Tech
There has been an increase in deaths and disability due to chronic respiratory (lung) diseases over the past three decades, finds an analysis of data from 195 countries published by The BMJ today.
The poorest regions of the world had the greatest disease burden. Ageing and risk factors including smoking, environmental pollution, and body weight also play a key role, say the researchers.
Chronic respiratory diseases pose a major public health problem, with an estimated 3.9 million deaths in 2017, accounting for 7% of all deaths worldwide.
Rapid Arctic warming has not led to a "wavier" jet stream around the mid-latitudes in recent decades, pioneering new research has shown.
Scientists from the University of Exeter have studied the extent to which Arctic amplification - the faster rate of warming in the Arctic compared to places farther south - has affected the fluctuation of the jet stream's winding course over the North Hemisphere.
Recent studies have suggested the warming Arctic region has led to a "wavier" jet stream - which can lead to extreme weather conditions striking the US and Europe.
What The Study Did: This observational study was a systematic review and meta-analysis that included 112 studies and examined the association between risk of cancer in patients with psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis, including the risk of specific cancers.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
Authors: Sofie Vaengebjerg, M.D., of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, is the corresponding author.
Current prosthetic heart valves for children with congenital heart disease are fixed in size, requiring repeated open-heart surgeries during childhood to replace the valve with a larger version. But a surprising new design created at Boston Children's Hospital could allow children to keep the same prosthetic valve until adulthood, and could also benefit adults with heart valve defects. The new device is described in Science Translational Medicine, published online February 19.
Oakland, Calif. - In a study published in JAMA Network Open today, Kaiser Permanente scientists report that diabetes patients who used the Kaiser Permanente patient portal and mobile phone app improved their diabetes management outcomes. The large study, involving more than 111,000 patients, was unique in assessing the relationship between the use of online tools and medication adherence and blood glucose levels.
Taking a step towards a major goal in heart valve prosthetics, scientists have created an adaptable heart valve replacement that can be expanded over time as the heart grows. The artificial valve safely worked in growing young lambs for a period of up to 10 weeks. Although studies with longer follow-up times are needed to further validate the design, the device could offer a superior alternative to traditional, fixed-diameter heart valve prostheses that cannot grow along with a child's heart.
People living in Balkan farming villages along the Danube River have long suffered from a unique type of kidney disease known as Balkan endemic nephropathy. Recently, scientists linked the disorder to compounds from a local weed that could be taken up into food crops from the soil. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology have discovered that contaminated groundwater could be another important source of human exposure.
Current tests for male fertility include measuring the concentration and motility of spermatozoa. However, other characteristics of sperm, such as their ability to follow a chemical trail to the egg, can influence the likelihood of fertilization. Now, researchers reporting in Analytical Chemistry have devised a quick and convenient microfluidic chip to assess this chemotactic response of spermatozoa, which could help provide a more complete picture of a man's fertility.
Researchers at the University Of Liverpool, in collaboration with NUI Galway and TU Berlin, have identified the key technological and scientific challenges of producing hydrogen through seawater electrolysis.
In an article published in Nature Energy, researchers assessed the various issues hindering the development of electrolyser technologies capable of carrying out direct water electrolysis using low grade water, such as seawater, as opposed to ultrapure water.
The Suzuki-Miyaura reaction is a well-known chemical process in which a reaction between organic boronic acids and aryl halides leads to the synthesis of "biaryl" compounds, which are important components of various drugs and chemical products. This is also called cross-coupling, as two aryl molecules are combined, or cross-coupled, in this process. Because the organic aromatic molecules--which are formed as a result of this reaction--have various applications, such as in solvents and drugs, finding a way of optimizing the existing cross-coupling reactions is crucial.
The old story of a farmer trying to get a stubborn mule to pull a wagon by dangling a carrot in front of its nose, or hitting its rump with a stick, may not seem to have much to do with the practice of medicine.
But a new study suggests that when it comes to making the best use of health care dollars, it will take a combination of carrots and sticks to move things forward.
Increased resources, surveillance, and capacity building should be urgently prioritised in African countries with moderate risk of importing cases of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), as these countries are estimated to be ill-prepared to detect cases and limit transmission.
When you look through a microscope, whatever is on the stage is magnified to a degree the naked eye can hardly imagine. While traditional microscopy techniques allow miniscule details to come into view, standard equipment doesn't provide us with the full picture.
Most optical microscopes have a limited field of view, only one to two millimeters. This is a major inconvenience for life scientists and pathologists who rely on microscopy to analyze and diagnose disease since prepared tissue samples have dimension in the centimeter range.
The Himalayan wolf is considered an ancient wolf as it evolved prior to the contemporary grey wolf which is found in large parts of North America and Eurasia. Very little is known about the Himalayan wolf, because science and conservation have overlooked these high-altitude wolves as just another grey wolf until recently. As a result, very little research had been conducted on this wolf and no conservation action has been in place, risking a silent population decline of this wolf.
Atopic dermatitis, a chronic inflammatory disorder, affects some 30 million Americans every year. It is the most common cause of eczema, a condition marked by unbearably itchy, flaky patches of skin.
A new Tel Aviv University study identifies the precise receptor chain involved in the development of atopic dermatitis. The researchers hope to develop an antibody based on this research to create a therapeutic drug.