INDIANAPOLIS – As many as half of nursing home residents are cognitively impaired and may be unable to communicate symptoms such as pain or anxiety to the staff and clinicians caring for them. Therefore, information needed for the evaluation of symptoms and subsequent treatment decisions typically does not reliably exist in nursing home electronic health records (EHRs). A new paper reports on the novel adaptation of a commonly used symptom assessment instrument to more comprehensively acquire this difficult-to-obtain data with the ultimate goal of enabling knowledge-based expansion of palliative care services in nursing homes ...

Miami (March 12, 2025) – The Bronchiectasis and NTM Association has accepted 27 Care Center and six Clinical Associate Center sites in 23 states and the District of Columbia into the new Bronchiectasis and NTM Care Center Network (CCN). The CCN aims to facilitate access to specialized care and support for the hundreds of thousands of people with bronchiectasis and nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) lung disease.   “As the prevalence of bronchiectasis and NTM lung disease grows, it is even more important for us to create this Care Center Network to improve ...

Excessive alcohol consumption is a significant public health concern, responsible for approximately 6% of all deaths and contributing to 5.1% of the global disease burden. Alcohol use is a major risk factor for over 200 diseases, including liver cirrhosis, pancreatitis, and esophageal cancer, with a particularly high incidence of gastrointestinal diseases. More than 50% of alcohol-related deaths are caused by gastrointestinal diseases, highlighting the importance of understanding how ethanol affects the digestive system. This review aims to provide an overview of ethanol ...

Dr. Joungho Park and his research team from the Energy AI and Computational Science Laboratory at the Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) have conducted an economic analysis of water electrolysis, a key technology for future eco-friendly hydrogen production, and presented optimal operation strategies to maximize efficiency and reduce costs. Green hydrogen, considered a key eco-friendly fuel of the future, is primarily produced using two technologies: alkaline water electrolysis and proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolysis. Among ...

Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States and a significant health issue, with millions of non-melanoma cases and tens of thousands of melanomas diagnosed annually. Furthermore, treating skin cancer costs the U.S. approximately $8.9 billion annually.   Those with fair skin, a history of sun exposure or tanning bed use, and a genetic predisposition, are at higher risk. Key barriers to prevention include a lack of awareness, cultural preferences for tanned skin, and limited access to sun protection. A study by researchers at Florida Atlantic University’s Charles ...

A new report by the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre has revealed that young Australians are feeling the squeeze from financial pressures, worsening mental health and declining trust in political institutions, with concerns about the cost of living now topping their list of priorities.   Released today, the Youth in Focus: Navigating Wellbeing in a Changing World report draws on insights from young Australians aged 14 to 25, highlighting their biggest challenges and what they want to see change. While cost of living, education and mental health were identified as key concerns, the report also ...

Researchers have conducted the first national survey on public awareness and perceptions of food, health, and Food is Medicine programs. A team at the Food is Medicine Institute at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University found that nearly 90 percent of Americans surveyed agreed that eating healthy foods is important for preventing conditions like obesity, high blood pressure, and type-2 diabetes.   The results, published March 12 in the journal Health ...

"UNCG philosopher of biology Dr. Derek Skillings is the lead investigator on a new, three-year, $600,000 grant from the John Templeton Foundation for a study of the emergence and evolution of goal-directed behavior in collective entities.  “A holobiont is a term for a host organism and all of the things that live inside of it and on it,” says Skillings, who is an assistant professor of philosophy at UNCG with adjunct positions in biology and geography, environment, and sustainability.   Examples of collective entities include simple biofilms and massive coral reefs.   “We used to think these weird things like corals, ...

Metastatic melanoma, also known as stage IV melanoma, is a type of skin cancer that spreads to other parts of the body. It is one of the most aggressive forms of skin cancer, with current therapies—including immunotherapy and targeted drugs—showing limited effectiveness. Radiotherapy is an emerging treatment for melanoma, but conventional beta-emitting radionuclide therapies have limitations due to their low energy transfer and long-range radiation, which can cause unintended damage to healthy tissues. To enhance the efficacy of radiotherapy, a research team from Japan, led by Assistant Professor Hiroyuki Suzuki ...

Thymic epithelial tumors are a rare group of malignancies originating in the thymus gland, that includes thymoma and thymic carcinoma. Among these, thymic carcinoma is the more aggressive subtype, characterized by high invasiveness, metastatic potential, and poor prognosis. With an incidence of just 0.15 cases per 100,000 person-years, its rarity poses significant challenges for treatment development. While platinum-based chemotherapy remains the current standard of care, its efficacy is limited. Immune checkpoint inhibitors have shown promise in pretreated cases, but durable ...

The skin consists of two primary layers. The epidermis, the outermost layer, is predominantly made up of keratinocytes, while the deeper dermis contains blood vessels, nerves, and structural proteins such as collagen, which give the skin its strength and texture. Traditionally, fibroblasts—specialized supporting cells within the dermis—have been believed to play a key role in producing collagen. In humans, collagen is formed before and after birth. It has been believed that fibroblasts play an exclusive role in collagen production in the skin, and no keratinocytes contribute to collagen production. The statement “Collagen production in the human skin is achieved by fibroblasts” ...

New Delhi's air pollution is more severe than previously estimated with particles absorbing atmospheric water vapour leading to particulate matter levels across the city being underestimated by up to 20%, a new study reveals.  Hygroscopic growth causes fine particulate matter (PM1) to swell, reducing sampling devices efficiency and leading to underestimation, with greatest underestimation in estimated concentrations happening during winter morning rush hours, when humidity is highest and pollution is most severe.   In contrast, research shows that the monsoon ...

An international team of astronomers, including a Northwestern University astrophysicist, has traced a series of mysterious radio pulses to an unprecedented home. Starting a decade ago, astronomers have detected a pulse of radio emission every two hours, coming from the direction of the Big Dipper. After combining observations from multiple telescopes, the team can now reveal the culprit: a binary system with a dead star. According to the new study, a red dwarf and white dwarf are orbiting each other so tightly that their magnetic fields interact. Each time they bump together — which is every two hours — the interaction emits a long radio blast. Although astronomers ...

Researchers have developed a new process for sustainable lithium extraction, which could help to address the growing global demand for the metals used in electric vehicle batteries and renewable energy storage.  Current ways of getting lithium are bad for the environment and more sustainable approaches are hard to perform on a large scale, but scientists have developed new membranes to pull lithium directly out of salty lake water using electricity, leaving other metal ions behind.  Publishing their findings in Nature Water today (12 Mar), the international group of researchers from the UK, France, ...

An international team of astronomers led by Dr Iris de Ruiter, now at the University of Sydney, has shown that a white dwarf and a red dwarf star orbiting each other every two hours are emitting radio pulses. Thanks to follow-up observations using optical and x-ray telescopes, the researchers were able to determine the origin of these pulses with certainty. The findings explain the source of such radio emissions found across the Milky Way galaxy for the first time. The results are published in Nature Astronomy. In recent years, better analysis techniques have given researchers the ability ...

A recent study by the RPTU University Kaiserslautern-Landau shows extensive pesticide contamination in the landscape of the Upper Rhine Region. The research team led by Carsten Brühl shows for the first time that synthetic chemical pesticides from conventional agriculture do not remain on the cultivated areas, but spread from the lowlands to the Black Forest and the Palatinate Forest. The results show that the entire landscape is contaminated with pesticide mixtures, shedding new light on the potential environmental ...

When water freezes into ice or boils into vapour, its properties change dramatically at specific temperatures. These so-called phase transitions are fundamental to understanding materials. But how do such transitions behave in nanomaterials? In Nature Communications, a team of scientists led by TU Delft (The Netherlands) presents new insights into the complex nature of phase transitions in magnetic nanomaterials. Their findings reveal the coupling between magnetic and mechanical properties, paving the way for ultra-sensitive sensors. The scientists from TU Delft, together with colleagues from the University of Valencia and the National University of Singapore, studied ...

(Images available via the links in the Notes section) An international team of astrophysicists led by the Netherlands and the UK have discovered that radio pulses lasting seconds to minutes are due to two stars coming together – rather than emissions from a single star. The results are published today (12 March) in Nature Astronomy.   In recent years, a new astronomical phenomenon has puzzled radio astronomers: researchers have detected radio pulses from the Milky Way that last from seconds to minutes. These pulses are unlike anything expected from known radio-emitting neutron stars, or pulsars*, ...

Research Highlights: A sedentary lifestyle such as watching TV (two or more hours daily) may be a key factor in the risk of developing heart and blood vessel diseases, according to an analysis of health records from a large U.K. biomedical database. People with higher genetic risk for Type 2 diabetes may be more likely to have a heart attack, stroke or other types of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. However, limiting TV watching to no more than one hour a day may help offset the increased risk of these ...

Results indicate the closer the Doomsday Clock ticks to midnight, the higher the rates are for mortality specific to Alzheimer’s disease, suicide, unintentional injuries, alcohol and substance-related disorders Since 1947, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) has used the metaphor of the Doomsday Clock as a means of communicating how close the human species is to self-imposed annihilation, represented as midnight. While early iterations of the clock focused more exclusively on the dangers of nuclear weapons, the BAS has also begun to consider other evolving existential dangers ...

Second-hand electric cars may be close to a “tipping point” where they become more popular than equivalent petrol and diesel cars in the UK, new research shows. Researchers analysed data from car sales website Auto Trader, comparing daily views of adverts for electric vehicles (EVs) with petrol/diesel cars. Interest in second-hand EVs grew rapidly, doubling from 3.5% of advert views in 2022 to 7% in 2023. Importantly, interest in EVs became more “sticky”. Events such as petrol price increases drove extra EV views – and over time these spikes of attention lasted longer and longer.   “To identify ...

A new study revealed significant differences in the appearance and behaviour of the two one-horned Asiatic rhinoceros species, challenging long-standing classifications and supporting a re-evaluation of their status. The study, led by zoologist Francesco Nardelli and paleontologist Kurt Heißig, highlights how millions of years of evolutionary pressures have shaped the distinct adaptations of the Indian (Rhinoceros unicornis) and Sundaic (Rhinoceros sondaicus) rhinoceroses. The critically endangered Sundaic rhinoceros has a slender skull, a broader and lower back of the head, and a shorter nose and teeth suited for browsing leaves. In contrast, the ...

Most people are familiar with loopholes. When your boss, landlord, partner, customer, or government asks you to do something you don’t want to do, and yet you can’t say “no,” you may resort to malicious compliance – doing what someone asked, but not actually what they meant. Most parents are probably familiar with such “little lawyer” behavior too: if a parent says, “Time to put the tablet down,” a child might physically put the tablet down on the table – and then keep playing on it. While such ...

Sleep quality is a crucial aspect of health, yet while adults spend around a third of their lives sleeping, there is surprisingly little research on mattresses. Mass General Brigham researchers developed and tested the Boston Mattress Satisfaction Questionnaire (BMSQ), a new tool to rigorously assess mattress satisfaction and characteristics. They administered the BMSQ to a representative sample of over 1,000 adults in the United States, finding that the tool is internally consistent and viable for assessing mattress ...

Recent studies on economic growth report that preventing the abuse of state power through democratic institutions is critical to a nation’s development. However, there has been little prior research on how societies transition in response to the two conflicting goals of limiting the state’s stranglehold on governance while improving its administrative capacity through citizens’ political participation. Osaka Metropolitan University Associate Professor Ryosuke Okazawa of the Graduate School of Economics led a team that ...