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Human rights are a low priority for many national climate change adaptation policies, new Concordia research finds
Environment 2023-11-28

Human rights are a low priority for many national climate change adaptation policies, new Concordia research finds

The link between human rights and climate change adaptation policy has not been a major source of discussion in national policies, according to a new Concordia-led study. Moreover, the researchers say the topic should play a bigger role in the upcoming COP28 conference, opening this week in Dubai. The paper was published in the journal Climate Policy. Assistant professor in Concordia’s Department of Geography, Planning and Environment Alexandra Lesnikowski co-authored the study with researchers from McGill University’s Faculty ...
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Social Science 2023-11-28

Want school kids to eat more vegetables? Don’t forget about the power of potatoes on the plate

A new study published in Nutrients illustrates how potatoes may play a beneficial role in encouraging school aged children to eat more vegetables. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans currently recommends children ages 3-18 consume between 2.5-3 cups of vegetables per day to meet their total vegetable goals. Yet, the average school-age child eats only about 1 cup daily. “That’s why we wanted to learn more about how school meal offerings may influence kids’ eating behavior and possibly encourage greater vegetable consumption,” explains principal ...
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Repairing nerve cells after injury and in chronic disease
Medicine 2023-11-28

Repairing nerve cells after injury and in chronic disease

LA JOLLA (November 28, 2023)—Each year in the United States there are more than 3 million cases of peripheral neuropathy, wherein nerves outside of the brain and spinal cord are damaged and cause pain and loss of feeling in the affected areas. Peripheral neuropathy can occur from diabetes, injury, genetically inherited disease, infection, and more. Salk scientists have now uncovered in mice a mechanism for repairing damaged nerves during peripheral neuropathy. They discovered that the protein Mitf helps turn on the repair function of specialized nervous system Schwann cells. The findings, published in Cell Reports ...
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First multi-chamber heart organoids unravel human heart development and disease
Medicine 2023-11-28

First multi-chamber heart organoids unravel human heart development and disease

Heart disease kills 18 million people each year, but the development of new therapies faces a bottleneck: no physiological model of the entire human heart exists – so far. A new multi-chamber organoid that mirrors the heart’s intricate structure enables scientists to advance screening platforms for drug development, toxicology studies, and understanding heart development. The new findings, using heart organoid models developed by Sasha Mendjan’s group at the Institute of Molecular ...
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Medicine 2023-11-28

Race and ethnicity and emergency department discharge against medical advice

About The Study: The findings of this study of 33.1 million visits to 989 U.S. hospitals suggest that Black and Hispanic patients are more likely to receive care in hospitals with higher overall discharge against medical advice (DAMA) rates, suggesting interventions should address medical segregation. Structural racism may contribute to emergency department DAMA disparities via unequal allocation of health care resources in hospitals that disproportionately treat racial and ethnic minoritized groups. Monitoring variation in DAMA by race and ethnicity and hospital suggests ...
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Medicine 2023-11-28

Strategies to increase cervical cancer screening with mailed HPV self-sampling kits

About The Study: Direct-mail human papillomavirus (HPV) self-sampling increased cervical cancer screening by more than 14% in individuals who were due or overdue for cervical cancer screening in this randomized clinical trial of 31,000 individuals. The opt-in approach minimally increased screening. To increase screening adherence, systems implementing HPV self-sampling should prioritize direct-mail outreach for individuals who are due or overdue for screening. For individuals with unknown screening history, ...
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Scientists track rapid retreat of Antarctic glacier
Environment 2023-11-28

Scientists track rapid retreat of Antarctic glacier

Scientists are warning that apparently stable glaciers in the Antarctic can “switch very rapidly” and lose large quantities of ice as a result of warmer oceans.    Their finding comes after a research team led by Benjamin Wallis, a glaciologist at the University of Leeds, used satellites to track the Cadman Glacier, which drains into Beascochea Bay, on the west Antarctic peninsula.   Between November 2018 and May 2021, the glacier retreated eight kilometres as the ice shelf at the end ...
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A new way to see the activity inside a living cell
Medicine 2023-11-28

A new way to see the activity inside a living cell

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Living cells are bombarded with many kinds of incoming molecular signal that influence their behavior. Being able to measure those signals and how cells respond to them through downstream molecular signaling networks could help scientists learn much more about how cells work, including what happens as they age or become diseased. Right now, this kind of comprehensive study is not possible because current techniques for imaging cells are limited to just a handful of different molecule types within a cell at one time. However, MIT researchers have developed ...
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Medicine 2023-11-28

Prioritizing circulation before the airway in trauma may improve outcomes for patients with massive bleeding

Key takeaways · A paradigm shift in trauma care: The circulation-airway-breathing (CAB) sequence has gained acceptance over the past decade over the airway-breathing-circulation (ABC) model for patients with severe bleeding injuries. · Better outcomes: A literature review found significantly lower mortality rates with CAB vs. ABC for patients with severe bleeding injuries. CHICAGO (November 28, 2023): For trauma patients suffering from massive blood loss, a care approach that emphasizes halting bleeding and restoring ...
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Australian patients coping with mesothelioma experienced higher levels of toxicity on CheckMate743 regimen than reported in clinical trials
Medicine 2023-11-28

Australian patients coping with mesothelioma experienced higher levels of toxicity on CheckMate743 regimen than reported in clinical trials

Based on results from the CheckMate743 trial, the dual regimen of ipilimumab and nivolumab is the standard of care for the treatment of unresectable pleural mesothelioma. But research published today in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology (JTO) showed that a group of Australian patients treated with that immunotherapy combination experienced higher levels of toxicity than were reported in the clinical trial results.  The study is available here: https://www.jto.org/article/S1556-0864(23)02370-5/fulltext. JTO is the official journal of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer. Australia ...
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Medicine 2023-11-28

More to learn about reducing the churn: Examining the pandemic’s continuous enrollment Medicare policy

Boston, MA – A new study led by researchers at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute has found that a federal policy implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic requiring continuous enrollment in Medicaid led to a significant reduction in the rates of becoming uninsured for adult Medicaid enrollees. The study, “Continuous Medicaid coverage during the COVID-19 public health emergency reduced churning, but did not eliminate it,” was published in the October 21 edition of Health Affairs Scholar. Many people who have Medicaid coverage frequently gain and lose it, sometimes over short periods of time. This phenomenon ...
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Energy 2023-11-28

No significant link between industry 4.0 and energy consumption or energy intensity

To what extent does the digitalisation of industrial and manufacturing processes (Industry 4.0) improve energy efficiency and thus reduce energy intensity? A team from the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) analysed developments across ten industrial manufacturing sectors in China between 2006 and 2019. Their findings show that contrary to the claims of many policymakers and industry associations, digitalisation may not automatically lead to anticipated energy savings in manufacturing and industry in China. China accounts for 30% of global manufacturing value added and the largest share of global manufacturing ...
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Medicine 2023-11-28

Weill Cornell Medicine to open medical research center at 1334 York Avenue

Weill Cornell Medicine is dramatically expanding its campus and research footprint in New York City by securing five floors of 1334 York Ave., the current home of Sotheby's auction house, the institution announced today. Located one block from Weill Cornell Medicine’s main campus on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, the site will add approximately 200,000 square feet of dedicated research space—an average of 40,000 square feet per floor—making it the institution’s largest expansion since the Belfer Research Building opened in 2014. Laboratories in the new medical ...
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Science 2023-11-28

What if Alexa or Siri sounded more like you? Study says you’ll like it better

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — One voice does not fit all when it comes to virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa, according to a team led by Penn State researchers that examined how customization and perceived similarity between user and voice assistant (VA) personalities affect user experience. They found a strong preference for extroverted VAs — those that speak louder, faster and in a lower pitch. They also found that increasing personality similarity by automatically matching user and VA voice profiles encouraged users to resist persuasive information, such as misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines. In the study, 38% of unvaccinated individuals changed their minds about vaccination ...
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A gamma-ray pulsar milestone inspires innovative astrophysics and applications
Space 2023-11-28

A gamma-ray pulsar milestone inspires innovative astrophysics and applications

WASHINGTON  –  The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), in conjunction with the international Fermi Large Area Telescope Collaboration, announce the discovery of nearly 300 gamma ray pulsars in the publication of their Third Catalog of Gamma Ray Pulsars. This milestone comes 15 years since the launch of Fermi in 2008, when there were fewer than ten known gamma-ray pulsars.     “Work on this important catalog has been going on in our group for years,” said Paul Ray, Ph.D., head of the High Energy Astrophysics and Applications Section ...
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Medicine 2023-11-28

Recent scientific studies offer insight into heart and stroke health

DALLAS, Nov. 28, 2023 — More than 4,000 abstracts were presented during the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2023 and Resuscitation Science Symposium 2023, held earlier this month in Philadelphia. Here are some of the important scientific findings that could impact your heart and stroke health. Next wave of AI prediction models aims to predict risk of heart attack and stroke, as well as heart valve disease Artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning models may help to predict the risk of cardiovascular disease events and detect heart ...
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Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center awarded FDA grant for clinical trial on experimental AML/MDS treatment
Medicine 2023-11-28

Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center awarded FDA grant for clinical trial on experimental AML/MDS treatment

November 28, 2023—(BRONX, NY)—Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS)—two related blood diseases that disproportionally strike older adults—are notoriously difficult to treat and associated with high relapse rates. Although new therapies have improved survival, treatment options remain limited, and the prognosis for the 50% of people who experience disease relapse remains poor. Researchers at the National Cancer Institute-designated Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive ...
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LSU Health Shreveport chooses Digital Science to support research discovery and integrity
Medicine 2023-11-28

LSU Health Shreveport chooses Digital Science to support research discovery and integrity

Digital Science, a technology company serving stakeholders across the research ecosystem, is pleased to announce that Louisiana State University Health Shreveport (LSUHS) has chosen Dimensions Analytics and Dimensions Research Security from Digital Science’s flagship products to advance its world-class research programs. LSUHS is one of the first customers to subscribe to the new Dimensions Research Security app. The institution – one of the leading health science research programs in the U.S. – has signed a three-year deal to utilize the two products ...
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Medicine 2023-11-28

Understanding the impact of transferring patients with dementia between hospitals

INDIANAPOLIS – It is common for individuals seeking medical care for symptoms of concern to go to the nearest hospital. Physicians there may determine the facility cannot provide the care they believe the patient needs and recommend transfer to another hospital offering a higher level of care or specialized services. In a recent study, researchers from Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Medicine reviewed electronic health records to compare older adults with dementia transferred to another hospital with older adults who did not have dementia. The researchers found significant differences in treatment following transfer. Patients with dementia more ...
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The secret life of an electromagnon
Science 2023-11-28

The secret life of an electromagnon

Scientists have revealed how lattice vibrations and spins talk to each other in a hybrid excitation known as an electromagnon. To achieve this, they used a unique combination of experiments at the X-ray free electron laser SwissFEL. Understanding this fundamental process at the atomic level opens the door to ultrafast control of magnetism with light. Within the atomic lattice of a solid, particles and their various properties cooperate in wave like motions known as collective excitations. When atoms in a lattice jiggle together, the collective excitation is known as a phonon. Similarly, when the atomic spins - the magnetisation of the atoms -move together, it’s ...
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New method identifies bacteria more easily
Medicine 2023-11-28

New method identifies bacteria more easily

Far too many antibiotics are used around the world. As a result, bacteria are becoming resistant. Curing bacterial diseases is becoming more difficult than before, because antibiotics are perhaps our foremost weapons in the fight against them. An important step towards using fewer antibiotics is to find better methods for identifying pathogens, and here is the good news. “We have developed a simple tool that can identify all of the genetic material in bacteria. This allows us to find out more quickly what kind of bacteria a sick person or animal is affected ...
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Bidding adieu to sticky ice, but with a grain of salt
Science 2023-11-28

Bidding adieu to sticky ice, but with a grain of salt

As Americans gear up for winter, many will face one of their toughest foes: ice. From delaying flights to making roads slippery, ice accumulation on surfaces wreaks havoc in many ways.  But not all ice is created equal. In new research from the University of Illinois Chicago, scientists studied the stickiness of ice containing everyday contaminants such as salt, soap and alcohol. Most laboratory studies typically test ice made from pure water, but in nature, ice is seldom pure. “Be it dirty sidewalks or the hull of ...
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Medicine 2023-11-28

CHOP researchers define seizure burden, developmental outcomes for STXBP1-related disorders

Philadelphia, November 28, 2023 – Researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) found that seizure patterns and response to treatment strategies were able to help clinical teams determine epilepsy and developmental trajectories for patients with STXBP1-related disorders, one of the most common genetic epilepsy disorders. The findings were published online by the journal Brain. Disease-causing variants in the gene STXBP1 are implicated in one of the most common genetic epilepsies and neurodevelopmental disorders, which are sometimes accompanied by autism spectrum disorder, increased or decreased muscle tone, or movement disorders. ...
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Medicine 2023-11-28

Researchers identify three genes associated with neurodevelopmental disorders

An international study group led by researchers of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have identified how three novel genes cause neurodevelopmental disorders. Researchers now have a better sense of the genes’ roles in human brain development and function and their ability to serve as potential therapeutic targets in the future. The findings were recently published online by the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Over the last couple of decades, researchers have identified more than 1500 genes in different signaling pathways associated ...
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Medicine 2023-11-28

Miss America’s Scholarship Foundation joins Go Red for Women to champion women’s health and well-being at every age

DALLAS, November 28, 2023 — Cardiovascular disease (CVD) claims more lives than all forms of cancer, yet many women, particularly younger women, remain unaware.[1] Through its Go Red for Women® movement, the American Heart Association, which is devoted to a world of healthier lives for all, is being supported by Miss America’s Scholarship Foundation to empower the next generation of women to take charge of their health and make a lasting impact on the health and well-being of communities nationwide. The ...
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