bioRxiv and PaperPlayer pilot a new feature to increase accessibility

Neuroscience preprint abstracts are now available in audio versions

2023-04-20

(Press-News.org) Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory announced today that its life sciences preprint server bioRxiv has partnered with PaperPlayer, a service for converting manuscripts into high-quality audio, to provide audio versions of preprint abstracts in the bioRxiv Neuroscience category. This new feature increases content accessibility and offers a way of obtaining information from preprints that’s an alternative to a screen. It is being piloted in the Neuroscience category to assess its value for preprint users.

"This new feature extends and diversifies the distribution of information from bioRxiv, making it more versatile and accessible," said John Inglis, co-founder of bioRxiv. "We are pleased to partner with PaperPlayer in this pilot and welcome community feedback as we consider extending the scope of preprint audio distribution”

"We are thrilled to partner with bioRxiv to increase accessibility to scientific research through audio abstracts”, said Taylor Hanayik, founder of PaperPlayer. “Our collaboration provides an innovative approach to consuming research, allowing listeners to stay up-to-date on the latest scientific findings. Audio is an underutilized modality in research communication, despite its potential to increase accessibility and engagement with scientific content. The partnership between bioRxiv and PaperPlayer aims to address this gap by providing an alternative mode for consuming scientific content, thereby enhancing the dissemination of research findings. We look forward to continuing our partnership with bioRxiv and exploring new ways to bring audio publishing to the forefront of scientific communication."

bioRxiv readers can access the audio content by clicking on the Audio Abstract link on preprints in the Neuroscience category found either on the main site or in the Neuroscience Collection Page. Guidance on how to do this is illustrated on the bioRxiv site.The bioRxiv team is collecting responses to this initiative and has a dedicated webpage through which bioRxiv users can share reactions and make suggestions for developing the feature.

About bioRxiv

Founded in 2013 by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, an institution dedicated to research, education, and communication in the life sciences, bioRxiv is a preprint server that enables scientists worldwide to distribute and read research manuscripts free of charge, accelerating the pace of science. It currently contains more than 191,000 preprints from 190 countries. Since 2017, bioRxiv has received core support from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

About PaperPlayer

PaperPlayer was created in 2020 as a service to convert open access academic articles to audio using the latest text-to-speech AI technology. PaperPlayer has developed a novel, automated audio publishing workflow and API that complements traditional text-based academic publishing. Today, PaperPlayer offers multiple public podcasts allowing anyone to experience the latest open access life sciences work as audio articles. The founder, Taylor Hanayik, is a software engineer based in Oxford, UK.

END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

AI system can generate novel proteins that meet structural design targets

2023-04-20

MIT researchers are using artificial intelligence to design new proteins that go beyond those found in nature. They developed machine-learning algorithms that can generate proteins with specific structural features, which could be used to make materials that have certain mechanical properties, like stiffness or elasticity. Such biologically inspired materials could potentially replace materials made from petroleum or ceramics, but with a much smaller carbon footprint. The researchers from MIT, the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, and Tufts University employed a generative model, which is the same type of machine-learning model architecture ...

Why are networks stable?

2023-04-20

A single species invades an ecosystem causing its collapse. A cyberattack on the power system causes a major breakdown. These type of events are always on our mind, yet they rarely result in such significant consequences. So how is it that these systems are so stable and resilient that they can withstand such external disruptions? Indeed, these systems lack a central design or blueprint, and still, they exhibit exceptionally reliable functionality. In the early 70s the field of ecology was split on the question of whether biodiversity is a good or a bad thing for an ecosystem. In 1972 Sir Robert May showed, mathematically, that an increase in biodiversity causes less ecological ...

Trends in severe outcomes among patients hospitalized with COVID-19

2023-04-20

About The Study: The findings of this study of 55,000 adult and pediatric patients hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 in Canada suggest that COVID-19 vaccination is important to reduce the burden on the Canadian health care system as well as severe outcomes associated with COVID-19. Authors: Robyn Mitchell, M.H.Sc., of the Public Health Agency of Canada in Ottawa, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.9050) Editor’s ...

Association of social-ecological factors with delay in time to initiation of postoperative radiation therapy

2023-04-20

About The Study: In this study of 171 participants who received primary surgery and postoperative radiation for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, lower levels of written health literacy were significantly associated with postoperative radiation delays when controlling for demographic and clinical factors. The addition of health literacy and the community-level area deprivation index improved the model’s prediction of postoperative radiation delay risk. Authors: Tuleen Sawaf, B.S., of the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamaoto.2023.0308) Editor’s ...

Chitin from consuming insects can help both gut microbiota and global health

2023-04-20

Chitin (kai’tin) and healthy fats from insects appear to contribute to healthy gut microbiota and are strong sources of protein and nutrients, according to a paper co-authored by a Colorado State University researcher and published in Nature Food. Tiffany Weir, an associate professor in CSU’s Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, co-authored the paper with the University of Wisconsin’s Valerie Stull. They pioneered human research on cricket consumption’s effect on gut microbiota. Weir said that her and Stull’s earlier research helped spawn Weir’s latest study of how cricket-derived chitin in designer chocolate patties may increase ...

Does hormone mediate talk between brain and bones?

2023-04-20

Bones, although composing the hardest tissue in the human body, are not stagnant structures. According to recent studies, bones maintain a lively metabolism and closely interact via nerves with the brain. But whether endocrine hormones also play an important role in brain-bone talk has been unclear. Researchers from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences now have an answer to this question. They have revealed that the subfornical organ (SFO), a brain nucleus above the third ventricle ...

Engineering the next generation of cell and gene therapies

2023-04-20

Cedars-Sinai investigators are developing a novel way to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and retinitis pigmentosa using engineered stem cells that may eventually lead to personalized treatments. The new approach uses cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) that are renewable and scalable, and also can delay the progression of these neurodegenerative diseases in rodents. This research, published in the journal Stem Cell Reports, marks an important first step toward achieving more personalized therapies for people with these debilitating conditions that currently have ...

New lung immuno-oncology therapeutic strategy identified

2023-04-20

New York, NY (April 20, 2023)—Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have demonstrated in a preclinical study a potential new therapeutic approach to treating the most common form of lung cancer. The strategy involves inhibiting the immune-system molecule TREM2 while enhancing natural killer cells (the so-called protectors of the immune system). It was described in the April 20 online issue of Nature Immunology [DOI: 10.1038/s41590-023-01475-4] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-023-01475-4. “Our study reveals that macrophages expressing the molecule TREM2 drive the depletion and dysfunction of effector ...

Cancer survivor gives $10 million to speed translational research and clinical trials

2023-04-20

HOUSTON ― Vijay Goradia, a Houston-based businessman, philanthropist, and cancer survivor, has donated $10 million to The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to speed translational research and clinical trials. An initial allocation of $3.5 million will fund the institution’s clinical trial of a CD70-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) natural killer (NK) cell therapy for patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC), developed by Katy Rezvani, M.D., Ph.D., professor of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy. “We are focused on supporting the innovation ...

Quantum entanglement could make accelerometers and dark matter sensors more accurate

2023-04-20

ANN ARBOR—The "spooky action at a distance" that once unnerved Einstein may be on its way to being as pedestrian as the gyroscopes that currently measure acceleration in smartphones. Quantum entanglement significantly improves the precision of sensors that can be used to navigate without GPS, according to a new study in Nature Photonics. "By exploiting entanglement, we improve both measurement sensitivity and how quickly we can make the measurement," said Zheshen Zhang, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University ...

bioRxiv and PaperPlayer pilot a new feature to increase accessibility

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: