Wagamaga
Wagamaga OP t1_j076as5 wrote
Reply to Inadequate pollination has led to a 3-5% loss of fruit, vegetable, and nut production and an estimated 427,000 excess deaths annually from lost healthy food consumption and associated diseases, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and certain cancers by Wagamaga
Inadequate pollination has led to a 3-5% loss of fruit, vegetable, and nut production and an estimated 427,000 excess deaths annually from lost healthy food consumption and associated diseases, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and certain cancers, according to research led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. It is the first study to quantify the human health toll of insufficient wild (animal) pollinators on human health.
“A critical missing piece in the biodiversity discussion has been a lack of direct linkages to human health. This research establishes that loss of pollinators is already impacting health on a scale with other global health risk factors, such as prostate cancer or substance use disorders,” said Samuel Myers, principal research scientist, planetary health, Department of Environmental Health and senior author of the study.
The study will be published December 14, 2022 in Environmental Health Perspectives.
Increasing human pressure on natural systems is causing alarming losses in biodiversity, the topic of the COP 15 UN Biodiversity Conference currently taking place in Montreal. This includes 1-2% annual declines of insect populations, leading some to warn of an impending “insect apocalypse” in the coming decades. Key among insect species are pollinators, which increase yields of three-fourths of crop varieties and are critical to growing healthy foods like fruits, vegetables, and nuts. Changes in land-use, use of harmful pesticides, and advancing climate change threaten wild pollinators, imperiling human supply of healthy foods
Wagamaga OP t1_izy3hoo wrote
Reply to Frequently using digital devices to soothe young children may backfire. The habit of using devices to manage difficult behavior strengthens over time as media demands strengthen as well. The more often devices are used, the less practice children - get to use other coping strategies by Wagamaga
It’s a scene many parents have experienced – just as they’re trying to cook dinner, take a phone call or run an errand, their child has a meltdown.
And sometimes, handing a fussy preschooler a digital device seems to offer a quick fix. But this calming strategy could be linked to worse behavior challenges down the road, new findings suggest.
Frequent use of devices like smartphones and tablets to calm upset children ages 3-5 was associated with increased emotional dysregulation in kids, particularly in boys, according to a Michigan Medicine study in JAMA Pediatrics.
“Using mobile devices to settle down a young child may seem like a harmless, temporary tool to reduce stress in the household, but there may be long term consequences if it’s a regular go-to soothing strategy,” said lead author Jenny Radesky, M.D., a developmental behavioral pediatrician at University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.
“Particularly in early childhood, devices may displace opportunities for development of independent and alternative methods to self-regulate.”
The study included 422 parents and 422 children ages 3-5 who participated between August 2018 and January 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic started. Researchers analyzed parent and caregiver responses to how often they used devices as a calming tool and associations to symptoms of emotional reactivity or dysregulation over a six-month period.
Signs of increased dysregulation could include rapid shifts between sadness and excitement, a sudden change in mood or feelings and heightened impulsivity.
Findings suggest that the association between device-calming and emotional consequences was particularly high among young boys and children who may already experience hyperactivity, impulsiveness and a strong temperament that makes them more likely to react intensely to feelings like anger, frustration and sadness
“Our findings suggest that using devices as a way to appease agitated children may especially be problematic to those who already struggle with emotional coping skills,” Radesky said.
Wagamaga OP t1_izs0ywr wrote
Reply to Research found the strategies we used to regulate our emotions can influence our dream experiences. The study, found that cognitive reappraisal appeared to reduce dream intensity by lowering negative state and trait emotions. by Wagamaga
According to new psychology findings, the strategies we used to regulate our emotions can influence our dream experiences. The study, published in the journal Dreaming, found that cognitive reappraisal appeared to reduce dream intensity by lowering negative state and trait emotions.
Negative emotions from our waking lives seem to make their way into our dreams. Some researchers have proposed that dreaming might serve to downregulate our negative emotions. More recently, scholars have noted that dreams tend to contain not just negative emotions, but other intense emotions from our waking lives, including positive ones.
Study authors Sam Siu-Sing Wong and Calvin Kai-Ching Yu wondered how our emotion regulation tendencies might influence dreaming. Presumably, if dreaming helps us regulate emotions from our waking lives, there should be some link between our dreaming and our emotion regulation tendencies. There is indeed some evidence that the coping strategies we use can influence our dreams. For example, research suggests that suppressing unwanted thoughts while awake can cause these thoughts to “rebound” during dreaming.
Wagamaga OP t1_izn5nge wrote
Reply to NFL players, especially former linemen, had fewer disease-free years and earlier high blood pressure and diabetes diagnoses. Two age-related diseases, arthritis and dementia, were also more commonly found in former football players than in other men of the same age. by Wagamaga
Former elite football players may age faster than their more average peers, a new study suggests.
NFL players, especially former linemen, had fewer disease-free years and earlier high blood pressure and diabetes diagnoses. Two age-related diseases, arthritis and dementia, were also more commonly found in former football players than in other men of the same age.
This research was part of the ongoing Football Players Health Study at Harvard University.
We wanted to know: Are professional football players being robbed of their middle age? Our findings suggest that football prematurely weathers them and puts them on an alternate aging trajectory, increasing the prevalence of a variety of diseases of old age," said senior investigator Rachel Grashow, director of epidemiological research initiatives for the Football Players Health Study.
"We need to look not just at the length of life but the quality of life," she said in a university news release. "Professional football players might live as long as men in the general population, but those years could be filled with disability and infirmity."
https://www.newsmax.com/health/health-news/athletes-football-nfl/2022/12/09/id/1099912/
Wagamaga OP t1_iziqnpv wrote
Reply to Healthcare workers in England experience PTSD at twice the rate of the general public. NHS staff have diagnosable mental health conditions, and are likely be functionally impaired, increasing the likelihood of poor care delivery, and other undesirable outcomes for themselves and others by Wagamaga
The research, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, was conducted as part of a study to establish a more accurate prevalence of mental disorders within the NHS workforce. The study also found that 1-in-5 HCWs met the threshold for diagnosable illnesses like depression and anxiety.
Researchers recruited participants from the NHS CHECK study, the UK's largest survey of the mental health and wellbeing of all NHS staff during COVID-19. Over 23,000 participants completed commonly used self-report measures which look for symptoms of common mental disorders (CMDs) like depression and anxiety as well as PTSD. This particular study reported on diagnostic interviews with two smaller groups of HCWs, which were broadly representative of NHS staff overall in terms of ethnicity, age, sex and clinical role. 243 participants were surveyed to establish the prevalence of CMDs, while a further 94 helped to establish PTSD prevalence.
While there have been many studies of the mental health of HCWs, especially since the pandemic, the vast majority of these have relied on self-reported screening tools that often over-estimate prevalence of mental disorder. Most of these studies have reported highly elevated, and highly varied, rates of CMD and PTSD. In this study, trained professionals carried out interviews and assessed participants against diagnostic criteria which are considered the gold standard for accurately diagnosing mental disorders.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(22)00375-3/fulltext
Wagamaga OP t1_iza91yg wrote
Reply to Researchers co-led a large genetic study that identified more than 2,300 genes predicting alcohol and tobacco use after analyzing data from more than 3.4 million people. They said a majority of these genes were similar among people with European, African, American and Asian ancestries. by Wagamaga
Penn State researchers co-led a large genetic study that identified more than 2,300 genes predicting alcohol and tobacco use after analyzing data from more than 3.4 million people. They said a majority of these genes were similar among people with European, African, American and Asian ancestries.
Alcohol and tobacco use are associated with approximately 15% and 5% of deaths worldwide, respectively, and are linked with chronic conditions like cancer and heart disease. Although the environment and culture can affect a person’s use and the likelihood of becoming addicted to these substances, genetics is also a contributing factor, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers. They helped identify around 400 genes that are associated with certain alcohol and tobacco use behaviors in people in a prior research study.
“We’ve now identified more than 1,900 additional genes that are associated with alcohol and tobacco use behaviors,” said Dajiang Liu, professor and vice chair for research in the Department of Public Health Sciences. “A fifth of the samples used in our analysis were from non-European ancestries, which increases the relevance of these findings to a diverse population.”
Wagamaga OP t1_iz916re wrote
Reply to Adopting and maintaining a healthy lifestyle might prevent up to 60% of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) cases. Diagnoses of IBD have been increasing globally, the study authors noted, with the condition currently affecting around 1.3 million adults in Europe by Wagamaga
Adopting and maintaining a healthy lifestyle might prevent up to 60% of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) cases, making it a feasible option for future preventive strategies, according to US researchers.
The findings, published in the journal Gut, are based on analysis of two large studies looking at the health of thousands of nurses and other healthcare professionals.
Diagnoses of IBD – comprising Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis – have been increasing globally, the study authors noted, with the condition currently affecting around 1.3 million adults in Europe.
Previous research has linked IBD risk with several lifestyle factors, they said, but it was not clear if adopting and maintaining a healthy lifestyle might lower the risk of developing it in the first place.
To investigate further, they looked at data on on participants from the Nurses’ Health Study, Nurses’ Health Study II, and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study.
https://gut.bmj.com/content/early/2022/11/28/gutjnl-2022-328174
Wagamaga OP t1_iz1ekm8 wrote
Reply to Hearing aids might be an important tool in the effort to prevent cognitive decline and dementia. The use of hearing aids was associated with a 19% reduction in long-term cognitive decline. The use of these devices can even benefit those who have begun to show a decline in cognition by Wagamaga
Hearing aids might be an important tool in the effort to prevent cognitive decline and dementia, according to a new study.
Research has established that hearing loss in an important risk factor in developing dementia, but whether intervening with the hearing loss will also treat the progression of cognitive decline has been less clear, said senior study author Woei Shyang Loh, Head of Otolaryngology at the National University Hospital and National University of Singapore.
The new study published Monday in JAMA Neurology offers evidence that managing hearing loss may potentially help reduce or delay cognitive decline, Loh said.
A metanalysis of 3,243 studies, both observational and trials, the research looked at the association between hearing loss and cognitive decline over a range of durations, from two to 25 years. The review found that people with hearing loss who wore devices to help performed 3% better on cognitive scores in the short term, according to the study.
https://us.cnn.com/2022/12/05/health/hearing-loss-dementia-study-wellness
Wagamaga OP t1_iyx6zk5 wrote
Reply to The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine limits transmission, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19 even among patients infected by variants of the virus, but the effectiveness of antibodies it generates diminishes as patients get older by Wagamaga
The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine limits transmission, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19 even among patients infected by variants of the virus, but the effectiveness of antibodies it generates diminishes as patients get older, according to a study by UT Southwestern researchers.
“The fact that these antibody functions decrease with age is one reason why the elderly are still more susceptible to severe illness with COVID-19 and highlights the need to develop different approaches for older, vulnerable individuals,” said Lenette Lu, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and Immunology in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, and lead author of the paper published in Cell Reports.
The vaccine, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in August 2021, contains a piece of mRNA encoding the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which the virus uses to infect human cells. Initial studies of the vaccine focused on how it led to the generation of antibodies that could prevent SARS-CoV-2 from entering cells, neutralizing the virus before it could cause disease.
The emergence of new variants, including Delta and Omicron, left the vaccine less effective at neutralizing SARS-CoV-2 and resulted in increased rates of infection. However, vaccinated individuals, even when infected with COVID-19, continued to be protected against severe disease and death.
To understand how vaccines protect people without completely neutralizing the virus, blood samples were analyzed from 51 adults, ranging in age from 21 to 82, who had not been infected previously with COVID-19 and who each received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine between December 2020 and February 2021. From the samples, the researchers isolated antibodies specific to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.
The team showed that the antibodies generated in response to the vaccine were effective at neutralizing the original version of SARS-CoV-2 that emerged in 2019 but, as expected, were not as effective against the Delta and Omicron variants. In addition, the researchers found that these antibodies led to the activation of immune cells that can carry out a variety of antiviral effector functions after infection.
“In other words, even if an antibody is less able to prevent variants of a virus from infection, it can still block the development of symptoms, disease severity, and spread from one person to another,” said Dr. Lu.
These antibody activities and functions differed by age, with people under 65 carrying significantly more of the activities and functions compared to those over 65. Dr. Lu’s team discovered these observations could be attributed to different sugars attached to the antibodies. With age, these sugars change and antibody functions diminish.
The data suggests that boosters and updated vaccines are more important for older adults. In addition, as new variants of SARS-CoV-2 emerge, a better understanding of how to make vaccines that are effective at preventing disease in addition to infection is important.
“Beyond COVID-19, all viruses and bacteria that infect us change over time,” said Dr. Lu. “If we understand how antibodies protect us despite these changes, then we can enhance the durability of preventive clinical tools such as vaccines.”
Wagamaga OP t1_iym44lm wrote
Reply to Children and teens who survive a firearm injury have a high rate of developing new mental health diagnoses in the year afterward, even compared with kids who suffered injuries in a motor vehicle crash, a new study shows. by Wagamaga
In all, 35% of firearm-injured kids received a new mental health diagnosis in the year after the incident, compared with 26% of those hurt in crashes.
Most of these new diagnoses were related to substance misuse problems with drugs or alcohol, or stress-related conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder—both of which were twice as likely to be diagnosed in young firearm injury survivors than in their peers who had been in vehicles that crashed.
The new data were presented at the National Research Conference on Firearm Injury Prevention, and published recently in the Annals of Surgery, by a team led by Peter Ehrlich, M.D., M.Sc., director of pediatric trauma care at the University of Michigan's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital and a professor of pediatric surgery at Michigan Medicine.
Ehrlich and his colleagues studied data from nearly 1,500 firearm-injured children ages 3 to 17 and nearly 3,700 similar children injured in crashes, who sought emergency care between 2010 and 2016. The injured children all had insurance through Medicaid or the CHIP program, which together cover about 40% of all American children.
Boys accounted for more than 80% of both populations of injured children, and the average age was 15. But 65% of the children hurt by firearms were Black, while 52% of those injured in crashes were non-Hispanic white children.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-12-firearm-injuries-kids-mental-scars.html
Wagamaga OP t1_iylwf4c wrote
Reply to Traffic related air pollution is associated with an increased likelihood of having multiple long-term physical and mental health conditions, research on 364,000 people found. Simple measures to reduce traffic levels could potentially improve lives and lessen the pressure on our healthcare systems. by Wagamaga
Researchers analysed data from UK Biobank – a large-scale biomedical database and research resource containing anonymised genetic, lifestyle and health information from half a million UK participants aged between 40 and 69 years. Participants were assessed for 36 physical and five mental health chronic conditions. Multimorbidity was defined as having two or more of these conditions.
Physical and mental health data from UK Biobank in 2010 were linked with the estimated concentration of air pollution at the residential address of the participants.
The study found that those participants exposed to higher concentrations (above 10µg/m3) of fine particulate matter had a 21 per cent increased risk of two or more co-occurring conditions compared to those exposed to concentrations below 10µg/m3.
For participants exposed to above 30µg/m3 of NO2, the research showed a 20 per cent increased risk of having two or more co-occurring conditions compared to those participants that were exposed to concentrations of NO2 below 20µg/m3.
Amongst those with multiple conditions, increased exposure to both PM2.5 and NO2 was linked to a greater severity of the co-occurring conditions.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1035415/full
Wagamaga OP t1_iyhae6i wrote
Reply to Smoking increases the risks of 56 diseases and kills more than one million adults in China each year from 22 different causes. The study included over 512,000 adults who were recruited during 2004-08 from 10 diverse urban and rural areas by Wagamaga
Tobacco smoking is projected to cause one billion deaths worldwide this century, mainly in low and middle income countries (LMICs) such as China. Two thirds of adult men in China smoke; the study, led by researchers from Oxford Population Health, UK, Peking University and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences shows that around half of those who start smoking cigarettes as young men (before the age of 18) will eventually be killed by tobacco, unless they give up permanently. Smoking also increases the risks of developing a wide range of conditions that do not generally cause deaths, such as asthma, peptic ulcer, cataract, diabetes, and other metabolic diseases.
The adverse effects of smoking have been known for many years, but very few studies, even those in high-income Western countries, have systematically assessed the impact of smoking on an extensive range of diseases within the same population. The researchers used data from the China Kadoorie Biobank to comprehensively assess the health effects of tobacco smoking on death and hospitalisation from a range of diseases and to examine the benefit of smoking cessation.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(22)00227-4/fulltext
Wagamaga OP t1_iycz4ds wrote
Reply to New harvester amplifies electric power generated from human walking motion by about 90 times. Since the power generation performance can be improved without increasing the device size, the technology is expected to generate power to drive small wearable devices from non-steady vibrations by Wagamaga
Walking can boost not only your own energy but also, potentially, the energy of your wearable electronic devices. Osaka Metropolitan University scientists made a significant advance toward self-charging wearable devices with their invention of a dynamic magnifier-enhanced piezoelectric vibration energy harvester that can amplify power generated from impulsive vibrations, such as from human walking, by about 90 times, while remaining as small as currently developed energy harvesters. The results were published in Applied Physics Letters.
These days, people carry multiple electronic devices such as smartphones, and wearable devices are expected to become increasingly widespread in the near future. The resulting demand for more efficient recharging of these devices has increased the attention paid to energy harvesting, a technology that converts energy such as heat and light into electricity that can power small devices. One form of energy harvesting called vibration energy harvesting is deemed highly practical given that it can transform the kinetic energy from vibration into electricity and is not affected by weather or climate.
Wagamaga OP t1_iy8c7ym wrote
Reply to "Green Mediterranean diet” high in polyphenols and fiber can reduce that visceral fat. After 18 months, those subjected to the diet saw a visceral fat reduction of 14 percent; eaters of the Mediterranean Diet saw a 7 percent drop. Visceral fat among “healthy eaters” was reduced by 4.5 percent by Wagamaga
Background Mediterranean (MED) diet is a rich source of polyphenols, which benefit adiposity by several mechanisms. We explored the effect of the green-MED diet, twice fortified in dietary polyphenols and lower in red/processed meat, on visceral adipose tissue (VAT).
Methods In the 18-month Dietary Intervention Randomized Controlled Trial PoLyphenols UnproceSsed (DIRECT-PLUS) weight-loss trial, 294 participants were randomized to (A) healthy dietary guidelines (HDG), (B) MED, or (C) green-MED diets, all combined with physical activity. Both isocaloric MED groups consumed 28 g/day of walnuts (+ 440 mg/day polyphenols). The green-MED group further consumed green tea (3–4 cups/day) and Wolffia globosa (duckweed strain) plant green shake (100 g frozen cubes/day) (+ 800mg/day polyphenols) and reduced red meat intake. We used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to quantify the abdominal adipose tissues.
Results Participants (age = 51 years; 88% men; body mass index = 31.2 kg/m2; 29% VAT) had an 89.8% retention rate and 79.3% completed eligible MRIs. While both MED diets reached similar moderate weight (MED: − 2.7%, green-MED: − 3.9%) and waist circumference (MED: − 4.7%, green-MED: − 5.7%) loss, the green-MED dieters doubled the VAT loss (HDG: − 4.2%, MED: − 6.0%, green-MED: − 14.1%; p < 0.05, independent of age, sex, waist circumference, or weight loss). Higher dietary consumption of green tea, walnuts, and Wolffia globosa; lower red meat intake; higher total plasma polyphenols (mainly hippuric acid), and elevated urine urolithin A polyphenol were significantly related to greater VAT loss (p < 0.05, multivariate models).
Wagamaga OP t1_iy7gurx wrote
Reply to Research shows animals are key to restoring the world’s forests. The unique long-term data set revealed that animals, by carrying a wide variety of seeds into deforested areas, are key to the recovery of tree species richness and abundance to old-growth levels after only 40 to 70 years of regrowth. by Wagamaga
As UN climate talks close in Egypt and biodiversity talks begin in Montreal, attention is on forest restoration as a solution to the twin evils roiling our planet. Forests soak up atmospheric carbon dioxide and simultaneously create habitat for organisms. So far, efforts to help forests bounce back from deforestation have typically focused on increasing one thing—trees—over anything else. But a new report uncovers a powerful, yet largely overlooked, driver of forest recovery: animals. The study by an international team from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Yale School of the Environment, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute examined a series of regenerating forests in central Panama spanning 20 to 100 years post-abandonment. The unique long-term data set revealed that animals, by carrying a wide variety of seeds into deforested areas, are key to the recovery of tree species richness and abundance to old-growth levels after only 40 to 70 years of regrowth.
“Animals are our greatest allies in reforestation,” says Daisy Dent, a tropical ecologist from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and the study’s senior author. “Our study prompts a rethink of reforestation efforts to be about more than just establishing plant communities.” The report also notes that situating regenerating forests near patches of old growth, and reducing hunting, encourages animals to colonize and establish. “We show that considering the wider ecosystem, as well as features of the landscape, improves restoration efforts,” says Sergio Estrada-Villegas, a biologist now at Universidad del Rosario (Bogotá, Colombia) and the study’s first author.
Seed dispersal by animals is key to forest expansion. In the tropics, over 80 percent of tree species can be dispersed by animals, which transport seeds throughout the landscape. Despite this, forest restoration efforts continue to focus on increasing tree cover rather than reestablishing the animal-plant interactions that underpin ecosystem function. “Figuring out how animals contribute to reforestation is prohibitively hard because you need detailed information about which animals eat which plants,” says Estrada-Villegas.
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2021.0076
Wagamaga OP t1_iy30fje wrote
Reply to 30% of cancer contents on social media are unproven info. Some cancer patients use unproven alternative or supplementary treatments without consulting medical professionals, which leads to delaying or rejecting existing treatments, sharply reducing their survival possibilities. by Wagamaga
About 30 percent of cancer-related content on social media, including YouTube, is misinformation not verified medically, a recent study showed.
A research team, led by Professor Kwon Jeong-hye of the Hemato-oncology Department at Chungnam National University Sejong Hospital, said Monday that it published a study, "Understanding the Social Mechanism of Cancer Misinformation Spread on YouTube and Lessons Learned: Infodemiological Study", in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR).
To grasp the spreading structure of cancer-related information on YouTube, the researchers selected 702 YouTube video clips (227 channels) related to the self-prescription of fenbendazole, an anthelmintic used against parasites in animals. Afterward, they extracted 90 videos (excluding overlapping recommendations) uploaded from September 2019 to September 2020, recorded 50,000 or more views, and analyzed the data.
http://www.koreabiomed.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=15156
Wagamaga OP t1_ixyl7sg wrote
Reply to Childhood traumas strongly impact both mental and physical health, new study shows. For every reported type of abuse experienced in childhood, a participant's risk for PTSD increased 47%. Each cumulative trauma also increased one's risk for making a suicide attempt by 33%. by Wagamaga
Scientists from the Desert Research Institute (DRI) and the University of Nevada, Reno, led the study, published on Oct. 6 in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry. More than 16,000 people from the Reno area volunteered for the research as part of the Healthy Nevada Project, one of the most visible genomic studies in the United States, powered by Renown Health.
Participants answered questions about their social environments before age 18, including experiences with emotional, physical, or sexual mistreatment, neglect, and substance abuse in the household. The researchers combined this information with anonymized medical records to build on existing research about how childhood traumas affect health outcomes.
"The study provides insight as to how social determinants of health may influence adult health disorders," said Robert Read, M.S., a researcher at the Center for Genomic Medicine at DRI and one of the study's lead authors.
Nearly two-thirds (66%) of participants recalled at least one type of trauma, and almost one-quarter (24%) reported experiencing more than four. Women and people of African-American and Latinx descent reported a higher prevalence of traumatic experiences than men and those with European ancestry, but people in low-income households were the most impacted.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-11-childhood-traumas-strongly-impact-mental.html
Wagamaga OP t1_ixu9ipo wrote
Reply to A study of NFL games during the 2020 season suggests a link between attendance and COVID spikes in surrounding counties 14 and 21 days later. The inferred connection held strongest for games attended by 20,000-plus fans by Wagamaga
Key Points
Question Was fan attendance at National Football League (NFL) games during the 2020-2021 season associated with subsequent spikes in COVID-19 cases in-county and in contiguous counties?
Findings In this cross-sectional study of NFL games attended by a total 1.3 million fans, the presence of large numbers of fans at NFL games was associated with increases in the incidence of COVID-19 cases both in the counties in which these venues were located and contiguous counties. Specifically, NFL games that had 20 000 fans in attendance had 2.23 times the rate of spikes in COVID-19, but NFL games with fewer than 5000 fans in attendance did not generate any spikes.
Meaning This analysis suggests that in-person attended games during the NFL’s 2020 season were associated with subsequent spikes in COVID-19 cases, and that the spikes were most prominent when attendance was over 20 000 persons.
Wagamaga OP t1_ixu4cbd wrote
Reply to Scientists have discovered that plastic pollution in Antarctica is as bad as everywhere else on the planet. Most of the microfibres were found in air samples, meaning that Antarctic animals and seabirds could very well be breathing them in. by Wagamaga
As nations prepare to meet in Uruguay to negotiate a new Global Plastics Treaty, a new study has revealed the discovery of synthetic plastic fibres in air, seawater, sediment and sea ice sampled in the Antarctic Weddell Sea. The field research was carried out by scientists from the University of Oxford and Nekton (a not-for-profit research institute) during an expedition to discover Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance. The results are published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.
Fibrous polyesters, primarily from textiles, were found in all samples. The majority of microplastic fibres identified were found in the Antarctic air samples, revealing that Antarctic animals and seabirds could be breathing them. ‘The issue of microplastic fibres is also an airborne problem reaching even the last remaining pristine environments on our planet’, stated co-author Lucy Woodall, a Professor in the University of Oxford’s Department of Biology and Principal Scientist at Nekton. ‘Synthetic fibres are the most prevalent form of microplastic pollution globally and tackling this issue must be at the heart of the Plastic Treaty negotiations.’ Professor Woodall was the first to reveal the prevalence of plastic in the deep sea in 2014.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.1056081/full
Wagamaga OP t1_ixc9big wrote
Reply to At least two thirds of Australians, including children and adolescents, have had COVID-19. This is more than double the number of cases reported based on nose and throat swab testing for the virus. Vaccination reduces the risk of developing severe disease if infected with the virus by Wagamaga
During the pandemic regular serosurveys, testing for antibodies to the virus (SARS-CoV-2) that causes COVID-19, have been used to track the proportion of people infected. Today, results from two complementary national serosurveys, one in children and adolescents, and the other in adults, have been released. Taken together, they provide a unique snapshot of the extent of SARS-CoV-2 infection across Australia to the end of August 2022.
The children and adolescents survey found at least 64% of 0–19 year olds in Australia had been infected with SARS-CoV-2. In unvaccinated children aged 1–4 years, approximately 8 out of 10 had evidence of past infection. The adults survey, the third in a series of surveys in blood donors, found at least two thirds of the adult population had been infected with SARS-CoV-2, with approximately 20% infected within 3 months of the previous survey in June 2022.
National paediatric serosurvey The child and adolescent study, led by the Paediatric Active Enhanced Diseases Surveillance network (PAEDS) and the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS), in collaboration with Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, tested antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in 2,046 blood samples collected between June and August 2022. Two types of antibodies were tested: antibody to the nucleocapsid protein of the virus, which indicates past infection, and antibody to the spike protein, which can indicate past infection and/or vaccination. In children aged 1–4 years, all of whom were unvaccinated, the proportion with spike antibody was 79%, indicating past infection in approximately 8 out of 10 pre-schoolers.
Wagamaga OP t1_ix7wauo wrote
Reply to A warmer world is making storms transform rapidly into powerful hurricanes or typhoons in a single day, posing a huge challenge to weather forecasters. Stronger storms disproportionately risk lives and devastate homes and businesses, as Hurricane Ian did in Florida in September 2022. by Wagamaga
Climate change is increasing the probability that tropical cyclones rapidly grow into intense, damaging hurricanes in a few hours, according to a new study published in Nature Communications.
Links between human-caused global warming and the strength of storms have previously been suggested, but now, research shows how a warmer world is making storms transform rapidly into powerful hurricanes or typhoons in a single day, posing a huge challenge to weather forecasters.
The study, co-authored by National Centre for Atmospheric Science scientists, concludes that rising global temperatures are significantly increasing the rate of storms rapidly intensifying.
These stronger storms disproportionately risk lives and devastate homes and businesses, as Hurricane Ian did in Florida in September 2022.
Dr Alex Baker, National Centre for Atmospheric Science and the University of Reading, who co-wrote the study, explains:
“Hurricanes are natural events that have always been with us, and a rare few strengthen rapidly. We have discovered how increasing greenhouse gas emissions are making it much more likely that tropical storms rapidly turn into dangerous and less predictable cyclones, and this is happening globally.”
Wagamaga OP t1_ix3b0vk wrote
Reply to Honey improves key measures of cardiometabolic health, including blood sugar and cholesterol levels -; especially if the honey is raw and from a single floral source. Honey is a complex composition of common and rare sugars, proteins, organic acids and other bioactive compounds by Wagamaga
Researchers at the University of Toronto have found that honey improves key measures of cardiometabolic health, including blood sugar and cholesterol levels -; especially if the honey is raw and from a single floral source.
The researchers conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical trials on honey, and found that it lowered fasting blood glucose, total and LDL or 'bad' cholesterol, triglycerides, and a marker of fatty liver disease; it also increased HDL or 'good' cholesterol, and some markers of inflammation.
Previous research has shown that honey can improve cardiometabolic health, especially in in vitro and animal studies. The current study is the most comprehensive review to date of clinical trials, and it includes the most detailed data on processing and floral source.
The journal Nutrition Reviews published the findings this week.
"The word among public health and nutrition experts has long been that 'a sugar is a sugar,' said John Sievenpiper, principal investigator and an associate professor of nutritional sciences and medicine at U of T, who is also a clinician-scientist at Unity Health Toronto. "These results show that's not the case, and they should give pause to the designation of honey as a free or added sugar in dietary guidelines."
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Reply to Research shows land that often lies fallow or is poor in soil quality — across the United States would provide enough biomass feedstock to meet the liquid fuel demands of the U.S. aviation sector fully from biofuels, an amount expected to reach 30 billion gallons per year by 2040. by Wagamaga
Every day, 45,000 planes fly across the United States, carrying some 1.7 million passengers. Aviation dominates a frequent traveler’s individual contribution to climate change, and yet it is one of the most challenging sectors to decarbonize.
The United States is the largest contributor to aviation carbon dioxide emissions in the world and is responsible for more than a quarter of all carbon dioxide emitted from flying.
But what if we could make all U.S. air travel nearly emissions free? What if we could replace carbon-intensive jet fossil fuels with a cleaner alternative: biojet fuels derived from rain-fed grass grown in the U.S.?
New research published today in the journal Nature Sustainability shows a pathway toward full decarbonization of U.S. aviation fuel use by substituting conventional jet fuel with sustainably produced biofuels.
The study, led by a team of Arizona State University researchers, found that planting the grass miscanthus on 23.2 million hectares of existing marginal agricultural lands — land that often lies fallow or is poor in soil quality — across the United States would provide enough biomass feedstock to meet the liquid fuel demands of the U.S. aviation sector fully from biofuels, an amount expected to reach 30 billion gallons per year by 2040.
In the study, the researchers used an integrated framework of land assessments, hydro-climate modeling, ecosystem modeling and economic modeling to assess where and under what conditions across the United States energy crops used for biojet fuels could be grown sustainably using criteria that evaluate both environmental and economic performance.
The criteria were extensive. The team first identified and assessed where optimal marginal agriculture lands already existed in the U.S. They then assessed whether one could grow the right energy crops on the land without using additional water.
The team then analyzed whether growing energy-crop feedstocks on these lands would have detrimental effects on the surrounding climate or soil moisture and predicted the potential productivity of yields of two different grasses — miscanthus and switchgrass — as suitable biomass-energy feedstocks. Finally, the team quantified the amount and the cost of biojet fuel that would be produced and distributed nationwide at scale. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-022-00990-w
Wagamaga OP t1_iwcywwj wrote
Reply to Aerobic exercise can reduce the risk of metastatic cancer by 72%. According to the researchers, intensity aerobic exercise increases the glucose (sugar) consumption of internal organs, thereby reducing the availability of energy to the tumor. by Wagamaga
A new study at Tel Aviv University found that aerobic exercise can reduce the risk of metastatic cancer by 72%. According to the researchers, intensity aerobic exercise increases the glucose (sugar) consumption of internal organs, thereby reducing the availability of energy to the tumor. The study was led by two researchers from TAU's Sackler Faculty of Medicine: Prof. Carmit Levy from the Department of Human Genetics and Biochemistry and Dr. Yftach Gepner from the School of Public Health and the Sylvan Adams Sports Institute. Prof. Levy emphasizes that by combining scientific knowhow from different schools at TAU, the new study has led to a very important discovery which may help prevent metastatic cancer - the leading cause of death in Israel. The paper was published in the prestigious journal Cancer Research and chosen for the cover of the November 2022 issue.
Wagamaga OP t1_j085q3f wrote
Reply to Four Genes Identified as Heightening Risk of Suicidal Thoughts/Actions. Researchers identified numerous genes that were evident among participants with documented cases of suicidal thoughts or actions, regardless of their ancestral background by Wagamaga
A large study of military members led by researchers at Duke Health and the Durham VA identified four genes that are linked to an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors.
While more work is needed to determine whether identification of the genetic markers might lead to targeted treatments, the findings advance the understanding of how inherited risk factors play a role in the pathology of suicidal thoughts and actions.
“It’s important to note that these genes do not predestine anyone to problems, but it’s also important to understand that there could be heightened risks, particularly when combined with life events,” said Nathan Kimbrel, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Duke and co-lead author of the study publishing online Dec. 14 in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.
Kimbrel and colleagues, including co-lead author Allison Ashley-Koch, professor in the Department of Medicine at Duke, conducted a large, diverse, genome-wide analysis using data from 633,778 U.S. military veterans. Of the participants, 71.4% were of European ancestry; 19.1% African ancestry; 8.1% Hispanic; 1.3% Asian. Study participants were primarily male, with 9% female.
Within that group of veterans, 121,211 cases of suicidal thoughts or actions were identified from medical records. Participants were classified as controls if they had no documented lifetime history of self-harm behaviors.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/article-abstract/2799487