Monday, April 15, 2024 - Toronto - From a young age, people learn the importance of paying attention to the environment around them. Less emphasized is the value of paying attention to their inner environment. Neuroscientists are increasingly studying how looking inward via mindfulness training can affect everything from depression and memory to stress levels and aging. As researchers work to uncover the neural mechanisms underlying these brain changes, they hope to elucidate best practices for people who want to incorporate mindfulness in their lives. “Attentional training is a mechanism by which you can train your brain,” says Erika Nyhus of Bowdoin College, who is chairing ...

Sport junkie or couch potato? Always on time or often late? The animal kingdom, too, is home to a range of personalities, each with its own lifestyle. In a study just released in the journal PLOS Biology, a team led by Sören Häfker and Kristin Tessmar-Raible from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and the University of Vienna report on a surprising discovery: even simple marine polychaete worms shape their day-to-day lives on the basis of highly individual rhythms. This diversity ...

Bethesda, MD (April 15, 2024) - The American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) and Target RWE have partnered to significantly expand real-world data available for serious, and often chronic, gastroenterological diseases. This partnership will also allow Target RWE to incorporate AGA’s eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) severity index tool, I-SEE, into the TARGET-GASTRO registry.   AGA led the international team of more than 30 multidisciplinary experts that developed the Index of Severity for EoE (I-SEE) in 2022. I-SEE is the first-ever severity index for eosinophilic esophagitis, which provides a simple system for physicians to assess and track ...

A University of Michigan study has shown that traumatic experiences during childhood may get "under the skin" later in life, impairing the muscle function of people as they age.   The study examined the function of skeletal muscle of older adults paired with surveys of adverse events they had experienced in childhood. It found that people who experienced greater childhood adversity, reporting one or more adverse events, had poorer muscle metabolism later in life. The research, led by University of Michigan Institute for Social Research scientist Kate Duchowny, is published in Science Advances.   Duchowny and her co-authors used ...

      MEDIA INQUIRES   WRITTEN BY Laura Muntean   Ashley Vargo laura.muntean@ag.tamu.edu   ashley.vargo@ag.tamu.edu 601-248-1891     Depiction ...

Over the past few years, people have generally become more conscious about the food they consume. Thanks to easier access to information as well as public health campaigns and media coverage, people are more aware of how nutrition ties in with both health benefits and chronic diseases. As a result, there is an ongoing cultural shift in most countries, with people prioritizing eating healthily. In turn, the demand for healthier food options and nutritional supplements is steadily growing. In line with these changes, Assistant Professor Kyohei ...

A new study conducted by researchers at Tampere University and Tampere University Hospital revealed how aberrant epigenetic regulation contributes to the development of atypical teratoid/rhabdoid (AT/RT) tumours, which are aggressive brain tumours that mainly affect young children. There is an urgent need for more research in this area as current treatment options are ineffective against these highly malignant tumours. Most tumours take a long time to develop as harmful mutations gradually accumulate in cells’ DNA over time. AT/RT tumours are a rare exception, ...

700 million years ago, a remarkable creature emerged for the first time. Though it may not have been much to look at by today’s standards, the animal had a front and a back, a top and a bottom. This was a groundbreaking adaptation at the time, and one which laid down the basic body plan which most complex animals, including humans, would eventually inherit. The inconspicuous animal resided in the ancient seas of Earth, likely crawling along the seafloor. This was the last common ancestor of bilaterians, ...

Embargo: This journal article is under embargo until April 15 at 10 a.m. BST/London (5 a.m. EDT/3 a.m. MDT). Media may conduct interviews around the findings in advance of that date, but the information may not be published, broadcast, or posted online until after the release window. Journalists are permitted to show papers to independent specialists under embargo conditions, solely for the purpose of commenting on the work described University researchers have shown that a transition to green wastewater-treatment approaches in the U.S. that leverages the potential of carbon-financing could save a staggering $15.6 billion and just under 30 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions ...

Important differences in how the nasal cells of young and elderly people respond to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, could explain why children typically experience milder COVID-19 symptoms, finds a new study led by researchers at UCL and the Wellcome Sanger Institute. The study, published in Nature Microbiology, focused on the early effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection on the cells first targeted by the viruses, the human nasal epithelial cells (NECs). These cells were donated from healthy participants from Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), University College London Hospital (UCLH) and the Royal ...

New research from the Crowther Lab at ETH Zurich illustrates a critical barrier to natural regeneration of tropical forests. Their models – from ground-based data gathered in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil - show that when wild tropical birds move freely across forest landscapes, they can increase the carbon storage of regenerating tropical forests by up to 38 percent. Birds seed carbon potential Fruit eating birds such as the Red-Legged Honeycreeper, Palm Tanager, or the Rufous-Bellied Thrush play a vital role in forest ecosystems by consuming, excreting, and ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The key to growing coffee plants that can better resist climate change in the decades to come may lie in the ancient past. Researchers co-led by the University at Buffalo have created what they say is the highest quality reference genome to date of the world’s most popular coffee species, Arabica, unearthing secrets about its lineage that span millennia and continents. Their findings, published today in Nature Genetics, suggest that Coffea arabica developed more than 600,000 years ago in the forests of Ethiopia ...

How muscle changes with ageing, and tries to fight its effects, is now better understood at the cellular and molecular level with the first comprehensive atlas of ageing muscles in humans. Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and their collaborators at Sun Yat-sen University, China applied single-cell technologies and advanced imaging to analyse human skeletal muscle samples from 17 individuals across the adult lifespan. By comparing the results, they shed new light on the many complex processes underlying age-related muscle changes. The atlas, published ...

A new study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by the "la Caixa" Foundation, sheds light on the growth of lung function in children. The results show that increased levels of physical activity and a higher body mass index (BMI) play a key role in the recovery of early deficits. These findings, published in the journal Thorax, have important implications for clinical practice, research and public health policy, providing new insights into how to improve respiratory health from childhood to adulthood. The study analysed data from the ...

Modern websites place ever greater demands on the computing power of computers. For this reason, web browsers have also had access to the computing capacities of the graphics card (Graphics Processing Unit or GPU) in addition to the CPU of a computer for a number of years. The scripting language JavaScript can utilise the resources of the GPU via programming interfaces such as WebGL and the new WebGPU standard. However, this harbours risks. Using a website with malicious JavaScript, researchers from the Institute of Applied Information Processing and Communications at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) were able to spy on information about data, keystrokes and encryption ...

Key Takeaways Results from a new study indicate that physical activity may help protect against cardiovascular disease in part by reducing stress-related brain activity This effect in the brain may help to explain why study participants with depression (a stress-related condition) experienced the greatest cardiovascular benefits from physical activity. BOSTON – New research indicates that physical activity lowers cardiovascular disease risk in part by reducing stress-related signaling in the brain. In the study, which was led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare ...

With an increasing number of space missions targeting various celestial bodies, including Mars, Europa, and the Moon, the importance of maintaining the integrity of these environments while protecting our own biosphere has never been greater. The ICPPW will serve as a platform for promoting international collaboration and knowledge exchange on best practice in planetary protection. The event will feature a range of sessions, meetings, as well as panel discussions, covering key topics such as the current and ...

Premature deaths related to opioids doubled between 2019 and 2021 across Canada, with more than 1 in 4 deaths among young adults aged 20–39 years attributable to opioids, according to new research published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.231339. Opioid-related deaths have continued to increase over the past decade across Canada, with 6222 deaths occurring in 2021. This trend worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, although the scale and rapidity of increases varied across provinces and territories. ...

Severe morning sickness in pregnancy, known medically as hyperemesis gravidarum, can negatively affect both maternal and infant health. A review published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.221502 provides information to clinicians on the causes, diagnosis, and treatment of the condition. Although nausea and vomiting are common in pregnancy, affecting as many as 70% of pregnancies, severe vomiting and nausea can prevent people from eating and drinking sufficiently, leading to weight loss and ...

Palaeontologists from Flinders University have described three unusual new species of giant fossil kangaroo from Australia and New Guinea, finding them more diverse in shape, range and hopping method than previously thought. The three new species are of the extinct genus Protemnodon, which lived from around 5 million to 40,000 years ago – with one about double the size of the largest red kangaroo living today. The research follows the discovery of multiple complete fossil kangaroo skeletons from Lake Callabonna in arid South Australia in 2013, 2018 and 2019. These extraordinary fossils allowed lead researcher ...

Innovative carbon beads, invented by researchers at UCL, reduce bad bacteria and inflammation in animal models, which are linked to liver cirrhosis and other serious health issues. The study, published in Gut, found that the carbon beads, licensed to UCL-spinout Yaqrit, were effective in restoring gut health and had a positive impact on liver, kidney and brain function in rats and mice. They were also found to be safe for human use. The next step will be to see if the same benefits can be realised in humans, which would ...

Managing problematic student behaviour is one of the most persistent, challenging, and controversial issues facing schools today. Yet despite best intentions to build a more inclusive and punitive-free education system, school suspensions and expulsions remain.   Now, new research from the University of South Australia shows that exclusionary practices not only fail to identify the deep-rooted causes of challenging student behaviours but exacerbate negative issues rather than resolve them.   Lead researcher, UniSA’s Professor Anna Sullivan, says schools face difficult decisions around ...

Finding strongly indicates that post-TB lung disease is an under-recognised global challenge, UK researchers say **Note: the release below is a special early release from the ESCMID Global Congress (formerly ECCMID, Barcelona, Spain, 27-30 April). Please credit the congress if you use this story** **ECCMID has now changed name to ESCMID Global, please credit ESCMID Global Congress in all future stories** New research being presented at this year’s ESCMID Global Congress (formerly ECCMID) in Barcelona, Spain (27-30 ...

Sunday, April 14, 2024 - Toronto - “Dreams are messages from the deep.” (Dune Part 1) Musings about dreams abound throughout society, from movies to TV to books. But despite being a constant source of fascination, the role of dreams in our lives still remains elusive. As recently noted in the TV show Grey’s Anatomy: “Honestly, no one knows why we dream or why we have nightmares.” While true, neuroscientists are finding innovative new ways to study dreams and how they influence our cognition. “Understanding how dreams are generated and what their function might be — if any — is one of science's ...

A University of Sydney study investigating menu items on major online food delivery outlets and applications (apps) in Australia has found most advertised items are missing nutritional information that would otherwise help consumers make healthy choices.   Researchers say the findings show this information is largely absent or poorly provided on online food retail platforms and menu labelling laws need to keep up with increasing demand of online food delivery services. The 2011 New South Wales Menu Labelling Scheme require large fast-food outlets to display both the average energy content (as Kilojoules) on menu items and the reference statement ‘the ...