Mysterious patterns across Chinese deserts explained
Chessboard-like grid patterns that cover sand dunes in China are explained as attempts at mining nickel in the deserts.
Mystery behind the beach invasion of Garfield phones finally solved
Decades after the first of the iconic orange phones began washing ashore, a French community finally has answers.
Mystery of why the bottom of the Pacific Ocean is getting colder might finally be solved
The bottom of the Pacific Ocean is actually cooling down. How is this possible? The answer is proof that Earth's systems operate on long timescales.
How do you calm a crying newborn?
My newborn child won’t stop crying My sister-in-law says he could have colic. I don’t even know what that means but it sounds serious. Got any natural remed
My weekend without oil: The road trip edition
MNN family blogger's attempt to live without oil while embarking on a family vacation.
My Gulf Action wants you to reduce your oil impact
ClimateCulture launches a campaign asking individuals to do their part in reducing the need for oil. Not sure this one will go over well in middle America.
Mystery Alaska: How Palin, the Tea Party and a three-way race could affect the Senate
The polls have flipped in Alaska. Murkowski is leading, but Scott McAdams may be in the best position of all.
Mysterious 'abnormality' to blame for Super Bowl blackout
As the lights went out in the Superdome, social media lit up like crazy.
Mystery dad arrives in Summer Bay
CAMERON Daddo was a household name in the early ’90s in Australia, but since returning after more than 25 years in Hollywood, he’s had to introduce himself again to audiences in his beloved home country.
Cortex 75: Home Again
Myke has lots of music to share, Grey unveils the mystery of his Home Screen, and they both have new Apple Devices.
Cortex 74: The Biggest Challenge of Being a Human
Myke wants to make some changes, Grey is taking a break, and they are both excited about some big announcements.
Cortex 73: Clear the Cortex Decks
Myke is perplexed with corporate branding, Grey has learned more than he wanted about USB-C, and they both answer #ASKCORTEX questions on how to get the career you want, how to start being productive, and to find out who could live longest in the woods.
Cortex 72: Adulting Complete
Myke got a Roomba, Grey has found peace with his to-do system, and they are both very excited about the Shortcuts beta.
Cortex 66: Triggers - Creating Behaviour That Lasts
Myke has read _Triggers_, Grey tries to deal with a backlog, and they have amazing new merch available.
Cortex 65: Goals Are Dumb
Myke has started a journal, Grey switched back to something, and they both answer some #askcortex questions.
Cortex 62: 2018 Yearly Themes
Myke has completed a 'Year of Less', Grey has completed a 'Year of Redirection', and they both have their 2018 Themes ready to go.
Cortex 61: State of the Apps 2018
Myke went to PodCon, Grey doesn't write articles anymore, and they both name their favourite software for 'State of the Apps 2018'.
Cortex 57: Bucketful of Internet
Myke is waiting for a delivery, Grey evangelizes napping, and they both have thoughts about the iPhone X.
Cortex 53: Worst Business Decision Ever
Myke is getting ready for a big trip, Grey recorded a Vlog, and they both give some thoughts on the updated #MultiPadLifestyle.
Cortex 52: CORTEK - WWDC 2017
Myke got his wish, Grey gives Apple a performance review, and they both receive a magic box.
Cortex 44: Existential Time Tracking
Myke has started tracking his work time, Grey has started tracking all time, and they both talk about their themes for 2017.
Cortex 43: Tornado Bigshot
Myke discovered his ranking, Grey will not switch, and they both answer #askcortex questions before the Cortexmas season begins.
Cortex 41: Spiralling
Myke is dealing with house renovations, Grey is making lots of videos, and they both answer some questions about how this show is made.
Cortex 36: Cortex Cottage
Myke deals with disruptions, Grey had a successful summer, and they both discover the world's largest Youtuber.
Cortex 32: Dropping Acid
Myke holds an event, Grey experiences open offices, and they both had a VR experience.
Cortex 28: Formalizing and Systematizing
Myke fixes problems, Grey automates his to-do list, and they both discuss hiring people.
Cortex 25: Creativity, inc.
Myke is ruined, Grey (maybe) gets an office, and they both read Creativity Inc.
Cortex 24: Open Field In Every Direction
Myke stayed up too late, Grey shares his calendaring philosophy, and they are both relieved about a change of course.
Cortex 22: Statistics Aren't Everything
Myke is sick, Grey hits two million YouTube subscribers, and they are both very upset about Apple Pencil support in iOS 9.3.
Cortex 16: Structural Trust
Myke makes an official statement, Grey drives a truck across Europe, and they both discuss sharing responsibilities in their business.
Cortex 15: Tempest in a Teapot
Myke explains beard oil, Grey mourns the loss of his iMac, and they both discuss the moral minefield of ad blocking.
Cortex 14: Conflicted About Email
Myke makes judgments about Grey's musical choices, Grey explains how he is working with his personal assistant to manage email, and they both lament the current state of email apps.
Cortex 13: Trail of Tears
Myke is jet-lagged, but Grey wants to know all about XOXO. Grey is intrigued about the iPad Pro, and Myke wants to talk about iOS 9. Grey shares a theory about the 16GB iPhone, Myke listens.
Mystery Inflammatory Syndrome In Kids And Teens Likely Linked To COVID-19
The serious inflammatory syndrome sending some children and teens to the hospital remains extremely uncommon, doctors say. But if your child spikes a high, persistent fever, and has severe abdominal pain and vomiting that doesn't make them feel better, call your doctor as a precaution.; Credit: Sally Anscombe/Getty Images
Maria Godoy | NPRSixty-four children and teens in New York State are suspected of having a mysterious inflammatory syndrome that is believed to be linked to COVID-19, the New York Department of Health said in an alert issued Wednesday. A growing number of similar cases — including at least one death — have been reported in other parts of the U.S. and Europe, though the phenomenon is still not well-understood.
Pediatricians say parents should not panic; the condition remains extremely rare. But researchers also are taking a close look at this emerging syndrome, and say parents should be on the lookout for symptoms in their kids that might warrant a quick call to the doctor — a persistent high fever over several days and significant abdominal pains with repeated vomiting, after which the child does not feel better.
"If [the child is] looking particularly ill, you should definitely call the doctor," says Dr. Sean O'Leary, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Children's Hospital Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and member of the infectious disease committee for the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The new condition associated with COVID-19 is called Pediatric Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome. Symptoms include persistent fever, extreme inflammation, and evidence of one or more organs that are not functioning properly, says cardiologist Jane Newburger, a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and director of the Kawasaki Program at Boston Children's Hospital.
"It's still very rare, but there's been a wave of cases. Physicians and scientists are working hard to understanding the mechanisms at play, and why only some children are so severely affected," Newburger says.
Some symptoms can resemble features of Kawasaki Disease Shock Syndrome. Kawasaki Disease is an acute illness in children involving fever, together with symptoms of rash, conjunctivitis, redness in the lips, tongue and mucous membranes of the mouth and throat, swollen hands and/or feet, and sometimes a large group of lymph nodes on one side of the neck, says Newburger. Some children with the condition develop enlargement of the coronary arteries and aneurysms in those blood vessels.
A small percentage of Kawasaki cases go on to develop symptoms of shock – which can include a steep drop in systolic blood pressure and difficulty with sufficient blood supply to the body's organs. Kawasaki disease and KDSS more often affect young children, although they can sometimes affect teens, Newburger says.
Some cases of the new inflammatory syndrome have features that overlap with KD or with KDSS — including rash, conjunctivitis, and swollen hands or feet. The new inflammatory syndrome can affect not only young children but also older children and teens.
But patients with the new syndrome have lab results that look very different, in particular, "cardiac inflammation to a greater degree than we typically see in Kawasaki shock syndrome," which is usually very rare, O'Leary says. In New York City and London, which have seen large numbers of cases of COVID-19 cases, "those types of patients are being seen with greater frequency."
Some patients "come in very, very sick," with low blood pressure and high fever, O'Leary says. Some children have had coronary artery aneurysms, though most have not, he adds.
Other patients exhibit symptoms more similar to toxic shock syndrome, with abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea and high levels of inflammation in the body, as well as the heart, O'Leary says. Most cases are treated in the intensive care unit, he says. Treatment includes intravenous immunoglobulin, which can "calm the immune system," says Newburger, as well as steroids and cytokine blockers.
The evidence so far from Europe, where reports of the syndrome first emerged, suggests most children will recover with proper supportive care, says O'Leary, though one adolescent, a 14-year-old boy in London, has died, according to a report published Wednesday in The Lancet.
Most children with the syndrome, O'Leary and Newburger note, have either tested positive for a current infection with the coronavirus, or for antibodies to the virus, which would suggest they were infected earlier and recovered from it.
And, according to case reports, some of the kids with the inflammatory syndrome who tested negative on coronavirus tests had been exposed at some point to someone known to have COVID-19. The inflammatory syndrome can appear days to weeks after COVID-19 illness, doctors say, suggesting the syndrome arises out of the immune system's response to the virus.
"One theory is that as one begins to make antibodies to SARS-COV-2, the antibody itself may be provoking an immune response," says Newburger. "This is only happening in susceptible individuals whose immune systems are built in a particular way. It doesn't happen in everybody. It's still a really uncommon event in children."
In late April, the U.K.'s National Health Service issued an alert to pediatricians about the syndrome. Reports have also surfaced in France, Spain and Italy, and probably number in the dozens globally, Newburger and O'Leary say, though doctors still don't have hard numbers. Newburger says there needs to be a registry where doctors can report cases "so we can begin to generate some statistics."
"Doctors across countries are talking to each other, but we need for there to be some structure and some science so that everybody can interpret," she says.
Earlier this week, the New York City Health Department issued an alert saying 15 children ranging in age from 2 to 15 had been hospitalized with the syndrome. Newburger says that she's been contacted about cases in New Jersey and Philadelphia, as well.
While the syndrome's precise connection to the coronavirus isn't yet clear, O'Leary says the fact that the children in most of these cases are testing positive for exposure to the virus, one way or another, provides one point of evidence. The sheer number of cases — small in absolute terms, but still "much higher than we would expect normally for things like severe Kawasaki or toxic shock syndrome" — provides another, he says.
And then there's the fact that most reports of the syndrome have come out of the U.K. and New York City, places that have been hit with large numbers of COVID-19 cases.
"It's pure speculation at this point," he says, "but the U.K. cluster kind of went up about a month after their COVID-19 infections went up, which would suggest that it is some kind of an immune phenomenon."
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Is a Legitimate Disease That Needs Proper Diagnosis and Treatment, Says IOM Report Identifies Five Symptoms to Diagnose Disease
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome -- commonly referred to as ME/CFS -- is a legitimate, serious, and complex systemic disease that frequently and dramatically limits the activities of affected individuals, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine.
Mystery solved: frogs use snout glands in emergency jail break
At the approach of a hungry parrot snake, a tree frog egg transforms from a haven to a prison. With no parent to offer protection, […]
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Mystery solved? Ants Protect Young From Infection By Cocooning Them in Fungus
In the dark recesses of an underground fungus garden, a Panamanian leaf-cutting ant plucks a tuft of mycelia, the wispy part of the basidiomycete fungus […]
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Structure of P46, an immunodominant surface protein from Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae: interaction with a monoclonal antibody
Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae is a prokaryotic pathogen that colonizes the respiratory ciliated epithelial cells in swine. Infected animals suffer respiratory lesions, causing major economic losses in the porcine industry. Characterization of the immunodominant membrane-associated proteins from M. hyopneumoniae may be instrumental in the development of new therapeutic approaches. Here, the crystal structure of P46, one of the main surface-antigen proteins, from M. hyopneumoniae is presented and shows N- and C-terminal α/β domains connected by a hinge. The structures solved in this work include a ligand-free open form of P46 (3.1 Å resolution) and two ligand-bound structures of P46 with maltose (2.5 Å resolution) and xylose (3.5 Å resolution) in open and closed conformations, respectively. The ligand-binding site is buried in the cleft between the domains at the hinge region. The two domains of P46 can rotate with respect to each other, giving open or closed alternative conformations. In agreement with this structural information, sequence analyses show similarities to substrate-binding members of the ABC transporter superfamily, with P46 facing the extracellular side as a functional subunit. In the structure with xylose, P46 was also bound to a high-affinity (Kd = 29 nM) Fab fragment from a monoclonal antibody, allowing the characterization of a structural epitope in P46 that exclusively involves residues from the C-terminal domain. The Fab structure in the complex with P46 shows only small conformational rearrangements in the six complementarity-determining regions (CDRs) with respect to the unbound Fab (the structure of which is also determined in this work at 1.95 Å resolution). The structural information that is now available should contribute to a better understanding of sugar nutrient intake by M. hyopneumoniae. This information will also allow the design of protocols and strategies for the generation of new vaccines against this important swine pathogen.
Mysterious molecules in space
Over the vast, empty reaches of interstellar space, countless small molecules tumble quietly though the cold vacuum. Forged in the fusion furnaces of ancient stars […]
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Mysterious X-ray signal from space
A mysterious X-ray signal has been found in a detailed study of galaxy clusters using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton. One intriguing possibility […]
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Mystery lava world baffles astronomers
Kepler-78b is a planet that shouldn’t exist. This scorching lava world circles its star every eight and a half hours at a distance of less […]
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