At this year’s American College of Rheumatology (ACR) annual meeting, Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) presented a number of important studies focused on reproductive health for patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, and other rheumatic diseases, including issues related to fertility, sexual function, use of contraception and HPV vaccination. What follows are some highlights from the meeting: Association of Menstrual Cycles and Disease Flare Activity in Women with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Rheumatoid Arthritis In this study, researchers surveyed female rheumatology ...

A new study out this week in the journal Social Science and Medicine proposes that social, gendered variables may better explain observed sex disparities in adverse drug events than sex-based biology.  Adverse drug events refer to harmful side effects resulting from the use of a drug.  A 1.5-2 times higher rate of adverse drug events in women compared to men has long been observed, and addressing this disparity has been an enduring priority of women’s health advocates, medical researchers, and institutions such as the National Institutes of Health.  Advocates ...

November 14, 2023, Mountain View, CA - Dr. Franck Marchis, a senior planetary astronomer at the SETI Institute, was appointed as a 2023 Fellow by the California Academy of Sciences (Cal Academy). Recognized for his exceptional contributions to the natural sciences, Marchis joins a distinguished group of scientists, including other notable SETI Institute Fellows of Cal Academy, such as Dr. Jill Tarter, Dr. Nathalie Cabrol, Dr. Seth Shostak, and Trustee Andrew Fraknoi. “As an astronomer, I am constantly amazed by the vastness and complexity of the universe,” ...

HOUSTON ― The James P. Allison Institute at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center hosted its inaugural scientific symposium on Nov. 10 at the TMC3 Collaborative Building in the Texas Medical Center’s Helix Park. The event brought together more than 400 leading scientists, including three Nobel laureates, from multiple disciplines to share groundbreaking immunotherapy and immunobiology research. “Our inaugural symposium is an important milestone representing significant progress for the Allison Institute since we launched last year, and we’re energized by the exceptional science shared by our members and colleagues,” ...

The team that built Frontier set out to break the exascale barrier, but the supercomputer’s record-breaking didn’t stop there. “The exascale number marks a major milestone itself, but it also marks the beginning of a new chapter in high-speed computing,” said Feiyi Wang, an Oak Ridge National Laboratory computer scientist who leads research into artificial intelligence and analytics. “We don’t have to wait for the next generation of computing anymore. We can have it here today.” Frontier claimed the title of fastest computer in the world by running at ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – For the first time, teachers in a nationwide study have told researchers what strategies they think work best to deal with student violence against educators.   Teachers rated suspending or expelling students as the least effective way of addressing violence, despite the popularity of “zero tolerance” policies in many school districts.   Instead, teachers rated prevention policies, such as counseling for troubled students and improving school climate, as the best strategy for dealing with violence.   “Teachers ...

In the area of cloud computing, i.e. on-demand access to IT resources via the internet, so-called trusted execution environments (TEEs) play a major role. They are designed to ensure that the data on the virtual work environments (virtual machines) is secure and cannot be manipulated or stolen. Researchers at the CISPA Helmholtz Centre for Information Security and Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) have now discovered a security vulnerability in AMD processors that allows attackers to penetrate virtual work environments based on the trusted computing technologies AMD SEV-ES and AMD SEV-SNP. This is achieved by resetting data changes in the buffer memory (cache), which gives ...

Philadelphia, November 14, 2023 – Cooking and recipe demonstrations encourage healthy eating and adoption of unfamiliar foods by class participants. The research brief shared in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, published by Elsevier, demonstrates that valuable input by peer educators can be obtained through a hybrid home-use testing method. The process of recipe development involves sensory evaluation about the appearance, aroma, taste, texture, and flavor of the food. Although a controlled laboratory setting is the gold standard for evaluation because of consistent preparation and presentation of food, bringing peer educators to a ...

New Rochelle, NY, November 13, 2023—A new review article in the peer-reviewed journal Human Gene Therapy summarizes the significant milestones in the development of gene therapy medicinal products that have facilitated the treatment of a significant number of rare diseases. The article also describes the challenges in the progress of gene therapy for rare diseases. Click here to read the article now. Juan Bueren, from Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas Medioambientalies y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT), ...

HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a daily dose of two medications meant to prevent HIV infection in high-risk people, has changed public health dramatically in recent years. Yet, adolescents and young adults, one high-risk group, have shown slower uptake in using this prevention method. Despite accounting for around 20 percent of new HIV infections, adolescents and young adults between the ages of 13 and 24 are still largely not being prescribed PrEP. Research has described physician intentions to prescribe PrEP to at-risk young people, but no studies until now have focused on factors that may affect actual prescribing of this evidence-based ...

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) recently instituted the Dan M. Frangopol Medal for Life-Cycle Engineering of Civil Structures in recognition of the Lehigh Engineering professor’s contributions as a pioneering researcher and educator and leading authority in the fields of life-cycle civil engineering and life-cycle cost optimization. The award pays tribute to Frangopol, the inaugural Fazlur R. Khan Endowed Chair of Structural Engineering and Architecture in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering ...

Dr. Marcia Rieke, principal investigator for the Near-Infrared Camera on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is the Astronomical Society of the Pacific’s (ASP) 2023 recipient of its most prestigious award. ASP’s Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal honors Rieke, a Regents Professor of astronomy and Elizabeth Roemer Endowed Chair, Steward Observatory, at the University of Arizona. Rieke’s award and achievements was recognized at the ASP Awards Gala on Saturday, Nov. 11, in Redwood City, California. Groundbreaking Contributions Rieke’s research has focused on infrared observations of ...

The one thing everyone knows about black holes is that absolutely everything nearby gets sucked into them. Almost everything, it turns out. “Even though black holes are defined as objects from which nothing can escape, one of the astonishing predictions of Einstein’s theory of relativity is that black holes can actually lose energy,” says astrophysicist Eliot Quataert, Princeton’s Charles A. Young Professor of Astronomy on the Class of 1897 Foundation. “They ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new study led by chemists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign brings fresh insight into the development of semiconductor materials that can do things their traditional silicon counterparts cannot – harness the power of chirality, a non-superimposable mirror image. Chirality is one of nature’s strategies used to build complexity into structures, with the DNA double helix perhaps being the most recognized example – two molecule chains connected by a molecular “backbone” ...

Preterm birth predicts lifelong health outcomes Worsening preterm birth rates in the U.S. represent a ‘key metric to target to improve overall societal health’ Study identifies key differences among Asian and Hispanic subgroups Minority stress could contribute to inequities that begin at birth between populations in the U.S. CHICAGO --- Preterm birth rates are an important marker in assessing a country’s overall health. And the United States isn’t fairing very well. Individuals born in the U.S. had an overall higher rate (9.7%) of giving birth prematurely compared to U.S. immigrants (9%), a new Northwestern Medicine ...

When we see what others do, our brain sees not what we see, but what we expect When we engage in social interactions, like shaking hands or having a conversation, our observation of other people’s actions is crucial. But what exactly happens in our brain during this process: how do the different brain regions talk to each other? Researchers at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience provide an intriguing answer: our perception of what others do depends more on what we expect to happen than previously believed.  For some time, researchers have been trying to understand how our brains process other people’s ...

Increased vigilance for high blood pressure and diffuse stomach pain. These are some of the characteristics of emergency care adapted for pregnant women and new mothers. The model, which could become clinical routine throughout Sweden, is described in a thesis at the University of Gothenburg. The aim of the thesis was to reduce morbidity and mortality among pregnant women and new mothers seeking emergency care. Sweden has relatively low rates of pregnancy-related morbidity and mortality, but pregnant women and new mothers do not currently receive ...

A low-fat vegan diet that includes soy fosters changes in the gut microbiome that decrease postmenopausal vasomotor symptoms, or hot flashes, overall by 95%, according to a new study by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. A vegan diet also eliminated severe hot flashes, led to a 96% decrease in moderate-to-severe hot flashes, and reduced daytime and nighttime hot flashes by 96% and 94%, respectively. Participants also lost 6.4 pounds on average. “Women who want to fight hot flashes should feed the bacteria in their gut a vegan diet rich in fruits, vegetables, grains, and beans, which also leads to weight loss and protects against heart disease and type 2 diabetes,” ...

An existing drug that targets senescent, or sleeping cells could provide the answer to treating lower back pain, according to a new study. The research, published today as a Reviewed Preprint in eLife, advances our understanding of the role of senescent osteoclasts – cells that break down and remove damaged bone tissue – in the development of lower back pain, which affects 8 in 10 people at some point in their lives. eLife’s editors say the study provides compelling evidence that an existing drug, Navitoclax, can eliminate senescent osteoclasts in mice and, in doing so, markedly reduce spinal pain.  Osteoclasts resorb ...

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (Nov. 14, 2023) — A first-of-its-kind study has identified overactive inflammation and loss of critical protection mechanisms in the brain as potential contributors to suicide risk. The findings support further exploration of anti-inflammatory medications to reduce risk, especially in situations where suicidal ideation can be ascertained early. The study was published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry and led by Van Andel Institute’s Lena Brundin, M.D., Ph.D., Columbia ...

An international team has for the first time researched the longevity of neutralizing antibodies in HIV-1-infected people. Currently, it is assumed that an HIV-1 vaccine can only be effective if it produces these antibodies in vaccinated humans. The findings improve understanding of the dynamics of such antibodies and are an important building block for further research into an HIV-1 vaccine. Professor Dr Florian Klein, Director of the Institute of Virology at the University Hospital Cologne, and Dr Dr Philipp Schommers, Head of the Laboratory for Antiviral Immunity at Department ...

Language has the power to shape our perceptions and interactions with the world. Different languages can coexist, but their dynamics are shaped by the communities that speak them – and how those communities interact with each other. Shared beliefs, assumptions, and feelings toward specific language forms often determine whether a specific language will survive or disappear, especially within multilinguistic societies. In Chaos, by AIP Publishing, researchers from the University of the Balearic Islands in Spain incorporate language ideologies, along with the impact of interaction between individuals with opposing preferences, on the language shift process. “Our ...

Distributed cloud storage is a hot topic for security researchers around the globe pursuing secure data storage, and a team in China is now merging quantum physics with mature cryptography and storage techniques to achieve a cost-effective cloud storage solution. Shamir’s secret sharing, a known method, is a key distribution algorithm. It involves distributing private information to a group so that “the secret” can be revealed only when a majority pools their knowledge. It’s common to combine quantum key distribution (QKD) and Shamir’s secret sharing algorithm for secure ...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14, 2023 – The risk of hearing loss does not come just from loud machinery or other obvious noise. It can also affect people in public environments like theaters and concert halls. Absorbing this excess sound to make public environments safer for hearing and using the unwanted sound waves to create electricity is the aim of a paper published this week in Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing. “According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 12.5% of children and adolescents aged 6-19 years and 17% of adults aged 20-69 years have suffered permanent ...

About The Study: This study of 139,000 respiratory hospitalizations in Canada of children younger than age 18 found a substantial decrease in severe respiratory disease resulting in hospitalizations, intensive care unit admissions, and mortality during the first two years of the pandemic compared with the three pre-pandemic years. These findings suggest that future evaluations of the effect of public health interventions aimed at reducing circulating respiratory pathogens during non-pandemic periods of increased respiratory illness may be warranted. Authors: Eyal Cohen, M.D., M.Sc., of ...