Research Highlights: In a 3-year trial, intensive treatment with antihypertensive medication to reduce systolic blood pressure, the top number, to less than 120 mm Hg reduced cardiovascular disease events among people at high-risk for cardiovascular disease by 12% compared to standard treatment with a target of less than 140 mm Hg. The effects were consistent regardless of participants’ diabetes status (Type 1, Type 2 or none) or history of stroke. Embargoed until 8 a.m. ET, Monday, Nov. 13, 2023 PHILADELPHIA, ...

A model based on artificial intelligence is able to predict the therapy outcome (measured by volumetric reduction of tumor lesions) in 80% of ovarian cancer patients. The AI-based model has an accuracy of 80%, significantly better than current clinical methods. The tool, named IRON (Integrated Radiogenomics for Ovarian Neoadjuvant therapy), analyzes various patient clinical features, from circulating tumor DNA in the blood (liquid biopsy) to general characteristics (age, health status, etc.), tumor markers, and disease images obtained through CT scans. ...

Deepak Srivastava, MD, president of Gladstone Institutes and a renowned cardiovascular researcher, took the stage on Saturday in Philadelphia to receive the American Heart Association’s Distinguished Scientist award—joining a preeminent group of scientists and clinicians who’ve earned the association’s highest honor over the past decade. The American Heart Association applauded Srivastava for his significant, original, and sustained scientific contributions that have advanced the association’s mission: “To be a relentless ...

The second- and fourth-most distant galaxies ever observed have been discovered in a region of space known as Pandora’s Cluster, or Abell 2744, using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Following up on a deep field image of the area, an international team led by Penn State researchers confirmed the distance of these ancient galaxies and inferred their properties using new spectroscopic data — information about light emitted across the electromagnetic spectrum — from JWST. At nearly 33 billion light years away, these incredibly distant ...

For years, researchers and clinicians have known that lupus, an autoimmune condition, occurs in women at a rate nine times higher than in men. Some of the factors that cause the disease’s high prevalence in women have eluded discovery, but in a new study investigating the immune system processes in lupus and the X chromosome, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have uncovered answers about the disease’s frequency in females. A number of dysregulated genetic and biological pathways contribute to the development of lupus and its varied symptoms of muscle and joint pain, ...

A scientific team has developed a new polyurethane production technique using CO2 to create new types of easily recyclable plastics. The study, published in the Journal of the American Chemistry Society (J.A.C.S.), could provide a solution for the development of truly sustainable plastics. Commodity plastics have transformed global industry. Whether in construction, clothing, vehicles or food packaging, these plastics are everywhere in our daily lives, so much so that their global use has been estimated at around 460 million tons in 2019. This number is staggering, but not surprising, because plastics, also known as synthetic polymers, have met a large ...

Strategy underlies the affairs of national leaders, including how they view and interact with other states — but what if such strategy is borne of self-deception? That’s the thrust of a novel international relations theory that Ryuta Ito of Hiroshima University has now expanded upon, providing psychological rationalization to explain the irrational acts of national leaders at war. Ito penned his reasoning on Sept. 5 in the journal International Affairs. “Why did Vladimir Putin decide to invade Ukraine in 2022?” asked Ito, assistant professor in the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Hiroshima University. ...

PHILADELPHIA— The odds of prescribing the appropriate dose of statins—a medicine used to lower “bad” cholesterol levels—increased sixfold when automated referrals were made to pharmacy services, instead of relying on traditional prescribing methods, according to researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. More than 90 million people in the U.S. use statins, making it one of the most prescribed medications in the county. Despite their effectiveness in lowering cholesterol levels and the risk of cardiovascular ...

Though people often want to share good news as soon as they learn it, a study published by the American Psychological Association has found that keeping good news a secret before telling someone else could make people feel more energized and alive. “Decades of research on secrecy suggest it is bad for our well-being, but this work has only examined keeping secrets that have negative implications for our lives. Is secrecy inherently bad for our well-being or do the negative effects of secrecy tend to stem from keeping negative secrets?” asked lead author Michael ...

Infants and toddlers may be psychologically wired to thrive with high levels of “sensitive care” and personal attention, according to a study conducted with contemporary hunter-gatherer societies. Research led by an evolutionary anthropologist at Cambridge University found that hunter-gatherer infants receive attentive care and physical contact for about nine hours per day from up to 15 different caregivers. Dr Nikhil Chaudhary says that, for the vast majority of our species’ evolutionary history, ...

The American Pediatric Society (APS) is pleased to announce eighty-four new members. Founded in 1888, the APS is North America's first and most prestigious academic pediatric organization. New members will be recognized during the APS Presidential Plenary at the Pediatric Academic Societies 2024 Meeting. APS members are recognized child health leaders of extraordinary achievement who work together to shape the future of academic pediatrics. Current members nominate new members by recognizing individuals who have distinguished themselves as child health leaders, ...

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a significant public health problem, with over 296 million people chronically infected worldwide. Despite the availability of a safe and effective vaccine for over 40 years, HBV remains a leading cause of liver disease and death. One of the main challenges to curing HBV is the unique biology of the virus. HBV replicates through a covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) intermediate integrated into the host genome. This makes it very difficult to eradicate the virus completely, even with effective antiviral therapy. Another challenge is the impaired immune response to HBV in chronically infected individuals. The virus has evolved several mechanisms to evade ...

White faces generated by artificial intelligence (AI) now appear more real than human faces, according to new research led by experts at The Australian National University (ANU).  In the study, more people thought AI-generated white faces were human than the faces of real people. The same wasn’t true for images of people of colour.  The reason for the discrepancy is that AI algorithms are trained disproportionately on white faces, Dr Amy Dawel, the senior author of the paper, said.  “If white AI faces are consistently perceived as more realistic, this technology could have serious implications for people of colour by ultimately reinforcing ...

The way ice forms is a lot more interesting than you think. This basic physical process, among the most common in nature, also remains somewhat mysterious despite decades of scientific scrutiny. Now new research from the University of Utah, with Germany’s Max Plank Institute for Polymer Research and Idaho’s Boise State University, is shedding fresh light on the role of biological agents—produced by fungi of all things—in ice formation. Contrary to what we have been taught in school, water won’t necessarily freeze at 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees F) because of the energy barrier ...

For most patients, acute pain following a surgical procedure is a common and expected hurdle which is eventually cleared during recovery. However, there is a small but significant patient population that experiences chronic post-surgical pain that may linger for six months or longer.  Sex hormones (e.g., estrogen in females and testosterone in males) are generally regarded as contributors to post-surgical pain development and maintenance, and basal sex hormones are the range of sex hormones expected to be produced in a healthy individual at any point in time. When basal sex ...

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are, by far, the most widely used type of rechargeable batteries, spanning numerous applications. These include consumer electronics, electric vehicles (e.g., Tesla cars), renewable energy systems, and spacecrafts. Although LIBs deliver the best performance in many aspects when compared to other rechargeable batteries, they have their fair share of disadvantages. Lithium is a rather scarce resource, and its price will rise quickly with its availability going down in the future. Moreover, lithium extraction and improperly discarded LIBs pose huge environmental challenges as the liquid electrolytes commonly used in them are toxic and ...

Penises are more prevalent in some lines of work than others. And for researchers who study biodiversity of insects, penises play a significant role in their daily workload – for good reason. "Genitalia are the organs in insects that evolve to be different in every species. As such, they are often the best way to identify a species. That's why entomologists like us are always quick to examine insect genitalia when describing a species. The unique shape of each species’ genitals ensures that it can only reproduce with the same species," explains biologist Aslak Kappel Hansen of the ...

Researchers at the Complexity Science Hub have examined 1.2 million criminal incidents and developed an innovative method to identify patterns in criminal trajectories. When it comes to preventing future crimes, it is essential to understand how past criminal behavior relates to future offenses. One key question is whether criminals tend to specialize in specific types of crimes or exhibit a generalist approach by engaging in a variety of illegal activities. Despite the potential significance of systematically identifying patterns in criminal careers, especially in preventing ...

Green sea turtles, Chelonia mydas, are listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. They are at risk of extinction due to poaching, collisions with boats, habitat destruction, and accidental capture in fishing gear. But another threat, linked to climate change, is more insidious: sea turtles have temperature-dependent sex determination, which means that more and more embryos develop into females as temperatures keep rising. Already, in the northern part of the Great Barrier Reef off Australia, hundreds of females are born for ...

Efforts to contain the Covid-19 pandemic have largely focused on vaccine development and deployment. But how exactly do our immune systems respond to COVID-19 vaccines? The major response occurs in one of two ways: the production of antibodies that bind to the receptor-binding domain (RBD) or the production of antibodies that bind to the N-terminal domain (NTD) of the coronavirus viral spike protein. Both play important roles in preventing infection, pathogenesis, and severe disease. However, the antibody repertoire varies widely among individuals. While it has been suggested that this diversity in antibodies influences the ability to ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warning this year will be potentially dangerous for respiratory illnesses, a third of Americans are not concerned about the threat, according to a new national survey by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.  The survey found that while the majority of those polled (87%) said they do everything they can to avoid spreading seasonal viruses, one-third think their vaccine decision doesn’t affect others and that they don’t need ...

For the first time, scientists have used the concept of evolutionary traps on human societies at large. They find that humankind risks getting stuck in 14 evolutionary dead ends, ranging from global climate tipping points to misaligned artificial intelligence, chemical pollution, and accelerating infectious diseases. The evolution of humankind has been an extraordinary success story. But the Anthropocene — the proposed geological epoch shaped by us humans — is showing more and more cracks. Multiple global crises, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, food insecurity, financial crises, and conflicts have started to occur simultaneously ...

About The Study: In this phase 1 study of 48 participants with elevated lipoprotein(a) levels, lepodisiran was well tolerated and produced dose-dependent, long-duration reductions in serum lipoprotein(a) concentrations. The findings support further study of lepodisiran, which is a short interfering RNA directed at hepatic synthesis of apolipoprotein(a), an essential component necessary for assembly of lipoprotein(a) particles.  Authors: Steven E. Nissen, M.D., of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Clinical Research in Cleveland, is the ...

Cleveland: Findings from a phase 1 trial reported by a Cleveland Clinic physician show that a single dose of an experimental therapy produced greater than 94% reductions in blood levels of lipoprotein(a), a key driver of heart disease risk, with the results lasting for nearly a year.   Results from the “Efficacy and Safety of Lepodisiran: An Extended Duration Short-Interfering RNA Targeting Lipoprotein(a) Study” were presented today during a late-breaking science session at the American Heart ...

ANAHEIM, Calif. (November 12, 2023) – Allergist Gailen Marshall, MD, PhD, of Jackson, MS, was installed as president of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) at the ACAAI Annual Scientific Meeting on November 12 in Anaheim, Calif. Allergist James Tracy, DO, of Omaha, NE, was elected ACAAI president-elect. Other newly elected ACAAI officers are Cherie Zachary, MD, Eagan, MN as vice president and Kelly Maples, MD, Norfolk, VA as treasurer. Regents elected for three-year terms include Aikaterini Anagnostou, MD, MSc, PhD, Houston, Texas, Brian T. Kelly, MD, MA, Omaha, Nebraska and Mervat Nassef, MD, New York, New ...