(Press-News.org) Twenty-two million Americans would no longer be breathing in unhealthy levels of nitrogen dioxide if they switched from gas and propane stoves to electric stoves. Robert Jackson and colleagues combined outdoor air quality data with estimates of indoor nitrogen dioxide emissions from stoves in more than fifteen cities. As outdoor air quality improves, stoves become an increasingly important source of exposure. According to the World Health Organization, health risks to the respiratory system increase at levels above 5.2 parts per billion by volume. Taking indoor and outdoor sources together, the authors found that average total residential long-term nitrogen dioxide exposure is approximately 10 parts per billion by volume for people with gas stoves and approximately 8 parts per billion by volume for those with electric stoves. For households in the 95th percentile of gas stove use, which corresponds to using multiple gas burners and a gas oven for multiple hours a day, stoves account for more than half of total nitrogen dioxide exposure. The authors estimate that approximately 22 million people whose outdoor nitrogen dioxide exposure falls below World Health Organization guidelines exceed those guidelines due to gas stove use. According to the authors, the study’s ZIP-code-level exposure maps could help identify regions to prioritize for indoor and outdoor air quality interventions, particularly in lower-income communities.
END
Gas stoves and nitrogen dioxide exposure
2025-12-02
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Beauty linked with metabolic costs of perceiving images
2025-12-02
Humans may find images that take less energy to process aesthetically pleasing, suggesting that our attraction to beauty is at least partially an energy conservation strategy.
Looking at something can feel effortless, but in energetic terms, it isn’t cheap. The brain uses 20% of the body’s energy, and the visual system accounts for about 44% of that expenditure. Looking at very simple stimuli, like a blank white room, is energy-efficient but boring. Looking at very busy or unusual image can feel tiring and unpleasant. Yikai Tang and colleagues presented 4,914 ...
First Nations Australians twice as likely to be digitally excluded: report
2025-12-02
First Nations Australians are twice as likely as other Australians to be digitally excluded and face barriers to accessing, affording and using the internet. For those living in remote Australia, the barriers are much greater.
Three in four First Nations people living in remote and very remote communities are digitally excluded according to the Mapping the Digital Gap report by RMIT University and Swinburne University of Technology. This means many face significant barriers to accessing and using online services needed for daily social, economic and cultural life.
This 2025 outcomes report draws on three years of ...
Korea University study finds restless legs syndrome linked to Parkinson’s risk—dopamine treatment may be protective
2025-12-02
Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a common neurological sleep disorder characterized by an uncontrollable urge to move the legs, often worsening at night. Parkinson’s disease (PD), a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, is marked by tremor, rigidity, and slowed movement. Both conditions are associated with dysfunction in the brain’s dopaminergic system, but their causal relationship has remained unclear.
A joint research team from Korea University Ansan Hospital, Pohang Stroke and Spine Hospital, and National Health ...
Pusan National University researchers use AI to create optimized engine components that outperform human designs
2025-12-02
Gerotor pumps for oil circulation and lubrication are crucial components in automotive and hydraulic systems. They possess a compact design, excellent flow rate per rotation, and high suction capability. The gerotor tooth profile plays a significant role in determining the overall performance of hydraulic systems for engine lubrication and automatic transmission. Unfortunately, conventional design methods leverage predefined mathematical curves and iterative adjustments, which compromises their optimization ...
Approximate domain unlearning: Enabling safer and more controllable vision-language models
2025-12-02
Vision-language model (VLM) is a core technology of modern artificial intelligence (AI), and it can be used to represent different forms of expression or learning, such as photographs, illustrations, and sketches. It has high generalization ability, which allows it to accurately recognize objects in images within a domain. However, this generalization ability is at risk. For example, VLM recognizes both real cars and illustrated cars as “cars.” If this is installed in a system, there is a risk that a car illustrated in a roadside advertisement ...
Moths detect bat attack signals: Ultrasonic pulse rates drive distinct escape responses
2025-12-02
For many nocturnal moths, hearing sound waves is a matter of survival in night sky. Their ability to detect ultrasonic calls emitted by bats determines whether they escape or become prey. This predator-prey relationship has shaped the behavior, physiology, and sensory systems of both groups. Echolocating bats have developed complex call patterns to track insects in flight, while moths have evolved remarkable countermeasures, including evasive flight and sound-deflection tactics. The luna moth, for instance, spins its long hindwings to deflect the ultrasonic ...
Intimate partner violence injury patterns linked with suicidal behavior
2025-12-02
CHICAGO – Victims of intimate partner violence with suicidal behavior have characteristic injury patterns on medical imaging, according to a new study being presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). The findings open the door to improved screening and earlier intervention to better protect these vulnerable populations, the researchers said.
Intimate partner violence is the physical, emotional or sexual abuse of a person by their partner or spouse. It is an increasingly recognized risk factor for suicidal behavior, and victims of intimate partner violence ...
Blood test shows obesity speeds Alzheimer’s development
2025-12-02
CHICAGO – Researchers have conducted the first study evaluating the impact of obesity on Alzheimer’s disease blood biomarkers (BBMs). BBM values increased up to 95% faster in individuals with obesity than in non-obese individuals, according to a new study being presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
“This is the first time we’ve shown the relationship between obesity and Alzheimer’s disease as measured by blood biomarker tests,” said Cyrus ...
New study supports the value of medical humanities in illuminating the root causes of health care disparities in Washington, DC
2025-12-02
WASHINGTON -- A new study analyzing dozens of published papers over five decades focusing on health care disparities in Washington, DC, found that those that employed medical humanities approaches identified crucial barriers and opportunities for intervention that quantitative studies often miss.
Lead author Sweta Ghatti, a fourth year student at Georgetown School of Medicine, began the study as part of a Mitchell Summer Research Scholarship project addressing health challenges in the District. Ghatti worked closely with senior author Lakshmi Krishnan, MD, PhD, assistant professor ...
Uncovering the principle by which DNA replication initiation sites are determined in the human genome
2025-12-02
When cells proliferate, genomic DNA is precisely duplicated once per cell cycle. Abnormalities in this DNA replication process can cause alterations in genomic DNA, promoting cellular ageing, cancer, and genetic disorders. Therefore, understanding how cells replicate their DNA is crucial for elucidating fundamental biological processes, diseases, and even evolution.
Traditionally, DNA replication has been studied in microorganisms such as E. coli and yeast. In these organisms, the location where DNA replication begins (replication origin) is determined by a specific DNA sequence. However, in most eukaryotic cells, including human cells, the DNA sequence itself ...