A study published in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry has found long-term impacts of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the northern Gulf of Mexico on bottlenose dolphins' immune function. Bottlenose dolphins from an area that received prolonged and heavy oiling were temporarily captured, sampled, and released as part of health assessment programs. The animals were compared with dolphins from an area where no oil was observed. Investigators documented immunological alterations in bottlenose dolphins tested up to a decade following the oil spill that were similar in nature to those immediately following the spill. The effects were seen even in dolphins born after the spill. The nature of the immunological ...

A new study published in Economic Inquiry is the first to assess the willingness of consumers to adopt advisory services in the banking sector that are based on artificial intelligence (AI). Investigators examined whether the likelihood that consumers adopt AI in banking services depends on tastes for human interaction across different cultures. The study focused on robo-advisory services, which are automated investment platforms that provide investment advice without the intervention of a human advisor. When investigators analyzed an ING Bank dataset encompassing 11,000 respondents from 11 countries, they found ...

A new study published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research has identified various factors that may indicate whether a person faces a higher likelihood of experiencing a bone fracture over the next two decades. The study included 30,446 middle-aged women and men who were followed from the early/mid 1990s to 2016. A total of 8,240 participants (27%) had at least one fracture during a median follow-up of 20.7 years. Older age, female sex, higher body mass index, a previous fracture, a family history of fracture after the age of 50 years, low leisure-time physical activity, heavy work, living alone, smoking, and no or high alcohol consumption were factors independently associated with ...

Among patients with cancer, having additional physical comorbidities was linked with a higher risk of experiencing psychological distress. The finding comes from a Psycho-Oncology analysis of 2017 data from the National Health Survey of Spain. The analysis included 484 patients who reported a cancer diagnosis and 484 matched controls without a history of cancer. Compared with controls, patients with cancer reported more physical comorbidities, including chronic back pain, asthma, chronic bronchitis, urinary incontinence, prostate problems, and kidney problems. ...

Nearly 1.7 million times in the past year, Americans have checked into hospitals to get treated for severe cases of COVID-19. And for the most part, that care hasn't cost them anything, thanks to insurance companies and government programs that absorbed the usual costs patients would owe for any other hospital stay. But as some insurers phase back in those out-of-pocket costs, a new study estimates that many people over 65 hospitalized for COVID-19 in 2021 may owe an average of nearly $1,000 after they get out of the hospital, due to co-pays, deductibles and co-insurance. A few may owe hundreds or thousands more. That estimate is based on a new analysis of out-of-pocket ...

Long black, espresso, or latte, whatever your coffee preference, drink too much and you could be in hot water, especially when it comes to heart health. In a world first genetic study, researchers from the Australian Centre for Precision Health at the University of South Australia found that that long-term, heavy coffee consumption - six or more cups a day - can increase the amount of lipids (fats) in your blood to significantly heighten your risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Importantly, this correlation is both positive and dose-dependent, meaning that the more coffee you drink, the greater the risk of CVD. It's ...

PITTSBURGH--"The Queen's Gambit," the recent TV mini-series about a chess master, may have stirred increased interest in chess, but a word to the wise: social media talk about game-piece colors could lead to misunderstandings, at least for hate-speech detection software. That's what a pair of Carnegie Mellon University researchers suspect happened to Antonio Radi?, or "agadmator," a Croatian chess player who hosts a popular YouTube channel. Last June, his account was blocked for "harmful and dangerous" content. YouTube never provided an explanation and reinstated the channel within 24 hours, said Ashiqur R. KhudaBukhsh a project scientist in CMU's Language ...

PULLMAN, Wash. - People tend to listen to big talkers, whether they are women or men. Still, more women prefer not to use assertive language, according to a new study led by Washington State University economist Shanthi Manian. The study, published in Management Science on Feb. 17, found that participants in an experiment more often followed advice when the people giving the advice used assertive "cheap talk," statements that cannot be verified as true. Examples of such statements are often found in job seeking cover letters, such as "I have extremely strong problem-solving ...

Updated results from the CORONADO study, analysing the outcomes of patients with diabetes admitted to hospital with COVID-19, shows that one in five patients die within 28 days while around half are discharged. The study is published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes [EASD]), and is by Professor Bertrand Cariou and Professor Samy Hadjadj, diabetologists at l'institut du thorax, University Hospital Nantes, INSERM, CNRS, and University of Nantes, France, and colleagues. In May 2020, preliminary results from CORONADO (Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and Diabetes Outcomes), ...

The tuberculosis (TB) vaccine Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) could protect newborns against a variety of common infections, such as upper respiratory tract infections, chest infections and diarrhoea, according to a new study in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. The research is the first of its kind to rigorously investigate the full range of illnesses BCG could protect infants against. It suggests that vaccinating all babies on the day of birth with BCG could reduce neonatal infections and death in areas with high infectious disease rates, potentially saving thousands of lives a year. The results also increase the possibility that the vaccine might be used to protect children and adults against ...

Circadian clocks, which regulate the metabolic functions of all living beings over a period of about 24 hours, are one of the most fundamental biological mechanisms. In humans, their disruption is the cause of many metabolic diseases such as diabetes or serious liver diseases. Although scientists have been studying this mechanism for many years, little is known about how it works. Thanks to an observation tool based on bioluminescence, a research team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) were able to demonstrate that cells that compose a particular organ can be in-phase, even in the absence of the central brain clock or of ...

LA JOLLA--(February 17, 2021) In structural biology, some molecules are so unusual they can only be captured with a unique set of tools. That's precisely how a multi-institutional research team led by Salk scientists defined how antibodies can recognize a compound called phosphohistidine--a highly unstable molecule that has been found to play a central role in some forms of cancer, such as liver and breast cancer and neuroblastoma. These insights not only set up the researchers for more advanced studies on phosphohistidine and its potential role in cancer, but will also enable scientists ...

Deprive a mountain range of its wolves, and soon the burgeoning deer population will strip its slopes bare. "I now suspect that just as a deer herd lives in mortal fear of its wolves, so does a mountain live in mortal fear of its deer," wrote ecologist Aldo Leopold in his landmark 1949 title "A Sand County Almanac." Leopold proposed that predators keep herbivore populations in check to the benefit of an ecosystem's plant life. Remove one link in the food chain, and the effects cascade down its length. The idea of a trophic cascade has since become a mainstay in conservation ecology, with sea urchins as a prime example just off the California ...

Rapid global urbanization has dramatically changed the face of our planet, polluting our atmosphere with greenhouse gases and causing global warming. It is the need of the hour to control our activities and find more sustainable alternatives to preserve what remains of our planet for the generations to come. Carbon dioxide (CO2) and carbon monoxide (CO) make up a large proportion of industrial flue gases. Recent research has shown that certain microorganisms are capable of metabolizing these gases into useful by-products. Thus, attempts are now being directed to ...

BOSTON - Delirium, a common syndrome among older adults, particularly in those who have recently undergone surgery, critically ill patients in the ICU, and in older patients with multiple health issues, is a form of acute confusion that is characterized by poor attention, disorientation, impaired memory, delusions, and abrupt changes in mood and behavior. Moreover, patients who experience delirium are at increased risk of long term cognitive decline. Recently, clinicians and scientists have recognized that delirium is one of the first signs of COVID-19 infection in older patients and that it occurs frequently in patients with severe COVID-19 disease. In a new study led by an interdisciplinary team of gerontologists, geriatricians, precision medicine ...

Dogs are generally considered the first domesticated animal, while its ancestor is generally considered to be the wolf, but where the Australian dingo fits into this framework is still debated, according to a retired Penn State anthropologist. "Indigenous Australians understood that there was something different about the dingoes and the colonial dogs," said Pat Shipman, retired adjunct professor of anthropology, Penn State. "They really are, I think, different animals. They react differently to humans. A lot of genetic and behavioral work has been done with wolves, dogs and dingoes. Dingoes come out somewhere ...

Scientists from the Skoltech Center for Computational and Data-Intensive Science and Engineering (CDISE) and the Skoltech Digital Agriculture Laboratory and their collaborators from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system that enables processing images from autonomous greenhouses, monitoring plant growth and automating the cultivation process. Their research was published in the journal IEEE Sensors. Modern technology has long become a fixture in all spheres of human life on Earth. Reaching out to other planets is a new challenge for humankind. Since greenhouses are likely to be the only source ...

BOSTON - Use of a cosmetic laser invented at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) may improve the effectiveness of certain anti-tumor therapies and extend their use to more diverse forms of cancer. The strategy was tested and validated in mice, as described in a study published in Science Translational Medicine. Immune checkpoint inhibitors are important medications that boost the immune system's response against various cancers, but only certain patients seem to benefit from the drugs. The cancer cells of these patients often have multiple mutations that can be recognized as foreign by the immune system, thereby inducing an inflammatory response. In an attempt to expand the benefits of immune checkpoint inhibitors ...

Leesburg, VA, February 17, 2021--According to an open-access article in ARRS' American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR), COVID-19-related disseminated leukoencephalopathy (CRDL) represents an important--albeit uncommon--differential consideration in patients with neurologic manifestations of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). "Increasingly," wrote Colbey W. Freeman and colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania, "effects of COVID-19 on the brain are being reported, including acute necrotizing encephalopathy, infarcts, microhemorrhage, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, and leukoencephalopathy." Among the 2,820 patients with COVID-19 admitted to the authors' institution between ...

When materials reach extremely small size scales, strange things begin to happen. One of those phenomena is the formation of mesocrystals. Despite being composed of separate individual crystals, mesocrystals come together to form a larger, fused structure that behaves as a pure, single crystal. However, these processes happen at scales far too small for the human eye to see and their creation is extremely challenging to observe. Because of these challenges, scientists had not been able to confirm exactly how mesocrystals form. Now new research by a Pacific ...

A considerable portion of the efforts to realize a sustainable world has gone into developing hydrogen fuel cells so that a hydrogen economy can be achieved. Fuel cells have distinctive advantages: high energy-conversion efficiencies (up to 70%) and a clean by-product, water. In the past decade, anion exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFC), which convert chemical energy to electrical energy via the transport of negatively charged ions (anions) through a membrane, have received attention due to their low-cost and relative environment friendliness compared ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Researchers who focus on fat know that some adipose tissue is more prone to inflammation-related comorbidities than others, but the reasons why are not well understood. Thanks to a new analytical technique, scientists are getting a clearer view of the microenvironments found within adipose tissue associated with obesity. This advance may illuminate why some adipose tissues are more prone to inflammation - leading to diseases like type 2 diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disorders - and help direct future drug therapies to treat obesity. In a new study, University of Illinois ...

A short-lived resurgence in the emission of ozone depleting pollutants in eastern China will not significantly delay the recovery of Earth's protective "sunscreen" layer, according to new research published Feb. 10 in Nature. Stratospheric ozone, also known as Earth's ozone layer, helps shield us from the Sun's harmful Ultraviolet (UV) rays. Compounds like CFC-11 (Trichlorofluoromethane, also known as Freon-11), a chemical once considered safe and widely used as a refrigerant and in the production of insulation for buildings, rise to the stratosphere after emission on Earth's surface. Once in the atmosphere, CFC's are broken down by the UV light and result in the destruction of ozone molecules, both reducing stratospheric ozone concentrations globally ...

A neural network system that analyzes photographs can rank and distinguish suspicious, potentially precancerous skin lesions, which can turn into the deadly skin malignancy melanoma if not caught and removed early. The system accurately scoped out suspicious lesions from 68 patients in a manner that mostly matched tried-and-true evaluations from dermatologists. The results suggest the platform could help clinicians spot suspicious lesions during clinical visits faster and on a larger scale, potentially allowing for earlier diagnosis and treatment. Melanoma is ...

Understanding the molecular biology of brain tumors is key to prognosis and treatment said Le Bonheur Neuroscience Institute Co-Director Frederick Boop, MD, in his presentation "How Molecular Biology Impacts Clinical Practice" at the International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery (ISPN) 2020 Virtual Meeting. "Historically we have depended on what we see under a microscope to differentiate tumor types and determine prognosis and therapy," said Boop. "We know now that what we see doesn't necessarily predict how these tumors are going to behave." Physicians are able to send a piece of a child's tumor to FoundationOne, an FDA-approved tissue-based broad companion diagnostic (CDx) for solid tumors, which provides the genomic alterations of that particular tumor. ...