DALLAS, April 24, 2024 — The Periodic Table of Food Initiative ('the Initiative'), a pioneering collaboration led by the American Heart Association, the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, with support from The Rockefeller Foundation, has unveiled an initial suite of scientific tools, data, and training aimed at revolutionizing global agriculture and nutrition. This first phase introduces two data interfaces–the PTFI MarkerLab interface and the American Heart Association Precision Medicine Platform–which provide standardized data on the biomolecular composition of 500 foods that are representative of global consumption. ...

Study found GPT-4-generated messages to patients were acceptable without any additional physician editing 58% of the time and provided more detailed educational information than those written by physicians AI-generated messages had shortcomings, including 7% of responses being deemed unsafe if left unedited Generative AI may promote efficiency and patient education, but require a “doctor in the loop” and a cautious approach as hospitals integrate algorithms into electronic health records A new study by investigators from Mass General Brigham demonstrates that large language models (LLMs), a type of generative ...

Opioid use during pregnancy is not associated with a substantial increase in the risk of neuropsychiatric disorders such as ADHD in children, finds a large study from South Korea published by The BMJ today. A slightly increased risk of neuropsychiatric disorders was found, but the researchers say this should not be considered clinically meaningful because it was limited to mothers exposed to more than one opioid prescription, high doses, and over longer time periods during pregnancy. According to 2019 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 7% of women in the United States were prescribed opioids during pregnancy. Previous ...

Public health experts are calling for a ban on alcohol industry funded education programmes in UK universities and schools, which they say normalise drinking and downplay the long term health risks of alcohol.  They include an industry-backed “freshers’ week survival guide” for university students and a theatre based educational programme in schools funded by Diageo, one of the world’s biggest alcoholic beverage companies, reports an investigation by The BMJ.   The call follows a successful campaign in Ireland that has led to educational programmes ...

Have you ever hailed a ride from an unrated Uber driver? Dined at a zero-star restaurant? Made a pricey online order from the lowest-rated Amazon vendor? Likely not. That's because rating systems have overhauled the way we travel, eat and shop. Born from the early days of e-commerce on sites like eBay, ratings help weed out scammers and lend some semblance of order to a fast-changing online marketplace. But there's a darker side to this reliance on ratings and rankings, says Marion Fourcade, a UC Berkeley sociology professor and director of Social Science Matrix. Supercharged ...

A new study led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) shows how firms in the United States behave differently depending on the political party in charge - even if they do not change policies. The researchers, from UEA in the UK and Colorado School of Mines in the US, investigated the implications of changes in energy companies’ behaviour in response to the outcome of gubernatorial elections, which take place to elect state governors. Using elections where the outcome is very close to see how unpredictable changes in the ruling party affect things, they focused on the behaviour of ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Just as water moves through a river, rivers themselves move across the landscape. They carve valleys and canyons, create floodplains and deltas, and transport sediment from the uplands to the ocean. A new paper out of UC Santa Barbara presents an account of what drives the migration rates of meandering rivers. The two authors compiled a global dataset of these waterways, analyzing how vegetation and sediment load effect channel movement. “We find a global-scale trend between the amount of sediment that rivers ...

Improved climate conditions in Europe for a range of climate-sensitive infectious diseases increase the risk of local transmission. Researchers are fighting back with early warning systems that combine mosquito surveillance with climate forecasts to give local communities time to prepare and protect themselves. **ECCMID has now changed its name to ESCMID Global, please credit ESCMID Global Congress (formerly ECCMID, Barcelona, Spain, 27-30 April) in all future stories** The geographical range of vector-borne diseases, especially diseases that ...

*Please mention the ESCMID Global Congress (formerly ECCMID) Barcelona, 27-30 April) if using this material* Climate change is multiplying the threat caused by antimicrobial resistance (AMR), amplifying its growing risk through increasing global temperatures, greenhouse gas emissions and rising sea levels. This warning along  will be given in a new evidence review at this year’s ESCMID Global Congress (formerly ECCMID) (27-30 April), by Professor Sabiha Essack, South African Research Chair in Antibiotic Resistance and One ...

*Embargo 0001H CEST Barcelona time Thursday 25 April* Concerns about the common side-effects of COVID-19 vaccines and their effectiveness are key to determining whether adults in Germany and the UK choose to get vaccinated against the virus, according to new research being presented at this year’s ESCMID Global Congress (formerly ECCMID) in Barcelona, Spain (27-30 April). In contrast, timing of COVID-19 and influenza vaccines, as well as their type, have little influence on people’s willingness to get vaccinated in both countries. The ...

**ECCMID has now changed its name to ESCMID Global, please credit ESCMID Global Congress (formerly ECCMID, Barcelona, Spain, 27-30 April) in all future stories** Experts are working on a new type of ultraviolet light called far-UVC that could be highly effective for reducing air-borne transmission of diseases such as COVID-19 and influenza, as well as surface contamination in hospitals, with hopes that it could even reduce the risk of the next pandemic. In a new research review presented at this year’s ...

Meta-analysis of genetic studies from 10 countries finds infants born by C-section have more antibiotic resistance genes; antibiotic use and prematurity also fuel resistance. Infants living in Africa had more antibiotic resistant genes than those from Europe. Findings indicate that interventions targeting the gut microbiome of mothers and their infants, such as probiotics, could help reduce antibiotic resistance spread. **ECCMID has now changed name to ESCMID Global, please credit ESCMID Global Congress in all future stories** A meta-analysis of genetic studies analysing the microbiota (bacteria in the gut) of 1,275 infants from 10 countries finds that caesarean delivery and antibiotic ...

TikTok’s swift ascension to the upper echelons of social media is often attributed to its recommendation algorithm, which predicts viewer preferences so acutely it’s spawned a maxim: “The TikTok algorithm knows me better than I know myself.” The platform’s success was so pronounced it’s seemed to spur other social media platforms to shift their designs. When users scroll through X or Instagram, they now see more recommended posts from accounts they don’t follow. Yet for all that influence, the public knows little about how TikTok’s ...

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences has elected three New York University faculty as 2024 fellows: Glennys R. Farrar, a professor in the Department of Physics; André A. Fenton, a professor and chair of the Center for Neural Science; and Rachel L. Swarns, a professor in the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.   “We honor these artists, scholars, scientists, and leaders in the public, non-profit, and private sectors for their accomplishments and for the curiosity, creativity, and courage required ...

When cancer patients undergo chemotherapy, the dose of most drugs is calculated based on the patient’s body surface area. This is estimated by plugging the patient’s height and weight into an equation, dating to 1916, that was formulated from data on just nine patients. This simplistic dosing doesn’t take into account other factors and can lead to patients receiving either too much or too little of a drug. As a result, some patients likely experience avoidable toxicity or insufficient benefit from the chemotherapy they receive. To make chemotherapy dosing more ...

Entanglement is a form of correlation between quantum objects, such as particles at the atomic scale. This uniquely quantum phenomenon cannot be explained by the laws of classical physics, yet it is one of the properties that explains the macroscopic behavior of quantum systems. Because entanglement is central to the way quantum systems work, understanding it better could give scientists a deeper sense of how information is stored and processed efficiently in such systems.  Qubits, or quantum bits, are the building blocks of a quantum computer. However, it is extremely difficult to make specific entangled states in many-qubit ...

Geologists at MIT and Oxford University have uncovered ancient rocks in Greenland that bear the oldest remnants of Earth’s early magnetic field.  The rocks appear to be exceptionally pristine, having preserved their properties for billions of years. The researchers determined that the rocks are about 3.7 billion years old and retain signatures of a magnetic field with a strength of at least 15 microtesla. The ancient field is similar in magnitude to the Earth’s magnetic field today.  The open-access findings, appearing ...

For years, even as opioid overdose deaths dramatically increased, doctors and other prescribers in the United States needed special permission from the federal government if they wanted to prescribe buprenorphine, a medication that helps patients overcome opioid addiction and prevents fatal overdoses. That requirement, called an “X waiver”, was eliminated on January 12, 2023 due to an item in a major federal budget bill. This meant that suddenly, any clinician who had a license to prescribe controlled substances could prescribe ...

Philadelphia, April 24, 2024 – In a landmark study, an international consortium led by researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) published the final results of a key clinical trial of the gene therapy CASGEVY (exagamglogene autotemcel) for the treatment of sickle cell disease in patients 12 years and older with recurrent vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs). The study found that 96.7% of patients in the study did not have any vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs) – a blockage that results in lack of oxygen and painful episodes – for at least one year, and 100% were able to remain hospitalization-free for the same ...

“[...] we identified multiple proteins affecting COVID-19 and aging.” BUFFALO, NY- April 24, 2024 – A new research paper was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 16, Issue 7, entitled, “Using genetics and proteomics data to identify proteins causally related to COVID-19, healthspan and lifespan: a Mendelian randomization study.” The COVID-19 pandemic poses a heavy burden on public health and accounts for substantial mortality and morbidity. Proteins are building blocks of life, but specific proteins causally related ...

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- Whenever you call a customer service contact center, the team on the other end of the line typically has three goals: to reduce their response time, solve your problem and do it within the shortest service time possible. However, resolving your problem might entail a significant time investment, potentially clashing with an overarching business objective to keep service duration to a minimum. These conflicting priorities can be commonplace for customer service contact centers, which often rely on the latest technology to meet customers’ ...

Mi Li, assistant professor in the University of Tennessee Center for Renewable Carbon and the UT School of Natural Resources, received a $75,000 research grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a two-year project using a cellulose-functionalized adsorbent to remove per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from water. Li has built a student team to work on this project including Kailong Zhang, a Ph.D. student in the School of Natural Resources, and Ryan Baskette, an undergraduate student in the Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology. The grant comes from the EPA’s People, Prosperity, and the Planet Program, which provided almost ...

URBANA, Ill. – Sweet potatoes are a popular food choice for consumers worldwide because of their delicious taste and nutritious quality. The red, tuberous root vegetable can be processed into chips and fries, and it has a range of industrial applications, including textiles, biodegradable polymers, and biofuels. Sweet potato quality assessment is crucial for producers and processors because features influence texture and taste, consumer preferences, and viability for different purposes. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign explores the use of hyperspectral imaging and explainable artificial intelligence (AI) to assess ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2024 MINNEAPOLIS – People who take acid-reducing drugs may have a higher risk of migraine and other severe headache than people who do not take these medications, according to a study published in the April 24, 2024, online issue of Neurology® Clinical Practice, an official journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The acid-reducing drugs include proton pump inhibitors such as omeprazole and esomeprazole, histamine H2-receptor antagonists, or H2 blockers, such as cimetidine and famotidine, and antacid supplements. The study does not prove that acid-reducing drugs cause migraine; ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2024 MINNEAPOLIS – Immigrants to Canada who have spent a greater proportion of their lives in Canada have a greater risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) than people who have spent a smaller proportion of their lives there, according to a study published in the April 24, 2024, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study does not prove that an increased proportion of life in Canada causes MS; ...