Smartphone spyware apps that allow people to spy on each other are not only hard to notice and detect, they also  will easily leak the sensitive personal information they collect,  says a team of computer scientists from New York and San Diego.  While publicly marketed as tools to monitor underage children and employees using their employer’s equipment, spyware apps are also frequently used  by abusers to covertly spy on a spouse or a partner. These apps  require little to no technical expertise from the abusers; offer detailed installation ...

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have developed a new imaging tool, called electromyometrial imaging (EMMI), to create real-time, three-dimensional images and maps of contractions during labor. The non-invasive imaging technique generates new types of images and metrics that can help quantify contraction patterns, providing foundational knowledge to improve labor management, particularly for preterm birth. The small study is supported in part by NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) through its Human ...

A new study from Karolinska Institutet suggests that electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), lithium, and clozapine may reduce suicide rates in adolescent men with severe mental illness, consistent with previous findings in adults. The study, published in Nature Communications, compared treatment and suicide rates across different regions in Sweden. Annually, there are 800,000 suicide deaths worldwide. Suicide is the leading cause of death among teenagers and young adults, with up to 90 percent of those affected having a serious psychiatric illness ...

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed new imaging technology that can produce 3D maps showing the magnitude and distribution of uterine contractions in real time and across the entire surface of the uterus during labor. Building on imaging methods long used on the heart, this technology can image uterine contractions noninvasively and in much greater detail than currently available tools, which only indicate the presence or absence of a contraction. The ...

Technology exists that the BC government could leverage to help small farmers connect directly with consumers and also mitigate climate change impacts, say new findings from UBC Okanagan. Dr. John Janmaat and Dr. Joanne Taylor co-authored new research that examines how farmers in the Okanagan and Cariboo regions of BC are adapting compared to farmers in China’s Shaanxi province. One of the key differences was how Chinese farmers used technology and social media, an option that’s not as widely used in ...

PULLMAN, Wash. – Farmers who keep their chickens outdoors may want to watch the weather. A study of chicken farms in the West found that high winds increased the prevalence of Campylobacter in outdoor flocks, a bacterial pathogen in poultry that is the largest single cause of foodborne illness in the U.S. Researchers found that about 26% of individual chickens had the pathogen at the “open environment” farms in the study, which included organic and free-range chicken farms. High winds the week prior to sampling and the farms’ location in more intensive agricultural settings were linked to a greater prevalence of ...

Joan Martinez-Alier is Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB). He will receive the award of NOK 6,000,000 (approx. EUR 550,000) during an 8 June ceremony at the University of Bergen, Norway. Martinez-Alier receives the Holberg Prize for his ground-breaking research in ecological economics, political ecology and environmental justice. He is known for criticizing established economic theory and traditional approaches to economic growth. Martinez-Alier is also a major figure and leading public intellectual in the burgeoning movement for ’degrowth’. Degrowth ...

The hormone glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) is considered obesogenic. In contrast, GIP receptor agonists (GIPRAs) have shown reduced feeding and body weight in an obese mouse model. Therefore, the precise effects exerted by GIP and GIPRAs remain elusive. Recently, researchers demonstrated acute feeding inhibition and lowered body weight in mice with diet-induced obesity treated with GIPFA-085, a long-acting GIPRA. Their findings provide a scientific basis for GIP therapy for diabetes and obesity. Obesity, ...

The existing wildlife of a region is heavily shaped over generations by environmental factors and human activity. Activities like urbanization and hunting are known to reduce wildlife populations. However, some cultural or religious practices have, on occasion, preserved local animal populations. For instance, the forests around religious shrines in Japan have historically forbidden hunting and, as a consequence, provide refuge for certain animal species. A well-known example of this is the Japanese sika deer (Cervus nippon), which has historically been considered a holy creature.   A revered ...

Shoppers join food industry and health experts in backing UK plans to ban high fat, salt and sugar products from checkouts, store entrances and aisle ends Consumers and retailers were asked about the impact of new government legislation aiming to restrict how unhealthy food is sold Scientists behind investigation say ban can curb impulse buys that cause obesity – but warn of loopholes and limited resources that could undermine health benefits   A ban on selling junk foods from store entrances, aisle ends and checkouts should continue after a new study found the plans were largely backed by the British public and food industry. Legislation ...

On 14 March, the European Platform for Neurodegenerative Diseases (EPND) launched its Cohort Catalogue. Featuring an extensive list of international cohorts across the neurodegenerative disease spectrum, the Cohort Catalogue is a central, open, accessible repository for researchers to discover ongoing studies and search metadata by disease area, biosample availability, imaging and cognitive data, and more.  The EPND consortium brings together experts in neurodegeneration research, data science, diagnosis and treatment from 29 public and private organisations. Funded by ...

Birmingham based charity, Help Harry Help Others and Aston University researchers, are working together to develop a pioneering pre-surgical diagnostic tool, which could see the eventual outcome of children with brain tumours drastically improve. Help Harry Help Others, which became a registered charity in September 2012 and marked its 10th anniversary last year, was founded by Georgie Moseley, following the passing of her son Harry. Despite fighting an inoperable brain tumour, Harry raised over £750,000 for cancer research in the last two years of his life, before he passed away ...

Disposable plastics are everywhere: Food containers, coffee cups, plastic bags. Some of these plastics, called compostable plastics, can be engineered to biodegrade under controlled conditions. However, they often look identical to conventional plastics, get recycled incorrectly and, as a result, contaminate plastic waste streams and reduce recycling efficiency. Similarly, recyclable plastics are often mistaken for compostable ones, resulting in polluted compost. Researchers at University College London (UCL) have published a paper in Frontiers ...

Electroluminescence is the production of light with an electrical current, without relying on heat or chemical reactions. This makes electroluminescent lights reliable and highly efficient: they are used as backlights in digital watches and in the displays of Apollo space shuttle guidance computers. Like OLEDs, light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs)—which emit light through electroluminescence—have undergone many technological advancements. Close examination of the processes that lead to luminescence is essential ...

HOUSTON – (March 13, 2023) – Synthetic biologists at Rice University are embarking on a three-year project to create “genetically encoded antibiotics,” strands of RNA that bacteria will readily copy and share that will selectively kill only disease-causing, pathogenic bacteria. “Most bacteria pose no danger to human health,” said James Chappell, an assistant professor of biosciences and bioengineering at Rice. “The question for us as synthetic biologists is, ‘Can we create genetic programs that move through microbial communities and precisely remove only the bad actors from those communities?’” Thanks ...

One of the key factors of success in a dental implant is the condition of the periodontium around the implant. A higher long-term success rate of dental implants requires sufficient and healthy alveolar bone. In those cases where lack of alveolar bone renders setting an implant difficult, the bone should be regenerated sufficiently to receive the implant, whether before or during the implant surgery. Development of osteogenic barrier coating material for implants by a Korean research team is expected to improve the success rate of alveolar bone grafting.   Three research teams led by Professor Hyung Joon Cha of the Chemical Engineering ...

Scientists have documented plant species for centuries to help us understand and protect the incredible diversity of flora in our world. But according to new research, many have never actually been photographed in their natural habitats – and that’s a problem. Researchers from UNSW Sydney and the Australian Institute of Botanical Science, part of the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, surveyed 33 major online databases of plant photographs to examine the photographic record of Australian plant species. The findings, published in New Phytologist, reveal out of 21,077 native Australian vascular plant species, almost 20 per cent lack a verifiable photograph. Lead ...

Patients-turned-social-media-influencers routinely offer prescription drug advice to their followers and often have close ties with pharmaceutical companies, according to new University of Colorado Boulder research. But they also tend to have good intentions, the study found. The study, published this week in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, provides some of the first insights into the burgeoning, loosely regulated world of so-called “patient influencers,” sharing findings from 26 in-depth interviews about why and how they do it. “The bottom line here is that patient influencers act as a form ...

A video game featuring a mystical character named Rumble has helped Griffith University researchers investigate how school kids fared following lockdown disruption. Dr Jacqueline Allen from Griffith’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice headed up the team looking at self-reported wellbeing in a sample of primary school-aged children in Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia. The team used an innovative video game called Rumble’s Quest, developed wholly within Griffith University, which measures the four key facets of wellbeing, as well as ...

Consumption of a traditional Mediterranean-type diet – rich in foods such as seafood, fruit, and nuts – is associated with a reduced risk of dementia, reports a study published in BMC Medicine. Individuals with a higher adherence to a Mediterranean diet had up to 23% lower risk for dementia compared with those who had lower adherence to a Mediterranean diet. Diet may be an important modifiable risk factor for dementia that could be targeted for disease prevention and risk reduction but previous studies exploring the impact of a Mediterranean diet have typically been limited to small sample ...

Great apes spinning behaviours could provide clues about the role of altered states for the origins of the human mind.  Online videos observed great apes spin themselves to deliberately make themselves dizzy.  Researchers say these new findings suggest that the behaviour could be used to understand when humans evolved the desire to seek altered mental states and actively manipulate their mood and perception of reality.  Great apes deliberately spin themselves in order make themselves dizzy, academics at the University ...

Eating a traditional Mediterranean-type diet – rich in foods such as seafood, fruit, and nuts – may help reduce the risk of dementia by almost a quarter, a new study has revealed.   Experts at Newcastle University found that individuals who ate a Mediterranean-like diet had up to 23% lower risk for dementia than those who did not.   This research, published today in BMC Medicine, is one of the biggest studies of its kind as previous studies have typically been limited to small sample sizes and low numbers ...

AUGUSTA, Ga. (March 14, 2023) – The vascular smooth muscle cells that normally give blood vessel walls strength and flexibility proliferate and become destructive in pulmonary hypertension, a typically rapidly progressing condition that makes it hard to get blood inside our lungs and oxygen to our bodies. Now scientists have found that inhibiting a gene essential to making DNA so the cells can take on this uncharacteristic growth, can significantly reduce the destructive cell proliferation and disease progression, they report in the European Heart Journal.  The findings point toward a ...

Endometriosis is a painful, complex condition affecting about 1 in 10 women of reproductive age, but it is poorly understood. A new clinical review published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.220637 provides an overview of the causes, diagnosis and management of endometriosis based on the latest evidence, to help clinicians and patients. The review is timely, as March is Endometriosis Awareness Month. Endometriosis, defined as the presence of endometrial-like tissue outside the uterus, is one of the most common gynecologic conditions. It is estimated to affect approximately 1 million women ...

A new analysis by researchers at UCLA and UC Riverside shows that even in Blue state California, political attacks on public schools are pervasive and growing, hindering learning and the role schools play in a diverse democracy. Political division and community-level conflict is negatively impacting student interactions, and many California students are experiencing hostility and intolerance in school. Troublingly, the research finds high levels of hostile comments toward LGBTQ students, and racist remarks targeting Latino, and in particular, African American ...