337 articles from WEDNESDAY 5.5.2021

Too much, too little sleep linked to elevated heart risks in people free from disease

People who clock six to seven hours of sleep a night had the lowest chance of dying from a heart attack or stroke when compared with those who got less or more sleep, according to a study being presented at the American College of Cardiology's 70th Annual Scientific Session. This trend remained true even after the research team accounted for other known conditions or risk factors for heart disease...

Total knee replacement may be more painful for vitamin-D deficient postmenopausal women

Vitamin D is a critical part of a healthy diet. Among other benefits, it has been shown to protect against bone disease and maintain soft tissue health. A new study suggests that it may also play a role in the degree of postoperative pain postmenopausal women experience after undergoing total knee replacement. Study results are published online today in Menopause, the journal of The North American...

Tracking down the tiniest of forces: How T cells detect invaders

What happens on a molecular level, when our immune system detects antigens? Scientists in Vienna have found out, how T cells exert tiny forces on antigens. Bonds between T cells and antigen presenting cells break, and this behaviour tells the T cell whether or not it has found the right antigen.

UBCO cardiovascular researcher urges women to listen to their hearts

Dr. Ryan Wilson, a post-doctoral fellow in the School of Nursing, says AF is the most commonly diagnosed arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat) in the world. Despite that, he says many people do not understand the pre-diagnosis symptoms and tend to ignore them. In fact, 77 per cent of the women in his most recent study had experienced symptoms for more than a year before receiving a diagnosis.

Want to treat heart attacks faster? There's an app for that

Patients suffering a heart attack received percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), a procedure to clear blocked arteries in the heart, an average of 10 minutes faster after clinicians and paramedics began using an app to facilitate efficient hospital intakes for these patients, according to a study being presented at the American College of Cardiology's 70th Annual Scientific Session.

Water flora in the lakes of the ancient Tethys Ocean islands

A study published in Cretaceous Research expands the paleontological richness of continental fossils of the Lower Cretaceous with the discovery of a new water plant (charophytes), the species Mesochara dobrogeica. The study also identifies a new variety of carophytes from the Clavator genus (in particular, Clavator ampullaceus var. latibracteatus) and reveals a set of paleobiographical data from...

Why robots need reflexes - interview

Reflexes protect our bodies - for example when we pull our hand back from a hot stove. These protective mechanisms could also be useful for robots. In this interview, Prof. Sami Haddadin and Johannes Kühn of the Munich School of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MSRM) of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) explain why giving test subjects a "slap on the hand" could lay the foundations for...

Your longevity after a heart attack may depend on where you live

Black patients from disadvantaged neighborhoods were significantly more likely to die within five years of surviving a heart attack compared with Black heart attack patients from wealthier neighborhoods and white patients of any socioeconomic means who survive a heart attack, according to a study being presented at the American College of Cardiology's 70th Annual Scientific Session.

‘We can’t afford not to act’: experts on their hopes for mental health in the budget | Ian Hickie, Hazel Dalton, Tegan Carrison

Australia needs to start flattening the mental health curve urgently. The coming budget is an opportunity for actionThe 2021 federal budget has been heralded as the point at which the Morrison government will respond, at scale, to the many failings of the mental health system. We spend only $10.6bn a year providing mental health services to over 4 million people. Importantly, there is an...

SciDev.Net story on bed net misuse linked to arrests in Malawi’s Lake Kazuni

Malaria poses a significant problem in Malawi. Research shows that insecticide-treated bed nets designed to prevent mosquitos spreading the disease are being misused for fishing. The malpractice not only puts people’s lives at risk but could also deter donors from financing the provision of free bed nets. SciDev.Net published a story investigating this situation. Following its publication, Vwaza...

New study deconstructs Dunbar's number (number of friends)

An individual human can maintain stable social relationships with about 150 people, not more. This is the proposition known as 'Dunbar's number' - that the architecture of the human brain sets an upper limit on our social lives. A new study indicates that a cognitive limit on human group sizes cannot be derived in this manner.