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Story Tip from Johns Hopkins Experts on COVID-19

Research by investigators at Harvard Medical School illuminates the neurobiology that underlies food attraction and how hungry mice choose to pay attention to one object in their environment over another.

Stimulus-responsive supramolecular structures have emerged as an alternative to conventional ones, owing to their applications in sensing, drug delivery, and switchable memory systems. Now, scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology explore the hydrostatic-pressure response of "foldamers"--artificial molecules that mimic protein folding--and report a shift in their preferred conformation with changing pressure, demonstrating hydrostatic pressure-enabled dynamic control. The finding opens doors to future development of pressure-sensitive foldamers and artificial materials.

The primary finding: 87 percent of people who responded to the survey reported that they liked the idea of drone delivery.

Researchers discovered that enriching cell-free vaccine extracts with cellular membranes increased the yields of protein-based vaccines by five-fold, significantly broadening access to potentially lifesaving medicines.

When it comes to friendships and rivalries, male dolphins know who the good team players are. New findings, published in Nature Communications by University of Bristol researchers, reveal that male dolphins form a social concept of team membership based on cooperative investment in the team.

Research on how obesity impacts the diagnosis, management and outcomes of heart and blood vessel disease, heart failure and arrhythmias is summarized in a new statement.Waist circumference, an indicator of abdominal obesity, should be regularly measured as it is a potential warning sign of increased cardiovascular disease risk.Interventions that lead to weight loss improve risk factors yet may not always lead to improvement in coronary artery disease outcomes.

When given a choice, most individuals with an average risk of colorectal cancer said they would prefer a stool-based screening test for colorectal cancer over colonoscopy, the method most often recommended by health care providers.

In a new paper published in Advanced Science, investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital and MIT describe efforts to develop a new personalized, 3D-printed device intended to shield patients who are undergoing radiation therapy and prevent radiation-induced toxicity.

Using ALMA, astronomers found a rotating baby galaxy 1/100th the size of the Milky Way at a time when the Universe was only seven percent of its present age. Thanks to assistance by the gravitational lens effect, the team was able to explore for the first time the nature of small and dark "normal galaxies" in the early Universe, which greatly advances our understanding of the initial phase of galaxy evolution.

A paper published in the International Journal of Medical Informatics shows how a team from Regenstrief Institute leveraged OpenMRS, a global open-source EMR, to create -- in a week -- an emergency EMR for first responders preparing for a possible influx of COVID-19 patients. Lessons learned can be applied to future health crises.

An antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections in humans is showing promise in treating stony coral, found throughout the tropical western Atlantic, including several areas currently affected by stony coral tissue loss disease. Preserving M. cavernosa colonies is important due to its high abundance and role as a dominant reef builder in the northern section of Florida's Coral Reef. Results show that the Base 2B plus amoxicillin treatment had a 95 percent success rate at healing individual disease lesions.

Vigorous and rapid air exchanges might not always be a good thing when it comes to levels of coronavirus particles in a multiroom building, according to a new modeling study. Particle levels can spike in downstream rooms shortly after rapid ventilation.

Researchers at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) led by Samuel Sanchez achieve a breakthrough in the field of biological robots by developing new biobots based on muscle cells that can swim at unprecedented velocities. These biobots also react to electrical stimuli and exert surprising forces thanks to their self-training with a 3D printed smart skeleton, opening the door to a new generation of stronger and faster biological robots based on muscle cells.

Nagoya University researchers and colleagues have uncovered a molecular pathway that enhances chemotherapy resistance in some pancreatic cancer patients. Targeting an RNA to interrupt its activity could improve patient response to therapy and increase their overall survival.

A new paper is the first to study the effects of advanced shoe technology on the performance of elite long-distance runners. Researchers found that the new footwear, featuring lightweight foam and a rigid plate in the midsole, significantly reduced race times for both men and women. Female runners benefited most, shaving about 2 minutes and 10 seconds off marathon times, which represents a 1.7 percent boost in performance.

Kobe University Hospital's Dr. NISHIMORI Makoto and Project Assistant Professor KIUCHI Kunihiko et al. have developed an AI that uses multiple kinds of test data to predict the location of accessory pathways, which cause the heart to beat irregularly. The researchers were able to improve diagnosis accuracy by having the AI learn from two completely different types of test results- electrocardiography (ECG) data and X-ray images. It is hoped that this methodology can be applied to other disorders.

Survey of 3,536 healthcare workers suggests 67 percent are suffering burnout, but people who receive frequent COVID-19 tests are less likely to be burned out.

Time seems to pass more slowly in the UK COVID-19 lockdown - especially for people who are depressed, shielding or dissatisfied with social interactions.

Substantial proportions of pregnant and postpartum women scored high for symptoms of anxiety, depression, loneliness and post-traumatic stress in relation to COVID-19 in a survey carried out in May and June 2020, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Karestan Koenen and Archana Basu of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, US, and colleagues.