Sound-diffracting walls and rubberised asphalt ingredients tackle the major environmental concern of noise pollution from traffic.
In cities across the European Union, noise is a significant health hazard along with air pollution. Efforts are under way to reduce a major source of both: traffic.
Noise is the number-two environmental source of health troubles, after air pollution, according to the United Nations World Health Organization.
Over the last several decades, obesity has rapidly grown to affect more than 2 billion people, making it one of the biggest contributors to poor health globally. Many individuals still have trouble losing weight despite decades of study on diet and exercise regimens. Researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and affiliated institutions now believe they understand why, and they argue that the emphasis should be shifted from treating obesity to preventing it.
The research team reports in the journal Science Advances that early-life molecular processes of brain development are likely a major determinant of obesity risk. Previous large human studies have shown that the genes most strongly associated with obesity are expressed in the developing brain. This most recent study in mice focused on epigenetic development. Epigenetics is a molecular bookmarking system that regulates whether genes are utilized or not in certain cell types.
“Decades of research in humans and animal models have shown that environmental influences during critical periods of development have a major long-term impact on health and disease,” said corresponding author Dr. Robert Waterland, professor of pediatrics-nutrition and a member of the USDA Children’s Nutrition Research Center at Baylor. “Body weight regulation is very sensitive to such ‘developmental programming,’ but exactly how this works remains unknown.”
A drug has been identified by researchers at Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) that replicates the benefits of exercise on mice’s bones and muscles.
You can look and feel better by keeping up a regular exercise schedule, but did you know that exercise also supports bone and muscle health? Locomotor fragility, which affects people who are unable to exercise, causes the muscles and bones to deteriorate. Recently, Japanese researchers discovered a new drug that, by producing effects comparable to those of exercise, may help treat locomotor frailty.
Physical inactivity can result in a weakening of the muscles (known as sarcopenia) and bones (known as osteoporosis). Exercise dispels this frailty by boosting muscular strength and suppressing bone resorption while simultaneously promoting bone formation. Exercise therapy, however, cannot be used in every clinical situation. When patients have dementia, cerebrovascular disease, or are already bedridden, drug therapy may be very helpful for treating sarcopenia and osteoporosis. However, there is no one drug that targets both tissues at the same time.
Gas stoves in California homes are leaking cancer-causing benzene, researchers found in a new study published on Thursday, though they say more research is needed to understand how many homes have leaks.
In the study, published in Environmental Science and Technology on Thursday, researchers also estimated that over 4 tons of benzene per year are being leaked into the atmosphere from outdoor pipes that deliver the gas to buildings around California — the equivalent to the benzene emissions from nearly 60,000 vehicles. And those emissions are unaccounted for by the state.
The researchers collected samples of gas from 159 homes in different regions of California and measured to see what types of gases were being emitted into homes when stoves were off. They found that all of the samples they tested had hazardous air pollutants, like benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX), all of which can have adverse health effects in humans with chronic exposure or acute exposure in larger amounts.
Harnessing The Power Of Science & Innovation For All — Dr. Anna Laura Ross, Ph.D., Unit Head for Emerging Technologies, Research Prioritization and Support, Science Division, WHO.
Dr. Anna Laura Ross, Ph.D. is the Unit Head for Emerging Technologies, Research Prioritization and Support, in the World Health Organization (WHO) Science Division (https://www.who.int/our-work/science-division), located in Geneva, as well as the Head of the WHO Science Council Secretariat.
Previously at WHO, Dr Ross served as Strategy Technical Manager at Unitaid, their global health initiative that works with partners to bring about innovations to prevent, diagnose and treat major diseases in low-and middle-income countries, with an emphasis on tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV/AIDS and its deadly co-infections, providing strategic and technical support for Unitaid’s strategy, and working to identify the priorities areas for intervention to accelerate innovation for global health.
Dr. Ross has over fifteen years of experience in global health. Her areas of interest are in the field of HIV biomedical research, scientific program coordination, implementation research, and global health policy.
Prior to joining WHO, Dr. Ross served as Head of International Affairs and Scientific Relations at the National Agency for Research on AIDS and Viral Hepatitis (ANRS) in Paris, France.
Summary: A new theory suggests glial cells, specifically astrocytes, play a key role in cognitive processing.
Source: University Health Network.
A team of scientists from the Krembil Brain Institute, part of the University Health Network in Toronto, and Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, has developed the first computer model predicting the role of cortical glial cells in cognition.
Genomic medicine is undergoing rapid change after the Japanese public health insurance system began to cover genetic testing in 2019. Cancer patients who meet certain criteria are able to take these tests for a relatively affordable price, and their genetic information is collected in a massive database and analyzed with the help of around 170 hospitals across the country. But challenges remain, with suitable drugs available for only 10% of patients who undergo testing.
Plastic is everywhere and is even in us. This poses an environmental and health risk. What are researchers doing to combat this?
We ingest it. It is in our oceans, water, and soil. Researchers are trying to clean up our mess. Here are two projects to note.
A new technology that incorporates flexible fiber sensors into shoes has been developed by the National Nanotechnology Research Center (UNAM) at Bilkent University and is able to identify a number of health issues, including Parkinson’s disease and gait disorders.
Project manager Mustafa Ordu, who specialized in the production and characterization of fiber cables that can generate electricity for wearable devices, explained that the technology developed at UNAM is loaded with smart sensors that can monitor body movements and determine issues and diseases, with the potential to diagnose many health problems.
Further explaining the cutting-edge technology, he said that it can be woven into body wear or incorporated into footwear since by knitting these cables together like a type of threaded fabric, they can be incorporated into clothing as fibers. “This is what makes our team stand out among the existing laboratories in the world; we make smart sensors with flexible fiber and two-dimensional materials,” said Ordu.
