Howard Hughes Medical Institute scientists have simplified the chemical synthesis of small molecules, eliminating a major bottleneck that limits the exploration of a class of compounds offering tremendous potential for medicine and technology.
Identifying liquid water on other worlds, big or small, is crucial in the search for habitable planets beyond Earth. Though the presence of an ocean on Ganymede has been long predicted based on theoretical models, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope found the best evidence for it. Hubble was used to watch aurorae glowing above the moon's icy surface. The aurorae are tied to the moon's magnetic field, which descends right down to Ganymede's core. A saline ocean would influence the dynamics of the magnetic field as it interacts with Jupiter's own immense magnetic field, which engulfs Ganymede. Because telescopes can't look inside planets or moons, tracing the magnetic field through aurorae is a unique way to probe the interior of another world. Join Hubble astronomers during a live Hubble Hangout discussion on YouTube and Google+ at 3pm EDT on Thurs., March 12, to learn even more. Visit http://hbbl.us/y6f .
Triamcinolone and Hyaluronate injections into ZJTs provide similar pain and functional benefits in patients with symptomatic lumbar zygaphophyseal joint arthropathy causing chronic low back pain. Hyaluronate injections provided statistically significant short- and long-term functional benefits and short-term pain improvement but Triamcinolone injections only provided statistically significant short-term functional benefit and no significant short- or long-term pain improvement compared to baseline levels.
A research team from MedStar National Rehabilitation Network presented a pilot study at AAP 2015 in San Antonio that assesses the efficacy of ultrasound guided platelet rich plasma (PRP) injections in the non-operative management of acetabular hip labral tears.
A research team from NYU presented a study at AAP 2015 that aims to better understand motor planning deficits post-stroke and to demonstrate the utility of analyzing the kinematics of their reaches under various practice strategies.
A research team at Emory University presents new research at the 2015 AAP Annual Meeting in San Antonio that suggests that early rehabilitation as well as discharges to acute rehabilitation facilities post stroke can improve neurologic outcomes. The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of introducing a physiatrist into an acute stroke team.
Researchers at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago present a study at AAP 2015 in San Antonio that assessed family members’ expectations of recovery in patients with acute neurological injury and how these beliefs compare to those of the primary physiatrist caring for the patient. No previous studies have described family members’ views of recovery prior to initiation of rehabilitation following acute brain damage and how this may affect caregiver burden, patient outcome and discharge planning.
AAP Announces Best Paper Competition winners at the 2015 AAP Annual Meeting in San Anttonio. Winners will present research studies at a plenary session on Friday, March 13, 2015.
AAP's scientific and educational 2015 Annual Meeting kicks off in San Antonio. Over 800 physiatrists are expected to attend to create the future of academic physiatry through mentorship, leadership, and discovery.
Scientist at Janelia Research Campus wins The Brain Prize for developing a tool that advances our understanding of how the brain's networks process information.
Scientists have created a 3-D model of a complex protein machine, ORC, which helps prepare DNA to be duplicated. Like an image of a criminal suspect, the intricate model of ORC has helped build a “profile” of the activities of this crucial “protein of interest.” But the new information has uncovered another mystery: ORC’s structure reveals that it is not always “on” as was previously thought, and no one knows how it turns on and off.
Using a specially selected library of different hepatitis C viruses, a team of researchers led by Johns Hopkins scientists has identified tiny differences in the pathogens’ outer shell proteins that underpin their resistance to antibodies. The findings, reported in the January 2015 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, suggest a reason why some patients’ immune systems can’t fend off hepatitis C infections, and they reveal distinct challenges for those trying to craft a successful vaccine to prevent them.
Identifying loss of dignity and lack of respectful treatment as preventable harms in health care, researchers at Johns Hopkins have taken on the ambitious task of defining and ensuring respectful care in the high-stakes environment of the intensive care unit (ICU).
A team of scientists led by Johns Hopkins cardiologist and biomedical engineer Hiroshi Ashikaga, M.D., Ph.D., has developed a mathematical model to measure and digitally map the beat-sustaining electrical flow between heart cells.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have successfully corrected a genetic error in stem cells from patients with sickle cell disease, and then used those cells to grow mature red blood cells, they report. The study represents an important step toward more effectively treating certain patients with sickle cell disease who need frequent blood transfusions and currently have few options.
The new vaccine was found to be effective against the two most common forms of herpes that cause cold sores (HSV-1) and genital ulcers (HSV-2). Both are known to infect the body’s nerve cells, where the virus can lay dormant for years before symptoms reappear. The new vaccine is the first to prevent this type of latent infection.
Researchers from Cornell University have synthesized a new thin-film catalyst for use in fuel cells. In a paper published March 10 in the journal APL Materials, from AIP Publishing, the team reports the first-ever epitaxial thin-film growth of Bi2Pt2O7 pyrochlore, which could act as a more effective cathode -- a fundamental electrode component of fuel cells from which positive current flows through an external circuit delivering electric power.
Devastating floodwaters such as those experienced during Iowa's Flood of 2008 are notoriously difficult to predict. So a team of University of Iowa mathematicians and hydrologists collaborating with the Iowa Flood Center set out to gain a better understanding of flood genesis and the factors impacting it. They were able to do this by zeroing in on the impacts of certain rainfall patterns at the smallest unit of a river basin: the hillslope scale.
Many scientists are working to develop green, lightweight, low-cost supercapacitors with high performance, and now two researchers from the S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, India, have developed a novel supercapacitor electrode based on a hybrid nanostructure made from a hybrid nickel oxide-iron oxide exterior shell and a conductive iron-nickel core. Its core/shell structure could mean faster charging time and longer battery life in electric vehicles and portable electronics.
A Johns Hopkins astronomer played a key role in the recent discovery of a distant exploding star whose light split into four distinct images in a display seen for the first time by scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope.
A history of psychedelic drug use is associated with less psychological distress and fewer suicidal thoughts, planning and attempts, according to new research from Johns Hopkins and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
There are about 48,000 corneal transplants done each year in the U.S., compared to approximately 16,000 kidney transplants and 2,100 heart transplants. Out of the 48,000 corneal transplants done, 10 percent of them end up in rejection, largely due to poor medication compliance. This costs the health care system and puts undue strain on clinicians, patients and their families.
A research team including NIBIB-funded scientists has developed a new MRI technique for more precise and effective treatment for prostate cancer. The sharper MRI image can provide more accurate biopsies, enable better treatment planning, and help surgeons pinpoint the tumor while sparing surrounding healthy tissue.
SILVER SPRING, MD, March 9, 2015 – If Department of Defense expansion of military programs and resources for diagnoses and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) continues, incidence rates for both diseases in the post-war period will be much higher than in the pre-war period, according to a newly released health surveillance report.
The following articles are freely available online from Physics Today (www.physicstoday.org), the world's most influential and closely followed magazine devoted to physics and the physical science community.
Your exercise regimen isn’t just good for you; it may also be good for your spouse.
New research led by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health finds that if one spouse improves his or her exercise regimen, the other spouse is significantly more likely to follow suit.
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have spotted for the first time a distant supernova split into four images. The multiple images of the exploding star are caused by the powerful gravity of a foreground elliptical galaxy embedded in a massive cluster of galaxies. The team's science paper will appear on March 6 in a special issue of the journal Science celebrating the centenary of Albert Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. Join Hubble astronomers during the live Hubble Hangout discussion at 3pm EST on Thurs., March 5, to learn still more. Visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eQTUK6XvB8 .
The Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) Coalition joins local and international NGOs in condemning last Friday’s killing of a local farmer and land rights defender in Jambi, Indonesia. While traveling to a harvest festival, Indra Pelani was allegedly murdered after an argument with guards stationed outside a pulpwood plantation owned by PT Wira Karya Sakti (WKS), a subsidiary of Asia Pulp and Paper (APP). According to reports, Pelani’s body was later found tied up several kilometers away, showing evidence of stab wounds and severe beating. The seven guards suspected in the killing surrendered to police on Wednesday.
When it comes to caring for older adults, there is a shift to a consumer-driven model that focuses on keeping patients in their homes and out of institutional care facilities. It’s an arrangement that can benefit both the patient and the healthcare system, but new research by Johns Hopkins School of Nursing professor Nancy Glass and colleagues shows that the personnel working in patient homes are often at risk for harassment and violence with no plan of prevention.
Carroll Hospital Center physicians will now have 24/7 remote access to the University of Maryland Medical Center’s Brain Attack Team through a new telemedicine service for stroke patients, the hospitals announced today.
Data from only a small number of gene variants can predict which maritime pine trees are most vulnerable to climate change, scientists report in the March issue of GENETICS. The results will improve computer models designed to forecast where forests will grow as the climate changes, and promises to help forestry managers decide where to focus reforestation efforts. The results will also guide the choice of tree stocks.
To help the public better understand how measles can spread, an NIH-funded team of infectious disease computer modelers at the University of Pittsburgh has launched a free, mobile-friendly tool that lets users simulate measles outbreaks in cities across the country.
Two former deans of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health – D.A. Henderson, MD, MPH ’60 and Alfred Sommer, MD, MHS ’73 – have recently been recognized for their major achievements in the field of public health.
Six scientific societies will hold their joint scientific sessions and annual meetings, known as Experimental Biology (EB), from March 28 – April 1, 2015, in Boston.
Thanks to the work of an interdisciplinary team of researchers at the Dartmouth Center of Nanotechnology Excellence, funded by the National Institutes of Health, the next-generation magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) may soon be treating deep-seated and difficult-to-reach tumors within the human body.
By examining the forces that the segments of mosquito legs generate against a water surface, researchers at the China University of Petroleum (Huadong) and Liaoning University of Technology have unraveled the mechanical logic that allows the mosquitoes to walk on water, which may help in the design of biomimetic structures, such as aquatic robots and small boats.
One-quarter of the health plans being sold on health insurance exchanges set up through the Affordable Care Act offer benefits that appear to violate a federal law requiring equal benefits for general medical and mental health care, according to new research led by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
In a new survey, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that physicians report relatively high awareness of state databases that track drug prescriptions but more than one-fifth indicated they were not aware of their state’s program at all.
A new study from a team of researchers in California and Japan shows that OLEDs made with finely patterned structures can produce bright, low-power light sources, a key step toward making organic lasers. The results are reported in a paper appearing this week on the cover of the journal Applied Physics Letters, from AIP Publishing.
The cascade of events leading to bacterial infection and the immune response is mostly understood. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the immune response to the bacteria that causes tuberculosis have remained a mystery — until now. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have now uncovered how a bacterial molecule controls the body’s response to TB infection and suggest that adjusting the level of this of this molecule may be a new way to treat the disease. The report appears this week as an advance online publication of Nature Medicine.
Researchers at the University of Michigan have identified the pathway responsible for taste changes among users of chemotherapy drugs that treat basal cell carcinoma. Manuscript was chosen as an APSselect article for March.
The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) Human Performance Resource Center (HPRC), working in conjunction with the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center and the United States Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine in Natick, Mass., has launched the Combat Rations Database, or ComRaD (http://hprc-online.org/comrad/) which provides nutritional information on individual combat ration meals and their food components. This interactive website features standard nutrition facts, including calories, fat, vitamins and minerals of the MRE, First Strike Ration® (FSR), and Meal, Cold Weather/Long Range Patrol (MCW/LRP), from their most recent production years.
Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will present “Ebola: Past, Present and Future” when he delivers the 2015 David Packard Award Lecture at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), Wednesday, Mar. 11, 2015.
Analyzing data from 58,000 heart stress tests, Johns Hopkins cardiologists report they have developed a formula that estimates one’s risk of dying over a decade based on a person’s ability to exercise on a treadmill at an increasing speed and incline.