Brand-name drugs cost two to three times more in the U.S. than in other countries, but many of the top-selling brand name drugs may provide little added therapeutic benefit. A new study led by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of Mass General Brigham, used public Medicare data to identify the 50 highest-selling brand-name drugs in 2020. The researchers evaluated their therapeutic benefit compared to existing standards of care, based on ratings from the national health technology assessment (HTA) organizations of Canada, France, and Germany. The team found that 27 of the 50 drugs received ...

Stars that contain comparatively large amounts of heavy elements provide less favourable conditions for the emergence of complex life than metal-poor stars, as scientists from the Max Planck Institutes for Solar System Research and for Chemistry as well as from the University of Göttingen have now found. The team showed how the metallicity of a star is connected to the ability of its planets to surround themselves with a protective ozone layer. Crucial to this is the intensity of the ultraviolet light that the star emits into space, in different wavelength ranges. The study provides scientists searching ...

Supersolids are a relatively new and exciting area of research. They exhibit both solid and superfluid properties simultaneously. In 2019, three research groups were able to demonstrate this state for the first time beyond doubt in ultracold quantum gases, among them the research group led by Francesca Ferlaino from the Department of Experimental Physics at the University of Innsbruck and the ÖAW Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) in Innsbruck. In 2021, Francesca Ferlaino's team studied in detail the life cycle of supersolid states ...

University of School of Medicine researchers have identified a gene that plays a crucial role in determining our risk for heart attacks, deadly aneurysms, coronary artery disease and other dangerous vascular conditions. The discovery advances our understanding of the underlying causes of a wide range of serious health conditions, including atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), and moves us closer to new treatments and preventive measures that could help people live longer, healthier lives. “The first step towards translating the knowledge of population risk for vascular disease is disentangling the fundamental cellular ...

(WASHINGTON, DC, April 18, 2023) – Children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who live in extreme poverty and were undergoing maintenance therapy faced an almost two-fold greater risk of relapse compared with kids who weren’t as poor, according to a study published in today’s issue of Blood. Moreover, a higher proportion of these children had difficulty adhering to treatment, though researchers said this only partially explains the link between poverty and the risk of relapse. “ALL is a curable disease, so while we observed relatively few relapses in total, children living in extreme poverty – those whose families were really stretched thin and not able ...

Vitamin D deficiency could be the reason African American men experience more aggressive prostate cancer at a younger age compared with European American men, new research from Cedars-Sinai Cancer suggests. The multi-institutional study, published today in Cancer Research Communications, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), could pave the way for revised nutritional guidelines. While previous research has investigated vitamin D in the context of health disparities, this is the first study to look at its functions in a genome-wide manner in African American versus European American ...

New York, New York — The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) and Hevolution Foundation are pleased to announce the inaugural Hevolution/AFAR New Investigator Awards in Aging Biology and Geroscience Research recipients. Eighteen three-year awards of US $375,000 each have been granted to support research projects in basic biology of aging or geroscience — a research paradigm based on addressing the biology of ...

NEWPORT NEWS, VA – In a unique analysis of experimental data, nuclear physicists have made the first-ever observations of how lambda particles, so-called “strange matter,” are produced by a specific process called semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS). What’s more, these data hint that the building blocks of protons, quarks and gluons, are capable of marching through the atomic nucleus in pairs called diquarks, at least part of the time. These results come from an experiment conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. It’s a result that has been ...

INDIANAPOLIS – Serving on the front lines in the arduous battle against the coronavirus, emergency department (ED) physicians are among the true heroes of the pandemic, working long, stressful hours at great personal risk, especially in the many months before vaccines became available. A pilot study examining the feasibility, receptivity and preliminary effectiveness of peer-support groups for ED doctors during COVID-19 found this support provided potential benefit in terms of reduction of mental health stresses involved in emergency care during this time. The researchers assessed change in symptoms of distress, depression and burnout before and after participating ...

Public health messages that focus on protecting others are more effective at increasing vaccination rates than messages focused on protecting oneself, according to a study. Vaccine hesitancy is a challenge for public health workers and others concerned with reducing the deleterious effects of infectious diseases. Elizabeth Shanahan and colleagues tested three visual policy narrative messages promoting COVID-19 vaccination that emphasized protecting oneself, one’s circle of friends and family, or one’s community. A non-narrative control message simply urged participants to “get the vaccine” with an accompanying image of a syringe. ...

A research article by scientists at the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics developed a neural control algorithm to coordinate the adhesive toes and limbs of the climbing robot. The new research article, published in the journal Cyborg and Bionic Systems, provided a novel hybrid-driven climbing robot and introduced a neural control method based on CPG (Central Pattern Generator) for coordinating between adhesion and motion.    “Currently, the movement speed and stability of climbing robots have not yet reached the level of biological organisms. Animals have flexible climbing abilities on various slopes and roughness, ...

Children with COVID-19 can be treated safely at home, helping to take the burden off the hospital system, according to a new study. The research, led by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and published in Archives of Disease in Childhood, found COVID-positive children with moderate symptoms or pre-existing high-risk conditions could be treated effectively via a Hospital-in-the-Home (HITH) program. Additionally, many more sick children without COVID-19 were treated at home during the pandemic. Murdoch Children’s Dr Laila Ibrahim said the program took pressure off paediatric emergency departments ...

Weight regains is a common problem for weight loss individuals. A number of studies have shown that weight loss in overweight people results in a reduction in whole-body energy expenditure. This reduction in energy expenditure is disproportionate across tissues, known as energetic mismatch which primarily originates from lean tissue, thus increasing weight regain risk. Although this phenomenon has long been identified and has been suggested that weight loss may alter skeletal muscle mitochondrial respiration, the mechanisms ...

Ocean-based hydrophones in the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO)’s seismic-acoustic monitoring network could provide a better look at how ocean temperatures are changing over time, according to a presentation at the Seismological Society of America (SSA)’s 2023 Annual Meeting. Finding new ways to monitor ocean temperatures is important for determining rates of warming, sea level rise and climate-related ocean circulation patterns as average global temperatures continue to rise, the researchers said. Sound ...

In the wake of the 2020-2021 Southwest Puerto Rico earthquake sequence, researchers asked emergency responders and residents in affected communities about the information they needed to prepare for the next earthquake. Residents surveyed door to door and in focus groups said they wanted to know more about and have easier access to an aftershock forecast, along with information on potential tsunami risk, according to a presentation at the SSA 2023 Annual Meeting. Residents also wanted more information tailored specifically to their local area, said Jenniffer M. Santos-Hernández ...

Barcelona, Spain – 18 April 2023:  Patients with severe COVID-19 requiring mechanical ventilation are 16 times more likely to develop ventricular tachycardia within six months compared to their peers without severe infection, according to research presented at EHRA 2023, a scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).1 Risks of other heart rhythm disorders were also elevated.   “The actual likelihood of developing ventricular tachycardia or other arrhythmias after severe COVID-19 is low for the individual ...

April 18, 2023 –Vestibular schwannomas related to neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2) are difficult to manage and are sometimes treated with a noninvasive option, stereotactic radiosurgery. A retrospective study conducted by an international, multicenter team found that stereotactic radiosurgery is effective for patients with these tumors while preserving serviceable hearing and not causing radiation-related tumor development or malignant transformation. These results are reported in the May issue of the Congress of ...

As the world enters a post-pandemic phase, an international study is providing unique perspectives on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancies among college students. Researchers from Florida Atlantic University, Ariel University in Israel, and the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, Czech Republic, are the first to perform a cross-cultural comparison to investigate factors that influenced the decision to get the COVID-19 vaccine in an international sample of college students from the United States, Israel and the Czech Republic. The study explored associations between vaccine hesitancy and ...

Southfield, Mich., April 18, 2023 – For decades, researchers have marveled at the ability of glioblastoma, a particularly aggressive brain cancer, to turn off a patient’s cancer-fighting immune cells, thereby allowing tumors to grow freely. This remains a primary reason why there are very few effective therapies available for this mostly fatal disease. In a new study using more than 100 patient-derived glioblastoma tumors, Prakash Chinnaiyan, M.D., a physician scientist in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Corewell Health in Southeast, Mich., along with colleague and lead author Pravin Kesarwani, Ph.D., ...

WATERLOO, Ontario, April 18, 2023—Scientists from the Centre for Ocular Research & Education (CORE) are poised to unveil multiple advancements in 3D printing next week during the ARVO 2023 Annual Meeting in New Orleans. These innovations have widespread applications, with the potential to accelerate development of drug delivery systems, biodegradable contact lenses, and pharmaceuticals. “Our multidisciplinary team has created one of the most sophisticated 3D printing environments for ocular research in the world,” said Alex Hui, OD, PhD, FAAO, head of Biosciences at CORE. “This ...

Curtin researchers have discovered how long ago the Australian Nullarbor plain dried out, with a new approach shedding light on how ancient climate change altered some of the driest regions of our planet. Iron-rich layers formed in ancient sediments were used to narrow down when an area dried out in response to changes in climate, such as the dramatic decline of groundwater in southern Australia. These ‘relics of drying’ suggest the Nullarbor drastically shifted to dry conditions between 2.4 and 2.7 million years ago, uncovering how these environmental changes were key in shaping Australia’s diverse ...

RICHLAND, Wash.—Scrap aluminum can now be collected and transformed directly into new vehicle parts using an innovative process being developed by the automotive industry, in particular for electric vehicles. Today, the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, in collaboration with leading mobility technology company Magna, unveils a new manufacturing process that reduces more than 50% of the embodied energy and more than 90% of the carbon dioxide emissions by eliminating the need to mine and refine the same amount of raw aluminum ore. ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Having a four-year college degree and a low level of stress are strongly linked to psychological resilience in American women aged 80 and older, a new study suggests. Researchers analyzed data from the Women’s Health Initiative to identify factors that are associated with higher self-rated resilience – the ability to weather storms and rebound from setbacks – among almost 30,000 women with an average age of 84. Other characteristics linked to higher resilience included stronger social support, higher self-rated health and a lower risk of depression than levels among women ...

UC Riverside scientists are taking a modern approach to studying a murky subject — the quantity, quality, and sources of microplastics in Los Angeles County’s urban streams. Microplastics are particles with a maximum diameter of 5 millimeters, roughly the size of a pencil eraser. The category can include nanoplastics, which are far smaller than the width of an average human hair.  Scientists have been aware that these particles have been filtering through the environment for decades, but concern about them has only started to ramp up more recently.  “There is mounting evidence that these materials are toxic,” said Andrew Gray, UCR assistant professor of ...

PULLMAN, Wash. -- A viable formula for a carbon-negative, environmentally friendly concrete that is nearly as strong as regular concrete has been developed at Washington State University.   In a proof-of-concept work, the researchers infused regular cement with environmentally friendly biochar, a type of charcoal made from organic waste, that had been strengthened beforehand with concrete wastewater. The biochar was able to suck up to 23% of its weight in carbon dioxide from the air while still reaching a strength comparable to ordinary cement.    The research could significantly reduce carbon emissions of the concrete industry, which is one ...