knobs covering the head of Tyrannosaurus rex. But paleontologists are increasingly finding evidence that dinosaurs had even more elaborate head ornaments not preserved with the fossil skulls — structures made of keratin, the stuff of fingernails, that were likely used as visual signals or semaphores to others of their kind. A newly described species of dome-headed dinosaur — a pachycephalosaur ...

NEW YORK, NY (May 23) – The Lupus Research Alliance and its clinical research affiliate Lupus Therapeutics today announced the launch of the Lupus Landmark Study, a groundbreaking observational research study to accelerate the development of personalized treatments for people living with lupus. The Lupus Landmark Study, the largest study of its kind in lupus, will prospectively recruit and longitudinally follow 3,500 adults diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The Lupus Landmark Study is a ...

Session:  C110, Advanced Signal Analysis: New Diagnostics and Physiologic Insights for SDB (sleep-disordered breathing) Date and Time: 2:15 p.m. ET, Tuesday, May 23, 2023 Location:  WEWCC, Room 144 A-C (Street Level)   ATS 2023, Washington, DC – Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) tests may underestimate the severity of OSA in Black patients, according to research published at the ATS 2023 International Conference.   Recent research with ICU patients during the COVID-19 pandemic showed that pulse oximeters—clip-like devices that are attached to a fingertip to measure blood oxygen ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The tendency of cities to trap heat — a phenomenon called the “urban heat island,” often referred to as the UHI effect — can lead to dangerous temperatures in the summer months, but new Penn State research suggests that certain urban factors can reduce this effect. The study found that trees had a cooling effect on outdoor air temperature, mean radiant temperature and predicted mean vote index, a measurement designed to evaluate thermal comfort levels. Additionally, the researchers determined that higher building-height-to-street-width ratios — when taller ...

“This dataset presents the most comprehensive profiling of the aging adult mouse prostate immune profile to date.” BUFFALO, NY- May 23, 2023 – A new research paper was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 15, Issue 9, entitled, “Highly multiplexed immune profiling throughout adulthood reveals kinetics of lymphocyte infiltration in the aging mouse prostate.” Aging is a significant risk factor for disease in several tissues, including the prostate. Defining the kinetics ...

Organisations must enable mid-life women to thrive in the workplace by taking inspiration from societies such as China and Japan to encourage positive conversations around the impact of menopause, a new study reveals. But as they support older women in pursuing their ambitions and accessing career opportunities, organisations must ensure they do not hinder career progression through overlooked promotions, undervalued work, and lost opportunities. In Western countries, the menopause is traditionally viewed as a managed medical condition that creates physiological challenges which women must overcome if they are to function as effectively in the workplace ...

Session:  C98, Risky Business: Predicting Consequences of OSA Date and Time: 2:51 p.m. ET, Tuesday, May 23, 2023 Location:  Marriott Marquis Washington, Independence Ballroom, Salons E-H (Level M4)   ATS 2023, Washington, DC – Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients newly prescribed non-benzodiazepine benzodiazepine receptor agonists (NBZRAs) such as zolpidem (Ambien, Intermezzo and other brands), a class of hypnotic drugs prescribed for insomnia, did not have an increased risk of exacerbations requiring hospitalizations or of death than those prescribed ...

Powerful magnetic pulses applied to the scalp to stimulate the brain can bring fast relief to many severely depressed patients for whom standard treatments have failed. Yet it’s been a mystery exactly how transcranial magnetic stimulation, as the treatment is known, changes the brain to dissipate depression. Now, research led by Stanford Medicine scientists has found that the treatment works by reversing the direction of abnormal brain signals.  The findings also suggest that backward streams of neural activity between key areas of the brain could be used as a biomarker to help diagnose depression. “The leading ...

Carefully planned restoration of agricultural coffee landscapes can increase both farmers’ profit and forest cover over a 40-year period, according to a study publishing May 23rd in the open access journal PLOS Biology by Dr. Sofía López-Cubillos at the University of Queensland in Australia, and colleagues. Restoring patches of natural vegetation in agricultural land presents a trade-off for farmers: while the lost cropland can reduce profitability, increases in ecosystem services like pollination can improve crop yield. To investigate how conservation priorities can be balanced with economic needs, researchers developed a novel planning framework to model the ...

For the first time, researchers have shown that reduced oxygen intake, or “oxygen restriction”, is associated with longer lifespan in lab mice, highlighting its anti-aging potential. Robert Rogers of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, US, and colleagues present these findings in a study publishing May 23rd in the open access journal PLOS Biology. Research efforts to extend healthy lifespan have identified a number of chemical compounds and other interventions that show promising effects in mammalian lab animals— ...

Three studies now published in the open-access journal The Seismic Record offer an initial look at the February 6, 2023 earthquakes in south-central Türkiye and northwestern Syria, including how, where, and how fast the earthquakes ruptured and how they combined as a “devastating doublet” to produce damaging ground shaking. The two earthquakes, a magnitude 7.8 followed approximately nine hours later by a magnitude 7.6, took place at the tectonically active and complex junction between the Anatolian, Arabian, and ...

Rural Patients With Diabetes Experience Worse Health Outcomes Than Urban Patients Mayo Clinic researchers conducted a study within their health care system to identify factors associated with quality of care among rural and urban patients with diabetes. The study evaluated patient attainment of a five-component diabetic care metric, known as the D5 metric. This metric includes no tobacco use, hemoglobin A1C <8%, blood pressure <140/90, statin use, and aspirin use. Researchers considered age, sex, race, Adjusted Clinical Group score (a series of mutually exclusive, health status categories defined by morbidity, age, and sex), insurance type, primary care clinician type, ...

Focusing on Satiety and Satiation May Aid Long-Term Weight Loss Compared to Calorie Counting Diets Researchers  hypothesized that focusing on satiety (feeling free of hunger) and satiation (feeling satisfied with a meal) through the consumption of fruits and vegetables may be better targets for weight loss success. The researchers compared the impact of two diets — Diabetes Prevention Program Calorie Counting versus MyPlate — on satiation (feeling satisfied with a meal), satiety (feeling free of hunger) and on body fat composition in primary care patients. Two hundred and sixty-one overweight, adult, low-income ...

Too Few Primary Care Doctors Address Obesity With Their Patients, Highlighting Need for Weight Loss Tool After finding that few to no clinicians provided weight management care, researchers developed a weight loss tool called PATHWEIGH. This tool was designed to remove clinician barriers in providing patient care that addressed weight. Early success with the tool led to PATHWEIGH being implemented in the health system’s 57 primary care clinics. Researchers describe the characteristics of patients to determine ...

Researchers from Iceland trained a machine learning model with artificial intelligence to triage patients with respiratory symptoms before the patients visit a primary care clinic. To train the machine learning model, the researchers used only questions that a patient might be asked about before a clinic visit. Information was extracted from 1,500 clinical text notes that included a physician's interpretation of the patient's symptoms and signs, as well as reasons for clinical decisions made during the consultation, such as imaging referrals and prescriptions. Patients were categorized into one of five diagnostic categories based on information in clinical notes. Patients from all ...

Amid an uptick in publications looking to quantify the electronic health record (EHR) workload faced by clinicians, researchers propose three recommendations to ensure the accuracy and replicability of research in this space. Their recommendations include: 1) separating all time working in the EHR outside time scheduled with patients from time working in the EHR during time scheduled with patients, 2) including any time before or after scheduled appointments as “after-hours,” and 3) encouraging the EHR vendor and research communities to develop validated methods for measuring active EHR ...

In this systematic review, the authors summarized the wide range of peer-reviewed literature that links continuity of the doctor-patient relationship to health care costs and care utilization. This information is important to establish continuity measurement in value-based payment design. The authors conducted a literature review of articles published between 2002 and 2022 about "continuity of care" and "continuity of patient care," as well as payor-relevant outcome categories, such as cost ...

FRANKFORT, Ky. (May 19, 2023) — On Wednesday, May 17, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) Secretary Eric Friedlander recognized UK HealthCare’s Robert J. Baumann, M.D., with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Baumann has worked in the field of child neurology in Kentucky for more than five decades. He was key in establishing the Office for Children with Special Health Care Needs (OCSHCN) network of regional medical clinics in Eastern ...

Researchers tested a digital version of a positive psychology intervention called “Three Good Things” (3GT) among health care workers to assess whether gratitude practice improved well-being. Two hundred and twenty-three participants—all of whom were based at a single, large academic medicine department—were randomized to an immediate intervention or delayed intervention control group. During the study, participants received text messages three times per week, prompting them to document three things for which they were grateful. Participants completed surveys measuring levels of depression, positive affect, gratitude, and life satisfaction at the study’s ...

Researchers looking to better understand patient experiences are turning to patient-guided tours (PGT) of health facilities, an approach drawn from the experience-based design literature. However, little research has assessed how patients with disabilities perceive the approach. In this qualitative study, 18 patients were asked to walk through the clinic as they would on a typical visit while describing their experiences. Patients’ experiences and perceptions of the tours were audiotaped and transcribed. Additionally, investigators took field notes and completed thematic content analyses. Their findings support the value ...

A bionic pancreas—a wearable, pocket-sized, automated insulin delivery device—that was first developed in a Boston University lab has been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The iLet Bionic Pancreas is now commercially available, bringing fresh hope to the almost two million Americans with type 1 diabetes. The approval is a massive milestone in a two-decade—and deeply personal—journey. Invented 20 years ago in the lab of Ed Damiano, a BU College of Engineering professor of ...

Ann Arbor, May 23, 2023 – High school students who experience violence or bullying at school are more likely to bring weapons like a gun, knife, or club to school than those who have not experienced violence, according to a new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier. Because weapons increase the potential for injury and death when there is interpersonal conflict, developing a better understanding of the relationship between exposure to violence and weapon carrying is essential for developing effective public health interventions. “With 93 school shootings in the US just the 2020-21 period alone, ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 23, 2023) – World-renowned chef, author, and humanitarian José Andrés and international research leader the George Washington University (GW) today announced their partnership to build a premier Global Food Institute at GW, an unprecedented and transformative collaboration in the heart of the nation’s capital with plans to be a world leader in food system solution delivery. “Our global food system is experiencing a crisis, brought on by systemic inequities, rampant hunger and poverty, the climate crisis, and deteriorating public health and nutrition. But food has the power to solve problems: It can rebuild lives and communities, heal ...