Culture

New research has shown that COVID-19 infections in healthcare workers during the first wave of the pandemic provided an accurate sample of the general population, suggesting that data from healthcare workers could be used to estimate the severity of future viruses more quickly.

The study, led by researchers from RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences in collaboration with IBM Research, is published in PLOS ONE.

CHICAGO --- Itch torments its sufferers and can be as debilitating as chronic pain.

But it's a hard symptom to measure -- particularly for the 10 million U.S. children with atopic dermatitis, also known as eczema. They can't always verbalize or quantify their suffering via a survey or scale.

It can also be difficult to objectively measure itch for adults with liver disease, kidney disease and certain cancers who experience its symptoms.

So, it's hard to track how well treatments and drugs are working.

eNeuro is publishing a special collection of commentaries on April 30, 2021 on the neuroscience documentary In Silico. The collection, titled "Epistemological Lessons from the Blue and Human Brain Projects," features reactions to the documentary from leading neuroscientists as well as a discussion on brain modelling and massive research collaborations in general.

Boston, MA (April 30, 2021) - Research presented today at the AATS 101st Annual Meeting, shows that the six year Integrated Cardiothoracic (CT I-6) residency continues to be the most challenging to match, while the pool of applicants has become more diverse.

Boston, MA (April 30, 2021) - A new set of guidelines, developed by AATS and ESTS (European Society for Thoracic Surgery) presented today at the AATS 101st Annual Meeting, recommends a 30-day course of Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis post-discharge for patients undergoing surgical resection for lung or esophagus cancer. The AATS and ESTS formed a multidisciplinary guideline panel that included broad membership to minimize potential bias when formulating recommendations.

Global sea level rise associated with the possible collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has been significantly underestimated in previous studies, meaning sea level in a warming world will be greater than anticipated, according to a new study from Harvard researchers.

An international research group led by Prof. WANG Bo and Prof. SHI Gongle from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS) collected approximately 25,000 fossil-containing amber samples and about 5,000 fossil plants in Zhangpu County, Fujian Province, southeast China from 2010 to 2019.

Their findings were published in Science Advances on April 30.

WILMINGTON, Del. (April 30, 2021) - Social, economic, and demographic factors that can influence health did not affect families' acceptance of telehealth for their children's cardiac care during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study presented at the Pediatric Academic Society 2021 Virtual Meeting. The study, by research team members at the Nemours Children's Health System, suggests that telehealth is a feasible tool for families regardless of household income, language, or insurance type.

Key takeaways

The basis of the ACS Quality Verification Program rests on 12 standards; all of which are being reviewed in the medical literature to demonstrate evidence for the program.
Five principles key in on the role of data surveillance, standardized process, and systems; all are interrelated.
The most robust evidence has been identified around the standards for data and use of data.

For many of us, adding salt to a meal is a perfectly normal thing to do. We don't really think about it. But actually, we should. As well as raising our blood pressure, too much salt can severely disrupt the energy balance in immune cells and stop them from working properly.

A research team at the University of Cologne has discovered previously undescribed bacteria in amoebae that are related to Legionella and may even cause disease. The researchers from Professor Dr Michael Bonkowski's working group at the Institute of Zoology have named one of the newly discovered bacteria 'Pokemonas' because they live in spherical amoebae, comparable to Pokémon in the video game, which are caught in balls. The results of their research have been published in the journal Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology.

Humans have significantly altered biodiversity in all climate zones of the Earth. This has been shown by a study now published in Science. Led by Prof. Dr. Manuel Steinbauer at the University of Bayreuth, and Dr. Sandra Nogué at the University of Southampton, an international team has investigated how the flora on 27 islands in different regions has developed over the last 5,000 years. Almost everywhere, the arrival of humans has triggered a markedly accelerated change in species composition in previously pristine ecosystems.

"Feel-good films" are usually dismissed by film critics as being sentimental and without intellectual merit. But their popularity with audiences, who seek them out precisely because of their "feel-good" qualities, tells a more favorable story. Now, for the first time, this popular movie genre has been examined scientifically. A new study from the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics investigates which feel-good films are considered by viewers to be prototypical and which factors constitute their feel-good effect.

Muscle stem cells enable our muscle to build up and regenerate over a lifetime through exercise. But if certain muscle genes are mutated, the opposite occurs. In patients suffering from muscular dystrophy, the skeletal muscle already starts to weaken in childhood. Suddenly, these children are no longer able to run, play the piano or climb the stairs, and often they are dependent on a wheelchair by the age of 15. Currently, no therapy for this condition exists.

DALLAS (SMU) - NASA has a long tradition of unexpected discoveries, and the space program's TESS mission is no different. SMU astrophysicist and her team have discovered a particularly bright gamma-ray burst using a NASA telescope designed to find exoplanets - those occurring outside our solar system - particularly those that might be able to support life.

It's the first time a gamma-ray burst has been found this way.