Culture
Gender matters when it comes to smoking cessation.
Women are 31 percent less likely to quit smoking successfully, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, in part because nicotine replacement therapy is thought to be more effective in male smokers. In contrast, laboratory-based studies suggest that women crave cigarettes more when they experience stress. However, that finding has not been clearly replicated in a real-world setting.
The investigational Ebola treatment mAb114 is safe, well-tolerated, and easy to administer, according to findings from an early-stage clinical trial published in The Lancet. Eighteen healthy adults received the monoclonal antibody as part of a Phase 1 clinical trial that began in May 2018 at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Vaccine Research Center (VRC), part of NIH, developed the investigational treatment and conducted and sponsored the clinical trial.
An open label Phase 3 study conducted at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago and other centers established that a combination of cystic fibrosis drugs lumacaftor and ivacaftor is safe and effective in children aged 2-5 years, whose disease is caused by two copies of F508del-CFTR gene mutation - the most common and severe form of cystic fibrosis. These data, published in Lancet Respiratory Medicine, were the basis for the Food and Drug Administration's extended approval for this treatment to include children 2 years and older.
Collaborative research led by the University of East Anglia has identified one of the causes of recent deaths in UK European brown hare populations.
Working together with diagnostic laboratories in England, Scotland and Germany, the first UK cases of rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus type 2 (RHDV2) have been detected in dead hares found in two locations - Essex and Dorset.
Jan 24, 2019 -- Differences in genetic diversity among bacterial pathogens correlate with clinically important factors, such as virulence and antimicrobial resistance, prompting the need to identify clusters of similar bacterial strains. However, current bacterial clustering and typing approaches are not suitable for real-time pathogen surveillance and outbreak detection.
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 24, 2019) -- Regeneration is one of the most enticing areas of biological research. How are some animals able to regrow body parts? Is it possible that humans could do the same? If scientists could unlock the secrets that confer those animals with this remarkable ability, the knowledge could have profound significance in clinical practice down the road.
Black holes are known for their voracious appetites, binging on matter with such ferocity that not even light can escape once it's swallowed up.
Less understood, though, is how black holes purge energy locked up in their rotation, jetting near-light-speed plasmas into space to opposite sides in one of the most powerful displays in the universe. These jets can extend outward for millions of light years.
PHILADELPHIA - Pancreaticoduodenectomy, or the Whipple operation, is one of the most complex abdominal surgeries, and is commonly prescribed as a first line of therapy for cancer located within the pancreatic head. It remains the most effective treatment method associated with prolonged survival. The surgery involves removal of parts of the pancreas, bile duct, and small intestine, requiring careful reconstruction of the organs involved.
Researchers at Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC), part of University of California San Diego School of Medicine, report that autopsies of patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (AD) when they were alive -- and confirmed by autopsy -- indicate many cognitive issues symptomatic of the condition are less noticeable in living Hispanic patients.
In a Journal of Orthopaedic Research study, scientists used 3D printing to repair bone in the joints of mini-pigs, an advance that may help to treat osteoarthritis in humans.
Economic downturn during early pregnancy was linked with modest increases in preterm birth in a Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology analysis.
For the analysis, researchers examined a dataset of all singleton births in Michigan from 1990-2012. Each one percentage point increase in state unemployment in the first trimester of pregnancy was associated with a modest 3% increase in the odds of preterm birth.
Rockville, Md. (January 24, 2019)--Lower-than-normal zinc levels may contribute to high blood pressure (hypertension) by altering the way the kidneys handle sodium. The study is published ahead of print in the American Journal of Physiology--Renal Physiology.
Immersive virtual reality (VR) can be remarkably lifelike, but new UBC research has found a yawning gap between how people respond psychologically in VR and how they respond in real life.
"People expect VR experiences to mimic actual reality and thus induce similar forms of thought and behaviour," said Alan Kingstone, a professor in UBC's department of psychology and the study's senior author. "This study shows that there's a big separation between being in the real world, and being in a VR world."
WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 24, 2019)--There is little to no evidence that two surgical procedures used to fuse crumbled vertebrae following a spinal fracture caused by osteoporosis reduce pain for patients any better than non-surgical or placebo procedures, according to a new report from a global task force of bone health experts published today in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research (JBMR).
Engineers at the University of Maryland (UMD) have created the first 3D-printed fluid circuit element so tiny that 10 could rest on the width of a human hair. The diode ensures fluids move in only a single direction--a critical feature for products like implantable devices that release therapies directly into the body.
The microfluidic diode also represents the first use of a 3D nanoprinting strategy that breaks through previous cost and complexity barriers hindering advancements in areas from personalized medicine to drug delivery.