DURHAM, N.C. – An estimated one life was saved for every 17 times an extreme risk protection order removed guns from people who presented a risk of harming themselves or others, according to a Duke Health-led analysis of the laws in four states. Extreme risk protection orders -- known as ERPOs or “red flag laws" -- are civil court orders that temporarily prevent people from accessing firearms after a judge determines that they pose an imminent risk of harming themselves or others. Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have enacted ERPO laws, mostly in ...

More than 23 million Americans who were granted Medicaid coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic lost their coverage starting in March 2023 after the pandemic was declared no longer a public health emergency. Many likely will not successfully re-enroll on their own given Medicaid’s administrative burden—the frustrations and challenges people often encounter in seeking or complying with coverage. Now, a study of the so-called Medicaid Great Unwinding by Dr. Simon F. Haeder with the Texas A&M University School of Public Health, ...

Corporate Cup, lunchtime yoga, or even ‘walk and talks’, organisations come up with all sorts of wellness initiatives to encourage people to be more active in the workplace. But before you duck and hide, new research shows that all it takes is 15 minutes and a touch of gamification to put you on the path to success.   Assessing results from 11,575 participants, across 73 Australian, New Zealand, and UK companies, University of South Australia researchers found that a gamified workplace wellness program – the 15 Minute Challenge* - leads to substantial increases in physical activity levels, with 95% of participants meeting (36%) or exceeding (59%) ...

August 20, 2024, Mountain View, CA –The SETI Institute announced that Dr. Nadia Drake is joining the SETI Institute's Board of Directors as an observer. The SETI Institute's board guides its strategic direction, finances, and various committees. As a journalist, Drake will be an active, non-voting member, bringing her broad expertise to the team. "I am thrilled by this appointment to the SETI Institute's board, which comes at an exciting time for the SETI Institute and for the search for life beyond Earth," said Drake. "For most of my career as a science journalist, I've covered astrobiology ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A sweeping study of U.S. youth sports participation over the past 60 years found that there has been a significant increase over time in kids playing organized sports – but particularly among more privileged, educated families. A national survey found that about 70% of Americans born in the ’90s and reaching age 18 by 2015-16 said they took part in organized sports through recreational, school, or club teams. This finding showed a rather steady increase in organized sports participation across generations. Slightly more than half of those ...

Video available here.  In an effort to reduce the environmental impact of carbon dioxide emissions, a University of Central Florida researcher has developed a new technology that captures carbon dioxide and outputs useful fuels and chemicals. Yang Yang, an associate professor in UCF’s NanoScience Technology Center, created an innovative device that captures carbon dioxide with a microsurface comprised of a tin oxide film and fluorine layer. The device then extracts gaseous carbon dioxide via a bubbling electrode and selectively converts ...

Opportunistic pathogens are typically benign microbes that can sometimes cause infections in individuals with weakened immune systems or when they gain access to sterile areas of the body. Unlike obligate pathogens, opportunistic pathogens do not depend on host infection or transmission for survival, making it difficult to determine the factors driving the evolution of virulence in these microbes. Nevertheless, given their potential to cause severe infections in immunocompromised patients and the increasing prevalence ...

While the U.S. federal government has clean energy targets, they are not binding. Most economically developed countries have mandatory policies designed to bolster renewable electricity production. Because the U.S. lacks an enforceable federal mandate for renewable electricity, individual states are left to develop their own regulations.  Marilyn Brown, Regents’ and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in Georgia Tech’s School of Public Policy; Shan Zhou, an assistant professor at Purdue University and Georgia Tech Ph.D. alumna; and Barry Solomon, a professor emeritus of environmental policy at Michigan Technological University, investigated ...

Sophia Antipolis, 20 August 2024: It’s not long before the global cardiology community converges in London for the European Society of Cardiology (ESC)’s annual gathering, unveiling the latest practice-changing science.  The ESC Press Conference Schedule is now available, detailing the nine press conferences that will take place from Thursday 29 August to Sunday 1 September, and can be accessed in person or online. Accredited journalists will also be able to access embargoed press materials in the digital press area from Thursday 22 August.  Join triallists and ESC spokespersons for eight press conferences on the Hot ...

To evade the human host’s immune response, SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, uses the machinery of defense cells to induce the expression of unproductive isoforms of key antiviral genes – variant forms of genes that result from disrupted splicing or transcription processes and do not code for functional (protective) proteins. This is a key finding of a study conducted by researchers at the Albert Einstein Jewish Brazilian Hospital (HIAE), the University of São Paulo (USP) and the ...

Irvine, Calif., Aug. 20, 2024 — A team of researchers led by the University of California, Irvine has discovered that an antioxidant found in rosemary extract can reduce volitional intakes of cocaine by moderating the brain’s reward response, offering a new therapeutic target for treating addiction.   The study, recently published online in the journal Neuron, describes team members’ focus on a region of the brain called the globus pallidus externus, which acts as a gatekeeper that regulates how we react to cocaine. ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Researchers in Purdue University’s colleges of Agriculture and Science have received an additional $95,000 from the Trask Innovation Fund to develop patent-pending drought-resistant soybean plants and novel arthritis treatments. The fund is managed by the Purdue Innovates Incubator, which provides programming for the Purdue University community to ideate, refine and support their solutions. Funding recipients can receive up to $50,000 for their initial project; ...

AUSTIN, Texas — During the past decade, auditors have found a booming new business: reviewing reports on companies’ environmental, social, and governance (ESG) activities. ESG reporting among S&P 500 companies grew 80% from 2010 to 2020, with nearly half the companies hiring auditors to give seals of approval. But while ESG reporting brings new opportunities to auditors, it can also bring new headaches, according to a new study from Texas McCombs. Test subjects who engaged auditors to review their ESG reports often pressured them to be more lenient on their financial reports — and auditors ...

August 20, 2024 — Among patients undergoing lumbar spinal fusion, the presence of Modic changes is associated with differences in microbial diversity and metabolites in the lumbar cartilaginous endplates (LCEPs), reports a study in The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.  "These findings suggest that changes in the microbiota may disrupt unsaturated fatty acid metabolism within the LCEP microenvironment, potentially influencing the onset and progression of Modic changes [MCs]," according to the new research ...

Atul Malhotra, MD, Peter C. Farrell Presidential Endowed Chair in Pulmonary Medicine at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and pulmonologist at UC San Diego Health, has been named recipient of the 2024 Sleep and Respiratory Neurobiology Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Thoracic Society. The award is given annually to honor the career of an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the field of sleep or respiratory neurobiology in terms of both scientific and scholarly advances, as well as in mentoring, teaching and advocacy to advance public health. Recipients are recognized for achievement in scholarship over the course of an entire ...

Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, have used artificial intelligence tools to accelerate the understanding of the risk of specific cardiac arrhythmias when various parts of the heart are exposed to different thresholds of radiation as part of a treatment plan for lung cancer. Their results are published in JACC: CardioOncology. “Radiation exposure to the heart during lung cancer treatment can have very serious and immediate effects on a patient’s cardiovascular ...

ATLANTA — Researchers using Georgia State University’s Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) Array have identified new details about the size and appearance of the North Star, also known as Polaris. The new research is published in The Astrophysical Journal. Earth’s North Pole points to a direction in space marked by the North Star. Polaris is both a navigation aid and a remarkable star in its own right. It is the brightest member of a triple-star system and is a pulsating variable star. Polaris gets brighter and fainter periodically as the star’s diameter ...

University of Louisville researchers have received $3.6 million in new grant funding to study the role of arsenic exposure in causing cancer and other major health concerns. And, they think there’s a simple, off-the-shelf solution — zinc — that could help prevent some of its worst effects.  Arsenic is highly poisonous and occurs naturally in some rocks and soil. As a result, the most common source of exposure is drinking contaminated water, particularly ground water from private wells. More than 43 million people in the U.S. alone get their water from private wells, including many in areas of Kentucky that may be contaminated ...

The last two decades have been fraught for the policing profession, with police facing internal and external challenges to their public safety and legitimacy mandates. Much more research, analysis, and insights into policing are needed to inform policy, practice, and reforms in law enforcement and to achieve evidence-based policing. To move toward these goals, the current Editors-In-Chief of Criminology & Public Policy have published a second special issue on policing practice and policy, following their first special issue in 2020. This issue features thought-provoking and timely studies from leading researchers in the field on a variety of challenges facing ...

Researchers at the University of British Columbia have shown for the first time how and why the depletion of microbes in a newborn's gut by antibiotics can lead to lifelong respiratory allergies. In a study published today in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, a research team from the school of biomedical engineering (SBME) has identified a specific cascade of events that lead to allergies and asthma. In doing so, they have opened many new avenues for exploring potential preventions and treatments. "Our research finally shows how the gut bacteria and antibiotics shape a newborn's immune system to make them more prone to allergies," said ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Politician and businessman Nelson Rockefeller was seen as a moderate or liberal Republican even as he embraced conservative policies as the Republican Party shifted to the right in the 1960s and ‘70s. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign history professor Marsha Barrett uses the political career of Rockefeller — the four-time New York governor and vice president to Gerald Ford — as a lens to explore the evolution of the Republican party and the ascendancy of conservatism in her new book, “Nelson Rockefeller’s Dilemma: The Fight to Save Moderate Republicanism.” ...

The review and writing sessions, held from July 22-25, 2024, gathered specialists from South and North America, Australia, Asia, Europe, and Africa. Participants brought expertise in the disciplines of water management, environmental data and modelling, crop nutrition including nitrogen and carbon, and farmer-centric agronomy. “The strategic task for this group was to focus its attention on whether our understanding of landscape relationships between terrain, water, carbon, and changing farming objectives provides opportunities ...

Esophageal cancer, a highly aggressive malignancy originating in the esophageal epithelium, poses significant public health challenges in China, where it ranks sixth in incidence and fifth in mortality among cancers. The country's large population contributes to over half of the global cases and deaths from esophageal cancer. This cancer's poor prognosis is often due to late diagnosis, as early-stage esophageal cancer is typically asymptomatic, leading to diagnoses at more advanced stages. The geographical distribution of high-risk areas in China, such as the southern side of the ...

Nakkash & Griffin Engaging Virginia Youth & Community In Designing LGBTQ+ Inclusive Vaping Prevention Interventions Rima Nakkash, Professor, Global and Community Health, College of Public Health, and Kenneth Griffin, Professor, Global and Community Health, College of Public Health, received funding for the project: “Engaging Virginia youth and community in designing LGBTQ+ Inclusive Vaping Prevention Interventions.” The researchers are developing evidence-based vaping prevention interventions tailored for LGBTQ+ youth in Virginia, informed by input from youth and stakeholders in this community.  Nakkash and Griffin ...

Cuellar Examining Negotiated Rates For Behavioral Health & Primary Care Providers Alison Cuellar, Associate Dean of Research, College of Public Health; Professor, Health Administration and Policy, received funding for the project: “Examining Negotiated Rates for Behavioral Health and Primary Care Providers.” The goal of the study is to inform future Medicaid policy by examining differences in how much payers reimburse for medical services in Virginia.  Cuellar is a Co-Investigator on the project with ...