At the end of 2022, the federal government eliminated the “X waiver,” a major hurdle to providing addiction treatment, but progress needs to be continued, according to the authors of a new Perspective piece published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The X waiver required a special license and uncompensated training for physicians and other prescribers, creating a regulatory barrier to offering lifesaving buprenorphine treatment for opioid use disorder. Ending the X, the authors write, is necessary but not sufficient to achieve overdose-prevention goals. Sarah Wakeman, MD, Medical Director for Substance Use Disorder at Mass General Brigham, and her co-author ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The mechanics behind the collapse of soft materials structure have befuddled researchers for decades. In a new study, researchers uncover a metric that finally correlates microscopic-level processes with what is seen at the macroscopic level. The new metric is poised to help bring advances to various materials engineering challenges – ranging from the formulation of better 3D printing inks, the construction of wearable flexible electronics and sensors, the accurate printing of biomedical implants, to helping control landslides and avalanches, and ...

(Boston)–Five Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine faculty have been honored as 2023 Educators of the Year by the School’s Awards Committee. Nominated by students and faculty, the annual awards recognize School of Medicine educators who provide excellence in teaching and mentoring.   This year’s recipients are Ricardo Cruz, MD, MPH, Educator of the Year, Preclerkship; Julia Bartolomeo, MD, Educator of the Year, Clerkship; Lillian Sosa, MS, CGC, Educator of the Year in MA/MS Programs; Douglas Rosene, PhD, ...

(Boston)—Sean D. Tallman, PhD, RPA, assistant professor of anatomy & neurobiology at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar Award. This award allows U.S. academics to engage in multi-country, trans-regional projects.   Tallman will travel to South Africa for 10 months to conduct human skeletal biology research for his project, "Assessing the Effects of Disadvantage and Ancestry in Skeletal Health and Forensic Medicine" at the University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch University.   Tallman ...

Photonic chips have revolutionized data-heavy technologies. On their own or in concert with traditional electronic circuits, these laser-powered devices send and process information at the speed of light, making them a promising solution for artificial intelligence’s data-hungry applications. In addition to their incomparable speed, photonic circuits use significantly less energy than electronic ones. Electrons move relatively slowly through hardware, colliding with other particles and generating heat, while photons flow without losing energy, ...

INDIANAPOLIS – A new study conducted by researchers from Regenstrief Institute and the universities of South Carolina and Indiana has found that the most commonly prescribed blood pressure medications, taken for at least six months prior to an intensive care unit (ICU) admission, did not protect against developing delirium in the ICU, regardless of patient age, gender, race, co-morbidities or insurance status. Delirium, an acute brain failure, affects approximately seven million hospitalized patients in the U.S. annually and is associated with longer hospital and ICU length of stay, higher likelihood ...

[LOS ANGELES (May 1, 2023) — While Wilms tumor—also known as nephroblastoma-- is rare, it is the most prevalent childhood kidney cancer. Researchers at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles have now pinpointed a disruption in early kidney progenitor cell development that can be linked to the formation of Wilms tumor. In a study published in Advanced Science, researchers at the GOFARR Laboratory in Urology compared kidney progenitor cells from a tumor with precursor cells from a healthy kidney. Normally, these precursor cells mature into kidney cells, but when their early development is dysregulated, they behave like cancer stem cells. While most children ...

Researchers, including from NTNU, are breeding bacteria-free fish fry. This pursuit is more important than you might think. “We’re managing to keep the fry bacteria-free for up to 12 weeks after the eggs hatch,” says Ingrid Bakke. She is a professor at NTNU’s Department of Biotechnology and Food Science. This step has now helped researchers on the trail to figuring out how bacteria and fish affect each other. Understanding their interaction could one day also lead to a method ...

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a clinical syndrome characterized by a decrease in kidney function. AKI is very common in the United States' Medicare population, particularly among hospital intensive care unit (ICU) admissions. Furthermore, AKI is associated with the incidence of end-stage renal disease, which eventually increases the burden of long-term care, higher health-care costs, and increased mortality. In several instances, kidney diseases have been linked to air pollution exposure. Inhaling air pollutants, including gases like nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) that remains suspended in ...

SAN FRANCISCO —The Public Library of Science (PLOS) is pleased to announce an agreement with the University of Padua to facilitate unlimited publishing across all 12 PLOS titles with no fees for researchers. This agreement encompasses PLOS’ three innovative publishing models, ensuring researchers from the University of Padua to benefit from frictionless, fee-free publishing with PLOS. This agreement represents another in the Europe, following agreements in Germany, Sweden, Ireland and the UK (Jisc). “We are excited to expand our footprint ...

Statement Highlights: More than half of people who survive a stroke develop cognitive impairment within the first year after their stroke, and as many as 1 in 3 may develop dementia within 5 years. The high risk of cognitive impairment and dementia after a stroke suggests early screening is essential for determining initial treatment, such as multidisciplinary care, cognitive rehabilitation or increased physical activity. It’s also important to assess stroke survivors for cognitive changes over time to offer appropriate treatment modifications and support for longer-term care. Cognitive impairment after stroke may fluctuate, particularly ...

Different market products give very different results when it comes to liberating the antioxidant lutein from spinach in smoothies. Researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, have examined 14 common dairy and plant-based products and found that only four of these increased lutein liberation. Compared to water, some drinks had a negative effect on the lutein content in spinach smoothies.   Most people know that spinach is good for your health. One substance found in, for instance, spinach and kale is lutein. Several experimental studies have shown that lutein can suppress processes linked to inflammation, and there is now ample research indicating ...

It’s generally accepted we will lose muscle strength and slow down as we age, making it more difficult to perform simple tasks such as getting up, walking and sitting down.   But new Edith Cowan University (ECU) research indicates this could also be a signal for another sinister health concern of ageing: late-life dementia.   To investigate the relationship between muscle function and dementia, the research teams from ECU’s Nutrition & Health Innovation Research Institute and Centre for Precision Health used data from the Perth Longitudinal Study of Ageing in Women to examine more than 1000 women with an average age of 75.   In collaboration with the ...

Does air pollution affect your heart? Acute exposure to air pollution was found to be associated with an increased risk of arrythmia — irregular heartbeat — in a large study of 322 Chinese cities published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.220929. The common arrhythmia conditions atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter, which can progress to more serious heart disease, affect an estimated 59.7 million people globally. Air pollution is a modifiable risk factor for heart disease, but the evidence linking it with ...

The United States is in the midst of a mental health crisis with rising rates of hospitalization for suicide and self-harm events among children and adolescents. A study, “Characteristics Associated with Serious Self-Harm Events in Children and Adolescents,” set to be published in the June issue of Pediatrics, looked at how best to determine which children are at elevated risk for self-harm. Researchers identified four separate profiles to help medical professionals better assess children at elevated ...

The way our senses adjust while playing high-intensity virtual reality games plays a critical role in understanding why some people experience severe cybersickness and others don’t. Cybersickness is a form of motion sickness that occurs from exposure to immersive VR and augmented reality applications. A new study, led by researchers at the University of Waterloo, found that the subjective visual vertical – a measure of how individuals perceive the orientation of vertical lines – shifted considerably after participants played a high-intensity ...

In the race to make the world more livable for people and nature, progress on land outpaced successes in the seas, raising red flags that wealthier countries’ advantages may be upsetting a balance, a Michigan State University study shows. Progress in oceans actually slowed after the United Nations member states adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. That action aims to facilitate global partnerships among developed and developing countries in sustainable development. So far, though, a new study in the open-access journal iScience reveals evidence that ...

About The Study: The intervention examined in this randomized clinical trial resulted in improvements in the receipt of preventive care services versus usual care for children insured by Medicaid by incorporating community health workers in a team-based approach to early childhood well-child care. Authors: Tumaini R. Coker, M.D., M.B.A., of Seattle Children’s Research Institute in Seattle, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2023.7197) Editor’s ...

About The Study: This case series demonstrated that prostate cancer occurs in transgender women and is not as rare as published case reports might suggest. However, rates were lower than expected based on prior prostate cancer incidence estimates in cisgender male veterans. Authors: Farnoosh Nik-Ahd, M.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2023.6028) Editor’s Note: Please see the ...

Transgender women keep their prostates even after gender-affirming surgery, but the extent to which they remain at risk of prostate cancer has been unclear. Now a first of its kind study led by UC San Francisco has estimated the risk at about 14 cases per 10,000 people.  The study drew on 22 years of data from the Veterans Affairs Health System. Although the sample size was necessarily small, it is still the largest study of its kind. It publishes Saturday, April 29, 2023 in the Journal ...

At least 3,700 out-of-state mental health providers utilized New Jersey’s COVID-19 Temporary Emergency Reciprocity Licensure program to provide mental health services to more than 30,000 New Jersey patients during the first year of the pandemic, according to a Rutgers study.   The study, published in The Journal of Medical Regulation, surveyed health care practitioners who received a temporary license in New Jersey to examine the impact of the temporary licensure program on access to mental health care.   “The New Jersey program enabled patients with ...

Tokyo, Japan – Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have developed a way of mapping the distribution of carnitine in skeletal muscle cells. Carnitine is a small compound that helps transport fatty acids and reduce metabolic byproducts. They discovered that slow-type muscle fibers contained the most, and that activity promptly led to rises in acetylcarnitine, a product of the immediate response of carnitine contained in the cell. Their technique promises new insights into how muscle cells work. Our muscles require ...

The human body relies heavily on electrical charges. Lightning-like pulses of energy fly through the brain and nerves and most biological processes depend on electrical ions traveling across the membranes of each cell in our body. These electrical signals are possible, in part, because of an imbalance in electrical charges that exists on either side of a cellular membrane. Until recently, researchers believed the membrane was an essential component to creating this imbalance. But that thought was turned on its head when researchers at Stanford University discovered that similar imbalanced electrical ...

Astronomers from McGill University are part of an international team that has discovered 25 new sources of repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs), these explosions in the sky that come from far beyond the Milky Way. This discovery brings the total number of confirmed FRB sources to 50. Based on data gathered by the CHIME/FRB collaboration, the new study, published this week in The Astrophysical Journal, may also bring scientists closer to understanding the origins of these mysterious phenomena. A new way of identifying FRBs Thanks to the radio telescopes such as those at CHIME, which scan the entire northern sky every day, the number of detected FRBs has grown exponentially in recent years. ...

The human body relies heavily on electrical charges. Lightning-like pulses of energy fly through the brain and nerves and most biological processes depend on electrical ions traveling across the membranes of each cell in our body. These electrical signals are possible, in part, because of an imbalance in electrical charges that exists on either side of a cellular membrane. Until recently, researchers believed the membrane was an essential component to creating this imbalance. But that thought was turned on its head when researchers at Stanford University discovered that similar imbalanced electrical charges can exist between microdroplets of water ...