Dilated cardiomyopathy is the most frequent cause of heart failure in young people and is the leading cause of heart transplantation. In this disease, the heart enlarges and reduces its capacity to pump blood. People with dilated cardiomyopathy are at high risk for arrhythmias and sudden death.    In approximately 30%–40% of people with dilated cardiomyopathy, the disease is caused by a genetic mutation. When a genetic cause is identified, the patient’s family members can be studied to determine if they have also inherited the altered gene. Family members who are carriers of the genetic mutation are at risk for developing the disease in ...

As the World Health Organization (WHO) pushes for countries to seal the Pandemic Treaty by May this year, researchers at the University of Warwick and Kings College London stress the need for fair negotiations. The opinion piece, featured in PLOS Global Public Health journal, is led by Professor Sharifah Sekalala . The team highlights the importance of considering "Time Equity" in these talks, urging caution on setting deadlines and sharing the burden when time is tight. Since COVID-19 hit, demands for health equity ...

The International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) will hold its 2024 Annual Meeting – the organization’s 23rd – from Wednesday, May 15 through Saturday, May 18, 2024, bringing together a global, multidisciplinary group of more than 1,200 autism researchers, clinicians, advocates, self-advocates, and students from 20 countries to exchange the latest scientific learnings and discoveries that are advancing the expanding understanding of autism and its complexities. This year’s ...

Healthy cells respond appropriately to changes in their environment. They do this by sensing what’s happening outside and relaying a command to the precise biomolecule in the precise domain that can carry out the necessary response. When the message gets to the right domain at the right time, your body stays healthy. When it ends up at the wrong place at the wrong time, you can get diseases such as diabetes or cancer.  The routes that messages take inside a cell are called signaling pathways. Cells use only a few signaling pathways to respond simultaneously to hundreds of external signals, so those pathways need to be tightly ...

COS Mason Researchers Translating Research Into Practice To Create Climate-Ready Communities Across Virginia Four Mason researchers received funding for: “ART: Translating Research into Practice to Create Climate-Ready Communities Across Virginia.” Leah Nichols, Executive Director, Institute for a Sustainable Earth, Research and Innovation Initiatives; James Kinter, Professor, Climate Dynamics, Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences (AOES); Director, Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies (COLA); Luis Ortiz, Assistant Professor, AOES; and Celso Ferreira, Associate Professor, Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering, are ...

Hao Receives Funding for NOAA AMSU-A CDR Products Support                                                                                                                                                           ...

“Where is my life going?” “Who do I want to be?”   As future-thinkers, adolescents spend significant time contemplating these types of questions about their life goals. A new study from the University of Houston shows that as people grow from teenagers to young adults, they tend to change the importance they place on certain life goals, but one thing is certain: The existence of high prestige and education goals, as well as their positive development, can drive success.  “Adolescents who endorsed higher levels of prestige and education goals tended to have higher educational attainment, income, ...

Researchers have unveiled a technology that propels the field of wireless communication forward. This cutting-edge design, termed a reconfigurable transmissive metasurface, utilizes a synergistic blend of scissor and rotation actuators to independently manage beam scanning and polarization conversion. This introduces an innovative approach to boosting signal strength and efficiency within wireless networks. Reconfigurable metasurfaces are transforming wireless communication by adjusting electromagnetic (EM) wave characteristics such as amplitude, phase, and polarization. These planar arrays enhance wave control, boosting functionalities ...

Background and Aims Disease progression of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is driven by the interactions between viral replication and the host immune response against the infection. This study aimed to clarify the relationship between HBV replication and hepatic inflammation during disease progression.   Methods Two cross-sectional, one validation cohort, and meta-analyses were used to explore the relationship between HBV replication and liver inflammation. Spearman analysis, multiple linear regression, and logistic regression were used to explore the relationship between variables.   Results In ...

Nathan Sleeter, Research Assistant Professor, History and Art History, Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM), is set to receive funding for: “American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) at 50 website.” RRCHNM researchers will develop a website that will tell the story of AISES’s first 50 years, its founding mission, its growth, and the individuals who have been part of its work supporting American Indians in STEM. Sleeter will serve as project director. The researchers will also conduct and record oral history ...

Farhang Alem, Interim Director of the Biomedical Research Laboratory, Institute for Biohealth Innovation, received funding for: “PRNT Analysis of Samples from Athari BioSciences.” Researchers with the Biomedical Research Laboratory will perform Plaque Reduction Neutralization Tests (PRNTs) on Athari patient serum samples with parameters defined by Athari. They will also produce and deliver a report containing all patient serum sample titer results for SARS-CoV-2. PRNT analysis is a serological test that utilizes the ability of a specific antibody to neutralize a virus, and in turn, prevent the virus ...

Clarifying the cause of a skin disease led to the discovery of a new disease-causing gene, a new category of diseases, and new perspectives for both counseling and therapy. The Kobe University discovery is the first time that epigenetic silencing, the “switching off” of an otherwise intact gene, has been recognized as the cause for a skin disease. Porokeratosis is a skin disease that leads to the development of annular or circular, red and itchy lesions. In some individuals, these develop all over the body, in some localized in lines, and in some only in one or very few spots. Kobe University dermatologist KUBO Akiharu previously ...

About The Study: Preoperative use of glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) in patients undergoing emergency surgery was not associated with a higher risk of postoperative respiratory complications compared with patients not using GLP-1 RAs. The results of this study suggest that liberalizing withholding guidelines for GLP-1 RAs preoperatively should be considered.  Authors: Anjali A. Dixit, M.D., M.P.H., of the Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, California, ...

In a world with rapidly aging societies, there’s a need for a detailed understanding of the cause and progression of diseases associated with aging. Skeletal muscle is the key motor system in the human body and plays a pivotal role in body metabolic regulation. With increased age, particularly in individuals over 80 years old, skeletal muscles suffer from sarcopenia, a progressive loss of muscle mass and function. Sarcopenia not only increases the individual’s disability but also plays a role in the rapid decline of general functions in the elderly, making them frailer. The underlying ...

About The Study: Modest decreases in developmental screening scores suggest reason for cautious optimism about the development of a generation of U.S. children exposed to the COVID-19 pandemic in this study including 50,000 children. Continued attention to developmental surveillance is critical since the long-term population- and individual-level implications of these changes are unclear.  Authors: Sara B. Johnson, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed ...

About The Study: The findings of this study indicated that initiation of antihypertensive medication was associated with elevated risks of fractures and falls among older long-term care nursing home residents in the Veterans Health Administration. These risks were numerically higher among residents with dementia, higher baseline blood pressures values, and no recent antihypertensive medication use. Caution and additional monitoring are advised when initiating antihypertensive medication in this vulnerable population.  Authors: Chintan V. Dave, Pharm.D., Ph.D., of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, ...

Primary health care, conditional cash transfers and social pensions have prevented 1.4 million deaths of all ages in Brazil over the past two decades, according to a study coordinated by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by “la Caixa” Foundation. If expanded, these programmes could avert an additional 1.3 million deaths and 6.6 million hospitalisations by 2030. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated poverty and social inequalities worldwide, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In addition, the economic consequences of the ongoing war in Ukraine and ...

Scientists believe the environment immediately surrounding a black hole is tumultuous, featuring hot magnetized gas that spirals in a disk at tremendous speeds and temperatures. Astronomical observations show that within such a disk, mysterious flares occur up to several times a day, temporarily brightening and then fading away. Now a team led by Caltech scientists has used telescope data and an artificial intelligence (AI) computer-vision technique to recover the first three-dimensional video showing what such flares could look like around Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*, pronounced sadge-ay-star), the ...

DALLAS, April 22, 2024 — The American Heart Association, celebrating 100 years of lifesaving service, and the National Football League (NFL), in collaboration with its 32 NFL clubs, are challenging kids to get moving to support mental and physical health with the latest installment of NFL PLAY 60 Fitness Break broadcast series leading up to the live Draft coverage from Detroit. On Thursday, April 25 at 1 p.m. ET/ 12 p.m. CT/ 10 a.m. PT the NFL PLAY 60 Draft Fitness Break broadcast will assist kids in getting their daily 60 minutes ...

Despite surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead, lava-spewing volcanoes, and puffy clouds of sulfuric acid, uninhabitable Venus offers vital lessons about the potential for life on other planets, a new paper argues.   “We often assume that Earth is the model of habitability, but if you consider this planet in isolation, we don’t know where the boundaries and limitations are,” said UC Riverside astrophysicist and paper first author Stephen Kane. “Venus gives us that.” Published today in the journal Nature Astronomy, the paper compiles much of the known information about Earth and Venus. ...

A metal alloy composed of niobium, tantalum, titanium, and hafnium has shocked materials scientists with its impressive strength and toughness at both extremely hot and cold temperatures, a combination of properties that seemed so far to be nearly impossible to achieve. In this context, strength is defined as how much force a material can withstand before it is permanently deformed from its original shape, and toughness is its resistance to fracturing (cracking). The alloy’s resilience to bending and fracture across an enormous range of conditions could open the door for a novel class of materials for next-generation engines that can operate at higher ...

Waltham — April 19, 2024 — Available online tools can help to lower out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for patients with common urologic conditions, reports a study in the May issue of Urology Practice®, an Official Journal of the American Urological Association (AUA). The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.  "As clinicians, we find that many patients need help in understanding that prescriptions can often be purchased outside of insurance for significantly lower cost and in ...

New York, NY [April 22, 2024]—State-of-the-art artificial intelligence systems known as large language models (LLMs) are poor medical coders, according to researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Their study, published in the April 19 online issue of NEJM AI [DOI: 10.1056/AIdbp2300040], emphasizes the necessity for refinement and validation of these technologies before considering clinical implementation. The study extracted a list of more than 27,000 unique diagnosis and procedure codes from 12 months of routine care ...

A growing body of research suggests that manipulating gut bacteria may offer a promising approach to managing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a chronic and debilitating condition affecting millions of people worldwide. IBD, encompassing Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, and unclassified IBD, is characterized by chronic inflammation of the digestive tract. Conventional treatments aim to control symptoms and prevent complications. However, they often have limited effectiveness and can come with side effects. This new research explores the potential of prebiotics, dietary fibers that nourish ...

INDIANAPOLIS – Screening for colorectal cancer presents a unique opportunity unavailable for most other types of cancers. Screening allows for the detection of both precancerous polyps and cancer, enabling clinicians to intervene and reduce the chances of future development of new or more advanced malignancy. However, gaps in the colorectal screening process exist. One of the most critical gaps, according to an editorial published in JAMA Network Open, is the lack of timely follow-up with a colonoscopy after a positive stool-based test. A positive ...