Tiny pieces of stone found in a rock formation in Western Australia may be the oldest evidence of a meteorite impact on Earth, dating back nearly 3.5 billion years

Pressure on the San Andreas fault from a now-dried lake could have been sufficient to trigger past major earthquakes in California. The lake’s disappearance could explain why there have been no such quakes for nearly 300 years

An independent task force formed by NASA to look into unidentified anomalous phenomena found no evidence of alien craft, and suggests that if we want to find proof of visitors we need better data

Understanding how the world’s largest-known collection of pink diamonds came to the surface in Australia around 1.3 billion years ago could help us find hidden deposits elsewhere in the world

An area of the seabed north of Australia has been mapped in detail for the first time, revealing that large numbers of people could have lived there until it was inundated by rising seas

Our metabolism's response to food is highly idiosyncratic and there are hints that tailoring our diet to these personal differences can deliver health benefits

In support of their AI ambitions, tech companies are rapidly expanding US data centres, and this growth is on track to significantly increase US gas demand by 2030

New archaeological evidence shows that ancient humans ate each other surprisingly often - sometimes for compassionate reasons. The finds give us an opportunity to reassess our views on the practice

Lake sediments reveal the ancient history of Aboriginal people’s use of fire to manage the landscape, a tradition that has benefits for biodiversity

An excavation on an island in the Coral Sea shows that Indigenous Australians were producing ceramics long before the arrival of Europeans

An excavation on Timor reveals humans first settled on the island 44,000 years ago, long after the earliest occupation of Australia – suggesting migration to the latter took another route

Wooden sticks found in an Australian cave appear to match the accounts of a 19th-century anthropologist, suggesting the GurnaiKurnai people practised the same ritual at the end of the last glacial period

We know that modern humans took one of two routes to first reach Australia, and now an ancient chunk of plant resin has tipped the evidence towards the northern option

A monument in southern Spain that dates to between 3600 and 3800 BC appears to have been built with an understanding of geology and physics

Where do morals come from? In Animals, Robots, Gods, anthropologist Webb Keane argues imagination and differing senses of the world are key to discerning right from wrong

Discoveries from the genomes of the last Neanderthals are rewriting the story of how our own species came to replace them

Title: Dealing With Grief on the Cancer Journey
Category: Health News
Created: 8/19/2022 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/19/2022 12:00:00 AM

Title: How Much Is a Healthy and Realistic Amount of Weight You Can Lose In a Month?
Category: Health and Living
Created: 8/15/2022 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/15/2022 12:00:00 AM

Title: Swelling After Knee Injury May Hinder Healing
Category: Health News
Created: 8/31/2007 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/31/2007 12:00:00 AM

Title: Cialis, Viagra Labels to Note Amnesia
Category: Health News
Created: 8/25/2008 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/25/2008 12:00:00 AM

Title: Quality of Pain Counts as Much as Intensity, Researchers Say
Category: Health News
Created: 8/26/2010 4:10:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 8/27/2010 12:00:00 AM

Title: Multiple Brain Tumors Even More Malignant: Study
Category: Health News
Created: 8/24/2012 2:05:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 8/27/2012 12:00:00 AM

Title: Race May Affect Quality of Prostate Cancer Surgical Care
Category: Health News
Created: 8/28/2012 6:05:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 8/29/2012 12:00:00 AM

Title: Stress, a 'Type A' Personality May Boost Stroke Risk
Category: Health News
Created: 8/30/2012 10:05:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/30/2012 12:00:00 AM

Title: California Trees Harbor Fungus Deadly to People With HIV
Category: Health News
Created: 8/28/2014 9:35:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/28/2014 12:00:00 AM

Title: After Heart Attack, Quitting Smoking Boosts Mental Health, Quality of Life
Category: Health News
Created: 8/25/2015 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/26/2015 12:00:00 AM

Title: Dog Walking a Treat for Pet and Owner Alike
Category: Health News
Created: 9/1/2017 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 9/1/2017 12:00:00 AM

Title: Tourist With Measles Visited Southern California Attractions
Category: Health News
Created: 8/26/2019 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/26/2019 12:00:00 AM

Title: Personality Reboots Are Possible, Studies Suggest
Category: Health News
Created: 8/28/2019 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/28/2019 12:00:00 AM

Title: Hospitals Must Report COVID-19 Data or Be Penalized
Category: Health News
Created: 8/28/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/28/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Jesse Jackson, Wife Hospitalized With COVID
Category: Health News
Created: 8/24/2021 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/24/2021 12:00:00 AM

Title: Salmonella Outbreak in 17 States Tied to Italian-Style Meats
Category: Health News
Created: 8/24/2021 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/25/2021 12:00:00 AM

Title: Unrelated Folks Who Look Alike Share Similar DNA
Category: Health News
Created: 8/23/2022 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/24/2022 12:00:00 AM

Title: Wife of California Congressman Died After Using Herbal Remedy for Diabetes, Weight Loss
Category: Health News
Created: 8/25/2022 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/25/2022 12:00:00 AM

Title: California Will Produce Its Own Insulin to Bring Down Prices
Category: Health News
Created: 7/8/2022 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 7/8/2022 12:00:00 AM

Title: Even Chores, Socializing Might Lower Your Odds for Dementia
Category: Health News
Created: 7/28/2022 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 7/29/2022 12:00:00 AM

Title: Rural Americans With Early Alzheimer's Find It Tough to See Specialists
Category: Health News
Created: 8/9/2022 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/9/2022 12:00:00 AM

Title: Salicylate Sensitivity Causes, Symptoms, and Foods to Avoid
Category: Health and Living
Created: 7/8/2022 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 7/8/2022 12:00:00 AM

Title: Australia's Current Flu Season Is Tough: Will America's Be the Same?
Category: Health News
Created: 8/4/2022 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/5/2022 12:00:00 AM

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is highly prevalent in patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD) and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Widely available noninvasive screening tools are warranted to identify patients at risk for PH, especially severe PH, that could be managed at expert centres. This review summarises current evidence on noninvasive diagnostic modalities and prediction models for the timely detection of PH in patients with ILD. It critically evaluates these approaches and discusses future perspectives in the field. A comprehensive literature search was carried out in PubMed and Scopus, identifying 39 articles that fulfilled inclusion criteria. There is currently no single noninvasive test capable of accurately detecting and diagnosing PH in ILD patients. Estimated right ventricular pressure (RVSP) on Doppler echocardiography remains the single most predictive factor of PH, with other indirect echocardiographic markers increasing its diagnostic accuracy. However, RVSP can be difficult to estimate in patients due to suboptimal views from extensive lung disease. The majority of existing composite scores, including variables obtained from chest computed tomography, pulmonary function tests and cardiopulmonary exercise tests, were derived from retrospective studies, whilst lacking validation in external cohorts. Only two available scores, one based on a stepwise echocardiographic approach and the other on functional parameters, predicted the presence of PH with sufficient accuracy and used a validation cohort. Although several methodological limitations prohibit their generalisability, their use may help physicians to detect PH earlier. Further research on the potential of artificial intelligence may guide a more tailored approach, for timely PH diagnosis.

Most studies of genome organization have focused on intrachromosomal (cis) contacts because they harbor key features such as DNA loops and topologically associating domains. Interchromosomal (trans) contacts have received much less attention, and tools for interrogating potential biologically relevant trans structures are lacking. Here, we develop a computational framework that uses Hi-C data to identify sets of loci that jointly interact in trans. This method, trans-C, initiates probabilistic random walks with restarts from a set of seed loci to traverse an input Hi-C contact network, thereby identifying sets of trans-contacting loci. We validate trans-C in three increasingly complex models of established trans contacts: the Plasmodium falciparum var genes, the mouse olfactory receptor "Greek islands," and the human RBM20 cardiac splicing factory. We then apply trans-C to systematically test the hypothesis that genes coregulated by the same trans-acting element (i.e., a transcription or splicing factor) colocalize in three dimensions to form "RNA factories" that maximize the efficiency and accuracy of RNA biogenesis. We find that many loci with multiple binding sites of the same DNA-binding proteins interact with one another in trans, especially those bound by factors with intrinsically disordered domains. Similarly, clustered binding of a subset of RNA-binding proteins correlates with trans interaction of the encoding loci. We observe that these trans-interacting loci are close to nuclear speckles. These findings support the existence of trans-interacting chromatin domains (TIDs) driven by RNA biogenesis. Trans-C provides an efficient computational framework for studying these and other types of trans interactions, empowering studies of a poorly understood aspect of genome architecture.

Background:

Certain health-related risk factors require legal interventions. Medical-legal partnerships (MLPs) are collaborations between clinics and lawyers that address these health-harming legal needs (HHLNs) and have been shown to improve health and reduce utilization.

Introduction:

High-quality primary care can reduce avoidable emergency department visits and emergency hospitalizations. The availability of electronic medical record (EMR) data and capacities for data storage and processing have created opportunities for predictive analytics. This systematic review examines studies which predict emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and mortality using EMR data from primary care.

For clean-room technologies such as isolators and restricted access barrier systems (RABS), decontamination using hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) is increasingly attractive to fulfill regulatory requirements. Several approaches are currently used, ranging from manual wipe disinfection to vapor phase hydrogen peroxide (VPHP) or automated nebulization sanitization. Although the residual airborne H₂O₂ concentration can be easily monitored, detection of trace H₂O₂ residues in filled products is rather challenging. To simulate the filling process in a specific clean room, technical runs with water for injection (WfI) are popular. Thus, the ability to detect traces of H₂O₂ in water is an important prerequisite to ensure a safe and reliable use of H₂O₂ for isolator or clean room decontamination. The objective of this study was to provide a validated quantitative, fluorometric Amplex UltraRed assay, which satisfies the analytical target profile of quantifying H₂O₂ in WfI at low nanomolar to low micromolar concentrations (ppb range) with high accuracy and high precision. The Amplex UltraRed technology provides a solid basis for this purpose; however, no commercial assay kit that fulfills these requirements is available. Therefore, a customized Amplex UltraRed assay was developed, optimized, and validated. This approach resulted in an assay that is capable of quantifying H₂O₂ in WfI selectively, sensitively, accurately, precisely, and robustly. This assay is used in process development and qualification approaches using WfI in H₂O₂-decontaminated clean rooms and isolators.

Memory formation is contingent on molecular and structural changes in neurons in response to learning stimuli—a process known as neuronal plasticity. The initiation step of mRNA translation is a gatekeeper of long-term memory by controlling the production of plasticity-related proteins in the brain. The mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) controls mRNA translation, mainly through phosphorylation of the eukaryotic initiation factor 4E (eIF4E)-binding proteins (4E-BPs) and ribosomal protein S6 kinases (S6Ks). mTORC1 signaling decreases throughout brain development, starting from the early postnatal period. Here, we discovered that in mice, the age-dependent decrease in mTORC1 signaling occurs selectively in excitatory but not inhibitory neurons. Using a gene conditional knockout (cKO) strategy, we demonstrate that either up- or downregulating the mTORC1-4E-BP2 axis in GAD65 inhibitory interneurons, but not excitatory neurons, results in long-term object recognition and object location memory deficits. Our data indicate that the mTORC1 pathway in inhibitory but not excitatory neurons plays a key role in memory formation.

Internal ribosomal entry sites (IRESs) recruit the ribosome to promote translation, typically in an m7G cap-independent manner. Although IRESs are well-documented in viral genomes, they have also been reported in mammalian transcriptomes, where they have been proposed to mediate cap-independent translation of mRNAs. However, subsequent studies have challenged the idea of these "cellular" IRESs. Current methods for screening and discovering IRES activity rely on a bicistronic reporter assay, which is prone to producing false positive signals if the putative IRES sequence has a cryptic promoter or cryptic splicing sites. Here, we report an assay for screening IRES activity using a genetically encoded circular RNA comprising a split nanoluciferase (nLuc) reporter. The circular split nLuc reporter is less susceptible to the various sources of false positives that adversely affect the bicistronic IRES reporter assay and provides a streamlined method for screening IRES activity. Using the circular split nLuc reporter, we find that nine reported cellular IRESs have minimal IRES activity. Overall, the circular split nLuc reporter offers a simplified approach for identifying and validating IRESs and exhibits reduced propensity for producing the types of false positives that can occur with the bicistronic reporter assay.

Background

Quality of life is impaired in patients with sarcoidosis. The King's Sarcoidosis Questionnaire (KSQ) is a brief questionnaire assessing health-related quality of life in patients with sarcoidosis, comprising subdomains of General Health Status (GHS), Lung, Medication, Skin and Eyes. The aim of this study was to enhance the validation of the KSQ, incorporating longitudinal validation and known-groups validity in a cohort with mild sarcoidosis.

ABSTRACTThe private health care sector is an important source of service delivery in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Yet, the private sector remains fragmented, making it difficult for health system actors to support and ensure the availability of quality health care services. In global health programs, social franchising is one model used to engage and organize the private health care sector. Two social franchise networks, ProFam in West Africa and Tunza in East and Central Africa, provide health care through branded networks of facilities. However, these social franchise networks include a limited number of private health care facilities, and in fragile contexts, like Burundi and Mali, they have faced challenges in integrating with national health systems. The MOMENTUM Private Healthcare Delivery (MPHD) project in Burundi and Mali sought to expand the number of health facilities it engaged beyond the existing ProFam and Tunza networks. The expansion aimed to help improve service quality in more private facilities while advancing localization and reducing fragmentation for improved stewardship by health system actors. MPHD achieved this expansion by removing barriers for private health facilities to join inclusive, nonbranded networks and engaging local partners to build and maintain these networks. We share lessons learned regarding the growing role of local organizations as actors within mixed health systems and provide insights on strengthening stewardship of the increasingly heterogeneous private health care delivery sector in LMICs, particularly in fragile settings.