Title: High-Pitched Sounds May Trigger Seizures in Cats
Category: Health News
Created: 4/28/2015 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/29/2015 12:00:00 AM

Title: Few Sickle Cell Patients Receiving Beneficial Drug, Study Finds
Category: Health News
Created: 4/28/2015 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/29/2015 12:00:00 AM

Title: Half of U.S. Hospitals Could Do More to Prevent Serious Infections, Study Finds
Category: Health News
Created: 4/29/2015 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/30/2015 12:00:00 AM

Title: Most Americans Turn to Prayer for Healing, Survey Finds
Category: Health News
Created: 4/22/2016 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/25/2016 12:00:00 AM

Title: Female Pelvis Widens, Then Shrinks Over a Lifetime, Study Finds
Category: Health News
Created: 4/25/2016 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/26/2016 12:00:00 AM

Title: Babies Fed Rice-Based Cereals Have Higher Arsenic Levels, Study Finds
Category: Health News
Created: 4/25/2016 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/26/2016 12:00:00 AM

Title: U.S. Health Report Card Finds Racial, Ethnic Disparities Persist
Category: Health News
Created: 4/27/2016 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/27/2016 12:00:00 AM

Title: Young Gay, Bisexual Men May Be at Higher Risk for Suicide, Study Finds
Category: Health News
Created: 4/26/2016 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/27/2016 12:00:00 AM

Title: Americans Getting Adequate Water Daily, CDC Finds
Category: Health News
Created: 4/26/2016 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/27/2016 12:00:00 AM

Title: Hearing Aids May Help Keep Seniors' Minds Sharp
Category: Health News
Created: 4/27/2016 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/28/2016 12:00:00 AM

Title: Type 2 Diabetes May Damage Hearing, Study Finds
Category: Health News
Created: 4/27/2016 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/28/2016 12:00:00 AM

Title: Healthy Heart in Middle Age Delivers Big Dividends
Category: Health News
Created: 5/1/2017 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/2/2017 12:00:00 AM

Title: Thunderstorms Can Trigger Asthma Flares, Study Finds
Category: Health News
Created: 5/1/2017 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/2/2017 12:00:00 AM

Title: More Starring Roles for Booze in Kids' Movies, Study Finds
Category: Health News
Created: 5/4/2017 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/4/2017 12:00:00 AM

Title: U.S. Workplaces Roiled by Post-Election Discord, Poll Finds
Category: Health News
Created: 5/3/2017 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/4/2017 12:00:00 AM

Title: 4 in 10 People Will Suffer Arthritic Hands Over Lifetime
Category: Health News
Created: 5/4/2017 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/5/2017 12:00:00 AM

Title: Sex Still Matters to Many Seniors, Survey Finds
Category: Health News
Created: 5/3/2018 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/4/2018 12:00:00 AM

Title: Autism Diagnoses Reliable at 14 Months, Study Finds
Category: Health News
Created: 4/29/2019 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/30/2019 12:00:00 AM

Title: AHA News: Firefighter In Need of a New Heart Got By With a Little Help From His Friends
Category: Health News
Created: 4/24/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/27/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: E-Cigarettes as Bad for Arteries as Regular Smokes, Study Finds
Category: Health News
Created: 4/29/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/30/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Thousands of Health Care Workers Lack Insurance If COVID-19 Strikes: Study
Category: Health News
Created: 4/30/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/1/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Trial Finds Acupuncture May Help Prevent Migraines
Category: Health News
Created: 3/26/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 3/27/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Heavy Drinking Tied to Raised Stroke Risk, Study Finds
Category: Health News
Created: 5/5/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/6/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Necklace Spots A-Fib in Just Over 30 Seconds
Category: Health News
Created: 5/6/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/7/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: All That Social Media Hasn't Hurt Kids' Social Skills, Study Finds
Category: Health News
Created: 4/17/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/17/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Thousands of COVID-19 Cases Among Inmates and Staff at U.S. Prisons and Jails: CDC
Category: Health News
Created: 5/7/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/8/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Drink Up! Coffee Won't Harm Your Heart, Study Finds
Category: Health News
Created: 5/7/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/8/2020 12:00:00 AM

A necklace outfitted with a high-tech pendant may be able to screen for signs of an abnormal heart rhythm condition known as atrial fibrillation.

Title: Daily Aspirin Won't Stop Dementia, Study Finds
Category: Health News
Created: 3/25/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 3/26/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Research Finds Contagious Staph in Lupus-Related Skin Rashes
Category: Health News
Created: 2/28/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 3/2/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: 4 in 10 Security Guards Suffer PTSD, Study Finds
Category: Health News
Created: 4/14/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/15/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Cuddling Brings Two Minds Together, MRI Study Reveals
Category: Health News
Created: 5/4/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/4/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Ask Grandma to Dance to Boost Her Mood And Strengthen Your Bonds
Category: Health News
Created: 4/17/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/20/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Women Are Much Safer Drivers Than Men, British Study Finds
Category: Health News
Created: 4/7/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/7/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Is the 'Gratitude Movement' Overrated? Study Finds It Has Limits
Category: Health News
Created: 3/16/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 3/17/2020 12:00:00 AM

ABSTRACT

Iron is a vital mineral for almost all living organisms and has a pivotal role in central metabolism. Despite its great abundance on earth, the accessibility for microorganisms is often limited, because poorly soluble ferric iron (Fe³⁺) is the predominant oxidation state in an aerobic environment. Hence, the reduction of Fe³⁺ is of essential importance to meet the cellular demand of ferrous iron (Fe²⁺) but might become detrimental as excessive amounts of intracellular Fe²⁺ tend to undergo the cytotoxic Fenton reaction in the presence of hydrogen peroxide. We demonstrate that the complex formation rate of Fe³⁺ and phenolic compounds like protocatechuic acid was increased by 46% in the presence of HCO₃^– and thus accelerated the subsequent redox reaction, yielding reduced Fe²⁺. Consequently, elevated CO₂/HCO₃^– levels increased the intracellular Fe²⁺ availability, which resulted in at least 50% higher biomass-specific fluorescence of a DtxR-based Corynebacterium glutamicum reporter strain, and stimulated growth. Since the increased Fe²⁺ availability was attributed to the interaction of HCO₃^– and chemical iron reduction, the abiotic effect postulated in this study is of general relevance in geochemical and biological environments.

IMPORTANCE In an oxygenic environment, poorly soluble Fe³⁺ must be reduced to meet the cellular Fe²⁺ demand. This study demonstrates that elevated CO₂/HCO₃^– levels accelerate chemical Fe³⁺ reduction through phenolic compounds, thus increasing intracellular Fe²⁺ availability. A number of biological environments are characterized by the presence of phenolic compounds and elevated HCO₃^– levels and include soil habitats and the human body. Fe²⁺ availability is of particular interest in the latter, as it controls the infectiousness of pathogens. Since the effect postulated here is abiotic, it generally affects the Fe²⁺ distribution in nature.

ABSTRACT

Bacillus anthracis is a spore-forming bacterium that causes devastating infections and has been used as a bioterror agent. This pathogen can survive hostile environments through the signaling activity of two-component systems, which couple environmental sensing with transcriptional activation to initiate a coordinated response to stress. In this work, we describe the identification of a two-component system, EdsRS, which mediates the B. anthracis response to the antimicrobial compound targocil. Targocil is a cell envelope-targeting compound that is toxic to B. anthracis at high concentrations. Exposure to targocil causes damage to the cellular barrier and activates EdsRS to induce expression of a previously uncharacterized cardiolipin synthase, which we have named ClsT. Both EdsRS and ClsT are required for protection against targocil-dependent damage. Induction of clsT by EdsRS during targocil treatment results in an increase in cardiolipin levels, which protects B. anthracis from envelope damage. Together, these results reveal that a two-component system signaling response to an envelope-targeting antimicrobial induces production of a phospholipid associated with stabilization of the membrane. Cardiolipin is then used to repair envelope damage and promote B. anthracis viability.

IMPORTANCE Compromising the integrity of the bacterial cell barrier is a common action of antimicrobials. Targocil is an antimicrobial that is active against the bacterial envelope. We hypothesized that Bacillus anthracis, a potential weapon of bioterror, senses and responds to targocil to alleviate targocil-dependent cell damage. Here, we show that targocil treatment increases the permeability of the cellular envelope and is particularly toxic to B. anthracis spores during outgrowth. In vegetative cells, two-component system signaling through EdsRS is activated by targocil. This results in an increase in the production of cardiolipin via a cardiolipin synthase, ClsT, which restores the loss of barrier function, thereby reducing the effectiveness of targocil. By elucidating the B. anthracis response to targocil, we have uncovered an intrinsic mechanism that this pathogen employs to resist toxicity and have revealed therapeutic targets that are important for bacterial defense against structural damage.

ABSTRACT

In Gram-negative bacteria, the permeability of the outer membrane governs rates of antibiotic uptake and thus the efficacy of antimicrobial treatment. Hydrophilic drugs like β-lactam antibiotics depend on diffusion through pore-forming outer membrane proteins to reach their intracellular targets. In this study, we investigated the distribution of porin genes in more than 2,700 Klebsiella isolates and found a widespread loss of OmpK35 functionality, particularly in those strains isolated from clinical environments. Using a defined set of outer-membrane-remodeled mutants, the major porin OmpK35 was shown to be largely responsible for β-lactam permeation. Sequence similarity network analysis characterized the porin protein subfamilies and led to discovery of a new porin family member, OmpK38. Structure-based comparisons of OmpK35, OmpK36, OmpK37, OmpK38, and PhoE showed near-identical pore frameworks but defining differences in the sequence characteristics of the extracellular loops. Antibiotic sensitivity profiles of isogenic Klebsiella pneumoniae strains, each expressing a different porin as its dominant pore, revealed striking differences in the antibiotic permeability characteristics of each channel in a physiological context. Since K. pneumoniae is a nosocomial pathogen with high rates of antimicrobial resistance and concurrent mortality, these experiments elucidate the role of porins in conferring specific drug-resistant phenotypes in a global context, informing future research to combat antimicrobial resistance in K. pneumoniae.

IMPORTANCE Klebsiella pneumoniae is a pathogen of humans with high rates of mortality and a recognized global rise in incidence of carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae (CRKP). The outer membrane of K. pneumoniae forms a permeability barrier that modulates the ability of antibiotics to reach their intracellular target. OmpK35, OmpK36, OmpK37, OmpK38, PhoE, and OmpK26 are porins in the outer membrane of K. pneumoniae, demonstrated here to have a causative relationship to drug resistance phenotypes in a physiological context. The data highlight that currently trialed combination treatments with a carbapenem and β-lactamase inhibitors could be effective on porin-deficient K. pneumoniae. Together with structural data, the results reveal the role of outer membrane proteome remodeling in antimicrobial resistance of K. pneumoniae and point to the role of extracellular loops, not channel parameters, in drug permeation. This significant finding warrants care in the development of phage therapies for K. pneumoniae infections, given the way porin expression will be modulated to confer phage-resistant—and collateral drug-resistant—phenotypes in K. pneumoniae.

Drivers with blood-alcohol levels below legal limits cause 15% of all crash deaths that involve alcohol, a study in the March issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine finds.

In a nod to the people who came before them — and those who still live among them — the Minnesota Public Health Association is acknowledging ancestral lands.

A significant number of injury survivors experience post-traumatic stress disorder, and better screening practices could help connect them to mental health services.

Decades of rallying cries from professional societies, medical education and training programs, and government stakeholders have distilled the conversation of social determinants of health (SDOH) from theoretical proposals into practical solutions [1-3]. No longer standing on the precipice of change, we are now in the trenches. The nation's health care system recognizes SDOH as important drivers of health and is taking steps to address them in the practice environment.

More widespread action and attention by the health care system drives the need to train the next generation of physicians in the concepts and actions related to SDOH. This includes SDOH as a core part of the medical curriculum, offering clinical and research experiences and service in the community [4-5]. Unfortunately, to date only a handful of programs have brought this vision to fruition. Across the country, most programs offer educational content that is largely didactic and provided in short or one-time sessions [6]. Though a start, such approaches are insufficient to prepare the next generation of physicians for their important work ahead.

In New Orleans, the NOLA Hotspotters are an interdisciplinary group of medical, public health, nursing, and pharmacy students inspired by the work out of Camden, New Jersey, to "hot spot" patients with high utilization, which is often related to social needs [7]. While the results of the Camden program have been widely discussed following publication of their work, we argue the benefit of such a program exists beyond reduced emergency department visits or health care spending [8]. The...

For decades, government, health systems, universities, foundations, exceptional individuals, and thought leaders across North Carolina have been testing, implementing, modifying, and just plain trying new ways of improving the way we seek, receive, and experience health care.

More recently, North Carolina has been striving to not simply address the cost, efficiency, and value that are so frustratingly elusive in health care, but also recognizing that we simply need to improve the health of our residents. We have looked to interventions both compatible with and beyond health care to do this.

The National Academy of Medicine, formerly the National Institute of Medicine, since 2016 has boldly laid out Vital Directions in Health Care, focusing on 19 priority issues and recommendations for health policy to better achieve health and well-being for all Americans. They have taken their show on the road, beyond the halls of Congress and think tanks and universities to the people on the ground in states across the country to present, discuss, listen, and learn how policy recommendations come to life.

This issue of the journal highlights the National Academy of Medicine bringing its spotlight to North Carolina last November, an acknowledgment that states are often where policy is put into action, and that North Carolina has been a leader in innovating, planning, implementing, and evaluating again and again to get better and better results for our residents. Pull your chair up to the edge of the stage for a good read in the glow of the spotlight.

We describe two large convergent multi-fluted glacigenic deposits in the NW Highlands, Scotland, and point out their resemblance to a number of landforms emerging from presently deglaciating areas of Greenland and Antarctica. We suggest that they all result from locally sourced sediment being deposited by local ice-flow, which was laterally confined by the margins of much larger adjacent glaciers or ice-streams. The NW Highlands features thus seem likely to be the result of processes active during the latter part of the Devensian Glaciation. One of these deposits, on the peninsula between Loch Broom and Little Loch Broom, is evidently sourced from the west-facing Coire Dearg of Beinn Ghobhlach, but was emplaced in a WNW direction rather than along the WSW fall-line. This suggests that the ice that emplaced it was confined by the margins of large glaciers then occupying the adjacent valleys of Loch Broom and Little Loch Broom. The second much larger and more prominent deposit, in Applecross, is composed of bouldery Torridonian sandstone till emplaced on to glacially scoured bedrock; the only feasible source location for this material is about 12 km distant, which requires that the deposit was carried by ice across the trough of Strath Maol Chalum and emplaced while active ice-streams confined it laterally to its present-day location. This, in turn, requires that ice lay in the Inner Sound between Applecross and Skye to an elevation 400–500 m above present-day sea-level. The Wester Ross Re-advance of 15–14 ka left a fragment of lateral moraine against the most easterly flute and buried the distal end of the flutes with hummocky moraine. We hypothesize that the fluted deposits reflect the locations of the ice-stream margins that constrained deposition of locally derived ice-transported sediment, rather than the flow-lines of the ice-stream itself.

BACKGROUND:

Pediatric subspecialists routinely provide procedural sedation outside the operating room. No large study has reported trends in outpatient pediatric procedural sedation. Our purpose in this study was to identify significant trends in outpatient procedural sedation using the Pediatric Sedation Research Consortium.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) accounts for 10 to 20% of breast cancer, with chemotherapy as its mainstay of treatment due to lack of well-defined targets, and recent genomic sequencing studies have revealed a paucity of TNBC-specific mutations. Recurrent gene fusions comprise a class of viable genetic targets in solid tumors;...

Vanessa Corby-Harris, Megan E. Deeter, Lucy Snyder, Charlotte Meador, Ashley C. Welchert, Amelia Hoffman, and Bethany T. Obernesser

Recent widespread honey bee (Apis mellifera) colony loss is attributed to a variety of stressors, including parasites, pathogens, pesticides and poor nutrition. In principle, we can reduce stress-induced declines in colony health by either removing the stressor or increasing the bees' tolerance to the stressor. This latter option requires a better understanding than we currently have of how honey bees respond to stress. Here, we investigated how octopamine, a stress-induced hormone that mediates invertebrate physiology and behavior, influences the health of young nurse-aged bees. Specifically, we asked whether octopamine induces abdominal lipid and hypopharyngeal gland (HG) degradation, two physiological traits of stressed nurse bees. Nurse-aged workers were treated topically with octopamine and their abdominal lipid content, HG size and HG autophagic gene expression were measured. Hemolymph lipid titer was measured to determine whether tissue degradation was associated with the release of nutrients from these tissues into the hemolymph. The HGs of octopamine-treated bees were smaller than control bees and had higher levels of HG autophagy gene expression. Octopamine-treated bees also had higher levels of hemolymph lipid compared with control bees. Abdominal lipids did not change in response to octopamine. Our findings support the hypothesis that the HGs are a rich source of stored energy that can be mobilized during periods of stress.

Noemie Liesch and Friedrich Ladich

In vocal fish species, males possess larger sound-generating organs and signal acoustically with pronounced sex-specific differences. Sound production is known in two out of three species of croaking gouramis (Trichopsis vittata and T. schalleri). The present study investigates sex-specific differences in sonic organs, vocalizing behaviour and sounds emitted in the third species, the pygmy gourami T. pumila, in order to test the hypothesis that females are able to vocalize despite their less-developed sonic organs, and despite contradictory reports. Croaking gouramis stretch and pluck two enhanced (sonic) pectoral fin tendons during alternate fin beating, resulting in a series of double-pulsed bursts termed croaking sound. We measured the diameter of the first and second sonic tendon and showed that male tendons were twice as large as in same-sized females. We also determined the duration of dyadic contests, visual displays, number of sounds and buttings. Sexes differ in all sound characteristics but in no behavioural variable. Male sounds consisted of twice as many bursts, a higher percentage of double-pulsed bursts and a higher burst period. Additionally, male sounds had a lower dominant frequency and a higher sound level. In summary, female pygmy gouramis possessed sonic organs and vocalized in most dyadic contests. The sexual dimorphism in sonic tendons is clearly reflected in sex-specific differences in sound characteristics, but not in agonistic behaviour, supporting the hypothesis that females are vocal.

The plasmas of diabetic or uremic patients and of those receiving peritoneal dialysis treatment have increased levels of the glucose-derived dicarbonyl metabolites like methylglyoxal (MGO), glyoxal (GO), and 3-deoxyglucosone (3-DG). The elevated dicarbonyl levels can contribute to the development of painful neuropathies. Here, we used stimulated immunoreactive Calcitonin Gene–Related Peptide (iCGRP) release as a measure of nociceptor activation, and we found that each dicarbonyl metabolite induces a concentration-, TRPA1-, and Ca2+-dependent iCGRP release. MGO, GO, and 3-DG were about equally potent in the millimolar range. We hypothesized that another dicarbonyl, 3,4-dideoxyglucosone-3-ene (3,4-DGE), which is present in peritoneal dialysis (PD) solutions after heat sterilization, activates nociceptors. We also showed that at body temperatures 3,4-DGE is formed from 3-DG and that concentrations of 3,4-DGE in the micromolar range effectively induced iCGRP release from isolated murine skin. In a novel preparation of the isolated parietal peritoneum PD fluid or 3,4-DGE alone, at concentrations found in PD solutions, stimulated iCGRP release. We also tested whether inflammatory tissue conditions synergize with dicarbonyls to induce iCGRP release from isolated skin. Application of MGO together with bradykinin or prostaglandin E2 resulted in an overadditive effect on iCGRP release, whereas MGO applied at a pH of 5.2 resulted in reduced release, probably due to an MGO-mediated inhibition of transient receptor potential (TRP) V1 receptors. These results indicate that several reactive dicarbonyls activate nociceptors and potentiate inflammatory mediators. Our findings underline the roles of dicarbonyls and TRPA1 receptors in causing pain during diabetes or renal disease.

Laterites preserved on both sides of the Western Ghats Escarpment of Peninsular India have formed by long-term lateritic weathering essentially after India–Seychelles continental break-up following Deccan Traps emplacement (c. 63 myr ago). Supergene manganese ores of the Western Ghats were formed on Late Archean manganese protores. Among Mn oxides composing the ores, cryptomelane (K-rich Mn oxide) was characterized and dated by ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar geochronology. Measured ages complement those previously obtained in other South Indian manganese ores from the hinterland plateau and further document three major weathering periods, c. 53–44, c. 39–22 and c. 14–10 Ma, the last being documented for the first time in India. These periods coincide with global palaeoclimatic proxies and date the lateritic weathering of three successive palaeolandscapes of the Western Ghats that evolved under slow denudation (c. 8 m Ma^–1) over the last 44 myr and were mostly incised during the Neogene (<22 Ma). This indicates that the Western Ghats are a relict of a South Indian plateau preserved at the headwaters of very long east-flowing river systems and above the Western Ghats Escarpment. Topography and denudation history of this landscape do not require Neogene tilt of the Peninsula as recently proposed.

Supplementary material: Full details of field and sample description, methods and analytical data including electron probe microanalyses of cryptomelane, and isotopic analyses and degassing spectra of irradiated cryptomelane grains are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4726661