Getting a birth control implant used to cost some women hundreds of dollars, if they were among the nearly half of privately insured Americans covered by a health plan with a high deductible that they were responsible for paying. But a new study in the April issue of Health Affairs shows that after the Affordable Care Act's no-cost birth control provision took effect in 2013, women in these high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) opted for long-acting contraception even more than women with other types of health plans. The study's findings have important policy implications, because employers now have the ability to opt out of the birth control portion of the ACA, following a Supreme Court case decided in 2020. Many employers have shifted to HDHPs to hold down their overall health ...

Stem rust is a devastating disease of cereal crops, including barley, one of the first domesticated crops in agriculture and the fourth most widely grown crop in the world. Barley is unique because it is one of only a few crops that can be cultivated in almost any climate and across a range of elevations, making it economically and nutritionally important. Stem rust is one of the biggest threats to barley production and capable of causing complete crop loss during severe epidemics. And since barley is also used as malt for beer and spirits and feed for animals ...

Thirty years ago, clinical psychiatrist Jonathan Shay drew attention to similarities between the trauma experienced by the Greek warriors, as documented in the epic poem "The Iliad," and Vietnam veterans in America. Could the experience of war impact people in similar ways in vastly different cultural milieus? Research published this week by ASU researcher Sarah Mathew and former ASU postdoctoral researcher Matthew Zefferman in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that Turkana pastoralist warriors from Kenya also experience PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) symptoms, even though their lifestyles and combat experiences are ...

Direct human alterations to natural aquatic ecosystems can increase methane emissions, a new study has found. Atmospheric methane has tripled since pre-industrial times. It traps heat far more effectively than carbon dioxide and accounts for 25% of atmospheric warming to date. And much of that methane is coming from aquatic ecosystems, with human activities contributing to the emissions levels, a new paper published in Nature Geoscience has found. The global contribution and importance of aquatic ecosystems as methane emitters has been underestimated, ...

Anyone who has visited the Australian outback would be familiar with spinifex grasses, which cover almost a fifth of our continent. Like many scientists, they may have also wondered why this iconic arid grass grows in striking ring shapes. Previous studies have tested whether spinifex rings could be caused by termites, water availability or nutrient depletion, but none has provided a convincing explanation. Now scientists from UNSW Sydney have found that pathogenic soil microbes play a role in how the spinifex got its hole. Their study, the first of its kind in an arid ecosystem, has been published in the Australian Journal of Botany. Professor Angela Moles and Neil Ross from ...

Durham, NC - According to the results of a phase 1 clinical trial just published in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine, a new stem cell therapy shows promise of making diabetes-related amputations a thing of the past. The trial involved injecting diabetes patients suffering from non-healing diabetic foot ulcers (DFU) with a cell preparation containing adult stem cells harvested from their own fat. The results showed that the treatment induced regeneration of the blood vessels surrounding the DFUs, accelerated healing - all with no serious side effects. "Non-healing diabetic foot ulcers usually ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Eucalyptus, a pest-resistant evergreen valued for its hardy lumber and wellness-promoting oil, can be genetically modified not to reproduce sexually, a key step toward preventing the global tree plantation staple from invading native ecosystems. Oregon State University's Steve Strauss led an international collaboration that showed the CRISPR Cas9 gene editing technique could be used with nearly 100% efficiency to knock out LEAFY, the master gene behind flower formation. "The flowers never developed to the point where ovules, pollen or ...

Two thirds of New Zealanders believed there were 'silver linings' to the country's Alert Level 4 COVID-19 lockdown imposed in March last year, a University of Otago survey has found. The researchers were able to question New Zealanders while they were at home, giving a unique insight into their lives during the nationwide lockdown between 25 March and 23 April, widely regarded as one of the strictest imposed anywhere in the world. One year on from lockdown, the results of their study have been published in the international scientific journal, PLOS ONE. Participants were asked 'Have you experienced any silver linings, or positive aspects during the COVID-19 Level 4 lockdown' and were able to answer 'yes, for me personally', ...

Can a mirror turn an orange into a doughnut? The answer is definitely no in the real (macro) world. But at the nanoscale, a mirror can turn an "orange" shaped pattern into a "doughnut" shaped pattern by overlapping the "orange" with its reflected mirror image. A team of researchers from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) has shown for the first time that fluorescent nanoparticles placed near a mirror generate unique patterns that can be used to pinpoint their location. The researchers attribute this effect to the light emitting nanoparticle's interference with its own mirror image. Using this method they can also detect the size of particles to a resolution of one nanometre - or around 1/80,000th of the diameter of a human ...

Areas with a relatively greater amount of misogynistic tweets have higher incidences of domestic and family violence, a UNSW study has found. The study, published in Psychological Science, not only found this connection with domestic and family violence carried over from one year to the next, but also occurred despite the 'usual suspects' of domestic violence, such as alcohol and inequality. Examples of misogynistic tweets identified by the researchers included, "Women are all bitches," "Whore had it coming," and, "Make me a sandwich, slut." "We found that misogynistic ...

Ever since the early humans learned to walk upright, they have suffered, as an unfortunate consequence of their erect posture, from low back pain. Modern understanding on this matter dictates that low back pain, in particular, is caused due to a postural instability resulting from poor "proprioception", which is a term for the perception of part of our body's own position in space. In fact, our trunk and lower legs are key to maintaining postural stability due to the presence of "proprioceptors"--sensory receptors responding to position and movement--in those areas. Elderly people suffering from low back pain tend to have poorly performing proprioceptors, ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Researchers have found a way to use chaos to help develop digital fingerprints for electronic devices that may be unique enough to foil even the most sophisticated hackers. Just how unique are these fingerprints? The researchers believe it would take longer than the lifetime of the universe to test for every possible combination available. "In our system, chaos is very, very good," said Daniel Gauthier, senior author of the study and professor of physics at The Ohio State University. The study was recently published online in the journal IEEE Access. The researchers created a new version ...

(Boston)--Diagnosing Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) during life is crucial for developing therapies and for determining how common the disease is among individuals exposed to repetitive head impacts from contact sports, military service and physical violence. While the ability to diagnose CTE prior to death has remained elusive, researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) for the first time have shown that progressive memory loss and issues with executive function, the ability to focus, follow directions, and problem-solve, are more useful for predicting CTE pathology than mood and behavior symptoms. CTE is a progressive brain disease. Clinically, impulsivity, explosivity, depression, memory impairment and executive dysfunction have been reported to ...

WASHINGTON, April 7, 2021 -- On the surface, Parkinson's disease -- a neurodegenerative disorder -- and melanoma -- a type of skin cancer -- do not appear to have much in common. However, for nearly 50 years, doctors have recognized that Parkinson's disease patients are more likely to develop melanoma than the general population. Now, scientists report a molecular link between the two diseases in the form of protein aggregates known as amyloids. The researchers will present their results today at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS Spring 2021 is being held online April 5-30. Live sessions will be hosted April ...

DALLAS, April 7, 2021 — Receiving palliative or hospice care services was found to improve quality of life for hospitalized ischemic stroke patients, however, disparities persist in which patients are prescribed or have access to these holistic comfort care options, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access journal of the American Heart Association. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, stroke ranked No. 5 among all causes of death in the U.S. Nearly 9 in 10 strokes are ischemic strokes caused by a blockage in a blood vessel that carries blood to the brain. Despite advances in acute stroke treatment and management, stroke remains a leading cause of serious long-term disability in the U.S. “Stroke ...

Skoltech chemists have proposed a new electronegativity scale and published their findings in Nature Communications. The concept of electronegativity introduced by Linus Pauling, a great American chemist, in the 1930s refers to the ability of an atom to attract electron density. In a chemical bond, the more electronegative atom gains extra electrons, becoming negatively charged, while the less electronegative one loses electrons and becomes positively charged. Electronegativity is a fundamental notion, essential for explaining things that range from chemical bonds' energy to the (in)stability of chemical compounds and the color and hardness of crystals. Since then, chemists have come up with various definitions and scales of electronegativity. Yet Pauling's ...

Events such as the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the crucial role played by biodiversity collections in enabling rapid responses to crises and in facilitating ongoing research across numerous fields. Despite the recognized value of this infrastructure, the community nevertheless has further opportunities to maximize its value to the scientific enterprise. Writing in BioScience, Barbara Thiers of the New York Botanical Garden and colleagues describe (https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/biosci/biab036) the necessary steps for the biodiversity collections community to vouchsafe its position as an important catalyst of research. The authors draw on recommendations ...

A new scientific review has found there are significant gaps in our knowledge of how mammal populations are responding to climate change, particularly in regions most sensitive to climate change. The findings are published in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Animal Ecology. Nearly 25% of mammal species are threatened with extinction, with this risk exacerbated by climate change. But the ways climate change is impacting animals now, and projected to in the future, is known to be complex. Different environmental changes have multiple and potentially contrasting, ...

Philadelphia, April 7, 2021 - Building family child care home providers' (FCCH) self-efficacy--an individual's belief in their ability to manage their situation--for healthy eating is an important component of health promotion and can buffer the impact of stress on their diet quality, according to a new study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, published by Elsevier. "The FCCH provider is an important source of child care in this country. A lot of families from lower-income environments use the FCCH because of its affordability and location," said Dianne Ward, EdD, of the Department of Nutrition, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. FCCH providers can experience multiple stressors ...

A generation of talented but disadvantaged children are being denied access to higher education because academic success in lower and middle-income countries is continually 'protected by wealth', a study has found. The research, which used data from around 3,500 young people in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam, shows that promising but poorer students 'fall away' during their school years, as challenges associated with their socio-economic circumstances gradually erode their potential. Among children who showed similar levels of ability aged 8, for example, the wealthiest were often over 30 percentage points more likely than the least-wealthy to enter all forms of tertiary education: including university, technical colleges, and teacher training. Even ...

Symptoms of cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder that affects a person's ability to move and maintain balance and posture, appear early during childhood. A new analysis examines the effectiveness of therapies initiated from birth until 3 years of age for children with or at risk for cerebral palsy. The analysis, which is published in Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, included all systematic reviews from 2009-2020 that assessed the results of relevant published studies. Investigators concluded that research has generated limited supportive data and cannot yet confirm a greater benefit from early versus later interventions; however, earlier, ...

Smoking increases symptoms and health risks for patients with rheumatic diseases, but interventions to help patients quit are rarely available at rheumatology clinics. A study published in Arthritis Care & Research has found that Quit Connect--a protocol involving electronic health record prompts for nurses and medical assistants in rheumatology clinics--can increase electronic referrals to free, state-run tobacco quite lines. Implementing Quit Connect led to electronic referrals for 71% of patients who were identified as ready to quit, with referrals taking less than 90 seconds for medical staff to complete. "There's a huge opportunity to address smoking as a modifiable risk factor in rheumatology patients, and Quit Connect was 26-times more effective than usual care for ...

School-based interventions that target students with, or at risk of, academic difficulties in kindergarten to grade 6 have positive effects on reading and mathematics, according to an article published in END ...

In a study of 558 college students, those who reported more symptoms associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) also reported higher levels of stress. Students reporting higher levels of ADHD symptoms also reported lower levels of resilience, according to the study published in the END ...

In addition to causing blood sugar imbalances, type 1 diabetes can contribute to nerve damage and sensory abnormalities--a condition call neuropathy--and has been linked to a higher risk of bone fractures. A new study published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research has examined the effects of type 1 diabetes and diabetic neuropathy on the skeleton. Investigators found that type 1 diabetes and diabetic neuropathy have various impacts on bone structure, but these effects do not fully explain the higher fracture risk in patients with type 1 diabetes. The results suggest that the increase in the risk of fractures in type 1 diabetes ...