Body

Advising patient with chronic sinus congestion to use nasal irrigation - a popular nonpharmacologic treatment - improved their symptoms, but steam inhalation did not, according to a randomized controlled trial published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. (July 18, 2016) For the first time, researchers led by Tufts University engineers have integrated nano-scale sensors, electronics and microfluidics into threads - ranging from simple cotton to sophisticated synthetics - that can be sutured through multiple layers of tissue to gather diagnostic data wirelessly in real time, according to a paper published online July 18 in Microsystems & Nanoengineering.

Taking a page from Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels", a team of scientists has created malleable and microscopic self-assembling particles that can serve as the next generation of building blocks in the creation of synthetic materials.

DURBAN, 18 July 2016 - When used consistently for a month at a time, a vaginal ring containing an antiretroviral (ARV) drug called dapivirine provides significant protection against HIV, suggest results of new data analyses from the ASPIRE study announced today at The International Conference on AIDS (AIDS 2016) in Durban, South Africa. Among women who appeared to use the ring most regularly, HIV risk was cut by more than half across all analyses, and in some, by 75 percent or more.

DURBAN, July 18, 2016 - Women who took part in ASPIRE, a trial that found a vaginal ring containing an antiretroviral (ARV) drug called dapivirine was safe and helped protect against HIV, will soon be offered the opportunity to use the ring as part of a new study called HOPE. The first of HOPE's sites opened just today, at the Medical Research Council of South Africa's Verulam clinical research site in KwaZulu-Natal.

DURBAN, South Africa (July 18, 2016) -- New data analyses announced at the AIDS 2016 conference today provide additional evidence suggesting that the monthly dapivirine vaginal ring developed by the nonprofit International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM) provides significant protection against HIV infection in women when used consistently. The new data were released as two open-label studies of the ring begin and as IPM pursues regulatory approvals for the product for its use in developing countries.

Evidence by the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) consortium of South African and North American researchers will be presented on July 18 at the International AIDS 2016 Conference in Durban, shedding new light on why young women in South Africa have high rates of HIV infection. Dr. Salim Abdool-Karim, professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and director of CAPRISA, led the research team. The Mailman School was also among the North American institutions providing research support.

BOSTON - Children whose parents or caregivers misuse alcohol or use, produce or distribute drugs face an increased risk of medical and behavioral problems. According to a new clinical report by experts at Beth Israel Medical Center (BIDMC) and Boston Children's Hospital, pediatricians are in a unique position to assess risk and intervene to protect children. The report, "Families Affected by Parental Substance Use," is available online today and slated for publication in the August print edition of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Association of Pediatrics.

Chapel Hill, N.C. - Anti-HIV medications suppress the viral load of people living with HIV and provide durable protection against heterosexual transmission a study led by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found. Researchers found a 93 percent reduction of HIV transmission when the HIV-infected person started antiretroviral therapy or ART at a higher CD4 cell count. The groundbreaking final results of the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) 052 study were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

DURHAM, N.C. - The HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) announced today that the final results of the HPTN 052 study were published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). This pivotal study demonstrated that antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV infection provides durable and reliable protection against the sexual transmission of the virus from infected men and women to their HIV-uninfected sexual partners.

Plants can maximise their chances of reproduction by taking advantage of how insects move between flowers when they track down nectar, a study suggests.

In one of the first studies of its type, scientists found that the way in which plants arrange their flowers affects the flight patterns taken by foraging bees.

Researchers expect that this likely has an impact for how plants reproduce, and they suggest that plants have evolved over time to take advantage of it.

Today some of the world's foremost experts on antibiotic resistance called on the United Nations General Assembly to decisively act to reduce the growing number of deaths due to limited access to effective antibiotics. Writing in the Lancet, they call on those attending the upcoming High-Level Meeting of Heads of State in September in New York City to use the opportunity to create and implement a four-part global action plan, similar in scope and ambition to the plan created in 1996 to address the AIDS crisis.

Aging, neurodegenerative disorders and metabolic disease are all linked to mitochondria, structures within our cells that generate chemical energy and maintain their own DNA. In a fundamental discovery with far-reaching implications, scientists at the University of California, Davis, now show how cells control DNA synthesis in mitochondria and couple it to mitochondrial division.

The work is published July 15 in the journal Science.

No need to head to the movie theater or download the video game app: Angry Birds can be found right in your backyard this summer--if you live in the suburbs, that is.

Virginia Tech researchers recently found that birds that live in suburban areas exhibit significantly higher levels of territorial aggression than their country counterparts. The results were recently published in Biology Letters.

MADISON, Wis. -- The atomic structure of an elusive cold virus linked to severe asthma and respiratory infections in children has been solved by a team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Purdue University.

The findings are published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and provide the foundation for future antiviral drug and vaccine development against the virus, rhinovirus C.