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Outdoor light at night was linked to a higher risk of breast cancer in a study published in the International Journal of Cancer.

For the study, investigators analyzed residential outdoor light at night estimated from satellite imagery in 1996 and assessed rates of breast cancer over 16 years of follow-up in 186,981 postmenopausal women.

The quest to discover how new diseases - such as Covid-19 - emerge and spread in response to global land-use change driven by human population expansion still contains "major gaps", researchers have claimed.

A team of experts from the University of Exeter has conducted a major study of how land-use changes, such as deforestation and urbanisation, influence the spread of diseases from mammals to humans.

Most new viruses and other pathogens that arise in humans are transmitted from other animals, as in the case of the virus that has caused Covid-19.

Women who use a class of tranquilisers called benzodiazepines before becoming pregnant are at greater risk of ectopic pregnancies, according to a study of nearly 1.7 million women.

The study, which is published today (Wednesday) in Human Reproduction [1], one of the world's leading reproductive medicine journals, found that the risk of an ectopic pregnancy, where the embryo starts developing outside the womb, usually in a fallopian tube, was 50% higher in women who had filled out a prescription for benzodiazepines in the 90 days before conception.

Favipiravir Observational Study Group (principal investigator: Dr. Yohei Doi, Fujita Health University) released a preliminary report of the Favipiravir Observational Study in Japan on the Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases website.

URL: http://www.kansensho.or.jp/uploads/files/topics/2019ncov/covid19_casereport_en_200529.pdf

Researchers have identified specific portions of the genetic codes of the COVID-19 and SARS viruses that may promote the viruses' lifecycles. The new technique is researchers' first tool for determining what genetic sequences stored as RNA - DNA's chemical cousin - are more stable.

Highlights

In a recent study, genes were predicted to be expressed at different levels in the tissues of individuals with PTSD compared with those without PTSD

Individuals with PTSD tended to have a lower expression of a gene called SNRNP35 in the brain, and they had a higher expression of a gene called ZNF140 in the blood

Examining how the expression of these genes affects PTSD susceptibility may point to new treatment and prevention strategies

One of the first studies to investigate the outcome of COVID-19 infection in patients with blood cancer has been conducted by clinical researchers from Queen Mary University of London and Barts Health NHS Trust.

People with blood cancer are expected to be amongst those at increased risk of COVID-19 infection due to a weakened immune system from the effects of their cancer and the nature of the cancer treatment they receive.

When obesity occurs, a person's own fat cells can set off a complex inflammatory chain reaction that can further disrupt metabolism and weaken immune response--potentially placing people at higher risk of poor outcomes from a variety of diseases and infections, including COVID-19.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread, researchers are turning their attention to the virus' biology, mechanism of action, and possible treatments. One of the targets are a group of immune cells called "neutrophils", which have been reported to infiltrate the respiratory tract of patients who have died from COVID-19.

Mexican cavefish spend their entire lives in the dark. With no need for vision, many of them lost functional eyes. In more than 30 varieties of Mexican cavefish, the eyes stop developing as embryos grow into larvae. Although they are still the same species as a sighted, surface-dwelling fish (Astyanax mexicanus), the cave-dwelling varieties carry genetic mutations that scientists have yet to fully unravel.

Most people in their 50s and older were capable home cooks just before COVID-19 struck America, but only 5% had ordered groceries online, according to a new national poll.

The cooking skills that enabled half of older adults to eat dinner at home six or seven days a week may have served them well during the height of the pandemic, the poll suggests. However, they may need added support for grocery shopping as the pandemic continues and older adults seek to avoid COVID-19.

"Academic emergency departments never deny emergency care to any person." That is the statement put forth in a commentary from the Board of Directors of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine and the Senior Editorial Board of Academic Emergency Medicine journal. The commentary, to be published in the June issue of Academic Emergency Medicine, was written in response to recent news stories stating that patients with symptoms of COVID?19 were "turned away" from emergency departments.

Lung cancers account for approximately 25 percent of all cancer deaths. Even among those who do not smoke, 1 in 15 men and 1 in 17 women are expected to develop lung cancer in their lifetime, according to the American Cancer Society. Lung cancer has confounded scientists who strive to develop better therapies for this aggressive and deadly disease.

Scientific evidence suggests that cancer can metastasize to other organs when either a single cell or a cluster of cells detaches from the original tumor and travels through the blood to another location, where it grows into a new tumor. Clusters seem to have a higher metastatic potential than single cells, and a report published in Nature Cancer shows new insights into what contributes to the clusters' selective advantage.

Several months into the pandemic, most Americans are familiar with the physical toll COVID-19 takes on those who contract it. But what about the mental and emotional implications of stress caused by the pandemic itself?

A new study by researchers from the University of Connecticut provides the first snapshot of the immediate impact of COVID-19 on Americans' stress levels, coping strategies, and adherence to public health guidelines.