A team of scientists has shown that the healing of skin blisters is driven by hair follicle stem cells, which delay their own development in the process. The healing process of the tissues in the human body is particularly well-studied in skin, especially as skin serves as a layer of protection from the environment. However, there remain some specific types of skin injuries where the healing process is not well understood. A team of scientists from Japan and Italy, including Associate Professor Ken Natsuga from the Graduate School of Medicine at Hokkaido University, have used models of skin blisters to explore the effects of injury on developing skin tissue. Their discoveries ...

Nearly 12,000 people in Sweden received sickness benefit from the Swedish Social Insurance Agency for COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic. The median duration of sick leave in this group was 35 days, but for many it was considerably more long-drawn-out, according to a University of Gothenburg study. A research group in rehabilitation medicine at the University of Gothenburg has studied sick-leave patterns. The study now presented in the scientific journal BMC Public Health. The study included all recipients of sickness benefit from the Social Insurance Agency for COVID-19 diagnoses in Sweden during the first pandemic wave, from 1 March to 31 August 2020, and monitored them for 4 months from the start of ...

Artemisone is a promising substance in the fight against malaria. However, the active ingredient has yet to be used due its instability and because it is not easily absorbed by the body. A team from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has now pushed this a bit further. They have developed a very simple method for preparing the active ingredient that makes it easier to administer and store. The researchers report on their work in the scientific journal "Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy". Malaria is caused ...

High running capacity is associated with health and longevity. However, whether high genetic running capacity promotes more efficient metabolism with aging is not known. A new study conducted in collaboration between the universities of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China) and Jyväskylä (Finland) investigated the effects of genetic running capacity and aging on tissue metabolism. The study reveals that adipose tissue may have a key role in healthy aging. Running capacity, expressed as aerobic capacity, refers to an individual's capacity to utilize oxygen and is known to decrease with age, thereby affecting the whole body metabolism and health. "We currently lack the information ...

A team of neuroscientists are calling for greater support of neuroscience research in Africa following a long-term analysis of research outputs in the continent. The findings detail important information about funding and international collaboration comparing activity in the continent to the US, UK and areas of Europe. It's hoped that the study will provide useful data to help shape and grow science in Africa. Africa has the world's largest human genetic diversity which carries important implications for understanding human diseases, including neurological disorders. Co-lead ...

Hurricanes that make landfall typically decay but sometimes transition into extratropical cyclones and re-intensify, causing widespread damage to inland communities The presence of a cold core is currently used to identify this transition, but a new study has now found that a cold core naturally forms in all landfalling hurricanes The cold core was detected when scientists ran simulations of landfalling hurricanes that accounted for moisture stored within the cyclone Over time, the scientists saw a cold core growing from the bottom of the hurricane, replacing the warm core The research could help forecasters make more ...

A study led by University of Minnesota Twin Cities researchers uncovered a property of magnetic materials that will allow engineers to develop more efficient spintronic devices in the future. Spintronics focuses on using the magnetic "spin" property of electrons instead of their charge, which improves the speed and efficiency of devices used for computing and data storage. The research is published in Physical Review B, a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Physical Society. One of the major roadblocks in developing better spintronic devices is an effect called "damping," in which the magnetic energy essentially leaks out of the materials, causing them to be less efficient. Traditionally, scientists ...

Humans often cooperate, but ample research has shown that they're conditionally cooperative; that is, they are far more likely to cooperate with those who they consider "good." In large societies, however, people don't always know the reputations of the people with whom they interact. That's where reputation monitoring systems--such as the star ratings for eBay sellers or the scores assigned by credit bureaus--come into play, helping guide people's decisions about whether or not they want to help or interact with another person. In a new paper in the journal Nature Communications, a team from Penn uses mathematical modeling to study how public institutions of reputation monitoring can foster cooperation and also encourage participants to adhere to its assessments instead ...

In fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, it's not just the vaccines that require complicated cold supply chains and refrigerated storage. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests -- often considered the "gold standard" of testing -- also have enzymes and reagents that need to be frozen. Northwestern University researchers have discovered that commercially available PCR tests can withstand the freeze-drying process, making them shelf-stable for up to 30 days and 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), without sacrificing sensitivity and accuracy. The researchers ...

In 2007, the American housing boom ended, and there was heightened risk of a housing crisis. Private securitizers withdrew from purchasing high-risk mortgages, while government-sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, dramatically increased their acquisitions of risky mortgages. By 2008, the agencies reversed course, decreasing their high-risk acquisitions. In a new article, an economist proposes a scenario in which large lenders temporarily boost high-risk activity at the end of a boom. According to her model, lenders with many outstanding mortgages have incentives to extend risky credit to prop up housing prices, which lessens the losses on their outstanding portfolio of mortgages. As the bust continues, lenders slowly wind down their mortgage exposure. The ...

BOSTON - The cost of cancer care in United States was an estimated $183 billion in 2015 and is projected to rise by 30 percent by 2030, according to the American Cancer Society. While private and government insurance may cover much of the cost of care, even patients with insurance can struggle to pay for office visit co-payments, prescription medications or other cancer-related expenses. Yet limited data describes how financial hardship impacts patient behavior and how that in turn may impact patient health. In a new study designed to provide a more comprehensive picture of how a diverse cohort of gynecologic cancer patients are affected by financial distress -- also called "financial toxicity" in acknowledgment of the health ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- When two similar atomic layers with mismatching lattice constants -- the constant distance between a layer's unit cells -- and/or orientation are stacked together, the resulting bilayer can exhibit a moiré pattern and form a moiré superlattice. Moiré patterns are interference patterns that typically arise when one object with a repetitive pattern is placed over another with a similar pattern. Moiré superlattices, formed by atomic layers, can exhibit fascinating phenomena not found in the individual layers, opening the door to technological revolutions in many areas, including electricity transmission, information engineering, and ...

White men who had a Black neighbor when they were growing up are more likely to be Democrats and less likely to be Republican, an influence that can last several decades later. That's according to a Harvard study published Friday in Science Advances that takes individual level data from 650,000 Americans recorded in the 1940 U.S. Census. Using machine learning, the analysis links those records to contemporary voter files to see if there are correlations between having a Black neighbor as a child and political views later in life. The paper includes only men because the common practice of surname changes at marriage made it difficult to accurately track women. The scientists found that those 650,000 white men who had a Black neighbor growing up are believed to be more likely ...

There is no question that the pandemic has been immensely stressful for health care workers, especially for those on the frontline of patient care. Yet, even before the pandemic, the regular demands of many health care industry jobs put these workers at risk for burnout. Now, a new study from the University of Georgia suggests that investing in more physical activity programming could mitigate the effects of stress and improve worker mental and emotional health. Tackling burnout in health care is critical to ensuring patient safety, said lead author Marilyn ...

(Boston)-- Prevalence rates of opioid use disorder (OUD) have increased dramatically, accompanied by a surge of overdose deaths--nearly 50,000 in the U.S. in 2019. While opioid dependence has been extensively studied in preclinical models, an understanding of the biological alterations that occur in the brains of people who chronically use opioids and who are diagnosed with OUD remains limited. To address this issue, researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have conducted the largest transcriptomic (the study of all the RNA molecules within a cell) study to date using postmortem ...

People with end-stage renal disease often undergo hemodialysis, a life-sustaining blood-filtering treatment. To make the process as fast and efficient as possible, many people have "hemodialysis grafts" surgically implanted. These grafts are like bypasses, connecting a vein to a major artery, making it easier to access blood and ensuring the same blood doesn't get filtered twice. But the grafts have a notorious problem: Clots tend to form where the graft is attached to the vein. For the person undergoing dialysis, this means not only a break from treatment, but also surgery to remove the graft and then surgery to implant another. A multidisciplinary team from Washington University School of Medicine ...

Scientists know that developing cells in a healthy embryo will transform into a variety of cell types that will make up the different organ systems in the human body, a process known as cell differentiation. But they don't know how the cells do it. A Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) study in Cell Reports led by Stephen Duncan, D.Phil., examines how an endodermal cell - a type of developing cell - becomes a liver cell and not some other type of cell. Duncan and his team found that the development of naive cells into differentiated liver cells ...

Researchers have developed a new approach to gene therapy that leans on the common pain reliever acetaminophen to force a variety of genetic diseases into remission. A paper published in Science Translational Medicine describes how the novel technique successfully treated the blood-clotting disorder hemophilia and the debilitating metabolic disease known as phenylketonuria, or PKU, in mice. The approach uses a benign lentivirus to both correct disease-causing mutations and to insert a new gene that makes liver cells immune to the potentially toxic effects of acetaminophen. The latter ...

CINCINNATI--The disease is so rare and complex that its acronym is hard to pronounce. But for infants unlucky enough to be born with this lung disease, the outcome is usually fatal. The disease is called alveolar capillary dysplasia with misalignment of the pulmonary veins (ACDMPV). Research indicates the disease is linked to mutations in the FOXF1 gene. Worldwide, medical experts have documented about 200 cases, but an unknown number of infants may have died without the condition ever being diagnosed, according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders. The disease is caused by genetic variations that prevent proper blood vessel formation in the lungs. Within ...

Los Alamos, N.M., June 10, 2021 - For the first time, the boundary of the heliosphere has been mapped, giving scientists a better understanding of how solar and interstellar winds interact. Video link: https://youtu.be/w__vzNXSFoI "Physics models have theorized this boundary for years," said Dan Reisenfeld, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and lead author on the paper, which was published in the Astrophysical Journal today. "But this is the first time we've actually been able to measure it and make a three-dimensional map of it." The heliosphere is a bubble created by the solar wind, a stream ...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- An international research team has described a new species of Oculudentavis, providing further evidence that the animal first identified as a hummingbird-sized dinosaur was actually a lizard. The new species, named Oculudentavis naga in honor of the Naga people of Myanmar and India, is represented by a partial skeleton that includes a complete skull, exquisitely preserved in amber with visible scales and soft tissue. The specimen is in the same genus as Oculudentavis khaungraae, whose original description as the smallest known bird was retracted last year. The two fossils were found in the same area and are about 99 million years ...

What The Study Did: The results suggest assisted living residents experienced increased mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic consistent with increases observed among nursing home residents. Authors: Kali S. Thomas, Ph.D., of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, 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.2021.13411) Editor's Note: The article includes funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional ...

What The Study Did: Researchers examined the association between the amount of ultra-processed food consumed by children and their weight in early adulthood. Authors: Kiara Chang, Ph.D., of Imperial College London, 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.2021.1573) Editor's Note: The article includes 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. INFORMATION: Media advisory: ...

What The Study Did: Differences by sex and race/ethnicity in suicidal thoughts and nonfatal suicide attempts among U.S. adolescents over the last three decades were assessed in this survey study. Authors: Yunyu Xiao, Ph.D., of Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis, 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.2021.13513) Editor's Note: The article includes conflicts of interest disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including ...

Diseases that affect tubular structures in the body, such as the gastrointestinal (GI) system, vasculature and airway, present a unique challenge for delivering local treatments. Vertically oriented organs, such as the esophagus, and labyrinthine structures, such as the intestine, are difficult to coat with therapeutics, and in many cases, patients are instead prescribed systemic drugs that can have immunosuppressive effects. To improve drug delivery for diseases that affect tubular organs, like eosinophilic esophagitis and inflammatory bowel disease, ...