Shortages of health workers such as doctors, nurses and midwifery staff are strongly associated with higher death rates, especially for certain diseases such as neglected tropical diseases and malaria, pregnancy and birth complications, diabetes and kidney diseases, finds an analysis of 172 countries and territories, published by The BMJ today. The results show that, although inequalities in health workforces have been decreasing globally over the past 30 years, they continue to have a substantial ...

Experts have called for further scrutiny of a new Pfizer vaccine given during pregnancy to prevent respiratory infection in infants, after trials of a similar GSK vaccine were stopped after  a rise in preterm birth and infant deaths. Pfizer says its vaccine is safe and effective, but experts contacted as part of an investigation published by The BMJ today, say Pfizer’s trial data should be reviewed in light of the signal for preterm births seen in GSK’s trial. Pfizer’s ...

The silicon microchips of future quantum computers will be packed with millions, if not billions of qubits – the basic units of quantum information – to solve the greatest problems facing humanity. And with millions of qubits needing millions of wires in the microchip circuitry, it was always going to get cramped in there. But now engineers at UNSW Sydney have made an important step towards solving a long-standing problem about giving their qubits more breathing space -- and it all revolves around jellybeans. Not the kind we rely on for a sugar hit to get us past the 3pm slump. But jellybean quantum dots –elongated areas between qubit ...

Around one in five people may be suffering with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), according to a study published today (Thursday) in the ERJ Open Research [1].   People with OSA often snore loudly, their breathing starts and stops during the night, and they may wake up several times. Not only does this cause tiredness, but it can also increase the risk of high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease and type 2 diabetes.   Treatments and lifestyle changes can help people with OSA. However, ...

As the cost of living continues to spiral, a new report shows more than half of gig economy workers in the UK are paid below the minimum wage. The first-of-its-kind study, led by the University of Bristol, found 52% of gig workers doing jobs ranging from data entry to food delivery were earning below the minimum wage. On average respondents were earning £8.97 per hour – around 15% below the current UK minimum wage, which rose to £10.42 this month. More than three-quarters (76%) of survey respondents also experienced work-related ...

Sophia Antipolis, 11 May 2023:  A healthy diet is associated with greater physical fitness in middle-aged adults, according to research published today in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).1 “This study provides some of the strongest and most rigorous data thus far to support the connection that better diets may lead to higher fitness,” said study author Dr. Michael Mi of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, US. “The improvement in fitness we observed in participants with better diets was similar to the effect of taking 4,000 more steps each ...

New research led by the universities of Southampton and Oxford has found that the risk of long COVID is strongly associated with area-level deprivation, with the odds of having long COVID 46 percent higher for people from the most deprived areas, compared to those in the least deprived areas. Published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, the study analysed over 200,000 working-age adults and is the first to quantify the association between long COVID and socioeconomic status across a range of occupation sectors. Analysing data from the Office ...

A University of Queensland study has found humpback whales sing louder when the wind is noisy, but don’t have the same reaction to boat engines. Research lead Dr Elisa Girola from UQ’s Faculty of Science said this quirk of whale evolution could have consequences for breeding and behaviour. “Humpback whales evolved over millions of years with noise from natural sources but noise from man-made vessels is foreign to their instincts,” Dr Girola said. “It’s a ...

AUGUSTA, Ga. (May 11, 2023) – A class of drugs used for their ability to stop tumor cells from dividing is now under study for their potential to reduce the pain and damage caused by sickle cell disease, investigators report.  The drugs are called HDAC inhibitors, and the investigators have early evidence one called panobinostat can reactivate after birth the gene that produces fetal hemoglobin, which cannot sickle, says Abdullah Kutlar, MD, director of the Center for Blood Disorders at the Medical College of Georgia and Augusta University Health. Hemoglobin is the oxygen-carrying component of red blood cells, and with sickle cell disease it’s ...

Arlington, Va., May 11, 2023 – A new study published today in the American Journal of Infection Control (AJIC) suggests that allowing bedside nurses to independently order testing for C. difficile significantly decreased the amount of time to receive test results as compared to requiring physician approval. The findings suggest that the testing policy change could potentially decrease the risk of additional patient infections and the corresponding hospital economic burden. Individuals with C. difficile infection (CDI) can be asymptomatic or have ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio ­– Doctors have long stressed the importance of maintaining a healthy weight for improving overall health, but a large new study also suggests it could also reduce future gastrointestinal cancer (GI) risk. The study, published today in JAMA Network Open, found that an overweight or obese body mass index (BMI) in early and middle adulthood is associated with increased risk for gastrointestinal cancer. The study also found that frequent aspirin use did not modify this increased risk in overweight and obese individuals. Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer among men and women in the United ...

In a groundbreaking new collaboration, scientists at the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) have identified the types of microbes that associate with engineered oilcane. Further exploration of the oilcane microbiome may reveal opportunities to leverage plant-microbial interactions in these feedstocks, which could increase oil yields for sustainable bioenergy production. In terms of biomass, sugarcane is the world’s most-produced crop, and it’s not hard to see why; it provides the feedstock for 26% of the world’s bioethanol and 80% of global ...

Scientists at Simon Fraser University (SFU) and the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research (LIMR) near Philadelphia have found that a drug discovered at SFU and patented several years ago may have potential lifesaving results in the treatment of conditions leading to sudden cardiac death. The drug, known as AR-787, was originally discovered and designed by former PhD student Mena Abdelsayed as a pharmacological solution for arrhythmias. The so-called J Wave syndromes (JWS), consisting of Brugada syndrome and early repolarization syndromes, occur in about ...

The behaviors and actions of hypersocial species like humans are heavily influenced by the behaviors and actions of those around them. This was evidenced throughout the COVID-19 pandemic; protective measures such as masking and social distancing varied widely as these behaviors were affected by where people were and who they were around, which in turn affected disease prevalence and transmission rates. Now, researchers from the School of Arts & Science at the University of Pennsylvania and Queen’s University in Canada have produced a theoretical model for disease ...

Researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil have created an exercise training program that survivors of severe COVID-19 can safely perform at home as rehabilitation therapy for persistent symptoms after they are discharged from hospital. Findings of a study recently reported in the British Journal of Sports Medicine show that exercise can improve the quality of life for these patients, benefitting their health and functionality while reducing the number of persistent symptoms, such as muscle pain and weakness.  Long COVID (also known as post-COVID-19 syndrome) affects more than 40% of people who ...

DURHAM, N.C. – In 787 communities served by the United States’ largest utilities, 17 percent of households struggle to afford basic water services, according to a new analysis by researchers at Duke University. Nearly half the U.S. population lives in the communities covered by the analysis, which was published May 10 in the open-access journal PLOS Water. The analysis shows that 28.3 million people in those communities live in households that spend more than one day each month working to pay for water ...

ATLANTA—A novel type of protein nanoparticle vaccine formulation containing influenza proteins and adjuvant to boost immune responses has provided complete protection against influenza viral challenges, according to a new study published by researchers in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University. The findings published in the journal Small describe a promising influenza vaccine candidate that uses adjuvants, substances that increase immune response to a vaccine, to boost effectiveness against ...

CHICAGO, May 10, 2023 – For many people, there are few sounds as relaxing as ocean waves. But the sound of the seas can also convey deeper emotions and raise awareness about pollution. At the upcoming 184th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Colin Malloy of Ocean Network Canada will present his method to transform ocean data into captivating, solo percussion songs. The talk, “Sonification of ocean data in art-science,” will take place Wednesday, May 10, at 3:25 p.m. in the Indiana/Iowa room. The meeting will run May 8-12 at the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile Hotel. To construct his compositions, Malloy employs sound from ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2023 MINNEAPOLIS – People who have sleep apnea and spend less time in deep sleep may be more likely to have brain biomarkers that have been linked to an increased risk of stroke, Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline, according to new research published in the May 10, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study does not prove that these sleep disturbances cause the changes ...

Humans smell. Each and every person has a unique body odor. People have been using commercial products to alter their scent for generations. From soaps to perfumes, people gravitate to floral and fruity smells. Whether we think these smells are good or bad is of little consequence to mosquitoes, transmitters of diseases that kill hundreds of thousands of people each year. Additionally, mosquitoes rely on plant nectar to get some sugars needed to sustain their metabolism in addition to needing nutrients in the blood to produce eggs. And humans with nutrients and a floral scent? That’s two strikes. In spite of these scents being right under humans’ noses, the impact of ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- While engaged in a physical task requiring effort, such as driving a car or carrying grocery bags, older adults are more likely than younger adults to be distracted by items irrelevant to the task at hand, a University of California, Riverside, study reports. The study assessed the interaction between physical exertion and short-term memory performance when distractors were present or absent in younger and older adults.  “Action and cognition, which interact often in daily life, are sensitive to the effects of aging,” said graduate student Lilian Azer, the first author of the research paper published ...

College Station, Texas (May 10, 2023) – Texas A&M’s Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture (IHA) is spearheading a study that focuses on advancing the concept of responsive agriculture and is seeking experts and leaders in the agriculture-food value chain to serve one of its three committees. The committees, along with a recently named Task Force, will help develop a road map to achieve responsive agriculture, an agricultural system and food environment that supports health ...

NORMAN, OKLA. – Taste is a complex neurological experience that has the potential to provide extensive, and perhaps surprising, information on how the brain makes sense of sensations and the organization of brain pathways. A research project funded by the National Institutes of Health, led by Christian H. Lemon, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Biology in the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences, aims to better understand how the brain processes taste and how those neural pathways can evolve. Taste ...

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) announced four high school students were selected from among a pool of graduating high school seniors throughout the US for the  ACM/CSTA Cutler-Bell Prize in High School Computing. Eligible students applied for the award by submitting a project/artifact that engages modern technology and computer science. A panel of judges selected the recipients based on the ingenuity, complexity, relevancy, and originality of their projects. The Cutler-Bell Prize promotes ...

Research Highlights Abdominal aortic aneurysm, a weakening and ballooning of the aorta, the largest blood vessel in the body, may result in a life-threatening rupture. In a small, preliminary study examining a potential treatment to keep small abdominal aortic aneurysms from growing to a dangerous size, intravenous administration of immune-modulating cells resulted in a significant decrease in pro-inflammatory cells, and with higher doses, there was a decrease in aneurysm size. In a separate small study, people with abdominal aortic aneurysms ...