All prominent migrant groups in the Netherlands are suffering more from long-covid than the native Dutch population, research from Amsterdam UMC has found. The study, published today, in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe, shows that in some groups the rates of long-covid are up to 50% larger than in the Dutch population. Resulting in many migrant groups “suffering in silence,” in the words of senior author Professor Charles Agyemang.  COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on vulnerable communities, particularly people from ethnic minorities and migrant backgrounds. Research from Amsterdam UMC already found that these populations ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — People often complain about the occasional misfires of automated features, such as autocorrect, but users generally enjoy interacting with the tools, according to researchers. They added that focusing on certain benefits of automated features may help developers build automated tools that people use more and complain about less. In a study, researchers said that users appreciate the convenience and control of automated features, which also include YouTube’s autoplay and Google Gmail’s smart compose. People listed the technology’s ...

The risk of life-threatening maternal complications from childbirth may be higher depending on where you live, a new study finds. For Medicaid enrollees in Utah, the rate of “near miss” instances that could have led to the death of a birthing person during pregnancy or delivery was the lowest in the U.S., occurring among 80 per 10,000 live births. Meanwhile, on the other side of the country in Washington D.C., the rate of such cases was nearly three times higher – 210 per 10,000 deliveries. The drivers for these unexpected maternal outcomes, referred to as ...

Alexandria, VA – The American Association for Dental, Oral and Craniofacial Research (AADOCR) announced the 2023 AADOCR Fellows during the Opening Ceremonies of the 52nd Annual Meeting of the AADOCR, which was held in conjunction with the 47th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research (CADR), that took place on March 15, 2023. The AADOCR Fellows Program recognizes leaders of AADOCR and individuals who have served the organization in various ways throughout their careers. Through this program, AADOCR strengthens its mission to drive dental, oral, and craniofacial research to advance health and well-being. All nominees must pass ...

The oral antibiotic doxycycline prevented the acquisition of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) when tested among men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women who took the medication within 72 hours of having condomless sex, according to findings published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. Specifically, the post-exposure approach, termed doxy-PEP, resulted in a two-thirds reduction in the incidence of syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia among the study participants, all of whom reported having an STI within the previous year. However, the research also revealed a slight increase in antibacterial resistance that requires further ...

A University of Texas at Arlington computer security researcher has received a prestigious federal grant to determine what technologies and methods work best to attain and retain online security and privacy. Shirin Nilizadeh, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, received a $200,000 National Science Foundation grant to study social media discussions and better understand what concerns are about online security and privacy, what technologies and tools they suggest to each other to use and whether ...

**Note: the release below is a special early release from the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2023, Copenhagen, 15-18 April). Please credit the congress if you use this story** Embargo: 2301H UK time Thursday 6 April Requirements to wear surgical masks in a large London hospital during the first 10 months of Omicron activity (December 2021 to September 2022) made no discernible difference to reducing hospital-acquired SARS-CoV-2 infections, according to new research being presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Copenhagen, ...

**Note: the release below is a special early release from the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2023, Copenhagen, 15-18 April). Please credit the congress if you use this story** Embargo: 2301H UK time Thurs 6 April   Adults hospitalised with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant have a higher death rate than those hospitalised with seasonal influenza, even though Omicron is considered less virulent with lower case fatality rates than the delta and alpha strains, new research being presented at this year’s ...

IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON PRESS RELEASE Under STRICT EMBARGO until: Thursday 6 April 2023 23:30 UK TIME / 19:30 ET Peer-reviewed / Observational study / People Spread of COVID-19 in households is linked to virus on hands and surfaces, say researchers A new Imperial College London-led study provides the first empirical evidence for transmission of SARS-CoV-2 via people’s hands and frequently touched household surfaces. The research sheds new light on the spread of COVID-19 in households, where most transmission of SARS-CoV-2 occurs, and it is the first to link the presence ...

Environmental Impact Assessments may hugely underestimate the effect that new developments have on wildlife, according to new research from the University of East Anglia. This is because they don’t take into account how birds and other animals move around between different sites. A study published today shows how a new airport development planned in Portugal could affect more than 10 times the number of Black-tailed Godwits estimated in a previous Environmental Impact Assessment. The research team have been studying these Godwits across Europe for over 30 years but they say that any species that moves around is likely to be under-represented ...

Using solar energy and photocatalysts to convert CO2 into high value-added chemicals can simultaneously alleviate the greenhouse effect and energy shortage, being recognized to be a promising alternative to achieve sustainable social development. Single atom cocatalysts decoration has been demonstrated to be effective strategy to improve the CO2 photocatalytic reduction efficiency. Unfortunately, when unraveling the mechanism behind performance promotion, most studies mainly focused on clarifying the superior ...

The U.S. experienced an unprecedented number of group A streptococcal infections in children from October to December of 2022, which should alert physicians to check for the potentially deadly infectious disease as the country moves out of the pandemic, according to research published by UTHealth Houston. The study, led by senior author Anthony R. Flores, MD, PhD, MPH, associate professor and chief of pediatric infectious diseases at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, was published this month in Clinical Infectious Diseases. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the rate of other infectious diseases dropped due to safety measures such as social distancing and mask-wearing, according ...

Michael Schulz, assistant professor of chemistry within the Virginia Tech College of Science, has received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award. The award, which begins in May, comes on the heels of Schulz receiving a U.S. Department of Energy 2022 Early Career Research Program Award. Schulz received the foundation's five-year $725,000 for the project titled "CAREER: Novel Approaches to Hyperbranched Polymers" to develop ruthenium-catalyzed self-condensing Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymerization to prepare hyperbranched polymers. The award comes ...

Industrial cultivation of hemp is seeing a massive expansion in the United States due to new federal laws and consumer demand. Because of these changes in regulation, part of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, researchers are legally able to perform tests on hemp and growers can produce plants. In 2021, hemp, which has a THC concentration of less than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis, was grown on 54,000 acres with a value of more than $824 million, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In partnership with York University in Ontario, Canada, and the ...

Reston, VA—A simple blood draw can provide physicians with valuable information that can determine if peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) is likely to be effective in a patient with neuroendocrine cancer. The blood-based biomarker PPQ can predict which patients will respond to PRRT with 96 percent accuracy; changes in another biomarker, NETest, correctly correlate with PRRT response in 90 percent of patients. The study, published in the April issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, ...

DURHAM, N.C. – Engineers at Duke University have produced the world’s first fully recyclable printed electronics that replace the use of chemicals with water in the fabrication process. By bypassing the need for hazardous chemicals, the demonstration points down a path industry could follow to reduce its environmental footprint and human health risks. The research appeared online Feb. 28 in the journal Nano Letters. One of the dominant challenges facing any electronics manufacturer is successfully securing several layers of components on ...

There is extensive research on how a fixed-position flap affects lift in the realm of fluid-structure interaction. However, taking the conversation in a new direction, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign conducted a bio-inspired study with a novel twist—variable stiffness—to learn more about how it affects lift. The researchers wondered if they could model a flap on an airfoil, or wing, with varying stiffnesses over time much like a bird can tense, or stiffen, the musculature and tendons connected to covert feathers. “We know from previous studies ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Broccoli is known to be beneficial to our health. For example, research has shown that increased consumption of the cruciferous vegetable decreases incidences of cancer and type 2 diabetes. In a recent study, researchers at Penn State found that broccoli contains certain molecules that bind to a receptor within mice and help to protect the lining of the small intestine, thereby inhibiting the development of disease. The findings lend support to the idea that broccoli truly is a ‘superfood.’  “We ...

A rapid spike in cases of a potentially deadly, drug-resistant fungus has concerned public health officials across the nation. But a team of Southern Nevada researchers hope their new study applying wastewater surveillance can help health officials get a step ahead of this emerging global public health threat. The Pathogen Problem Candida auris is a fungus that can cause serious infections, particularly in patients who are immunocompromised, have pre-existing health conditions, are in long-term healthcare settings, or are undergoing treatment with invasive medical devices such as a catheter. Infection prevention ...

Giving pregnant women routine third trimester ultrasound scans could reduce rates of undetected breech pregnancy by 71%, enabling better care before and during labor and improved outcomes for newborns In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Medicine: http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004192 Article Title: Impact of point-of-care ultrasound and routine third trimester ultrasound on undiagnosed breech presentation and perinatal outcomes: An observational multicentre cohort study Author Countries: United Kingdom, Turkey Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work. END ...

An implant that delivers electrical stimulation to a select group of spinal neurons can treat dangerously low blood pressure in people with spinal cord injuries, addressing an often “invisible” consequence of paralysis. For his work in developing this treatment, called the neuroprosthetic baroreflex, Jordan W. Squair is the winner of the 2023 BioInnovation Institute & Science Prize for Innovation. The prize seeks to reward scientists who deliver research at the intersection of the life sciences and entrepreneurship. “Dr. Squair’s prize-winning research on epidural electrical stimulation restores blood pressure control in patients ...

In an editorial, Maria Van Kerkhove – who serves as the technical lead for the COVID-19 response at the World Health Organization (WHO) – outlines how earlier this month (March 2023), WHO learned that scientists in China possessed data on viral samples from Wuhan that had been gathered in January 2020. “These should have been shared immediately—not 3 years later,” she writes. “The lack of data disclosure is simply inexcusable.” WHO continues to call on China and all countries to share any data on the origins of SARS-CoV-2 immediately. “China has advanced technical capabilities,” Van ...

Male yellow crazy ants (Anoplolepis gracilipes) are chimeras of two separate genetic lineages, researchers report in a study that reveals a unique mode of reproduction in this species – one previously unknown to science. While most multicellular organisms develop from a single-cell zygote into a collection of genetically identical cells – a hallmark of biological inheritance – the new findings show that yellow crazy ants deviate from this expectation. According to the study, all male yellow crazy ants are instead composed ...

First ever study looking at disease risks of wild meat activities in rural communities. Nearly 70% of rural respondents at Kenya-Tanzania border said that COVID-19 did not impact their levels of wild meat consumption, with some even reporting increased consumption. Ungulates were found to be the most consumed species, followed by birds, rodents and shrews. Governments need to focus on better controlling zoonotic disease transmission risks through community engagements on behavior change interventions, improving hygiene and standards of informal markets, supporting wildlife conservation ...

A class of polyesters considered a promising alternative to common plastics, were it not for limitations like brittleness and thermal instability, have now been made more mechanically tough and thermally stable. Researchers replaced the reactive hydrogens in the monomer of these materials –  polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) plastics – and found it enhanced PHA thermal and mechanical properties and enabled closed-loop chemical recyclability. The new approach could provide a route for increased use of sustainable PHA plastics. ...