Culture
Worcester, Mass. - November 14, 2019 - Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) are developing a sensor the size of a Band-Aid that will measure a baby's blood oxygen levels, a vital indication of the lungs' effectiveness and whether the baby's tissue is receiving adequate oxygen supply. Unlike current systems used in hospitals, this miniaturized wearable device will be flexible and stretchable, wireless, inexpensive, and mobile--possibly allowing the child to leave the hospital and be monitored remotely.
A 2008 federal parity law succeeded in expanding Medicaid acceptance by treatment facilities for substance use disorders (SUDs), according to a study by University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers.
What remains unclear is the extent to which this enhanced coverage has led to more people receiving SUD treatment. In 2016, less than 20% of the estimated 21 million people with substance use disorders received any treatment for it, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
EAST LANSING, Mich. - The U.S. opioid epidemic is still raging - it's particularly pronounced in low-income areas and in those where people lack access to health care services, which includes cities in Michigan and across the Rust Belt. But the effectiveness of efforts to provide treatment and recovery options to those who need it most - that is, in locations with the greatest number of deaths from opioid overdose - has been unclear.
MADISON -- A new report analyzing decades of public opinion surveys reveals that the public's trust in scientists has remained stable and high over decades.
By various measures, Americans reported that they trusted scientists more than they trusted many other institutions and professions, including journalists, judges and Congress. That trust can affect how people interpret scientific information related to human health or government policies.
Bacteria associated with Crohn's disease rely on multiple stress responses to survive, multiply, and tolerate antibiotics within white blood cells called macrophages, according to a study published November 14 in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens by Olivier Espéli of the College de France and PSL Research University in Paris, France, and colleagues.
New research from Dr. Luis M. Schang and his group at the Baker Institute for Animal Health has identified a new mechanism that plays a role in controlling how the herpes virus alternates between dormant and active stages of infection.
The herpes virus causes cold sores and genital sores, as well as life-threatening infections in newborns, encephalitis and corneal blindness.
Treatment of the virus is difficult, because it hides out in nerve cells and emerges months or years later to reactivate the infection.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN- November 14, 2019 - New research suggests that during decision-making, neurons in the brain are capable of much more complex processing than previously thought.
November 14, 2019 -- A new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health found a consistent association between the adoption of state Prescription Drug Monitoring programs (PDMP) and death rates from heroin poisoning. However, the research showed that rates vary by program type. States with Proactive Prescription Drug Monitoring programs, which are more likely to report outlying prescribing and dispensing and provide broader access to law enforcement, reported a 6 percent reduction in heroin poisoning mortality by the program's third year.
In a surprising finding using the standard animal model of Down syndrome (DS), scientists were able to correct the learning and memory deficits associated with the condition -- the leading genetic cause of cognitive disability and the most frequently diagnosed chromosomal disorder in the U.S. -- with drugs that target the body's response to cellular stresses.
Findings from a new study led by researchers at Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School and published in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, show that the way in which pharmaceutical companies are permitted to share information about their drugs can influence physician prescribing practices.
PHILADELPHIA - When we exercise, our muscles can become fatigued, sore and even damaged with very strenuous activities, like running a marathon. Over time our muscles are able to repair themselves through a complex set of cellular processes within each muscle fiber.
You've probably seen a lichen, even if you didn't realize it. If you've ever meandered through the forest and wondered what the crusty stuff on trees or rocks was, they're lichens, a combination of algae and fungi living together almost as if they were one organism. And since they can grow on bare rocks, scientists thought that lichens were some of the first organisms to make their way onto land from the water, changing the planet's atmosphere and paving the way for modern plants.
CLEVELAND, Ohio (November 15, 2019)--For some women, sex becomes less satisfying with age, with a pronounced decline during perimenopause. A new study indicates that sexual dysfunction increases by nearly 30% during perimenopause, and vaginal dryness most often has the greatest effect on desire, arousal, lubrication, and overall satisfaction. Study results were published this week in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS).
Chaotic mobs of jackdaws suddenly get organised once enough birds join in, new research shows.
The birds form mobs to drive away predators near their nests, and are initially disordered.
But the new study, by biologists at the University of Exeter, physicists at Stanford University and computer scientists from Simon Fraser University in Canada, shows a dramatic switch to "ordered motion" once the group reaches a certain density.
The study also reveals that jackdaws follow different rules when mobbing predators than when flying to winter roosts.
The cells in our body are workshops that continuously operate to produce and process substances to keep us going. When a substance enters a cell for processing, it is surrounded by a portion of the cell's outer membrane to form a sac. The sac then buds off into the cell and becomes a vesicle containing the substance. This ingestion of substances by the cell is called endocytosis. The vesicle is then quickly merged with an endosome, an organelle also frequently referred to as a 'sorting station'.