Commercial arm robots are increasingly deployed in order to aid stroke patients in their recovery. Around 80% of patients have problems with their arm function. Robots are also seen as a solution for financial, and staffing, shortcomings in the healthcare sector. However, research led by Amsterdam UMC now shows that they offer no clinically meaningful effects for patients. The research is published today in Neurology.   "In particular countries such as China, Japan and South Korea, but also in North America and Europe, are UL-Robots seen more ...

Osaka, Japan — Needing a hip replacement is unfortunate, but even more unfortunate is to need to do it again. Surgeons at Osaka Metropolitan University have provided new insights into the performance of two types of stems used in total hip replacement surgery. Their findings are expected to contribute to the enhancement of long-term outcomes, improving patients’ quality of life and reducing the need for revision surgeries. Their paper was published in The Bone & Joint Journal on June 1. The hip joint, which connects the femur, or thighbone, to the pelvis, plays a crucial ...

Late-life depression, typically defined as depression with onset in individuals over 60 years of age, can affect up to a third or more of people older than 60 and can be debilitating. But, like other neurological conditions, an individual’s risk may be influenced by lifestyle choices. Researchers from Mass General Brigham previously developed and validated the Brain Care Score (BCS) for helping patients and clinicians identify lifestyle changes that may reduce their risk of dementia and stroke. Now, with collaborators at Yale University, they have shown that a higher BCS is also associated with a ...

World leaders must take advantage of a pivotal window of opportunity for forging a much-needed joined-up approach to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss, say scientists from ZSL and York University. Without this, work on tackling either crisis could inadvertently harm progress on the other. Published today (Tuesday 23 July) in the Journal of Applied Ecology, a paper from international conservation charity ZSL and researchers at York University, Toronto, titled ‘The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Paris Agreement need a joint work programme for climate, nature, and people’ conceptualises how a joint work ...

In a landmark move to advance the frontiers of artificial intelligence, the Quantitative Biology (QB) journal has published a comprehensive commentary titled "Current Opinions on Large Cellular Models," highlighting the cutting-edge developments in the field of large cellular models (LCMs). The journal has brought together a consortium of leading scholars from China, the United States, and Canada to delve into the future of AI-driven biological research. The commentary features influential authors behind some of the most impactful LCMs, such as scBERT, Geneformer, scGPT, scFoundation, and GeneCompass. These AI ...

Compact city is an urban planning strategy aimed at promoting environmental, economic, and social sustainability through spatial configurations featured with relatively high density and mixed land use. The continuous growth in car ownership forces cities to construct more static transportation facilities such as parking lots, squeezing the activity spaces of residents and consequently giving rise to a series of efficiency and equity issues. Thus, the conflict between people and vehicles in compact cities is increasingly prominent and urgently ...

The prevalence of kidney disease has been increasing in Japan, with it now affecting one in eight adults, but developing effective treatment remains a challenge. The kidneys are among the most energy-intensive organs in the body. For the kidneys to function, they constantly produce and consume large amounts of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is a chemical that the body uses to store and transport energy. However, ATP dynamics—the changes over time in ATP production and utilization—within the kidney have been poorly understood because of the lack of suitable imaging technologies.   Using a newly developed ATP imaging system, the researchers ...

Guides typically assist tourists with directions, but the experience could be greatly enhanced if they offered personalized services tailored to individual interests. Recently, researchers have transformed guide RNAs, which direct enzymes, into a smart RNA capable of controlling networks in response to various signals. This innovative research is gaining significant attention in the academic community.   A research team consisting of Professor Jongmin Kim and PhD candidates Hansol Kang and Dongwon Park from the Department of Life Sciences at POSTECH has developed a multi-signal ...

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), with toxicity and irritability, could cause atmospheric environmental problems such as haze and photochemical smog, seriously threatening the ecological environment and human health. The primary source of VOCs is human production, such as the petrochemical industry, pharmaceutical industry, footwear industry, electronic manufacturing, and cooking fumes. Catalytic oxidation technology can highly effectively remove organic pollutants without secondary pollution, and it is receiving increasing attention in VOC pollution control. In real-world operating conditions, the ...

HONG KONG (21 July 2024) --- The progress of solar energy technology took a step forward recently with the development of a groundbreaking living passivator at City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) that can substantially enhance the stability and efficiency of perovskite solar cells. This newly developed passivator is a type of corrosion inhibitor that appreciably changes the potential of a metal. The CityUHK technology leverages dynamic covalent bonds that activate on exposure to moisture and heat, enabling it to evolve new passivators in response to environmental factors. This innovative approach allows for real-time repair and maintenance of perovskite solar cells. ...

New research presented at this year’s Annual Meeting of the European Association for Study of Diabetes (Madrid, Spain, 9-13 September) shows that the risk of developing type 1 diabetes (T1D) decreases markedly in girls after age 10 years, while the risk in boys stays the same. Furthermore, risk of T1D is significantly higher boys with a single autoantibody than their female counterparts, suggesting the sex could be linked with autoantibody development, indicating the importance of incorporating sex in the assessment ...

Background and Goal: Sulfonylureas are a class of oral medications used to manage blood glucose levels in patients with type 2 diabetes. These drugs increase insulin production regardless of blood sugar levels. For this reason, the drugs can cause blood sugar to drop too low, leading to hypoglycemia. The goal of this study was to compare how prevalent impaired awareness of hypoglycemia was when patients with type 2 diabetes were treated with either insulin or sulfonylureas for both long and short-term periods. Study Approach: Researchers collected data from a group of 898 participants with type 2 diabetes enrolled in pharmacies, clinics, ...

Background and Goal: Social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age. These conditions include income, education, and access to health care. Knowledge of these factors is essential for primary care clinicians to deliver fair and complete care, plan programs and distribute resources effectively. However, this information is rarely captured consistently in clinical settings. This study identified how an Artificial Intelligence (AI) social determinants of health tool can be designed using a collaborative design strategy with input from primary care team members. Study Approach:  ...

Background and Goal: The COVID-19 pandemic likely worsened disparities in access to primary care. The goal of this study was to quantify the nationwide decline in primary care visits and the increase in telehealth utilization and explore whether certain groups of patients were disproportionately impacted. Study Approach: Researchers used primary care electronic health record data from the American Family Cohort— to examine  the percentage change in total visit volume, change in in-person visit volume, and telehealth ...

Background and Goal: The Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative was a four-year nationwide program aimed at improving outpatient health care quality. The initiative, funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, also prepared practices for payment systems based on care quality rather than service quantity and included a Change Package to guide practice transformations. This research brief examines whether these transformations were associated with reductions in emergency department visits among both primary and specialty care practices. Study Approach: Researchers analyzed data from 3,773 practices in the Transforming Clinical Practice ...

Person-centered care focuses on treating patients as individuals with unique needs and involving them actively in their care decisions. The Person-Centered Primary Care Measure (PCPCM) is a recently developed, patient-reported survey able to assess person-centeredness. The PCPCM has demonstrated strong validity and reliability. The goal of this study was to translate the original PCPCM survey into Dutch, adapt the survey for people with low literacy, and evaluate its structure, consistency, and accuracy. Study Approach: The survey was translated into Dutch and then back to English to ensure accuracy. The Dutch version was then tested to make sure it worked well for Dutch-speaking ...

Background and Goal: Identity discordance between patients and clinicians is associated with worse self-rated patient experience and less receipt of necessary care. Most prior studies have focused on racial discordance. However, whether these phenomena also apply to sexual and gender minority adults is currently unknown. This study evaluated how prevalent avoidance due to patient-clinician identity discordance is and its potential association with health care discrimination among sexual and gender minority ...

Background and Goal: Longitudinal continuity of care is the repeated contact between an individual and the same general practitioner (GP). This type of continuity of care is widely regarded as a cornerstone of primary care. Higher levels of longitudinal continuity of care are associated with better health outcomes, greater patient satisfaction, and more cost-effective use of health care resources. This study aimed to describe more recent variations between practices in the slopes of longitudinal continuity of care levels across the COVID-19 pandemic. The study also set out to determine if practice-related ...

Original Research Structural Racism and Inconsistent Hospital Policies Result in Health Care Professionals Disproportionately Testing Black Newborns for Prenatal Drug Exposure  Background and Goal: Black birthing parents and their newborns disproportionately experience newborn drug testing for prenatal substance exposure by health care professionals. This practice contributes to Child Protective Services reporting, family separation, and termination of parental rights. This qualitative study, conducted at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI, explored knowledge, attitudes, and experiences ...

Integrating driving support into a primary care setting can address a leading cause of family stress as well as teen adolescent morbidity and mortality.  Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death for adolescents, and a leading cause of crashes is driver error. To address this, researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania implemented a 15-minute self-administered virtual driving assessment test in 19 primary care practices.  3,037 adolescents 15 years and older completed the virtual driving ...

One-third of diabetic adults in the U.S. do not receive annual eye exams. Additionally, lack of pupillary dilation before exams is associated with ungradable, or insufficient exams. In September 2022, the OhioHealth Grant Medical Center Family Medicine practice implemented on-site diabetic retinopathy screening using digital fundus photography and automated retinal imaging without dilation. The practice later introduced eye dilation for specific patients. By identifying patients needing screening before appointments and using electronic health record reminders, the clinic increased the rate of interpretable exams from 20% in November 2022 to 35% in May 2023. That same month, the ...

Background and Goal: Black birthing parents and their newborns disproportionately experience newborn drug testing for prenatal substance exposure by health care professionals. This practice contributes to Child Protective Services reporting, family separation, and termination of parental rights. This qualitative study, conducted at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI, explored knowledge, attitudes, and experiences of health care professionals and Child Protective Services professionals regarding the influence of structural ...

Background and Goal:  This study marks the 50th anniversary of the North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG)—the premiere primary care research organization, particularly in family medicine—by examining social connections among members. Study Approach: Researchers used social network analysis to characterize individual members and the relational structure among NAPCRG community members. The study invited 5,905 current and past NAPCRG members and participants. The survey, based on the validated Program to Analyze, Record, and Track Networks to Enhance Relationships ...

Experts in fire ecology will converge at the Ecological Society of America’s upcoming Annual Meeting in Long Beach, Calif., Aug. 4–9, presenting the latest research on the causes and consequences of wildland fire in dozens of talks and posters. The growing threat of wildfire makes understanding the past, present and future of fire regimes essential. Fire ecology addresses crucial questions such as how different species and ecosystems respond to burns, which habitats are most vulnerable and how forests recover—or fail to recover—after ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A newly enhanced database is expected to help wildfire managers and scientists better predict where and when wildfires may occur by incorporating hundreds of additional factors that impact the ignition and spread of fire. “There is a tremendous amount of interest in what enables wildfire ignitions and what can be done to prevent them,” said Erica Fleishman, an Oregon State University professor. “This database increases the ability to access relevant information and contribute to wildfire ...