“The prevalence of anxiety and depression has increased. As has the use of social media. Many people therefore believe that there has to be a correlation,” says Silje Steinsbekk, a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's (NTNU) Department of Psychology. But that is not the case if we are to believe the results of the study “Social media behaviours and symptoms of anxiety and depression. A four-wave cohort study from age 10-16 years”. Trondheim Early Secure Study In the Trondheim Early Secure Study research project, researchers followed 800 children in Trondheim ...

Chestnut Hill, Mass (8/24/2023) – Electronic nematic order in kagome materials has thus far been entangled with charge density waves. Now it is finally observed as a stand-alone phase in a titanium-based Kagome metal, a team of researchers led by Boston College physicists reported recently in Nature Physics. Quantum materials composed of atoms arranged on a kagome net of corner-sharing triangles present an exciting platform to realize novel electronic behavior, paper co-author and Boston College Professor of Physics Ilija Zeljkovic explained. There ...

New York, NY (August 24, 2023) — Asian Americans have significantly higher exposure than other ethnic or racial groups to PFAS, a family of thousands of synthetic chemicals also known as “toxic forever” chemicals, Mount Sinai-led researchers report. People frequently encounter PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) in everyday life, and these exposures carry potentially adverse health impacts, according to the study published in Environmental Science and Technology, in the special issue “Data Science for Advancing Environmental Science, Engineering, and Technology.” The ...

PUYALLUP, Wash. – A relatively simple, inexpensive method of filtering urban stormwater runoff dramatically boosted survival of newly hatched coho salmon in an experimental study. That’s the good news for the threatened species from the Washington State University-led research. The bad news: unfiltered stormwater killed almost all of them. The findings, published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, are consistent with previous research on adult and juvenile coho that found exposure to untreated roadway runoff that typically winds up ...

A new study led by Dr. Xuekun Lu from Queen Mary University of London in collaboration with an international team of researchers from the UK and USA has found a way to prevent lithium plating in electric vehicle batteries, which could lead to faster charging times. The paper was published in the journal Nature Communications.  Lithium plating is a phenomenon that can occur in lithium-ion batteries during fast charging. It occurs when lithium ions build up on the surface of the battery's negative ...

Amsterdam, Netherlands – 24 Aug 2023: Feeling safe from crime is associated with a 9% lower risk of premature death and 6% lower likelihood of a heart attack, according to a study in more than 35,000 adults presented at ESC Congress 2023.1 “There is increasing evidence that the neighbourhood we live in affects our health,” said study author Dr. Mengya Li of the National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Beijing, China. “This study highlights the importance of many aspects of our surroundings for heart health and longevity, including feeling safe, having shops, transport and parks close by, cleanliness, and feeling ...

Amsterdam, Netherlands – 24 Aug 2023: Using a defibrillator for a cardiac arrest victim improves 30-day survival even with ambulance response times as short as two minutes, according to research presented at ESC Congress 2023.1 The majority of sudden cardiac arrests occur in the community. A cardiac arrhythmia, called ventricular fibrillation, causes the heart to cease pumping and blood flow stops. If blood flow is not restored quickly, the individual passes out and dies within 10 to 20 minutes. Members of the public can help by calling an ambulance and performing chest compressions (called cardiopulmonary resuscitation; CPR) while asking someone else to find a defibrillator. ...

Women with ME/CFS tend to have more symptoms and co-occurring conditions than men, according to initial results from the world’s largest study of the disease. It has long been known that women are more likely to have ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome) but the DecodeME study has shown for the first time how their experience differs from men. The study reveals that women who have ME/CFS – a long-term neurological condition where an excessive increase in symptoms can be triggered by normal levels of exertion – for more than 10 years ...

Osaka, Japan – Even if you are a lone wolf, considering some group activities may not be a bad idea, especially when it comes to healthcare. Osaka Metropolitan University scientists have found that community-based adult day services help lower the risk of frailty in older adults. Frailty is a state of physical and mental decline that results from aging; it represents an intermediate status between being healthy and being severely disabled. In a rapidly aging society, preventing frailty and maintaining independence in older adults are crucial challenges. “In Japan, older individuals certified as being on a support ...

The early physical and mental development of a child sets the stage for lifelong progress and fulfillment. Spending quality time with their parents can bring out significant positive changes among children during their formative years. Across Japan, the extent of fathers' participation in childcare-related activities has historically been limited because of the entrenched gender-based division of labor. Fathers, especially those in their 20s–40s, are expected to show full commitment towards work and have been prioritizing their professional commitments over family. Consequently, a significant number ...

It’s notoriously difficult for doctors to identify a wound that is becoming infected. Clinical signs and symptoms are imprecise and methods of identifying bacteria can be time-consuming and inaccessible, so a diagnosis can be subjective and dependent on clinician experience. But infection can stall healing or spread into the body if it isn’t treated quickly, putting a patient’s health in grave danger. An international team of scientists and clinicians thinks they have the solution: a device run from a smartphone or tablet app which allows advanced ...

Urbana, Illinois — The Speech Accessibility Project is almost halfway through its first phase of gathering voice recordings from people with Parkinson’s. The project still needs more participants, especially those with related neurological conditions like MSA, PSP, CBD, and those who are post-DBS. They must be U.S. residents older than age 18. They can sign up via the Speech Accessibility App. Led by UIUC with support from Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, the Speech Accessibility Project aims to make voice recognition technology ...

Many diseases affecting the brain and nervous system are linked to the formation of protein aggregates, or solid condensates, in cells from their liquid form condensate, but little is known about this process. This liquid-to-solid transition can trigger the formation of what are called amyloid fibrils. These can further form plaques in neurons causing neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. Biomedical engineers at the University of Sydney, in collaboration with scientists at the University of Cambridge ...

Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) Professor Dr. Frank Narducci, Chair of the Department of Physics, received a Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) award to build what could become the most precise atomic instrument of its kind for applications to quantum sensing experiments in navigation and timekeeping. Called an atomic tower, the instrument is expected to have unprecedented sensitivity to acceleration and rotation measurements due to its unprecedented height. NPS research utilizing this instrument has many applications of interest to the Department of the Navy, Narducci explained. “Most immediately ...

Griffith University researchers are on the brink of a technological breakthrough in vaccine development with a possible new vaccine modality.   Professor Bernd Rehm and Dr Shuxiong Chen from the Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery (GRIDD) and Griffith’s Centre for Cell Factories and Biopolymers have succeeded in developing a new vaccine modality that is a stable particulate vaccine.   The new vaccine modality is at proof-of-concept stage and in early development.   To demonstrate this vaccine approach, it was tested with a more established Griffith vaccine against Strep A that is currently performing strongly in human clinical trials in Canada.    Professor ...

Whenever the precision of a measurement approaches the uncertainty limit defined by quantum mechanics, the outcomes of the measurement depend on the dynamics of the interactions with the meter used to determine a physical property of the system. This finding may explain why quantum experiments often produce conflicting results and may contradict basic assumptions regarding physical reality. Two quantum physicists from Hiroshima University recently analyzed the dynamics of a measurement interaction, where the value of a physical property is identified with a quantitative change in the meter state. This is a difficult problem, because quantum theory does not identify the value ...

Autism is difficult to study and more difficult to treat because it is an individual condition lacking precise quantification. The development of mouse models of human mental disorders has proven a tractable approach to studying the molecular mechanisms, a new review argues and highlights the current state of the art in autism research. Whether or not the autism spectrum is a disorder to be treated or a disability to be accommodated is debated by experts. This, however, is symptomatic for the fact that it is a very individual condition that has many expressions as well as causes, with no quantitative evaluation system or objective, mechanized diagnostic method. This makes ...

William Shakespeare used the word dotage to capture reduced mental ability (as in being blindly in love) rather than as a quaint term for old age, successes were really outcomes – one could talk of a ‘bad success’ – and, it turns out, the word bastard back then most often referred to a flower that was genetically hybrid. A new dictionary, a verbal treasure trove of the nuances and uses of Shakespeare’s words, is published this week. While dinner was preferred by Shakespeare for what we might think of as lunch (although his contemporaries used it to refer to an evening meal), beef, as today, was strongly associated with the English, but particularly the lower ...

BRCA1 and BRCA2 are well-known breast cancer genes associated with a significantly increased risk of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. However, there are an additional eleven genes associated with elevated risk for these types of cancer. A multi-year Swedish study now reveals that the proportion of women with genetically confirmed hereditary breast cancer doubled by including all genes in the screening test. In a Swedish research study including patients between 2012 and 2018, all cancer genetic clinics in Sweden participated. A total of 4759 individuals underwent comprehensive ...

Picture this scenario: You and a friend are walking around your neighborhood when you stop at a crosswalk. As you wait, the noises of the world and your internal thoughts all vie for your attention. Suddenly, you see a motorist nearly hit a bicyclist.   “Whoa, did you see that?” you say to your friend.   “I sure did; that was a fully restored 1967 Ford Mustang,” your friend replies, referring to a car separate from the near-traffic collision. Despite being in the same place at the same time, and looking at the same scene, you and your friend paid attention to different things.   Why? ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- If you happened upon a witch hazel plant in the forest, you might describe it as a sweet-smelling shrub with crinkly ribbon-like petals. But to Duke University graduate student Justin Jorge, it’s a howitzer. That’s because of the impressive firepower of its fruits. When witch hazels are ready to disperse their seeds, their woody seed capsules split open. Pressure builds up, and eventually the seeds shoot out like bullets fired from a rifle, hitting 30 feet per second in about half a millisecond. “If you blink you’ll miss it,” said Jorge, who worked on this project as part of his Ph.D. thesis in biomechanics with senior author ...

URBANA, Ill. — Like every industry, modern farming relies heavily on plastics. Think plastic mulch lining vegetable beds, PVC pipes draining water from fields, polyethylene covering high tunnels, and plastic seed, fertilizer, and herbicide packaging, to name a few. In a new review article, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers say these plastics are now widely dispersed in agricultural soils in the form of microplastics and nanoplastics.  That’s not necessarily new; microplastics have been found in nearly every ...

In the rural United States, an adolescent who drinks heavily has a 43% greater probability of carrying a handgun in the following year, according to a study published this month in The Journal of Rural Health. “While there has been a lot of research on this correlation in urban areas, little is known about the association between alcohol use, particularly heavy drinking, and handgun carrying in rural areas,” said lead author Alice Ellyson, an acting assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine and investigator in UW Medicine's  Firearm Injury & Policy Research Program. “Our study ...

In a groundbreaking endeavor, researchers at the University of Rochester have successfully transferred a longevity gene from naked mole rats to mice, resulting in improved health and an extension of the mouse’s lifespan. Naked mole rats, known for their long lifespans and exceptional resistance to age-related diseases, have long captured the attention of the scientific community. By introducing a specific gene responsible for enhanced cellular repair and protection into mice, the Rochester researchers have opened exciting possibilities for unlocking the secrets of aging and extending human lifespan. “Our study provides a proof of principle ...

As ocean temperatures rise, coral reefs face increasing threats as ecosystem damage has accelerated in recent decades. The ability to preserve and revive biodiverse coral samples has become an essential priority for the health and future of the world’s oceans. A Texas A&M University-led interdisciplinary team of researchers demonstrated that live coral can be preserved through a new technique called “isochoric vitrification.” This process takes selected coral fragments through the stages of cryopreservation, ...