A new study of the U.K. and South Africa variants of SARS-CoV-2 predicts that current vaccines and certain monoclonal antibodies may be less effective at neutralizing these variants and that the new variants raise the specter that reinfections could be more likely. The study was published in Nature on March 8, 2021. A preprint of the study was first posted to BioRxiv on January 26, 2021. David Ho (Credit: Columbia University Irving Medical Center) The study's predictions are now being borne out with the first reported results of the Novavax vaccine, says the study's lead author David ...

Hamilton, ON (March 8, 2021) - An analysis of several large studies involving participants from more than 60 countries, spearheaded by researchers from McMaster University, has found that eating oily fish regularly can help prevent cardiovascular disease (CVD) in high-risk individuals, such as those who already have heart disease or stroke. The critical ingredient is omega-3 fatty acids, which researchers found was associated with a lower risk of major CVD events such as heart attacks and strokes by about a sixth in high-risk people who ate two servings of fish rich in omega-3 each week. "There is a significant protective benefit of fish consumption in people with cardiovascular disease," said lead co-author Andrew Mente, associate ...

Personalised 3D printed models created from cardiac imaging data, mainly from cardiac CT images have been increasingly used in cardiovascular disease, primarily in the preoperative planning and simulation of complex surgical procedures, as well as medical education. 3D printed models are proved to be highly accurate in replicating normal anatomy and cardiac pathology with reported differences less than 0.5 mm between 3D printed models and original sources images. Further to these applications, a new research direction of utilising 3D printed models is to study the optimal CT scanning protocols in cardiovascular disease with the aim of reducing radiation dose while preserving diagnostic image quality. To achieve ...

A new fabrication technique could allow solid-state automotive lithium-ion batteries to adopt nonflammable ceramic electrolytes using the same production processes as in batteries made with conventional liquid electrolytes. The melt-infiltration technology developed by materials science researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology uses electrolyte materials that can be infiltrated into porous yet densely packed, thermally stable electrodes. The one-step process produces high-density composites based on pressure-less, capillary-driven infiltration of a molten solid electrolyte into porous bodies, including multilayered electrode-separator stacks. "While the melting point of traditional ...

You've heard of animals that can lose and then regenerate a tail or limb. But scientists reporting in the journal Current Biology on March 8 have now discovered two species of sacoglossan sea slug that can do even better, shedding and then regenerating a whole new body complete with the heart and other internal organs. The researchers also suggest that the slugs may use the photosynthetic ability of chloroplasts they incorporate from the algae in their diet to survive long enough for regeneration. "We were surprised to see the head moving just after autotomy," said Sayaka Mitoh of Nara ...

It's no secret that the United States' $13 billion cannabis industry is big business. Less obvious to many is the environmental toll this booming business is taking, in the form of greenhouse gas emissions from commercial, mostly indoor production. A new study by Colorado State University researchers provides the most detailed accounting to date of the industry's carbon footprint, a sum around which there is only limited understanding. What is clear, though, is that consumer demand for cannabis is insatiable and shows no signs of stopping as more states sign on to legalization. The study, ...

The economic benefits of conserving or restoring natural sites "outweigh" the profit potential of converting them for intensive human use, according to the largest-ever study comparing the value of protecting nature at particular locations with that of exploiting it. A research team led by the University of Cambridge and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) analysed dozens of sites - from Kenya to Fiji and China to the UK - across six continents. A previous breakthrough study in 2002 only had information for five sites. The findings, published in the journal Nature Sustainability, come just weeks after a landmark report by Cambridge Professor Partha Dasgupta called for the value of biodiversity to be placed at the heart of global economics. For the latest ...

Coastal populations are experiencing relative sea-level rise up to four times faster than the global average - according to new research from the University of East Anglia. A new study published today in Nature Climate Change is the first to analyse global sea-level rise combined with measurements of sinking land. The impact of subsidence combined with sea-level rise has until now been considered a local issue rather than a global one. But the new study shows that coastal inhabitants are living with an average sea level rise of 7.8 mm - 9.9 mm per year over the past twenty years, compared with a global average rise of 2.6mm a year. And the impacts are far larger than the global numbers reported ...

LA JOLLA--(March 8, 2021) Deep learning is a potential tool for scientists to glean more detail from low-resolution images in microscopy, but it's often difficult to gather enough baseline data to train computers in the process. Now, a new method developed by scientists at the Salk Institute could make the technology more accessible--by taking high-resolution images, and artificially degrading them. The new tool, which the researchers call a "crappifier," could make it significantly easier for scientists to get detailed images of cells or cellular structures that have previously been difficult to observe because they require low-light conditions, such as mitochondria, which can ...

What The Study Did: Researchers assessed the number of hospital admissions for noncommunicable diseases (abnormal tissue growths, metabolic diseases, cardiovascular diseases and musculoskeletal diseases) in São Paulo, Brazil, between January and June last year compared with the corresponding periods in the previous three years. Authors: Fernando Adami, Ph.D., of the Laboratório de Epidemiologia e Análise de Dados, Centro Universitário Saúde ABC in São Paulo, Brazil, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.0799) Editor's Note: Please ...

Menlo Park, Calif. -- Scientists have taken a major step forward in harnessing machine learning to accelerate the design for better batteries: Instead of using it just to speed up scientific analysis by looking for patterns in data, as researchers generally do, they combined it with knowledge gained from experiments and equations guided by physics to discover and explain a process that shortens the lifetimes of fast-charging lithium-ion batteries. It was the first time this approach, known as "scientific machine learning," has been applied to battery cycling, said Will Chueh, an associate ...

Hamilton, ON (March 8, 2021) - Many parents know the struggle of having to make children with pneumonia finish the usual 10-day course in antibiotics despite the child feeling better after a few days of medication. New research from McMaster University has proven that a five-day course of high-dose amoxicillin will do just as well for children six months to 10 years old with common pneumonia. "Several studies have proven that adults with pneumonia do fine with short courses of antibiotics, and now we have proved a short course of antibiotics also works for children," said Dr. Jeffrey ...

A study from North Carolina State University found outdoor play and nature-based activities helped buffer some of the negative mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic for adolescents. Researchers said the findings, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, point to outdoor play and nature-based activities as a tool to help teenagers cope with major stressors like the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as future natural disasters and other global stressors. Researchers also underscore the mental health implications of restricting outdoor recreation opportunities for adolescents, and the need to increase ...

DALLAS - March 8, 2021 - A new type of CAR T-cell therapy more than triples the expected length of remission for multiple myeloma patients who have relapsed several times, according to an international clinical trial with UT Southwestern as the lead enrolling site. Results of the trial, published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine, were significantly better than those seen with other therapies available to heavily relapsed and refractory myeloma patients who had already received the three main classes of treatment. Nearly three-quarters of the patients had at least a partial response to the therapy. About a third achieved a complete remission, with the disappearance of all traces of cancer. Median time without the disease worsening was 8.8 months with this new ...

A woman grips her purse tightly as you approach. A store manager follows you because you look "suspicious." You enter a high-end restaurant, and the staff assume you're applying for a job. You're called on in work meetings only when they're talking about diversity. The indignities and humiliations Black men -- even those who have "made it" -- regularly endure have long been seen as part and parcel of life in the United States among the Black community, a sort of "Black tax" that takes a heavy toll on physical and mental health. Now, a new UCLA-led study reveals these "hidden costs" of being Black in America. ...

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Moral outrage is an attractive behavior, particularly to people seeking long-term relationships, according to a new paper by researchers including a University of Arkansas psychologist. The work indicates that people who displayed moral outrage were considered more benevolent and trustworthy than a control person not displaying outrage, and therefore more likely to possess other prosocial behaviors that would benefit a long-term relationship. There was a catch, however: Researchers found that people had to take action to address the moral wrong in question and not just talk about ...

Aurora, Colo. (March 8, 2021) - In a new study published in JAMA Pediatrics, researchers at Children's Hospital Colorado (Children's Colorado) have found that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive component of marijuana, stays in breast milk for up to six weeks, further supporting the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine to abstain from marijuana use during pregnancy and while a mother is breastfeeding. This is the first study examining THC in breastmilk and plasma among women with known marijuana use in pregnancy since a 1982 study in the New England Journal of Medicine. "With the increasing utilization of marijuana in society as a ...

Research from Queen Mary University of London has concluded that there is convincing evidence that type 2 diabetes is associated with an increased risk of Parkinson's disease. The same study found that there was also evidence that type 2 diabetes may contribute to faster disease progression in patients who already have Parkinson's. Treating people with drugs already available for type 2 diabetes may reduce the risk and slow the progression of Parkinson's. Screening for and early treatment of type 2 diabetes in patients with Parkinson's may be advisable. Previous systematic reviews and meta-analyses have produced conflicting results around ...

Key Takeaways: Machine learning offers more accurate targeting in mobile advertising. Behavioral targeting is more effective than contextual targeting. There is a possibility for self-regulation because too much behavioral targeting can reduce competition and hurt ad networks' revenues. CATONSVILLE, MD, March 8, 2021 - It's a common assumption among marketers that if you can customize any form of marketing, particularly mobile advertising, you'll get better results. With this in mind, mobile marketing relies significantly on user tracking data ...

Understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying brain "plasticity"(how the brain can learn, develop and reorganise itself) is crucial for explaining many illnesses and conditions. Neurocientists from the University of Göttingen and University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG) have now managed to repeatedly image synapses, the tiny contact sites between neurons, in awake adult mice. They are the first to discover that adult neurons in the primary visual cortex with an increased number of "silent synapses" (ie newly formed synapses that are inactivated), lacking a certain protein (PSD-95), display structural changes that were previously only reported in young mice. This ...

Professor Rosalind Gill, from City, University of London's Gender and Sexualities Research Centre, has today published a new report to mark International Women's Day. The report - Changing the Perfect Picture: Smartphones, Social Media and Appearance Pressures - is based on research with 175 young women and nonbinary people in the UK. Covering a range of issues - experiences of lockdown, feelings about 'body positivity', how to show support for Black Lives Matter - the research documents young people's persistent anger with a mass media that they deem 'too white', 'too heterosexual' and too focused on very narrow definitions ...

Mental health issues such as burnout and psychological distress are matters for concern among young adults, and are even more pertinent in today's uncertain global climate. A recent paper by Yale-NUS College alumna Ms Joanna Chue (Class of 2019) and Assistant Professor of Social Sciences (Psychology) Cheung Hoi Shan identified five components of resilience that are applicable in Singapore's cultural context, and demonstrated that college students possessing a higher degree of resilience were less susceptible to burnout and psychological distress. By identifying learnable components ...

Researchers at Paderborn and Bielefeld University are hoping to change this, and are discussing how the explainability of artificial intelligence can be improved and adapted to the needs of human users. Their work has recently been published in the respected journal IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems. The researchers describe explanation as a social practice, in which both parties co-construct the process of understanding. Explainability research "Artificial systems have become complex. This is a serious problem - particularly when humans are held accountable for computer-based decisions," says Professor Philipp Cimiano, a computer scientist at Bielefeld University. Particularly in the ...

In the EU alone, 78,800 men died of prostate cancer last year. While tumors discovered at an early stage can often be completely removed by surgery and radiation therapy, the prospects of successful treatment are reduced if the cancer has further metastasized. At present, physicians cannot predict drug response or therapy resistance in patients. Three-dimensional structures The team led by PD Dr. Marianna Kruithof-de Julio at the Urology Research Laboratory at the Department for BioMedical Research (DBMR) of the University of Bern and Inselspital Bern, has developed a new strategy for the generation of prostate cancer organoids that ...

Along the western edge of Alaska's Aleutian archipelago, a group of islands that were inadvertently populated with rodents came to earn the ignominious label of the "Rat Islands." The non-native invaders were accidentally introduced to these islands, and others throughout the Aleutian chain, through shipwrecks dating back to the 1700s and World War II occupation. The resilient rodents, which are known to be among the most damaging invasive animals, adapted and thrived in the new setting and eventually overwhelmed the island ecosystems, disrupting the natural ecological order and driving out native species. A coordinated conservation effort that removed the rats from one of the islands formerly known as Rat Island has become a new example of how ecosystems can ...