What The Study Did: This study assesses the association between COVID-19 and maternal and neonatal outcomes in pregnant women with COVID-19 diagnosis compared with pregnant women without COVID-19 diagnosis. Authors: Aris T.Papageorghiou, M.D., of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, 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/jamapediatrics.2021.1050) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including ...

What The Study Did: This cohort study examines viral dynamics and transmission of infection for NBA players, staff and vendors who had clinically recovered from SARS-CoV-2 infection but continued to have positive test results following discontinuation of isolation precautions. Authors: Christina Mack, Ph.D., M.S.P.H., of IQVIA, Real World Solutions, in Durham, North Carolina, 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/jamainternmed.2021.2114) Editor's ...

What The Study Did: This review of 125 U.S.-based clinical trials that investigated the management of hearing loss assessed representation in the trials by race/ethnicity and sex. Authors: Carrie Nieman M.D., M.P.H., of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, 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/jamaoto.2021.0550) Editor's Note: The article includes conflicts of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional ...

What The Study Did: Claims data were used to look at opioid use among young people (ages 10 to 21) who had been prescribed opioids for the first time. Authors: J. Deanna Wilson, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 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/jamanetworkopen.2021.4552) Editor's Note: The article includes conflicts of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support. #  ...

What The Study Did: Researchers investigated racial/ethnic representation in clinical trials that led to U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of ophthalmology drugs from 2000 to 2020. Authors: Shriji Patel, M.D., of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, 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/jamaophthalmol.2021.0857) Editor's Note: The article includes conflicts of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support. #  #  ...

BOSTON -- The foods people buy at a workplace cafeteria may not always be chosen to satisfy an individual craving or taste for a particular food. When co-workers are eating together, individuals are more likely to select foods that are as healthy--or unhealthy--as the food selections on their fellow employees' trays. "We found that individuals tend to mirror the food choices of others in their social circles, which may explain one way obesity spreads through social networks," says Douglas Levy, PhD, an investigator at the Mongan Institute Health Policy Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) ...

A phase 1 clinical trial led by investigators at the University of Chicago Medicine testing the effects of stereotactic body radiotherapy for treating multiple metastases has determined that treatments used for single tumors can also be safely used for treating patients with multiple metastases. The study was run through NRG Oncology and sponsored by the National Cancer Institute. The results were published on April 22 in JAMA Oncology. Cancer is traditionally treated with a combined approach, with clinicians using surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy to kill and remove cancerous tumors. Systemic ...

PHILADELPHIA--When researchers from Penn Medicine found that many patients with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) treated with the investigational chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy targeting the CD22 antigen didn't respond, they went back to the drawing board to determine why. They discovered that less is more when it comes to the length of what is known as the single-chain variable fragment -- the linker that bridges the two halves of the receptor that allows CAR T cells to latch onto tumor cells and attack them. The findings are reported online today in Nature Medicine. "A little difference of a few amino acids can make a huge difference for patients," said co-senior author Marco Ruella, MD, an ...

The 'stickiness', or viscosity, of microscopic liquids can now be measured thousands of times faster than ever before, potentially leading to better understanding of living cells, disease diagnostics and pharmaceutical testing. University of Queensland's Professor Warwick Bowen and his colleagues at the Queensland Quantum Optics Lab developed the world-leading technology, technology that uses lasers to track microscale particles with world-record precision. "The stickiness, or viscosity, of liquids is incredibly important in biology," Professor Bowen said. "In living cells, viscosity fluctuations control shape and structure, modulate chemical reactions, and signal whether a cell is healthy or cancerous. "However, ...

A new study has highlighted that while much is known about the ever increasing uptake of antidepressant medications around the world, there is very little evidence on safe and effective approaches to discontinuing treatment. In 2020 there were 78 million prescriptions for antidepressants in England and about half of patients treated have taken them for at least two years. Guidelines typically recommend that antidepressants be taken for up to 6 to 12 months after improvement, or for up to two years in people at risk of relapse, but many people take antidepressants for much longer. Surveys of antidepressant users suggest that up to a half of people on long-term antidepressant prescriptions have no clear medical ...

Skeletal muscles enable voluntary movements and are controlled by a special type of neurons called motor neurons, which make direct contact with skeletal muscles through so-called neuromuscular junctions (NMJs). It is through NMJs that skeletal muscles receive signals making them contract or relax. In certain neurodegenerative diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), NMJs are destroyed, leading to progressive muscle weakness and ultimately death. Treatments for ALS mainly focus on alleviating symptoms but cannot stop or reverse its disease progression. To find more effective treatments, researchers require accurate and easily accessible lab-based models for ALS to understand its causes and to develop and test new therapies. One step in this ...

Transient grating spectroscopy is an elegant method that uses two laser pulses to activate a medium by creating an interference pattern made of parallel stripes of excitations that can be thermal, electronic, magnetic or even structural. The modulation depth of the pattern and its evolution can be measured by diffracting a third, time-delayed probe beam on the transient grating. The modulation depth decays as the initial excitation propagates through the material. The distance between the stripes is determined by the wavelength of the pulses used to create the grating, which ...

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have succeeded for the first time in looking inside materials using the method of transient grating spectroscopy with ultrafast X-rays at SwissFEL. The experiment at PSI is a milestone in observing processes in the world of atoms. The researchers are publishing their research results today in the journal Nature Photonics. The structures on microchips are becoming ever tinier; hard disks write entire encyclopedias on magnetic disks the size of a fingernail. Many technologies are currently breaking through the boundaries of ...

States with stricter firearms laws reported lower suicide and homicide rates, according to a Rutgers study. The study, conducted by the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center, the Rutgers School of Public Health, the Rutgers University-Newark Department of Psychology, the Rutgers School of Criminal Justice, the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and the Rutgers-Newark Department of Social Work, was published in the Journal of Public Health and examined the association between firearm laws and suicide and homicide rates. Firearm violence is a major public health concern in the United States, with firearm suicide ...

Irvine, Calif., April 22, 2021 -- California's wildfire problem, fueled by a concurrence of climate change and a heightened risk of human-caused ignitions in once uninhabited areas, has been getting worse with each passing year of the 21st century. Researchers in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine have conducted a thorough analysis of California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection wildfire statistics from 2000 to 2019, comparing them with data from 1920 to 1999. They learned that the annual burn season has lengthened in the past two decades and that the yearly peak has shifted from August to July. The team's findings are the subject of a study published today in the ...

A minimally invasive retinal reattachment procedure that can be done in an ophthalmologist's office leads to better long-term integrity and structure of the retina's photoreceptors - cells that allow us to see - compared with more invasive operating room procedures, according to new research published April 22. The study, published in JAMA Ophthalmology and led by researchers at St. Michael's Hospital of Unity Health Toronto, contributes to a growing body of evidence pointing towards pneumatic retinopexy (PnR) as the better first-line retinal reattachment technique to achieve the best visual outcomes. Retinal detachment is the most common surgical ocular emergency, progressing to loss of vision within hours ...

Chestnut Hill, Mass. (4/22/2021) - Confirming anecdotal evidence that the spread of the coronavirus has strained Americans' mental health, Boston College researchers found reports of anxiety increased to 50 percent and depression to 44 percent by November, 2020 - rates six times higher than 2019 - according to a new report in the journal Translational Behavioral Medicine. Among U.S. adults aged 18-29, the impact on mental health was even more severe. Rates of anxiety and depression increased to 65 percent and 61 percent, respectively, of the respondents in that age group, according to the report. Use of prescription medication, counseling services, and unmet need for mental health services also rose significantly, according to the co-authors of the new study, Boston ...

As the COVID-19 pandemic has progressed, it has become clear that many survivors -- even those who had mild cases -- continue to manage a variety of health problems long after the initial infection should have resolved. In what is believed to be the largest comprehensive study of long COVID-19 to date, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis showed that COVID-19 survivors -- including those not sick enough to be hospitalized -- have an increased risk of death in the six months following diagnosis with the virus. The researchers also have catalogued the numerous diseases associated ...

Skoltech scientists in collaboration with researchers from the University of Arizona and the Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed an approach that allows power grids to return to stability fast after demand response perturbation. Their research at the crossroads of demand response, smart grids, and power grid control was published in the journal Applied Energy. Power grids are complex systems that manage the generation, transmission and distribution of electrical power to consumers, also called loads. As it is not possible to store electrical energy along the transmission lines, grid operators must ensure, ideally at all times, the balance between production and consumption of electrical energy, ...

A test which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to measure proteins present in some patients with advanced bowel cancer could hold the key to more targeted treatment, according to research published today. A team at the University of Leeds collaborated with researchers at Roche Diagnostics to develop the technique, which will help doctors and patients to decide on the best treatment options. They used samples from a previous trial funded by Cancer Research UK to look at the levels of two proteins, known as AREG and EREG, which are produced by some colorectal cancers. Algorithms driven by AI enabled the researchers to show that patients with higher levels of these proteins received significant benefit from a treatment which inhibits a different protein involved ...

Key takeaways Tourniquet use has been consistently increasing in Los Angeles County since 2015 and is significantly associated with improved patient survival. Tourniquet use is safe and does not lead to increased risk of amputation with proper surgical care after arriving at the hospital. Findings are specific to Los Angeles County, where patients who had a tourniquet placed were able to be transported quickly to a trauma center for further life-saving care. CHICAGO (April 22, 2021): Uncontrolled bleeding continues to be one of the most common causes of preventable ...

Insect decline is one of the greatest challenges facing our society. As a result of the destruction of many natural habitats, bees, bumblebees, butterflies, beetles and the like find less and less food. As a consequence, they are barely able to fulfil their role as pollinators of wild and cultivated plants. This trend is increasingly noticeable in agricultural regions in particular. Researchers at the University of Münster have now taken a more detailed look at how the choice of seeds in restoration measures - i.e. the restoration of natural habitats at degraded land - affects how insects benefit from these measures. Here, not only the plant ...

A phenomenon of "photoexpansion" in hard plastic films with a high glass transition temperature in the dry state was established, which was essentially different from very soft actuators, such as elastomers or gels. The photoexpanding hard actuators were expected to apply in the wide fields because they do not contain vaporable matters such as solvents and were much more thermoresistant than conventional ones. Ishikawa, April 22, 2021 - Polymers that exhibit their functions by light have been studied for a few decades because they enable device miniaturization, energy saving, and precise signal control. Polymers based on azobenzene, diarylethene, etc. are the pioneers, ...

Patients with chronic kidney dysfunction frequently develop thickening of the heart muscle, so-called left ventricular hypertrophy. This is particularly pronounced in patients who are in the late stage of renal dysfunction, that is to say those requiring renal replacement therapy such as haemodialysis. The danger of this cardiac hypertrophy lies in the considerable associated increase in risk of acute cardiovascular disease, such as sudden cardiac death, for example. Haemodialysis patients have a number of risk factors for developing this form of cardiac hypertrophy. One of those is elevated levels of the protein Fibroblast Growth Factor 23 (FGF23), ...

- Recent discoveries focused on manipulation of atomically-thin 2D materials, while the new breakthrough can be used to stack technologically-relevant 3D materials at a twist angle - Method allows continuous, systematic control of optical emission intensity and energy, and can produce ultraviolet emissions at room temperature for bulk systems - The discovery can be significant for applications in medicine, environmental or information technologies. Singapore, 22 April 2021 - Researchers from the Low Energy Electronic Systems (LEES) Interdisciplinary Research ...