In animal assisted therapy, horses may aid the treatment of patients with substance use disorders by boosting mood and quality of life

Embargoed until 2 p.m. ET, Wednesday June 28, 2023 COLUMBUS, Ohio – Imagine strapping on a virtual reality headset and “walking” through a long-gone neighborhood in your city – seeing the streets and buildings as they appeared decades ago. That’s a very real possibility now that researchers have developed a method to create 3D digital models of historic neighborhoods using machine learning and historic Sanborn Fire Insurance maps. But the digital models will be more than just a novelty – they will give researchers a resource to conduct studies that would have been nearly ...

NYC researchers' community-led response to the mpox outbreak used principles learned from Global South colleagues. #### Article URL: https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0002042 Article Title: Global North learning from Global South: A community-led response to mpox in New York City Author Countries: USA Funding: This work was supported by amfAR (110396-72-PAGN to KM), the Harvard University Center for AIDS Research (HU CFAR NIH/NIAID fund 5P30AO060354-18 to KM), the Harvard University ...

Scientists studying endangered southern resident killer whales have observed a strong increase in the prevalence of skin disease in this population.  In a study published today, June 29, in PLOS ONE, researchers document a steady increase in the occurrence of highly correlated gray patches and gray targets on the whales’ skin from 2004 to 2016. Despite not knowing the underlying cause, the study’s authors are concerned.  After ruling out potential environmental factors, such as changes ...

An international team of researchers has developed a new method to deliver drugs into the inner ear.  The discovery was possible by harnessing the natural flow of fluids in the brain and employing a little understood backdoor into the cochlea. When combined to deliver a gene therapy that repairs inner ear hair cells, the researchers were able to restore hearing in deaf mice.  “These findings demonstrate that cerebrospinal fluid transport comprises an accessible route for gene delivery to the adult inner ear and may represent an important step towards using gene therapy to restore hearing in humans,” ...

Benzodiazepine use and discontinuation is associated with nervous system injury and negative life effects that continue after discontinuation, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. The study was published today in the journal PLOS One. “Despite the fact that benzodiazepines have been widely prescribed for decades, this survey presents significant new evidence that a subset of patients experience long-term neurological complications,” said Alexis Ritvo, M.D, M.P.H., an assistant professor in psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and  medical director of the nonprofit ...

PHILADELPHIA – An experimental antibody treatment largely prevented a bone marrow transplant complication called graft versus host disease (GVHD) in the intestines, without causing broad immune suppression, in a preclinical study led by researchers from Penn Medicine and Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center and published today in Science Translational Medicine. Even when a bone marrow transplant cures leukemia or lymphoma, GVHD—in which T cells in the donor graft attack the recipient’s own tissues—can still be fatal. The condition ...

A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Zurich delved into the capabilities of AI models, specifically focusing on OpenAI’s GPT-3, to determine their potential risks and benefits in generating and disseminating (dis)information. Led by postdoctoral researchers Giovanni Spitale and Federico Germani, alongside Nikola Biller-Andorno, director of the Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine (IBME), University of Zurich, the study involving 697 participants sought to evaluate whether individuals could differentiate between disinformation and accurate ...

Vehicle Color Recognition (VCR) is vital in intelligent traffic management and criminal investigation assistance. However, the existing vehicle color datasets only cover 13 classes, which can not meet the current actual demand. Besides, although lots of efforts are devoted to VCR, they suffer from the problem of class imbalance in datasets. To solve the problems, a research team led by Mingdi HU published their new research in Frontiers of Computer Science co-published by Higher Education Press and Springer·Nature. The team propose a novel VCR method ...

The Science Partner Journal (SPJ) program is pleased to announce the inclusion of five SPJs in the 2023 Journal Citation Reports (JCR) from Clarivate. Research, launched in 2018, received its second Journal Impact Factor (JIF) this year, 11.0, ranking it #9 among 73 journals in the Multidisciplinary category in Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE).   Plant Phenomics also launched in 2018 and received its second JIF this year, 6.5, ranking it #5 among 88 journals in the Agronomy, #21 among ...

Scientists identify the first genetic marker for MS severity, opening the door to preventing long-term disability. A study of more than 22,000 people with multiple sclerosis has discovered the first genetic variant associated with faster disease progression that can rob patients of their mobility and independence over time. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the result of the immune system mistakenly attacking the brain and the spinal cord, resulting in symptom flares known as relapses as well as longer-term degeneration known as progression. Despite the development of effective treatments for relapses, ...