Braves manager Brian Snitker joked that he could almost detect a smile as he shared a phone conversation with Nick Markakis after the stoic outfielder re-signed with the club in January. Snitker and others actually saw that smile on Tuesday morning, when Markakis reported to Spring Training to begin his fifth season with the Braves and attempt to push the club past the rebuild he positively enriched through his leadership.

A year ago, Danny Farquhar was not going to be in the middle of a spring storyline. That's going to change this spring as he tries to win a spot in the Yankees' bullpen

It may take the Orioles a little longer than expected to sift through their crowded catching situation. A club source confirmed that catcher Jesus Sucre is held up by visa issues in his native Venezuela and will report to camp late.

Everyone hopes for health this early in spring. But few more than Nate Karns, who has trudged a longer road back than any player in Orioles camp.

A lot has to go right for Yusniel Diaz to crack the Orioles' Opening Day roster. But the Orioles' No.1 prospect per MLB Pipeline isn't letting that impede his plans to compete for a spot anyway.

In holding their first full-squad workout on Monday, the Orioles ushered in the first official phase of a spring set to surprise. Fresh faces flood Ed Smith Stadium. Questions litter the roster. Battles abound at nearly every position.

Taking reps behind Chris Davis at first base, Orioles prospect Ryan Mountcastle became the most high-profile participant yet in the club's grand spring experiment.

The whitening and loss of brown adipose tissue (BAT) during obesity and aging promote metabolic disorders and related diseases. The imbalance of Ca²⁺ homeostasis accounts for the dysfunction and clearance of mitochondria during BAT whitening. Capsaicin, a dietary factor activating TRPV1, can inhibit obesity induced by high-fat diet (HFD), but whether capsaicin inhibits BAT loss and the underlying mechanism remain unclear. In this study, we determined that the inhibitory effects of capsaicin on HFD-induced obesity and BAT whitening were dependent on the participation of SIRT3, a critical mitochondrial deacetylase. SIRT3 also mediated all of the beneficial effects of capsaicin on alleviating reactive oxygen species generation, elevating mitochondrial activity, and restricting mitochondrial calcium overload induced by HFD. Mechanistically, SIRT3 inhibits mitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU)-mediated mitochondrial calcium overload by reducing the H3K27ac level on the MCU promoter in an AMPK-dependent manner. In addition, HFD also inhibits AMPK activity to reduce SIRT3 expression, which could be reversed by capsaicin. Capsaicin intervention also inhibited aging-induced BAT whitening through this mechanism. In conclusion, this study emphasizes a critical role of the AMPK/SIRT3 pathway in the maintenance of BAT morphology and function and suggests that intervention in this pathway may be an effective target for preventing obesity- or age-related metabolic diseases.

With this many stars and this much talent, you can't help but have visions of playing baseball deep into October. And considering it was only a year ago the Astros were talking about defending their World Series title, their window to win another one remains wide open.

All-Star right-hander Gerrit Cole won his arbitration case against the Astros on Wednesday, meaning he will make $13.5 million this season. The team offerred $11.425 million, a difference of $2,075,000.

We're reluctant to finalize our list of offseason winners because, as you may have heard, there are some prominent unsigned free agents. Not just Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, either.

The first live bullpen sessions of the spring typically draw a crowd, and that certainly was the case when Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole and Brady Rodgers faced hitters for the first time Sunday afternoon on the back fields at Ballpark of the Palm Beaches.

The first Hall of Famer to join the Astros at Spring Training is Craig Biggio, who was in uniform for morning workouts on Tuesday and will remain with the team throughout the week.

HYDERABAD, India (AP) — A gas leak at a chemical factory owned by a South Korean company in southern India early Thursday left at least 11 people dead and about 1,000 struggling to breathe. The chemical styrene, used to make plastic and...

Can COVID-19 survive on my phone? Yes. That’s why a daily wipe down of “high-touch” surfaces like phones, keyboards and tablet computers is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A scientific test...

MOSCOW (AP): United States (US) President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed progress in combating the coronavirus pandemic, along with arms-control issues and oil prices, in a phone call Thursday, the White House and the...

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A virtual meeting of South African lawmakers has been disrupted by hackers who flooded the video call with pornographic images. In the incident on Thursday, the hackers also hurled racial and sexual insults at the meeting...

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A Colombian advertising company is pitching a novel, if morbid, solution to shortages of hospital beds and coffins during the coronavirus pandemic: combine them. ABC Displays has created a cardboard bed with metal...

ROSEAU, Dominica (CMC): A top West Indies Cricket Umpires Association (WICUA) official says regional umpires have also been heavily impacted by the cessation of cricket, stemming from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Vivian Johnson, who...

Portmore United captain Rosario Harriott says the Premier League Clubs Association shouldn’t rush to call off this season of the Red Stripe Premier League (RSPL) because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The league was stopped indefinitely in mid-March...

Western Bureau: A number of swimming officials in western Jamaica say that the region’s struggles with underdevelopment will continue even if the COVID-19 pandemic is brought under control. They say this is because they still lack proper pools to...

Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited, operators of Caymanas Track, has announced the re-opening of the main track, effective tomorrow. The company said in a press release on Thursday evening that the track will be opened for two days...

FORMER NATIONAL footballer Aldrick ‘Allie’ McNab is concerned about the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Caribbean’s football development. The coronavirus has caused the postponement, suspension, and cancellation of a number of sporting...

OTTAWA, Canada (CMC): The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football’s (Concacaf) hexagonal round of qualifying for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar may have to be scrapped because of the disruption the COVID-19...

Premier League Clubs Association (PLCA) vice-chairman Carvel Stewart says that the Red Stripe Premier League (RSPL) could return in July at the earliest. The nation’s top flight has been on hiatus since March, with four games left in the regular...

One hundred years ago, Pennsylvanian surgeon Evan Kane penned a brief letter to JAMA in which he declared himself a rigorous proponent of the “benefic [sic] effects of the phonograph within the operating room.” Now David Bosenquet, a surgeon from University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff has written a Christmas editorial about the evidence for the...

Multimorbidity presents a number of different challenges, for the patients living with the conditions, but also for the health professionals caring for them in systems that often are not designed with these more complex needs in mind. Emma Wallace, general practice lecturer, and Susan Smith, a professor of general practice at the Royal College of...

Private hospital chains have been “buying” referrals by offering clinicians lucrative packages, including free facilities in sought after locations. And the doctors’ regulator is turning a blind eye to those who are tempted, Reporter Jonathan Gornall joins us to discuss the investigation. Read the full...

Bone pain is the most common type of pain from cancer and is present in around one third of patients with bone metastases, currently, improvements in cancer treatments mean that many patients are living with metastatic cancer for several years. Christopher Kane, NIHR academic clinical fellow in palliative medicine at Leeds University School of...

Participants in our discussion on person centred care in January agreed that a change in culture and better use of technology could benefit both patients and doctors. At the roundtable: Fiona Godlee (chair), editor in chief, The BMJ Tessa Richards, senior editor, patient partnership, The BMJ Rosamund Snow, patient editor, The BMJ Navjoyt Ladher,...

Mark Folman, a GP in Nottinghamshire, is concerned that more and more work, with more and more patients, means less time with those who really need him. BMJ Voices is a collection of readers’ experiences of working in the NHS. For this, The BMJ is seeking short audio submissions from UK listeners. These submissions will be published on...

In this podcast Alexandra Barratt, professor of public health at the University of Sydney, discusses how questions about overdiagnosis in breast cancer screening programmes were first raised 45 years ago, and why it has taken so long for the concept to become mainstream. Read her full analysis: http://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h867

Obioma Ezekobe is a GP in an urgent care centre in Central Middlesex Hospital. She believes that the public need to be educated about the use of NHS resources, and be taught when it is appropriate to seek care. If you would like to contribute to this collection, please email a brief audio recording to voices@bmj.com or phone +44 (20) 3058 7427...

Cervical screening programmes in many countries stop at around the age of 65 and much of the focus is often on younger women. However, comparatively little attention has been given to older women despite the fact that they account for about a fifth of cases each year and half of deaths. In this podcast Susan Sherman, a senior lecturer in...

Elder abuse is often the result of the organisation of health systems rather than the fault of individuals, argue Jolanda Lindenberg and Rudi Westendorp, two authors of a recent analysis paper. They call for system abuse to be acknowledged and addressed by incorporating older people’s views when designing health services. Read the full...

With improved survival and and ageing population, the number of people living with coronary heart disease in the UK has increased to an estimated 2.3 million. There is increasing evidence that cardiac rehabilitation benefits these patients, and as such it has been included in international clinical guidelines. ​In this podcast, we're joined by...

Medicine has long been a rewarding career, but doctors say the profession needs to overcome the frustrations of working in the NHS to ensure it remains so. During the Big Debate at BMJ Live in London last week six speakers argued for and against the motion, “This house believes that medicine is the best career in the world.” After presentations...

When healthy volunteers are scanned as part of a research project, unexpected findings, with uncertain implications, can be thrown up. Joanna Wardlaw, professor of applied neuroimaging and honorary consultant neuroradiologist at the University of Edinburgh, joins us to discuss how her group deals with these incidental findings, and what...

Francesca Conway, from the Department of Primary Care and Public Health at Imperial College London is co-author of an article on diagnosis of COPD. She joins us to discuss the major guideline recommendations, and highlights where they concur and where they differ. Read the full article: http://www.bmj.com/content/351/bmj.h6171

The claim that cancer screening saves lives is based on fewer deaths due to the target cancer. Vinay Prasad, assistant professor at Oregon Health and Science University, joins us to argue that reductions in overall mortality should be the benchmark and call for higher standards of evidence for cancer screening. Read the full...

In February World Health Organization (WHO) declared the microcephaly epidemic in South America an international public health emergency. Today, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC, has confirmed that it’s is Zika virus which is causing that microcephaly.  The outbreak was originally spotted in Recife, in Brazil, and it’s...

The BMJ recently held a discussion between experts in the fields of general practice, emergency medicine, and paediatrics about the state of out of hours care in the UK, and crucially offered their vision for a better service. Are children a special case, can urgent care ‘hubs’ be a silver bullet, is NHS 111 up to the job of triaging patients,...

Medical error is not included on death certificates or in rankings of cause of death. Martin Makary, professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, joins us to explain why we don't measure medical error, and why it is so important that we start. Read the full analysis: http://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i2139

Providing information to enable informed choices about healthcare sounds immediately appealing to most of us. But Minna Johansson, GP trainee and PhD student at the University of Gothenburg, argues that preventive medicine and expanding disease definitions have changed the ethical premises of informed choice and our good intentions may...

Delirium is common in the last weeks or days of life. It can be distressing for patients and those around them. A clinical update explains why successful management involves excluding reversible causes of delirium and balancing drugs that may provoke or maintain delirium while appreciating that most patients want to retain clear cognition at the...

Failures in implementation of data sharing projects have eroded public trust. In the wake of NHS England’s decision to close down its care.data programme, Tjeerd-Pieter van Staa professor of health e-research at the University of Manchester, examines what lessons must be learnt, and what we can do better next time. Read the full...

"I say to all Australian doctors - young, old, the political and the apolitical - that on this depends not just our ethical credibility as a profession, but our shared humanity. " Following the leaked emails published in The Guardian newspaper, alleging abuse of asylum seekers detained by the Australian government on the Pacific island of Nauru,...

Lily was diagnosed at 14 years old with stage four Hodgkin's lymphoma and received six rounds of chemotherapy and two weeks of radiotherapy. She survived but now lives with the long term effects of that therapy - and joins us to discuss how it has impacted her quality of life. We're also joined by Saif Ahmad and Thankamma Ajithkumar, oncologists...

Oversimplification and lack of evidence stigmatise people with mental illness and impede prevention efforts, says Simon Wessley, professor of psychiatry at King's College London, in an editorial published on thebmj.com. Read the full editorial: http://www.bmj.com/content/354/bmj.i4869

Glasgow GP, writer, broadcaster, and The BMJ's weekly columnist Margaret McCartney joins us to talk about her new book "The State of Medicine: Keeping the Promise of the NHS". Read all of Margaret's columns: goo.gl/iKmmie