Humans are social creatures and learn from each other, even from a young age. Infants keenly observe their parents, siblings or caregivers. They watch, imitate and replay what they see to learn skills and behaviors.  The way babies learn and explore their surroundings inspired researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Meta to develop a new way to teach robots how to simultaneously learn multiple skills and leverage them to tackle unseen, everyday tasks. The researchers set out to develop a robotic AI agent with manipulation abilities equivalent to a 3-year-old child. The team has announced RoboAgent, an artificial intelligence agent that leverages passive observations and active ...

Every year in the United States, about 1.7 million youth run away from home, which places them at risk for sex trafficking and prostitution. Sadly, most youth tend to fall victim to sex trafficking between the ages of 12 to 14. While federal and state laws have been enacted to protect these runaway youth, they continue to be arrested, charged and detained for prostitution. Detaining youth who should not legally be considered offenders and who have extensive histories of victimization and mental health issues only exacerbates their underlying vulnerabilities that may have led them to run away or be sexually exploited in the first place. There is ...

Insilico Medicine (“Insilico”), a clinical stage generative artificial intelligence (AI) drug discovery company, has announced that it is now a member of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, demonstrating its commitment to the vibrant business community of Montreal and to fostering economic growth in the region. Insilico will officially launch its AI R&D Center in Montreal later this fall. As a new member of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, Insilico brings its innovative expertise ...

NEW YORK, August 8, 2023 — CUNY ASRC researcher Adam Braunschweig’s lab is part of a newly awarded $20 million center from the U.S. National Science Foundation to understand the atomic-scale mysteries of "crushing" chemistry. The multi-institutional award will establish the Center for the Mechanical Control of Chemistry (CMCC), which will conduct work to understand how the mechanical application of force can enable new advances in chemistry and make industrial processes cheaper and more environmentally friendly. “I’m excited that my lab is playing a part in research ...

Sociality plays a pivotal role in the lives of many animal species, influencing mating success, survival rates, and susceptibility to diseases. In the challenging environment of bighorn sheep populations, sociality is believed to have evolved for its fitness benefits. However, the delicate balance of costs and benefits associated with sociality can vary at different scales, leading to diverse interpretations of animal behavior.    New research titled "Bighorn sheep associations: understanding tradeoffs of sociality and implications for disease transmission" has been published in PeerJ Life & Environment. The study, ...

An article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) highlights a case of lead toxicity from Ayurvedic medicines in a young woman, and the complexity in diagnosing the rare condition https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.230592. "Given that lead toxicity is uncommon and its presentation nonspecific, patients are often seen by many health care providers before the diagnosis is made," writes Dr. Julian Gitelman, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, with coauthors. "A careful exposure history is essential to suggest the diagnosis." The patient, a 39-year-old woman, visited the emergency department 3 times in 6 weeks ...

Skin, the largest organ of the human body, is home to a vast array of bacteria, fungi, and viruses – microorganisms that compose the skin microbiota. Among other things, these microbial populations, which are organized in complex community structures, protect against pathogens. Prolonged exposure to UVR is associated with damage to DNA in skin cells, inflammation, and premature skin aging, yet intentional sun-seeking behaviors remain common. Due to a lack of studies focusing on how individual behavior influences UVR-associated microbiota shifts, and how this may relate to skin health, ...

Extreme events in Antarctica such as ocean heatwaves and ice loss will almost certainly become more common and more severe, researchers say. With drastic action now needed to limit global warming to the Paris Agreement target of 1.5°C, the scientists warn that recent extremes in Antarctica may be the tip of the iceberg.  The study reviews evidence of extreme events in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, including weather, sea ice, ocean temperatures, glacier and ice shelf systems, and biodiversity on land and sea. It concludes that Antarctica’s fragile environments “may well be subject to considerable stress and ...

The world's first 3D printing technology that can be used in transparent displays and AR devices has been developed, which implements the physical phenomenon of chameleon's changing skin color or peacock's beautiful feather color. Dr. Jaeyeon Pyo’s team at KERI has succeeded in realizing a three-dimensional diffraction grating that can precisely control the path of light based on 'nanoscale 3D printing technology'. This is a novel technology that can utilize the principle of structural color observed in nature ...

Philadelphia, August 8, 2023 – There is a need to better deliver information on medical nutrition therapy for patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Findings of a new study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, published by Elsevier, show digital health serves as an additional health service resource, which increases the healthcare provider’s abilities to collect current visual and objective data, thereby decreasing patient and caregiver burden and medical expenses.  Lead author Dara Lyn LoBuono, PhD, RD, assistant professor in health and exercise science at Rowan ...

The activity level of six bat species was significantly reduced at solar farm sites, researchers have observed.     Their findings, published today in Journal of Applied Ecology, have the potential to impact and inform planning legislation and policy so that the benefits of solar power are reaped without impacting wildlife.  Renewable technologies are important in meeting energy demands sustainably. This is of vital importance given the roles of fossil fuels in producing carbon dioxide, a key driver of climate change. Renewable energy is growing at a rapid pace globally, with solar photovoltaic power ...

University of Waterloo researchers have developed a new explainable artificial intelligence (AI) model to reduce bias and enhance trust and accuracy in machine learning-generated decision-making and knowledge organization.  Traditional machine learning models often yield biased results, favouring groups with large populations or being influenced by unknown factors, and take extensive effort to identify from instances containing patterns and sub-patterns coming from different classes or primary sources.  The medical field is one area where there are severe implications for biased machine learning results. Hospital staff and medical ...

A remarkable new fossil from China reveals for the first time that a group of reptiles were already using whale-like filter feeding 250 million years ago.  New research by a team from China and the UK has shown details of the skull of an early marine reptile called Hupehsuchus that indicate it had soft structures such as an expanding throat region to allow it to engulf great masses of water containing shrimp-like prey, and baleen whale-like structures to filter food items as it swam forward.  The team also found that the Hupehsuchus skulls show the same grooves and notches along the edges of its jaws similar to baleen whales, ...

In one of the largest studies of its kind, researchers provide answers to whether COVID-19 vaccinations reduce sickness and mortality following infection with SARS-CoV-2. The study published today in The Lancet Microbe found among individuals recently infected with SARS-CoV-2, those who were fully vaccinated had lower concentrations of almost all inflammation markers (cytokines and chemokines) than those who were unvaccinated in the short-term and long-term after symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection. While vaccinations don’t entirely prevent infection, this study demonstrates that vaccination significantly reduces morbidity and mortality by significantly reducing elevated levels ...

Exposure to relatively high levels of air pollution is linked to increased use of community mental health services by people with dementia, finds a large long term study focusing on a large area of London with heavy traffic and published in the open access journal BMJ Mental Health. Cutting levels of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter might reduce demand in urban areas and help free up resources in overstretched psychiatric services, suggest the researchers. An estimated 850,000 people are living with dementia in the UK, with the number projected to increase to 2 million by 2050, in tandem with the ageing of the population. Dementia is already the leading cause of death in the ...

Amid widely differing capacities of available menstrual hygiene products, a menstrual disc—similar in shape to a diaphragm—may be best for dealing with heavy monthly blood flow as well as indicating excessive blood loss, suggests research published online in the journal BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health. Despite the fact that 800 million women around the globe will be on their period every day, menstruation remains something of a taboo subject—a stance that has hindered research and transformed a normal bodily process into something that is often associated with stigma and normalisation of pain, argue gynaecologists in a linked editorial.  Heavy ...

A high level of troponin—a protein normally used to exclude the possibility of a heart attack in patients with chest pain—may signal a heightened risk of death from any cause within the next couple of years, even in the absence of known or suspected cardiovascular disease, suggests research published online in the journal Heart. The finding prompts the researchers to suggest that troponin may therefore have a role as a more general indicator of medium term survival. High cardiac troponin levels are often seen in hospital patients who don’t have ...

Peer-reviewed / Observational and modelling study  Curbing levels of harmful air pollution could help reduce antibiotic resistance, according to the first in-depth global analysis of possible links between the two, published in The Lancet Planetary Health journal.  Findings from the study highlight that controlling air pollution could greatly reduce deaths and economic costs stemming from antibiotic-resistant infections.  The analysis indicates that increased air pollution is potentially linked with a higher risk of antibiotic resistance across global regions. It also indicates that the relationship between the two has strengthened over time, ...

  Current efforts to protect and restore native biodiversity is being threatened by difficulties in identifying wild and domestic cats, and categorisation is likely to remain fraught for the foreseeable future, experts have warned. Efforts to restore the native wildcat (Felis sivestris) are ongoing in Britain and conservationists in New Zealand are also trying to protect native species. Domestic cats pose a threat to other species in both countries.  The study shows New Zealanders are much less sentimental about pest management to protect native species. As a result domestic cats are treated very differently in the two countries. Dr Alexandra Palmer, ...

Cambridge scientists have shown that the hypothalamus, a key region of the brain involved in controlling appetite, is different in the brains of people who are overweight and people with obesity when compared to people who are a healthy weight. The researchers say their findings add further evidence to the relevance of brain structure to weight and food consumption. Current estimations suggest that over 1.9 billion people worldwide are either overweight or obese. In the UK, according to the Office for Health Improvement & Disparities, almost two-thirds ...

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Tumor cells are known to be fickle sleeper agents, often lying dormant in distant tissues for years before reactivating and forming metastasis. Numerous factors have been studied to understand why the activation occurs, from cells and molecules to other components in the so-called tissue microenvironment. Now, an interdisciplinary Cornell team has identified a new mechanism regulating tumor growth in the skeleton, the primary site of breast cancer metastasis: mineralization of the bone matrix, a fibrous mesh of organic and inorganic components that determines the unique biochemical and biomechanical properties of our skeleton. The ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — She’s heading to The Hill! Alexandra Phillips, science communication and policy officer at UC Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), goes to Washington, D.C., this month to begin a yearlong congressional fellowship, sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The first-ever AAAS Legislative Branch Fellow in Climate Science, Phillips hopes to use her own ocean science background to help inform policy and shed light on emerging climate-related ...

Social media helped contribute to the UPND’s impressive victory in the 2021 Zambia elections, new analysis shows.   The party’s online messaging resonated more with users compared to their rivals, helping to portray Hakainde Hichilema as an electorally viable alternative to President Edgar Lungu from the PF. Both parties invested heavily in social media.   The study shows the election was not won online. Instead, social media helped to facilitate the flow of information across a heavily controlled media ecosystem in which face-to-face communication remained key.   While President Edgar Lungu ...

Results from a new study conducted by a team of researchers at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School/Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, and published in the August issue of Health Affairs, show that a substantial portion—nearly half—of low-value care received by Medicare beneficiaries happens outside of their health systems.    The study also revealed that factors such as ...

Consumers should have more visual information about terms and conditions when making purchases online, experts have said. Making information more accessible and transparent helps improve understanding and memory, a new study shows. Researchers have found people are more interested in and more likely to read legalities if they were given this information after their purchase. Pre-purchase reading times were only about half as long as post-purchase reading times, evidencing the lack of attention and interest in disclosures pre-purchase. Shifting the obligation for companies to give more information after purchase could help to alleviate the current information apathy. Asking people ...