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 ...

About The Study: Among patients with heart failure with mildly reduced ejection fraction or heart failure with preserved ejection fraction treated with dapagliflozin in this randomized clinical trial, an initial estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) decline was frequent but not associated with subsequent risk of cardiovascular or kidney events. These data reinforce clinical guidance that sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors should not be interrupted or discontinued in response to an initial eGFR decline.  Authors: Finnian R. Mc Causland, ...

AIP and the National Society of Black Physicists congratulate Charles D. Brown II as the winner of the 2023 Joseph A. Johnson Award for Excellence. Dante O’Hara and Danielle Speller are also being recognized with Honorable Mentions. The Johnson Award, now in its fourth year, is given by AIP and NSBP to recognize early-career scientists who demonstrate scientific ingenuity and impactful mentorship and service – the core values of NSBP founder Joseph A. Johnson. “We are excited to recognize Dr. Brown’s impact on the physics community,” said Michael Moloney, CEO of AIP. ...

San Diego, CA, November 12, 2023 - A new study by Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) investigators has found that an initial high-risk antibody profile for antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) tended to remain high in pediatric patients. The results were presented today in a poster session at American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Convergence 2023, the ACR’s annual meeting.1 “There are a lot of unanswered questions about how APS affects pediatric patients since evidence to date has been very limited,” said Jheel Pandya, MD, a pediatric rheumatology fellow at HSS and lead author of the research. “Our study reveals that an initial high-risk ...

[Embargoed until 1 p.m. (ET) Sunday, Nov. 12] WASHINGTON – Hormonal contraceptives taken by adolescents may influence development of the brain in a way that alters the recognition of risks, a new study in rats suggests. Scientists at The Ohio State University are exploring how common synthetic hormones used for birth control affect the prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain that continues to develop throughout adolescence. The researchers found that myelination, the formation of protective coating on axons projecting from the main body of brain cells, increased in rats given hormonal birth control compared to untreated rats, while the number ...

WASHINGTON – A surprising thing happened when researchers began exploring whether early-life stress compounds the effects of a childhood head injury on health and behavior later in life: In an animal study, stress changed the activation level of many more genes in the brain than were changed by a bump to the head. It’s already known that head injuries are common in young kids, especially from falling, and can be linked to mood disorders and social difficulties that emerge later in life. Adverse childhood experiences are also very ...

Short-term increases in air pollution can cause problems for a lot of people, but especially to those with diagnosed or undiagnosed heart disease. But it’s not just a potential issue for pollution coming from cars and industrial processes. New research from Intermountain Health in Salt Lake City shows that pollutants trapped in lower, colder layers of air in mountain-region communities present sometimes higher risk for this population, while wildfire smoke from often distant locales may also impact risk. “We’re finding that air pollution is affecting ...

Low levels of Vitamin D have been shown to be associated with a higher risk of having a cardiac event, like a heart attack or stroke. For this reason, treatment by Vitamin D pills or injections are being investigated as a possible preventative method in these patients. However, two new studies from Intermountain Health in Salt Lake City have found that current dosing recommendations are not helping patients achieve optimal Vitamin D levels, suggesting that trials looking into the effectiveness of Vitamin D treatment to prevent cardiac events were not using appropriately sufficient doses, leading to inaccurate results. In their studies, Intermountain ...

The ventilation technique, also known as rescue breathing, commonly used during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for people with cardiac arrest is often performed poorly by professional emergency responders, and this ineffective strategy is linked to significantly worse patient survival rates, according to a study supported by the National Institutes of Health. Ventilation involves administering breaths to a patient to provide life-sustaining oxygen and inflate the lungs when they stop breathing or during cardiac arrest, when the heart suddenly stops pumping blood. Among the nearly 2,000 ...

The widely available blood thinner apixaban substantially reduced stroke in at-risk patients with a type of atrial fibrillation only detectable by a pacemaker or other implanted cardiac electronic device, a global study has found.  The oral anticoagulant medication, which helps to prevent dangerous blood clots by thinning the blood, reduced the risk of stroke and blood clotting by 37% and reduced fatal or disabling stroke by 49% in individuals with device-detected atrial fibrillation, also known as sub-clinical atrial ...

Familial hypercholesteremia (FH) is an inherited condition that affects about 1 in 250 people, and often shows no signs until they have a heart attack. For individuals with FH the lowering of “bad” cholesterol levels can’t be done by dietary or behavioral changes, the problem is in their genes, and targeted medications therapy is needed. Now, new research from the Intermountain Health in Salt Lake City has found that genetic screening can identify these patients and make them candidates for treatment that could prevent heart attack, stroke, and death. “Most of these patients already had tests that ...

New research from Intermountain Health in Salt Lake City finds that genetic screening is effective in identifying patients who have a heart condition known as cardiomyopathy to improve their quality of life and reduce deaths. By undergoing genetic screening to identity those with the potentially-fatal heart condition, clinicians can more closely monitor them and use medical interventions, when necessary, that could improve the quality of these patients’ lives, and potentially save them, researchers say in a new study of more than 30,000 heart patients. “Our findings show that we’re ...