Culture

Nearly a half-million people a year die from sudden cardiac death (SCD) in the U.S. -- the result of malfunctions in the heart's electrical system.

A leading cause of SCD in young athletes is arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM), a genetic disease in which healthy heart muscle is replaced over time by scar tissue (fibrosis) and fat.

BOSTON - Delirium, a common syndrome among older adults, particularly in those who have recently undergone surgery, critically ill patients in the ICU, and in older patients with multiple health issues, is a form of acute confusion that is characterized by poor attention, disorientation, impaired memory, delusions, and abrupt changes in mood and behavior. Moreover, patients who experience delirium are at increased risk of long term cognitive decline.

Dogs are generally considered the first domesticated animal, while its ancestor is generally considered to be the wolf, but where the Australian dingo fits into this framework is still debated, according to a retired Penn State anthropologist.

Among strategies to curb hospital prices among the commercially insured population in the U.S., direct price regulations such as setting rates are likely to achieve greater savings than other approaches like increasing competition or improving price transparency, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

But price regulations face the greatest political obstacles and historically have been strongly opposed by medical providers, according to the report.

A new study published in Economic Inquiry is the first to assess the willingness of consumers to adopt advisory services in the banking sector that are based on artificial intelligence (AI). Investigators examined whether the likelihood that consumers adopt AI in banking services depends on tastes for human interaction across different cultures.

Nearly 1.7 million times in the past year, Americans have checked into hospitals to get treated for severe cases of COVID-19.

And for the most part, that care hasn't cost them anything, thanks to insurance companies and government programs that absorbed the usual costs patients would owe for any other hospital stay.

PITTSBURGH--"The Queen's Gambit," the recent TV mini-series about a chess master, may have stirred increased interest in chess, but a word to the wise: social media talk about game-piece colors could lead to misunderstandings, at least for hate-speech detection software.

That's what a pair of Carnegie Mellon University researchers suspect happened to Antonio Radi?, or "agadmator," a Croatian chess player who hosts a popular YouTube channel. Last June, his account was blocked for "harmful and dangerous" content.

PULLMAN, Wash. - People tend to listen to big talkers, whether they are women or men. Still, more women prefer not to use assertive language, according to a new study led by Washington State University economist Shanthi Manian.

As people age, a normal brain protein known as amyloid beta often starts to collect into harmful amyloid plaques in the brain. Such plaques can be the first step on the path to Alzheimer's dementia. When they form around blood vessels in the brain, a condition known as cerebral amyloid angiopathy, the plaques also raise the risk of strokes.

CHICAGO --- Muscle soreness and achy joints are common symptoms among COVID-19 patients. But for some people, symptoms are more severe, long lasting and even bizarre, including rheumatoid arthritis flares, autoimmune myositis or "COVID toes."

A new Northwestern Medicine study has, for the first time, confirmed and illustrated the causes of these symptoms through radiological imaging.

An international team led by researchers at the Centre for Palaeogenetics in Stockholm has sequenced DNA recovered from mammoth remains that are up to 1.2 million years old. The analyses show that the Columbian mammoth that inhabited North America during the last ice age was a hybrid between the woolly mammoth and a previously unknown genetic lineage of mammoth. In addition, the study provides new insights into when and how fast mammoths became adapted to cold climate. These findings are published today in Nature.

A woman's body shape--not only the amount of fat--is what drives stigma associated with overweight and obesity.

Almost one in five people lacks the protein α-actinin-3 in their muscle fibre. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden now show that more of the skeletal muscle of these individuals comprises slow-twitch muscle fibres, which are more durable and energy-efficient and provide better tolerance to low temperatures than fast-twitch muscle fibres. The results are published in the scientific journal The American Journal of Human Genetics.

Washington, February 17, 2021--As higher education institutions worldwide transition to new methods of instruction, including the use of more pre-recorded videos, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many observers are concerned that student learning is suffering as a result. However, a new comprehensive review of research offers some positive news for college students. The authors found that, in many cases, replacing teaching methods with pre-recorded videos leads to small improvements in learning and that supplementing existing content with videos results in strong learning benefits.

PHILADELPHIA - The mutation of a gene that has been associated with neurodevelopmental disorders like autism spectrum disorder led to marked sleep disturbances in fruit flies, according to a new study from scientists in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The findings, published Wednesday in Science Advances, provide further evidence that sleep is linked to early neurodevelopmental processes and could guide future treatments for patients.