Sufferers of chronic low back pain will often use a mirror to watch their movements when practicing movement control exercises. This can be unreliable though, prompting the researchers of a recently published study in Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation to investigate whether wireless motion sensors, or mirrors, are more effective in improving movement control.
On September 26th, 2018, the United Nations will hold its first High Level Meeting to address and help end the tuberculosis epidemic. Dr. Madhukar Pai, TB researcher and advocate, discusses the significance of the meeting and how current and future scientists can hold governments accountable.
The collection and use of our personal data has come under increased scrutiny and public attention in recent years, the introduction of EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) being a prime example. When it comes to medical data, how do we balance protecting patients’ data with the benefits that big data and combined datasets bring to medical research? Here, Marieke Bak, one of the authors of research published today in Critical Care, talks us through this conundrum and the particular difficulties in obtaining consent in emergency settings.
Because they have identical genomes, identical twins are ideal subjects for studying the effects of epigenetic modifications – changes to the DNA which control the expression of genes but not the DNA sequence itself. A recently published study in Genome Medicine looked at 79 pairs of identical twins, where one had rheumatoid arthritis but other did not, to explore possible epigenetic factors associated with the condition.
Published today in BMC Medicine, a new research article presents the first robust look at the experiences of young refugees settling in Australia. The study finds that despite young refugees experiencing more peer problems than Australian norms, there was an overall positive adjustment. Here to talk about the findings, how the study was conducted, and what this means for improving the settlement of refugees is lead author of the article, Winnie Lau.
Although the successful treatment for tuberculosis (TB) has long been established, its length and resulting poor adherence to the necessary regimen means that many people continue to die from the disease. In this guest post, Michael J. Pitcher tells us how his recent study published in Applied Network Science shows that modeling the spatial distribution of TB infections may inform the development of alternative, shorter treatments.