Culture
More than 15 years after scientists first mapped the human genome, most diseases still cannot be predicted based on one's genes, leading researchers to explore epigenetic causes of disease. But the study of epigenetics cannot be approached the same way as genetics, so progress has been slow. Now, researchers at the USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital have determined a unique fraction of the genome that scientists should focus on.
Some doctors fear litigation and professional ruin if they are seen to have overprescribed opioids to terminally ill patients, according to a University of Queensland researcher.
Palliative care expert Professor Geoffrey Mitchell said opioid overuse and some states' new assisted dying legislation had put end-of-life care clinicians created a "perfect storm" of fear for clinicians involved in end-of-life care.
Giving patients virtual reality sessions before and during locoregional anaesthesia for orthopaedic procedures substantially reduces pain and the need for intravenous sedation, according to new research being presented at this year's Euroanaesthesia congress (the annual meeting of the European Society of Anaesthesiology) in Vienna, Austria (1-3 June).
Tokyo, Japan - Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have successfully determined the high-resolution three-dimensional structure of proteins inside living eukaryotic cells. They combined "in-cell" nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, a bioreactor system and cutting-edge computational algorithms to determine protein structures in crowded intracellular environments for the first time.
Astrocytes are overtaxed neurons' pit crew.
The brain cells collect damaged lipids secreted by hyperactive neurons, then recycle those toxic molecules into energy, researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus report May 23, 2019, in the journal Cell. It's a mechanism to protect neurons from the damaging side effects of overactivity. And it's another important role for astrocytes, which support neurons in various ways.
Performing a procedure on the wrong side of a patient's body, although rare, may be more common than generally thought. More than 80 wrong side error (WSE) incidents were reported across 100 hospitals in Spain over the past decade, according to new research being presented at this year's Euroanaesthesia Congress (the annual meeting of the European Society of Anaesthesiology) in Vienna, Austria (1-3 June).
Nicotine and caffeine withdrawal can cause unnecessary suffering to patients in intensive care units (ICUs), and could be leading to unneeded laboratory testing and diagnostic imaging such as X-rays and MRIs, according to a systematic review of clinical and observational studies involving 483 adults.
The findings are being presented at this year's Euroanaesthesia congress (the annual meeting of the European Society of Anaesthesiology) in Vienna, Austria (1-3 June).
For the first time, researchers have observed a break in a single quantum system. The observation--and how they made the observation--has potential implications for physics beyond the standard understanding of how quantum particles interact to produce matter and allow the world to function as we know it.
The researchers published their results on May 31st, in the journal Science.
With flattened bodies, grabbing forelegs and deciduous wings, deer keds do not look like your typical fly. These parasites of deer -- which occasionally bite humans -- are more widely distributed across the U.S. than previously thought, according to Penn State entomologists, who caution that deer keds may transmit disease-causing bacteria.
In an effort to better protect the world's last ecologically intact ecosystems, researchers developed a new metric called "The Last of the Wild in Each Ecoregion" (LWE), which aimed to quantify the most intact parts of each ecoregion.
Use of dating apps may be associated with an increased risk of unhealthy weight control behaviors, including vomiting, laxative use, or diet pill use, a study in the open access Journal of Eating Disorders suggests.
A team of researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, USA examined data on 1,726 US adults enrolled in the Harvard Chan Physical Activity study who completed an online survey assessing their dating app use within the past 30 days and their engagement in six unhealthy weight control behaviors (UWBCs) within the past 12 months.
Children exposed to paternal tobacco smoking before birth are more likely to develop asthma - and associated changes to immune genes predict the level of risk.
These are the findings of a new study of Taiwanese families, whose lifestyle and genetic make-up were analyzed to determine how fathers' tobacco smoking during pregnancy relates to asthma risk in their children.
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are often affected by co-occurring conditions, such as epilepsy, immune disorders, gastrointestinal problems, and developmental delays. According to research published today in Autism Research, creating a classification system for ASD based on co-occurring conditions could provide useful insights into the underlying mechanics of ASD and these conditions.
In a new study published today in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, scientists from King's College London have found that young children with severe eczema infected with Staphylococcus aureus (SA) bacterium, are at a higher risk of developing a food allergy.
Staphylococcus aureus (SA) is a bacterium that can be found in the nose and the skin of healthy individuals.
However, SA is more common in sufferers of eczema, especially severe eczema.
New Lancet Series on Gender Equality, Norms, and Health exposes failures by governments and health institutions to make progress towards gender equality, despite compelling evidence on impact of gender - and the spoken and unspoken rules of societies about acceptable gender behaviours - on health
New research published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health adds weight to findings of the Lancet Series, providing first known evidence that male and female gender traits expressed during adolescence affect health in adulthood, at times irrespective of biological sex