TikTok’s swift ascension to the upper echelons of social media is often attributed to its recommendation algorithm, which predicts viewer preferences so acutely it’s spawned a maxim: “The TikTok algorithm knows me better than I know myself.” The platform’s success was so pronounced it’s seemed to spur other social media platforms to shift their designs. When users scroll through X or Instagram, they now see more recommended posts from accounts they don’t follow. Yet for all that influence, the public knows little about how TikTok’s ...

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences has elected three New York University faculty as 2024 fellows: Glennys R. Farrar, a professor in the Department of Physics; André A. Fenton, a professor and chair of the Center for Neural Science; and Rachel L. Swarns, a professor in the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.   “We honor these artists, scholars, scientists, and leaders in the public, non-profit, and private sectors for their accomplishments and for the curiosity, creativity, and courage required ...

When cancer patients undergo chemotherapy, the dose of most drugs is calculated based on the patient’s body surface area. This is estimated by plugging the patient’s height and weight into an equation, dating to 1916, that was formulated from data on just nine patients. This simplistic dosing doesn’t take into account other factors and can lead to patients receiving either too much or too little of a drug. As a result, some patients likely experience avoidable toxicity or insufficient benefit from the chemotherapy they receive. To make chemotherapy dosing more ...

Entanglement is a form of correlation between quantum objects, such as particles at the atomic scale. This uniquely quantum phenomenon cannot be explained by the laws of classical physics, yet it is one of the properties that explains the macroscopic behavior of quantum systems. Because entanglement is central to the way quantum systems work, understanding it better could give scientists a deeper sense of how information is stored and processed efficiently in such systems.  Qubits, or quantum bits, are the building blocks of a quantum computer. However, it is extremely difficult to make specific entangled states in many-qubit ...

Geologists at MIT and Oxford University have uncovered ancient rocks in Greenland that bear the oldest remnants of Earth’s early magnetic field.  The rocks appear to be exceptionally pristine, having preserved their properties for billions of years. The researchers determined that the rocks are about 3.7 billion years old and retain signatures of a magnetic field with a strength of at least 15 microtesla. The ancient field is similar in magnitude to the Earth’s magnetic field today.  The open-access findings, appearing ...

For years, even as opioid overdose deaths dramatically increased, doctors and other prescribers in the United States needed special permission from the federal government if they wanted to prescribe buprenorphine, a medication that helps patients overcome opioid addiction and prevents fatal overdoses. That requirement, called an “X waiver”, was eliminated on January 12, 2023 due to an item in a major federal budget bill. This meant that suddenly, any clinician who had a license to prescribe controlled substances could prescribe ...

Philadelphia, April 24, 2024 – In a landmark study, an international consortium led by researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) published the final results of a key clinical trial of the gene therapy CASGEVY (exagamglogene autotemcel) for the treatment of sickle cell disease in patients 12 years and older with recurrent vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs). The study found that 96.7% of patients in the study did not have any vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs) – a blockage that results in lack of oxygen and painful episodes – for at least one year, and 100% were able to remain hospitalization-free for the same ...

“[...] we identified multiple proteins affecting COVID-19 and aging.” BUFFALO, NY- April 24, 2024 – A new research paper was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 16, Issue 7, entitled, “Using genetics and proteomics data to identify proteins causally related to COVID-19, healthspan and lifespan: a Mendelian randomization study.” The COVID-19 pandemic poses a heavy burden on public health and accounts for substantial mortality and morbidity. Proteins are building blocks of life, but specific proteins causally related ...

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- Whenever you call a customer service contact center, the team on the other end of the line typically has three goals: to reduce their response time, solve your problem and do it within the shortest service time possible. However, resolving your problem might entail a significant time investment, potentially clashing with an overarching business objective to keep service duration to a minimum. These conflicting priorities can be commonplace for customer service contact centers, which often rely on the latest technology to meet customers’ ...

Mi Li, assistant professor in the University of Tennessee Center for Renewable Carbon and the UT School of Natural Resources, received a $75,000 research grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a two-year project using a cellulose-functionalized adsorbent to remove per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from water. Li has built a student team to work on this project including Kailong Zhang, a Ph.D. student in the School of Natural Resources, and Ryan Baskette, an undergraduate student in the Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology. The grant comes from the EPA’s People, Prosperity, and the Planet Program, which provided almost ...

URBANA, Ill. – Sweet potatoes are a popular food choice for consumers worldwide because of their delicious taste and nutritious quality. The red, tuberous root vegetable can be processed into chips and fries, and it has a range of industrial applications, including textiles, biodegradable polymers, and biofuels. Sweet potato quality assessment is crucial for producers and processors because features influence texture and taste, consumer preferences, and viability for different purposes. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign explores the use of hyperspectral imaging and explainable artificial intelligence (AI) to assess ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2024 MINNEAPOLIS – People who take acid-reducing drugs may have a higher risk of migraine and other severe headache than people who do not take these medications, according to a study published in the April 24, 2024, online issue of Neurology® Clinical Practice, an official journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The acid-reducing drugs include proton pump inhibitors such as omeprazole and esomeprazole, histamine H2-receptor antagonists, or H2 blockers, such as cimetidine and famotidine, and antacid supplements. The study does not prove that acid-reducing drugs cause migraine; ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2024 MINNEAPOLIS – Immigrants to Canada who have spent a greater proportion of their lives in Canada have a greater risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) than people who have spent a smaller proportion of their lives there, according to a study published in the April 24, 2024, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study does not prove that an increased proportion of life in Canada causes MS; ...

Under the leadership of PD Dr. Niklas Klümper, Assistant Physician at the Department of Urology at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and Clinician Scientist of the BMBF-funded ACCENT program and PD Dr. Markus Eckstein, senior physician at the Institute of Pathology at the Uniklinikum Erlangen of the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), an interdisciplinary research team has published new findings that indicate which patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma could benefit in particular from the new targeted therapy with the antibody-drug conjugate enfortumab ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A university professor has found a way to help students – and himself – power through long lecture classes: exercise breaks.   In a new study, a professor at The Ohio State University showed that five-minute exercise sessions during lectures were feasible and that students reported positive impacts on their attention and motivation, engagement with their peers and course enjoyment.   The results may not be particularly surprising, but they do suggest a solution ...

It’s the most fundamental of processes — the evaporation of water from the surfaces of oceans and lakes, the burning off of fog in the morning sun, and the drying of briny ponds that leaves solid salt behind. Evaporation is all around us, and humans have been observing it and making use of it for as long as we have existed.  And yet, it turns out, we’ve been missing a major part of the picture all along. In a series of painstakingly precise experiments, a team of researchers at MIT has demonstrated that heat isn’t alone in causing water to evaporate. Light, striking the water’s surface where air and water meet, can break water molecules away and float ...

Oncorhynchus rastrosus, a giant species of salmon that lived in the North American Pacific Northwest a few million years ago, sported a pair of front teeth that projected out from the sides of its mouth like tusks, according to a study published April 24 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Kerin Claeson from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, USA, and colleagues. O. rastrosus, first described in the 1970s, has been estimated to reach up to 2.7 meters (8.9 feet) long, making it the largest member of the Salmonidae family ever discovered. Initially, researchers thought its oversized front teeth pointed backward into the mouth like fangs, in large ...

New study infers our wellbeing by analyzing the language we use around ageing, using language markers to enable "a different type of access to individuals’ inner worlds" ### Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0302103 Article Title: When I am sixty-four… evaluating language markers of well-being in healthy aging narratives Author Countries: Switzerland, USA, Australia Funding: Funding by the Jacobs Foundation (https://jacobsfoundation.org/en/; awarded to TM) and the Swiss National Science Foundation SNF ((https://www.snf.ch/en/; fellowship P2ZHP1_199409 ...

APRIL 24, 2024 – A research paper published today in Science Advances reveals a direct correlation between plastic production and plastic pollution, such that every 1% increase in plastic production is associated with a 1% increase in plastic pollution in the environment. The study finds that fast-moving consumer goods companies disproportionately contribute to the problem more than household and retail companies. The study marks the first robust quantification of the global relationship between plastic production and pollution. The research, led by scientists ...

In a new paper appearing in Science Advances, Michigan State University researchers have unraveled a surprising genetic mystery centered on sugars found in what gardeners know as “tomato tar.” Anyone who has pruned tomato plants barehanded has likely found their fingers darkened with a sticky, gold-black substance that won’t quite wash off. This tomato tar is sticky for good reason. It’s made of sugars — acylsugars, to be precise — and acts as a sort of natural flypaper for ...

NEW YORK, April 24, 2024 — Sexual dimorphism—the visible difference between females and males—can be seen in diverse animals, including humans. One intriguing aspect of this phenomenon is sex-limited polymorphism, where one sex displays greater variations in a particular trait than the other. In a recent study published in Science Advances, a team of researchers delve into the genetic underpinnings behind the color polymorphism observed in adult females of the brood parasitic Cuculus, more widely known as cuckoo birds, shedding light on the evolution and functional significance of this phenomenon. Several species of cuckoos, a genus of birds ...

Philadelphia, April 24, 2024 – As patients with congenital heart diseases live longer, researchers are attempting to understand some of the other complications they may face as they age. In a new study, a team from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) used state-of-the-art technologies to understand the underlying biology of Fontan-associated liver disease (FALD). The findings, published today in Science Translational Medicine, reveal unprecedented insights into how the disease develops and potential therapeutic targets for future treatment options. The Fontan operation is ...

A thin film that combines an electrode grid and LEDs can both track and produce a visual representation of the brain’s activity in real-time during surgery–a huge improvement over the current state of the art. The device is designed to provide neurosurgeons visual information about a patient’s brain to monitor brain states during surgical interventions to remove brain lesions including tumors and epileptic tissue.  Each LED in the device mirrors the activity of a few thousand neurons. In a series of proof-of-concept experiments in rodents and large non-primate mammals, researchers showed that ...

Kyoto, Japan -- Climate change can be characterized as the Grim Reaper or some other harbinger of dire times for humanity and natural environment, including forests. Previous studies reporting a decline in forest productivity due to climate warming and long-term drought may suggest that trees' survival hangs in the balance. Now, a study by an international group, including Kyoto University, found that forests with higher trait diversity not only adapt better to climate change but may also thrive. The study, conducted by researchers from Lakehead ...

Every cuckoo is an adopted child – raised by foster parents, into whose nest the cuckoo mother smuggled her egg. The cuckoo mother is aided in this subterfuge by her resemblance to a bird of prey. There are two variants of female cuckoos: a gray morph that looks like a sparrowhawk, and a rufous morph. Male cuckoos are always gray. “With this mimicry, the bird imitates dangerous predators of the host birds, so that they keep their distance instead of attacking,” says Professor Jochen Wolf from LMU Munich. Together with researchers at CIBIO (Centro de Investigação ...