The press release
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Science27 Sep 2024

Children in foster care with disabilities face significant challenges

ORLANDO, Fla.— Children with disabilities in foster care are extremely vulnerable, facing risks of maltreatment and removal from their homes and greater need for healthcare services. New research suggests that children with specific disabilities in foster care are less likely to find a permanent home and have a higher risk of mortality while in care compared to those without disabilities. This research, “The Effect of Initial Disability on Permanency Outcomes of Children in Foster Care,” presented during the American Academy of ...

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Medicine27 Sep 2024

Asthma rates lower in children who received only breast milk at birth hospital

ORLANDO, Fla.—Infants who were exclusively fed breast milk during their hospitalization at birth were 22% less likely to develop asthma in early childhood, according to research presented during the American Academy of Pediatrics 2024 National Conference & Exhibition in Orlando. The abstract, “Association Between Hospital Feeding Patterns and Childhood Asthma,” found lower rates of asthma in the infants born at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center who were exclusively fed breast milk even after adjusting ...

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Science27 Sep 2024

Water-absorbing beads pose increasing hazard for young children; researchers test methods on how to shrink them

ORLANDO, Fla.—Water-absorbing beads have become increasingly hazardous to children over the past 10 years, as children who swallow the beads can experience life-threatening problems such as bowel obstruction. In new research presented during the American Academy of Pediatrics 2024 National Conference & Exhibition, researchers reveal the results of an experiment in which they grew the beads to different sizes and tested different child-safe liquids to see which ones could shrink the beads after they had expanded. The abstract, “The Hidden Dangers: Superabsorbent Polymer (SAP) Beads as an Increasing Cause of Bowel Obstruction in Children,” will be presented ...

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Science27 Sep 2024

Caregivers underestimate suicide as the leading cause of firearm death: study

ORLANDO, Fla.—A study found fewer than one in four Colorado residents living with children at home recognized suicide as the leading cause of firearm death and less than half thought suicide can be prevented, according to research presented during the American Academy of Pediatrics 2024 National Conference & Exhibition. The study will be published online in the journal Pediatrics Sept. 27, the first day of the conference at the AAP National Conference and Exhibition that runs from Sept. 27-Oct. 1 at the Orange County Convention Center. While ...

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Social Science27 Sep 2024

Anti-bullying, sexual harassment resources increase in US schools but gaps remain

ORLANDO, Fla. — While violence prevention education has increased in U.S. schools, only 1 in 10 schools today require violence prevention discussions in class, according to research presented during the American Academy of Pediatrics 2024 National Conference & Exhibition at the Orange County Convention Center. Chloe Gao, MD/PhD Candidate and lead research author on “Implementation of Educational Programming and Policies to Prevent Bullying, Sexual Harassment, and Violence in US Schools, 2008-2020,” studied data collected by the Centers ...

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Social Science27 Sep 2024

Social media used to facilitate sexual assault in children: new research

ORLANDO, Fla.— About 7% of more than 1,000 teens who disclosed sexual abuse at a California hospital reported that social media was used to facilitate the assault, according to research presented during the American Academy of Pediatrics 2024 National Conference & Exhibition. The retrospective study, “Social Media Facilitated Sexual Assault in Children,” found that, when accounting only for victims whose perpetrators were not related to them, an even higher percentage – 12%-- reported that social ...

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Medicine27 Sep 2024

Racial disparities exist in emergency department treatment of children with unintentional ingestions

ORLANDO, Fla.— Unintentional injuries like falls, drownings and poisonings are the leading cause of death in patients ages 1-4, and a significant portion of these deaths are linked to unintentional ingestions—such as swallowing a drug or poison. New research shows racial and socioeconomic disparities exist in the emergency management of unintentional ingestions in children. Black patients younger than age 6 with the diagnosis of unintentional ingestion were more likely than white children to have a social work consult, Children Services Bureau referral, and urine drug screen, according ...

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Medicine26 Sep 2024

Advances in endovascular therapy for stroke patients

(Boston)—Stroke related to large vessel occlusion (LVO) is a leading cause of disability and death worldwide. Endovascular therapy (minimally invasive procedures like catheterization done inside the blood vessels) has transformed the management of these patients. In 2015, several randomized trials showed the benefit of endovascular therapy compared with medical management in reducing disability in some patients, most of whom had small core infarction and presented to an emergency department within six hours of symptom onset. Evidence for the treatment benefit has also been extended to patients presenting within 24 hours of symptom onset, along with patients with large ...

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Medicine26 Sep 2024

The Lancet Public Health: MMR vaccine remains the best protection against measles - modelling study in England suggests level of protection decreases slightly over time

The Lancet Public Health: MMR vaccine remains the best protection against measles - modelling study in England suggests level of protection decreases slightly over time The MMR vaccine remains highly protective against measles for life, protecting over 95% of vaccinated individuals from measles. Most measles cases in England are in unvaccinated children and young people, but the proportion of measles cases in people who received two doses of the MMR vaccine has increased since 2010, especially among young adults. New ...

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Medicine26 Sep 2024

Babies born after fertility treatment have higher risk of heart defects

The risk of being born with a major heart defect is 36% higher in babies who were conceived after assisted reproductive technology, such as in vitro fertilisation (IVF), according to results of a very large study published in the European Heart Journal [1] today (Friday). Researchers say the finding is important since congenital heart defects are the most common form of birth defects, and some of them are associated with life threatening complications. The study also shows that the increase ...

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Science26 Sep 2024

New research confirms link between perceived stress and psoriasis relapse

(Friday, 27 September 2024, Amsterdam, Netherlands) Innovative research has provided compelling evidence that perceived stress can directly trigger the relapse of psoriatic skin lesions.1 The study, presented today at the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) Congress 2024, is the first to scientifically validate this connection in vivo. Psoriasis, a chronic skin condition affecting over 6 million people in Europe, is characterised by rapid skin cell production, leading to scaling and inflammation.2, 3 While it has long ...

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Science26 Sep 2024

Call to action: A blueprint for change in acute and critical care nursing

PHILADELPHIA (September 26, 2024) – A groundbreaking article published in the latest issue of Nursing Outlook proposes a significant shift in how nursing care is measured within acute and critical care settings. This "Blueprint for Action" seeks to revolutionize current methods by recognizing the full scope of a nurse's work and its profound impact on patient outcomes. "The current measurement systems fail to capture the essence of what nurses truly do," explains lead-author ...

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Science26 Sep 2024

Who transports what here?

Transport proteins are responsible for the ongoing movement of substrates into and out of a biological cell. However, it is difficult to determine which substrates a specific protein can transport. Bioinformaticians at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) have developed a model – called SPOT – which can predict this with a high degree of accuracy using artificial intelligence (AI). They now present their approach, which can be used with arbitrary transport proteins, in the scientific journal PLOS Biology. Substrates in biological cells need to be continuously transported inwards and outwards across the cell membrane to ensure the survival of the cells and ...

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Medicine26 Sep 2024

Fitness loss through spontaneous mutations will not impact viability of human populations in the near future

Spontaneous mutations tend to reduce fitness in populations of living organisms, but this erosion of fitness is countered by natural selection. This study uses the first mutation accumulation experiment in a mammal to show that even in the absence of natural selection, the rate of fitness loss should not be of concern, which is reassuring for humans. ##### In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Biology: http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002795 Article Title: An estimate of fitness ...

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Medicine26 Sep 2024

Prize recognizes discovery of how cell population protects our airways – and keeps them clear

For uncovering how a cell population helps ensure food, liquid and acid reflux are kept out of our airway – and instead sent to our GI tract – Laura Seeholzer is the winner of the 2024 Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology. Her findings, detailed in April in Science, have motivated her to study what’s happening with these cells in diseases where this critical protective reflex is compromised. “These findings are crucial for understanding potentially life-saving reflexes that are activated in the airway, ...

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Technology26 Sep 2024

Team led by UMass Amherst debunks research showing Facebook’s news-feed algorithm curbs election misinformation

AMHERST, Mass. – An interdisciplinary team of researchers led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently published work in the prestigious journal Science ­­­calling into question the conclusions of a widely reported study — published in Science in 2023 and funded by Meta — finding the social platform’s algorithms successfully filtered out untrustworthy news surrounding the 2020 election and were not major drivers of misinformation. The UMass Amherst-led team’s work shows that the Meta-funded research was conducted during a short ...

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Science26 Sep 2024

Science publishes eLetter on 2023 study by Guess et al., as well as response by Guess et al.

In 2023, Science published the study, “How do social media feed algorithms affect attitudes and behavior in an election campaign?” by Andrew Guess et al. Now, Chhandak Bagchi and colleagues – in an eLetter that will appear on the 2023 study – state that the study’s “reporting and conclusions did not account for a series of temporary emergency changes to Facebook’s news feed algorithm in the wake of the 2020 U.S. presidential election that were designed to diminish the spread of voter-fraud misinformation. This issue may have led readers to misinterpret ...

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Science26 Sep 2024

Supreme Court ruling could strip protections from up to 90 million acres of US wetlands

New interpretations following the recent Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) United States Supreme Court ruling could strip federal protections from up to 90 million acres of U.S. nontidal wetlands – nearly all that exist in the coterminous US – according to a new study. The findings reveal the potential scope and impacts of the regulatory changes and highlight the uncertainty introduced by the ruling. Enacted in 1972, the Clean Water Act (CWA) aims to restore and protect the quality of U.S. waters ...

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Environment26 Sep 2024

Ancient, buried wood inspires a possible low-cost method to store carbon

Inspired by an ancient buried log, researchers present a novel method to remove and store atmospheric carbon for hundreds of years or more. It involves locking woody biomass away in “wood vaults.” The approach could provide a cost-effective solution to mitigate climate change. Achieving net-zero carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is crucial for combating climate change, yet reducing fossil fuel emissions alone is insufficient to meet the Paris Agreement's targets. To achieve these goals, carbon dioxide removal (CDR) methods must be implemented, including engineering solutions, like direct air capture, ...

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Environment26 Sep 2024

Removal of marine plastic fishery debris greatly reduces entanglement threat for endangered Hawaiian monk seals

Large-scale removal of discarded fishing gear and other plastic debris from the waters of Northwestern Hawaii meaningfully reduced entanglement rates of endangered Hawaiian monk seals, according to a new study. The findings, which are drawn from more than four decades of data, offer promising evidence that marine debris cleanup programs are successful and that reducing plastic inputs and scaling up removal efforts could maximize conservation outcomes across marine ecosystems worldwide. Plastic pollution severely threatens marine ecosystems, ...

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Medicine26 Sep 2024

Climate change likely to increase diarrheal disease hospitalizations by 2100s

By 2100, hospitalizations from diarrheal diseases are predicted to increase in the city of Dhaka in Bangladesh as a result of climate change, even if global warming stays under 2 degrees Celsius. Farhana Haque and colleagues from University College London, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and icddr,b report these findings in a new study published September 26 in the open access journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. As one of the world’s most densely population cities, Dhaka deals with a high burden of diarrheal diseases. While some studies have looked at how weather affects diarrhea in Bangladesh, few have examined the future impact of climate ...

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Medicine26 Sep 2024

Cleveland Clinic researchers discover new bacterium that causes gut immunodeficiency

September 26, 2024, Cleveland: Cleveland Clinic researchers have discovered a new bacterium that weakens the immune system in the gut, potentially contributing to certain inflammatory and infectious gut diseases. The team identified the bacterium, Tomasiella immunophila (T. immunophila), which plays a key role in breaking down a crucial immune component of the gut’s multi-faceted protective immune barrier. Identifying this bacterium is the first step to developing new treatments for a variety of inflammatory and infectious gut diseases. These conditions, including inflammatory ...

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Science26 Sep 2024

Research reveals impact of gut microbiome on hormone levels in mice

Francis Crick Institute press release Under strict embargo: 19:00hrs Thursday 26 September 2024 Peer reviewed Experimental study Animals Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute have shown that the balance of bacteria in the gut can influence symptoms of hypopituitarism in mice. They also showed that aspirin was able to improve hormone deficiency symptoms in mice with this condition. People with mutations in a gene called Sox3 develop hypopituitarism, where the pituitary gland doesn’t ...

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Science26 Sep 2024

Lignin-based sunscreen offers natural and high-performance UV protection

In a significant breakthrough for the cosmetics industry, researchers have developed a new type of sunscreen using lignin, a naturally abundant polymer, and titanium dioxide (TiO2). The study, led by Yarong Li and Zhiguang Tang, was published in the Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts and details the innovative use of a dual-modified lignin sub-microsphere to enhance the SPF and improve the color of sunscreens. Lignin, a byproduct of the pulp industry, is known for its UV-absorbing properties and antioxidant capabilities. However, its application in commercial sunscreens has been limited due ...

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Science26 Sep 2024

How are stretch reflexes modulated during voluntary movement?

How did the bodies of animals, including ours, become such fine-tuned movement machines? How vertebrates coordinate the eternal tug-o-war between involuntary reflexes and seamless voluntary movements is a mystery that Francisco Valero-Cuevas’ Lab in USC Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering, set out to understand. The Lab’s newest computational paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) adds to the thought leadership about the processing of sensory information and control of reflexes during voluntary movements—with implications as to how its disruption could ...

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