(New York, NY) - May 3, 2021 - In advance of a wildfire season projected to be among the worst, the American Thoracic Society has released a report that calls for a unified federal response to wildfires that includes investment in research on smoke exposure and forecasting, health impacts of smoke, evaluation of interventions, and a clear and coordinated communication strategy to protect public health. The report, Respiratory Impacts of Wildland Fire Smoke: Future Challenges and Policy Opportunities, was published online ahead of print in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society on May 3, 2021. The report comes at a time when the U.S. is experiencing an increasing frequency of very large destructive wildfires, due to years ...

Over 400 common disinfectants currently in use could be made safer for people and the environment and could better fight the COVID-19 virus with the simple application of UVC light, a new study from the University of Waterloo shows. Benzalkonium chloride (BAK) is the most common active ingredient in many disinfectants regularly used in hospitals, households, and food processing plants to protect against a wide range of viruses and bacteria - including all strains of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 - but its toxicity means that it can't be used in high concentrations. It also means that products containing BAK are harmful to humans ...

LUGANO, Switzerland, 3 May 2021 - As breast cancer becomes a largely curable disease, with more than 70% of women surviving at least 10 years after diagnosis across most of Europe thanks to early detection and treatment, (1) the quality of life after cancer has become an important aspect of the patient journey - one that may be inadequately addressed with current standards of follow-up. A study presented at the ESMO Breast Cancer 2021 Virtual Congress (2) has shown that breast cancer survivors differ widely in the burden of symptoms they experience after the end of treatment and thereby revealed an unmet need for tailored approaches to follow-up care. (3) Lead author Kelly de Ligt ...

TORONTO - Scientists at the Krembil Brain Institute, part of University Health Network (UHN), in collaboration with colleagues at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), have used precious and rare access to live human cortical tissue to identify functionally important features that make human neurons unique. This experimental work is among the first of its kind on live human neurons and one of the largest studies of the diversity of human cortical pyramidal cells to date. "The goal of this study was to understand what makes human brain cells 'human,' and how human neuron circuitry functions as it does," says Dr. Taufik Valiante, neurosurgeon, scientist at the Krembil Brain Institute at UHN and co-senior author on the paper. "In our study, we wanted ...

Customised medicines could one day be manufactured to patients' individual needs, with University of East Anglia (UEA) researchers investigating technology to 3D 'print' pills. The team, including Dr Andy Gleadall and Prof Richard Bibb at Loughborough University, identified a new additive manufacturing method to allow the 3D printing of medicine in highly porous structures, which can be used to regulate the rate of drug release from the medicine to the body when taken orally. Dr Sheng Qi, a Reader in Pharmaceutics at UEA's School of Pharmacy, led the research. The project findings, 'Effects of porosity on drug release kinetics of swellable and erodible porous pharmaceutical solid dosage forms ...

A research team from the Institut de Neurociències at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (INc-UAB) has showed that inhibition through a drug of the Tac2 neuronal circuit, involved in the formation of the memory of fear, has opposite effects on the ability to remember aversive events in mice according to sex: it is reduced in male mice and increased in female mice. Is the first time that a drug has been shown to produce this opposite effect on the memory of male and female mice. The study also evidences that opposing molecular mechanisms and behaviours can occur ...

Diatoms are tiny unicellular plants -- no bigger than half a millimeter -- which inhabit the surface water of the world's oceans where sunlight penetration is plenty. Despite their modest size, they are one of the world's most powerful resources for removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. They currently remove, or "fix," 10-20 billion metric tons of CO2 every year by the process of photosynthesis. But not much is known about which biological mechanisms diatoms use, and whether these processes might become less effective with rising ocean acidity, temperatures, and, in particular, CO2 concentrations. A new study in Frontiers in Plant Science shows that diatoms predominantly ...

New research shows that planned cesarean deliveries on maternal request are safe for low-risk pregnancies and may be associated with a lower risk of adverse delivery outcomes than planned vaginal deliveries. The study is published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). The study used province-wide data from the Better Outcomes Registry & Network (BORN), Ontario's provincial birth registry. The authors analyzed data on 422,210 low-risk pregnancies over 6 years (2012 to 2018). There were 46,533 cesarean deliveries, of which 1827 (3.9%) were planned at the request of the mother; this proportion was unchanged during the years of study. Mothers who requested cesarean delivery ...

The legacy of systemic racism in the U.S impacts psychosis risk at the individual and neighborhood level, according to a definitive review published online today. Researchers examined U.S. based evidence connecting social and environmental factors with outcomes relating to psychotic experiences, including schizophrenia. The review examined potential risk factors and influence of structural racism within three key areas. These included disparities in neighborhoods; trauma and stress experienced at both collective and individual levels; and complications experienced around pregnancy. Disparities in U.S. neighborhoods perpetuate disadvantage for racially minoritized ...

Candidates often give in to temptation to attack opponents in electoral campaigns through negative ads (more than 55% of the ads aired by the Clinton and Trump campaigns in 2016 were negative), even if evidence of this tactic effectiveness is, at least, mixed. A study by Bocconi University professors Vincenzo Galasso, Tommaso Nannicini and Salvatore Nunnari, just published in the American Journal of Political Science, reveals the backlash of electoral smearing and shows that, in a three-candidate race, it's the "idle candidate" (the one neither attacking nor being attacked) to have the upper hand. During a three-candidate mayoral race in a mid-sized Italian town in 2015, the authors ...

The research team led by Fuyuki Ishikawa at the National Institute of Informatics (NII, Japan) developed a technique to search automatically for simulation configurations that test various behaviors of automated driving systems. This research was conducted under the ERATO-MMSD project (*1) funded by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST, Japan). The proposed technique iterates trials on simulations using an optimization method called evolutionary computation so that it discovers simulation configurations that lead to specific features of driving behaviors such as high acceleration, deceleration, and steering operation. The outcome of this research was presented in ICST 2021 (*2), a flagship conference on software testing ...

New research has shown that COVID-19 infections in healthcare workers during the first wave of the pandemic provided an accurate sample of the general population, suggesting that data from healthcare workers could be used to estimate the severity of future viruses more quickly. The study, led by researchers from RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences in collaboration with IBM Research, is published in PLOS ONE. The researchers analysed the infection data from healthcare workers and the progression of the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak using the reported daily infection numbers in Ireland. Using similar data in four other countries (Germany, UK, South Korea and Iceland), computer models showed how the disease progressed in different countries related to ...

Volunteer firefighters -- who comprise more than 65 percent of the U.S. fire service -- have higher levels of "forever chemicals," per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), in their bodies than the general public, according to a Rutgers study. The study, which was published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, compared the levels of nine PFAS chemicals in the blood of volunteer firefighters against levels in the general population. It is the first study to evaluate volunteer firefighters' exposure to PFAS, which are chemicals that accumulate in human bodies and in the environment and ...

Boston, MA (May 2, 2021) - A new study, presented today at the AATS 101st Annual Meeting, found that heart transplantation using donation after cardiac death (DCD) with normothermic regional perfusion (NRP) is feasible in the United States. Broader application of DCD heart transplantation has the potential to increase cardiac allograft availability by 20-30 percent. Over a one-year period, from January 2020 to January 2021, eight heart transplants were performed using cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) for immediate regional reperfusion and cardiac unloading to accomplish optimal myocardial salvage. All hearts ...

Boston, MA (May 2, 2021) - A new study, presented today at the AATS 101st Annual Meeting, finds that AATS Foundation fellowships support success in academic surgery career tracks. The AATS Foundation has two primary grant funding mechanisms: the AATS Foundation Scholarship and the Surgical Investigator Award. The study looked at publications, citations, NIH funding, and leadership position of awardees, among other factors. Results show that recipients of both the AATS Surgical Investigator award and the Foundation Scholarship demonstrate sustained scholarship ...

Boston, MA (May 2, 2021) - A new study, presented today at the AATS 101st Annual Meeting, shows an association between decreased survival at five years and leaving an atrial communication at biventricular repair of unbalanced AVSD after adjusting for other known risk factors. During repair of atrioventricular septal defect (AVSD), surgeons may leave an atrial level shunt when they have concerns about postoperative pulmonary hypertension, a hypoplastic right ventricle (RV), hypoplastic left ventricle (LV), or as part of their routine practice. The study sought to determine factors associated with mortality after biventricular repair of AVSD. The study included 581 patients enrolled from 31 Congenital Heart Surgeons' ...

Boston, MA (April 30, 2021) - A new study, presented today at the AATS 101st Annual Meeting, found that patients treated surgically for segmental Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension (CTEPH) had excellent outcomes with the vast majority doing very well in the long term without any additional treatment other than surgery. In addition, the study found that the proportion of CTEPH patients with segmental disease increased dramatically during the study period - from 2005 to 2020. At the beginning of the study, roughly seven percent of patients were diagnosed with segmental disease. During the last five years of the study, the proportion ...

Boston, MA (May 1, 2021) - A new study, presented today at the AATS 101st Annual Meeting, and simultaneously published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, finds that patients suffering from severe mitral regurgitation should be carefully screened and counselled before undergoing transcatheter edge-to-edge mitral repair (TEER). Data showed that up to 95 percent of patients who needed surgery after failed TEER could not have their valves repaired, and needed mitral valve replacement to resolve the issue. The findings highlight the need to select patients carefully ...

Boston, MA (May 1, 2021) - Preliminary results of a clinical trial, presented today at the AATS 101st Annual Meeting, showed that a new, low-profile thoracic aortic endograft is safe and effective in the treatment of descending thoracic aortic aneurysm or penetrating atherosclerotic ulcer (PAU) diseases. A multi-disciplinary team, led by both cardiac and vascular surgeons as co-investigators, conducted the study in 36 centers in the United States and Japan, enrolling patients between 2016 and 2019. The trial aimed to measure safety and efficacy of the RELAY®Pro endovascular device, a second-generation product featuring a dramatically reduced profile and a non-bare stent ...

Boston, MA (May 1, 2021) - A new study presented today at the AATS 101st Annual Meeting, found that the percentage of patients undergoing esophagectomy for cancer who suffer Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) post-operatively is much higher than previously reported, with as many as 24 percent suffering from Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) or Pulmonary Embolism (PE). Six-month mortality for patients with VTE was 17.6 percent compared to 2.1 percent for those without. Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) is a common, potentially preventable post-operative complication leading to significant morbidity and mortality. Esophagectomy patients are amongst the highest risk groups ...

Niigata, Japan--Researchers from Niigata University , the University of Tokyo, Osaka University and Tokyo Medical University, Japan have developed a new approach that could revolutionize the treatment, prevention, and possibly reversal of the damages caused by liver diseases. This novel strategy exploits small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) derived from interferon-γ (IFN-γ) pre-conditioned MSCs (γ-sEVs). Cirrhosis and other chronic liver diseases remain a global health concern, with close to 2 million deaths reported annually, these account for approximately 3.5% of annual worldwide deaths. All these ...

Researchers from University of Arizona and University of Utah published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that examines why most scholarly research is misinterpreted by the public or never escapes the ivory tower and suggests that such research gets lost in abstract, technical, and passive prose. The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled "Marketing Ideas: How to Write Research Articles that Readers Understand and Cite" and is authored by Nooshin L. Warren, Matthew Farmer, Tiany Gu, and Caleb Warren. From developing vaccines to nudging people to eat less, scholars conduct research that could change the world, but most of their ideas either are misinterpreted by the public or never escape the ivory tower. Why does most academic ...

Supporting female survivors of childhood maltreatment is critical to disrupting intergenerational abuse as new research from the University of South Australia shows a clear link between parents who have suffered abuse and the likelihood of their children suffering the same fate. The finding amplifies an acute need for far better support for victims of child maltreatment to ensure safer and more nurturing environments for all children. Funded by the NHMRC and the Channel 7 Children's Research Foundation, and published in The Lancet Public Health today, the study found that most child maltreatment is occurring among families caught up in intergenerational cycles of child abuse and neglect - 83 per cent of ...

Largest study so far of more than 17 million adults in England confirms that minority ethnic groups had a higher risk of testing positive, hospitalisation, admission to intensive care units (ICU), and death from COVID-19 compared with white groups, even after accounting for other factors known to increase risk like deprivation, occupation, household size and underlying health conditions. Disparities for hospitalisation and death lessened for most minority ethnic groups between pandemic waves 1 (February to September 2020) and wave 2 (September to December 2020), but increased for South Asian groups. To tackle ethnic disparities in COVID-19 risks, the authors call for reducing structural disadvantage and inequality, improving quality of and access to healthcare, and improving uptake ...

HOUSTON ? A Phase II trial led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center found that BK virus (BKV)-specific T cells from healthy donors were safe and effective as an off-the-shelf therapy for BKV-associated hemorrhagic cystitis (BKV-HC), a painful complication common after allogeneic stem cell transplants for patients with leukemia or lymphoma. The study was published today in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Infusion of T cells targeting BKV resulted in rapid responses, with 67.7% of patients seeing a complete or partial improvement in symptoms after 14 days. This increased to 81.6% of patients after 28 days post-infusion. No cases of grade ...