Research reveals liquid gold on the nanoscale

The research published in Nature Communications set out to answer a simple question—how do nanoparticles melt? Although this question has been a focus of researchers for the past century, it still is an open problem—initial theoretical models describing melting date from around 100 years, and even the most relevant models being some 50 years old.

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Common conditions keep many patients out of knee cartilage research studies

Some of the most common traits among patients with cartilage issues in the knee are excluding them from participating in clinical trials because the trial outcomes might not yield the optimum results for new methods of cartilage regeneration, according to a Penn Medicine study published in Regenerative Medicine. Researchers testing the new methods tend to only include the patients most likely to succeed with the fewest complications, but if some of these trials could be safely opened up to different kinds of patients—such as those older than 55 or younger than 18, or those who knee joints don't align perfectly—the results could be much more robust and reflective of the patient population being treated. In the team's paper, they also highlighted therapies that hold special promise for the excluded populations, such as the use of "scaffolding" to promote cartilage growth.

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One-fifth of US surgeons still overusing riskier procedure to create kidney dialysis access

Long-term hemodialysis is a lifesaver for approximately half a million patients in the United States with kidney failure (also known as end-stage renal disease, or ESRD) who are either waiting on or unsuitable for a kidney transplant. But before the external machinery can take over the function of the kidneys—filtering and cleansing wastes from the blood—a minor surgical procedure is needed to create a stable, functional and reusable access to the circulatory system, usually through blood vessels in the arm.

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Q&A: How is fibromyalgia diagnosed?

Dear Mayo Clinic: Is there a specific test to definitively diagnose fibromyalgia? If not, how do doctors confidently diagnose this disorder?

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MRI plays a role in diagnosis of cocaine-related damage to the heart

Cardiac MRI has a pivotal role to play in the diagnosis of cocaine-induced cardiovascular diseases, according to an article published in the journal Radiology: Cardiothoracic Imaging.

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Viruses found to use intricate 'treadmill' to move cargo across bacterial cells

Countless textbooks have characterized bacteria as simple, disorganized blobs of molecules.

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PoseRBPF: A new particle filter for 6D object pose tracking

Researchers at NVIDIA, University of Washington, Stanford University, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have recently developed a Rao-Blackwellized particle filter for 6-D pose tracking, called PoseRBPF. The approach can effectively estimate the 3-D translation of an object and its full distribution over the 3-D rotation. The paper describing this filter, pre-published on arXiv, will be presented at the upcoming Robotics Science and Systems Conference in Freiburg, Germany.

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Using data to decide when to transfer patients by medical helicopter

The increased use of medical helicopters over the last half-century has saved countless lives by quickly getting patients from trauma to the emergency room (ER) within the so-called "golden hour."

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Researchers influence CDC's clarification on prescribing opioids for cancer pain

To reduce the number of people who may misuse, abuse, or overdose from opioids, multiple national agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have published guidelines to improve the way opioids are prescribed. Yet some of these guidelines have caused confusion and misapplication among clinicians and unintendedly limited treatment of pain for people with cancer.

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