National clinical guidelines for the treatment of COVID-19 vary significantly around the world, with under-resourced countries the most likely to diverge from gold standard (World Health Organization; WHO) treatment recommendations, finds a comparative analysis published in the open access journal BMJ Global Health.   And nearly every national guideline recommends at least one treatment proven not to work, the analysis shows. Significant variations in national COVID-19 treatment recommendations have been suspected since the advent of the pandemic, but these haven’t been ...

Health concerns are still the primary motive for more than half of those who say they want to stop smoking in England, but cost is now a key factor for more than 1 in 4, finds an analysis of national survey responses, published in the open access journal BMJ Public Health. Given this shift in thinking, making much more of the potential savings to be had might encourage more people to stub out for good, suggest the researchers. Health concerns are generally the primary motive for people trying to stop smoking, with social and ...

Anti-N-methyl-d-aspartate (Anti-NMDA) receptor encephalitis is an acute autoimmune disorder that develops both neurological symptoms and psychiatric symptoms, including hallucination, cognitive disturbance, epilepsy, movement disorder, and impaired consciousness. This disease may be misdiagnosed at the early stage as a psychosis disease because of primary psychiatric symptoms. The misdiagnosis may delay appropriate therapeutic intervention. Most patients with anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis respond to immunotherapy [1, 2]. The pathology of this disease is ...

A new case report published in the peer-reviewed OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology describes how longitudinal multi-omics monitoring (LMOM) helped to detect a precancerous pancreatic tumor and led to a successful surgical intervention. Click here to read the article now.  The patient had undergone annual blood-based LMOM, in which 143 endogenous metabolites in serum and a panel of 140 proteins in plasma were measured. David Wishart, PhD, from the University of Alberta, ...

Working memory is one of the brain’s executive functions, a skill that allows humans to process information without losing track of what they’re doing. In the short term, working memory allows the brain to complete an immediate task, like loading the dishwasher. Long term, it helps the brain decide what to store for future use, such as whether more dishwasher soap will be needed. University of Texas at Arlington researchers know that working memory varies greatly among individuals, but they aren’t sure exactly why. To better understand, Matthew Robison, assistant professor of psychology, and doctoral student Lauren D. Garner conducted an experiment to see if ...

Bentham Science is pleased to announce that two of its journals, Current Nanomaterials and Current Analytical Chemistry, have been officially indexed in the EI Compendex. EI Compendex is one of the most comprehensive subject-specific literature databases, encompassing high-quality research articles from prominent engineering and applied science journals worldwide. Current Nanomaterials, a leading peer-reviewed journal devoted to the exploration and dissemination of cutting-edge research in the field of nanomaterials, covers a broad spectrum ...

The fierce competition between China and the United States of America for control of emerging technologies such as AI and 5G will determine the international balance of power, a new study says. Developments in quantum computing, the Internet of Things, and Big Data have transformed the global order and have led to new alliances and dynamics, the analysis shows. Forming new allies has become imperative for the USA because the country cannot address the challenges posed by China in isolation. This has involved sharing sensitive advanced technologies with national security and ...

Imagine your greatest fear. Now, write it down and tell it in first-person, as if it’s happening right now. Vividly describe what it looks, sounds, smells, tastes and feels like. Don’t hold back. Such an exercise could be daunting for anyone, dredging up feelings we try to avoid. But for late-stage cancer patients struggling with anxiety and other mental health issues, it can be remarkably therapeutic, new CU Boulder research has found. “It’s often easier to write about something traumatic than to speak it out loud, especially to someone ...

A new study by researchers at National Jewish Health published this month in the  Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology reports that air pollutants — including particulate matter, pollen, greenhouse gases, and other harmful substances — can contribute to the development and exacerbation of allergic diseases by disrupting the skin barrier. “People are aware of the connection between pollution and respiratory disease, but we wanted to take the next step and investigate how global warming is damaging ...

In the United States, the number of so-called progressive prosecutors focused on criminal justice reform has risen, but few studies have addressed the relation between these prosecutors’ policies and crime rates. In a new study, researchers examined whether progressive prosecutors in the 100 most populated counties affected crime rates from 2000 to 2020. They found that the inauguration of these prosecutors led to higher relative rates of property crime and total crime, but not to higher relative rates of violent crime. The study was conducted by researchers ...

The European Court of Human Rights is “backsliding” by surreptitiously reversing its principles established to protect asylum seekers, a new study says. It is a decade since the Court first established that asylum seekers are inherently and particularly vulnerable in law. The research shows that in recent years the Court has moved away from this position, albeit without actually acknowledging this or explaining why. The research warns that it is now uncertain what exactly is needed for any particular asylum applicant to be judged as sufficiently vulnerable to receive special protection under the European Convention on Human Rights. The ...

Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday 22 April 2024     Annals of Internal Medicine Tip Sheet      @Annalsofim     Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also on behalf of the organization they represent.     ----------------------------     1. Being ...

Patients have lower rates of mortality and hospital readmissions when treated by female physicians, with female patients benefitting more than their male counterparts, new research suggests. The mortality rate for female patients was 8.15% when treated by female physicians vs. 8.38% when the physician was male—a clinically significant difference, the researchers found. While the difference for male patients was smaller, female physicians still had the edge with a 10.15% mortality rate compared with male doctors’ 10.23% rate. The researchers ...

In the 1930s, the United States government introduced redlining, a discriminatory practice that categorized neighborhoods based on people’s race or ethnicity and denied financial services to residents in certain areas—redlining disproportionately affected marginalized communities. While redlining was officially outlawed in 1968, new research from Boston Children’s Hospital suggests a relationship between historic redlining and present-day gun violence.  “We found a significant, dose-dependent correlation between discriminatory designations from the 1930s and the incidence of non-suicide firearm fatalities ...

The endangered bonobo, the great ape of the Central African rainforest, has a reputation for being a bit of a hippie. Known as more peaceful than their warring chimpanzee neighbors, bonobos live in matriarchal societies, engage in recreational sex, and display signs of cooperation both inside and outside their immediate social groups. But this relaxed reputation isn’t quite reality, according to a new Harvard study in Current Biology. Observing bonobos and chimps in their natural environments over roughly three years, researchers found that actual rates of aggressive acts among male bonobos were notably higher than among male chimps. “These ...

Fecal incontinence (FI), or involuntary loss of bowel control, significantly impacts quality of life and mental health for millions of adults in the U.S. Obesity is thought to affect bowel function, but the relationship between its standardized measure, body mass index (BMI), and FI remains unclear. Examining better markers of obesity that include body composition and fat distribution, rather than BMI alone, could help clarify the effect of obesity on FI. Investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General ...

A simple and convenient method to collect drug use data from the surface of a smartphone is revealed for the first time in a new study published in De Gruyter’s Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine. By helping clinicians understand what drugs people are taking in certain contexts, the research could protect public health and improve the treatment of patients suspected of overdosing.  Understanding the most common drugs in a particular area, who uses them, when they use them and in what contexts can help inform life-saving treatment decisions but given the illegal nature ...

Researchers at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology developed a new technique to make ultrasound localization microscopy, an emerging diagnostic tool used for high-resolution microvascular imaging, more practical for clinical settings. Their method uses deep learning to advance in the post-processing pipeline of ULM. Their technique, called LOcalization with Context Awareness Ultrasound Localization microscopy, or LOCA-ULM, appears in the journal Nature Communications.  “I’m really excited about making ULM faster and better so that more people will be able to use this technology. I think deep learning-based computational ...

A new study shows community pharmacies may play a key role in helping people quit smoking. The findings came out in the article Closing the Tobacco Treatment Gap, published in the 10th anniversary special issue of Pharmacy. The results provide valuable insights into the implementation of tobacco cessation services within community pharmacies while identifying barriers to further improvements. Tobacco use remains a leading preventable cause of death. Although two thirds of people who smoke would like to quit, many individuals trying to quit on their own are not successful. To address this gap, the study explored how ...

April 22, 2024 Book Aims to Re-Design the Up-Skilling Game. Rotman School Author Says We Need a Re-Set in the Way We Think About Human Skill in the GenAI era Toronto – Although communicative and relational skills are currently in the greatest demand in organizations large and small, we are as educators, executives, and talent developers very far away from the kind of precision in identifying, measuring, selecting, and developing these skills that we have achieved with cognitive and technical skills. At the same time, the automation ...

April 22, 2024 Contact: Lori Atherton, SEAS, lorather@umich.edu                Jim Erickson, Michigan News, ericksn@umich.edu   A new University of Michigan study finds that automation and electrification of long-haul trucking can reduce urban health impacts and environmental damages.  For long-haul routes below 300 miles, electrification can reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas damages by 13%, or $587 million annually, according to the study. ...

April 22, 2024 European Union Should Adopt a Research-Based Approach to Ensure the Quality and Safety of Substances of Human Origin London/Toronto – Substances of human origin (SoHOs) such as blood, plasma, skin, corneas, and embryos play an increasing role in life-saving medical procedures. Governments around the world are reevaluating their healthcare policies to ensure of a supply of SoHOs for their population, while also considering the best-interests of both donors and patients. A ...

Repeated exposure to explosive blasts has the potential to cause brain injuries, but there is currently no diagnostic test for these injuries In a study of 30 active-duty United States SOF personnel, researchers found that increased blast exposure was associated with structural, functional, and neuroimmune changes to the brain and a decline in health-related quality of life The researchers are now designing a larger study to develop a diagnostic test for repeated blast brain injury United States (US) Special Operations Forces (SOF) personnel are frequently exposed to explosive blasts during training and combat.  However, ...

New York, NY (April 22, 2024) – In a scientific breakthrough, Mount Sinai researchers have revealed the biological mechanisms by which a family of proteins known as histone deacetylases (HDACs) activate immune system cells linked to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and other inflammatory diseases. This discovery, reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), could potentially lead to the development of selective HDAC inhibitors designed to treat types of IBD such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. “Our understanding of the specific function of class II HDACs in different cell types has been limited, impeding ...

Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS) is an extremely rare genetic disease that affects just 1 in every 20 million people; it is estimated that fewer than 400 children in the world have the disease. HGPS is characterized by accelerated aging, severe atherosclerosis, and premature death at an average age of about 15 years. Although people with HGPS do not normally have conventional cardiovascular risk factors (hypercholesterolemia, obesity, smoking, etc.), most patients die from the complications of atherosclerosis: myocardial ...