Culture
Philadelphia, July 6, 2020 - Fatherhood status has been linked to medical providers' weight-related practices or counseling referrals. A new study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, published by Elsevier, found that overweight and obese men who are fathers were more likely than men without children to be referred for nutrition or exercise counseling.
A new guideline from the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care, based on a rigorous systematic review of the latest evidence, found no benefit of routine screening for esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) and precursor conditions (Barrett esophagus and dysplasia) in patients with chronic gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).
Researchers have developed a human cell 'membrane on a chip' that allows continuous monitoring of how drugs and infectious agents interact with our cells, and may soon be used to test potential drug candidates for COVID-19.
The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, Cornell University and Stanford University, say their device could mimic any cell type--bacterial, human or even the tough cells walls of plants. Their research recently pivoted to how COVID-19 attacks human cell membranes and, more importantly, how it can be blocked.
The UK's National Health Service (NHS) is changing the way it writes its guidelines for giving injections in hospitals, following groundbreaking research from the University of Bath.
The Bath study, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), found that hospital nurses make far fewer mistakes when administering medicines intravenously if they follow instructions written with nurses in mind. Researchers used a process called 'user testing', which identifies where mistakes are being made and introduces changes so the instructions are easier to use.
A team of paediatric specialists, including an expert from the University of Adelaide, has produced new guidelines regarding assessment and management of type 2 diabetes (T2D) in Australian and New Zealand children and adolescents.
With the incidence of T2D on the rise among children and adolescents, especially in Indigenous communities, early assessment and management is critical.
Caecilians are limbless amphibians that, to the untrained eye, can be easily mistaken for snakes. Though caecilians are only distantly related to their reptilian cousins, researchers in a study appearing July 3 in the journal iScience describe specialized glands found along the teeth of the ringed caecilian (Siphonops annulatus), which have the same biological origin and possibly similar function to the venom glands of snakes.
Figuring out how much energy permeates the center of the Milky Way--a discovery reported in the July 3 edition of the journal Science Advances--could yield new clues to the fundamental source of our galaxy's power, said L. Matthew Haffner of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
LOGAN, UTAH, USA - Utah State University biologist Edmund 'Butch' Brodie, Jr. and colleagues from São Paulo's Butantan Institute report the first known evidence of oral venom glands in amphibians. Their research, supported by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, appears in the July 3, 2020, issue of iScience.
A new approach could illuminate a critical stage in the life cycle of one of the most common malaria parasites. The approach was developed by scientists at Kyoto University's Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) in Japan and published in the Malaria Journal.
"The Plasmodium vivax malaria parasite can stay dormant in a person's liver cells up to years following infection, leading to clinical relapses once the parasite is reactivated," says Kouichi Hasegawa, an iCeMS stem cell biologist and one of the study's corresponding authors.
A new study published in the Journal of Physiology has shown that misfolded protein build-up in the gut could contribute to the development of Alzheimer's-like symptoms in mice. This could suggest a new treatment approach for Alzheimer's disease that would target the gut before symptoms of cognitive deficits appear in patients.
As these proteins were found in the gut, which is a window to the world, this suggests environmental factors might be contributing to cognitive deficits seen in Alzheimer's disease and other conditions.
Sophia Antipolis - 3 July 2020: Trouble sleeping after heart bypass surgery? Morning walks are the solution, according to research presented today on ACNAP Essentials 4 You, a scientific platform of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).
For the first time, scientists have shown that the bacterium that causes the tick-borne disease anaplasmosis interferes with tick gene expression for its survival inside cells and to spread to a new vertebrate host. Girish Neelakanta of Old Dominion University and colleagues report these findings in a study published July 2nd in PLOS Genetics.
In the US, dying from rabies is virtually unheard of. But around the world, rabies kills 59,000 people every year. Ninety-nine percent of those deaths are caused by dog bites; half of the people killed are children. There's a relatively simple way of preventing these deaths--vaccinating dogs against the disease--but systemic challenges make that easier said than done.
Lugano, Switzerland, 2 July 2020 - Artificial intelligence (AI) holds promise for enabling earlier detection of pancreatic cancer, which is crucial to saving lives. The potential of AI is showcased in a study to be presented at the ESMO World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer, 1-4 July 2020. (1, 2)
In industry, gaseous hydrocarbons, such as ethane and methane, are frequently changed into molecules that can act as building blocks for pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. Typically, these processes take place at high temperatures and pressures, and can also produce large amounts of pollutants. Researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) have developed a new method for the immediate conversion of gaseous, low-weight hydrocarbons to more complex molecules at room temperatures and low pressures by illuminating the molecules with light in the presence of a suitable catalyst.