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A clinical trial examining the efficacy of two devices to monitor and detect atrial fibrillation (AF), or an irregular heartbeat, in ischemic stroke patients -- one an implantable device that monitors over 12 months, the other an external device that monitors over a 30-day period -- found the implantable device is more than three times more effective in detecting AF, and both are a significant improvement over the current standard of care in Alberta, Canada.

New findings reveal the genomic architecture and evolutionary fates of supergenes

Malaria, a disease caused mainly by the parasites Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax, is associated with over 400,000 deaths each year. Previously, the spleen was assumed to mostly play a role in parasite destruction, as it eliminates malaria parasites after antimalarial treatment. A study published by Steven Kho and Nicholas Anstey at Menzies School of Health Research, Australia, and international colleagues, suggests that in chronic P. vivax infections, malaria parasites survive and replicate via a previously undetected lifecycle within the spleen.

A new analysis of adults aged 80 years and older shows that a healthier lifestyle is associated with a lower risk of cognitive impairment, and that this link does not depend on whether a person carries a particular form of the gene APOE. Xurui Jin of Duke Kunshan University in Jiangsu, China, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine.

Stigma and high care needs can present barriers to the provision of high-quality primary care for people with opioid use disorder (OUD) and those prescribed opioids for chronic pain. A study by Tara Gomes at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Canada and colleagues suggests that people treated for an opioid use disorder were less likely to find a new primary care provider (PCP) within one year of termination of enrolment with the previous physician.

Fibroid symptoms, such as heavy menstrual bleeding and abdominal pain, are increasingly driving women to the emergency room.

Researchers at the University at Buffalo are working on ways to improve the WIC shopping experience so that customers stay in the program. Moreover, they're working with a Western New York-based supermarket chain on a pilot project aimed at making it easier for WIC customers to find and use eligible products.

In a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a research team of the Institute of Complex Systems of the UB (UBICS) analysed the time evolution of real complex networks and developed a model in which the emergence of new nodes can be related to pre-existing nodes, similarly to the evolution of species in biology.

An interdisciplinary research team from TU Dresden at the Chair of Network Dynamics headed by Prof. Marc Timme (Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden - cfaed & Institute of Theoretical Physics) has studied people's motivation to use "shared mobility" offers.

Evidence of sleep-dependent low-frequency (<0.1 Hz) global brain activity in the clearance of Alzheimer's disease-related toxin buildup is presented in research published on 1st June 2021 in the open access journal PLOS Biology by Xiao Liu and colleagues at The Pennsylvania State University. This neuronal activity was more strongly linked with cerebrospinal fluid flow in healthy controls than higher risk groups and patients, and the findings could serve as a potential imaging marker for clinicians in evaluating patients.

Many organisms in need of conservation are still unknown or lumped in with similar species, which potentially interferes with conservation efforts. In a new study published June 1 in the Open Access journal PLOS Biology, Jane Melville of Museums Victoria, and her colleagues present a new "return-on-investment" approach to best direct efforts to identify new species before they are lost.

The malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax may accumulate in the spleen soon after infection to a greater extent than its better-known relative P. falciparum, according to new research published by John Woodford of the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia and colleagues in the open access journal PLOS Medicine.

A nationwide study in Sweden estimates the elevated risk of advanced or fatal prostate cancer among relatives of men with the disease, providing new data that could help refine guidelines for the age at which screening should begin. Mahdi Fallah and Elham Kharazmi of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, Germany, and colleagues present these new findings in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine.

Observational studies have suggested that increased vitamin D levels may protect against COVID-19. However, these studies were inconclusive and possibly subject to confounding. A study published in PLOS Medicine by Guillaume Butler-Laporte and Tomoko Nakanishi at McGill University in Quebec, Canada, and colleagues suggests that genetic evidence does not support vitamin D as a protective measure against COVID-19.

Plasmodium vivax malaria is a mosquito-borne illness that causes significant morbidity. However, the household and healthcare provider costs of the disease are unknown. A new study published in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Dr Angela Devine at Menzies School of Health Research in Australia, and colleagues estimate the global economic burden of P. vivax for the first time using country-level data.

Over 50% of adults surveyed across six different countries report experiencing weight stigma, and those who engage in self-blame for their weight are more likely to avoid healthcare, according to two new studies from the UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. These studies, which compared experiences of adults in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the UK, and the US are the first multi-national studies to examine the link between weight stigma and negative healthcare encounters.

Researchers found that SARS-CoV-2 had spread throughout the body via the blood vessels, infecting various types of cell and tissue in these children. The clinical manifestations varied according to the organ targeted.

Businesses typically rely on banks and financial markets for financing, but credit provided by suppliers also can play an important role, especially in manufacturing. Yet why firms lend and borrow extensively from each other is still an open question. In a paper in the Journal of the Journal of Financial Economics, financial researchers examined trade credit from a new angle.

Researchers at NIST have developed an artificial-intelligence-powered tool to predict and warn of a deadly phenomenon in burning buildings known as flashover, when flammable materials in a room ignite almost simultaneously, producing a potentially ferocious blaze. The tool's predictions are based on temperature data from a building's heat detectors, and, remarkably, it is designed to operate even after heat detectors begin to fail, making do with the remaining devices.

A new study led by Kent Business School, University of Kent, finds that whilst the mumpreneur identity may enable women to participate in the business world and be recognised as 'proper' entrepreneurs, this success is dependent on alignment with the conventional masculine norms of entrepreneurship.