February 28 marks three years since COVID was first reported in Aotearoa New Zealand. Since then there have been major advances in our understanding of this infection and the tools and strategies to combat it.
Is there a vaccine for RSV? After almost 60 years, several potential candidates come at once
You might not have heard of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. But it caused more than 100,000 global deaths in 2019, making it a leading cause of death in children under one year old.
Health survey suggests targeting single men to counter new COVID-19 variants
It is almost three years since the World Health Organization characterized the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic. Working at breakneck speed, scientists managed to produce effective vaccinations in record time. The subsequent mass production of vaccines and their rollout by governments have enabled most of us to resume our daily lives, with the pandemic gradually receding in memory.
What is delirium?
Delirium is a sudden decline in a person’s usual mental function. It occurs when signals in the brain aren’t sending and receiving properly, causing confusion in thinking and altered behavior or levels of consciousness.
Children’s bad dreams linked to a higher risk of dementia and Parkinson’s disease in adulthood, finds new study
Can children’s dreams foretell events that will happen nearly 40 years into the future? Yes, according to the results of my latest study published in the journal eClinicalMedicine.
Swimming pools vs. wild swimming—a germs expert on which is worse
Wild swimming has grown massively in popularity in recent times. Not only is swimming outdoors a pleasant way to enjoy the sunshine, fresh air and green leafy surroundings, it can also help to relieve stress and elevate our endorphins. This creates a sense of well-being as well as burning calories and exercising muscles.
Researchers develop new material to replace extracted human teeth for dental research
Extracted human teeth have long been used in conducting dental research, such as evaluating dental ceramic materials as a crown restoration on tooth. It is an inexpensive and straightforward process that simulates clinical situations. However, the collection and use of extracted human teeth is becoming increasingly difficult given the concerns about COVID-19, size-standardization issues, and also time constraints. All these factors have prompted a need for dentine analog materials that could potentially substitute extracted human teeth in laboratory-based mechanical and fatigue tests.
Study finds LGB population has higher preventable death rates than heterosexual counterparts
The scientific literature has repeatedly shown health gaps between lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) and heterosexual people.
What is avian influenza H5N1 and how can we protect ourselves?
A recent outbreak of H5N1 at a mink farm in Spain caused international concern that the avian influenza virus might be creeping closer to achieving pandemic potential.
New method for image reconstruction in electrical impedance tomography
Recently, a team led by Prof. DU Jiangfeng from the Key Laboratory of Microscale Magnetic Resonance of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) developed a new method for deep electrical impedance tomography reconstruction without training, which paved a new way for applying electrical impedance tomography technology in determining lesion tissue specificity. This work was published in IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence.