Micrograph showing inflammation of the large bowel in a case of inflammatory bowel disease. Colonic biopsy. Credit: Wikipedia/CC BY-SA 3.0 In a scientific breakthrough, Mount Sinai researchers have revealed the biological mechanisms by which a family of proteins known as histone deacetylases (HDACs) activate immune system cells linked to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and other […]
Top: Exacerbated atherosclerosis (red signal) in the aorta of a progeroid mouse. Bottom: Absence of atherosclerosis in the aorta of a progeroid mouse after elimination of progerin expression by gene editing. Credit: CNIC Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS) is an extremely rare genetic disease that affects just 1 in every 20 million people; it is estimated […]
Credit: Kampus on Pexels Caregivers involved in a world-first pilot study have endorsed an online tool for assessing delirium which gives them a key role in the management of loved ones affected by the confused mental state. The new Australian-led international research, involving Southern Cross University, the University of the Sunshine Coast, the University of […]
Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is safe and shows short-term efficacy in reducing suicidal ideation and suicide attempts in adults with suicidal behavior and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to a study published online April 12 in Psychological Medicine. Anne Huntjens, from Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, and colleagues evaluated the effectiveness of DBT versus treatment as […]
Sergeant, an assistant clinical professor known for his climate advocacy and initiatives, talks about the dangers of climate change, the power of individuals and the health care sector to drive sustainable change, and his hope to save our “frail planet.” Credit: McMaster University Unseasonably mild winters. Forest fires and smoke. More reports of catastrophic storms. […]
The number of Hispanic organ donors in the U.S. has increased in recent years, but that growth has been slow. Although organs are not matched by race and ethnicity, a significant gap remains between donors and transplant candidates among Hispanic people. About 15% of organ donors in 2023 were Hispanic, federal data shows. That’s about […]
TP53INP2 protein expression decreases during aging and is associated with sarcopenia and unhealthy aging in humans. (a) quantification of TP53INP2 protein expression in muscle biopsies from young and aged human subjects. (b) correlation of muscle TP53INP2 protein expression with age in human subjects. (c) correlation of muscle TP53INP2 protein expression with hand grip strength in […]
Cardiac MRI of a patient with dilated cardiomyopathy (left) and an individual without heart disease (right). In the patient with dilated cardiomyopathy, the size of the heart is increased and its pumping capacity is reduced. Credit: CNIC Dilated cardiomyopathy is the most frequent cause of heart failure in young people and is the leading cause […]
Neighborhood disadvantage is associated with shorter breast cancer-specific survival, according to a study published online April 18 in JAMA Network Open. Neha Goel, M.D., M.P.H., from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and colleagues examined whether neighborhood disadvantage is associated with shorter breast cancer-specific survival in a national retrospective cohort study involving patients […]
An inpatient, epilepsy-related rehabilitation program shows lasting effects on several aspects of adaptation to epilepsy and quality of life, according to a study published April 16 in Epilepsia. Ulrich Specht, from the Medical School OWL at Bielefeld University in Germany, and colleagues evaluated the efficacy of a specialized inpatient rehabilitation program in patients with newly […]
Credit: Boston University, photo by CDC on Unsplash. According to The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD, can affect children’s language development and communication in a variety of ways. While some children with ASD may encounter difficulties communicating verbally, others exhibit impressive vocabularies and the ability to […]
First Nations patients in Alberta leave emergency departments (EDs) without completing treatment more often than comparable non–First Nations patients, due in part to anti-Indigenous racism expressed by providers, found new research published in Canadian Medical Association Journal. Higher proportions of incomplete ED care for First Nations patients compared with non–First Nations patients occurred even in […]
Credit: neerja panchal from Pexels The U.N. labor organization warned Monday that over 70% of the world’s workforce is likely to be exposed to excessive heat during their careers, citing increased concern about exposure to sunlight. It also warned of air pollution, pesticides and other hazards that could lead to health problems including cancer. In […]
Middle-aged and older adults believe that old age begins later in life than their peers did decades ago, according to a study. “Life expectancy has increased, which might contribute to a later perceived onset of old age. Also, some aspects of health have improved over time, so that people of a certain age who were […]
Atrial fibrillation (Afib), a common type of arrhythmia that is on the rise in people under the age of 65, is more dangerous in this increasingly younger population than previously thought, according to a new study published in Circulation Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology and authored by physician-scientists at the UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute. The study, […]
The hydrogel electric generator and its working mechanism. Credit: Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45931-7 Mechanoelectrical energy conversion offers a promising solution for powering miniaturized biomedical devices, such as cardiac pacemakers, brain stimulators, wearable drug delivery systems, and more. Although there have been various proposals for miniaturized mechanoelectrical converters in the past decade, the challenge of […]
Retinoblastoma is a rare pediatric cancer, with approximately 250–300 new cases per year in the United States and 8,000 worldwide. The cancer grows within the retina, a thin layer of cells at the back of the eye, and is usually treatable when diagnosed early. However, if undiagnosed, retinoblastoma can metastasize and lead to death. Research […]
Firearm-related injuries have been the leading cause of death in children and adolescents in the U.S. since 2020, surpassing motor vehicle crashes. New research from the University of Minnesota shows the sharpest increase in firearm-related mortality over the past decade is not in urban areas but among Black rural youth. Historically, firearm-related deaths between ages […]
As axonal mitochondria are lost, changes in the subunits of eIF2 are seen which hamper translation and autophagy and cause the accumulation of proteins in cells. Credit: Tokyo Metropolitan University Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have identified how proteins collect abnormally in neurons, a feature of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. The research is published in […]
High-resolution, high-speed tracking of zebrafish behavior in a large environment. A Schematic illustration of our experimental setup and analysis pipeline. B Head centroid trajectories in a small, walled environment (30?mm) and a large, unwalled environment (90?mm). C Distributions of head centroids during experiments across tested fish. D Swimming distance per minute during spontaneous exploration (red) […]
A new study led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) suggests that female mice that are prone to anxiety may prefer and actively seek out a starvation-like state in response to repeated exposure to stress. The findings, published in the journal Neuron, may provide a useful experimental model for investigating the neural […]
Graphical abstract. Credit: Cell Stem Cell (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.stem.2024.03.017 Researchers at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and Boston University (BU) have published a new study detailing the development of a method for generating human alveolar epithelial type I cells (AT1s) from pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). The ability to recreate these cells in an iPSC-based model will […]
Comprehensive view of a whole mouse brain, showcasing cells detected by DELiVR. Each color represents a different brain region, illustrating the spatial distribution of neuronal activity. Credit: Luciano Höher / Helmholtz Munich Researchers at Helmholtz Munich and the LMU University Hospital Munich introduce DELiVR, offering a new AI-based approach to the complex task of brain […]
SARS-CoV-2 library preparation for tARC-seq. Credit: Nature Microbiology (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41564-024-01655-4 The SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID has the unsettling ability of often generating variants of itself. Other viruses also mutate, but as SARS-CoV-2 quickly spread throughout the entire human population during the pandemic, killing millions, the virus’ dynamic evolution posed a serious problem: it […]
Pie charts with the cytosine proportion in the particular cluster to all aDMR cytosines; DNA methylation trajectories during aging as Z-scores and methylation distribution per age group. Red shading marks clusters chosen for further analyses. Credit: Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-47316-2 DNA methylation data provide extremely accurate age predictors, but so far, little is known […]
To develop porokeratosis, people need two damaged copies of the gene, “two hits.” One they acquire either from their parents (left) or through epigenetic silencing early in their fetal development (middle and right). This predisposes them to developing the disease but in itself is not symptomatic. In the case of epigenetic silencing, individuals are mosaics […]
Primary health care, conditional cash transfers and social pensions have prevented 1.4 million deaths of all ages in Brazil over the past two decades, according to a study coordinated by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal). If expanded, these programs could avert an additional 1.3 million deaths and 6.6 million hospitalizations by 2030. The […]
Skeletal muscle fibers. Credit: Berkshire Community College Bioscience Image Library / Public domain In a world with rapidly aging societies, there’s a need for a detailed understanding of the cause and progression of diseases associated with aging. Skeletal muscle is the key motor system in the human body and plays a pivotal role in body […]
Graphical abstract. Credit: Molecular Therapy – Methods & Clinical Development (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.omtm.2024.101248 Metachromatic leukodystrophy is a rare genetic disorder that mainly affects young children and results in severe neurological symptoms accompanied by a loss of motor and intellectual capacities. At Paris Brain Institute, Françoise Piguet and her colleagues have developed a gene therapy treatment […]
Distribution profile of Tn antigen upon its albumin-mediated delivery to various organs. When delivered in abundance, the antigen leads to an intense green emission, as in the lymph node. Credit: NJ Group/IISc Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have designed a synthetic compound (antigen) that can latch on to a protein in blood […]
There are no silver bullets, magic tricks or secret hacks to solving complex public health problems. Taking on the global tobacco industry and reducing the devastating consequences of smoking has taken decades of incremental reforms. Most of these reforms have focused on making smoking less attractive, to reduce the appeal of and demand for tobacco […]
Even though fentanyl-linked fatal overdoses are soaring among young adults, a new survey of American college students found that just 1 in 7 knew how to administer the overdose antidote drug naloxone. Many who took the survey “reported high willingness to intervene during an overdose, yet only a small proportion knew how to administer naloxone, […]
From 2000 to 2022, there was an increase in the lifetime risk for atrial fibrillation, according to a study published online April 17 in The BMJ. Nicklas Vinter, M.D., Ph.D., from Aalborg University in Denmark, and colleagues examined how the lifetime risks for atrial fibrillation and complications after atrial fibrillation have changed over time (from […]
Credit: Kampus Production from Pexels Are you concerned about the time your child spends on digital devices? If so, you’re hardly alone. Many parents and caregivers worry that screen time is taking over their child’s day (and night), crowding out other activities they need for good health. It helps to create a family media plan […]
The world’s oldest conjoined twins, Lori and George Schappell, recently died, aged 62. Doctors predicted that the twins (who were joined at the skull and shared 30% of their brain) would not live past the age of 30. But the twins defied expectations and managed to live long and successful lives. The twins made headlines […]
Cutaneous manifestations of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) are described in a perspective piece published in the April issue of Skin Health and Disease. Xiang Li Tan, M.B.B.S., from St. George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in London, and colleagues conducted a systematic review to examine the prevalence, types, and prognostic and therapeutic significance of nonspecific cutaneous […]
An exemplar J-shaped curve. In epidemiological relationships of this form, the nadir for risk (more formally, the theoretical minimum risk exposure level) aligns with a small but non-zero amount of alcohol consumption. Typically, as drinking levels increase, risk soon exceeds that associated with abstinence from alcohol (passing the point of ‘non-drinker equivalence’) and rises steeply. […]
The term “mysterious pneumonia” has become particularly triggering since early 2020. This is how the yet-to-be-named disease COVID-19 was first described when a cluster of cases was identified in Wuhan, China. This term is being used again to describe a cluster of “atypical” pneumonia cases in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Some cases of psittacosis, also known […]
For children younger than 5 years, the incidence of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) hospitalization increased in 2021 and 2022 compared with 2015 to 2019, according to a study published online April 18 in JAMA Network Open. Robert J. Suss, M.P.H., and Eric A.F. Simões, M.B.B.S., M.D., from the University of Colorado School of Medicine in […]
Natural history studies serve as an important standard in medical research because they analyze demographic, genetic, environmental and other variables to better understand how a disease develops and its clinical outcomes. Because these studies are often prospective, identifying goals and following patients to learn about them, they are less ideal for very rare diseases where […]
Many people have mental health concerns from time to time. But a mental health concern becomes a mental illness when ongoing signs and symptoms cause frequent stress and affect your ability to function. What may happen when a person with mental illness stops his medication and fell out of treatment. On April 13, Joel Cauchi […]
Using digital platforms is increasingly the only option to manage our daily lives, from filling out forms at the doctor’s office or government offices to ordering food, booking a cab, paying taxes, banking, shopping or dating. Often, people are coerced into using apps or online platforms by the absence of any other options. Our social […]
Given a single portrait image, a speech audio clip, and optionally a set of other control signals, our approach produces a high-quality lifelike talking face video of 512× 512 resolution at up to 40 FPS. The method is generic and robust, and the generated talking faces can faithfully mimic human facial expressions and head movements, […]
Saunas have been used for thousands of years and are still popular today. Sauna benefits may include easing pain, reducing stress, and improving cardiovascular health. Regardless of how a sauna is heated, or the humidity level, the effects on the body are similar. When a person sits in a sauna, their heart rate increases and […]
Interpreters, translators and subtitlers should not fear artificial intelligence (AI), as training in new forms of real-time human-AI interaction (HAII) can increase their working memory and task-switching abilities, according to new research from Surrey’s Centre for Translation Studies (CTS). The project focused on Interlingual Respeaking (IRSP), a new practice where live subtitles in another […]
The arrival of ChatGPT sent shockwaves through the journalism industry. The rise of artificial intelligence has forced an increasing number of journalists to grapple with the ethical and editorial challenges posed by the rapidly expanding technology. AI’s role in assisting newsrooms or transforming them completely was among the questions raised at the International Journalism Festival […]
Have you ever felt reluctant to share ideas during a meeting because you feared judgment from senior colleagues? You’re not alone. Research has shown this pervasive issue can lead to a lack of diversity in public discourse, especially when junior members of a community don’t speak up because they feel intimidated. Anonymous communication can alleviate […]
Credit: AI-generated image Full disclosure: ChatGPT didn’t write this—but theoretically, it could have. Generative AI has progressed to the point where its output seems comparable in style and quality to that of human content creators. At first glance, at least. As a result, human creatives are feeling a bit defensive these days, their fears of […]
With superhero movies losing pop culture steam, the next big thing emerging on the horizon is video game flicks. Over the past few years, films and TV shows based on interactive entertainment have steadily gained traction, with the likes of “Sonic the Hedgehog,” “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and “The Last of Us.” Hollywood’s relationship […]
Earlier this year, Neuralink implanted a chip inside the brain of 29-year-old US man Noland Arbaugh, who is paralyzed from the shoulders down. The chip has enabled Arbaugh to move a mouse pointer on a screen just by imagining it moving. In May 2023, US researchers also announced a non-invasive way to “decode” the words […]
Overview of the experimental workflow. (A) Participants fill in a survey about their demographic information and political orientation. (B) Every 5 minutes, participants are randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions. The two players then debate for 10 minutes on an assigned proposition, randomly holding the PRO or CON standpoint as instructed. (C) After […]
As artificial intelligence creeps further into people’s daily lives, so do worries about it. At the most alarmist are concerns about AI going rogue and terminating its human masters. But behind the calls for a pause on the development of AI is a suite of more tangible social ills. Among them are the risks AI […]
University of Sydney researchers have used an AI-assisted application to help people write cartoon captions for cartoons published in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest. Twenty participants with little to no experience writing cartoon captions wrote 400 cartoon captions: 200 captions were written with the help from the AI tool, and the remainder were written […]
Credit: AI-generated image From asking our smart speakers for the weather to receiving personalized advice from smartwatches, devices powered by artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly streamlining our routines and decision making. The technology is seeping into our lives in subtle ways. Manufacturers gather vast amounts of user data to ensure these smart devices are responsive […]
From Barcelona to Mexico City, popular tourist destinations are facing droughts and running out of water. Yet, a huge 40% of household water is used for showers and baths, with products like shower gel actively encouraging people to spend longer washing so finding simple and scalable ways to cut water consumption is crucial. Our team […]
One of the hallmarks of humanity is language, but now, powerful new artificial intelligence tools also compose poetry, write songs, and have extensive conversations with human users. Tools like ChatGPT and Gemini are widely available at the tap of a button—but just how smart are these AIs? A new multidisciplinary research effort co-led by Anna […]
Inferring rewards from boundedly-rational trajectories. The agent will move to the blue star (a), but prefers to move toward the orange star when both are available (b). When locating the orange star requires solving a harder search problem, however, the agent seeks the blue star instead, indicating that its search abilities are limited (c). Our […]
A chatbot turns hostile. A test version of a Roomba vacuum collects images of users in private situations. A Black woman is falsely identified as a suspect on the basis of facial recognition software, which tends to be less accurate at identifying women and people of color. These incidents are not just glitches, but examples […]
Humans are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) to inform decisions about our lives. AI is, for instance, helping to make hiring choices and offer medical diagnoses. If you were affected, you might want an explanation of why an AI system produced the decision it did. Yet AI systems are often so computationally complex that not […]
Colorado on Wednesday expanded its privacy law to include brain data gathered by the booming array of gadgets people use for feedback about sleep, fitness, sports, and lifestyle. Nonprofit Neurorights Foundation said it worked with the state on the unprecedented legal protection for neurological data gathered by devices not governed by privacy laws applied to […]
Web and mobile services try to understand the desires and goals of users by analyzing how they interact with their platforms. Smartphones, for instance, capture online data from users at a large scale and low cost. Policymakers have reacted by enforcing mechanisms to mitigate the risks inherent in tech companies storing and processing their citizens’ […]
Joelle Pineau, Vice President AI Research, speaks at the at the Meta AI Day in London on April 9, 2024. Meta, Google and OpenAI, along with leading startups, are churning out new AI language models and trying to persuade customers that they’ve got the smartest or fastest or cheapest chatbot technology. Credit: AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, […]
An overview of the modeling approach. Credit: Danqing Shi et al An entirely new predictive typing model can simulate different kinds of users, helping reveal ways to optimize how we use our phones. Developed by researchers at Aalto University, the new model captures the difference between typing with one or two hands and between younger […]
As GenAI advances, it will become harder to know which output was created by GenAI and what was created by a human. It will blur the lines between real and generated content, between truth and falsehood, and between fact and fiction. This has profound implications for the justice system. Can AI evidence be admitted in […]
Credit: Device (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.device.2024.100355 A new study from NC State University combines three-dimensional embroidery techniques with machine learning to create a fabric-based sensor that can control electronic devices through touch. The paper is published in the journal Device. As the field of wearable electronics gains more interest and new functions are added to clothing, […]
Structure of the human hand and the prosthetic hand. (A) Diagram of bone structure of the human hand. (B) Overall structure of prosthetic hand. (C) Structure of the index finger and its exploded view. (D) Thumb structure and its exploded view. Credit: Cyborg and Bionic Systems (2023). DOI: 10.34133/cbsystems.0066 The electromyographic (EMG) signal is the […]
Robotic arm equipped with 3D-printed robotic pads developed by Joohyung Kim and collaborators highlighted. Credit: The Grainger College of Engineering at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Soft skin coverings and touch sensors have emerged as a promising feature for robots that are both safer and more intuitive for human interaction, but they are expensive and difficult […]
A robot is chatting to an elderly British man in his bedroom. The robot has a cheery demeanor and a pleasantly high-pitched voice. The robot—perhaps because of the man’s age—starts asking him about his memories of the Second World War: “Please tell me what was the most difficult thing you and your family had to […]
The use of computer-generated supermodels has complicated implications for diversity. Although AI modeling agencies — some of them Black-owned — can render models of all races, genders and sizes at the click of a finger, real models of color who have historically faced higher barriers to entry may be put out of work. Credit: AP […]
Google Maps is launching new updates that are intended to make finding travel inspiration and local recommendations in your destination easier. Users will start seeing these lists of suggestions popping up in Google Maps in more than 40 cities across the U.S. and Canada this week. These updates will also be rolled out globally on […]
A new Bar-Ilan University study addresses a fundamental question in the realm of artificial intelligence (AI): Can deep learning architectures achieve greatly above-average confidence for a significant portion of inputs while maintaining overall average confidence? The study’s findings provide an emphatic “yes” to this question, marking a significant leap forward in AI’s ability to discern […]
A screenshot shows all nine versions of Aarabi’s test website, each filtered to simulate a variation of colour-blindness. The bottom-right version is weak protanomaly, or a reduced ability to perceive red light. Credit: Parham Aarabi University of Toronto researcher Parham Aarabi has created an artificial intelligence model that mimics how people use e-commerce websites—and it […]
There has been a recent surge of attention toward attachment theory: from TikTok videos to online quizzes that claim to “assess your attachment style.” It’s become a hot topic, especially in the context of romantic relationships, with some articles claiming that one person (or partner’s) attachment styles are the reason why relationships fail. As experts […]
Could being well informed about politics mean you are less tolerant of differing political opinions? The answer might surprise you and be cause for pause before your next political conversation. New research from Michigan State University suggests that those who feel self-confident about their political abilities are more likely to discriminate against those who hold […]
Games may be the secret to learning numbers based subjects like math and economics, according to new research. Many students say they struggle with subjects like economics and statistics, with 83% of university courses in these subjects taught using a traditional lecturing approach. However, new research has shown that by including games in the teaching […]
Anyone who regularly watches news or sports has likely noticed the steady creep of content competing for screen space, whether it be stock market prices, social media posts, game scores or some other graphic display. Previous studies have indicated that high-intensity visuals that employ vibrant displays of information tend to hamper both long- and short-term […]
During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone away. What are online schools doing now? What does the research say? And how do you know if they might be a good fit for your child? […]
While four Ontario school boards recently announced a $4.5-billion lawsuit against the social media giants behind Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, Brock University experts are calling for additional actions to address the influence popular online platforms have on teens. Professor Shauna Pomerantz in the Department of Child and Youth Studies says that although a leak […]
Like spoken languages, sign languages evolve organically and do not always have the same origin. This produces different ways of communication and annotation. This is the subject of Manolis Fragkiadakis’s Ph.D. thesis. “Contrary to what many people assume, there is in fact no universal sign language,” says Fragkiadakis. “Sign language can be even more fragmented […]
“Cancel culture” has a bad reputation. There is growing anxiety over this practice of publicly shaming people online for violating social norms ranging from inappropriate jokes to controversial business practices. Online shaming can be a wildly disproportionate response that violates the privacy of the shamed while offering them no good way to defend themselves. These […]
It’s not at all clear that disinformation has, to date, swung an election that would otherwise have gone another way. But there is a strong sense that it has had a significant impact, nonetheless. With AI now being used to create highly believable fake videos and to spread disinformation more efficiently, we are right to […]
Credit: Andre Furtado from Pexels There is growing concern about people’s unwillingness to get to know their neighbors. This concern is significant enough to have spurred research into what has been termed the “emerging asocial society”—one of the challenge areas of an initiative called Imagining Canada’s Future. To contribute to this challenge, our research examines […]
The electronic tongue or “e-tongue” housed at the Washington State University Sensory Science Center. A research team led by WSU Food Scientist Carolyn Ross found that the e-tongue detected white wine “faults” or spoilage a full month before a human sensory panel noticed the change in aroma. Credit: Washington State University While the electronic tongue […]
The three life cycle diagrams used in the study. Credit: Jennifer Landin Life cycle diagrams are ubiquitous in science textbooks, and they may be due for some updates. A new study finds simple design changes in these diagrams can have a dramatic impact on the ability of undergraduate students to understand key biology concepts. “We […]
Knowing your ABCs is essential to academic success, but having a last name starting with A, B or C might also help make the grade. An analysis by University of Michigan researchers of more than 30 million grading records from U-M finds students with alphabetically lower-ranked names receive lower grades. This is due to sequential […]
Meat products (top left, veal; bottom left, bresaola) tend to contain more proteins and amino acids than their plant-based alternatives (right). Credit: Adapted from Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 2024, DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.3c08956 Many plant-based meats have seemingly done the impossible by recreating animal products ranging from beef to seafood. But beyond just the taste […]
Arabica coffee beans harvested the previous year are stored at a coffee plantation in Ciudad Vieja, Guatemala, on May 22, 2014. In a study published in the journal Nature Genetics on Monday, April 15, 2024, researchers estimate that Coffea arabica came to be from natural crossbreeding of two other coffee species over 600,000 years ago. […]
Germán A. Cadenas. Credit: Rutgers University Germán A. Cadenas, an expert in immigration and mental health, embarked on a journey to the Texas border earlier this year. As a member of the American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Immigration and Health, he visited migrant camps on both sides, engaging in conversations with those directly […]
Colleen Harmeling, a Florida State University College of Business researcher, points to photo filters, overly edited photos and other distortions of user-generated content as impediments to consumer trust. In turn, they are potential barriers to the performance of products that users present and discuss online. Harmeling, FSU’s Dr. Persis E. Rockwood associate professor of marketing […]
Several antipsychotic treatments given to patients with dementia have been linked to serious side effects including heart failure, a study published Thursday has found. “Antipsychotic use in people with dementia is associated with… a wide range of serious adverse outcomes including stroke, blood clots, heart attack, heart failure, fracture, pneumonia, and acute kidney injury,” according […]
Picture a group of students tackling a complex project: some are brainstorming, others are researching, and some are planning the presentation. Each student plays a unique role, yet they all work together. This everyday scene in classrooms inspired the research by the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University described in a new paper […]
Extending sharp-wave ripple detection to non-human primates. Credit: Communications Biology (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s42003-024-05871-w An international research collaboration between Vanderbilt University and the Madrid-based de la Prida lab in the Cajal Institute led to the development of AI models that detect and analyze hippocampal ripples, which are considered biomarkers of memory. The research discoveries, outlined in […]
It’s true that our 16th-century ancestors drank much more than Irish people do today. But why they did so and what their beer was like are questions shrouded in myth. The authors were part of a team who set out to find some answers. As part of a major study of food and drink in […]
If you’ve spent a lonely night at home eating chocolates and/or ice cream, you shouldn’t feel guilty. That’s because loneliness can cause an intense desire for sugary foods, a new study found. Published in JAMA Network Open, researchers linked brain chemistry from those who socially isolate to poor mental health, weight gain, cognitive decline, and […]
People with a history of cognitively stimulating occupations during their 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s had a lower risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia after age 70, according to a new study from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, the Columbia Aging Center, and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. The findings […]
The lexical categorization process and its implementation in the left-ventral occipito-temporal cortex. Credit: npj Science of Learning (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41539-024-00237-7 A team of researchers from the University of Cologne and the University of Würzburg have found in training studies that the distinction between known and unknown words can be trained and leads to more efficient […]
Despite growing momentum to increase female representation in Australia’s national parliament, it continues to be a male dominated domain. New research from Monash University explores why young women still feel reluctant to become a member of the national parliament. The research, now published under the title “Investigating the ambitions of young women to run for […]
You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back 10 years to realize how quickly things have changed. In 2013, we were still predominantly buying paper bus tickets and using Facebook on a desktop computer. Now, we order food […]
This year, organizers of Earth Day are calling for widespread climate education as a critical step in the fight against climate change. A new report, released in time for global attention for Earth Day on April 22, highlights the impact of climate education on promoting behavior change in the next generation. Despite people’s deep connection […]
Common methods for sampling insects such as sweep-netting (top left) can capture insects that are inactive during the sampling period. In contrast, sampling methods that intercept moving insects such as flight-interception traps (top right), pitfall traps (bottom left) and drift nets (bottom right) enable better comparisons of insect activity between day and night. Credit: Nature […]