Latest News Releases 26 September

A foul-smelling, voracious, wide-spread pest could become even more ubiquitous with climate change. A recent modelling study found that changing weather could increase suitable habitat for the brown marmorated stink bug in the United States by 70%. The study draws on data from a three-year stink bug monitoring effort in 17 states as well as several potential climate scenarios. However, whether the insects will thrive in new places depends on the conditions of each area and potential mitigation measures. Researchers found that overall, there is likely to be a northward shift in stink bug-friendly conditions. Regions that may be particularly affected include the Mid-Atlantic, areas surrounding the Great Lakes, and the valleys of the West Coast, such as the Sacramento Valley in California and the Treasure Valley in Idaho.

In pregnancies conceived with assisted reproductive technology using frozen embryos, the risk of developing a hypertensive disorder may be 74% higher than during naturally conceived pregnancies. In comparison, the risk of hypertensive disorders in pregnancies from fresh embryo transfer was similar to naturally conceived pregnancies. High blood pressure during pregnancy may be a sign of preeclampsia, a pregnancy complication that is serious and may be life-threatening to the mother and the fetus.

Pediatric Early Warning Systems (PEWS)—bedside tools used by nurses to assess the health of hospitalized children and identify urgent medical issues—are not widely used in resource-limited hospitals, in part due to challenges with implementation. A recent article published by Wiley online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, reports on a successful collaboration to support implementation of a PEWS for children with cancer in Latin American hospitals. Lessons learned from this effort can inform future programs to improve cancer outcomes worldwide.

Scientists have identified immune cell types that could be targeted to develop specific immunotherapies in chemotherapy-resistant breast cancers.

Understanding the ways in which workers in precarious employment react to work injury and claims processes they see as unfair can help employers, legal representatives, physicians and others respond appropriately, according to a new study.

Patients with chronic heart failure who received collaborative, home-based palliative care were less likely to die in hospital and more likely to die at home than people who received usual care, according to new research in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.220784.

Fungal diseases in the human population are on the rise, so it is important for health authorities to understand where these pathogens come from. A new study has searched for fungi in the lung tissues of small mammals and found fungal pathogens that cause diseases in humans. This suggests that these rodents can serve as reservoirs, agents of dispersal, and incubators of emerging fungal pathogens.

Students rule themselves out of, or in to, STEM disciplines, based on stereotyped views of what makes a typical student, a new study has found.