Comment

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 26, 2024 at 12:36pm

The Sex of Your Doctor Could Have a Concerning Effect on Your Prognosis

Patients treated by a female physician are less likely to die or to be readmitted to hospital than those treated by a physician who is male, according to a new study by a team of researchers from the US and Japan.
And if the patient happens to also be female, the difference is even more pronounced, especially so when they're severely ill.

While this study doesn't dive deeply into the reasons for the disparity, it supports previous research that comes to similar conclusions.
What these findings indicate is that female and male physicians practice medicine differently, and these differences have a meaningful impact on patients' health outcomes.
The team analyzed data from US Medicare sources describing 458,108 female and 318,819 male patients hospitalized between 2016 and 2019. All patients were over the age of 65, and just under a third of both male and female patients were seen by female physicians.

This info was then referenced against 30-day mortality rates (from the date of admission) and 30-day readmission rates (from the date of discharge). In both cases, female doctors led to better outcomes.

While the differences don't show direct cause and effect, and weren't huge – adjusted mortality rates of 8.15 percent (female doctor) vs 8.38 percent (male doctor) for female patients, for example – they represent a statistically significant gap that shouldn't be there at all. To put that difference into perspective, it amounts to 1 death for every 417 hospitalizations.
It is important to note that female physicians provide high-quality care, and therefore, having more female physicians benefits patients from a societal point-of-view.
The study authors suggest several reasons could be behind the discrepancies, which have been spotted before in different medical scenarios. It's possible that female doctors communicate better with female patients, the researchers say, or that male doctors are more likely to underestimate the severity of conditions experienced by female patients.

There might also be less embarrassment and discomfort between female doctors and female patients, the research team suggests, meaning more honesty about certain conditions and improved diagnosis and treatment.

The researchers want to see more done to improve sex diversity in hospital settings, and to make sure the quality of care is the same no matter whether patients or physicians are male or female – and for that to happen, more studies will be needed looking at why the differences exist.
Further research on the underlying mechanisms linking physician gender with patient outcomes, and why the benefit of receiving the treatment from female physicians is larger for female patients, has the potential to improve patient outcomes across the board.

https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M23-3163

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 26, 2024 at 12:30pm

Forget Billions of Years: Scientists Have Grown Diamonds in Just 150 Minutes

Natural diamonds take billions of years to form in the extreme pressures and temperatures deep underground. Synthetic forms can be produced far quicker, but they typically still require some intense squishing for up to several weeks. A new method based on a mix of liquid metals can pop out an artificial diamond in a matter of minutes, without the need for a giant squeeze. While high temperatures were still required, in the region of 1,025°C or 1,877°F, a continuous diamond film was formed in 150 minutes, and at 1 atm (or standard atmosphere unit). That's the equivalent of the pressure we feel at sea level, and tens of thousands of times less than the pressure normally required. The team behind the innovative approach, led by researchers from the Institute for Basic Science in South Korea, is confident that the process can be scaled up to make a significant difference in the production of synthetic diamonds. -- Dissolving carbon into liquid metal for the manufacture of diamond isn't entirely new. General Electric developed a process half a century ago using molten iron sulfide But these processes still required pressures of 5–6 gigapascals and a diamond 'seed' for the carbon to cling to. "We discovered a method to grow diamonds at 1 atm pressure and under a moderate temperature by using a liquid metal alloy," write the researchers in their published paper. The reduction in pressure was achieved using a carefully mixed blend of liquid metals: gallium, iron, nickel, and silicon. A custom-made vacuum system was built inside a graphite casing to very rapidly heat and then cool the metal while it was exposed to a combination of methane and hydrogen. These conditions cause carbon atoms from the methane to spread into the melted metal, acting as seeds for the diamonds. After just 15 minutes, small fragments of diamond crystals extruded from the liquid metal just beneath the surface, while two-and-a-half hours of exposure produced a continuous diamond film. Though the concentration of carbon forming the crystals decreased at a depth of just a few hundred nanometers, the researchers expect the process can be improved with a few tweaks.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07339-7

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 26, 2024 at 11:50am

Scientists have offered two broad models to explain the phenomenon.

One suggests generalists are jacks-of-all-trades but masters of none, meaning they can tolerate a wider range of conditions or food sources but aren't as dominant as a specialist in any specific niche.

The other theory is that a combination of internal and external factors drive niche variation.

For example, organisms can acquire genes that allow them to make enzymes capable of breaking down more than one substance, expanding the range of foods they can eat. Conversely, random loss of genes over time can result in a narrower palate.

Likewise, environments can exert selective pressure on traits. So a habitat with only one or two food sources or constant temperatures would favor specialists, while generalists might do better in an environment with a wider array of food or conditions.

When it comes to yeast metabolism, the research team found no evidence of trade-offs.
The generalists are better across all the carbon sources they can use. Generalists are also able to use more nitrogen sources than carbon specialists.
The data also showed that environmental factors play only a limited role.
Hittinger cautions there are limitations to what can be inferred from the data. It's possible that tradeoffs are present in species that weren't studied. And the lab experiments used to measure metabolic growth can't replicate the conditions in soils, tree bark, or insect guts where yeasts live in nature.

Dana A. Opulente et al, Genomic factors shape carbon and nitrogen metabolic niche breadth across Saccharomycotina yeasts, Science (2024). DOI: 10.1126/science.adj4503. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adj4503

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Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 26, 2024 at 11:48am

Yeast study offers possible answer to why some species are generalists and others specialists

In a landmark study based on one of the most comprehensive genomic datasets ever assembled, a team of scientists offer a possible answer to one of the oldest questions about evolution: why some species are generalists and others specialists.

researchers mapped the genetic blueprints, appetites, and environments of more than 1,000 species of yeasts, building a family tree that illuminates how these single-celled fungi evolved over the past 400 million years.

The results, published in the journal Science, suggest that internal—not external—factors are the primary drivers of variation in the types of carbon yeasts can eat, and the researchers found no evidence that metabolic versatility, or the ability to eat different foods, comes with any trade-offs. In other words, some yeasts are jacks-of-all-trades and masters of each.

Like other organisms, some yeasts have evolved to be specialists—think koalas, which eat nothing but eucalyptus leaves—while others are generalists like raccoons, which eat just about anything.

Scientists have been trying to explain why both generalists and specialists exist almost since Charles Darwin proposed his theory of evolution in 1859.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 26, 2024 at 11:43am

Genetic variations may predispose people to Parkinson's disease following long-term pesticide exposure, study finds

A new UCLA Health study has found that certain genetic variants could help explain how long-term pesticide exposure could increase the risk of Parkinson's disease.
While decades of research have linked pesticide exposure and Parkinson's disease risk, researchers have sought to explain why some individuals with high exposure develop the disease while others do not.

One longstanding hypothesis has been that susceptibility to the disease is a combination of both environmental and genetic factors.
The new study, published in the journal npj Parkinson's Disease, used genetic data from nearly 800 Central Valley (California) residents with Parkinson's disease, many of whom had long-term exposure to 10 pesticides used on cotton crops for at least a decade prior to developing the disease, with some patients having been exposed as far back as 1974.

The researchers examined the study participants' genetic makeup for rare variants in genes associated with the function of lysosomes—cellular compartments that break down waste and debris, thought to be associated with the development of Parkinson's disease—and looked for enrichment of variants in patients with high exposure to pesticide use compared to a representative sample of the general population.

Researchers found that variants in these genes were enriched in patients with more severe Parkinson's disease who also had higher exposure to pesticides. These genetic variants also appeared to be deleterious to protein function suggesting that disruption of lysosomal activity may be underling the development of Parkinson's disease combined with pesticide exposure.

 Lysosomal Genes Contribute to Parkinson's Disease near Agriculture with High Intensity Pesticide Use, npj Parkinson's Disease (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41531-024-00703-4. www.nature.com/articles/s41531-024-00703-4

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 26, 2024 at 11:35am

Researchers used advanced statistics to identify 22 distinct gene modules, of which just one was associated with both a high score for depressive symptoms and a low score for cardiovascular health.

The top three genes from this gene module are known to be associated with neurodegenerative diseases, bipolar disorder, and depression. Now they have shown that they are associated with poor cardiovascular health as well.

These genes are involved in biological processes, such as inflammation, that are involved in pathogenesis of both depression and cardiovascular disease. This helps to explain why both diseases often occur together.

Other genes in the shared module have been shown to be involved in brain diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Huntington's disease.

Researchers and doctors  can use the genes in this module as biomarkers for depression and cardiovascular disease. Ultimately, these biomarkers may facilitate the development of dual-purpose preventative strategies for both the diseases.

Binisha Hamal Mishra et al, Identification of gene networks jointly associated with depressive symptoms and cardiovascular health metrics using whole blood transcriptome in the Young Finns Study, Frontiers in Psychiatry (2024). DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1345159

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 26, 2024 at 11:33am

Link between depression and cardiovascular disease explained: They partly develop from same gene module

Depression and cardiovascular disease (CVD) are serious concerns for public health. Approximately 280 million people worldwide have depression, while 620 million people have CVD.

It has been known since the 1990s that the two diseases are somehow related. For example, people with depression run a greater risk of CVD, while effective early treatment for depression cuts the risk of subsequently developing CVD by half. Conversely, people with CVD tend to have depression as well. For these reasons, the American Heart Association (AHA) advises to monitor teenagers with depression for CVD.

What wasn't yet known is what causes this apparent relatedness between the two diseases. Part of the answer probably lies in lifestyle factors common in patients with depression and which increase the risk of CVD, such as smoking, alcohol abuse, lack of exercise, and a poor diet. But it's also possible that both diseases might be related at a deeper level, through shared developmental pathways.

Now, scientists have shown that depression and CVD do indeed share part of their developmental programs, having at least one functional gene module in common. This result, published in Frontiers in Psychiatry, provides new markers for depression and CVD, and could ultimately help researchers to find drugs to target both diseases.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 26, 2024 at 11:11am

Study explores why human-inspired machines can be perceived as eerie

Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and robots are becoming increasingly advanced, exhibiting capabilities that vaguely resemble those of humans. The growing similarities between AIs and humans could ultimately bring users to attribute human feelings, experiences, thoughts, and sensations to these systems, which some people perceive as eerie and uncanny.

A  recent paper, published in Computers in Human Behavior: Artificial Humans, reviews past studies and reports the findings of an experiment testing a recent theory known as "mind perception," which proposes that people feel eeriness when exposed to robots that closely resemble humans because they ascribe minds to these robots.

For many people, the idea of a machine with conscious experience is unsettling. This discomfort extends to inanimate objects as well.

Overall, the results of the meta-analysis and experiment run by these researchers suggest that past studies backing mind perception theory could be flawed. In fact, the researcher gathered opposite results, suggesting that individuals who attribute sentience to robots do not necessarily find them eerier due to their human resemblance.

Although attributions of mind are not the main cause of the uncanny valley, they are part of the story. They can be relevant in some contexts and situations, yet that attributing mind to a machine that looks human is creepy. Instead, perceiving a mind in a machine that already looks creepy makes it creepier. However, perceiving a mind in a machine that has risen out of the uncanny valley and looks nearly human makes it less creepy.

Exploring whether there is strong support for this speculation is an area for future research, which would involve using more varied and numerous stimuli.

Karl F. MacDorman, Does mind perception explain the uncanny valley? A meta-regression analysis and (de)humanization experiment, Computers in Human Behavior: Artificial Humans (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.chbah.2024.100065

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 25, 2024 at 12:26pm

Disease Ecology Butterfly Effect
When their preferred trees to chew on were cut down for the tobacco trade, chimpanzees in Uganda began consuming bat guano instead. Researchers recorded videos in the Budongo Forest Reserve between 2017 and 2019 and observed 839 instances of guano consumption, not only by chimpanzees but also by black-and-white colobus monkeys and red duikers, a type of forest antelope. The guano provides the chimps with essential minerals like sodium, potassium, magnesium and phosphorus that they would normally have gotten from the felled trees.

Why this matters: In addition to essential nutrients, the bat guano contained 27 unique viruses, including a novel coronavirus, the researchers found. Illnesses transmitted from animals to humans, called zoonotic diseases, account for about three quarters of new infectious diseases around the world. Those pathogens have a higher chance of jumping from an animal to a human when people encroach on ecosystems and disrupt relationships among species.

 “This is the butterfly effect of infectious disease ecology,” says senior study author Tony Goldberg, a wildlife epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “Far-flung events like demand for tobacco can have crazy, unintended consequences for disease emergence that follow pathways that we rarely see and can’t predict.”

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 25, 2024 at 12:19pm

WHO redefines airborne transmission

The World Health Organization (WHO) has changed how it classifies airborne pathogens. It has removed the distinction between transmission by smaller virus-containing ‘aerosol’ particles and spread through larger ‘droplets’. The division, which some researchers argue was unscientific, justified WHO’s March 2020 assertion that SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind the COVID-19 pandemic, was not airborne. Under the new definition, SARS-CoV-2 would be recognized as spreading ‘through the air’ — although some scientists feel this term is less clear than ‘airborne’. “I'm not saying everybody is happy, and not everybody agrees on every word in the document, but at least people have agreed this is a baseline terminology,” says WHO chief scientist Jeremy Farrar.

https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/global-technical-consultati...

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