Over 14 million tonnes of microplastics are estimated to be lying on the ocean floor with the fashion industry among the worst pollutants.    But a new project led by textile experts at Heriot-Watt University in the Scottish Borders, is aiming to make fashion labels and consumers alike, more environmentally aware when manufacturing and buying new clothes.    For four years, a small team headed by Dr Lisa Macintyre, associate professor of textiles at the University’s School of Textiles and Design in the Galashiels campus, has overseen painstaking ...

Working paper | Quantitative data analysis | People Truancy rates have risen faster in developed English-speaking countries since the Covid-19 pandemic than in non-English-speaking countries, according to a new working paper by UCL researchers. Teenage girls are also increasingly more likely to skip school than boys across Anglophone countries. In 2022, 26% of all Year 11 pupils in England reported playing truant at least once in the last fortnight. This represented an increase from 2012 and 2018, the previous data capture points, when the figure was at 18% each time. In the same year (2022), 29% of Year 11 girls in England reported skipping school in the past ...

LA JOLLA (November 14, 2024)—Excess cholesterol is known to form artery-clogging plaques that can lead to stroke, arterial disease, heart attack, and more, making it the focus of many heart health campaigns. Fortunately, this attention to cholesterol has prompted the development of cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins and lifestyle interventions like dietary and exercise regimens. But what if there’s more to the picture than just cholesterol? New research from Salk Institute scientists describes how another class of lipids, called sphingolipids, contributes to arterial plaques and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. — University at Buffalo neuroscientists have identified the binding site of low-dose ketamine, providing critical insight into how the medication, often described as a wonder drug, alleviates symptoms of major depression in as little as a few hours with effects lasting for several days.   Published in September in Molecular Psychiatry, the UB discovery will also help scientists identify how depression originates in the brain, and will stimulate research into using ketamine and ketamine-like drugs for other ...

As whooping cough cases rise in the U.S., a new nasal vaccine developed by Tulane University may hold the key to reducing the spread of the highly contagious respiratory disease. Current pertussis vaccines are widely used and effective at preventing whooping cough, caused by the Bordetella pertussis bacteria.  However, the vaccines fail to clear bacteria from the upper respiratory tract, allowing even vaccinated individuals to spread the disease. The new vaccine combines the traditional pertussis antigens with an innovative ...

Image Highlights:   MSU researchers now can identify more proteins, or biomarkers, in blood plasma, including those linked to specific diseases like cancer. By identifying these biomarkers earlier, medical researchers can create better diagnostic tests and drugs that target diseases sooner, improving patient outcomes. EAST LANSING, Mich. – Medical professionals have long known that the earlier a disease is detected, the higher the chance for a better patient outcome. Now, a multidisciplinary team of Michigan State University researchers, in ...

Artificial intelligence is making impressive strides in its ability to read medical images. In a recent test in Britain's National Health Service, an AI tool looked at the mammograms of over 10,000 women and correctly identified which patients were found to have cancer. The AI also caught 11 cases doctors had missed. But systemic diseases, such as lupus and diabetes, present a greater challenge for these systems, since diagnosis often involves many kinds of medical images, from MRIs to CT scans. Sheng Wang, a University ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – In low-risk pregnancies, mothers and children are just as safe with a planned home birth as they are with a planned birth center birth, a national study led by Oregon State University researchers has shown. The findings, published in Medical Care, contradict doctors’ long-held concerns about home birth, including a recent opinion by the American College of Gynecologists and Obstetricians that describes hospitals and accredited birth centers as the safest places to have a baby. A birth center is a health care facility designed to provide a more natural and home-like environment than a hospital. OSU ...

Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly automating tasks like translation, text classification and customer service. But tapping into an LLM’s power typically requires users to send their requests to a centralized server — a process that’s expensive, energy-intensive and often slow. Now, researchers have introduced a technique for compressing an LLM’s reams of data, which could increase privacy, save energy and lower costs. The new algorithm, developed by engineers at Princeton and Stanford Engineering, works by trimming redundancies and reducing the precision of an LLM’s ...

Traditionally, taking inventory of the species in a rainforest requires sending in a team of experts with field guides and binoculars for a multi-day expedition. But the devastating pace of the destruction of the world’s rainforests and increasing urgency to better monitor and protect what remains demand faster, easier, and more efficient approaches. Several years ago, a Yale-based team devised an alternate approach: they use lightweight, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to collect this critical biodiversity data in remote areas. Now they’ve collected ...

Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday 18 November 2024     @Annalsofim          Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also on behalf of the organization they represent.     ...

Key Takeaway: When policymakers enact consumption taxes to raise revenue for the government, consumers who oppose the tax may decrease their consumption more, leading to a reduction in tax revenue.   BALTIMORE, MD, November 18, 2024 – One of the most common assumptions tax policymakers make is that by raising taxes, they will raise revenue for the government. However, a new study that centers on a soda tax in Washington state has reinforced alternative presumptions about tax impacts on consumer behaviors. Researchers found that when Washington state enacted a tax on soda, it not only generated backlash in the consumer marketplace and political ...

PHILADELPHIA – Annenberg Public Policy Center survey data show that public recall of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline number has grown slowly since the three-digit phone number was introduced in July 2022. Just 15% of U.S. adults are familiar with it, as of September 2024. Survey respondents who accurately report awareness of the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline number increased significantly from August 2023 (11%) to September 2024 (15%). Those 15% of respondents reported both that they knew the number and, when asked in an open-ended format, said the number ...

About The Study: A total of nearly 137 million adults, representing more than half of all U.S. adults, are eligible for semaglutide therapy. This exceeds the number of adults eligible for statins (approximately 82 million), currently the most prescribed pharmaceuticals among U.S. adults.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Dhruv S. Kazi, MD, MS, email dkazi@bidmc.harvard.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamacardio.2024.4657) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions ...

Whether it’s ABC Listen’s Health Report or Mamamia’s But Are You Happy, podcasts have fast become a part of our everyday media consumption. In fact, the average person spends more than five hours a week listening to them. But could listening to podcasts lead to healthier habits?   In the first study of its kind, University of South Australia researchers have explored just this, finding that podcasts can significantly improve health knowledge, increase exercise levels, and boost healthy eating.   Reviewing ...

About The Study: Zerlasiran, a small-interfering RNA targeting hepatic synthesis of apolipoprotein(a), was well-tolerated and reduced time-averaged lipoprotein(a) concentration by more than 80% during 36 weeks of treatment in patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Steven E. Nissen, MD, email nissens@ccf.org. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2024.21957) Editor’s ...

Popular anti-obesity drugs continue to show cardiovascular benefits beyond weight loss, according to several new papers published in JACC, the flagship journal of the American College of Cardiology, that are being simultaneously presented at the American Heart Association’s 2024 Scientific Sessions. JACC is publishing two secondary analyses on the impact of GLP-1 medications in improving cardiac structure and function in heart failure patients and cardiovascular outcomes in those who previously had cardiac bypass surgery, ...

About The Study: Muvalaplin, an oral small molecule lipoprotein(a) inhibitor, reduced lipoprotein(a) measured using intact lipoprotein(a) and apolipoprotein(a)-based assays and was well tolerated. The effect of muvalaplin on cardiovascular events requires further investigation.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Stephen J. Nicholls, MBBS, PhD, email stephen.nicholls@monash.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2024.24017) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Shifting our diets to be more sustainable can be a powerful way for each of us to address both climate change and global food insecurity, however making such adjustments at the large scales necessary to make a difference globally can be a delicate matter. “Changes in food demand in one part of the world can have cascading environmental and human welfare implications for people around the world),” said Joe DeCesaro, data analyst at UC Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis & Synthesis (NCEAS). Despite the seemingly daunting complexity of the global food system, to ensure a healthy population ...

BALTIMORE, November 18, 2024— Researchers at Kennedy Krieger Institute have made significant strides in improving the lives of patients with Tourette syndrome. Their recent publication highlights how behavioral therapies—an approach that teaches patients how to manage certain tics using behavioral strategies—are proving to be the most effective treatment. Tourette syndrome (TS), a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting up to 1% of the population, is characterized by motor and vocal tics, which are sudden, repetitive movements or sounds that can significantly ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Phosphorus, a nutrient in soil essential for sustaining most forms of life, is increasingly disappearing from land as it is washed into waterways throughout the United States, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State. The study, published today (Nov. 18) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, analyzed data from 430 rivers across the U.S. and found that phosphorus loss from agricultural lands has increased over the past four decades, despite efforts to reduce it. This loss of phosphorus ...

Cambridge, Mass., 11/18/2024 – Scientists have identified many types of bacteria in the mouth, but many problems remain in understanding how they work with one another. One of the problems is that microbes assemble themselves into densely packed multi-species biofilms. Their density and complexity pose acute difficulties for visualizing individual cells and analyzing their interactions at single-cell level. ADA Forsyth scientists have developed a new imaging approach that makes it possible to analyze the spatial connections between bacteria, including the strength of adhesive forces that hold them together. Adhesion is of fundamental importance in ...

Washington, DC / Bangalore, India — A new study highlights recent, but fluctuating, growth in global human antibiotic consumption, one of the main drivers of growing antimicrobial resistance (AMR). AMR results in infections that no longer respond to antibiotics (and other antimicrobial medicines) and often leads to longer hospital stays, higher treatment costs, and higher mortality rates. AMR is estimated to be associated with nearly five million global deaths annually. Researchers affiliated with the One Health Trust (OHT), the Population Council, GlaxoSmithKline, the University of Zurich, the University of Brussels, ...

The research team, led by Durham University’s Department of Anthropology, studied two groups of wild bearded capuchin monkeys in Brazil’s Serra da Capivara National Park.  The researchers installed a large box in the park which contained food that the monkeys could access by either lifting a door or pulling a knob.  The team observed which monkeys learned how to access the food, and how that information then spread to the rest of their group.  The researchers specifically focused on the role played by social tolerance in the learning of the problem-solving behaviour.  Social tolerance determines who is allowed ...

Climate change is making water scarcer. A promising method to combat this problem is desalination technology because it can tap seawater. Though desalination has potential, it also brings risks with environmental impact, cost, and accessibility.  Zero liquid discharge (ZLD) technology aims to increase water recovery from desalination by squeezing more water out of desalination brine. ZLD can help reduce water scarcity and waste from desalination plants, but comes at increased costs and, potentially, increased environmental effects from desalination.  In ...