A lung function test used to help diagnose asthma works better in the morning, becoming less reliable throughout the day, Cambridge researchers have found. Using real world data from 1,600 patients, available through a database created for speeding up research and innovation, the team also found that its reliability differs significantly in winter compared to autumn. Asthma is a common lung condition that can cause wheezing and shortness of breath, occasionally severe. Around 6.5% of people over six years old in the UK are affected by the condition. Treatments include the use of inhalers or nebulisers to carry ...

Prescriptions for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in England have risen 18%  year on year since the pandemic. This is higher than previously reported, and masks wide regional variations in prescribing rates, finds research published in the open access journal BMJ Mental Health. The trends likely reflect growing public and professional awareness of the condition, driven in part by social media, as well as the potential impact of COVID-19, suggest the researchers. But the regional variations point to inequalities in access to care, they add. ADHD is ...

Public health advice on the safe consumption of glycerol-containing slush ice drinks, also known as slushees, may need revising, conclude researchers after carrying out a detailed review of the medical notes of 21 children who became acutely unwell shortly after drinking one of these products.   Their findings, published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, show that in each case the child became acutely unwell with a cluster of symptoms soon after drinking a slush ice drink, which the researchers refer to as glycerol intoxication ...

Water/aqua aerobics for 10 or more weeks at a time can trim waist size and aid weight loss, finds a pooled data analysis of the available evidence, published in the open access journal BMJ Open This type of exercise is particularly effective in overweight/obese women and the over 45s, the analysis indicates. Global estimates for 2022 indicate that more than 43% of adults worldwide were overweight, and that 504 million women and 374 million men were obese, note the researchers, adding that obesity contributes to an estimated 2.8 million deaths every year. The buoyancy of water helps reduce joint injuries commonly associated with land based exercise ...

A new study published in The Lancet HIV reveals gaps in knowledge surrounding the prevention of HPV-related cancers in people living with HIV and outlines future research priorities. A literature review, conducted by a team of international experts underscores the need for further research and highlights existing disparities in healthcare for this vulnerable population. HPV-related cancers are preventable, primarily through vaccination. However, a Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Tartu and one of the study’s authors Anneli Uusküla said that the study found a lack of evidence on the effectiveness of ...

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — As poultry companies weigh cost and efficiency with higher animal welfare standards, research comparing conventional and slow-growing broiler breeds showed that the slow-growing chickens displayed behaviors more closely associated with positive welfare. Broilers — chickens specifically bred for meat production — are typically raised for six to eight weeks, while slow-growing broilers need up to 12 weeks to reach maturity. Though gaining popularity in some European ...

Charging forward at top speed, a garden snail slimes up 1 millimeter of pavement per second. By this logic, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology researchers’ new 3D printing process speeds past existing methods — at a snail’s pace. Researchers in Beckman’s Autonomous Materials Systems Group created “growth printing,” which mimics tree trunks’ outward expansion to print polymer parts quickly and efficiently without the molds and expensive equipment typically associated with 3D printing. Their work appears in the journal Advanced Materials. “Humans ...

Even cells experience peer pressure. Scientists have long studied the ins and outs of cancer cells to learn more about the disease, but they’re increasingly finding that noncancerous cells near the cancer cells exert a powerful influence over a tumor’s trajectory. “Not all cells in a tumor are cancer cells — they’re not even always the most dominant cell type,” said Sylvia Plevritis, PhD, chair of Stanford Medicine’s department of biomedical data science. “There are many other cell types that support tumors.” To better capture the whole picture of cells’ locations and interactions, Plevritis ...

As major changes continue for our planet’s climate, scientists are concerned about how plants will grow and adapt. Researchers in the MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory, or PRL, Sharkey lab are studying changes in plant metabolism that occur when plants are grown in high light, high CO2 (HLHC) conditions. They found that under these conditions, plants photosynthesize more, which can lead to larger plants, and potentially larger crop yields. However, there are tradeoffs; scientists also found that plants lose carbon under these conditions, which they need to make food. This ...

With Australia’s National Assessment Program (NAPLAN) beginning today, new research from the University of South Australia highlights a critical but often overlooked factor in student success – wellbeing.   In a world first* study of more than 215,000 students, UniSA researchers found that while standardised tests measure academic skills, different dimensions of wellbeing - emotional wellbeing, engagement, and learning readiness - can play a crucial role in performance.   Specifically, the study found that learning readiness ­- which includes foundational skills such as perseverance, confidence, and engagement ...

Among 289 million adults in 18 European countries, more than 16 million years of life were lost from 2020 through 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study published March 11th in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Sara Ahmadi-Abhari of Imperial College London, UK, and colleagues. The direct and indirect impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on both total and disability-free years of life lost are important for policy setting and resource allocation, but they have not been thoroughly investigated. In the new study, researchers ...

A simple neural change alters mating preferences in male butterflies, aiding rapid behavioral evolution, Nicholas VanKuren and Nathan Buerkle at the University of Chicago, US, and colleagues, report March 11th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology. Heliconius are a group of tropical butterflies known for their wide variety of wing patterns and colors, which act as a warning to predators. Because wing coloration is crucial for their survival, males have evolved a preference for females with the same wing color. But the sensory and neurological mechanisms behind these preferences are poorly understood. Researchers ...

SAN ANTONIO — March 11, 2025 —Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has received a three-year, $2,999,998 million grant from NASA to identify and characterize life and its biosignatures in frozen sand dunes in Alaska, under conditions similar to dune fields on early Mars and Saturn’s moon Titan. The Assessing Regional Reflectors of Astrobiology in Kobuk dunes for Interplanetary Science (ARRAKIS) project team, which includes researchers from Brigham Young University and the University of California—Davis, seek insight into ...

A unique analysis of district-level data reveals why inequality is so destructive to the home consumption welfare of people living below the poverty line, especially during times of significant economic decline, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. During negative economic growth, the welfare of the poor should be the main focus area. Research from the University of Johannesburg shows how inequality can demolish most of the benefits of positive economic growth and social grants for people living in poverty, especially during economic downturns. The study by Prof ...

At this year’s American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) annual meeting, investigators at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) presented several significant studies, with three focused on new ways to help patients recover faster after total knee arthroplasty (TKA), also known as knee replacement surgery. What follows are highlights from these studies: Limiting Use of Tourniquets During Knee Replacement Surgery Improves Patient Outcomes Tourniquets have traditionally been used during TKA to reduce blood loss and the need for transfusions. However, a new study of almost 18,000 patients from 2019 to 2023 found that prolonged tourniquet use was linked ...

Catalytic function and its efficiency play a significant role in industrial reactions, and consistent reforms are made in the methodology to enhance the large-scale synthesis of drugs, polymers, and other desired products. Available catalysts can be homogeneous, which means that they possess the same phase as the reactants and products, making them difficult to separate from the reaction mixture. On the other hand, heterogeneous catalysts are a preferred choice for such reactions because of their ease of separation and reusability. The past decade has seen the emergence of porous ...

A discovery made by a team led by researchers at the University of Michigan tugs at the seams of some key cosmic lessons we thought we had learned from our own galaxy. This new knowledge comes from the outskirts of Andromeda, the Milky Way's nearest major galactic neighbor, where astronomers have found the system's smallest and dimmest satellite galaxy to date. This dwarf galaxy, named Andromeda XXXV and located roughly 3 million light-years away, is forcing astronomers to rethink how galaxies evolve in different cosmic environments and survive different epochs of the universe. Although the discovery bears ...

Workplace culture plays an integral role in the successful adoption of lifestyle medicine programming within health systems, according to a new study published in BMJ Open. Researchers developed case studies of health systems with lifestyle medicine programming that had a diversity of size, location, payer model and patient population. More than 40 individuals from those health systems, including administrative leaders, physicians and other team members involved in lifestyle medicine programs, participated in the data collection. The study found ...

Bottom Line: The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) concludes that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of screening for food insecurity on health outcomes in the primary care setting. According to survey data, 12.8% of households experienced food insecurity in 2022, with 7.7% of households experiencing low food security and 5.1% experiencing very low food security. Nearly one-third of households with incomes below the federal poverty threshold are food insecure. Food insecurity is one among a multitude of medical, psychological, and social conditions ...

WASHINGTON, March 11, 2025 – Coral reefs are some of the world’s most diverse ecosystems. Despite making up less than 1% of the world’s oceans, one quarter of all marine species spend some portion of their life on a reef. With so much life in one spot, researchers can struggle to gain a clear understanding of which species are present and in what numbers. In JASA, published on behalf of the Acoustical Society of America by AIP Publishing, researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution combined acoustic monitoring with a neural network to identify fish activity on coral reefs ...

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that promoting cardiovascular health in older adults may help alleviate the burden of neurodegenerative diseases, particularly among Black adults, who are known to experience a higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Anisa Dhana, MD, MSc, email anisa_dhana@rush.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.0527) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, ...

About The Study: In this survey study, participants expressed a mild preference for messages written by artificial intelligence (AI) but had a slightly decreased satisfaction when told AI was involved. Patient experience must be considered along with ethical implementation of AI. Although AI disclosure may slightly reduce satisfaction, disclosure should be maintained to uphold patient autonomy and empowerment. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Anand Chowdhury, MD, MMCi, email anand.chowdhury@duke.edu. To access the embargoed study: ...

DURHAM, N.C. – In a Duke Health-led survey, patients who were shown messages written either by artificial intelligence (AI) or human clinicians indicated a preference for responses drafted by AI over a human. That preference was diminished, though not erased, when told AI was involved.   The study, publishing March 11 in JAMA Network Open, showed high overall satisfaction with communications written both by AI and humans, despite their preference for AI. This suggests that letting patients know AI was used does not greatly reduce confidence in the message.   “Every health system is grappling with this issue of whether we disclose the use of AI and how,” ...

Due to the physical, psychological, and socioeconomic consequences of a cancer diagnosis and treatment, people with cancer are especially vulnerable during extreme weather events like hurricanes, tornadoes, and wildfires, which are becoming more common and damaging with climate change. A new national study led by American Cancer Society (ACS) and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health researchers finds patients whose facility was impacted by a wildfire disaster during recovery from lung cancer surgery had longer length of stay (LOS) than similar patients treated at the same facility, but at times when no disaster occurred. The findings are out today in the Journal ...

A research team led by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has discovered “berkelocene,” the first organometallic molecule to be characterized containing the heavy element berkelium. Organometallic molecules, which consist of a metal ion surrounded by a carbon-based framework, are relatively common for early actinide elements like uranium (atomic number 92), but they are scarcely known for later actinides like berkelium (atomic number 97). “This is the first time that evidence for the formation of a chemical bond between berkelium and carbon has been obtained. The discovery provides ...