Medicare-certified home health agencies, which are key to allowing older adults to age in place, are increasingly going through ownership changes, raising concerns about health care spending, workforce, and quality of care, according to a study by UTHealth Houston. The research was published in JAMA Health Forum, part of the Journal of the American Medical Association. “The ownership change in health care sectors — including various forms of acquisitions by health systems, insurers, private equity firms, and other corporate investors — is increasingly reshaping U.S. health care system and causing concerns about quality of care,” said Yucheng Hou, PhD, assistant ...

Member states of the European Union are obliged to designate Special Protection Areas (SPAs) as part of the Natura 2000 network. These areas are designed to guarantee the preservation and restoration of bird populations. However, due to the paucity of data about rare species, it was not known how well these areas worked. Researchers at the University of Göttingen and Dachverband Deutscher Avifaunisten (DDA) developed citizen science platforms as a new data source to evaluate the effectiveness of the 742 protected areas for birds ...

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER (FL), November 1, 2024 – More than 25 payloads sponsored by the International Space Station (ISSInternational Space Station) National Laboratory, including technology demonstrations, in-space manufacturing, student experiments, and multiple projects funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), are bound for the orbiting outpost. These investigations, launching on SpaceX’s 31st Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) mission for NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration, aim to improve life on Earth through space-based research and foster a sustainable economy in low Earth orbit(Abbreviation: ...

East Hanover, NJ – November 1, 2024 – Following significant gains since the post-pandemic lockdown, employment rates for people with disabilities may have plateaued, remaining near historic high levels over the past 18 months despite the Federal Reserve’s efforts to slow the economy, according to today’s National Trends in Disability Employment – semi-monthly update (nTIDE) issued by Kessler Foundation and the University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability Year-to-Year nTIDE Numbers (comparing October 2023 to October 2024) The employment-to-population ratio for people with disabilities (ages 16-64) ...

A University of Rochester research team is reporting a new way to detect cancer cells with a “liquid biopsy” that’s designed to be simpler, faster, and more informational than current methods. What is a liquid biopsy? It is a non-invasive test that uses blood, urine, and other bodily fluids as a vehicle for finding cancer cells or other molecules released by tumors. A liquid biopsy can detect or screen for cancer or monitor progression of the disease and how the body responds to cancer treatment. James ...

Scientists at Northwestern and Case Western Reserve universities have developed the first polymer-based therapeutic for Huntington’s disease, an incurable, debilitating illness that causes nerve cells to break down in the brain. Patients with Huntington’s disease have a genetic mutation that triggers proteins to misfold and clump together in the brain. These clumps interfere with cell function and eventually lead to cell death. As the disease progresses, patients lose the ability to talk, walk, swallow and ...

Embargoed: Not for Release Until 2:00 pm U.S. Eastern Time Friday, 01 November 2024. Researchers at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) are collaborating with colleagues from Frankfurt/Main, Oxford and Würzburg to investigate how the complex, cooperative behaviour of honey bees (Apis mellifera) is genetically programmed so that it can be passed on to subsequent generations. As they explain in the scientific journal Science Advances, they found an answer in what is known as the doublesex gene (dsx). Behavioural interactions between organisms are fundamental and often inherited. ...

HOUSTON ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center today announced the selection of Jennifer Bickel, M.D., as the institution’s inaugural vice president and chief wellness officer (CWO). She will begin on January 6, 2025. Working closely with the senior vice president of people, culture and infrastructure, as well as the chief academic officer, she will spearhead initiatives that prioritize employee well-being, professional fulfillment and community resilience.  In her new role, Bickel will implement a three-component model focusing on a culture of wellness, efficiency ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – New Cornell University research has found that, unlike birds, the evolution of bats’ wings and legs is tightly coupled, which may have prevented them from filling as many ecological niches as birds. “We initially expected to confirm that bat evolution is similar to that of birds, and that their wings and legs evolve independently of one another. The fact we found the opposite was greatly surprising,” said Andrew Orkney, postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Brandon Hedrick, assistant professor biomedical sciences. Both researchers ...

Political campaigns spend big bucks hiring consultants to craft persuasive messaging, but a new study coauthored by Yale political scientist Joshua L. Kalla demonstrates that political professionals perform no better than laypeople in predicting which messages will sway voters. In the study, Kalla and his coauthors evaluated how well sample groups of political practitioners — professionals who work for political campaigns, polling firms, and advocacy organizations — and members of the public could predict the effectiveness of 172 campaign messages concerning 21 political issues, including legalizing marijuana, cancelling student debt, and increasing ...

In emergencies, children have distinct needs because of their unique physiological, emotional and developmental characteristics. But 83% of emergency departments nationwide are not fully prepared to meet those needs — which can be life-threatening for a child in cases of severe illness or injury. A new Oregon Health & Science University-led study, published today in JAMA Network Open, found that bridging that gap, known as becoming “pediatric ready,” could prevent the deaths of more than 2,100 children each year with modest financial investment. ...

Black holes continue to captivate scientists: they are purely gravitational objects, remarkably simple, yet capable of hiding mysteries that challenge our understanding of natural laws. Most observations thus far have focused on their external characteristics and surrounding environment, leaving their internal nature largely unexplored. A new study, conducted through a collaboration between the University of Southern Denmark, Charles University in Prague, Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA) in Trieste, and Victoria University of Wellington ...

Fukuoka, Japan—In organic molecules an exciton is a particle bound pair of an electron (negative charge) and its hole (positive charge). They are held together by Coulombic attraction and can move within molecular assemblies. Singlet fission (SF) is a process where an exciton is amplified, and two triplet excitons are generated from a singlet exciton. This is caused by the absorption of a single particle of light, or photon, in molecules called chromophores (molecules that absorb specific wavelengths of light). Controlling the molecular orientation and arrangement of chromophores is crucial for achieving high SF efficiency in materials with strong potential for optical ...

About The Study: In this cohort study, smoking and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk exhibited a dose-dependent association, with light ex-smokers having a CVD risk similar to that of never-smokers relatively soon after smoking cessation. For heavy ex-smokers, greater than 25 years might be required for the residual CVD risk to align with that of never-smokers.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Seung Yong Shin, MD, PhD, email theshin04@korea.ac.kr. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For ...

About The Study: In this time-series study, recreational cannabis legalization implementation in California was associated with an increase in rates of cannabis use during early pregnancy, defined by both self-report and toxicology testing, driven by individuals living in jurisdictions that allowed adult-use retailers. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Kelly C. Young-Wolff, PhD, MPH, email kelly.c.young-wolff@kp.org. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2024.3656) Editor’s Note: Please see the article ...

Research Shows Cleveland Clinic’s Therapeutic Virtual Yoga Program Can Be Effective for Chronic Low Back Pain  Participants also reported better sleep quality and reduced use of pain medications   UNDER EMBARGO Friday, November 01, 2024, 11:00 a.m. ET, CLEVELAND: Cleveland Clinic researchers found that a 12-week therapeutic virtual yoga program for chronic low back pain can be a feasible, safe and effective treatment option. The findings are published in JAMA Network Open.   Chronic low back pain is very common — up to 20% of adults worldwide have long-lasting or recurrent lower back pain. In severe cases, ...

Closing in on Parkinson’s Disease proteins in extracellular vesicles in the blood Precision diagnostics for diseases that affect the brain and other organs brought closer by new ability to exclusively access contents of organ-derived extracellular vesicles in blood By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — Brain disorders like Parkinson’s (PD) or Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) start to develop in patients much earlier than when their first clinical symptoms appear. Treating patients at these early stages could slow or even stop their ...

Accra, GHANA [October 29, 2024] — International oncology experts are gathering in Accra, Ghana for a series of meetings beginning today, to update cancer treatment recommendations in the NCCN Harmonized Guidelines™ for Sub-Saharan Africa. This is the latest event from a longstanding collaboration between the African Cancer Coalition (ACC), American Cancer Society (ACS), and National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®), and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) that collectively ...

Cratons are fascinating yet enigmatic geological formations. Known to be relatively stable portions of the Earth’s continental crust, cratons have remained largely unchanged for billions of years. Although cratons have survived many geological events, some are undergoing decratonization—a process characterized by their deformation and eventual destruction. For example, the North China Craton (NCC), an ancient continental crust block, is known to have begun extensive decratonization during the Mesozoic era, largely due to tectonic and geochemical modifications and destabilization of its base (or ‘keel’). However, explaining the mechanisms ...

Despite ongoing efforts to curb CO2 emissions with electric and hybrid vehicles, other forms of transportation remain significant contributors of greenhouse gases. To address this issue, old technologies are being revamped to make them greener, such as the reintroduction of sailing vessels in shipping and new uses for hydrogen in aviation. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering have used computer modeling to study the feasibility and challenges of hydrogen-powered aviation. “While there is a long way to go for hydrogen aviation to be realized at scale, we hope that our ...

Socioeconomic factors such as education, occupation, and wealth influence the likelihood of developing cognitive impairment or dementia in later life and whether a person is likely to recover, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The research, published in Scientific Reports, followed 8,442 adults aged 50 and above in England over 10 years from 2008/09 to 2018/19, to examine how socioeconomic factors at the start of the study were associated with changes in cognitive status. The researchers tracked how these people moved between various states: healthy, mild cognitive impairment, and dementia. They also considered the possibility ...

Getting to the heart of causality is central to understanding the world around us. What causes one variable — be it a biological species, a voting region, a company stock, or a local climate — to shift from one state to another can inform how we might shape that variable in the future.  But tracing an effect to its root cause can quickly become intractable in real-world systems, where many variables can converge, confound, and cloud over any causal links.  Now, a team of MIT engineers hopes to provide some clarity in the pursuit of causality. They developed ...

About The Study: This article discusses a recent revision of the Alzheimer Association criteria to define Alzheimer disease (AD) as a purely biological entity, which raises concerns that if diagnosis of AD can be reduced to the sole presence of AD core 1 biomarkers, major uncertainty and variability in the clinical prognosis of patients diagnosed with AD may be introduced. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Bruno Dubois, MD, MSc, email bruno.dubois@aphp.fr. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2024.3770) Editor’s ...

The EULAR 2025 Congress will gather the world's foremost rheumatology experts, fostering a unique environment to explore pioneering research, clinical advancements, and patient-centred innovations in rheumatology. This annual flagship event offers unparalleled access to transformative discussions and showcases the latest strides in patient care for rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs).    This year's Congress programme promises an impressive line-up, featuring must-see scientific sessions, EULAR Recommendations, and insightful abstract presentations. Esteemed speakers from across Europe and beyond ...

NEW YORK, November 1, 2024 — Newly published research in the journal Glia has identified crucial links between dietary choices and the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS). The study, led by Patrizia Casaccia, founding director of the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center’s (CUNY ASRC) Neuroscience Initiative and Einstein Professor of Biology and Biochemistry at the CUNY Graduate Center, explored how enzymes called ceramide synthase 5 and 6 are responsible for the toxic effect ...