Posts in category: Uncategorized

A collaboration between researchers from Cornell and University of Alberta, Edmonton, has created a new technique to treat type 1 diabetes: implanting a device inside a pocket under the skin that can secrete insulin while avoiding the immunosuppression that typically stymies management of the disease.

Researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, China, have discovered that shutting down part of the innate immune system increases anti-tumor activity.

Researchers have discovered a novel mechanism whereby the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, can vary its mode of infection in human cells. In work published in the journal eLife, a team from the University of Minnesota and the Midwest Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) Center found the virus can alternate between being highly infectious and avoiding detection by the immune system. This understanding is vital for grasping the virus’ impact during the pandemic and for predicting its potential evolutionary developments.

A common diabetes medication may help some patients with treatment-resistant hypertension slightly lower their high blood pressure and lessen their risk of heart failure events such as stroke, according to an analysis of a clinical trial published in Circulation.

Joe Vipond, a Canadian emergency room physician who was a strong supporter of masking during the pandemic, said in a speech last year that the slow recognition that COVID-19 is spread by airborne transmission resulted in what is likely “the most egregious public health error in modern history.”

CANADA’s First Quantum Minerals and a Zambian mining company have signed an agreement to fast-track the development of a copper project in Africa’s second-biggest producer of the metal, the companies said yesterday.

Zambia has ambitions to triple its copper output and has reviewed its tax policy to increase mining exploration and output.

First Quantum is already a major miner in the country.

Its agreement with Zambia’s Mimosa Resources envisages mining at the Fishtie copper project starting from 2026, ramping up to maximum production of 30, 000 metric tons of copper a year by the end of the decade, First Quantum and Mimosa Resources said in a joint statement.

First Quantum reiterated it thought the investment climate in Zambia had improved.

Mimosa Resources is expected to lead the raising of a total investment of $200 million for the project. – REUTERS.

Pregnant women are not getting the essential nutrients they and their babies need from modern diets say scientists, who have warned that the situation will likely worsen as more people turn to plant-based foods.

Psychiatrists should routinely write to their patients about their care following appointments, according to a new opinion piece published on Dec. 4. Writing in the BMJ, Dr. Katharine Weetman from the University of Birmingham and Dr. Dave Martin from the University of Bristol and Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust make the case for regular correspondence between mental health clinicians and their patients, in the same way that other branches of medicine do.

A team of psychologists at Sabanci University, in Turkey, working with a colleague from the University of Sussex, in the U.K., has found that people simply saying “hello” to strangers they encounter can lead to increased life satisfaction. In their study, reported in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, the group queried two large groups of people regarding their encounters with strangers and how they graded their own level of life satisfaction.

A study of more than 50 babies in Africa, Asia, North America and South America has added substantially to evidence that giving antiretroviral therapy (ART) to newborns with HIV within the first days—rather than within weeks or months—of life can safely suppress amounts of HIV in the blood to undetectable levels.