HƯỚNG DẪN SƠ CỨU (FIRST AID)
KHI BỊ CÔN TRÙNG, ĐỘNG VẬT VÀ NGƯỜI CẮN TRONG LÚC SINH HOẠT NGOÀI TRỜI Lynn Ly phỏng dịch theo "The Everything First Aid"
Những hoạt động ngoài trời như làm việc, vui chơi, giải trí, du ngoạn ở trong một số hoàn cảnh , khí hậu , và thời tiết . Khí hậu nóng và lạnh đều có thể gây ra những hệ quả đối lập (adverse consequences), và những sinh vật (critters) sống bên ngoài thỉnh thoảng gây dị ứng (ngứa ngáy khó chịu) hoặc tổn thương . Cơ thể bị thiếu nước hoặc ở cao độ (thí dụ lên đỉnh núi) và ở trong một số điều kiện ngoài trời khác cũng có thể làm bạn cảm thấy suy yếu đi .
Cho dù không có vấn đề ǵ khi bạn hoạt động ngoài trời, nhưng thật quan trọng bạn biết làm ǵ để chăm sóc hoặc trợ giúp những người bị chấn thương, bị bệnh tật bất ngờ .
I) BỊ CÔN TRÙNG, LOÀI VẬT VÀ NGƯỜI CẮN
Nhiều loại côn trùng và các sinh vật khác, bao gồm cả con người, gây ra các vết cắn và vết châm chích có thể cho cảm giác không thoải mái hoặc đe dọa tính mạng từ nhẹ nhẹ đến trung b́nh. Điều quan trọng là biết làm ǵ, làm thế nào để trị liệu, và khi nào th́ cần t́m kiếm đến trợ giúp từ chuyên gia y tế để trị liệu bất kỳ thương tổn tàng ẩn bên trong.
1) B̉ CẠP CẮN (SCORPION BITES)
Ḅ cạp là loại côn trùng nhiều chân có h́nh dạng giống tôm hùm (lobster-like arthoropods) nằm trong xếp loại côn trùng có nọc độc (arcahnid class, cùng loài nhền nhện = spider class), có một ng̣i / kim xoăn ở phần cuối nơi đuôi, và chúng thường được t́m thấy ở vùng sa mạc phía Tây Nam của Mexico (nước Mễ Tây Cơ). Những vết chích / đốt của bọ cạp dường như không có khả năng gây tử vong và dễ dàng điều trị, nhưng lại nguy hiểm cho trẻ nhỏ và người già hơn . Những triệu chứng bao gồm đau nhức ngay lập tức (immediate pain), nóng rát (burning), sưng tấy chút chút (minor swelling) và cảm giác tê (numb) hoặc ngứa ran (tingling sensation).
Những buớc sau đây cần nên thực hiện để trị liệu vết ḅ cạp cắn:
1. Rửa vùng bị ḅ cạp cắn bằng xà pḥng / xà bông và nước
2. Dùng túi trườm lạnh đặt lên vùng bị ḅ cạp cắn trong ṿng 10 phút , nếu cần thiết th́ lập đi lập lại việc trườm lạnh vùng bị cắn với khoảng cách giữa các lần trườm lạnh là 10 phút .
3. Gọi điện thoại đến trung tâm kiểm soát chất độc (the Poison Control Center), hay đi bệnh viện khi có bất kỳ triệu chứng nghiêm trọng ǵ
2) BỌ VE CẮN (TICK BITES)
Những người sống vùng rừng cây hay đồng cỏ, hay những người dành thời gian vui chơi giải trí ở những khu vực này th́ dễ bị bọ ve cắn . Loài côn trùng nho nhỏ này sống bằng cách hút máu các loài động vật có vú (mammals) thí dụ như hươu nai (deer), loài gậm nhấm (rodents), thỏ (rabbits) và có thể truyền bệnh từ động vật sang người .
Việc sơ cứu (first aid) những vết bọ ve cắn bao gồm loại bỏ con bọ ve đang bu bám ngay lập tức để tránh những phản ứng từ vết cắn và giảm thiểu tối đa các loại bệnh nhiễm trùng do bọ ve gây ra thí dụ bệnh Lyme, bệnh nóng sốt Colorado bọ ve (Colorado tick fever), bệnh nóng sốt được phát hiện ở núi đá (Rocky Mountain Spotted fever)
Để tháo bỏ con bọ ve bu bám trên người , hăy làm như sau:
1. Dùng cây nhíp (tweezers) hay cây kẹp nhỏ nhỏ cong cong hay thẳng thẳng (small curl or flat forcepts) kẹp lấy đầu con bọ ve và càng cận sát nơi da đang bị con bọ ve cắn càng tốt, rồi nhẹ nhàng kéo ra, đừng bóp nát hay xoay vặn con bọ ve
2. Rửa vùng bị bọ ve cắn bằng xà pḥng / xà bông và nước.
3. Bôi thuốc Antihistamine hoặc loại 1% hydrocortisone cream (loại kem chứa 1% chất hydrocortisone)
Cần phải có sự chăm sóc y tế chuyên nghiệp , nếu con bọ ve cắn quá sâu và bạn không thể tháo gỡ nó ra được, hoặc bạn đang ở trong khu vực được thông báo là có nhiều nguy cơ bị bệnh lyme, hoặc bạn có triệu chứng nóng sốt hay triệu chứng cảm cúm , hoặc bạn có trải nghiệm bắp thịt trở lên suy nhược, tê liệt (paralysis) , hoặc nổi vết tṛn đỏ trên da gọi là "phát ban mắt ḅ" (the bull's eye rash) là đặc chưng của bệnh Lyme .
CẢNH BÁO !!!
Đừng bao giờ bôi petroleum jelly (vaseline), rượu cồn ( alcohol ) ahy ammonia lên con bọ ve - chúng sẽ cắn chặt sâu vào da hơn. Nếu bạn đang ở trong vùng cảnh báo có nhiều nguy cơ bệnh Lyme mà bị bọ ve cắn, bạn nhất định phải phone báo bác sĩ để được tư vấn và ngay lập tức được chăm sóc và điều tri bao gồm việc sử dụng thuốc kháng sinh
Protein that hinders advancement of prostate cancer identified
Boston University School of Medicine
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(Boston)--Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have discovered that blocking a specific protein, may be a promising strategy to prevent the spread of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC).
Under the direction of BUSM's Gerald V. Denis PhD, researchers have long studied a family of three closely related proteins, called BET bromodomain proteins, composed of BRD2, BRD3 and BRD4, which regulate gene expression. BUSM researchers were the first (in the 1990s) to show how these proteins function in human cancer.
These researchers now have discovered that inhibition of the protein BRD4, but not BRD2 or BRD3, consistently regulated prostate cancer cell migration and invasion.
CRPC is a highly aggressive form of prostate cancer that often leads to the development of lethal metastases. Standard of care treatment for patients with CRPC typically includes a means to disrupt androgen receptor (AR) signaling, and while effective for an average of two-three years, treatment inevitably fails to impede progression due to acquired resistance mechanisms to the AR.
"Our findings are significant because current therapeutic options for CRPC are limited and focus primarily on suppressing prostate tumor cells that rely on AR signaling," explained first author Jordan Shafran, a PhD candidate in the department of molecular and translational medicine at BUSM.
CRPC is a complex, heterogenous disease, with varying AR states and expression patterns across individual tumor cells. As the disease progresses, prostate tumor cells can become less reliant on AR signaling and use alternative signaling mechanisms to sustain growth and dissemination. "Therefore, it is imperative to identify 'druggable' targets that regulate prostate cancer cell migration and invasion in cells that are either reliant on, or independent of, androgen receptor signaling," he added.
Noninvasive biomarker for Parkinson's disease possibly found in EEG data
A University of Oregon-led study finds the clue in a fresh analysis and comparison of unfiltered beta waves obtained from Parkinson's patients and healthy individuals
University of Oregon
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EUGENE, Ore. - May 20, 2019 - Specific angles and sharpness of brain waves seen in unfiltered raw data from scalp electroencephalogram s have been tied to Parkinson's disease.
Reporting in the online journal eNeuro, researchers suggest that noninvasive EEG readings may provide easily detectable electrophysiological biomarkers to aid the diagnosis and fine-tune therapeutic treatments for the disease and potentially other motor disorders.
"Using this safe and affordable way to measure and quantify brain activity, we were able to distinguish differences between Parkinson's patients who were on and off medications and in comparisons with healthy people," said the study's principal investigator Nicole Swann of the Department of Human Physiology at the University of Oregon.
The initial diagnosis of Parkinson's disease currently relies on a neurologist's assessment of patients performing a series of body-movement tasks. Such subjective testing, however, can lead to misdiagnosis.
"We don't know yet whether this approach will be better, but it could provide easily obtained brain measurements that would be helpful and possibly used in tandem with clinical observations and other EEG measurements," Swann said.
Previous efforts to detect Parkinson's disease in EEG brain waves have been inconsistent, she said, because the focus has been on measures which model brain signals as sine waves, which are beta waves filtered to round the waves and show the overall power of periodic oscillations. Novel methods like the one used here currently have only been shown to relate to Parkinson's disease with electrodes surgically implanted in patients' brains.
In the new analysis of scalp EEG data, previously collected at the University of California San Diego from 15 Parkinson's patients and 16 healthy control participants, Swann focused on the original unfiltered beta waves to look for specific angles and full shape of the oscillations. Co-author Scott Cole, a doctoral student at UC San Diego in 2017, had noticed that people with Parkinson's disease appear to have sharp brain waves, suggesting a new look was warranted.
"The raw signals go up and down like sine waves but with more asymmetry," Swann said. "The steepness - the slant - turns out to be important in Parkinson's patients. This was easily detectable in the patients who are off medication."
When the peak is sharper at the top of the wave than in the trough, or low part of the oscillation, it is indicative of patients who are off their medications, she said.
In a large follow-up study, Swann said she hopes to combine scalp EEG measurements with detailed medical histories and self-reports of how patients are feeling on each day of testing. Eventually, it is hoped the approach could help detect changes in the disease in individuals over time.
Current treatment involves surgery to permanently implant an electric stimulator or a pharmacological approach in which dosage titration is difficult and often results in frustrating cycling of effectiveness, said study co-author Bradley Voytek, a neuroscientist at UC San Diego, in whose lab Cole, who has since earned his doctorate, had worked.
"If there were real-time measures of how effective treatments are at reducing the negative symptoms of Parkinson's disease, treatments could be adjusted in real-time," Voytek said. "In the case of an invasive brain stimulator, this might mean only applying electric stimulation when it's needed. In the case of pharmacology, it would mean adjusting a drug's dose much like continuous glucose monitoring done by an implant can signal a pump to adjust insulin levels as needed."
Ideally, Swann said, if the approach proves to provide robust information, EEG testing could be remotely done by Parkinson's patients wearing a hat fitted with electrodes. Results could be sent to their neurologists and used to quickly and easily adjust treatments.
A challenge, Voytek said, is that real-time measures of brain activity are often noisy and can cloud the ability to capture the correct signals.
"A lot of the tools we have for measuring them take a lot of processing power, so they can't easily be applied in real-time," he said.
Noninvasive electrophysiological biomarker for Parkinson's disease
With additional validation, approach could be developed into wearable technology for patients to monitor disease-related brain activity at home
Society for Neuroscience
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IMAGE: Schematic summarizing waveform shape calculations. view more
Credit: Jackson et al., eNeuro (2019)
Novel measures of brain activity associated with Parkinson's disease (PD) can be detected with scalp electrodes, according to a new analysis published in eNeuro. Such a marker of PD -- detected using a noninvasive, affordable approach -- could improve management of the disease by doctors and patients, particularly in rural areas.
Measuring PD-related brain activity using these novel methods had previously only been demonstrated in patients who have had electrodes surgically implanted deep in their brain. Nicole Swann and colleagues at the University of Oregon and the University of California, San Diego report that similar information can be obtained by recording electrical activity from the surface of the head with electroencephalograp hy (EEG). By analyzing previously published EEG data from PD patients and healthy individuals, the researchers were able to distinguish between the two groups and within the PD group when patients were on or off their medication.
These results suggest the shape of beta oscillations is abnormal in PD and may be a promising electrophysiological indicator of disease state. Recording this signal with EEG is straightforward and, after additional validation, could potentially be developed into wearable technology for patients to monitor disease-related brain activity even in patient's own homes.
Protein that hinders advancement of prostate cancer identified
Boston University School of Medicine
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(Boston)--Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have discovered that blocking a specific protein, may be a promising strategy to prevent the spread of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC).
Under the direction of BUSM's Gerald V. Denis PhD, researchers have long studied a family of three closely related proteins, called BET bromodomain proteins, composed of BRD2, BRD3 and BRD4, which regulate gene expression. BUSM researchers were the first (in the 1990s) to show how these proteins function in human cancer.
These researchers now have discovered that inhibition of the protein BRD4, but not BRD2 or BRD3, consistently regulated prostate cancer cell migration and invasion.
CRPC is a highly aggressive form of prostate cancer that often leads to the development of lethal metastases. Standard of care treatment for patients with CRPC typically includes a means to disrupt androgen receptor (AR) signaling, and while effective for an average of two-three years, treatment inevitably fails to impede progression due to acquired resistance mechanisms to the AR.
"Our findings are significant because current therapeutic options for CRPC are limited and focus primarily on suppressing prostate tumor cells that rely on AR signaling," explained first author Jordan Shafran, a PhD candidate in the department of molecular and translational medicine at BUSM.
CRPC is a complex, heterogenous disease, with varying AR states and expression patterns across individual tumor cells. As the disease progresses, prostate tumor cells can become less reliant on AR signaling and use alternative signaling mechanisms to sustain growth and dissemination. "Therefore, it is imperative to identify 'druggable' targets that regulate prostate cancer cell migration and invasion in cells that are either reliant on, or independent of, androgen receptor signaling," he added.
Scientists succeed in testing potential brain-based method to diagnose autism
Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center
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IMAGE: Top left: In ASD kids, VMPFC (yellow) activates normally to single presentation of favorite objects Top right: In ASD kids, VMPFC (missing yellow) does not activate normally to single presentation of... view more
Credit: Wake Forest Baptist Health
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - May 20, 2019 - Scientists at Wake Forest School of Medicine have taken the first step in developing an objective, brain-based test to diagnose autism.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the team was able to measure the response of autistic children to different environmental cues by imaging a specific part of the brain involved in assigning value to social interactions.
Findings from the study are published in the current online edition of the journal Biological Psychology.
"Right now, a two- to four-hour session by a qualified clinician is required to diagnose autism, and ultimately it is a subjective assessment based on their experience," said the study's principal investigator, Kenneth Kishida, Ph.D., assistant professor of physiology and pharmacology at Wake Forest School of Medicine, part of Wake Forest Baptist Health.
"Our test would be a rapid, objective measurement of the brain to determine if the child responds normally to social stimulus versus non-social stimulus, in essence a biomarker for autism."
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder that affects communication and interaction with other people. The National Institutes of Health estimates that 1 in 60 children in the United States are autistic.
In the study, the team led by Kishida and P. Read Montague, Ph.D., of Virginia Tech, tested the responsiveness of the brain's ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) to visual cues that represented highly-valued social interaction in children diagnosed with ASD compared to typically developing (TD) children. The study included 40 participants ranging in age from 6 to18; 12 had ASD and 28 were TD.
First, the study participants were scanned in an fMRI while viewing eight images of either people or objects, each one multiple times. Included in each set of images were two self-selected pictures of a favorite person and object from each participant. The other six were standardized images of three faces and three objects, each representing pleasant, neutral or unpleasant aspects from a data base widely used in psychological experiments.
After completing the 12- to 15-minute MRI scan, the children viewed the same set of images on a computer screen and ranked them in order from pleasant to unpleasant with a self-assessing sliding scale. In addition, pairs of images were viewed and ranked as to which one they liked better.
According to the study, the average response of the vmPFC was significantly lower in the ASD group than in the TD group. Using images as a single stimulus to capture 30 seconds of fMRI data was sufficient to differentiate the ASD and TD groups, Kishida said.
"How the brain responded to these pictures is consistent with our hypothesis that the brains of children with autism do not encode the value of social exchange in the same way as typically developing children," he said.
"Based on our study, we envision a test for autism in which a child could simply get into a scanner, be shown a set of pictures and within 30 seconds have an objective measurement that indicates if their brain responds normally to social stimulus and non-social stimuli."
He added that this approach could also help scientists better understand the brain mechanisms involved in autism disorder as a whole as well as the many variations on the disorder's spectrum.
Kishida's team plans to do follow-up studies to identify which additional areas of the brain are involved in the different facets of the disorder to help personalize treatments for patients.
SLAS Discovery announces its June cover article, 'A Perspective on Extreme Open Science: Companies Sharing Compounds without Restriction'
SLAS (Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening)
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IMAGE: The June cover of SLAS Discovery features cover article 'A Perspective on Extreme Open Science: Companies Sharing Compounds without Restriction,' by Timothy M. Willson, Ph.D. view more
Credit: David James Group
Oak Brook, IL - The June cover of SLAS Discovery features cover article "A Perspective on Extreme Open Science: Companies Sharing Compounds without Restriction," by Timothy M. Willson, Ph.D., a noted University of North Carolina Eshelman School of Pharmacy (Chapel Hill, NC, USA) Research Professor and Chief Scientific Officer for the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) (Oxford, UK).
The article focuses on how the validation of new targets for drug discovery remains a considerable hurdle to the exploration of new and innovative medicines. For instance, although the human genome sequence was published over 15 years ago, the biological role of most of the proteins it encodes is still not known or even studied. Dr. Willson and his team outline their experience with the open sharing of small molecule kinase inhibitors as a disruptive approach to explore the biology of some of these "dark proteins." Therefore, by leveraging the pooled knowledge of the scientific community, several dark kinases have emerged as potential drug targets.
Furthermore, the principles of open science often present challenges for pharmaceutical and other for-profit companies due to their conventional research and intellectual property practices, especially when small molecules are involved. Working within GlaxoSmithKline, Dr. Willson and his colleagues overcame these obstacles by creating a chemogenomic set of published kinase inhibitors in which they gained support for the open sharing of the compounds. Their critical argument was that the public data generated by use of the inhibitors would "bake a bigger pie" of knowledge from which the company could initiate internal drug discovery projects.
"GlaxoSmithKline was a pioneer in the unrestricted sharing of kinase inhibitors to support basic research," says Dr. Willson. "Now we are seeing many more pharmaceutical companies making small molecule tools openly available to the research community through our SGC laboratories."
Access to June's SLAS Discovery special issue is available at https://journals.sagepub. com/toc/jbxb/24/5 through June 20. For more information about SLAS and its journals, visit http://www.slas.org/journals.
Zebrafish help researchers explore alternatives to bone marrow donation
UC San Diego researchers discover new role for epidermal growth factor receptor in blood stem cell development, a crucial key to being able to generate them in the laboratory
University of California - San Diego
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Credit: UC San Diego Health
Blood diseases such as leukemia and lymphoma are currently treated with bone marrow transplants -- a transfer of blood stem cells from a healthy person to a patient in need. But the demand for patient-matched blood stem cells far exceeds their availability, and many patients go without. To bypass the need for donations, University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers are using zebrafish and human cells to determine how to grow blood stem cells in a laboratory dish.
Whether it's humans or zebrafish, a major player driving embryonic and blood cell development is the Wnt family of molecules. These molecules tell cells what to do by docking on Frizzled receptors, which sit on cell surfaces like antennae.
In their latest study, published May 20, 2019 by Nature Cell Biology, the team was surprised to discover that when one particular Wnt signaling molecule, Wnt9a, is received by blood stem cells, three different molecules are involved. Scientist had previously thought there were only two.
That third -- and, it turns out, crucial -- factor is the epidermal growth factor receptor, or EGFR. This finding may help advance the development of blood stem cells in the laboratory.
"Previous attempts to develop blood stem cells in a laboratory dish have failed, and that may be in part because they didn't take the interaction between EGFR and Wnt into account," said first author Stephanie Grainger, PhD, assistant project scientist at UC San Diego School of Medicine.
Researchers commonly use zebrafish -- a pet shop staple -- to study how blood stem cells develop in a normal organism. Zebrafish are an ideal model for this because they use the same mechanisms to make blood stem cells that humans do, but they are translucent as they develop. That means researchers can watch their blood stem cells arise in real time, and test how genetic modifications affect them.
According to the study, blood stem cell development works like this: The Wnt9a molecule touches down on a Frizzled receptor on the outer surface of a blood stem cell (Fzd9b, to be exact). At the same time, Wnt9a also brings EGFR into the mix from the outside of the cell, bringing Fzd9b and EGFR closer together. Then, inside the cell, EGFR tags Fzd9b's inner tail with a chemical, a phosphate group. This last step triggers a cascade of cellular events necessary to turn a stem cell into a blood cell.
The researchers said identifying EGFR in this context was also exciting because many cancer therapies work by targeting this receptor.
"Our findings raise the possibility that such treatments will impact Wnt signaling," said Karl Willert, PhD, associate professor at UC San Diego School of Medicine and faculty member in the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine. "We currently don't know how EGFR inhibitors will impact the biology of blood stem cells, and future studies will certainly have to take these interactions into account." Willert was co-senior author of the study with David Traver, PhD, professor at UC San Diego School of Medicine and Division of Biological Sciences.
Now that the team has determined how blood stem cells receive this Wnt signal at the cell surface, they will focus on unraveling how the cells relay and process the signal. Then they can start thinking about ways to trick the cells into thinking they have received this cue, even if they have not. That technique would better enable researchers to generate human blood stem cells in the laboratory -- and perhaps one day use off-the-shelf blood stem cells, instead of bone marrow transplants, to treat patients with blood diseases.
Cancer cells often hijack these same developmental pathways to grow and form tumors. Grainger said learning how cells communicate with each other through Wnt, Frizzled and EGFR might provide a new approach to treating malignancies where these signals are out of control.
"This is a great example of how working in one area of biology can have a huge impact on a seemingly unrelated process," said Willert, who is also director of the Human Embryonic Stem Cell Core Facility at UC San Diego School of Medicine. "In this case, we were studying Wnt's role in blood development and we landed smack in the middle of the EGFR-cancer field."
Pinterest homemade sunscreens: A recipe for sunburn
Researchers urge parents to use commercially sold and regulated sunscreen products
Nationwide Children's Hospital
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Social media and other online tools have changed the way people seek and share health information. Recent consumer interest in natural, organic, and ethically-made personal care products has led to an increase of shared recipes for homemade products including sunscreen. A new study conducted by researchers at the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital and the Brooks College of Health at University of North Florida examined how homemade sunscreens were portrayed on Pinterest.
The study, published today in Health Communication, found that nearly all (95%) pins, or bookmarks, for homemade sunscreen positively portrayed the effectiveness of homemade sunscreens and most (68%) recommended recipes for homemade sunscreens that offered insufficient UV radiation protection. Sun Protection Factor (SPF) claims were made in a third of pins with a range of SPF 2 to SPF 50. This is concerning because the ingredients recommended in homemade sunscreen pins offer minimal scientifically proven broad-spectrum protection from UV radiation yet are widely shared and promoted as safe alternatives to commercial sunscreens on Pinterest. The average number of saves for a pin was 808, with one pin being saved more than 21,700 times.
"The internet is a great place for families to go to for recipe inspiration and arts and crafts projects, but not necessarily for making their own safety-related things," said Lara McKenzie, PhD, co-author of this study and principal investigator in the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's. "Homemade sunscreen products are risky because they are not regulated or tested for efficacy like commercial sunscreens. When you make it yourself, you don't know if it's safe or effective." With rising skin cancer rates, the use of effective broadband sunscreen is critical to protect the skin from UV radiation and reduce incidence of skin cancer.
Just because you make it yourself or something is labeled as natural or has fewer ingredients doesn't necessarily mean it's safer. The best sunscreen is one that can be regularly applied and stay on the skin without causing irritation or other side effects, which usually depend on the child and the activity. It often takes a trial of several sunscreens before finding the one that does the job best for your family, even if that means everyone uses a different type of product. Here are some tips on how to protect your child's skin:
•Use an FDA-approved sunscreen. The American Academy of Dermatology recommends that everyone 6 months and older wear sunscreen. Make sure the sunscreen has these characteristics: ◦Broad spectrum, which protects against UVA and UVB sunrays.
◦Water-resistant (effective for up to 40 minutes in water) or very water resistant (effective for up to 80 minutes in water).
◦Sun Protection Factor (SPF) of 30 or higher.
•Start early. Children whose parents regularly apply sunscreen at an early age are more likely to continue using sunscreen as teenagers and adults. Make a habit of using sunscreen to set kids up for a lifetime of safely enjoying outdoor activities.
•Apply early and often. Sunscreen should be applied in a thick layer (about ¼ teaspoon for a toddler's face), 30 minutes before heading outside and reapplied every 2 hours. If children are swimming or sweating a lot, reapply sunscreen more often and use a water-resistant formula. For a week-long beach vacation, a school-aged child should go through an entire 8 oz. bottle of sunscreen, applying it twice a day.
•Throw out expired or old sunscreen. Look for an expiration date on the bottle and throw out expired sunscreen. If there is no expiration date, throw out sunscreen three years after opening. If your sunscreen looks or feels really different - it's much thicker or thinner or the color has changed - throw it out.
SABER tech gives DNA and RNA visualization a boost
New DNA-nanotechnology-based method enhances nucleic acid analysis in cells and tissues, enabling parallel detection of many targets with high sensitivity and tunability and at low costs
Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard
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IMAGE: In this image, the use of SABER-FISH enabled the visualization of the retina's organization into distinct layers with the light-sensing photoreceptor layer positioned at the top of the image. Each... view more
Credit: HMS Genetics Department and Blavatnik Institute, and HHMI
(BOSTON) -- Researchers have been using "Fluorescence in situ hybridization" (FISH) analysis for decades to literally fish for specific DNA and RNA sequences in intact cells and tissues within their vast seas of nucleic acid molecules. Because of its ability to light specific sequences up under the microscope at the exact locations at which they reside, FISH has come to be a go-to method in the diagnosis of chromosomal abnormalities, investigation of the 3D organization of genomes in cells' nuclei, analysis of the immediate products of gene expression known as messenger RNAs and more.
However, it remains challenging to pick up sequences with FISH that are rare, especially in thick tissues that emit unspecific background fluorescence, and to detect many targets at the same time in multiplexed analysis. Several methods have been developed that can amplify weaker FISH signals but these cannot be easily customized, are unable to simultaneously visualize a large number of DNA or RNA target molecules, and they are expensive and difficult to use.
A collaborative research team from Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and Harvard Medical School (HMS) has now developed "Signal Amplification by Exchange Reaction" (SABER), a highly programmable and practical method that significantly enhances the sensitivity as well as customization and multiplexing capabilities of FISH analysis. The team demonstrated SABER to amplify FISH signals at distinct RNA and DNA targets in the different layers of the mouse retina, and visualize up to 17 different target regions on the human X chromosome simultaneously. In addition, they used SABER as an effective tool to identify a genomic element that controls the transcription of a specific gene expressed in a particular type of retinal neuron. Their study is published in Nature Methods.
"With SABER-amplified FISH analysis and its sensitivity, multiplexing potential, practicality and cost-efficiency, we created a way to overcome key limitations of existing methods and provide researchers with a more powerful handle on a broad spectrum of analyses, ranging from fundamental research, to biomarker discovery and the development of therapeutics," said Wyss Institute Core faculty member Peng Yin, Ph.D., who corresponded the study together with Constance Cepko, Ph.D., the Bullard Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS, and Brian Beliveau, Ph.D., a former Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow in Yin's group and now Assistant Professor at the University of Washington's Department of Genome Sciences in Seattle.
Yin also is co-leader of the Wyss Institute's Molecular Robotics Initiative, and Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School; and Cepko also is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.
In SABER, the researchers first programmed the "Primer Exchange Reaction" (PER) method previously reported by Yin's group to synthesize a longer concatemer of identical shorter sequences with the help of a catalytic self-folding DNA hairpin structure. This engineered mechanism shares similarity with the naturally occurring enzymatic mechanism that extends "telomeres" at the ends of chromosomes with identical DNA repeats to protect them from degradation but can be executed in a test tube.
The PER-generated concatemers are then hybridized via short complementary handle sequences to their target DNA or RNA sequences in fixed cells and tissues where they provide a scaffold with multiple binding sites for short fluorescent oligonucleotides ('imagers') added next. "In contrast to conventional FISH analysis, SABER allows us to not only bind one but many fluorescent dye molecules to a single nucleic acid target, which can considerably boost the strength of the signal coming from its location inside the cell, and we can even further amplify it by creating branched structures in extra hybridization steps, with additional concatemers grown from internal branch points of already existing concatemers," said Jocelyn Kishi, Ph.D., a co-first author on the study and Postdoctoral Fellow working with Yin who developed SABER with Beliveau. "This opens a wealth of new opportunities."
"SABER enables us to tune the signal strength to the abundance and localizations of specific RNA and DNA targets in FISH analysis, and, because concatemers for multiple targets can be synthesized in bulk ahead of time, SABER provides us with standardized probe sets that can be easily generated and re-used in different studies," said Beliveau. "In addition, by repeatedly washing imagers complementary to one set of targets out of a sample and substituting them for imagers that bind to other targets in a process we call DNA-Exchange, we were able to further multiplex our approach."
The spectral features of distinguishable fluorescent dyes allow researchers to only analyze up to four targets at the same time by conventional fluorescence microscopy. With DNA-Exchange, a set of imagers can be washed out of a sample and replaced by a different one binding to PER-generated concatemers at different target sites, and the process can be repeated multiple times. Using the multiplexing potential of 'Exchange-SABER', the team visualized 17 distinct regions of the human X chromosome in one fell swoop using the same type of microscopic equipment.
Applying SABER to thick tissues, Constance Cepko's group at HMS demonstrated the performance and utility of the method in the retina, which is organized into layers with a high diversity of neural cell types. "We previously applied single-cell sequencing to dissociated retinal tissue, but were unable to use the resulting markers to identify many cell types simultaneously in intact tissue," said co-first author Sylvain Lapan, Ph.D., a Postdoctoral Fellow in Cepko's group. "By providing multiplexed detection of marker transcripts, SABER is allowing us to close this loop and add a spatial dimension to our analyses."
Key to their analysis was a method developed for the study by co-first author Emma West that, based on cell surface fluorescence stainings, can computationally map all cells contained in a cross-section of the retina to specific positions. This enabled the team to assign individual signals obtained by SABER-enhanced FISH analysis to exact 3D spaces occupied by cells. "By modeling cellular coordinates and transcript positions, we can create a digital representation of our tissue that is quantitative at the single cell level. This is not only useful for identifying cell types, but also for analyzing phenotypes and the activity of introduced genetic elements," said co-first author Emma West, who is a Graduate Student in Cepko's group.
In addition, the team used SABER-FISH as an effective tool to identify genomic elements known as enhancers that drive gene expression in specific retinal cell types. "We introduced recombinant DNA constructs into the retina in which those elements were individually coupled to a reporter, and by performing SABER-FISH analysis to quantify the copy numbers of constructs in single cells, as well as the expression of the reporter, we were able to correlate activity of one specific enhancer with cell type-specific expression," said Lapan.
"The sensitivity and simpler, cheaper workflow of SABER-FISH allow us to gather much more information from experiments in which we manipulate the retina in order to understand the regulatory networks that govern its development, and to assess the efficacy of our gene therapy approaches to eye diseases," said Cepko. "Importantly, this approach has the potential to similarly enhance research in many other tissue types and organs."
Study reveals a structural timeline of cellular signaling events
Case Western Reserve University
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Over one-third of all FDA-approved drugs act on a specific family of proteins: G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). Drugs to treat high blood pressure, asthma, cancer, diabetes and myriad other conditions target GPCRs throughout the body--but a recent study shows what happens next. In results published in Cell, researchers outline the timeline of events, including precisely when and how different parts of a GPCR interacts with its G protein signaling partners. The findings provide new insights into the fundamental mechanisms of drug-induced signaling in cells, including ways to identify the most critical portions of GPCRs for targeting development of novel therapeutics.
"We're able to see--from millisecond to minutes timescales--the detailed sequence of events where a GPCR encounters its downstream signaling partner and catalyzes a change in its structure, providing the basis for understanding its signaling," said corresponding author David Lodowski, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. "The most exciting part is that we can follow the signaling in a time-resolved manner. We first rapidly mix the activated GPCR and its G-protein signaling partner, and then capture time-resolved details along the natural signaling pathway."
The researchers observed the formation of the GPCR signaling complex using a powerful technique called "radiolytic footprinting" that couples chemical labeling of proteins with mass analysis. In this technique, high intensity X-rays are used to generate highly reactive chemical labels from the water surrounding proteins, enabling a "snapshot" of the protein's regions of interest. This x-ray footprinting technique was pioneered by Mark Chance, PhD, vice dean for research at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and a coauthor on the manuscript.
"Our footprinting approach efficiently labels the outside of proteins," Lodowski explained. "If a protein in isolation is labeled on one side, and then in complex is no longer labeled there, we know that's most likely the interaction surface." This approach helped the researchers understand how a GPCR uses its different parts of its surface to engage with the G protein.
Previous studies have shown what GPCRs look like at rest (before activation) and long after they've formed complexes with other proteins (and signaling is over). The in-between steps have been more elusive. Said Lodowski, "We are now moving into the fourth dimension--the temporal dimension--of how these complexes form."
Activated GPCRs form a complex with particular G proteins inside cells that control cell functions. The process transfers information (e.g. the signal) from the GPCR to the signaling partner. The study reveals specifics in this process, called the "G protein cycle." In milliseconds to seconds, GPCRs identify a signal (such as a hormone or drug), reconfigure themselves, recruit specific G proteins inside cells, and activate cellular signaling cascades.
The new analysis technique can identify when a certain portion of a GPCR--individual amino acids, for example--locks in with target amino acids inside a G protein. It thus reveals precise amino acids most central to GPCR function. If applied to GPCRs known to cause disease, such a detailed analysis could potentially uncover new sites for precision drug targeting. "We can use the same techniques to identify precise regions on GPCRs to target therapeutically," Lodowski explained. "If we know site A gets touched before site B in the cycle, then we can design better, more effective drugs."
GPCRs are not easy subjects to study. They are embedded in cell membranes, a natural location that facilitates their ability to transmit information from outside to inside the cell. However, this location complicates their isolation, purification and analysis. Due to these difficulties, structures of GPCRs and their complexes have been exceedingly difficult to solve, with the first structure of a GPCR only determined in 2000. Extensive GPCR structure determination efforts over the past 20 years have enabled the structure determination of a number of GPCRs, including the first GPCR-G protein complex structure in 2012, which earned Brian Kobilka, MD, of Stanford University the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Kobilka was also a corresponding author on the new Cell publication.
"This work would not have been possible without our world-class team of investigators including collaborators at Stanford, Sungkyunkwan University in Korea, the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, and the scientists and engineers at the Case Center for Synchrotron Biosciences at Brookhaven National Laboratory," Chance said. The Case Center for Synchrotron Biosciences, located at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) at Brookhaven laboratory, operates the custom footprinting beamline (BM-17) the researchers used in the new study.
Going forward, the researchers plan to use the beamline at NSLS-II to further analyze activation of GPCRs and their complexes. They'll combine their findings with existing GPCR structural data to better understand how GPCRs work. The results could lead to better beta-blockers, chemotherapy drugs, even drugs to treat vision or cognitive deficits.
"GPCRs are critical targets for a variety of new drugs," Lodowski said. "We've had some ideas of how GPCRs and their signaling complexes come together, but not the sequence of events with molecular detail. It's exciting that this novel time resolved approach allows us to extract more meaning from these structures."
Baylor Scott & White gastroenterology researchers share key takeaways from DDW 2019
Phone or in-person interviews at or after Digestive Disease Week available upon request
Baylor Scott & White Research Institute
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Researchers from Baylor Scott & White Research Institute's Center for Esophageal Research will play key roles at this year's Digestive Disease Week. Baylor Scott & White is known for the unique multidisciplinary team approach applied to bench and clinical research, as well as the clinical care provided at the largest not-for-profit healthcare system in Texas.
The following researchers are available to discuss how this unique program model is making an impact in the field of gastroenterology, including their ground-breaking research on Barrett's Esophagus and Eosinophilic Esophagitis. They will also be available to weigh in on key topics and trends coming out of Digestive Disease Week 2019.
• Rhonda Souza, MD, AGAF - Co-Director, Center for Esophageal Research and Chair, AGA Institute Council
• Stuart J. Spechler, MD, AGAF, FACG - Co-Director, Center for Esophageal Research and 2019 Esophageal, Gastric & Duodenal Disorders Research Mentor Award Recipient
• Vani Konda, MD - Clinical Director, Center for Esophageal Diseases
Baylor Scott & White is committed to diagnosing and treating digestive disease conditions and working across the continuum of care to provide rehabilitation and other lifestyle adjustments to patients.
Through advanced diagnostic technology, education and support programs, and research and clinical trials conducted through Baylor Scott & White Research Institute, Baylor Scott & White offers a unique and comprehensive program for a variety of digestive diseases. The Center for Esophageal Research is devoted to conducting innovative, translational research in a multidisciplinary setting in order to advance understanding of esophageal diseases and to improve the treatment of patients with those diseases.
People with benign skin condition willing to trade time, money to cure disorder
New study highlights the substantial effect that condition has on quality of life
Boston University School of Medicine
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(Boston)--People with benign hyperpigmentation (the darkening or increase in the natural color of the skin), are willing to pay (WTP) nearly 14 percent of their monthly income and approximately 90 minutes a day to cure their condition.
The study involved 85 adults with skin hyperpigmentation who were surveyed on the number of hours per day they would be willing to give up as well as how much money they were willing to spend to potentially be cured of a condition.
"Our findings highlight the substantial effect that benign hyperpigmentation has on quality of life as measured by the amount of time and money patients are willing to give up to rid themselves of disease," explained corresponding author Neelam Vashi, MD, assistant professor of dermatology at Boston University School of Medicine and director of the Boston University Cosmetic and Laser Center at Boston Medical Center.
Hyperpigmentation disorders comprise a large group of benign skin conditions and their prevalence may vary with race and ethnicity. Despite often being considered a cosmetic condition, Vashi has shown in her previous research that this common clinical complaint has been shown to negatively impact quality of life and psychosocial well-being of patients, especially when facial skin is involved.
According to the researchers these findings suggest that disease burden was overall severe in patients with hyperpigmentation disorders, and measuring WTP and TTO may be useful in determining the daily impact of disease and treatment preferences. "We found that the WTP for a curative treatment was greater than that previously observed among patients with other skin diseases such as rosacea and vitiligo. This may suggest that hyperpigmentation disorders have a greater impact on daily life or that patients expect to pay more out of pocket for conditions that are often considered cosmetic."
The researchers point out that although the study is limited by sample size and design, the information collected on WTP preferences allow physicians to gauge the impact of hyperpigmentation disorders on patients' lives and may be useful to guide therapeutic decisions.
Shedding light on cancer metabolism in real-time with bioluminescence
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
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IMAGE: EPFL chemist Elena Goun of the Laboratory of Bioorganic Chemistry and Molecular Imaging. view more
Credit: EPFL
EPFL scientists have invented a new way to quantify - in real-time - glucose metabolism of cancerous tumors by making them bioluminesce. This new light probe is not radioactive and works on living organisms such as mice that carry the tumor cells. The technique requires tagged tumor cells, two jabs and a camera. The results are published in Nature Methods.
Take a mouse with a tumor tagged with luciferase. Luciferase-expressing tumors are made by taking a sample of the cancerous tumor from a patient, and chemically labeling them with luciferase, a class of oxidative enzymes that produce bioluminescence. These labeled cells are grown in mice to understand the basic biology of the cancer and for the development of effective cancer treatments.
Next, inject a first compound in the mouse that doesn't easily break down in the blood. Twenty-four hours later, inject a second compound that is designed to react only with the first under very specific conditions.
The reaction between the two compounds is engineered to produce bioluminescent light which escapes the body, like in fireflies, but happens where luciferase-expressing tumors have metabolized sugar. Point a CCD camera sensor at the body and you have a snapshot of the tumor's metabolic levels. The amount of light produced is directly proportional to the amount of metabolized sugar.
"We wanted to develop a tool to help create more effective cancer treatments," explains EPFL chemist Elena Goun of Laboratory of Bioorganic Chemistry and Molecular Imaging who led the study. "Our new imaging technique allows us to quantify how much sugar is being metabolized in real-time, providing valuable information about the metabolic status of the tumor and the types of drugs that could deprive the tumor of its major energy source."
How it works: from fireflies to cancer imaging
Goun and her team found inspiration from the way fireflies glow and combined it with click-chemistry, a branch of chemical biology in which biocompatible molecules are designed to specifically "click" together in a tailored reaction that happens directly in the complex environment of the living organism.
Since cancer has a high metabolic rate, it consumes sugar in large amounts. This process is important for cancer growth and metastasis but remains poorly understood due to the lack of non-invasive tools that work at the level of the entire organism.
Goun's idea was to engineer two click-molecules, one with sugar and the other with the "caged" luciferin, the light-emitting compound found in fireflies that make them glow. And it works.
Once the click-labeled sugar is eaten by the tumor, it reacts with this "caged" luciferin via the "click" reaction and produces bioluminescent light proportional to the amount of sugar entering the cells. She termed her firefly imaging technique BiGluc, short for "Bioluminescent glucose".
BiGluc could be used to understand the metabolic requirements of different tumors, opening avenues for the generation of novel, effective treatments.
BiGluc in preclinical imaging of cancer metabolism and drug development
"Our novel optical imaging technique has high clinical applicability and many advantages," says Goun. "It is non-radioactive, highly sensitive and quantifiable, the reagents are stable for years, and the glow can be observed for many hours."
Due to its versatile nature, BiGluc could also be extended beyond cancer to image dysfunctional cells of many other important human pathologies in which changes in metabolism play a key role, such as diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, and many others.
"What's exciting about these results is that we have created the foundation for the development of an ultra-sensitive imaging platform for quantifying the uptake of many important metabolites that play a central role in multiple human diseases with the goal of creating more effective treatments," says Goun.
Infant deaths highlight danger of misusing car seats, other sitting devices
Researchers: Car seats are essential for safety but must be used as directed
University of Virginia Health System
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IMAGE: Rachel Moon, MD, is a pediatrician at the University of Virginia Children's Hospital. She was part of a research team that reviewed infant deaths that occurred while the children were... view more
Credit: UVA Health System
Car safety seats are vital to protect children while traveling, but a new infant death study underlines the need to follow the seats' instructions and to use them only for their intended purpose.
In a review of infant deaths that occurred while children were sleeping in sitting devices, researchers determined than more than 60% of the deaths were in car seats. The car seats were used as directed in less than 10% of those cases.
"While car seats are important when you're traveling with an infant, it's best not to have the infant sleep in the car seat when you're at home," said researcher Rachel Moon, MD, a pediatrician at the University of Virginia Children's Hospital. "The safest place for a baby to sleep is on a firm, flat surface."
Sleep-Related Infant Deaths in Sitting Devices
Moon and colleagues set out to shed light on a poorly documented category of infant deaths: deaths while sleeping in sitting devices, such as car seats and strollers. The American Academy of Pediatrics discourages allowing children to routinely sleep in such devices.
Of almost 12,000 infant sleep-related deaths reported between 2004 and 2014, approximately 3% - 348 deaths - occurred in sitting devices, the researchers found. Car seats were the site of 62.9% of these deaths, but in the "great majority" of cases, the infant was not traveling in a car, the researchers report. Out of the total deaths in a sitting device, only .2% occurred in a vehicle that was in motion or temporarily parked. More than half of car seat deaths occurred at the child's home.
While the researchers did not establish why the infants were in car seats when not traveling, they note that some parents may not be able to afford a crib or bassinet, or people may use the seats to hold the child while doing other tasks.
After car seats, the most common site for sleep-related infant deaths while sitting were bouncers, swings and similar devices (122 deaths, 35.1%). Strollers were the site of only 2% of deaths (seven of the 348).
Overall, nearly two-thirds of the deaths in sitting devices occurred while the devices were not being used for their intended purpose and in compliance with their instructions, the researchers report.
The researchers emphasize that their findings in no way call into question the safety of car seats when used as directed. Car seats are a "safe and effective way of transporting an infant and should always be used when transporting an infant in a motor vehicle, whether the infant is awake or asleep," the researchers
Progress to restore movement in people with neuromotor disabilities
A study published in the journal Neural Computation involving Núria Armengol, a biomedical engineer at UPF, further to her bachelor's degree final project which she conducted at Duke University (Durham, USA)
Universitat Pompeu Fabra - Barcelona
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IMAGE: LSTM-based approaches could provide a better algorithm strategy for neuroprostheses. view more
Credit: UPF
A study published in the advanced edition of 12 April in the journal Neural Computation shows that approaches based on Long Short-Term Memory decoders could provide better algorithms for neuroprostheses that employ Brain-Machine Interfaces to restore movement in patients with severe neuromotor disabilities.
This investigation was carried out by researchers of Duke University (USA) and has involved Núria Armengol, an alumna of the bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering at UPF who initiated this research topic for her end-of-degree project under the supervision of Ruben Moreno Bote, a researcher at the Center for Brain and Cognition (CBC) of the Department of Information and Communication Technologies (DTIC) at UPF, which she developed at Duke University (Durham, USA). Currently, Armengol is pursuing a master's degree at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH, Switzerland).
Although over the years many real-time neural decoding algorithms have been proposed for brain-machine interface (BMI) applications, recent advances in deep learning algorithms have improved the design of brain activity decoders involving recurrent artificial neural networks capable of decoding the activity of all neurons in real time.
As Núria Armengol explains, "for this study, we developed an LSTM decoder to extract the kinematics of the movement of the activity of large populations of neurons (N = 134-402), sampled simultaneously from multiple cortical areas of micus rhesus while they performed motor tasks".
The brain regions studied include primary motor areas and primary somatosensory cortical areas. The LSTM's capacity to retain information for extended periods of time enabled accurate decoding for tasks that required both movements and periods of immobility.
"Our LSTM algorithm significantly outperformed the Kalman filter (an analytical method that enables estimating unobservable state variables from observable variables) while the monkeys were performing different tasks on a treadmill (raising an arm, raising both arms or walking)", Armengol adds.
Notably, LSTM units exhibited a variety of well-known physiological features of cortical neuronal activity, such as directional tuning and neuronal dynamics during tasks. LSTM modelled several key physiological attributes of the cortical circuits involved in motor tasks. These discoveries suggest that LSTM-based approaches could provide a better algorithm strategy for neuroprostheses that employ Brain-Machine Interfaces to restore movement in patients with severe neuromotor disabilities.
Sex sells: how masculinity is used as currency to buy sperm donors' time
UK and Australian sperm banks use masculine archetypes to attract donors
City University London
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Sperm banks in the United Kingdom and Australia use images and phrases associated with masculinity to attract donors because laws prohibit them from paying for sperm.
Research co-authored by Cass Business School academic Dr Laetitia Mimoun has analysed marketing strategies used by sperm banks in the United Kingdom and Australia and found they rely on masculine archetypes to create value for a commodity they cannot legally buy.
Globally, the sperm donation industry is valued at more than 3.5 billion US Dollars; greater acceptance of same-sex relationships and increased demand for fertility treatments are expected to drive further industry growth in coming years.
Sperm banks in the UK and Australia are disadvantaged within this industry as they are unable to pay donors or provide them with anonymity, they are subject to limitations on the number of donations any one male can provide and the import and export of sperm is highly regulated.
These constraints have contributed to sperm shortages in both countries, particularly after the UK ended donor anonymity in 2005, resulting in the closure of the national sperm bank.
To overcome regulatory constraints and increase donor numbers sperm banks in the UK and Australia began to market the act of donating sperm as a confirmation of masculinity.
"This is to say that if you give your sperm you are a real man and you are better than all the other men who cannot do so for whatever reason," said Dr Laetitia Mimoun, the study's lead author.
Dr Mimoun said this strategy relied on two archetypes of masculinity -- the 'soldier' serving their country and the 'everyday hero' saving a damsel in distress.
The soldier archetype uses images and phrases associated with duty, honour and heroism to affirm masculinity; a donor is willing to sacrifice himself and his time without reward.
Examples of the soldier archetype are found in a recreation of the famous Lord Kitchener propaganda poster used to recruit soldiers to the British Expeditionary Force in 1914 and in a campaign that described sperm shortages as 'the real banking crisis'.
The everyday hero archetype uses images of life-saving professions such as firefighters and life guards, linking the ability to create a life with being able to save one.
The researchers found that campaigns employing the everyday hero archetype sometimes use hypersexualised or romanticised images of men to intensify their appeal.
Examples of this are found in campaign posters showing athletically built men in swimming trunks or underpants but also in videos depicting men cooking barbecues or handing out roses to women.
Dr Mimoun said the use of these marketing strategies had significant impacts on the sperm donation industries in both the UK and Australia.
"This has helped the industry in the UK and Australia to resolve their donor shortages to a great extent," Dr Mimoun said.
"It's very interesting that sperm banks are able to procure sperm for free as long as they sell it as a way to affirm the masculinity of donors, especially in today's context when the notion of masculinity is constantly challenged."
Young children willing to punish misbehavior, even at personal cost, new research shows
New York University
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VIDEO: Children as young as three years old are willing to punish others' bad behavior, even at personal cost, finds a new study by psychology researchers. view more
Credit: Video courtesy of Alex Paris
Children as young as three years old are willing to punish others' bad behavior, even at personal cost, finds a new study by psychology researchers at New York University. The work adds to growing evidence that human beings distinguish between right and wrong at a very young age and are willing to pay a personal cost to encourage positive behavior in others.
"Morality is about more than just doing good oneself--it is also about encouraging good behavior in others," says lead author Daniel Yudkin, a postdoctoral researcher at Yale University and an NYU doctoral student at the time of the study, which appears in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. "These results highlight a distinctly human aspect of moral behavior."
The scientists, who included NYU psychology professors Marjorie Rhodes and Jay Van Bavel, sought to better understand a uniquely human trait: our willingness to punish, at personal cost, "bad actors" who haven't harmed us directly.
"This behavior, known as 'costly third-party punishment,' is interesting because it is believed to underlie people's conception of justice," Yudkin explains. "Specifically, it relates to justice because it involves people making sure others are acting fairly, even if their behavior doesn't impact them."
The researchers focused on young children to better understand this behavior for the following reason: seeing how we think about punishment early in life can help shed light on the underlying psychological processes driving this behavior.
Yudkin and his colleagues deployed a naturalistic experiment--one aimed at capturing the reality of children's everyday lives. In it, more than 200 children, aged three to six, were recruited from the Children's Museum of Manhattan and brought one at a time into a classroom with a large red slide in the corner. The children were given the chance to try out the slide and all of them reported enjoying doing so. Next, they were shown a video of a little girl ("Stacey") tearing up someone else's drawing, then were told that Stacey planned to come back into the room later in the day to play on the slide.
The children were then given a sign--one side of which said "Open" and the other "Closed." They were told that if they put the "Open" sign on the slide, then they could go down the slide and Stacey could, too. If they put the "Closed" sign on, then they could stop Stacey from going down, but then they couldn't go down, either. In other words, punishing Stacey came at a cost to themselves, too--they would be denied the chance to do something they previously said they enjoyed (all children confirmed their understanding of the significance of their choice to the researchers).
Surprisingly, about half the children across all age groups--including some as young as three years old--enacted costly punishment. Rates of punishment increased with age: children aged five and six punished at about three times the rate of those aged three and four.
In a follow-up experiment, the researchers wanted to test what makes children more or less likely to punish. To do this, they randomly assigned participants to different conditions. Under one, some learned that Stacey was a member of the Children's Museum or while others learned she was a member of the Boston Museum (thereby manipulating Stacey's "group membership"). In another, some children wore a sheriff's badge while others did not (thereby manipulating punishers' sense of "authority"). They then examined whether rates of punishment differed according to which condition participants had been assigned.
The results showed that group membership and authority did in fact affect children's likelihood of punishment, but in an unexpected way. Typically, social science experiments show that people treat out-group members more harshly than in-group members. Thus, participants might be expected to punish Stacey more when they believed she was a member of the Boston museum rather than as a member of the Children's Museum, since the former would designate Stacey's membership to an out-group. And indeed, among the youngest children, this is exactly what happened: children were more than twice as likely to punish Stacey in the former than the latter condition.
However, this finding occurred only when the children were not wearing a sheriff's badge. When they were wearing the badge, they demonstrated precisely the opposite pattern, punishing Stacey more when she was a member of the Children's Museum than when she was a member of the Boston Museum. The researchers termed this effect "in-group policing" and concluded the following: people become more committed to ensuring that members of their own communities are behaving well when they feel a sense of responsibility.
More generally, the researchers note that we frequently encounter examples of those who perform third-party punishment--from those who risk arrest at a protest over a matter that doesn't directly affect them to others who stand up to protect a stranger being harassed on the subway.
What's behind the acquisition of this tendency is unclear. One possibility is reputational: that people do it merely to look good to others. Another possibility is that it is innate: that people are intrinsically willing to uphold moral rules.
"By showing that even some children as young three years of age do enact costly punishment, we provide evidence that reputation isn't the only thing driving this behavior," notes Yudkin, who adds that past research suggests that children at this age don't take into account their reputations when making decisions that affect themselves or others.
"Of course, we cannot tell for sure whether this behavior is innate or learned in the first few years of life," he concludes. "But it does add to growing evidence that, at a very young age, humans are predisposed to do good themselves and encourage good behavior in others."
Estonian scientists took a big step forward in studying a widespread gynecological disease
Estonian Research Council
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Endometriosis is a women's disease that affects 10-15% of all reproductive-aged women. Although no cure has been found for the disease, researchers seek to find out why some women develop endometriosis and which may be its effective treatment. Researchers from Tartu have completed a study that helps to get closer to explaining the causes of endometriosis.
Endometriosis is a disorder in which tissue that lines the inside of the uterus -- the endometrium -- grows and develops lesions outside the uterine cavity. This causes inflammation which in turn brings along chronic pelvic pain, painful intercourse or pain with urination and bowel movements, and often also infertility.
According to the Research Fellow of Reproductive Medicine at Tartu University Institute of Clinical Medicine and the Competence Centre on Health Technologies Merli Saare, nobody actually knows how many women suffer from the disease because it is not easy to diagnose. So far, there is no method for identifying endometriosis from a blood sample.
"Today, the disease is mainly diagnosed surgically. In general, patients have to undergo a laparoscopic procedure in which lesions are surgically removed from the abdominal cavity. Small pieces of this tissue are taken for histological analysis that helps to confirm the diagnosis," explained Saare.
Surgical removal of lesions relieves symptoms but does not cure the disease, which tends to recur. In addition to the fact that there is no effective treatment for endometriosis, researchers still do not know exactly which factors support the development of the disease or why some women have it and others do not.
The causes of endometriosis are studied by analysing the uterine mucosa and the tissue that has formed and grows in the abdominal cavity. Like any other endometrium-related diseases, also the menstrual cycle factors have to be considered while studying endometriosis. Women usually inform doctors of the day of their menstrual cycle when they go to surgery. However, this may not be accurate enough for determining the exact phase of the menstrual cycle, as Saare and her colleagues say in their research paper published in the journal Biology of Reproduction.
Their study, which is based on the analysis of endometrium samples taken from about 80 women, confirmed that the day of the menstrual cycle given by the women themselves and the molecular profile of their endometrium were often incompatible. Therefore, molecular tools are needed for more accurate classification of samples: by analysing RNA from the endometrium, researchers can assign exact dates to tissue samples and improve the quality of future research. "Our study helps to precisely determine the phase of the biopsy samples taken from the endometrium. This way we can avoid examining the endometrium in different phases of the cycle," explained Saare.
She is convinced that a breakthrough in establishing the causes of endometriosis is only a question of time, considering the modern technological potential. "All small steps and discoveries take us closer. If our studies become more precise and we are able to eliminate side factors, it is much easier to find causal changes of the disease."
In their study, the researchers used an advanced molecular tool beREADY, a test developed at the Competence Centre on Health Technologies and used in fertility clinics, which provides an opportunity to select the most appropriate day for embryo implantation. Research has shown that the test used for determining the genes that are important in endometrial maturation can also be beneficial in the molecular studies of the endometrium.
Behold the Bili-ruler: A novel, low-cost device for screening neonatal hyperbilirubinemia
Study validates new, low-cost, non-invasive tool in screening newborn jaundice with high diagnostic accuracy
Brigham and Women's Hospital
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IMAGE: This is a closeup view of the bili-ruler being used on an infant. view more
Credit: Brigham and Women's Hospital
Neonatal hyperbilirubinemia, commonly known as newborn jaundice, is a condition that affects up to 80 percent of newborns in the first week of life. Severe hyperbilirubinemia (bilirubin levels >20mg/dL) affects an estimated 1 million infants around the world annually. If diagnosed early, severe hyperbilirubinemia is largely treatable with high-intensity phototherapy, resulting in recovery without long-term consequences. If left undiagnosed or untreated, severe hyperbilirubinemia may lead to irreversible brain damage or even death. These complications often arise in low-resource settings; in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), one-third of infants with extreme hyperbilirubinemia die from a condition that is largely treatable.
But access to treatment itself may not be the primary challenge.
One significant barrier to managing hyperbilirubinemia in LMICs is the failure to recognize the severity of the condition before the onset of irreversible symptoms. A team from Brigham and Women's Hospital recently reported the creation and validation of a novel tool, the Bili-ruler, designed for use by frontline health workers to screen for hyperbilirubinemia in low-resource settings. The findings are published in Pediatrics.
"In low-income settings, many people don't have access to very basic diagnostics, medications and interventions that could prevent a large burden of neonatal morbidity and mortality," said lead author Anne CC Lee, MD, MPH, a pediatrician, director of the Brigham Global Newborn Health Lab and principal investigator of the project. "Improving early recognition and care seeking for potentially serious newborn illness is a first step."
The first low-cost screening tool for jaundice was the Gosset icterometer developed in the 1950s. This device comprised five shades of yellow and presented good correlation with serum bilirubin concentrations; however, it was developed using robbialac paint which led to a lack of color standardization and was never widely adopted. Currently, in high-income settings, there are trancutenous bilirubin instruments, but these cost over $7,000 and are not affordable in most low-income settings.
"Ultimately, if the baby is not diagnosed or is diagnosed too late, there is very little that can be done before the effects are permanent," said co-author Lian Folger, a program coordinator at the Global Newborn Health Lab.
To address this barrier of illness recognition, the team designed the Bili-ruler to improve the identification of clinically severe hyperbilirubinemia in low-resource settings. As its name suggests, the Bili-ruler is a portable, handheld "ruler" to measure the degree of newborn jaundice, using six color strips arranged in a stepwise gradient of increasing yellow hue. The colors were developed using advanced digital color processing of images of infants with different levels of hyperbilirubinemia.
To assess for jaundice, the Bili-ruler is pressed against the infant's skin, and the underlying skin tone is visualized through a circular window enclosed by a uniform color strip. This process is repeated for all six colors, and the user chooses the score which corresponds to the color that most closely matches the underlying skin tone. The team went through many iterations of the design of the device and collaborated with groups at MIT that specialize in visual design.
To validate the Bili-ruler across diverse populations, the research team recruited a total of 790 newborns from the Brigham and its partner institution, the Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital (SOMCH) in Sylhet, Bangladesh. Newborns were eligible for inclusion if they were <28 days old, generally healthy, and had not previously received phototherapy or exchange transfusion.
In the study, the Bili-ruler was used to assess for jaundice alongside clinical measures of transcutaneous bilirubin (TcB) and total serum bilirubin (TSB) levels. Bili-ruler measurements were obtained on the forehead, nose, abdomen, palms, or soles of feet, without previous knowledge of bilirubin levels. The scores were then compared with TcB and TSB.
The Bili-ruler had high diagnostic accuracy and validity, showing strongest positive correlations between measurements taken on the nose with bilirubin concentrations measured by both TcB and TSB. In addition, measurements on the nose had high validity, sensitivity and specificity for identifying hyperbilirubinemia of several different thresholds. Bili-ruler scores on the foot also had high sensitivity, but lower specificity in identifying serum bilirubin at very high thresholds.
Results initially seemed consistent between infants of varying skin tones -- an important consideration for use in multi-ethnic populations. However, since the largest populations validated in the study were south Asian and white, the researchers hope to expand validating the Bili-ruler in other ethnicities -- namely Hispanic and black populations.
Currently, the team is working to partner with organizations in Ghana and Peru to expand the application and validity of the device. In Peru, the researchers are working with Little Sparrow Technologies, INMED, and Bilimetrix to implement a low-cost, package to guide both diagnostic evaluation and clinical management of jaundice.
Lee and Folger speak passionately about the significance and global health impact of their work.
"The hope is that this tool will improve the early recognition and more accurate diagnosis of severe jaundice in settings that traditionally do have not had access to care. Two of my own children had severe hyperbilirubinemia and required phototherapy. They likely would not have had the same healthy outcome if they were born at home and without postnatal care in rural Bangladesh. We hope that the Biliruler will improve access to treatment for hyperbilirubinemia and improve health outcomes for babies born in low-resource settings," said Lee. "Every baby, no matter where they are born, deserves the equal opportunity for a healthy start in life."
Just released: Proceedings from inaugural Medical Summit on Firearm Injury Prevention
Article published online by Journal of the American College of Surgeons reflects the consensus of 42 professional organizations on a constructive approach that can be taken to reduce injury, disability, and death from firearm violence in the United States
American College of Surgeons
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CHICAGO (May 20, 2019): Proceedings from the first-ever Medical Summit on Firearm Injury Prevention have been released and published on the Journal of the American College of Surgeons website as an "article in press" in advance of print publication.
Leaders from the 43 national medical organizations and the American Bar Association attended the historic meeting on February 10-11 in Chicago, which was hosted by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma (ACS COT). Organizations represented lawyers, physicians, nurses, public health professionals, and emergency medical service providers, with attendees providing perspectives from the front lines of caring for seriously injured patients as well as dealing with the aftermath of violence in communities.
"We've reached a point where tens of thousands of Americans are seriously injured, permanently disabled, or die annually from firearm incidents," said David B. Hoyt, MD, FACS, ACS Executive Director. "By working together with other stakeholder organizations seeking to remedy this crisis, we can collectively find and put forth viable solutions to this epidemic that continues to inflict tragedy on Americans' lives."
Throughout the Summit, attendees expressed their compelling interest in reducing deaths, injuries, and disabilities from firearms in the U.S. The collegial environment of the meeting set the scene for fostering an inclusive dialogue on how to work together to identify opportunities for the medical community to reach a consensus-based, apolitical approach to firearm injury prevention focused on understanding and addressing the root causes of firearm violence while making firearm ownership as safe as possible.
Summit attendees identified opportunities to collaborate in the areas of research, education, and targeted injury prevention initiatives. Using a public health framework, attendees engaged in collegial discussions to build consensus on actionable items for firearm injury prevention that the group could support as a unified voice.
Following the meeting, consensus statements were compiled by the planning committee and brought to the attention of attendees for further internal consideration by their organizations.
The just-released Summit proceedings article identifies a comprehensive public health approach to addressing this problem that 42 of the participating organizations have formally agreed to support and provides a road map that can be implemented through collaboration among medical, legal, and community organizations.
Briefly summarized below, these consensus-based points for potential action address the need to:
•Recognize firearm injury as a U.S. public health crisis, and take a comprehensive public health and medical approach to address it
•Research this public health crisis using a disease model, and call for research funding at federal and philanthropic levels commensurate with the burden of the disease on society
•Engage firearm owners and communities at risk as stakeholders to develop firearm injury programs
•Empower the medical community across all health care settings to act in the best interests of their patients in a variety of palpable ways: counsel patients on safe firearm storage; screen patients at risk for firearm injury or death; and engage the community in addressing the social determinants of disease through hospitals and healthcare systems
•Commit professional stakeholder organizations to ensure that these statements lead to constructive actions for improving the health and well-being of our nation
(Read the complete Executive Summary of the Summit proceedings. Addendum follows.)
"A key driver for this movement is to take a systems-based approach toward addressing the problem and base it on the public health model," explained Ronald M. Stewart, MD, FACS, article coauthor, who is Medical Director of ACS Trauma Programs. "This approach involves not only engaging firearms owners as part of the solution--not the problem--but also engaging people who live in communities at risk as part of the solution, and not the problem. We must identify our society's structural factors and social determinants that create or perpetuate the cycle of firearm violence and call for a commitment for research funding that matches the burden of this disease in America."
"Despite the fact that many organizations have been leading efforts for years to address the dire consequences of firearm violence, a national collaborative effort led by the medical profession as a whole has yet to take flight," said Eileen M. Bulger, MD, FACS, Summit moderator, coauthor, Chair of the ACS Committee on Trauma, and professor of surgery, University of Washington, Seattle. "And yet--while the medical community has successfully worked together to reduce death rates from traffic injuries, HIV, and cancer--U.S. death rates from firearm violence have risen. The precedent is already there: by taking a public health approach to addressing this problem, we can work more effectively as a whole to reduce death, disability, and injury from firearms."
As the authors write, "coming together as a professional community and approaching this epidemic as a disease and a public health problem promises to make our neighborhoods and our country safer, stronger, and more resilient. We believe this can be done in a manner which preserves (or even enhances) freedom. This professional approach requires freedom with responsibility."
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