Research Highlights: An analysis of death certificate data from 1999 to 2020 showed a decline in deaths related to infective endocarditis throughout most of the United States yet found an alarming increase of 2%-5% among adults ages 25-44. There was a notable increase in the diagnosis of substance use disorder among the young adults with infective endocarditis listed as the underlying cause of death. Three states at the epicenter of the opioid crisis— Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia — had significant increases in death rates related to infective endocarditis. Embargoed until 4 a.m. CT/5 a.m. ET Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023 DALLAS, Dec. 13, 2023 — ...

Smartwatches can help physicians detect and diagnose irregular heart rhythms in children, according to a new study from the Stanford School of Medicine.  The finding comes from a survey of electronic medical records for pediatric cardiology patients receiving care at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health. The study will publish online Dec. 13 in Communications Medicine. Over a four-year period, patients’ medical records mentioned “Apple Watch” 145 times. Among patients whose medical records mentioned ...

VANCOUVER, Wash. –  Even in the precipitation-heavy Pacific Northwest, more frequent heatwaves are threatening a key source of water supply. A Washington State University study that intended to look at snow melting under a single, extreme event, the 2021 “heat dome,” instead revealed an alarming, longer-term rising trend of successive heatwaves melting snowpack earlier in the year.   The findings have implications for many areas worldwide that are dependent on snow-capped mountains to provide summer water since heatwaves have been on the rise globally. “Short-term ...

Barcelona and Johannesburg, December 13th, 2023 The Scientific Group, a leader in the IVD industry, and Inbiomotion, a company commercializing its proprietary MAF Test® for identifying high risk early-stage breast cancer patients have signed an agreement to start marketing MAF Test® in Sub-Saharan Africa. The MAF Test® predicts the prognosis of breast cancer patients and helps oncologists to identify those patients who may be able to prevent recurrence and benefit from adjuvant treatment with bisphosphonates, which are commonly used to treat osteoporosis. The test also identifies those patients whose prognosis would worsen if treated with bisphosphonates. Breast ...

People with cognitive disabilities – like autism, attention deficit and memory loss – are less satisfied with their health care than those in the general population, according to a study published by a Rutgers researcher.   The study, published in Disability and Health Journal, examined how a national sample of adults experience the care they receive and the factors that contribute to their experiences.   “People with cognitive disabilities were less likely than people without ...

In the future, a little saliva may be enough to detect an incipient cancer. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg have developed an effective way to interpret the changes in sugar molecules that occur in cancer cells. Glycans are a type of sugar molecule structures that is linked to the proteins in our cells. The structure of the glycan determines the function of the protein. It has been known for a while that changes in glycan structure can indicate inflammation or disease in the body. Now, researchers at the University of Gothenburg have developed a way to distinguish different ...

Beneath Svalbard’s permafrost, millions of cubic meters of methane are trapped — and scientists have now learned that it can migrate beneath the cold seal of the permafrost and escape. A large-scale escape could create a cycle of warming that would send methane emissions skyrocketing: warming thaws the permafrost, causing more gas to escape, allowing more permafrost to thaw and more gas to be released. Because Svalbard’s geological and glacial history is very similar to the rest of the Arctic region, these migrating deposits of methane are likely ...

People are less likely to adopt new health policies if they don't have faith in their government, and a new tool from University of Waterloo researchers aims to fix that.  The tool – designed by a team based in Waterloo's School of Public Health Sciences - aids lawmakers in how trustworthy they may appear to the public and could help improve the uptake of public health policies by informing their design and communication. Policymakers can use the tool to measure citizens' trust in government and inform the design and communication of public health initiatives in ways that build confidence across members of ...

Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) are among the most prevalent and distressing side effects faced by patients undergoing antineoplastic treatments. This condition can lead to complications such as dehydration, metabolic imbalances, anorexia and weakened physical stamina. Notably, highly emetic drugs such as cisplatin are notorious for causing severe nausea and vomiting in approximately 90% of patients. Therefore, enhancing the management of CINV is of utmost importance. Chemotherapy-induced inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract is considered ...

Recent attention has been devoted to develop high-power mid-infrared fiber lasers due to their applications in free-space communication, atmospheric remote sensing, and high-resolution spectroscopy. With the “0.98 μm+2 μm” dual-wavelength pumping scheme, mid-infrared laser emission at 3.5 μm can be obtained from Er-doped fluoride fiber laser. However, an intrinsic excited state absorption (ESA) also exhibits absorption at 2 μm pump wavelength, which reduces the pump quantum efficiency. Even worse, the ESA starts from the upper ...

Many physician-scientists and other researchers from Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine will be making oral or poster presentations or participating in panel discussions at the American Society of Hematology’s 2023 annual meeting in San Diego, Dec. 9-12. Below is an EMBARGOED summary, highlighting several presentations involving Sylvester physicians and other staff members. For more information on any of these story ideas or to arrange an interview, please email Sandy Van, sandy.van@miami.edu, or call/text 808.206.4576. Please note that all information is strictly embargoed until the date and ...

At the end of the last ice age, large herds of bison roamed across Europe. But by 1927, the European bison became extinct in the wild, with only about 60 individuals remaining in captivity. Scientists have long debated the exact causes of the grazers’ near extinction, and how much humans were to blame.  A new study combines fossil evidence, ancient DNA, and modeling to disentangle the threats that forced the European bison’s population decline. Rapid environmental change and hunting by humans were the main drivers, according to the study, published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. Since the near-extinction of the European ...

Brigham researchers’ findings support developing public health interventions that incorporate components of environmental health literacy alongside cancer screening efforts.   The world’s climate crisis has wide ranging implications for human health. But how do our perceptions about climate change influence our intentions when it comes to personal health? A new study by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare ...

uch of the discussion around implementing artificial intelligence systems focuses on whether an AI application is “trustworthy”: Does it produce useful, reliable results, free of bias, while ensuring data privacy? But a new paper published Dec. 7 in Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence poses a different question: What if an AI is just too good? Carrie Alexander, a postdoctoral researcher at the AI Institute for Next Generation Food Systems, or AIFS, at the University of California, Davis, interviewed a wide range of food industry stakeholders, including business leaders and academic and legal experts, on the attitudes of the food industry ...

The global surge in electric vehicle sales has prompted an Australian university to explore how it could offer free or nominal EV charging facilities to staff and students by optimising its solar PV system and minimising workplace electricity costs. Engineering researchers based at the University of South Australia (UniSA) Mawson Lakes campus say that using renewable energy to power EV day charging is the key, lowering electricity grid demand in the evening and helping to support Australia’s net zero emission targets by 2050. The campus currently has rooftop solar panels on 18 buildings, supplemented by ground-mounted solar panels. The 2019 installation ...

The size of the gap in academic achievement between White and minority ethnic medical students in the UK varies considerably, depending on their individual ethnicity and which medical school they attended, finds the largest study of its kind, published in the open access journal BMJ Open. Their findings prompt the researchers to call for urgent remedial action to close the gap and reverse the career-long disadvantage faced by future minority ethnic doctors in the UK. Despite a growing body of research on differences in outcomes within UK medical education, no large studies drawing on national data and universally applicable outcome measures have been done, so hampering ...

Female victims of gun violence in the US are less likely to die than their male counterparts, despite having similar injury severity, finds a 7-year analysis of a US national injury database, published in the open access journal Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open. They are also likely to have better outcomes, with fewer complications after hospital admission, the analysis shows. The US has the highest number of firearm deaths of all developed countries, and firearms injuries and deaths have been rising year on year, point out the researchers. And women are 21 times more likely to die from firearm injuries than their peers in any other developed nation. But it’s not ...

To curb the risk of falls, it may be worth grading skateboard parks like ski runs according to the popularity of the metal and concrete features they contain and the level of expertise required, conclude researchers in the journal Injury Prevention. Their analysis of the moves performed by more than 500 young skateboarders reveals that flips, jumps, and turns on flat ground and quarterpipe (a curved concave ramp) and ramp tricks seem to pose the greatest risk, and are universally popular. A grind box, ...

A major clinical trial, led by experts at the University of Nottingham, has shown that people with inflammatory conditions are able to improve the antibody response from a COVID-19 booster vaccination by interrupting their treatment for two weeks immediately after having the vaccine. The antibody response to the jab was doubled at four weeks, and one and a half times greater at 26 weeks, when compared to those who continued with their treatment as usual. The improved antibody response lasted for six months. Patients who interrupted treatment reported experiencing more flare-ups of their inflammatory conditions in the next few weeks, but most flares ...

Issues of identity, male-dominated branding and apprehension that their needs will go unmet are among the reasons women are not accessing veterans’ mental health support, according to new research being discussed today (Wednesday, 13 December) at a conference in Cambridge.   The report, I don’t feel like that’s for me: Overcoming barriers to mental healthcare for women veterans, was carried out by the Centre for Military Women’s Research (CMWR) at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), to investigate the low numbers of ex-servicewomen engaging with veteran-specific mental health services.   The ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A climate policy that raises the price of carbon-intensive products across the entire U.S. economy would yield a side benefit of reducing nitrate groundwater contamination throughout the Mississippi River Basin. The Gulf of Mexico, an important U.S. fishery, also would see modest benefits from the nitrate reductions. These were among the conclusions of a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The study, led by four early career researchers, three of them from ...

Berkeley — A 20-year experiment in the Sierra Nevada confirms that different forest management techniques — prescribed burning, restoration thinning or a combination of both — are effective at reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire in California. These treatments also improve forest health, making trees more resilient to stressors like drought and bark beetles, and they do not negatively impact plant or wildlife biodiversity within individual tree stands, the research found. The findings of the experiment, called the Fire Surrogate Study, were published today in the journal Ecological Applications. “The research ...

Becoming a caregiver to an aging parent or spouse can be stressful, but a new study from a researcher at The University of Texas at Austin is questioning the idea that family caregiving is also a risk factor for depression. The study, published in the journal Advances in Life Course Research, found that depression in adult caregivers is mostly driven by having a loved one experiencing serious health problems, while becoming a caregiver is associated with fewer symptoms of depression. “Decades of research on this topic indicate that there are positive and negative aspects to being a caregiver,” said Sae Hwang Han, ...

University of Central Florida researcher Debashis Chanda, a professor at the NanoScience Technology Center, has developed a new technique to detect photons — elementary particles that span from visible light to radio frequencies and are instrumental in carrying cellular communication. The advancement could lead to more precise and efficient technologies in various fields, from improving medical imaging and communication systems to enhancing scientific research and even potentially bolstering security measures. Photon detection has typically relied on change/modulation of voltage or ...

Old, obese flies get healthier and live longer if put on a diet, University of Connecticut researchers report on Dec. 8 in PNAS. If the effect holds true for humans, it would mean it’s never too late for obese people to improve their health with diet. For way too many of us, eating too much goes along with getting old and a tendency to be obese. Different health organizations define obesity differently, but all agree it means having too much body fat, and is associated with a host of diseases related to metabolism including heart disease and diabetes. Many animal studies have shown that eating less—meaning sharply ...