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Medicine18 Jul 2023

Accelerometer-derived ‘weekend warrior’ physical activity and incident cardiovascular disease

About The Study: In an analysis of 89,000 individuals providing a week of accelerometer-based physical activity data, a weekend warrior pattern of physical activity (i.e., most moderate to vigorous physical activity achieved over 1-2 days) was associated with similarly lower risks of incident atrial fibrillation, heart attack, heart failure, and stroke compared with more evenly distributed physical activity. Authors: Patrick T. Ellinor, M.D., Ph.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, 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.2023.10875) Editor’s ...

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Social Science18 Jul 2023

Sleep architecture, obstructive sleep apnea, and cognitive function in adults

About The Study: This study found that better sleep consolidation and the absence of obstructive sleep apnea were associated with better global cognition over five years of follow-up. These findings suggest that the role of interventions to improve sleep for maintaining cognitive function requires investigation. Authors: Matthew P. Pase, Ph.D., of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at ...

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Medicine18 Jul 2023

Prenatal health care outcomes before, during pandemic

About The Study: The findings of this study of 151,000 pregnant individuals suggest that a multimodal prenatal health care model combining in-office and telemedicine visits performed adequately compared with in-office only prenatal health care, supporting its continued use after the pandemic. Authors: Assiamira Ferrara, M.D., Ph.D., of Kaiser Permanente Northern California in Oakland, 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.2023.24011) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, ...

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Science18 Jul 2023

USPSTF recommendation statement on screening for lipid disorders in children and adolescents

Bottom Line: The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) concludes that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of screening for lipid disorders in children and adolescents 20 years or younger. Familial hypercholesterolemia and multifactorial dyslipidemia are two conditions that cause abnormally high lipid levels in children, which can lead to premature cardiovascular events (e.g., heart attack and stroke) and death in adulthood. The USPSTF routinely makes recommendations about the effectiveness of preventive care services and this recommendation statement is consistent with its 2016 recommendation. To access the embargoed ...

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Medicine18 Jul 2023

Mass General researchers find “weekend warrior” physical activity provides similar heart-related benefits as more regular exercise

BOSTON – People who find it difficult to find time to exercise during a busy work week may concentrate their moderate-to-vigorous physical activity to one to two days of the week or weekend. In a recent analysis published in JAMA that was conducted by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), this “weekend warrior” pattern was associated with similarly lower risks of heart disease and stroke compared with more evenly distributed exercise. Guidelines recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week for overall health, but it’s unclear if concentrated ...

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Physics18 Jul 2023

First BepiColombo flyby of Mercury finds electron rain triggers X-ray auroras

BepiColombo, the joint European Space Agency (ESA) and Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) mission, has revealed how electrons raining down onto the surface of Mercury can trigger high-energy auroras. The mission, which has been enroute to the Solar System’s innermost planet since 2018, successfully carried out its first Mercury flyby on 1 October 2021. An international team of researchers analysed data from three of BepiColombo’s instruments during the encounter. The outcomes of this study have been published today in the scientific ...

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Medicine18 Jul 2023

PCORI approves $208 million for research on heart disease, chronic disease, palliative care and a range of conditions impacting people of all ages

July 18, 2023 WASHINGTON, DC – The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) today announced funding awards totaling $208 million to support 17 new comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) studies, including four trials of particularly large scale and scope tackling complex questions. All the approved studies aim to fill evidence gaps and enhance health care decision making with a focus on a variety of high-burden concerns. In addition, PCORI awarded $2 million for a project intended to accelerate the adoption of strategies ...

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Environment18 Jul 2023

Scientists unravel evolutionary history of the Arctic flora

A team led by Prof. WANG Wei from the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IBCAS) has unraveled the evolutionary history of the Arctic flora. The study was published in Nature Communications. The Arctic tundra, to the north of the natural tree line, is a relatively young and new type of biome and is particularly sensitive to the effects of global warming. The composition, density, and distribution of Arctic vegetation have been changing as a result of climate warming. Therefore, there is an urgent need to better understand how the Arctic flora has been shaped over time. In this study, the researchers selected 32 angiosperm clades comprising ...

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Science18 Jul 2023

Aggregation-induced catalysis: Asymmetric catalysis with chiral aggregates

Asymmetric synthesis and catalysis have been actively pursued in chemical and materials sciences. Increasing numbers of drugs and pesticides contain chiral structural units in their structures since drug actions require conformational matching to increase their potency and selectivity toward receptors and other active targets inside and on the surfaces of cells. Structural design of pharmaceuticals plays key role in reducing or avoiding severe side effects during their action processes. In the meanwhile, more advanced materials, ...

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Medicine18 Jul 2023

New research addresses mental health crisis in the construction industry

New research is tackling the mental health crisis in the construction industry – highlighting the benefits of an on-site Health Hub on worker wellbeing. The construction industry has the highest number of deaths by suicide compared to other employment sectors, accounting for 20% of all suicides by occupation between 2011-2019 (ONS). Now, in a joint collaboration between the University of Warwick and National Grid, researchers are attempting to address this problem. A Health Hub was set up on a construction site in Sellindge, Kent which employees could use during their long working days. The Health Hub, a pilot for future projects which could be implemented ...

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Environment18 Jul 2023

Study highlights urgent need to protect world’s forests from non-native pests in the face of climate change

CABI joined an international team of researchers from 57 institutions around the world to share its expertise in a ground-breaking study which highlights the urgent need to protect the world’s forests from non-native pests amid climate change. The study, led by Dr Iva Franić* – who at the time of the research was a PhD student co-supervised by CABI’s Dr René Eschen – stresses an urgent need to limit tree pests and enhance the resilience of forest ecosystems in the face of rising temperatures. Published ...

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Science18 Jul 2023

Walking the moral tightrope:

During his presidency, Donald Trump and members of his administration repeatedly accused federal civil servants of undermining their agenda through the “deep state.” They sought to curtail career employees’ workplace protections, sought to severely cut some agencies’ funding, and in some cases attempted to undermine or alter agency missions. Hamilton College Associate Professor of Sociology Jaime Kucinskas and Yvonne Zylan, an independent scholar, published the peer-reviewed “Walking the Moral Tightrope: Federal Civil ...

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Science18 Jul 2023

Ethylene boosts plant yield and vigor

Exposing seedlings to ethylene in darkness increases size and vigor, in a finding with implications for agriculture. Farmers have worked to increase crop yields for millennia, and the quest remains urgent as the human population continues to grow. Increases in yield often come at a price, however: reductions in stress tolerance. Brad Binder and colleagues sought to increase plant yield without sacrificing hardiness by using to the gaseous plant growth hormone ethylene. Previous work established that seedlings grown in the dark and treated with ethylene show reduced growth and a distinctive hooked shape. However, the authors found that ...

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Science18 Jul 2023

Each mom passes unique set of breast milk antibodies to baby

Breast milk from each individual contains a unique assemblage of antibodies that are surprisingly stable throughout lactation and across pregnancies, according to a new Journal of Experimental Medicine study from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. As a baby’s early immunity is directed by antibodies from breast milk, the new research provides insight into why protection against different infections varies among infants and why some develop a life-threatening gut disease called necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). “While each milk donor in our study had very different antibody profiles from one another, we ...

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Science18 Jul 2023

Life on Earth didn’t arise as described in textbooks

Life on Earth didn’t arise as described in textbooks No, oxygen didn’t catalyze the swift blossoming of Earth’s first multicellular organisms. The result defies a 70-year-old assumption about what caused an explosion of oceanic fauna hundreds of millions of years ago. Between 685 and 800 million years ago, multicellular organisms began to appear in all of Earth's oceans during what's known as the Avalon explosion, a forerunner era of the more famed Cambrian explosion. During this era, sea sponges and other bizarre multicellular organisms replaced small single-celled ...

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Medicine18 Jul 2023

This is what relatives think about home-based hospital care

Relatives are a great resource in today's healthcare system. In Norway, relatives' efforts add up to approximately the same number of person-years as provided by the public municipal health and care services. But the role of relatives is changing. Changes in the age composition of the population, changed social structures and family patterns will affect how many relatives each of us has to support us in the future. In order to look after relatives in the best possible way, it is necessary to have increased knowledge about relatives' involvement and the need for support in various ...

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Medicine18 Jul 2023

Howard and Susan Elias make $16.25 million gift to fund cancer neuroscience research at MD Anderson

HOUSTON ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center today announced a $16.25 million gift from Howard and Susan Elias to accelerate brain tumor and cancer neuroscience research, an emerging field focused on integrating the role of the nervous system in cancer. Howard Elias’ son, Harrison, was diagnosed with brain cancer and underwent successful surgery in 2000. Six years earlier, Howard’s father had died of glioblastoma. These separate diagnoses sparked a giving program over the years, leading to this latest gift which represents ...

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Medicine18 Jul 2023

Allen Institute for Immunology partners with Lilly to better understand autoimmune disease

SEATTLE — July 18, 2023 — In a significant milestone for the Allen Institute for Immunology, a division of the Allen Institute, researchers and staff will collaborate with private industry researchers to aid in the detailed molecular understanding of disease, in service of developing new treatments and therapies to improve human health. Specifically, Allen Institute scientists will work with researchers from Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly) to investigate and profile disease state diversity and biomarkers for drug response involving atopic dermatitis (eczema) and rheumatoid arthritis using Allen Institute-developed ...

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Medicine18 Jul 2023

Using AI to speed up vaccine development against Disease X

CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and the Houston Methodist Research Institute (HMRI), have today announced a partnership to combine cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) technology with established laboratory techniques to speed up development of future vaccines against novel viral threats (also known as Disease X). HMRI will lead a consortium including experts from Argonne National Laboratory (University of Chicago), J Craig Venter Research Institute, La Jolla Institute, The University of Texas Medical Branch, and The University of Texas, ...

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Science18 Jul 2023

Japanese beetles could spread throughout Washington state in 20 years

PULLMAN, Wash. – Without intervention, the colorful but devastating Japanese beetle could make its way across the evergreen state within two decades, according to a study of their potential dispersion. The iridescent, green-and-copper beetles damage plants by “skeletonizing” their leaves, chewing up all the soft green parts between the veins. They eat over 300 plants and pose a serious threat to Washington agriculture as some of their favorite crops include grapes, hops and cherries. Once established, Japanese beetles are tough to eradicate, but it may be possible to keep them under control, said David Crowder, a Washington State University entomologist. “These ...

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Technology18 Jul 2023

Will artificial intelligence (AI) end civilization? Lero researchers seek public's views on AI and software

Will artificial intelligence (AI) end civilisation? Researchers at Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software and University College Cork, are seeking help determining what the public believes and knows about AI and software more generally. Psychologist Dr Sarah Robinson, a senior postdoctoral researcher with Lero, is asking members of the public to take part in a ten-minute anonymised online survey to establish what peoples’ hopes and fears are for AI and software in general. “As the experts debate, little attention is given to what the public thinks – and the debate is raging. Some ...

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Medicine18 Jul 2023

NIH grant backs Rice U. lab’s sickle cell disease research

HOUSTON – (July 18, 2023) – Rice University bioengineer Gang Bao and his team have won a 4-year, $2.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to address critical questions surrounding the safety and efficacy of using gene editing to treat sickle cell disease. Because it is caused by a mutation in a single gene, sickle cell disease is a prime candidate for gene editing treatments using tools such as CRISPR-Cas9. “Sickle cell disease affects over five million people worldwide, and ...

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Medicine18 Jul 2023

EMBARGOED: Women less likely to be routed to comprehensive stroke centers for large vessel acute ischemic stroke, according to UTHealth Houston research

Despite having worse stroke symptoms and living within comparable distances to comprehensive stroke centers, women with large vessel occlusion acute ischemic stroke are less likely to be routed to the centers compared to men, according to a new study from UTHealth Houston. Led by corresponding author Sunil Sheth, MD, associate professor of neurology and director of the vascular neurology program with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, and senior author Youngran Kim, PhD, assistant professor of management, policy, and community health with UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, the study was published today in the Journal of the American ...

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Medicine18 Jul 2023

IOP Publishing’s latest Environmental Research series journals now open for submissions

IOP Publishing’s (IOPP) new environmental research journals are now open for submissions. Announced earlier this year, the two new open access (OA) journals: Environmental Research: Energy and Environmental Research: Food Systems are the latest additions to IOPP’s expanding Environmental Research Series which now includes eight open access titles. IOPP’s Environmental Research series builds on the established reputation of the journal Environmental Research Letters (ERL) and shares the same outstanding levels of author service, inclusive editorial policies, strict quality assurance and has open science principles at its core. IOP ...

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Medicine18 Jul 2023

This sugar kills honeybees—it could also help fight cancer

LA JOLLA, CALIF. – July 18, 2023 –Research from Sanford Burnham Prebys and the Osaka International Cancer Institute has shed new light on the anti-cancer properties of mannose, a sugar that is crucial to many physiological processes in humans and is also known to inhibit the growth of cancer cells. The findings, published in the journal eLife, suggest that mannose could be a helpful secondary treatment for cancer. “This sugar could give cancer an extra punch alongside other treatments,” says study co-author Hudson Freeze, Ph.D., director of the Human Genetics ...

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