Culture

The discovery of artemisinin and its derivatives dramatically changes the landscape to combat malaria, and approximately 22% of the 663 million averted clinical cases were due to the use of artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs), according to a recent estimate. Artemisinin leads to two paradigm shifts in antimalarial research and therapy: one is the change from quinoline-based antimalarial drugs to artemisinin-based therapies, and the other is the change of research direction in antimalarial drug development.

Once an icon of overfishing, mismanagement, and stock decline, the northern Atlantic cod is showing signs of recovery according to new research published today in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.

Fast Facts:

  • CT scans outperform stress tests in spotting clogged arteries.
  • CT angiograms detect blockages in nine out of 10 people.
  • Tests can miss four out of 10 patients with clogged heart vessels.

Results of a head-to-head comparison study led by Johns Hopkins researchers show that noninvasive CT scans of the heart's vessels are far better at spotting clogged arteries that can trigger a heart attack than the commonly prescribed exercise stress that most patients with chest pain undergo.

On the floor of the grave lay the skeleton of an adult male, stretched out on his back. Weapons lay to his left, and jewelry to his right.

Near the head and chest was a bronze sword, its ivory hilt covered in gold. A gold-hilted dagger lay beneath it. Still more weapons were found by the man's legs and feet.

DURHAM, N.C. -- When the largest modern-day plant-eaters -- elephants -- are confined to too small an area, they devastate the vegetation. So 15,000 years ago, when the herbivores like the Columbian mammoth, mastodons and giant ground sloths were even larger, more numerous and more widely distributed, how did the landscape survive?

The answer was probably enormous predators, creatures called "hypercarnivores" by a team of evolutionary biologists appearing online the week of Oct. 26 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

WASHINGTON -- Even when young women had a similar or greater risk for heart disease than young men, they were 11 percent less likely to report that healthcare providers told them they were at-risk for heart disease prior to a heart attack, according to a new study published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Young women with ST-elevation myocardial infarction were less likely to receive life-saving angioplasty and stenting to restore blood flow to blocked arteries than men and also had longer hospital stays and higher rates of in-hospital mortality, according to a study published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

New Haven, Conn.--Only half of younger heart attack patients believed that they were at risk before the onset of an attack, and even fewer discussed health risks with their doctors, according to Yale School of Public Health researchers. The findings were more pronounced among women than men.

Treating brain hemorrhage (symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage, sICH) after clot-busting thrombolysis for stroke was not associated with a reduced likelihood of in-hospital death or expansion of the hematoma but shortening time to diagnosis and treatment may be key to improving outcomes, according to an article published online by JAMA Neurology.

Planned, large-scale personnel reductions in the U.S. military could inadvertently reduce gains made in the racial and gender diversity of the force since the 1990s, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

The last major drawdown in military forces, which occurred during the late 1980s through the mid-1990s, did not result in a loss of gender balance, largely because the recruiting of women and ethnic minority groups also was increased.

Hematology researchers have safely and effectively treated children and young adults for autoimmune blood disorders in a multicenter clinical trial. In children with one of those conditions, autoimmune lymphoproliferative syndrome (ALPS), all the patients showed a durable, complete response, with normal blood cell counts and rapid improvements, a result the study team called "profound."

Despite global efforts to increase the area of the ocean that is protected, only four per cent of it lies within marine protected areas (MPAs), according to a University of British Columbia study.

UBC Institute for Ocean and Fisheries researchers found that major swaths of the ocean must still be protected to reach even the most basic global targets.

The first study to measure the incidence of medication errors and adverse drug events during the perioperative period - immediately before, during and right after a surgical procedure - has found that some sort of mistake or adverse event occurred in every second operation and in 5 percent of observed drug administrations.