The School District of Philadelphia has an ongoing asbestos crisis that, as of Feb. 12, has closed seven schools this academic year for varying intervals of time. Hundreds of reports of damaged asbestos in city schools have been filed in the district’s system, which the administration has yet to resolve.
Read More
Author: sh ytlk
Coronavirus: The latest disease to fuel mistrust, fear and racism
With the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in Wuhan, China, stories of courage and strength have captured our collective attention as the disease spreads.
Read More
When laser surgery turns into a nightmare, the toll can be enormous
It will soon be a year since Jessica Starr, a popular weather person on Detroit TV, took her own life. Her husband said she did so because of complications related to her recent laser refractive surgery.
Read More
‘Swiper’s thumb?’ Explore some common tech-related injuries
Nearly half of all U.S. adults say they can’t live without their smartphones, according to the Pew Research Center. But what happens when our fondness for the latest electronic gadgets creates more pain than gain?
Read More
New cohort of iPSC lines will accelerate research into Huntington’s disease
The European Bank for induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (EBiSC) and CHDI Foundation have collaborated with Censo Biotechnologies to generate a cohort of 45 iPSC lines derived from Huntington’s disease gene-expansion carriers and associated controls. These new lines will be used to further investigate the mechanisms of HD progression and for the development of novel therapeutics and will be widely available to any interested researcher via the EBiSC catalog at cells.ebisc.org.
Read More
Acid reflux drug is a surprising candidate to curb preterm birth
Lansoprazole, an over-the-counter acid reflux drug that is often taken by pregnant women, may be a promising therapy to reduce preterm birth, according to a computational drug repurposing study that also tested several of the drugs in mice.
Read More
Kisspeptin hormone injection can boost brain activity associated with attraction
The researchers behind the early-stage work, published in JCI Insight, are exploring whether kisspeptin can ultimately be used to treat men with common psychosexual disorders—sexual problems which are psychological in origin such as low libido. The team are now hoping to perform trials in patients with low sexual desire.
Read More
New gene mutation associated with Fabry cardiomyopathy
The A143T variant of the GLA gene is associated with an increased risk of Fabry cardiomyopathy, according to a new study. The variant plays a role in lipid metabolism. According to the researchers, patients carrying the mutation and manifesting changes in the heart should initiate treatment to prevent the disease from progressing. The study, conducted at the University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital, was published in the journal Heart.
Read More
Wearable devices estimate cardio-respiratory fitness during everyday activities
Researchers have developed a method to estimate cardiorespiratory fitness levels that could be applied to data captured by wearable fitness trackers during activities of daily life.
Read More
Balancing flu risks and deaths while everyone’s talking about coronavirus
An additional 2,000 Americans—10 of them children—have died from the flu since the last reporting period, according to the weekly flu report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Read More