One early feature of reporting on the coronavirus pandemic was the perception that sub-Saharan Africa was largely being spared the skyrocketing infection and death rates that were disrupting nations around the world. While still seemingly mild, the true toll of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, on the countries of sub-Saharan Africa may be obscured by a tremendous variability in risk factors combined with surveillance challenges, according to a study published in the journal Nature Medicine by an international team led by Princeton University researchers and supported by Princeton's High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI). "Although ...

Adequate spacing between births can help to alleviate the likelihood of stunting in children, according to a new study from the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI). In an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, TCI postdoctoral associate Sunaina Dhingra and Director Prabhu Pingali find that differences in height between firstborn and later-born children may be due to inadequate time between births. When children are born at least three years after their older siblings, the height gap between them disappears. India's family planning policies have focused on lowering population growth and postponing pregnancy to improve maternal health outcomes. But while the overall fertility rate has fallen as low ...

WASHINGTON -- Researchers have developed an extremely sensitive miniaturized optical fiber sensor that could one day be used to measure small pressure changes in the body. "Our new pressure sensor was designed for medical applications and overcomes many of the issues of using silica-based fibers," said research team leader Hwa-Yaw Tam from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. "It is sensitive enough to measure pressure inside lungs while breathing, which changes by just a few kilopascals." The researchers describe their new optical fiber sensor in The ...

A new X-ray imaging scanner to help surgeons performing breast tumour removal surgery has been developed by UCL experts. Most breast cancer operations are what are known as conserving surgeries, which remove the cancerous tumour rather than the whole breast. Second operations are often required if the margins (edges) of the extracted tissue are found to not be clear of cancer. Researchers at UCL, Queen Mary University of London, Barts Health NHS Trust and Nikon used a new approach to x-ray imaging which allows surgeons to assess extracted tissue intraoperatively, or during the initial surgery, giving 2.5 times better detection of diseased tissue in the margins than with standard ...

Polyisobutenyl succinic anhydrides (PIBSAs) are important for the auto industry because of their wide use in lubricant and fuel formulations. Their synthesis, however, requires high temperatures and, therefore, higher cost. Adding a Lewis acid--a substance that can accept a pair of electrons--as a catalyst makes the PIBSA formation more efficient. But which Lewis acid? Despite the importance of PIBSAs in the industrial space, an easy way to screen these catalysts and predict their performance hasn't yet been developed. New research led by the Computer-Aided Nano and Energy Lab (CANELa) at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, in collaboration with the ...

Wearable sleep tracking devices - from Fitbit to Apple Watch to never-heard-of brands stashed away in the electronics clearance bin - have infiltrated the market at a rapid pace in recent years. And like any consumer products, not all sleep trackers are created equal, according to West Virginia University neuroscientists. Prompted by a lack of independent, third-party evaluations of these devices, a research team led by Joshua Hagen, director of the Human Performance Innovation Center at the WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, tested the efficacy of eight commercial sleep trackers. Fitbit and Oura came out on top in measuring total sleep time, total wake ...

SAN ANTONIO -- Patients should be assessed for frailty before having many types of surgery, even if the surgery is considered low risk, a review of two national patient databases shows. Frailty is a clinical syndrome marked by slow walking speed, weak grip, poor balance, exhaustion and low physical activity. It is an important risk factor for death after surgery, although the association between frailty and mortality across surgical specialties is not well understood. The study, conducted by faculty at multiple institutions including The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio), mined patient data from the Veterans Affairs (VA) Surgical Quality Improvement Program and the American College of Surgeons (ACS) National Surgical Quality ...

The millions of people affected by 2020's record-breaking and deadly fires can attest to the fact that wildfire hazards are increasing across western North America. Both climate change and forest management have been blamed, but the relative influence of these drivers is still heavily debated. The results of a recent study show that in some ecosystems, human-caused climate change is the predominant factor; in other places, the trend can also be attributed to a century of fire suppression that has produced dense, unhealthy forests. Over the past decade, fire scientists have made major progress in understanding climate-fire relationships at large scales, such as across western North America. But a new paper published in the journal Environmental Research ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Mayo Clinic researchers have developed a novel proton therapy technique to more specifically target cancer cells that resist other forms of treatment. The technique is called LEAP, an acronym for "biologically enhanced particle therapy." The findings are published today in Cancer Research, the journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. "The human body receives tens of thousands of DNA lesions per day from a variety of internal and external sources," says Robert Mutter, M.D., a radiation oncologist at Mayo Clinic and co-principal investigator of the study." Therefore, cells have evolved complex repair pathways to efficiently repair damaged DNA. Defects in these repair pathways ...

With the seemingly unstoppable advancement in the fields of miniaturization and materials science, all sorts of electronic devices have emerged to help us lead easier and healthier lives. Wearable sensors fall in this category, and they have received much attention lately as useful tools to monitor a person's health in real time. Many such sensors operate by quantifying biomarkers, that is, measurable indicators that reflect one's health condition. Widely used biomarkers are heartrate and body temperature, which can be monitored continuously with relative ease. On the contrary, ...

Holograms are everywhere, from driver's licenses to credit cards to product packaging. And now, edible holograms could someday enhance foods. Researchers reporting in ACS Nano have developed a laser-based method to print nanostructured holograms on dried corn syrup films. The edible holograms could also be used to ensure food safety, label a product or indicate sugar content, the researchers say. Most holograms are imprinted with lasers onto metal surfaces, such as aluminum, but the materials aren't edible. For foods, holograms made with nanoparticles have been proposed, but the tiny particles can generate reactive oxygen species, which might be harmful for people to eat. In a different approach, food scientists have ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- A new study by Mayo Clinic researchers has identified that a chromosome instability gene, USP24, is frequently missing in pediatric patients with neuroblastoma, an aggressive form of childhood cancer. The finding provides important insight into the development of this disease. The study is published in Cancer Research, the journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. "Neuroblastoma is a highly aggressive cancer that nearly exclusively affects young children," says Paul Galardy, M.D., a pediatric hematologist and oncologist at Mayo Clinic. Despite the use of multiple treatment approaches, Dr. Galardy says many children die of this disease every year. To identify new ...

A mutation in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2--one of several genetic mutations in the concerning variants that have emerged in the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Brazil--makes the virus up to eight times more infectious in human cells than the initial virus that originated in China, according to research published in the journal END ...

Scientists have discovered a never-before-seen biodiversity pattern of coral reef fishes that suggests some fishes might be exceptionally vulnerable to environmental change. A new study shows plankton-eating coral reef fishes (planktivores) are far more diverse than others in the Indo-Australian Archipelago, a global marine biodiversity hotspot. The findings highlight, for the first time, a unique link between the diet and distribution of species across the marine realm. "The archipelago is one of the most complex and dynamic geological regions in the tropics," said lead author Dr Ale Siqueira from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University (Coral CoE at JCU). "And its ...

Teens who bully, harass, or otherwise victimize their peers are not always lashing out in reaction to psychological problems or unhealthy home environments, but are often using aggression strategically to climb their school's social hierarchy, a University of California, Davis, study suggests. These findings point to the reasons why most anti-bullying programs don't work and suggest possible strategies for the future. "To the extent that this is true, we should expect them to target not vulnerable wallflowers, but their own friends, and friends-of-friends, who are more ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Like a scene from a horror movie, tomato fruitworm caterpillars silence their food plants' cries for help as they devour their leaves. That is the finding of a multidisciplinary team of researchers, who said the results may yield insights into the abilities of crop plants -- such as tomato and soybean -- to withstand additional stressors, like climate change. "We have discovered a new strategy whereby an insect uses saliva to inhibit the release of airborne plant defenses through direct manipulation of plant stomata," said Gary Felton, professor and head of the Department of Entomology at Penn State, noting that stomata are tiny pores on plant leaves that regulate gas exchange, including plant defensive emissions ...

Wheat straw, the dried stalks left over from grain production, is a potential source of biofuels and commodity chemicals. But before straw can be converted to useful products by biorefineries, the polymers that make it up must be broken down into their building blocks. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering have found that microbes from the guts of certain termite species can help break down lignin, a particularly tough polymer in straw. In straw and other dried plant material, the three main polymers -- cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin -- are interwoven into a complex 3D structure. The first two polymers are polysaccharides, which can be broken down into sugars and then converted to fuel in bioreactors. ...

Humans, like most social animals, tend to be organized hierarchically. In any group or social relationship there are always individuals who, for various reasons, significantly influence the behaviour of others. These individuals are attributed the highest status within the social group they belong to. As everyday examples of hierarchical relationships we find those of parents and children, teachers and students, bosses and workers, etc. Given the pervasiveness of such social organization, in recent years studies have begun to ascertain how and when children begin to recognize which people have higher and which have lower social status. Specifically, ...

Prolonged anesthesia, also known as medically induced coma, is a life-saving procedure carried out across the globe on millions of patients in intensive medical care units every year. But following prolonged anesthesia--which takes the brain to a state of deep unconsciousness beyond short-term anesthesia for surgical procedures--it is common for family members to report that after hospital discharge their loved ones were not quite the same. "It is long known that ICU survivors suffer lasting cognitive impairment, such as confusion and memory loss, that can languish for months and, in some cases, years," said Michael Wenzel, MD, lead author of a study published in PNAS this month that documents changes associated with prolonged anesthesia in the brains of mice. Wenzel, a former ...

The Mongolian Cyclone is a major meteorological driving force across southeast Asia. This cyclone is known for transporting aerosols, affecting where precipitation develops. Meteorologists are seeking ways to improve seasonal prediction of the relationship between the Mongolian cyclone and South Asia high. These features are major components of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) and the corresponding heavy rain events. New research suggests that analyzing these phenomena in the upper-level atmosphere will enhance the summer rainfall forecast skill in China. "The lower seasonal predictability of EASM may happen when the coupling wheel of Mongolian cyclone and South Asia high prevails over East Asia." said Prof. ...

The unique properties of rare earth (RE) complexes including ligand-sensitized energy transfer, fingerprint-like emissions and long-lived emissions, make them promising materials for many applications, such as optical encoding, luminescence imaging/sensing and time-resolved luminescence detection. In particularly, the use of RE luminescent materials for in vitro and in vivo imaging can easily eliminate the autofluorescence of organisms and any interference from background fluorescence. However, most RE complexes have poor solubility and stability in aqueous solution and their luminescence can be easily quenched by nearby X-H (X ...

A large-scale study of the link between innovation and financial performance in Australian companies has found more innovative companies post higher future profits and stock returns. The findings highlight the significant financial benefits of innovation for companies, which in turn supports job creation and economic growth. The study, conducted by Dr Anna Bedford, Dr Le Ma, Dr Nelson Ma and Kristina Vojvoda from the University of Technology Sydney, examined patent registrations from 1296 ASX-listed companies between 1997 and 2018. They matched patent data with ...

After more than 1,000 orthopaedic procedures at a city health system, roughly 61 percent of the opioids prescribed to patients went unused, according to new research. This was discovered within a study at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania that showed most patients responded to text messages designed to gauge patients' usage of their prescriptions. Knowing that so many patients are comfortable texting this information to their care teams is extremely useful as medical professionals look to right-size painkiller prescriptions and reduce the amount of opioids that might be misused when they're left over. This study was published in NEJM Catalyst. "This approach is a step toward building a dynamic learning health system that evolves ...

BOSTON -- Numerous studies have demonstrated the role of physical activity in improving heart health for patients with type 2 diabetes. But whether exercising at a certain time of the day promises an added health bonus for this population is still largely unknown. Now, research published in Diabetes Care by Brigham and Women's Hospital and Joslin Diabetes Center investigators, along with collaborators, reports a correlation between the timing of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and cardiovascular fitness and health risks for individuals who have type 2 diabetes and obesity or overweight. The research team found that, in its study of ...

A nasal antiviral created by researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons blocked transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in ferrets, suggesting the nasal spray also may prevent infection in people exposed to the new coronavirus, including recent variants The compound in the spray--a lipopeptide developed by Matteo Porotto, PhD, and Anne Moscona, MD, professors in the Department of Pediatrics and directors of the Center for Host-Pathogen Interaction--is designed to prevent the new coronavirus from entering host cells. The antiviral lipopeptide is inexpensive to produce, has a long shelf ...