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Scientists have developed a mathematical model that predicts how the number and effects of bacterial mutations leading to drug resistance will influence the success of antibiotic treatments.

Researchers at IRB Barcelona identify that the expression of ancestral fragments of viral DNA results in a strong inflammatory response and causes breast tissue dysfunction. This viral DNA accumulation has also been observed in some types of cancer, such as triple-negative breast cancer, and it may play a key role in determining metastatic potential. The work has been published in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

Eating a Western diet impairs the immune system in the gut in ways that could increase risk of infection and inflammatory bowel disease, according to a study from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Cleveland Clinic.

According to new study results, a team of researchers led by Cleveland Clinic's Thaddeus Stappenbeck, M.D., Ph.D., have found that a diet high in fat and sugar is associated with impaired intestinal immune cell function in mice. The findings, published in Cell Host & Microbe, provide novel insights into pathways linking obesity and disease-driving gut inflammation, and have implications for developing targets to treat inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) in patients.

Prompted by a recent alarming rise in cases of colorectal cancer in people younger than 50, an independent expert panel has recommended that individuals of average risk for the disease begin screening exams at 45 years of age instead of the traditional 50. Dana-Farber's Kimmie Ng, MD, MPH, is first author of an accompanying editorial.

Research to be published tomorrow in the journal Nature Communications is the first study to quantify the costs of storm damage caused by sea level rise driven specifically by human-induced climate change. Researchers from Stevens Institute of Technology, Climate Central, Rutgers University and other institutions found this self-inflicted damage to be $8.1 billion of Hurricane Sandy's damage and an additional 71,000 people and 36,000 homes exposed to Sandy's flooding.

What The Study Did: Demographic information from 105 randomized clinical trials for primary open-angle glaucoma was combined to compare the rate of participation between individuals from racial/ethnic minority groups with white individuals.

What The Study Did: Telemedicine use grew rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic but there was geographic variation in its use so researchers in this study examined the association of county-level telemedicine use with community factors among people with commercial or Medicare Advantage insurance.

Wake steering is a strategy employed at wind power plants involving misaligning upstream turbines with the wind direction to deflect wakes away from downstream turbines, which consequently increases the net production of wind power at a plant. In Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, researchers illustrate how wake steering can increase energy production for a large sampling of commercial land-based U.S. wind power plants. Several were ideal candidates.

Researchers from Nara Institute of Science and Technology have found that dendritic spine structural plasticity, a key process underlying learning and memory, requires the linkage of cell adhesion molecules and polymerizing actin by shootin1a. Their findings suggest that the disruption of this coupling may be a causative factor in many neurological disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder and Alzheimer's disease, and might lead to the identification of new drug targets for these disorders.

Bottom Line: The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends that adults ages 45 to 75 be screened for colorectal cancer, lowering the age for screening that was previously 50 to 75. The USPSTF also recommends that clinicians selectively offer screening to adults 76 to 85 years of age. Colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death for both men and women in the United States.

University of California scientists have discovered genetic data that will help food crops like tomatoes and rice survive longer, more intense periods of drought on our warming planet.

By sending eligible patients a screening order along with the usual reminder, researchers showed they could double hepatitis C screening rates

Academic institutions need to do much more to support faculty members with disabilities and to create an environment in which they can thrive, argues a commentary published May 18 in the journal Trends in Neurosciences. The paper was written by Justin Yerbury, a cell and molecular neurobiologist who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and his wife, Rachel Yerbury, a research psychologist.

Photodynamic therapy, or using light to inactivate viruses, bacteria, and other microbes, has garnered promising results in recent decades for treating respiratory tract infections and some types of cancer. In Applied Physics Reviews, researchers review the existing approaches and propose adding antibodies to enhance PDT efficacy. They provide a model to help expedite overall PDT development as a rapid response to emergent viral pandemic threats.

A year and a half into the pandemic, waves of successive outbreaks and the dire need for new medical solutions, especially testing, continue to exist. In the Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B, researchers report a rapid and sensitive testing method for COVID-19 biomarkers that amplifies the binding signal for a target biomarker and provides detection within one second.

Not all embryo transfers succeed, which gives rise to the practice of freezing extra embryos from an IVF cycle for future transfers. This allows those with at-risk fertility, due to age or treatments such as chemotherapy, to delay their transfer. In the journal Biomicrofluidics, researchers introduce a standalone microfluidics system to automate the process of embryo vitrification of replacing water with cryoprotectants, which exposes embryos to a slow and constantly increasing concentration of cryoprotectants.

A research group at the University of Córdoba studied the molecular properties of the holm oak (Quercus ilex) in search of trees that are more resistant to drought and root rot.

Estimating freshwater storage capability (FSC) is a challenge due to few observation opportunities and methods to measure and quantify FSC. A new study shows that on average, global land surfaces can retain over one quarter of monthly precipitation based on the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment observation.

A University of Surrey project has revealed innovative methods that could dramatically improve the performance of future electrical vehicles (e-vehicles).