Enrollment in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans is not associated with altered frailty trajectories compared with enrollment in Traditional Medicare (TM), according to research published today in JAMA Network Open. In the article Frailty in Medicare Advantage Beneficiaries and Traditional Medicare Beneficiaries, lead author Sandra M. Shi, MD, MPH and colleagues suggest that more work is needed to better understand the health services needs of older adults with frailty. “A growing proportion of the population is enrolling in Medicare Advantage (MA), which typically ...

About The Study: This cohort study observed no significantly elevated long-term risk of autoimmune sequelae after SARS-CoV-2 Delta and Omicron BA.1 or BA.2 variant infection, except for a modestly increased risk of inflammatory bowel disease and bullous skin disorders in the hospitalized subgroup during the predominance of the Omicron variant. Booster vaccination appeared to mitigate the risk of long-term autoimmune sequelae.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Liang ...

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that racial disparities in cancer stage at diagnosis and survival exist among adolescent and young adult patients when disaggregated according to federal guidelines, which has health policy and funding implications. These results support the need for tailored interventions and informed public policy to achieve cancer care equity for all races.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Kekoa Taparra, MD, PhD, email ktaparra@stanford.edu. To ...

About The Study: This cohort study found that early childhood programming is associated with social determinants of health in adulthood. These findings reinforce the importance of early childhood education in addressing health disparities and contributing to healthier, more equitable communities and suggest that educational attainment is a key mechanism for health promotion. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Arthur J. Reynolds, PhD, email ajr@umn.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.32050) Editor’s ...

HER2 is a critical protein that plays a pivotal role in breast cancer cell growth and aggressiveness. Its expression level is a key indicator for treatment decisions, including the use of HER2-targeted therapies. Currently, HER2 status assessment relies heavily on immunohistochemical (IHC) staining of tissue slides followed by manual inspection by pathologists. This process, though widely adopted, suffers from several limitations, including poor reproducibility among pathologists and extended turnaround times. These challenges are further exacerbated in resource-constrained ...

BUFFALO, NY- August 30, 2024 – A new editorial was published in Volume 11 of Oncoscience on July 19, 2024, entitled, “Functional information offers individualized adaptive cancer therapies.” As introduced in this editorial, the Oxford Computer Science Dictionary offers both general and technical definitions of information. Generally, information is anything that can cause a change in a human mind's opinion about the current state of the real world. Technically, information is anything that reduces the uncertainty of a system's state. Claude Shannon provided an objective measure of information, known as entropy (H), by mathematically defining ...

In a research paper, scientists from the Beijing Institute of Technology proposed an event related potential (ERP) extraction method to solve the asynchronous problem of low-quality video target detection, designed the time-frequency features based on continuous wavelet transform, and established an EEG decoding model based on neural characterization. The average decoding accuracy of 84.56% is achieved in pseudo-online test. The new research paper, published July 4 in the journal Cyborg and Bionic Systems, introduces a low-quality ...

CHICAGO — Data science and data literacy are rapidly becoming essential skills for success across industry sectors and career fields. Now, Data Science 4 Everyone (DS4E) is inviting everyone — teachers, higher education faculty, parents, and students — to help shape what learning in this crucial area will look like. It’s an area essential to success in today’s world and tomorrow’s. Nurses use data science skills when they read a patient’s chart; engineers analyze data to design hardware and products; and business owners use data to guide ...

While some microbes can make people sick or spoil food, others are critical for survival. These tiny organisms can also be engineered to make specific molecules. Researchers reporting in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering have rewired one such microbe to help tackle greenhouse gases in the atmosphere: It takes in carbon dioxide (CO2) gas and produces mevalonate, a useful building block for pharmaceuticals. The increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has led to widespread global warming. To begin to address the problem, greenhouse gas emissions, including CO2, need to be significantly ...

Korean researchers announced that Korea’s Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) commercialization technology, which was the world’s first successfully commercialized CDMA technology in 1996, has been listed on the ‘Milestones Program,’ a world-renowned program hosted by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). As a result, it has become Korea’s first technology to be recognized by a world-class association to contribute to the development of mankind and industrial innovation. Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) announced on June 11 that their ...

About The Study: Among patients who underwent major noncardiac surgery, a continuation strategy of renin-angiotensin system inhibitors before surgery was not associated with a higher rate of postoperative complications than a discontinuation strategy. Corresponding Authors: To contact the corresponding authors, email Matthieu Legrand, MD, PhD (matthieu.legrand@ucsf.edu) and Etienne Gayat, MD, PhD (etienne.gayat@aphp.fr). To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2024.17123) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including ...

A new article in the peer-reviewed journal Human Gene Therapy describes the consensus reached by invited experts who participated in a meeting to evaluate the potential carcinogenicity of gene therapies. Click here to read the article now. The participants discuss the definition of vector genotoxicity, sources of uncertainty, suitable toxicological endpoints for genotoxic assessment of gene therapies, and future research needs. The proposed recommendations will help guide the development of regulatory guidelines for the non-clinical toxicological assessment of gene therapy products.  J­an ...

Media Contact: John Dudley (814) 490-3290 (cell) jjdudley@usf.edu EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 5 A.M. ET ON AUG. 30, 2024 What a submerged ancient bridge discovered in a Spanish cave reveals about early human settlement Led by a USF geologist, a team of researchers examined a submerged 25-foot bridge to tackle a long-lasting archaeological controversy: When humans settled on the islands in the western Mediterranean. Their findings narrow a historical gap between the settlement timelines of the eastern and western Mediterranean regions. TAMPA, Fla. (Aug. 27, 2024) – A new study led by the University ...

Understanding how cells process nutrients and produce energy - collectively known as metabolism - is essential in biology. However, analyzing the vast amounts of data on cellular processes to determine metabolic states is a complex task. Modern biology generates large datasets on various cellular activities. These "omics" datasets provide insights into different cellular functions, such as gene activity and protein levels. However, integrating and making sense of these datasets to understand cell metabolism is challenging. Kinetic models offer a way to decode this complexity by providing mathematical representations of cellular metabolism. ...

Women in China are now healthier than ever, but as the economy grows and China’s culture becomes more westernised, the country faces new challenges due to changing social norms and expectations, say experts in a special collection of articles published by The BMJ today. In nine articles spanning topics and conditions across women’s life courses, experts from China analyse the current state of women’s health; review achievements and remaining challenges in the contexts of women’s empowerment and rights, labour force participation, and family and community dynamics; and make recommendations ...

CAMBRDIGE, MA – In order to train more powerful large language models, researchers use vast dataset collections that blend diverse data from thousands of web sources. But as these datasets are combined and recombined into multiple collections, important information about their origins and restrictions on how they can be used are often lost or confounded in the shuffle. Not only does this raise legal and ethical concerns, it can also damage a model’s performance. For instance, if a dataset is miscategorized, someone training a machine-learning model for a certain task may end up unwittingly using data that are not designed for that task. In addition, data from unknown sources ...

London, UK, 30 August 2024: Updated ESC Guidelines on the management of elevated blood pressure and hypertension include a new elevated blood pressure category, more ambitious and intensive treatment targets, and, for the first time, recommendations on the use of renal denervation to treat various forms of hypertension. The Guidelines have been produced by an international panel of experts that include co-Chairpersons Professor Bill McEvoy of the University of Galway, Ireland, and Professor Rhian Touyz of McGill University, Canada.  Elevated blood pressure and hypertension are by far the most common and important risk ...

London, UK, 30 August 2024: The 2024 ESC Guidelines for the management of peripheral arterial and aortic diseases (PAAD) evaluate these vascular diseases together as part of same cardiovascular system, appreciating that patients with aortic diseases are at risk of having peripheral vascular diseases and vice versa. The Guidelines are aimed at cardiologists, but were coordinated for alignment with guidelines for surgeons by EACTS and endorsed by VASCERN and ESVM.  “These updated guidelines have been introduced now due to significant advancements and shifts in our understanding and management of aortic and peripheral ...

London, UK, 30 August 2024: The 2024 ESC Guidelines on the management of chronic coronary syndromes (CCS) include a focus on both larger and smaller blood vessels of the heart; new models to estimate chances of blocked large arteries (so-called obstructive coronary artery disease); optimal selection and sequence of tests; drugs and interventions to prevent disease complications and improve symptoms, and the fundamental role of patient involvement.   “The new guidelines prompt cardiologists to rethink chronic coronary syndromes ...

London, UK, 30 August 2024: The 2024 ESC Guidelines for the management of atrial fibrillation, developed in collaboration with the European Association of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS), contain a number of new approaches and treatment-specific recommendations to help manage the surging numbers of patients with AF worldwide.  “Atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of the most commonly encountered heart conditions, with a broad impact on all health services across primary, secondary and tertiary care,” says Guidelines Chair Professor Isabelle C. Van Gelder, University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands. “The prevalence ...

London, United Kingdom – 30 August 2024: The ESC Clinical Consensus Statement on Obesity and Cardiovascular Disease, presented at this year’s ESC Congress (London, UK, 30 August to 2 September) summarises current evidence on the epidemiology and aetiology of obesity; the interplay between obesity, cardiovascular risk factors and cardiac conditions; the clinical management of patients with cardiac disease and obesity; and weight loss strategies including lifestyle changes, interventional procedures, and anti-obesity medications with particular focus ...

About The Study: In patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, treatment with prehospital pulse-dose glucocorticoid did not reduce final infarct size after 3 months. However, the trial was likely underpowered as the final infarct size was smaller than anticipated. The glucocorticoid group had improved acute parameters compared with placebo. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Jasmine Melissa Madsen, MD, email jasmine.melissa.madsen.01@regionh.dk. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamacardio.2024.2298) Editor’s ...

About The Study: In this post hoc pooled analysis of 13,194 patients with chronic heart failure (HF) in the PARADIGM-HF and PARAGON-HF randomized clinical trials, sacubitril/valsartan significantly reduced hospitalization for any reason, with benefits most apparent in patients with a left ventricular ejection fraction below normal. This reduction appeared to be principally driven by lower rates of cardiac and pulmonary hospitalizations. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Muthiah Vaduganathan, MD, MPH, email mvaduganathan@bwh.harvard.edu. To ...

Antibiotics are the linchpin of modern medicine: without them, anyone with open wounds or needing to undergo surgery would be at constant risk of dangerous infections. Yet we continue to face a global antibiotics crisis, as more and more resistant strains of bacteria are evolving, while the rate of discovery of fundamentally new antibiotics has been much slower. But there is reason for hope: 70% of all currently licensed antibiotics have been derived from actinobacteria in the soil, and most environments on Earth have not yet ...

The study uncovers a unique reparative function of regulatory T cells (Tregs) in the process of fracture healing, a discovery that adds a new dimension to our understanding of the immune response in tissue regeneration. Tregs, a subset of T cells known for their role in maintaining immune tolerance and preventing autoimmunity, are now shown to play a critical part in the intricate interplay between the immune system and bone repair. Fracture healing is a complex process that involves a sequence of events, including inflammation, repair, and remodeling. While the initial ...