Culture
DALLAS, Nov. 17, 2020 — Patients who are hospitalized with heart failure can reduce their odds of requiring re-hospitalization, a heart transplant or death by repeatedly reviewing recorded audio messages about self-care at home, according to late breaking research presented today at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2020.
LOS ANGELES (Nov. 17, 2020) -- A study led by the Cedars-Sinai Department of Neurosurgery has identified certain regions in the retina - the lining found in the back of the eye - that are more affected by Alzheimer's disease than other areas. The findings may help physicians predict changes in the brain as well as cognitive deterioration, even for patients experiencing the earliest signs of mild impairment.
When it wants to promote democracy in other countries, the US has several options, ranging from foreign democracy aid and economic sanctions to military intervention. But, what do North Americans think about these different strategies for promoting democracy? What features of authoritarian countries determine their preferences when wanting one or another form of intervention?
HOUSTON - (Nov. 17, 2020) - A new study from researchers at Rice University found that Americans' attitudes about gun ownership are impacted by the gender and race of firearms' potential owners.
"Race-gender bias in white Americans' preferences for gun availability" will appear in an upcoming edition of the Journal of Public Policy. The study is the first to examine how race and gender together shape attitudes toward gun availability.
A small drone takes a test flight through a space filled with randomly placed cardboard cylinders acting as stand-ins for trees, people or structures. The algorithm controlling the drone has been trained on a thousand simulated obstacle-laden courses, but it's never seen one like this. Still, nine times out of 10, the pint-sized plane dodges all the obstacles in its path.
Some pharmaceutical companies have received criticism for engaging in illegal activities, such as providing kickbacks and bribes, knowingly shipping adulterated or contaminated drugs to pharmacies, and marketing drugs for unapproved uses. This study examined financial penalties for illegal activities among large pharmaceutical firms in relation to annual revenues.
Methods
Oil droplets can be made to act like predators, chasing down other droplets that flee like prey. The behavior, which is controlled by chemical signaling produced by the droplets, mimics behavior seen among living organisms but, until now, had not been recreated in synthetic systems. This tunable chemical system could potentially serve a model to help understand interactions in many-body systems such as schools of fish, bacterial colonies, or swarms of insects.
KANSAS CITY, MO--In a new study, researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have identified a handful of variations in an amino acid sequence critical for retaining the ancestral function of a gene over the course of 600 million years of evolution.
AMHERST, Mass. - Among seismologists, the geology of Alaska's earthquake- and volcano-rich coast from the Aleutian Islands to the southeast is fascinating, but not well understood. Now, with more sophisticated tools than before, a University of Massachusetts Amherst team reports unexpected new details about the area's tectonic plates and their relationships to volcanoes.
Nov. 17, 2020 - The latest clinical practice guideline on home oxygen therapy addresses long-term and ambulatory oxygen therapy for adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and interstitial lung disease (ILD) and includes the most comprehensive review of the evidence of any oxygen guideline to date.
In a study of women aged 80 years and older, living in locations with higher exposures to air pollution was associated with increased depressive symptoms. The findings are published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
An article published in Bioethics examines the topic of research fatigue--or psychological and emotional exhaustion both towards and as a result of participating in research. The article is meant to initiate a conversation about research fatigue experienced by marginalized communities and how the research community should respond to it.
A study published in Ecological Applications suggests that nature around one's home may help mitigate some of the negative mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Food allergies are a big problem. About 7% of children and 2% of adults in the U.S. suffer from some kind of food allergy. These allergies cost a whopping $25 billion in health care each year. Then there's the time lost at school or work. And there's the risk of serious complications, even death.
Surgeons' preoperative expectations were more accurate than patients' expectations in predicting patient-reported outcomes two years after lumbar spine surgery, according to a longitudinal study by investigators at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS). Most patients had higher expectations than their surgeons did, with many anticipating complete improvement after seeking additional information beyond that provided by their surgeons.