WASHINGTON, Oct 16 (Reuters) - When British naturalist Charles Darwin sketched out his theory of evolution in the 1859 book "On the Origin of Species" - proposing that biological species change over time through the acquisition of traits that favor survival and reproduction - it provoked a revolution in scientific thought.
Now 164 years later, nine scientists and philosophers on Monday proposed a new law of nature that includes the biological evolution described by Darwin as a vibrant example of a much broader phenomenon, one that appears at the level of atoms, minerals, planetary atmospheres, planets, stars and more.
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"We see evolution as a universal process that applies to numerous systems, both living and nonliving, that increase in diversity and patterning through time," said Carnegie Institution for Science mineralogist and astrobiologist Robert Hazen, a co-author of the scientific paper describing the law in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Titled the "law of increasing functional information," it holds that evolving systems, biological and non-biological, always form from numerous interacting building blocks like atoms or cells, and that processes exist - such as cellular mutation - that generate many different configurations. Evolution occurs, it holds, when these various configurations are subject to selection for useful functions.
SCIENTISTS SAY NEW MATERIAL CAN RECONNECT SEVERED NERVES BY SHARON ADARLO
In news that could be significant for patients with brain or nerve issues, researchers at Rice University have developed a new material that they say can stimulate neural tissue in a less invasive manner than previous treatments, and also allow nerve signals to flow again despite a severed connection.
Kaiser’s Massive Mental Health Care Settlement Sends Strong Message to Providers That Ignore Patient Needs by Mark Kreidler
October 13, 2023
Introduction:
(Capital & Main) Kaiser Permanente’s $200 million settlement with the State of California for its repeated failures to provide patients with adequate and timely mental health care was a long while coming.
The deficiencies themselves? Kaiser’s own employees say they’ve been hiding in plain sight.
“Years and years of banging our heads against the wall have finally paid off,” said Ilana Marcucci-Morris, a therapist at Kaiser Permanente’s Oakland Medical Center. “This has the potential to make Kaiser a leader in mental health care, rather than a serial violator of mental health care laws.”
The settlement, announced late Thursday by the state’s Department of Managed Health Care, includes a $50 million fine — the largest the department has ever levied against a health plan, Director Mary Watanabe said in a statement. Kaiser also pledged to spend $150 million over five years to build out behavioral health services that critics say have been woefully underdeveloped for years, leading to appointment wait times that violated state standards.
The settlement resulted from the department’s enforcement investigation and a nonroutine survey of Kaiser’s practices last year, which identified “several deficiencies and violations in the plan’s provision of behavioral health care services to enrollees,” the department said in a news release. Those included long delays for patients trying to schedule mental health appointments, a failure to contract enough high-level behavioral care facilities within its network, and Kaiser not making out-of-network referrals consistent with requirements under the law when in-network providers were not available, the department said.
A lifetime of activity can gradually erode the cartilage that cushions our joints. Someday, we might simply inject a gel to repair it, University of Connecticut researchers report in the Oct. 6 issue of Nature Communications.
Decades of running, climbing and jumping can wear away the cartilage that cushions our joints, eroding it until bone rubs against bone, a painful condition called osteoarthritis. More than 500 million people around the world are affected by osteoarthritis, and the knee is the most commonly afflicted joint, according to the World Health Organization. Surgery to remove or repair damaged cartilage of the knee is common. But these surgeries are not always successful, and adults rarely regenerate cartilage.
Infant mortality rate increases 3% in 2022, rising for 1st time in 2 decades: CDC
Source: ABC News
November 1, 2023, 12:07 AM
Infant mortality rates in the United States increased last year for the first time in two decades, according to new federal provisional data. For the report, published early Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Vital Statistics, researchers looked at birth/infant death data collected through the National Vital Statistics System.
Provisional data showed there were 5.6 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 2022, which is 3% higher than the rate of 5.44 per 1,000 live births in 2021. Although rates have been declining over the last several years, this marks the first year-to-year increase in more than two decades when the rate rose from 6.8 deaths per 1,000 in 2001 to 7.0 deaths in 2002.
The neonatal mortality rate -- infant deaths at less than 28 days of life -- also rose 3% from 3.49 per 1,000 live births in 2021 to 3.58 in 2022 and the postneonatal mortality rate -- infant deaths between 28 and 364 days of life -- grew 4% from 1.95 per 1,000 to 2.02 over the same period.
Dr. Tracey Wilkinson, an associate professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine who is an expert on women's access to reproductive health care, told ABC News she's not surprised by the findings and that she sees a couple of reasons for the increase in infant mortality rates. One is maternity care deserts -- where’s there a lack or absence of maternity care -- which limits the ability to care for infants properly. The second is limiting of access to abortion, particularly following the Supreme Court decision of Dobbs v. Jackson in June 2022, which overturned Roe v. Wade.
A virus diagnosis device that gives lab-quality results within just three minutes has been invented by engineers at the University of Bath, who describe it as the "world's fastest COVID test."
The prototype LoCKAmp device uses innovative "lab on a chip" technology and has been proven to provide rapid and low-cost detection of COVID-19 from nasal swabs. The research team, based at the University of Bath, say the technology could easily be adapted to detect other pathogens such as bacteria—or even conditions like cancer.
The device works by rapidly releasing and amplifying genetic material from a nasal swab sample by carrying out a chemical reaction to produce a result, which can be viewed on a smartphone app.
Unlike lateral flow assay tests, commonplace during the pandemic, the LoCKAmp employs the same 'gold standard' genetic-based testing techniques previously reserved for lab-based PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests, thus enabling rapid testing at laboratory-scale standard for the first time.
There is no cure for progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a brain disorder marked by walking and balance difficulties. Its symptoms also mimic Parkinson's disease and dementia. The condition leads to rapid, progressive decline and death.
In a new paper published in Nature Communications, Mayo researchers and collaborators outline new therapeutic targets that may lead to potential future treatments for PSP, as well as Alzheimer's disease and related disorders.
People with PSP usually are diagnosed in their late 60s and 70s. While the cause isn't known, researchers have found that the deteriorating brain cells of people with PSP have excess amounts of a protein called tau. Clumps of tau are also found in people with other neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease.
In this study, the researchers zeroed in on RNA, the carrier of genetic information in all living cells. They integrated brain RNA data from two large, independent human study groups, including donor samples from patients with PSP from the Mayo Clinic Brain Bank. They performed RNA sequencing, which allowed them to discover which genes in certain brain cells were abnormally high or low in patients with PSP.
We have covered parasites several times in past, but this may possibly be the most horrifying yet. This little critter is the stuff of which nightmares are truly formed. I would like to introduce you all to Cymothoa exigua, or the tongue eating louse.
Cymothoa exigua is an isopod (like crabs or lobster) and is a fish parasite. This crustacean is a marine-louse, if you will. The females can grow to about an inch in length and males about half that. It is the only known organism to replace an entire organ of its host species, in this case, the poor fish's tongue. It primarily targets the snapper, but has be seen in 7 other other fish species. These organisms are known as a protandric hermaphrodites, which means they start their lives as males and actually switch sexes later on in their life cycle.
To know is essentially the same as not knowing. The only thing that occurs is the rearrangement of atoms in your brain.
Newer rheumatoid arthritis drugs work well in the real world
By Bronwyn Thompson
November 05, 2023
They’ve been approved for the US market since 2012, but Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors are still the new kid on the block in terms of rheumatoid arthritis treatment. As such, the real-world evidence on this class of drugs is scarce compared to established treatments.
Now, researchers in Japan have taken an important step in changing that, using extensive patient data to show that JAK inhibitors are as effective a first-line treatment as existing medications, even though they’re still largely considered a back-up plan if others fail.
“Real-world patients have different characteristics compared with the patients recruited in randomized controlled trials," the researchers note in the study. "Therefore, it is important to investigate the effectiveness and safety of JAK inhibitors in real-world settings.”
