A new study published in the journal eGastroenterology provides an updated assessment of the diagnosis, pathophysiology, and treatment of hepatorenal syndrome-acute kidney injury (HRS-AKI). This severe and often fatal condition can occur in patients with cirrhosis. HRS-AKI is a functional and progressive kidney failure that is potentially reversible but most often rapidly fatal. It accounts for 11%–20% of all AKI episodes in patients with cirrhosis, and its diagnosis is often challenging to differentiate from prerenal or acute tubular necrosis (ATN). The study, led by Jorge Arnold, found that early recognition of HRS-AKI is crucial for standard pharmacological treatment with terlipressin ...

Biliary tract cancers (BTCs) including cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) and gallbladder cancer (GBC) are becoming more prevalent globally. An effective chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment of BTCs is gemcitabine. Other novel molecular targeted drugs have also been developed; however, they are only effective at treating a few cases of BTCs. In addition, very few drugs are effective against GEM-resistant BTCs. While surgery is the best option for the treatment of BTCs, many patients are diagnosed late, due to a lack of symptoms. ...

White, wealthy neighborhoods in the LA area are about to start feeling the same heat that has plagued poorer, Hispanic neighborhoods for generations. A new study shows the protective effect of income has largely eroded over the past 40 years, as landscape plants can’t keep up with the pace of climate warming.  Published in the journal Urban Climate, the research cuts across neighborhoods, income levels, and race in the Los Angeles area between 1985 and 2021. It reveals a troubling forecast for city dwellers: it’s becoming unbearably hot, ...

CHICAGO – Youth baseball players are prone to elbow pain and injuries, including repetitive overuse changes and fractures, based on the maturity of their bones, according to a new study being presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). The repetitive motion and force of throwing a baseball places a large amount of stress on the growing bones, joints and muscles of the elbows of baseball players. Youth baseball players who have not yet reached skeletal maturity might be especially vulnerable to elbow pain and injuries.    “When we look at the forces that baseball players, even ...

CHICAGO – Breast cancer mortality is significantly reduced when women regularly attend screening mammograms, according to research being presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Early detection of breast cancer, before symptoms are present, is key to survivability. According to the American Cancer Society, women between the ages of 45 and 54 should get mammograms every year. Women who are 55 years and older can switch to every other year or continue with annual mammograms. Skipping just one scheduled mammogram could result ...

Slow waves that usually only occur in the brain during sleep are also present during wakefulness in people with epilepsy and may protect against increased brain excitability associated with the condition, finds a new study led by researchers at UCL. The research, published in Nature Communications and involving the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) UCLH Biomedical Research Centre, examined electroencephalogram (EEG) scans from electrodes in the brains of 25 patients with focal epilepsy (a type of epilepsy characterised by seizures arising from a specific part of the brain), while they carried out an associative memory task. The electrodes ...

A new study from Mass Eye and Ear investigators shows that individuals who report tinnitus, which present as a ringing in the ears in more than one out of ten adults worldwide, are experiencing auditory nerve loss that is not picked up by conventional hearing tests. This work is part of a P50 grant awarded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to Mass Eye and Ear researchers within the Eaton-Peabody Laboratories (EPL) for their work on cochlear synaptopathy, which is commonly referred to as “hidden hearing loss.” The results from this study provide a better understanding on the origins of tinnitus and are published ...

The European Society of Endocrinology (ESE) is delighted to announce that the 2024 European Journal of Endocrinology (EJE) Award has been awarded to Professor Li Chan. Li Chan is Professor of Molecular Endocrinology and Metabolism at the Centre for Endocrinology, William Harvey Research Institute, at the Queen Mary University of London. The European Journal of Endocrinology Award is presented to a candidate who has significantly contributed to the advancement of knowledge in the field of endocrinology through publication. Professor Chan has been undertaking world class research in the biology ...

Postpartum hemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal mortality and morbidity worldwide and a common pregnancy complication. This serious medical condition is understudied and not universally defined or well represented in health records. A new study by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, used the large language model Flan-T5 to extract medical concepts from electronic health records in order to better define and identify the populations impacted by postpartum hemorrhage.  The study found the model to be 95 percent accurate in identifying patients with the condition, and resulted ...

Microgels form a thin protective shell around a droplet until the temperature rises above 32 degrees. Then the microgels shrink and the droplet dissolves in the surrounding liquid. A study by researchers from the University of Gothenburg now reveals the underlying mechanism behind this process. The discovery could revolutionise methods of targeting medicines to specific locations within the body. Emulsions consist of numerous droplets that are present in a liquid without dissolving and mixing with the liquid. For example, milk consists of fat droplets stabilised by milk proteins that are dispersed in water. In many applications ...

The building sector is the second largest sector in plastic consumption and is responsible for more than a third of energy related greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Manufacturing processes of construction materials pollute air, land, and water. Accordingly, construction materials made from agro-industrial waste become increasingly attractive due to their lower environmental impact. To contribute to a new generation of materials made from what is often considered waste, researchers in Panama have now developed a rice husk-based insulation material and evaluated its thermal and mechanical ...

In his Value Creation project in Cell Ag class, Tufts senior Adham Ali faced an intriguing assignment: work with a group of peers to design a product that uses cellular agriculture (or cell ag, for short) to make life easier for consumers. Majoring in biochemistry, Ali took the class as part of his minor in cell ag—a minor he registered for only this semester, because it’s brand-new at Tufts. It’s also the world’s first and only undergraduate degree in the field. Usually used as part of a nascent—and rapidly growing—field that cultivates lab-grown meat from cells in bioreactors, the processes of cellular agriculture can ...

This review was designed by Professor Xiaoling Song and Professor Biao Jiang and written by Pr. Xiaoling Song and a Ph.D. student, Yifan Wu (Shanghai Institute for Advanced Immunochemical Studies, ShanghaiTech University) to summarize the application of macrocyclic molecules in cancer treatment. Macrocyclic compounds are cyclic molecules with a structure of 12 or more atoms. In the past decades, macrocycles have received increasing attention in drug development. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved several macrocyclic drugs for cancer therapy. However, the importance of this class of cancer drugs is still not widely known. Song and Wu comprehensively summarized the applications ...

In his Value Creation project in Cell Ag class, Tufts senior Adham Ali faced an intriguing assignment: work with a group of peers to design a product that uses cellular agriculture (or cell ag, for short) to make life easier for consumers. Majoring in biochemistry, Ali took the class as part of his minor in cell ag—a minor he registered for only this semester, because it’s brand-new at Tufts. It’s also the world’s first and only undergraduate degree in the field. Usually used as part of a nascent—and rapidly growing—field that cultivates lab-grown meat from cells in bioreactors, the processes of cellular agriculture ...

With the world projected to be highly urbanized by 2050, cities are encouraged to take urgent climate actions to mitigate and adapt to the threats of climate change. As climate change intensifies and urbanization increases rapidly, local governments are expected now more than ever to lead climate action planning. However, studies show the limitations of the existing climate action plans (CAPs). So scientists from Hiroshima University have created an Urban Climate Action Planning (UCAP) framework to guide the development of urban CAPs and support the assessment of the level of suitability of these plans. Their work is published ...

A new bacterial species discovered at the deep-sea hydrothermal vent site ‘Crab Spa’ provides a deeper understanding of bacterial evolution. Deep-sea hydrothermal vents are hot springs on the ocean floor. Sea water penetrates into the ocean crust, becomes heated, and rises to the seafloor surface carrying dissolved nutrients. Around these vents, far from any sunlight, vibrant biological communities are found. Here, microbes play the role of primary producers through chemosynthesis—similar to the role that plants play on land through photosynthesis. Researchers at Hokkaido University, in collaboration with colleagues at Woods ...

A senior biology student at The University of Texas at Arlington recently earned an award for her research about antimicrobial drug resistance. Christina Nguyen received the second-place award at the 2023 UT System LSAMP (Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation) Conference held in El Paso, Texas. Nguyen’s award-winning project focused on bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics, an increasingly challenging problem in health care. “I had the privilege of hearing multiple fascinating ...

When teenagers and young adults see pro-tobacco content on social media, they face higher risks. They are more likely to report using tobacco products such as e-cigarettes (also called vapes), more likely to start using those products for the first time and less likely to view them as harmful. Algorithms programmed to automatically remove tobacco ads are designed to protect youth—but they don’t always work or are not implemented well enough by social media platforms, according to Julia Vassey, MPH, a health behavior researcher in the department of population ...

University of Queensland scientists have analysed more than 3.8 million volunteer hours of birdwatching data to identify Australia’s most elusive species. Louis Backstrom from UQ’s School of the Environment led the research and said the Coxen’s fig-parrot was the bird that was most elusive to Australian birdwatchers, based on the data found in the eBird and Birdata databases. “Coxen’s fig-parrots are small, dumpy, green parrots with very short tails, and historically they were scattered in rainforests between Bundaberg in Queensland and the Hastings River in New South Wales,” Mr ...

Air pollution from using fossil fuels in industry, power generation, and transportation accounts for 5.1 million extra deaths a year worldwide, finds a new modelling study published by The BMJ today. This equates to 61% of a total estimated 8.3 million deaths worldwide due to ambient (outdoor) air pollution from all sources in 2019, which could potentially be avoided by replacing fossil fuels with clean, renewable energy sources. These new estimates of fossil fuel-related deaths are larger than most previously reported values ...

Social media use is associated with risky health behaviours in young people including increased alcohol, drug and tobacco use, anti-social behaviour, risky sexual behaviours and gambling, finds a review of the latest evidence published by The BMJ today. Exposure to risky health behaviour content on social media such as alcohol advertising had the strongest evidence of harm, particularly in relation to alcohol use and unhealthy eating. The researchers say further research is needed to establish causality, understand effects on ...

Actively monitoring abnormal cells (lesions) that line the cervix rather than removing them straight away is associated with an increased long term risk of cervical cancer, suggests a study published by The BMJ today. The researchers stress that the absolute risk of cervical cancer remains low, but the results show that compared with immediate treatment, active surveillance was associated with a nearly fourfold higher risk of cervical cancer 20 years after diagnosis. Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) refers to abnormal changes of the cells that line the cervix. CIN is divided into grades - CIN1, 2 or 3. The higher the number, ...

Society has gone backwards in its treatment of women with the internet fuelling new forms of misogyny, according to the author of a new book. Linguist and researcher Deborah Cameron says that prejudice, discrimination and abuse should not be regarded as yesterday’s problems. Rather than fading away in the twenty-first century, they have evolved in ways that reflect today’s conditions, her research suggests. Her book Language, Sexism and Misogyny analyses the way sexism and misogyny are expressed today in advertising and media, drawing on evidence from academic research to provide a comprehensive ...

In a momentous landmark for medical research, UK Biobank has today [Thursday 30 November] unveiled incredible new data from whole genome sequencing1 of its half a million2 participants. This is set to drive the discovery of new diagnostics, treatments and cures and, uniquely, is available to approved researchers worldwide, via a protected database containing only de-identified data (e.g. name, address, date of birth, name of GP and more stripped out). This abundance of genomic data is unparalleled, but what cements it as a defining moment for ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- We humans are fixated on big brains as a proxy for smarts. But headless animals called brittle stars have no brains at all and still manage to learn through experience, new research reveals. Relatives of starfish, brittle stars spend most of their time hiding under rocks and crevices in the ocean or burrowing in the sand. These shy marine creatures have no brain to speak of -- just nerve cords running down each of their five wiggly arms, which join to form a nerve ring near their mouth. “There's no processing center,” ...