Ending performance related payments for NHS GPs in Scotland was associated with a decline in the quality of some aspects of care compared with England where financial incentives have continued, finds a study published by The BMJ today. The researchers say further research is needed to better understand the full impact of withdrawal and the accompanying refocusing of quality improvement resources. The NHS Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) pay-for-performance scheme began in 2004. It was designed to remunerate general practices for providing good quality care across a range of key areas such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, mental health, and obesity. In 2016, Scotland abolished ...

Philadelphia, March 22, 2023 – Researchers from the Neuroscience Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have developed a prediction model that determines which newborn babies are likely to experience seizures in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). This model could be incorporated into routine care to help the clinical team decide which babies will need electroencephalograms (EEGs) and which babies can be safely managed in the Neonatal Care Unit without monitoring through EEGs. This would allow families and providers to care for babies ...

More magnesium in our daily diet leads to better brain health as we age, according to scientists from the Neuroimaging and Brain Lab at The Australian National University (ANU).   The researchers say increased intake of magnesium-rich foods such as spinach and nuts could also help reduce the risk of dementia, which is the second leading cause of death in Australia and the seventh biggest killer globally.   The study of more than 6,000 cognitively healthy participants in the United Kingdom aged 40 to 73 found ...

The 2022 summer heatwave resulted in a fifth of UK hospitals being forced to cancel operations during the three days when temperatures soared, a new study reveals. Had the high temperatures continued, a further third of hospitals would have had to cancel surgery, as NHS buildings are not set up to withstand dangerously high temperatures. The team surveyed surgeons, anaesthetists, and critical care doctors working during the heatwave of 16 – 19 July 2022. They received 271 responses from 140 UK hospitals with one in five ...

Two landmark reports published today (23 March) by the British Ecological Society reveal that ecological sciences are losing out on funding compared to other sciences. The reports also set out a research agenda for ecology over the next 25 years. With the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, an ecological understanding of the world has never been more pivotal to the future of humanity and all life on Earth. To further this ecological understanding and highlight the importance of ecology to our future, the British ...

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE  EMBARGOED UNTIL 00.05 LONDON TIME (GMT) ON 23 March 2023 Paper available at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/18wVryz17-8PmtYDudp5NPXE75onO12FF?usp=sharing At least 80% of the world’s most important sites for biodiversity on land currently contain human developments, study finds At least 80% of sites identified as being internationally important for biodiversity on land currently contain infrastructure − of which more than 75% contain roads. In the future, more sites that are important for biodiversity could contain powerplants, mines ...

Researchers at Nagoya University in Japan have identified two enzymes that are involved in macrophage polarization, one of the key factors affecting fibrosis. The group’s findings, reported in Cell Death & Disease, suggest a potential treatment for human patients.  Kidney fibrosis is a dangerous inflammatory disease that causes the organs to stiffen and lose normal function. The disease is linked to a process called macrophage polarization. Polarization is the process by which macrophages, the white blood cells that help the body fight infection and repair tissue, are changed into two types as a response to changes in the microenvironment of the cell: the M1 type, which ...

Outbreaks of zoonotic diseases, which are those transmitted from animals to humans, are globally on the rise owing to climate change. In particular, the spread of diseases transmitted by mosquitoes is very sensitive to climate change, and Chinese Taiwan has seen a worrisome increase in the number of cases of dengue fever in recent years. Like for most known diseases, the popular saying “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” also rings true for dengue fever. Since there is still no safe and effective vaccine for all on a global scale, dengue fever prevention efforts rely on limiting places where mosquitoes can lay their eggs and giving people an early warning when ...

Engineers are harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) and wireless technology to unobtrusively monitor elderly people in their living spaces and provide early detection of emerging health problems. The new system, built by researchers at the University of Waterloo, follows an individual’s activities accurately and continuously as it gathers vital information without the need for a wearable device and alerts medical experts to the need to step in and provide help. “After more than five years of working on this technology, we’ve demonstrated that very low-power, millimetre-wave radio systems enabled by machine learning ...

NEW YORK, NY--Columbia researchers have discovered how a genetic defect leads to spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a critical piece of information about the disease that neurologists have been seeking for decades. The discovery suggests a new way to treat SMA—a devastating childhood motor neuron disease that affects 1 in 6,000 children. In the most severe cases, and when left untreated, children born with SMA die within the first two years of life. The researchers also used their finding to develop an experimental therapy that improved survival in mice with severe SMA by ...

“This study was designed to increase the knowledge on the potential of GPCs and in particular GPC1 as a biomarker in cancer diagnosis and prognosis.”  BUFFALO, NY- March 22, 2023 – A new research paper was published in Oncotarget's Volume 14 on March 21, 2023, entitled, “Attenuation of cancer proliferation by suppression of glypican-1 and its pleiotropic effects in neoplastic behavior.” Glypicans (GPC1-6) are associated with tumorigenic processes and their involvement in neoplastic behavior has been ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Clean geothermal energy—the heat beneath our feet—has the potential to be cost competitive with other renewables and even fossil fuels if we can drill deep enough to access the mother lode of the resource. That’s according to one speaker at a geothermal conference last month held by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). Other speakers addressed growing interest in the field by the oil and gas sector, key challenges it faces, and solutions to help solve those challenges.    Geothermal 2023: Realising the Ambition was organized by the Aberdeen, ...

When natural habitats are cleared to make way for cities, roads and agriculture, this often leaves behind “islands” of fragmented habitat that can place species at risk of extinction. Species are at risk when they find it hard to move among habitat patches to find resources and reproduce. By combining lab experiments and mathematical modelling, researchers at McGill University and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology have found a way to predict the movement of species that could guide conservation efforts to reconnect fragmented habitats.   The ...

Scientists have gained new insights into the part of the brain that gives us a sense of direction, by tracking neural activity with the latest advances in brain imaging techniques. The findings shed light on how the brain orients itself in changing environments – and even the processes that can go wrong with degenerative diseases like dementia, that leave people feeling lost and confused. “Neuroscience research has witnessed a technology revolution in the last decade allowing us to ...

PHILADELPHIA – The members of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) have elected Patricia M. LoRusso, DO, PhD (hc), as the AACR President-Elect for 2023-2024. LoRusso will become President-Elect on Monday, April 17, during the AACR’s Annual Business Meeting of Members at the AACR Annual Meeting 2023 in Orlando, Florida. She will assume the Presidency in April 2024 at the AACR Annual Meeting in San Diego, California. LoRusso is a professor of medicine (medical oncology); chief of experimental therapeutics; associate cancer center director for experimental therapeutics; and leader of the Phase I disease aligned research ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 2023 MINNEAPOLIS – People who have low bone density may have an increased risk of developing dementia compared to people who have higher bone density, according to a study published in the March 22, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study does not prove that low bone density causes dementia. It only shows an association. “Low bone density and dementia are two conditions that commonly affect older people simultaneously, especially as bone loss often increases due to physical inactivity and poor ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 2023   MINNEAPOLIS – A new study has found that people with epilepsy have an increased risk of early death and the increased risk varies depending on where they live, the number of medications they take and what other diseases they may have. The study is published in the March 22, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. “Our research found an increased risk even among those who do not have ...

Air flow in a room can impact the transmission of viruses like COVID-19. A Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientist is studying how heating, ventilation and air conditioning, HVAC, system configurations and building designs could mitigate the spread of microorganisms, including viruses, that are detrimental to human health. Maria King, Ph.D., director of the Center for Agricultural Air Quality Engineering and Science in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, recently received a $400,000, two-year National ...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Memory B cells play a critical role to provide long-term immunity after a vaccination or infection. In a study published in the journal Immunity, researchers describe a distinct and novel subset of memory B cells that predict long-lived antibody responses to influenza vaccination in humans. These effector memory B cells appear to be poised for a rapid serum antibody response upon secondary challenge one year later, Anoma Nellore, M.D., Fran Lund, Ph.D., and colleagues at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Emory University report. Evidence from transcriptional and epigenetic profiling shows that the cells in this subset differ from ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Chemical and isotopic analysis of copper artifacts from southern Africa reveals new cultural connections among people living in the region between the 5th and 20th centuries according to a University of Missouri researcher and colleagues. People in the area between northern South Africa and the Copperbelt region in central Africa were more connected to one another than scholars previously thought, said Jay Stephens, a post-doctoral fellow in the MU Research Reactor (MURR) Archaeometry Lab. “Over the past 20 to 30 years, most archaeologists ...

Have you ever marveled at the vast diversity of life on our planet, from tiny creatures living only a few hours to majestic beings that can survive for centuries? These differences in lifespan, size, and reproductive age are known as life-history strategies, and they have evolved over time as organisms adapt to their environments. Evolutionary biologists have long been interested in understanding the factors that contribute to the evolution and maintenance of multiple alternative life-history strategies (ALHS) within species that lead to adaptation and novel traits. A new study published in Science Advances has not only revealed that an ALHS in Colias ...

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 22, 2023   THE PROTEIN SOCIETY ANNOUNCES ITS 2023 AWARD RECIPIENTS LOS ANGELES, CA – The Protein Society, the premier international society dedicated to supporting protein research, announces the winners of the 2023 Protein Society Awards, which will be conferred at the 37th Anniversary Symposium, July 13 – 16, 2023, in Boston, Massachusetts. Plenary talks from select award recipients will take place throughout the 3.5-day event. The scientific accomplishments of the awardees, highlighted here as described by their nominators, demonstrate their lasting impact on protein science. The Carl Brändén Award, sponsored by Rigaku ...

If you live near a busy road you might feel like the constant sound of roaring engines, honking horns and wailing sirens makes your blood pressure rise. Now a new study published today in JACC: Advances confirms it can do exactly that. Previous studies have shown a connection between noisy road traffic and increased risk of hypertension. However, strong evidence was lacking, and it was unclear whether noise or air pollution played a bigger role. The new research shows that it is exposure to road traffic noise itself that can elevate hypertension risk. “We were a ...

A team of researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of USC have found a drug with the potential for curbing painful hyperinflammation from osteoarthritis, according to results of an animal study. The findings, published March 22nd in Science Translational Medicine, indicate that a drug compound, R805/CX-011, may modulate an important cell receptor in the body’s immune system, GP130, that signals when antibodies should attack a virus or infection. The animal model studies showed that the drug compound can disrupt the receptor’s over-activation of inflammation, and still manage pain ...

The first year of the COVID pandemic saw significant increases in drug overdose deaths across the USA, with rates higher than recent trends could have predicted. Research published in the open access journal PLOS Global Public Health, reports trends in drug overdose deaths between 2013-20 across four major drug categories by gender, race and geography. It finds high levels of heterogeneity in overdose patterns across different demographic groups and that the gap in overdose fatalities between black and white individuals continues to widen. Drug prevention and mitigation campaigns should therefore be tailored to specific at-risk groups. Drug overdose deaths have been ...