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Behaviors and certain traits may have pervasive influence on social status

Beyond fame and fortune, certain traits and behaviors may have pervasive influence in climbing the social ladder, according to a study by evolutionary psychologists at The University of Texas at Austin.

2 Jun 2020

Study provides evidence on bed bug burden in urban neighborhoods

In the first study to use systematically collected data from multifamily housing inspections to track bed bug infestation, investigators including Christopher Sutherland at the University of Massachusetts Amherst "confirm what has long been suspected for bed bugs, but also for public health issues in general" - infestations are strongly associated with socioeconomic factors, including neighborhood income, eviction rates and crowding.

2 Jun 2020

Study investigates outcome of COVID-19 infection in blood cancer patients

One of the first studies to investigate the outcome of COVID-19 infection in patients with blood cancer has been conducted by clinical researchers from Queen Mary University of London and Barts Health NHS Trust.

2 Jun 2020

Polygenic risk scores may improve clinical assessment of patients with elevated heart attack risk

Genetic variants have been linked with a higher risk of having a heart attack, permitting the calculation of "polygenic risk scores" (PRS) that quantify patients' inherited susceptibility based on the number of variants they have.

2 Jun 2020

New app to aid health-care staff manage pain in dementia patients

University of Alberta computing scientists are developing an app to aid health-care staff to assess and manage pain in patients suffering from dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases.

2 Jun 2020

Approach used against influenza epidemics could benefit COVID-19 drug development

A new study from researchers at The University of Texas at Austin has found that some antivirals are useful for more than helping sick people get better -- they also can prevent thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of virus cases if used in the early stages of infection.

2 Jun 2020

Rapid patient identification could help combat COVID-19

In a peer-reviewed commentary published in npj Digital Medicine, experts from Regenstrief Institute, Mayo Clinic and The Pew Charitable Trusts write that matching patient records from disparate sources is not only achievable, but fundamental to stem the tide of the current pandemic and allow for fast action for future highly contagious viruses.

2 Jun 2020

Acceptance from families, communities shapes the lives of Sierra Leone's former child soldiers

A study in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, published by Elsevier, reports that many of the former child soldiers of Sierra Leone have been accepted by their families and communities as they try to overcome their childhood trauma, according to a team led by Boston College School of Social Work Salem Professor in Global Practice, Theresa S. Betancourt.

2 Jun 2020

Gene discovery in fruit flies could lead to treatments for age-related hearing loss

Scientists at UCL have discovered sets of regulatory genes, which are responsible for maintaining healthy hearing. The finding, made in fruit flies, could potentially lead to treatments for age-related hearing loss (ARHL) in humans.

2 Jun 2020

Microperimetry can help determine the efficacy of novel treatments for macular diseases

Stargardt disease is an inherited eye disease. Its onset is typically in adolescence and it is among the leading causes of blindness in this age group. Symptoms range from severe loss of sharp vision to almost complete loss of sight.

2 Jun 2020

Patient-friendly method of measuring retinal vessel diameters indicates cardiovascular risk

Peter Maloca, group leader at IOB for Ophthalmic Imaging, together with Konstantin Gugleta, senior attending physician at the University Hospital Eye Clinic Basel and Henner Hanssen, Head of Preventive Sports Medicine & Systems Physiology, Department of Sport, Exercise and Health, University of Basel, investigated whether an easy-to-use method of measuring retinal vessel diameters can indicate cardiovascular risk.

2 Jun 2020

A new tool to help biomedical scientists better understand COVID-19 virus

Biomedical scientists working with COVID-19 have a new tool to help them better understand the virus and feel confident about the structural models they are using in their research.

2 Jun 2020

New strategies developed to increase the adoption of evidence-based practice

Identifying and resolving barriers to the successful implementation of evidence-based practice (EBP) helped a hospital make EBP an integrated part of its organizational culture, according to an article in the June issue of Critical Care Nurse (CCN).

2 Jun 2020

Terahertz radiation may offer a potential treatment for cancer

Researchers from the RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics and collaborators have discovered that terahertz radiation, contradicting conventional belief, can disrupt proteins in living cells without killing the cells.

2 Jun 2020

International research consortium launched to improve obesity treatment

University College Dublin (UCD) is leading SOPHIA (Stratification of Obese Phenotypes to Optimize Future Obesity Therapy), a new €16 million EU and industry supported international research consortium launched today.

2 Jun 2020

Researchers recommend ways to reduce the number of experiments

For some scientific disciplines, such as medical or drug research, experiments with live animals are still indispensable.

2 Jun 2020

Fraunhofer researchers investigate the mechanisms of metastasis formation

What makes tumor cells turn murderous? The Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine ITEM is investigating the mechanisms of metastasis formation - and searching for approaches for new treatments in the fight against cancer.

2 Jun 2020

Spleen plays a dual role in malaria vivax

Plasmodium vivax is the most widely distributed human malaria parasite, mostly outside sub-Saharan Africa, and responsible for millions of clinical cases yearly, including severe disease and death. The mechanisms by which P. vivax causes disease are not well understood.

2 Jun 2020

Non-stop learning presents an optimal decision-making strategy

Unlike machines, the behaviour of animals and humans almost always has an element of unpredictability. Countless experiments have shown that our responses to the exact same challenge are sometimes faster, sometimes slower, sometimes correct and sometimes wrong.

2 Jun 2020

Alternative model addresses the shortcomings of neutrophil-depletion model

s the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread, researchers are turning their attention to the virus' biology, mechanism of action, and possible treatments. One of the targets are a group of immune cells called "neutrophils", which have been reported to infiltrate the respiratory tract of patients who have died from COVID-19.

2 Jun 2020