Despite national medical guidelines supporting the use of antiviral medications in young children diagnosed with influenza, a new study reports an underuse of the treatment.   “Trends in Outpatient Influenza Antiviral Use Among Children and Adolescents in the United States” was published in Pediatrics, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.   “Antiviral treatment, when used early, improves health outcomes with influenza,” said lead author and principal investigator James Antoon, MD, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of Pediatrics and Hospital ...

A form of brain-inspired computing that exploits the intrinsic physical properties of a material to dramatically reduce energy use is now a step closer to reality, thanks to a new study led by UCL and Imperial College London researchers. In the new study, published in the journal Nature Materials, an international team of researchers used chiral (twisted) magnets as their computational medium and found that, by applying an external magnetic field and changing temperature, the physical properties of these materials could be adapted to suit different machine-learning tasks. Such an approach, known as physical reservoir ...

People in many parts of the United States possess few chances for the robust community engagement that underpins healthy democracies, according to a new report that for the first time maps civic opportunity across the country. The heat map created by Johns Hopkins University’s SNF Agora Institute, reveals patterns of inequality in civic opportunity tied to race, class, immigration status and education. Researchers also found that a great deal of civic engagement happens through local faith institutions and social and fraternal organizations, not D.C.-based advocacy organizations that tend to carry political clout. The report is the initial phase ...

Immigration to and living on Mars have long been depicted in science fiction works. But before dream turns into reality, there is a hurdle man has to overcome -- the lack of essential chemicals such as oxygen for long-term survival on the planet. However, hope looms up thanks to recent discovery of water activity on Mars. Scientists are now exploring the possibility of decomposing water to produce oxygen through electrochemical water oxidation driven by solar power with the help of oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts. The challenge is to find a ...

Young adults are now more likely to vape than to use traditional cigarettes. After years of public health success in decreasing the numbers of people using cigarettes, researchers are seeing striking increases in the numbers of young people who use e-cigarettes regularly – so much so that, for the first time, there are more young people who begin to use nicotine through vaping rather than through cigarettes.   “We now have a shift such that there are more ‘never smokers’ who vape than established smokers,” ...

About The Study: This analysis finds that COVID-19 and the drug overdose epidemic were major contributors to the widening gender gap in life expectancy (nearly six years) between women and men in recent years. Men experienced higher COVID-19 death rates for likely multifactorial reasons, including higher burden of comorbidities and differences in health behaviors and socioeconomic factors, such as labor force participation, incarceration, and homelessness. Differentially worsening mortality from diabetes, heart disease, homicide, and suicide suggest that chronic metabolic disease and mental illness may also contribute.   Authors: Brandon W. Yan, M.D., ...

About The Study: The data from this nationally representative survey study reveal a shift in tobacco use among young adults (ages 18-24), showing historically low cigarette use, which has positive public health significance. However, e-cigarette use is higher (14.5%) than reported previously, coinciding with the introduction of salt-based devices in 2015 to 2018. Over half of established vaping young adults never regularly smoked. Research suggests that exclusive e-cigarette users are unlikely to ...

About The Study: The findings of this study indicate an increase in the prevalence of breastfeeding initiation and breastfeeding duration at 12 months from 1999 to 2018 in the U.S. Temporal changes of breastfeeding duration at 12 months were more prevalent among male infants, older mothers, Mexican American and multiracial participants, and households with higher income. Authors: Yongjun Zhang, Ph.D., M.D., of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine in Shanghai, is the corresponding author. To access ...

Nearly one in five school-aged children and preteens now take melatonin for sleep, and some parents routinely give the hormone to preschoolers, according to new research from the University of Colorado Boulder published Nov. 13 in JAMA Pediatrics. This concerns the authors, who note that safety and efficacy data surrounding the products are slim, such dietary supplements lack full regulation by the Food and Drug Administration.  “We hope this paper raises awareness for parents and clinicians, and sounds the alarm for the scientific community,” said lead author Lauren Hartstein, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow ...

San Francisco—November 13, 2023—Researchers at Gladstone Institutes have discovered that a rare genetic variant known as the “Christchurch mutation” can block detrimental effects of apolipoprotein E4, the best-established risk factor for the most common form of Alzheimer’s disease. The apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene has long been known to affect the risk of Alzheimer’s disease through its three main variants: E2 (low risk), E3 (intermediate risk), and E4 (high risk). More recently, a ...

Scientists know very little about conditions in the ocean when life first evolved, but new research published in Nature Geoscience has revealed how geological processes controlled which nutrients were available to fuel their development. All life uses nutrients such as zinc and copper to form proteins. The oldest lifeforms evolved in the Archean Eon, three and a half billion years before the dinosaurs first appeared. These microbes showed a preference for metals such as molybdenum and manganese compared to their more recent counterparts. This ...

Fasting interventions, which involve alternating periods of fasting and refeeding, are generally thought to improve health. But these interventions don’t work as well in old animals. The question is: Why? By studying the short-lived killifish, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne have shown that older fish deviate from a youthful fasting and refeeding cycle, and instead enter a state of perpetual fasting, even when ingesting food. However, the benefits of refeeding after fasting in old killifish can be restored by genetically activating a specific subunit of AMP kinase, an important sensor ...

A new element of the catastrophic impacts of climate change is emerging – how global warming is impacting the human brain. In a paper published today in Nature Climate Change, an international team of academics explore the ways in which research has shown that a changing environment affects how our brains work, and how climate change could impact our brain function in the future. The paper is led by the University of Vienna with input from the universities of Geneva, New York, Chicago, Washington, Stanford, Exeter in the UK and the Max Plank Institute in Berlin. It also explores the role that neuroscientists can play in further understanding and addressing ...

Research Highlights: In a 3-year trial, intensive treatment with antihypertensive medication to reduce systolic blood pressure, the top number, to less than 120 mm Hg reduced cardiovascular disease events among people at high-risk for cardiovascular disease by 12% compared to standard treatment with a target of less than 140 mm Hg. The effects were consistent regardless of participants’ diabetes status (Type 1, Type 2 or none) or history of stroke. Embargoed until 8 a.m. ET, Monday, Nov. 13, 2023 PHILADELPHIA, ...

A model based on artificial intelligence is able to predict the therapy outcome (measured by volumetric reduction of tumor lesions) in 80% of ovarian cancer patients. The AI-based model has an accuracy of 80%, significantly better than current clinical methods. The tool, named IRON (Integrated Radiogenomics for Ovarian Neoadjuvant therapy), analyzes various patient clinical features, from circulating tumor DNA in the blood (liquid biopsy) to general characteristics (age, health status, etc.), tumor markers, and disease images obtained through CT scans. ...

Deepak Srivastava, MD, president of Gladstone Institutes and a renowned cardiovascular researcher, took the stage on Saturday in Philadelphia to receive the American Heart Association’s Distinguished Scientist award—joining a preeminent group of scientists and clinicians who’ve earned the association’s highest honor over the past decade. The American Heart Association applauded Srivastava for his significant, original, and sustained scientific contributions that have advanced the association’s mission: “To be a relentless ...

The second- and fourth-most distant galaxies ever observed have been discovered in a region of space known as Pandora’s Cluster, or Abell 2744, using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Following up on a deep field image of the area, an international team led by Penn State researchers confirmed the distance of these ancient galaxies and inferred their properties using new spectroscopic data — information about light emitted across the electromagnetic spectrum — from JWST. At nearly 33 billion light years away, these incredibly distant ...

For years, researchers and clinicians have known that lupus, an autoimmune condition, occurs in women at a rate nine times higher than in men. Some of the factors that cause the disease’s high prevalence in women have eluded discovery, but in a new study investigating the immune system processes in lupus and the X chromosome, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have uncovered answers about the disease’s frequency in females. A number of dysregulated genetic and biological pathways contribute to the development of lupus and its varied symptoms of muscle and joint pain, ...

A scientific team has developed a new polyurethane production technique using CO2 to create new types of easily recyclable plastics. The study, published in the Journal of the American Chemistry Society (J.A.C.S.), could provide a solution for the development of truly sustainable plastics. Commodity plastics have transformed global industry. Whether in construction, clothing, vehicles or food packaging, these plastics are everywhere in our daily lives, so much so that their global use has been estimated at around 460 million tons in 2019. This number is staggering, but not surprising, because plastics, also known as synthetic polymers, have met a large ...

Strategy underlies the affairs of national leaders, including how they view and interact with other states — but what if such strategy is borne of self-deception? That’s the thrust of a novel international relations theory that Ryuta Ito of Hiroshima University has now expanded upon, providing psychological rationalization to explain the irrational acts of national leaders at war. Ito penned his reasoning on Sept. 5 in the journal International Affairs. “Why did Vladimir Putin decide to invade Ukraine in 2022?” asked Ito, assistant professor in the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Hiroshima University. ...

PHILADELPHIA— The odds of prescribing the appropriate dose of statins—a medicine used to lower “bad” cholesterol levels—increased sixfold when automated referrals were made to pharmacy services, instead of relying on traditional prescribing methods, according to researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. More than 90 million people in the U.S. use statins, making it one of the most prescribed medications in the county. Despite their effectiveness in lowering cholesterol levels and the risk of cardiovascular ...

Though people often want to share good news as soon as they learn it, a study published by the American Psychological Association has found that keeping good news a secret before telling someone else could make people feel more energized and alive. “Decades of research on secrecy suggest it is bad for our well-being, but this work has only examined keeping secrets that have negative implications for our lives. Is secrecy inherently bad for our well-being or do the negative effects of secrecy tend to stem from keeping negative secrets?” asked lead author Michael ...

Infants and toddlers may be psychologically wired to thrive with high levels of “sensitive care” and personal attention, according to a study conducted with contemporary hunter-gatherer societies. Research led by an evolutionary anthropologist at Cambridge University found that hunter-gatherer infants receive attentive care and physical contact for about nine hours per day from up to 15 different caregivers. Dr Nikhil Chaudhary says that, for the vast majority of our species’ evolutionary history, ...

The American Pediatric Society (APS) is pleased to announce eighty-four new members. Founded in 1888, the APS is North America's first and most prestigious academic pediatric organization. New members will be recognized during the APS Presidential Plenary at the Pediatric Academic Societies 2024 Meeting. APS members are recognized child health leaders of extraordinary achievement who work together to shape the future of academic pediatrics. Current members nominate new members by recognizing individuals who have distinguished themselves as child health leaders, ...

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a significant public health problem, with over 296 million people chronically infected worldwide. Despite the availability of a safe and effective vaccine for over 40 years, HBV remains a leading cause of liver disease and death. One of the main challenges to curing HBV is the unique biology of the virus. HBV replicates through a covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) intermediate integrated into the host genome. This makes it very difficult to eradicate the virus completely, even with effective antiviral therapy. Another challenge is the impaired immune response to HBV in chronically infected individuals. The virus has evolved several mechanisms to evade ...