Researchers have discovered that bank voles in southern Sweden (Skåne) carry a virus that can cause hemorrhagic fever in humans. This finding was made more than 500 km south of the previously known range. The virus strain discovered in Skåne appears to be more closely related to strains from Finland and Karelia than to the variants found in northern Sweden and Denmark. This is revealed in a new study from Uppsala University, conducted in collaboration with infectious diseases doctors in Kristianstad and published ...

A baby’s exposure to air pollution while in the womb is associated with the development of certain mental health problems once the infant reaches adolescence, new research has found. The University of Bristol-led study, published in JAMA Network Open today [28 May], examined the long-term mental health impact of early-life exposure to air and noise pollution. Growing evidence suggests air pollution, which comprises toxic gases and particulate matter, might contribute to the onset of mental health problems. It is thought that pollution could negatively affect mental health via numerous ...

Researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine propose a novel approach to addressing the pressing issue of a kidney donor shortage through findings that suggest a promising method to expand the pool of available kidney donors by utilizing deceased donors on dialysis for kidney transplants.   The findings, published in the May 23rd issue of JAMA, identifies that while those who received such kidneys experienced a “significant delay” in the function of the transplanted organ compared to those ...

– By Rachel Berkowitz Ammonia is the starting point for the fertilizers that have secured the world’s food supply for the last century. It’s also a main component of cleaning products, and is even considered as a future carbon-free replacement for fossil fuels in vehicles. But synthesizing ammonia from molecular nitrogen is an energy-intensive industrial process, due to the high temperatures and pressures at which the standard reaction proceeds. Scientists from the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley ...

The African turquoise killifish lives in ephemeral ponds in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. To survive the annual dry season, the fish’s embryos enter a state of extreme suspended animation or “diapause” for approximately 8 months. Now, researchers have uncovered the mechanisms that enabled the killifish to evolve this extreme survival state. They report May 30 in the journal Cell that although killifish evolved diapause less than 18 million years ago, they did so by co-opting ancient genes ...

WASHINGTON, May 28, 2024 —When plants draw water from their roots to nourish their stems and leaves, they produce an electric potential that could be harnessed as a renewable energy source. However, like all living things, plants are subject to a circadian rhythm — the biological clock that runs through day and night cycles and influences biological processes. In plants, this daily cycle includes capturing light energy for photosynthesis and absorbing water and nutrients from the soil during the day and slowing its growth processes at night. In a study published this week in ...

About The Study: In this national cross-sectional study of privately insured U.S. families, inflation-adjusted health care spending increased from 2007 to 2019, largely owing to increasing contributions to premiums. Annual financial medical burden increased significantly, both overall and among low-income and higher-income families. Mean financial medical burden was more than 26% of postsubsistence income for low-income families, compared with approximately 6% for higher-income families. Corresponding ...

About The Study: The findings of this matched cohort study suggest that women with premenstrual disorders are not at increased risk of early death overall. However, the risk was elevated among young women and for death by suicide. This supports the importance of careful follow-up for young patients and highlights the need to develop suicide prevention strategies for all women with premenstrual disorders.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Marion Opatowski, Ph.D., email marion.opatowski@ki.se. To access the embargoed ...

About The Study: The treatment effect of early direct oral anticoagulant initiation did not differ in people with minor, moderate, or major stroke assessed by brain imaging. Early treatment was not associated with a higher rate of adverse events, especially symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage, for any infarct size, including major stroke. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Urs Fischer, M.D., M.Sc., email urs.fischer@insel.ch. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2024.1450) Editor’s ...

About The Study: Early-life air and noise pollution exposure were prospectively associated with three common mental health problems (psychotic experiences, depression, and anxiety) from adolescence to young adulthood in this longitudinal cohort study. There was a degree of specificity in terms of pollutant-timing-outcome associations. Interventions to reduce air and noise pollution exposure (e.g., clean air zones) could potentially improve population mental health. Replication using quasi-experimental designs is now needed to shed further light on the underlying ...

As the planet has warmed, scientists have long been concerned about the potential for harmful greenhouse gasses to seep out of thawing Arctic permafrost. Recent estimates suggest that by 2100 the amount of carbon dioxide and methane released from these perpetually frozen lands could be on par with emissions from large industrial countries. However, new research led by a team of Colorado State University microbiome scientists suggests those estimates might be too low. Microorganisms are responsible for the process that will generate greenhouse gasses from thawing northern peatlands, which contain about ...

Feeding children peanut products regularly from infancy to age 5 years reduced the rate of peanut allergy in adolescence by 71%, even when the children ate or avoided peanut products as desired for many years. These new findings, from a study sponsored and co-funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), provide conclusive evidence that achieving long-term prevention of peanut allergy is possible through early allergen consumption. The results were published today in the journal NEJM Evidence.  “Today’s findings should reinforce parents’ and caregivers’ ...

Tsukuba, Japan—The nucleus accumbens plays a pivotal role in motivational behavior and sleep regulation, modulated by adenosine A2A receptors (A2AR). Hence, selective A2AR regulation within this brain region could control sleep and motivation. However, A2ARs are distributed across various organs, including the heart, posing challenges for precise brain-specific modulation without genetic interventions. A research team led by Professor Michael Lazarus and Associate Professor Tsuyoshi Saitoh (TRiSTAR Fellow) from the Institute of Medicine and the International Institute for Integrative Sleep Medicine (WPI-IIIS) at the University ...

SAN ANTONIO — May 28, 2024 —Southwest Research Institute has created a comprehensive data analysis tool to help metropolitan areas curb urban heat islands (UHIs) and pursue mitigation methods for especially vulnerable populations. This internally funded project was a collaboration with the City of San Antonio. UHIs occur when dense concentrations of pavement and buildings absorb heat and raise surrounding temperatures. Without green spaces to provide a cooling effect, UHI temperatures can exceed other areas by as much as 20 degrees Fahrenheit, which could be dangerous to residents during summer. “Tackling UHIs goes ...

A study published in Contemporary Economic Policy reveals significant benefits gained from the first implementation of the state-run retirement savings program in Oregon, known as OregonSaves, in 2017. OregonSaves is available to Oregon workers whose employers do not offer a workplace retirement plan, self-employed individuals, and others. Businesses that do not offer retirement plans are required to automatically enroll employees, but workers can opt out at any time. The analysis found that the program substantially boosted retirement savings among previously ...

Harnessing energy from plasma requires a precise understanding of its behavior during fusion to keep it hot, dense and stable. A new theoretical model about a plasma’s edge, which can become unstable and bulge, brings the prospect of commercial fusion power closer to reality. “The model refines the thinking on stabilizing the edge of the plasma for different tokamak shapes,” said Jason Parisi, a staff research physicist at PPPL. Parisi is the lead author of three articles describing the model that were published in the journals Nuclear Fusion and Physics of Plasma. The primary paper focuses on a part of the plasma called ...

The World Heart Federation (WHF) is honoring Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, President of Mount Sinai Heart and Physician-in-Chief of The Mount Sinai Hospital, with its Lifetime Achievement Award for 2024. This top honor recognizes his remarkable contributions to the WHF mission, and to the entire cardiovascular disease community for his dedication to combating this disease worldwide. The WHF will present Dr. Fuster with this award on Saturday, May 25, during the World Heart Summit in Geneva, Switzerland. “I am proud of this award, particularly because it represents Mount Sinai’s worldwide scientific contributions and dedication to advancements in the cardiovascular ...

Photochromic compounds, which change their color when exposed to light, have been widely used as photoswitches to control different properties of materials. Nonlinear photochromic compounds, characterized by a nonlinear response to the intensity of incident light, have attracted special attention among researchers as the nonlinearity leads to enhanced contrast and improved spatial resolution in photochromic reactions. It also allows for multiple photochromic properties in a single molecule with a single light source. These qualities have made them valuable in nonlinear optical and holographic elements, super-resolution microscopy, and biomedical applications. The simplest ...

BELMONT, Mass. (May 28, 2024) Binge-eating disorder is the most prevalent eating disorder in the United States, but previous studies have presented conflicting views of the disorder’s duration and the likelihood of relapse. A new five-year study led by  investigators from McLean Hospital, a member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, showed that 61 percent and 45 percent of individuals still experienced binge-eating disorder 2.5 and 5 years after their initial diagnoses, respectively. These results contradict previous ...

SPOKANE, Wash. – Greater use of pharmacists to treat minor illnesses could potentially save millions of dollars in health care costs, according to new research led by Washington State University. The findings also indicate a way to improve healthcare access by expanding availability of pharmacists’ clinical services including prescribing medications, amid an ongoing shortage of primary care providers. The study found that care for a range of minor health issues – including urinary tract infections, shingles, animal bites and headaches – costs an average of about $278 less when treated in pharmacies compared to patients with similar ...

Optical analysis and machine learning techniques can now readily detect microplastics in marine and freshwater environments using inexpensive porous metal substrates. Details of the method, developed by researchers at Nagoya University with collaborators at the National Institute for Materials Sciences in Japan and others, are published in the journal Nature Communications.  Detecting and identifying microplastics in water samples is essential for environmental monitoring but is challenging due in part to the structural similarity of microplastics with natural organic compounds derived from biofilms, algae, and decaying organic matter. Existing detection methods ...

Scientists have come a step closer to identifying the mysterious origins of the ‘slow’ solar wind, using data collected during the Solar Orbiter spacecraft’s first close journey to the Sun. Solar wind, which can travel at hundreds of kilometres per second, has fascinated scientists for years, and new research published in Nature Astronomy, is finally shedding light on how it forms. Solar wind describes the continuous outflow of charged plasma particles from the Sun into space – with wind travelling at over 500km ...

Some teabags manufactured using plastic alternatives do not degrade in soil and have the potential to harm terrestrial species, a new study has shown. The research looked at commonly available teabags made using three different compositions of polylactic acid (PLA), which is derived from sources such as corn starch or sugar cane. The teabags were buried in soil for seven months, and a range of techniques were then used to assess whether – and to what extent – they had deteriorated. The results showed that teabags made solely from PLA remained completely intact. However, the ...

A new paper in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, published by Oxford University Press, finds that replacing certain judicial decision-making functions with algorithms could improve outcomes for defendants by eliminating some of the systemic biases of judges. Decision makers make consequential choices based on predictions of unknown outcomes. Judges, in particular, make decisions about whether to grant bail to defendants or how to sentence those convicted. Companies now use machine learning based models increasingly in high-stakes decisions. There are various assumptions about human behavior underlying the deployment of ...

The origin of life on Earth has long been a mystery that has eluded scientists. A key question is how much of the history of life on Earth is lost to time. It is quite common for a single species to "phase out" using a biochemical reaction, and if this happens across enough species, such reactions could effectively be "forgotten" by life on Earth. But if the history of biochemistry is rife with forgotten reactions, would there be any way to tell? This question inspired researchers from the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) ...