Orlando, Fla., June 27, 2023 – Hand hygiene is the simplest, most effective way to prevent the spread of infections in healthcare, yet healthcare worker adherence is often low. Infection preventionists at two health systems will present their successful hand hygiene interventions at the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology’s (APIC’s) Annual Conference in Orlando Florida, June 26-28.   University of Michigan Health sustains 95% hospital-wide hand hygiene compliance through creation ...

ARLINGTON, Va. (June 27, 2023) — A group of five medical organizations have released updated recommendations for the prevention of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, known as MRSA, transmission and infection. MRSA causes approximately 10% of hospital-associated infections in the United States and such infections are associated with an increased risk of death. Certain infections caused by MRSA rose by as much as 41% during the pandemic after falling in preceding years. Strategies to Prevent Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Transmission and Infection in Acute Care Hospitals provides evidence-based, ...

Computer scientists at the University of Waterloo have discovered a method of attack that can successfully bypass voice authentication security systems with up to a 99% success rate after only six tries.  Voice authentication – which allows companies to verify the identity of their clients via a supposedly unique “voiceprint” – has increasingly been used in remote banking, call centers and other security-critical scenarios.  “When enrolling in voice authentication, ...

Prof. Okujima, in collaboration with Prof. Kobayashi at Shinshu University, reported the synthesis, molecular structure, optical properties and electronic structure of unusual phenanthrene-fused porphyrins. Precursor porphyrins fused with aryl-substituted bicyclo[2.2.2]octadiene afforded the corresponding arylbenzoporphyrins (arylBPs) by retro Diels–Alder reaction. Unusual phenanthroporphyrins were obtained via the intramolecular Scholl reaction of arylBPs. We analyzed the optical and electronic structures using magnetic circular dichroism spectroscopy and time-dependent density functional theory calculations. Our ...

The study is led by Ligang Feng (School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yangzhou University).   The rapid development of the economy driven by the large consummation of traditional fossil fuels is not sustainable, and global attention is shifted to the utilization of renewable energy sources, and biomass fuels. Methanol is considered a good biomass fuel to realize energy storage and conversion, which is convenient for storage and transportation; more importantly, it is much safer than other fuels such as gasoline, diesel, and natural gas. In addition, it can be prepared with wide sources in low-cost and ...

Diamond has long been the go-to material for quantum sensing due to its coherent nitrogen-vacancy centres, controllable spin, sensitivity to magnetic fields, and ability to be used at room temperature. With such a suitable material so easy to fabricate and scale, there’s been little interest in exploring diamond alternatives. But this GOAT of the quantum world has one Achilles Heel… It’s too big. Just as an NFL linebacker is not the best sportsperson to ride in the Kentucky Derby, diamond is not an ideal material when exploring quantum sensors and information processing. ...

Chicago, Illinois (Embargoed until 3:45 p.m. CDT, Tuesday, June 27, 2023)—By monitoring early-response biomarkers in men undergoing 177Lu-PSMA prostate cancer treatment, physicians can personalize dosing intervals, significantly improving patient outcomes. In a study presented at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging 2023 Annual Meeting, early stratification with 177Lu-SPECT/CT allowed men responding to treatment to take a “treatment holiday” and allowed those not responding the option to switch to another treatment.  Approved by the U.S. Food ...

Chicago, Illinois (Embargoed until 4:05 p.m. CDT, Tuesday, June 27, 2023)—A new computational technique that combines genomic and tau PET imaging data promises a more personalized approach for subtyping Alzheimer’s disease. Based on a novel clustering framework using sparse canonical correlation analysis (SCCA), the integrated approach was successful in identifying four subtypes of Alzheimer’s disease and the top genes associated with each. This research was presented at the 2023 Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Annual ...

From the 20-foot-long jawbones of the filter-feeding blue whale to the short, but bone-crushing, jaws of the hyena and the delicate chin bones of a human, the pair of lower jawbones characteristic of mammals have evolved with amazing variation. But at first glance, having a single bone on each side of the head — which creates a stiff lower jaw, or mandible — doesn't appear to give mammals an advantage over other vertebrates, which have at least two and as many as 11 bones comprising each side of the lower jaw. Crocodiles, for example, have an edge over hyenas when it comes to their bite strength relative to ...

MIAMI, FLORIDA (June 27, 2023) – Cancer patients with unmet supportive care needs are more likely to experience worse clinical outcomes, including more emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations, according to new research from Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. The study, published June 21 in JAMA Network Open, also found that Black race, Hispanic ethnicity and factors such as anxiety, depression, pain, poor physical function and low health-related quality-of-life ...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Diabetes is a progressive disease that affects one’s ability to control blood sugar levels. For many patients, the condition becomes more severe over time and blood sugar levels grow more difficult to manage. Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, such as semaglutide, have granted patients more control in lowering of blood sugar. John Buse, MD, PhD, the Verne S. Caviness Distinguished Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, and an international team of researchers have presented new findings about new higher-dose formulations ...

The age of those who are distressed because of a mismatch between their biological sex and their gender identity—known as gender dysphoria—has been steadily falling, reveals research published in the open access journal General Psychiatry. And it’s lower for those assigned female sex at birth than those assigned male, the findings indicate. Recent studies suggest that gender dysphoria is becoming more common, particularly among those assigned female sex at birth. But these studies have been hampered by small sample sizes, short monitoring periods, or outdated datasets.  In a bid to get round these limitations, the researchers drew on data submitted ...

The role of mediation in preventing disputes between parents and doctors about a seriously ill child’s medical treatment from escalating to litigation may be more limited than hoped for, suggests an analysis of rulings, published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood. It might have avoided only just under half of these published court cases heard since 1990 in England and Wales, the analysis suggests. Contested medical treatment decisions for children litigated in the courts of England and Wales may be on the rise, say the researchers.   While 10 and 11 such ...

Governments and companies planning to pursue the circular economy need to involve scientists more directly, states a new report published by the International Society for Industrial Ecology, and led by UCL’s Dr Stijn van Ewijk. The report, published today, draws attention to the weight of relevant expertise found in the field of industrial ecology, a discipline that has been focusing on the minimisation of waste, predicting the impacts of new products, and designing environmentally friendly systems for decades.  The ...

In a significant development in the fight against fatal cancers, University of Otago researchers have pinpointed a key feature that leads to the aggressive spread of colon cancer. Led by Associate Professor Aniruddha Chatterjee and Drs Euan Rodger and Rachel Purcell, researchers discovered abnormalities in the DNA instruction code that lead to the aggressive spread of colorectal (bowel) cancer – Aotearoa’s second highest cause of cancer death. Dr Rodger says the finding – published in the Cell Press journal ...

The Center for Health Outcomes and Population Equity (HOPE) at Huntsman Cancer Institute and the University of Utah (the U), in partnership with the Montana State University Center for American Indian and Rural Health Equity (CAIRHE), received a grant for Cancer Control in Persistent Poverty Areas from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health. The new grant is part of the National Cancer Moonshot, led by the Biden-Harris Administration, and it will bring together the expertise of the Center for HOPE and CAIRHE to expand their impact through two initiatives that ...

Irony has become a medium for the spread of toxic ideas online, new analysis shows. The use of irony is growing in both contemporary politics and radical online communities because it helps people to make sense of and navigate major political and economic changes, researchers have said. Ideas, jokes, memes, images are emerging as an animating force for new social movements and are now inextricably intertwined with the rise of the alt-right. The study says examining irony can help understand how recent influential political ...

June 26, 2023 - New Orleans - Ochsner Digital Medicine has achieved Validation for Savings by the Validation Institute, an independent non-profit organization. The Institute confirmed in a new propensity-matched study that members of Ochsner Connected Health’s chronic disease management program have lower per member per month costs than similar non-participants. "The Validation Institute has recognized what our clients and thousands of Ochsner Digital Medicine members know – this digital platform empowers members to save money, which is achieved through managing their chronic conditions ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. ¾ A Mayo Clinic study published in Journal of Translational Medicine evaluated the use of genomic testing broadly for rare diseases. With the increased use of genomic testing such as multi-gene panels, exome sequencing and genome sequencing in the past decade, there is a greater opportunity to better diagnose and treat patients with rare diseases. According to the National Institutes of Health, as many as 10,000 distinct rare diseases exist and an estimated 25-30 million Americans are affected by one of them. In the four-year Mayo Clinic study, researchers evaluated 1,152 patients with rare ...

The ISSCR supports research with embryo models derived from human pluripotent stem cells that is conducted with scientific and ethical rigor. ISSCR encourages researchers to continue to follow the ISSCR Guidelines for Stem Cell Research and Clinical Translation when considering research in this emerging area. Recent work presented at the ISSCR 2023 Annual Meeting in Boston, USA this month and additional research posted online as preprints shortly thereafter highlights the rapid pace of progress in the development of stem cell-based ...

The gigantic, slimy salamanders known as hellbenders, once the apex predators of many freshwater streams, have been in decline for decades, their population constantly shrinking. No one knew why. William Hopkins, professor in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation and director of the Global Change Center at Virginia Tech, suspected the hellbenders’ plight had connections with environmental changes engineered by humans. Hellbender males select nesting sites on stream bottoms and guard the eggs laid there by females — and occasionally the salamander dads snack on the eggs, consuming ...

Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday 26 June 2023 Annals of Internal Medicine Tip Sheet @Annalsofim Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also on behalf of the organization they represent. ---------------------------- 1. ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The rate at which women eliminate alcohol from their bloodstream is largely predicted by their lean body mass, although age plays a role, too, scientists found in a new study. Women with obesity – and those who are older – clear alcohol from their systems 52% faster than women of healthy weights and those who are younger, the study found. Lean body mass is defined in the study – published in the journal Alcohol Clinical and Experimental Research – as one’s ...

Many of the world’s largest aquatic food producers are highly vulnerable to human-induced environmental change, with some of the highest-risk countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa demonstrating the lowest capacity for adaptation, a landmark study has shown.  The study shows that more than 90% of global “blue” food production, in both capture fisheries and aquaculture, faces substantial risks from environmental change, with several leading countries in Asia and the United States set to face the greatest threats to production. The authors behind the new paper produced the first-ever global analysis ...

Some truffle producers in the eastern U.S. intending to grow European black truffles –scientific name, Tuber melanosporum — are also accidentally cultivating winter truffles — Tuber brumale — a related species that looks nearly identical but sells at a lower price, according to a new study from truffle researchers at the University of Florida and Michigan State University. In the U.S. and around the globe, European black truffles are produced commercially in truffle orchards, which contain trees ...