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COLUMBUS, Ohio - A new study has uncovered concerning gaps in knowledge about birth control effectiveness.

The research, conducted in the Vietnam capital of Hanoi, included four forms of contraception: IUDs, birth control pills, male condoms and withdrawal.

About half of the women in the study who used condoms mistakenly thought they were the most effective pregnancy prevention. Condoms are about 85 percent effective.

Only 31 percent of participants correctly identified IUDs, tiny devices inserted into the uterus, as the most effective method. Women who used an IUD were more likely to correctly identify their method as more effective than condoms, oral contraception or withdrawal than other study participants. IUDs are more than 99 percent effective.

The research highlights a need for better efforts to inform women about which methods work best to prevent unwanted pregnancy, said the researcher who led the study, published online this month in the journal Contraception: X.

"Worldwide, about half of pregnancies are unintended - either these women don't ever want to become pregnant, or they don't want to become pregnant at that time," said Maria Gallo, the study's lead author and an associate professor of epidemiology at The Ohio State University.

"How do we fix this? We need to make sure we give women the information they need to prevent these pregnancies. The relative effectiveness of various forms of birth control is an important piece of information that should be included in contraceptive counseling."

In the study, Gallo and her colleagues asked 128 IUD users, 126 birth-control pill users and 167 condom users about their perceptions about various forms of birth control.

Researchers asked the study participants about effectiveness, reversibility (the ability to become pregnant after stopping use of the method), covert use (the ability to use the birth control without a partner's knowledge) and contraindication (whether there are people who can't or shouldn't use the contraception.) The women were 34 years old on average and most were married.

"This study suggests that women may be more likely to believe the form of birth control they choose is the most effective, even if that isn't the case," Gallo said.

In addition to the discrepancies in knowledge about IUD effectiveness and condom effectiveness, the researchers found that many women mistakenly believed that IUD use is inappropriate for some women, including those who haven't been pregnant, and that the pill and other hormone-based contraception can cause infertility.

Next, Gallo is hoping to study how well a short, animated video on contraceptive effectiveness works to address these knowledge gaps.

For older adults, fainting and falls are serious health concerns. They can lead to injury, hospitalization, and other severe consequences. Having certain chronic conditions, as well as taking certain medications, can raise your risk of experiencing falls and fall-related injuries.

One condition that contributes to fainting and falls is atrial fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation occurs when the upper (atrial) part of your heart contracts rapidly and irregularly (fibrillates). Atrial fibrillation may be continuous or occasional and is the most common irregular heart rhythm in older adults. It occurs in three to five percent of people over age 65.

To prevent atrial fibrillation symptoms, health professionals may treat patients with medications to control their heart rate or rhythm. However, these medications can potentially raise the risk for falls and fainting, though the connection hasn't studied significantly in the past.

To learn more, researchers in Denmark designed a study to learn more about the potential risk for falls and fainting among older adults taking medication for atrial fibrillation. Their study was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Using Danish health data, the researchers identified patients who were between the ages of 65 and 100 when they were first diagnosed with atrial fibrillation. The researchers examined the records of 100,935 atrial fibrillation patients 65 years or older who filled prescriptions for heart rhythm medications.

The researchers examined the medication the patients took to control their heart rhythms. Prescriptions were for beta-blockers, certain calcium channel blockers (diltiazem, verapamil), and digoxin. Other medications included amiodarone, flecainide, and propafenone.

Then the researchers looked for those patients who had emergency department visits or hospital admissions for fainting, fall-related injuries, or both. Fall-related injuries were defined as fractures of the thigh, elbow, forearm, wrist, shoulder or upper arm, pelvis, and skull, as well as major and minor head injuries.

The researchers followed the patients for about two and a half years. During the follow-up period:

17,132 (17 percent) had a fall-related injury

5,745 (5.7 percent) had a fainting episode

21,093 (20.9 percent) had either a fall-related or fainting-related injury

There were 40,447 deaths without a fall-related injury or fainting episode, which accounted for 40.1 percent of study participants.

The researchers reported that the medication amiodarone was significantly associated with increased risk, whether it was prescribed alone or with other heart rhythm drugs. The medication digoxin was slightly associated with fall-related injuries.

The researchers also learned that people were at higher risk for an injury within the first 90 days of treatment, and especially within the first 14 days of treatment.

"Our findings add evidence that, for older patients with atrial fibrillation, treatment with amiodarone is associated with a higher risk of fall-related injuries and fainting," said the researchers. Additionally, the amiodarone connection was strongest within the first two weeks of the treatment but still present after long-term treatment.

The researchers concluded that being informed on the adverse risks of a given treatment is crucial to make shared decisions and provide quality patient care.

Bottom Line: Symptoms of physician burnout appear to be associated with greater bias toward black people in this study of nearly 3,400 second-year resident physicians in the United States who identified as nonblack. Survey data from questionnaires that were part of another study were used. About 45% of physician residents had symptoms of burnout. Explicit bias was measured on a "feeling thermometer" with the lowest score meaning cold or unfavorable toward black people and the highest score meaning warm or favorable; implict bias was measured on a test that involved sorting pictures of white and black people and words to describe them including "good" and "bad." Study authors suggest symptoms of burnout may be factors in care disparities. However, this observational study cannot determine if the suggested association between symptoms of burnout and bias toward black people is causal and the magnitude of the observed association was small to medium.

Authors: Liselotte Dyrbye, M.D., M.H.P.E., of the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, and coauthors

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.7457)

Editor's Note: The article includes funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

Bottom Line: The proportion of U.S. adults adhering to the "Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans" from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services didn't significantly improve between 2007 and 2016 but time spent sitting increased. The first edition of the federal guidelines recommending types and duration of physical activity were released in 2008 and updated in 2018, including a recommendation to spend less time sitting. This study used nationally representative survey data from about 27,000 adults to examine adherence to the recommendations for aerobic activity, as well as sedentary behavior from 2007 to 2016. Study authors report 65.2% met the guidelines for aerobic activity in 2015-2016, compared with 63.2% in 2007-2008, while time spent sitting increased from 5.7 hours per day in 2007-2008 to 6.4 hours per day in 2015-2016. The proportion of people not meeting the recommendations for aerobic activity and sitting more than six hours a day increased from 16.1% to 18.8% during this same period. A limitation of the study is that the information on physical activity and sitting time was self-reported.

Authors: Wei Bao, M.D., Ph.D., University of Iowa, Iowa City, and coauthors

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.7597)

Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

New Haven, Conn. -- County- and municipality-level bans on tobacco sales to individuals under age 21 yield substantive reductions in smoking among 18- to 20-year-olds, according to a new study from the Yale School of Public Health.

Published online in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research, the study examines how "tobacco-21 laws" affect smoking among 18- to 20-year-olds residing in metropolitan/micropolitan statistical areas (MMSAs), which are clusters of adjacent counties that include an urban center with at least 10,000 residents.

The researchers found that, all else being equal, the smoking rate among 18- to 20-year-olds declines when the percent of an MMSA covered by tobacco-21 laws increases. This trend is not evident for 23- to 25-year-olds, providing further evidence that the finding for 18- to 20-year-olds reflects a response to tobacco-21 policies, said the researchers.

Specifically, between 2011 and 2016, 18- to 20-year-olds living in MMSAs with at least one local tobacco-21 law exhibited an average drop in their smoking rate of 1.2 percentage points, relative to those living in areas with no tobacco-21 policy. This reduction is equivalent to a 10% drop in smoking. Analyses suggest that the effects of state-level tobacco-21 laws would be even greater.

"Smoking is responsible for over 400,000 deaths in the United States alone every year, with the vast majority of smokers initiating use before age 21. Our analysis indicates that tobacco-21 laws are an effective way to reduce such take-up, even when they are implemented at the local level," said lead researcher Abigail S. Friedman, assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Yale School of Public Health.

As of July 18, 2019, 18 states and over 400 localities have passed laws banning tobacco sales to individuals under age 21. However, 16 states without tobacco-21 laws have preemption policies that prohibit local jurisdictions from raising the minimum legal sales age for tobacco products above the state's minimum tobacco sales age, which is usually 18 years old.

"Over 20% of the U.S. population under age 21 lives in a preemption state without a state-level tobacco-21 law. This study's findings suggest that such preemption laws prevent residents who support tobacco-21 policies from improving their community's health," says Friedman.

With more people living longer and healthier lives than ever before, a new white paper published by the American Federation for Aging Research shows there is no such thing as being too old to be president.

Author S. Jay Olshansky, professor of epidemiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, estimated the longevity and survival probabilities of candidates seeking the White House. He found that age is not a relevant factor in judging the fitness of presidential candidates to hold the nation's highest office.

"Age is just a number," said Olshansky, who is also a board member of the American Federation for Aging Research, or AFAR. "This research for the first time provides science-based calculations that show that the age of a candidate should not be considered at all."

Olshansky and his colleagues used data from national vital statistics to estimate lifespan, healthspan (years of healthy living), disabled lifespan, and four- and eight-year survival probabilities for U.S. citizens with attributes matching those of all 27 current candidates for the next two election cycles.

The study's estimates, which Olshansky says are intentionally conservative, suggest that nearly all of the candidates meet the criteria to live in health, and without disability, not only through a first term but also through a second term.

"Nevertheless, the estimates provided here, favorable or unfavorable, should not be interpreted as destiny for any of the candidates," Olshansky wrote.

Four of the leading contenders in both parties are in their 70s: U.S. senators Joe Biden (76), Bernie Sanders (77) and Elizabeth Warren (70) on the Democratic side, and Republican incumbent Donald Trump (73), who became the oldest American elected president at age 70 in 2016. Overall, seven of the 27 candidates currently in the race for president would be aged 70 and older on inauguration day in January 2021, increasing the odds that the oldest person ever elected president could be sworn into office that day.

This fact has given rise to considerable discussion and media attention regarding the role age plays in deciding whether a candidate is fit to be president. Almost four in 10 people surveyed in a June 2019 Economist/YouGov Poll said they considered anyone in their 70s "too old to be president."

The scientific answer, according to the study, is that "chronological age itself should not be used as a sole disqualifier to run for or become president."

AFAR Executive Director Stephanie Lederman said the number of candidates in their 70s is in part a result of "the revolution in healthy aging that has occurred over the past century. Life expectancy has increased by an astounding 30 years. More of us are living healthier and longer than ever before. And biomedical research continues to open new paths for all of us to extend not only how long we live, but how many of those years we live independently, in good health, and contributing in significant ways to society."

The study also took note of a suggestion by Dr. David Scheiner, former President Obama's personal physician, calling on presidential candidates to make their medical records public.

"The voting public and legal scholars need to weigh in on whether or not medical records should be required to be disclosed by candidates or a sitting president," Olshansky said.

Lederman said, "The question, Dr. Olshansky's study reminds us, shouldn't be, 'How old is too old?' It should be, 'How healthy is the candidate, regardless of their age?'"

BOSTON - Coronary artery disease (CAD) - caused by plaque buildup in the artery walls that constricts the flow of blood to the heart - is the most common form of heart disease and the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States. Non-invasive imaging such as cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging is often used to diagnose coronary heart disease. However, current techniques are cumbersome, costly and expose patients to adverse health risks.

Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have developed a novel imaging approach that has the potential to identify patients with coronary disease without administration of drugs or contrast dye and within a short 15 minute exam protocol. Described in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Imaging, the technique involves measuring changes in blood flow in the myocardium - the heart's muscular tissue - after physical exercise by measuring magnetic properties of the tissue, thereby eliminating the need for any contrast media or pharmacological stress agents.

"Current stress cardiac imaging requires administration of gadolinium contrast agent," said corresponding author Reza Nezafat, PhD, scientific director of the Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Center at BIDMC and a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "However, recent data have shown that gadolinium deposits in the brain and other organs. We aimed to develop a non-invasive imaging technique that eliminates the need for any contrast administration to measure changes in the blood flow in the myocardium."

To do that, researchers in the Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (MR) Center at BIDMC developed a technique that measures changes in the magnetic property of tissue without gadolinium contrast agent as they performed exercise stress tests.

First, healthy subjects underwent a series of baseline imaging scans. Next, lying on their backs at the opening of an MRI machine, the healthy adults pedaled an exercise bicycle to increase their heart rate. Within 30 seconds of pedaling, participants underwent an MRI scan that measured changes in tissue properties of myocardium to quantify changes in the blood flow in the myocardium.

Next, the researchers tested participants with known or suspected coronary artery disease with a similar imaging protocol. Taken together, images from the two groups revealed that magnetic properties of myocardium change differently in areas impacted by coronary atherosclerosis than in normal areas and that these differences can be quantified using this technique.

"In this proof-of-concept study, we demonstrated that a quantitative cardiac MR approach that measures tissue properties of heart muscles, combined with an exercise protocol using an MRI-compatible ergometer in an MRI suite might have the potential to assess flow-limiting coronary artery stenosis in patients with suspected CAD without the need for gadolinium contrast injection or pharmacological stress agents," Nezefat said. "Larger studies are warranted to confirm the clinical performance of our quantitative cardiac MR approach with exercise stress as an alternative to the currently common method of non-invasive assessment of coronary artery disease."

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a very unusual disease: Often classified as a cancer because of uncontrolled cell growth in different parts of the body, it also has features of an autoimmune disease, as LCH lesions attract immune cells and show characteristic tissue inflammation. LCH is clinically variable and often difficult to diagnose. Skin involvement in babies with LCH can look like a nappy rash, whereas bone involvement can be mistaken as sarcoma in an X-ray picture. In its most aggressive form, LCH can present as leukaemia-like disease and lead to organ failure. These diverse manifestations and the enormous clinical heterogeneity of LCH continue to puzzle medical doctors and scientists around the world.

Studying LCH lesions under the microscope, Caroline Hutter - a paediatric oncologist at St. Anna Children's Hospital, principal investigator at CCRI and co-lead investigator of this study - observed striking heterogeneity among LCH cells. To investigate this diversity in full molecular detail, she assembled an interdisciplinary team including experimental and computational researchers from CCRI and CeMM, as well as medical doctors from St. Anna Children's Hospital and Vienna General Hospital. Her aim was to answer two fundamental questions: What are the mechanisms behind LCH, and how can we improve treatment of children affected by this disease?

Utilizing state-of-the-art technology in the laboratory of co-lead investigator Christoph Bock (CeMM), LCH lesions were analysed for their molecular composition at single-cell resolution. Spearheaded by one computational postdoc, Florian Halbritter (now at CCRI), and one wet-lab postdoc, Matthias Farlik (now at Medical University of Vienna), the team analysed the molecular profiles of LCH lesions and developed a comprehensive map of cellular heterogeneity in LCH.

In this molecular map of LCH, the team identified multiple LCH cell subtypes. One of these subtypes comprised actively dividing cells, which appear to give rise to the other LCH cell subtypes. In further experiments, the team unravelled the molecular pathways that are active in different branches of this unexpected developmental hierarchy, which corroborated an interplay of developmental, immunological, and oncogenic mechanisms in LCH.

The study is a significant step forward in the understanding of this enigmatic disease. In future, these finding may help devise better ways of distinguishing severe from less severe disease cases, and they may even open up new treatment possibilities.

(Boston)-- A panel of investigators assembled by the National Advisory Eye Council (NAEC) calls for large-scale collaborative research to address dry macular degeneration--the leading cause of blindness among the elderly--for which there is currently no effective treatment.

The NAEC--a 12-member panel that helps guide the National Eye Institute--recognized the need to investigate the current state of research on this disease, in order to guide the direction in which to take future research. The article, published in Nature Communications, is the product of a group of scientists tasked by the NAEC to do just that, as well as propose ideas on how to expand knowledge of this disease.

There are two types of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). "Wet" (neovascular) AMD, for which there are effective treatments that target limiting the inappropriate growth of new blood vessels that end up disrupting vision in the delicate tissues of the eye. "Dry" (non-neovascular) AMD is a more gradual vision loss from deposits of a substance called drusen, composed of fats and proteins. The proposed causes of dry AMD are numerous and are not all clear to the scientific and medical community.

"There are a plethora of genetic and environmental factors interweaving and contributing to this disease in ways known and unknown," explained co-corresponding author Lindsay Farrer, PhD, chief of the Biomedical Genetics division at Boston University School of Medicine. "Our article reflects on what we know thus far and calls for interdisciplinary research, with ideas on where to go next, towards answers that will bring about meaningful clinical results."

Among the ideas proposed in the article are drawing forth "integrated collaboration of leading clinicians, imaging experts, a wide variety of basic scientists, bioinformaticians and biostaticians" as well as creating a large biorepository of eye tissue from donors with and without AMD, generating multiple types of 'omics data from disease and normal eye tissue, and designing computer models of the disease. "Success in these areas will likely be achieved most expediently and effectively by promoting collaborative efforts of multidisciplinary investigator teams and developing centralized resources including clinical, imaging, omic, and other types of data as well as carefully phenotyped eye tissue from large cohorts of patients with and without AMD."

The authors also ask agencies such as the National Institutes of Health to reconsider how they allocate funding in order to make this possible. In addition, the authors suggest longer follow-up times with clinical trial patients, given there likely are different factors at play at different stages of the disease.

CLEVELAND -- In a study published July 26 online in the journal Diabetes, physician-researchers from University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, found that the asthma medication montelukast (brand name Singulair), can inhibit early changes in diabetic retinopathy, the eye disease which develops due to diabetes, in a mouse model of type 1 diabetes.

"We found that montelukast (Singulair) was able to disrupt the signaling of inflammatory molecules called leukotrienes. This disruption significantly reduced small blood vessel and nerve damage that we see in the early stages of diabetic retinopathy," said senior author Rose Gubitosi-Klug, M.D., Ph.D., Chief of Pediatric Endocrinology at UH Rainbow and the William T. Dahms Professor of Pediatrics at CWRU School of Medicine.

"While most therapies target the late stages of the eye disease in diabetes, these findings offer a much-needed approach to treat the disease much earlier."

"The re-purposing of a medication already FDA-approved for use in children and adolescents sets the stage for rapid translation of these animal model findings to human subjects," said Dr. Gubitosi-Klug. "The daily dose equivalent used in the current study is similar to the once daily dose used in the treatment of asthma. Reassuringly, in our diabetes model as in asthma studies, this dose allows effective suppression of chronic inflammation, which can prevent pathology, but avoids complete inhibition of inflammation, which can compromise innate immunity."

"Moreover, montelukast was efficacious in both prevention and delayed intervention approaches, which implies relevance to patients with newly-diagnosed diabetes as well as individuals living with diabetes of longer duration," she said. "Thus, there is promise that a safe treatment that effectively stabilizes airways in asthma may also preserve small blood vessels and nerve cells in diabetes."

LGBTQI+ Muslims seeking asylum are more successful if they speak, dress and act in accordance with Western notions of homosexuality, according to a new study.

The study, published in the journal Ethnic and Racial Studies, found that LGBTQI+ asylum applicants reported they were often expected to be "flamboyant" and "outspoken" in their asylum interview, and that overall, asylum seekers were more successful if they could prove their 'gayness' by being involved in gay/queer activism in their country of origin, visiting gay bars, being members of lesbian and gay groups and attending gay pride marches.

For the study, Dr Mengia Tschalaer, an anthropologist at the University of Bristol interviewed 15 lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) refugees and asylum seekers from Tunisia, Syria, Lebanon, Iran and Pakistan. She also talked to asylum lawyers and judges from Berlin and Cologne, as well as representatives of LGBTQI+ refugee counselling centers in Cologne, Munich, Heidelberg and Mannheim.

She found that the vast majority of successful applicants were from middle to upper-class backgrounds, were assigned male at birth and had been actively involved in gay/queer activism in their country of origin.

Along with class and educational background, membership of LGBTQI+ organisations and access to local queer and gay refugee organisations in Germany were the most important factors in securing a successful asylum claim.

"In order to gain asylum, asylum seekers must convince officials of their permanent identity as 'gay', 'lesbian', trans', 'bi', and/or 'intersex', says Dr Tschalaer. "They also need to demonstrate that their sexual and gender identity has led to them being persecuted in their home country."

"My research showed that most successful applicants were very well informed about what is expected from them at the asylum interview - which was for their asylum story to align with Western notions of queer/gay lifestyles, i.e frequent visits to gay discos and parties, public display of love and affection, wearing rainbow-coded clothing etc."

In addition, and despite efforts to render the asylum process safer for LGBTQI+ individuals, it was reported there were still incidences where asylum seekers were expected to answer questions about their sex life during their asylum interview - despite this being against EU law - and some interviewees stated they felt judged on their clothing, or how they acted in the interview.

The study also found that people who were more open about their sexuality and gender identity in their country of origin as well as the country of arrival were much more likely to be granted asylum, in part because they were more likely to seek out LGBTQI+ refugee organisations in Germany and receive support for the preparation of their asylum interview.

However, people who were not 'out' at the time of their interview, or who found it difficult to speak about their sexuality due to fear of persecution, stigma or shame felt marginalised.

"LGBTQI+ asylum seekers who felt forced to hide their sexuality and/or gender identity, and who felt uncomfortable talking about it were usually rejected, as were those who were married or had children in their countries of origin. This was either because they were not recognised or believed as being LGBTQI+, or because they were told to hide in their country of origin since they had not come out yet," says Dr Tschalaer.

"Quite a few of my interviewees also mentioned that they felt that their translator held a homo-/transphobic attitude or did not translate properly due to their lack of knowledge of gay/queer/trans issues. For example, one Somalian man said that his fear and shame of coming out as gay - coupled with his translator's known negative attitudes toward homosexuals - stopped him from being able to talk openly about his sexuality, leading to the rejection of his asylum claim."

The study also found that asylum applicants who portrayed Germany as a liberal, tolerant country free of discrimination, while portraying their Muslim countries of origin as homophobic and morally 'backwards' were more likely to receive refugee protection. While Germany, and Europe more generally are traditionally seen as a safe havens for LGBTQI+ refugees compared to many majority Muslim countries - where homosexuality is illegal - there is a concern that the narratives and stereotypes perpetuated by the German asylum system may serve right-wing discourses on immigration in Germany.

According to Tschalaer, the findings suggest that more needs to be done to ensure that all Muslim LGBTQI individuals enjoy the same right to asylum.

"We need to train decision makers, judges and translators around the topic of LGBTQI+ so that they are more knowledgeable about LGBTQI+ identities and sexualities, and so as not to reproduce Islamophobic tendencies in the current immigration practices and debates in Germany." says Tschalaer.

"Access to legal resources and support for LGBTQI+ also needs to be streamlined, as LGBTQI+ asylum seekers who had access to information on the asylum process in Germany were much more successful."

New Rochelle, NY, July 25, 2019--A long-acting antiretroviral agent such as rilpivirine could further improve pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), already shown to be safe and effective at preventing AIDS in high risk populations, as it could overcome problems with poor medication adherence. A new study examining the safety, acceptability, and effectiveness of multiple doses of injected rilpivirine is published in AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. Click here to read the full-text article free on the AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses website through August 25, 2019.

The article entitled "A Multiple Dose Phase 1 Assessment of Rilpivirine Long Acting in a Model of Preexposure Prophylaxis Against HIV" was coauthored by Ian McGowan, Orion Biotechnology (Ottawa, Canada) and an international team of researchers from University of Pittsburgh (PA), Magee Women Research Institute (Pittsburgh, PA), Alpha StatConsult (Damascus, MD), University of Liverpool (U.K.), University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, Janssen Research and Development (Beerse, Belgium), The Translational Science Corp. (Los Angeles, CA), and University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine (Miami, FL).

In this phase 1 study, women and men received three intramuscular doses of rilpivirine 8 weeks apart. The injections were shown to be safe and well tolerated, with injection site pain being the most common adverse effect. In an ex vivo model of HIV PrEP using tissue samples in the laboratory, the drug was associated with significant inhibition of HIV replication in rectal tissue, which persisted for up to 4 months after the last dose of rilpivirine. The drug was not, however, associated with viral suppression in cervicovaginal tissue.

Thomas Hope, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses and Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL states: "There is currently a significant effort to develop long-acting formulations of drugs that prevent HIV replication and can be utilized to prevent HIV acquisition (PrEP). PrEP works if properly taken. Long-acting formulations can eliminate problems when high risk individuals forget to take their pills every day. The development of successful long-acting PrEP formulations will decrease new HIV infections by providing improved protection from HIV acquisition by eliminating problems for individuals who don't like pills or can't remember to take their pill every day."

As smartphones continue to be an inherent part of life and grow as a primary source of entertainment--particularly among young people--it leads to a decrease in physical activity. In a recent study presented at the ACC Latin America Conference 2019, university students who used their smartphones five or more hours a day had a 43 percent increased risk of obesity and were more likely to have other lifestyle habits that increase the risk of heart disease.

"It is important that the general population know and be aware that, although mobile technology is undoubtedly attractive for its multiple purposes, portability, comfort, access to countless services, information and entertainment sources, it should also be used to improve habits and healthy behaviors," said Mirary Mantilla-Morrón, a cardiac pulmonary and vascular rehabilitation specialist at the Health Sciences Faculty at the Simón Bolívar University in Barranquilla, Colombia, and the lead author of the study. "Spending too much time in front of the Smartphone facilitates sedentary behaviors, reduces the time of physical activity, which increases the risk of premature death, diabetes, heart disease, different types of cancer, osteoarticular discomfort and musculoskeletal symptoms."

Researchers analyzed 1060 students of the Health Sciences Faculty at the Simón Bolívar University during June to December 2018. The study group consisted of 700 women and 360 men. With an average age of 19 years and 20 years respectively. Participating men were 36.1 percent likely to be overweight and 42.6 percent likely to be obese. Women were 63.9 percent likely to be overweight and 57.4 percent likely to be obese.

Researchers found the risk of obesity increased by 43 percent if a smartphone was used five or more hours a day, as participating students were twice as likely to drink more sugary drinks, fast food, sweets, snacks and have decreased physical activity. Twenty-six percent of the subjects who were overweight and 4.6 percent who were obese spent more than five hours using their device.

"The results of this study allow us to highlight one of the main causes of physical obesity, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease," Mantilla-Morrón said. "We have also determined that the amount of time in which a person is exposed to the use of technologies--specifically prolonged cell phone use--is associated with the development of obesity."

A single viral factor released from HIV-infected cells may wreak havoc on the body and lead to the development of chronic and potentially deadly diseases like heart disease, diabetes and dementia, according to a new study by scientists at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne.

By explaining the mechanisms, it paves the way for targeted treatment that could help provide a longer and healthier life for the 36 million people globally living with HIV/AIDS.

The treatment of HIV/AIDS is so advanced that today life expectancy of people living with HIV is very similar to that of uninfected persons. However, people with HIV may experience co-morbidities like heart disease, diabetes, dementia or related complications. Studies show that not only are people living with HIV at increased risk of these chronic diseases, they are occurring at an earlier age and progress faster.

These co-morbidities persist even after successful application of antiretroviral therapy, when no virus is found in the blood. Scientists have been intrigued as to what is going on in the small number of infected cells, believing that HIV-infected cells instead of the virus release a toxic substance that kills cells around them.

Most co-morbidities of HIV infection share a common element in their pathogenesis, impairment of cholesterol metabolism but exactly how and what was happening remained a mystery. But in this new study published in PLOS Pathogens, Baker Institute scientists have been able to pinpoint the mechanisms involved.

Baker Institute scientists showed that the HIV protein, Nef, released from infected cells in specialised vesicles, is taken up by uninfected 'bystander' cells, impairing cholesterol metabolism in these cells.

This impairment triggers inflammation, contributing to the development of diseases including dementia, heart disease and diabetes.

Head of Lipoproteins and Atherosclerosis at the Baker Institute, Professor Dmitri Sviridov says the study demonstrates how a single viral molecule released from infected cells into circulation may contribute to a range of pathogenic responses.

"The good news is that there are many drugs on the market and in development to tackle impaired cholesterol metabolism which could be repurposed for this specific population to effectively treat these diseases," says Professor Sviridov.

A tidewater glacier in Alaska is melting underwater at rates upwards of two orders of magnitude greater than what is currently estimated, sonar surveys reveal. The study's results, based on direct measurements, suggest that some glaciers may be in "hotter water" than previously thought. Like vast frozen rivers, tidewater glaciers flow from the land and into the sea, forming a partially submerged ice-ocean boundary. However, unlike terrestrial glaciers, which are often sequestered to high-altitudes, tidewater glaciers can be far more dynamic and subject to ongoing changes driven by underwater melting and iceberg calving where the ocean meets the ice. While it is widely recognized that ice loss from these glaciers influences both the rate of sea level rise and potentially global ocean circulation - a primary driver of global climate - the understanding of the dynamics of tidewater glacier melt, particularly as a response to accelerated warming in high-latitude glacier environments, is largely predicated upon sparse data, indirect inferences and an unconstrained theoretical model of subsurface melting. To date, suggest the authors of this study, no direct measurements of submarine melting at tidewater glacier fronts have been made. To address this lack of direct observations, David Sutherland and colleagues conducted repeat multibeam sonar surveys of the submerged face of the LeConte Glacier in Southeast Alaska. Along with other ocean, ice and atmospheric measurements collected in August 2016 and May 2017, the sonar images were used to document and create a time-variable, three-dimensional record of changes in the glacier face that could be linked to melting and calving patterns. Sutherland et al. discovered seasonally increasing submarine melt across the glacier face and at rates far greater than theory-based predictions. Their results, they say, suggest a pressing need to reevaluate existing models of tidewater glacier ice loss.