All posts by : Felistas

There are more than 100,000 people on organ transplant lists in the U.S., some of whom will wait years to receive one—and some may not survive the wait. Even with a good match, there is a chance that a person’s body will reject the organ. To shorten waiting periods and reduce the possibility of rejection, researchers in regenerative medicine are developing methods to use a patient’s own cells to fabricate personalized hearts, kidneys, livers, and other organs on demand.

Earned sick leave—short-term, paid time off for employees who are sick or injured or must care for sick or injured family members—has been found to reduce the spread of infectious diseases in the workplace and increase employee access to preventive care.

Children exposed before birth to synthetic compounds called “forever chemicals” had higher blood pressure during their teenage years, according to research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association. The study was also presented at the Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER) Conference in Boston.

The architecture and processes underlying visual word recognition represent some of the most intricate systems in human cognition. The seemingly simple act of reading a word involves not only a complex interplay between cognitive layers but also relationships between the word’s spelling, phonology, and meaning.

The human body is naturally equipped with defenses to fight off viral infections. For a virus to successfully infect it, it must first overcome these defenses. To do so, viruses have evolved specialized tools—proteins known as “virulence factors”—that help them shut down or dodge the immune system and cause disease.

Scientists say they have new experimental evidence of a novel role for bilirubin, a natural yellow pigment found in the body, in protecting humans from the worst effects of malaria and potentially other infectious diseases. The findings could advance the search for drugs that mimic the pigment bilirubin, or deliver it to the body to help protect people from severe forms of some infections.

Although psychosomatic medicine is regarded as a branch of psychiatry in many countries, some of its diagnostic concepts are not fully encompassed by mainstream psychiatric diagnostic systems. When these two systems are integrated, the interrelationships among various diagnoses and their associations with psychopathologies remain to be elucidated.

The Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science has developed a detachable acoustic lens that allows for easy adjustment of the focal length in ultrasonic inspection equipment. Much like swapping lenses on a DSLR camera to improve image quality, this technology enables users to optimize the resolution of ultrasonic imaging systems for specific inspection tasks. The innovation is expected to significantly enhance accuracy in both medical diagnostics and industrial safety inspections.

A study conducted at the Botucatu School of Medicine at São Paulo State University (FMB-UNESP) in Brazil has shown that low-dose vitamin D supplementation can increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy treatment in women with breast cancer. The results suggest that the substance could be an alternative to hard-to-access drugs that also aim to increase the response to chemotherapy.

A new study reveals striking international differences in how doctors approach the sensitive issue of tracheostomy invasive ventilation (TIV) for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Cultural norms and health care systems appear to significantly influence physician attitudes and, consequently, patient choices regarding this life-sustaining treatment.