Findings confirm the robustness of the vaccine approval system and postmarketing surveillance. A comprehensive review of vaccine data over a 20-year period finds that vaccines are remarkably safe. A large proportion of safety issues were identified through existing postmarketing surveillance programs and were of limited clinical significance. Findings from a cohort study are published in Annals of Internal Medicine. Vaccines are considered one of the greatest achievements of modern public health, saving countless lives and all but eliminating once prevalent diseases such as mumps, measles and poliomyelitis....

Professor Oka’s research team succeeded to develop the conceptual nuclear reactor design of high plutonium breeding by light water cooling for the first time in the world. He devised a new fuel assembly where fuel rods are closely packed for reducing reactor coolant to fuel volume fraction for high breeding. With computational analysis, he succeeded high plutonium breeding with light water cooling. The study will open the way of commercialization of fast reactor and nuclear fuel cycle for peaceful use of nuclear energy based on the mature light water cooling technologies....

The World Health Organization recommends five servings of fruits and vegetable every day to keep the human body healthy, but how much is needed to keep your mind happy? That’s the question that researchers pursued in a new study. The scientists will publish their findings in an upcoming issue of Social Indicators Research, but the pre-print is available through IDEAS directly. Economists and public health researchers at the University of Warwick, collaborating with Dartmouth College, used data from several randomized, cross-sectional surveys, which accounted for the eating habits of 80,000 people living in the UK....

Their research, which relies on mathematical modeling, was published this month in Nature. The Earth is our home and over its 4,500,000,000 (4.5 billion) year history has evolved to form the environment we live in and the resources on which we depend. However, the early history of Earth, covering its first 1.5 billion years remains almost unknown and, consequently, poorly understood. “This was the time of formation of the first continents, the emergence of land, the development of the early atmosphere, and the appearance of primordial life – all of which are the result of the dynamics of our planet’s interiors,” said lead study author ARC Future Fellow Dr....

After treating sewage, wastewater treatment plants are left with solid sludge, called biosolids. For years, utilities have treated biosolids with microbes that produce methane. In recent years, utilities have been adding grease interceptor waste (GIW) into the mix. Grease interceptors are used to trap fat, oil, and grease from food service establishments so that they don’t clog up sewers. By adding GIW in with their biosolids, utilities can produce more methane, making the entire operation more efficient....

Astrophysicist Adam Frank, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Rochester, is part of a group of researchers who have taken the first steps to answer these questions. In a new study published in the journal Astrobiology, the group—including Frank, Jonathan Carroll-Nellenback, a senior computational scientist at Rochester, Martina Alberti of the University of Washington, and Axel Kleidon of the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry—addresses these questions from an “astrobiological” perspective....

In a study of over 2,000 primary school pupils in Ethiopia, researchers found that key aspects of children’s social and emotional development, such as their ability to make friends, not only stalled during the school closures, but probably deteriorated. Children who, prior to the pandemic, felt confident talking to others or got on well with peers were less likely to do so by 2021. Those who were already disadvantaged educationally – girls, the very poorest, and those from rural areas – seem to have been particularly badly affected....

COVID-19 risks may shift from older adults to younger children as the SARS-CoV-2 virus becomes endemic, according to new modeling results. Within the next few years, as the SARS-CoV-2 virus becomes endemic in the global population, COVID-19 may behave like other common-cold coronaviruses, affecting mostly young children who have not yet been vaccinated or exposed to the virus, according to new modeling results. Because COVID-19 severity is generally lower among children, the overall burden from this disease is expected to decline....

Purdue University drug discovery researchers have created a new framework for mining data for training machine learning models. The framework, called Lemon, helps drug researchers better mine the Protein Data Base (PDB) — a comprehensive resource with more than 140,000 biomolecular structures and with new ones being released every week. The work is published in the October 15, 2019, edition of Bioinformatics. “PDB is an essential tool for the drug discovery community,” said Gaurav Chopra, an assistant professor of analytical and physical chemistry in Purdue’s College of Science who works with other researchers in the Purdue Institute for Drug Discovery and led the team that created Lemon....

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, charts and graphs have helped communicate information about infection rates, deaths, and vaccinations. In some cases, such visualizations can encourage behaviors that reduce virus transmission, like wearing a mask. Indeed, the pandemic has been hailed as the breakthrough moment for data visualization. But new findings suggest a more complex picture. A study from MIT shows how coronavirus skeptics have marshaled data visualizations online to argue against public health orthodoxy about the benefits of mask mandates....

This is roughly equivalent to 115 percent of fossil fuel emissions. Co-author of the study Professor David Lindenmayer from The Australian National University (ANU) says it’s the first time researchers have been able to quantify the contribution of deadwood to the global carbon cycle. “Until now, little has been known about the role of dead trees,” Professor Lindenmayer said. “We know living trees play a vital role in absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere....

The virus’ nucleocapsid protein, or N protein, is a prime target for disease-fighting interventions because of the critical jobs it performs for the novel coronavirus’ infection cycle and because it mutates at a comparatively slow pace. Drugs and vaccines built around the work of the N protein carry the potential to be highly effective and for longer periods of time – i.e., less susceptible to resistance. Among the SARS-CoV-2 proteins, the N protein is the viral RNA’s biggest partner....

Digital COVID-19 “Symptom Checkers” May Delay Treatment for Serious Illness Digital COVID-19 ‘symptom checkers’ may stop some patients from getting prompt treatment for serious illness, suggests an international case simulation study, published in the online journal BMJ Health & Care Informatics. Both the US and UK symptom checkers consistently failed to identify the symptoms of severe COVID-19, bacterial pneumonia, and sepsis, frequently advising these cases to stay home, the findings indicate....

Main concerns relate to possible ill-effects and a lack of understanding regarding their effectiveness as painkillers. Ontario doctors are still hesitant to prescribe medical cannabis to patients suffering long-term pain 20 years after it was first introduced, says a new study carried out at McMaster University. Physicians surveyed said their main concerns relate to possible ill-effects and a lack of understanding regarding their effectiveness as painkillers. Of particular concern among doctors were potentially harmful effects on cognitive development, a possible worsening of existing mental illnesses in patients and the drug’s effects in older adults, which may include dizziness or drowsiness....

Neurological symptoms may appear before fever or cough. A new review of neurological symptoms of COVID-19 patients in current scientific literature reveals the disease poses a global threat to the entire nervous system, reports a Northwestern Medicine study published this week in Annals of Neurology. About half of hospitalized patients have neurological manifestations of COVID-19, which include headache, dizziness, decreased alertness, difficulty concentrating, disorders of smell and taste, seizures, strokes, weakness and muscle pain....

Data collected by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in 1997 were put through new and advanced computer models to untangle a mystery — a brief, localized bend in the magnetic field — that had gone unexplained until now. Previous ultraviolet images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope in 2012 suggested the presence of plumes, but this new analysis used data collected much closer to the source and is considered strong, corroborating support for plumes....

Total lunar eclipses occur when the Moon and Sun are on opposite sides of Earth and the planet casts a complete shadow, or umbra, over its sole natural satellite. There may be multiple partial lunar eclipses each year, but total eclipses are a bit rarer. Best of all, unlike the precautions one must take to safely observe a total solar eclipse, it’s completely safe to watch a lunar eclipse unfold with the unaided eye....

A solar eclipse happens when the Moon moves between the Sun and Earth, casting a shadow on Earth, fully or partially blocking the Sun’s light in some areas. For a total solar eclipse to take place, the Sun, Moon, and Earth must be in a direct line. People located in the center of the Moon’s shadow when it hits Earth will see a total eclipse. The sky becomes very dark, as if it were dawn or dusk....

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, a team of scientists measured changes in brain activity after two five-year-olds with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) received pivotal response treatment, finding that with early treatment, children with ASD made significant improvements in behavior, communication, and brain function. When given early treatment, children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) made significant improvements in behavior, communication, and most strikingly, brain function, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in a new study....

The highlands are part of the Altiplano, meaning High Plateau, a region that stretches almost 1000 km from Peru to Bolivia. The landscape consists of a series of basins lying about 3,500 m (11,500 ft) above sea level and is the most extensive area of high plateau on Earth, outside Tibet. This particular area featured here is a transition between the desert in the west and the tropical forest in the east....