Tetrodotoxin, the neurotoxin that makes a blue-ringed octopus deadly, also protects Taricha newts — but we don’t understand how they produce it, or what purposes it serves for them. A first step to answering these questions is understanding whether different levels appear in males and females. In sexually reproducing animals, dimorphic traits such as color or canine tooth size can be key for survival and reproductive fitness. Investigating whether toxin production is a sexually dimorphic trait in newts gets us closer to understanding it. “It had long been considered that newts’ ...

Osaka, Japan – The global impact of the coronavirus pandemic has ignited a renewed focus on emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. Researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University are making great strides in combating pneumococcal pneumonia, one of the leading causes of respiratory deaths worldwide. Despite the existence of vaccines against pneumococcal infections such as otitis media, sinusitis, and meningitis, the prevalence of pneumococcal pneumonia remains high. Currently, around 100 new serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae have been identified, and ...

Image A new kind of "wire" for moving excitons, developed at the University of Michigan, could help enable a new class of devices, perhaps including room temperature quantum computers.  What's more, the team observed a dramatic violation of Einstein's relation, used to describe how particles spread out in space, and leveraged it to move excitons in much smaller packages than previously possible. "Nature uses excitons in photosynthesis. We use excitons in OLED displays and some LEDs and solar cells," said Parag Deotare, ...

Machine learning is now helping researchers analyze the makeup of unfamiliar cells, which could lead to more personalized medicine in the treatment of cancer and other serious diseases.   Researchers at the University of Waterloo developed GraphNovo, a new program that provides a more accurate understanding of the peptide sequences in cells. Peptides are chains of amino acids within cells and are building blocks as important and unique as DNA or RNA.  In a healthy person, the immune system can correctly identify the peptides of irregular or foreign cells, such as cancer cells or harmful bacteria, and then target those cells for destruction. For people whose immune system is ...

Adaptive optics (AO) is a technique used for real-time correction of phase aberrations by employing feedback to adjust the optical system. Polarization aberrations represent another significant type of distortion that can impact optical systems. Various factors, such as stressed optical elements, Fresnel effects, and polarizing effects in materials or biological tissues, can induce polarization aberrations. These aberrations affect both system resolution and the accuracy of vector information. Vectorial aberrations result from the ...

The global rise in ocular diseases, largely due to insufficient ophthalmic diagnostics and monitoring, has emphasized the need for better treatment methods. Pioneering developments in therapeutic and diagnostic contact lenses are now offering hope in treating these diseases. Cataracts, which cloud the lens of the eye, are a prime example, affecting 94 million people and leading to 10 million surgeries annually. A significant factor in the rise of cataracts and other ocular conditions, such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and photokeratitis, is excessive exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light. In response, a team of researchers at Khalifa University has ...

Surface functionalization via micro/nano structuring is not only a thriving research area inspired by bionics but also of great importance for various practical applications. The key to achieving various surface functions is the fabrication of surface micro/nano structures with controlled dimensions, hierarchies, and compositions, which is driving the continuous progress of micro/nano fabrication techniques. Researchers from the Laser Materials Processing Research Center at the School of Materials Science and Engineering of Tsinghua University, China, have spent years in developing laser-enabled fabrication ...

1 Overview A number of open source resources, in the form of curated datasets, web-based databases, stand-alone software, or library packages have been floating in various forms online. These codes are useful in computer science research works, and engineering practices. The application of these resources requires instructions. Traditional scientific publications usually focus on the algorithms, principles, theoretical proofs, benchmarking evaluations and comparisons that is in the background or in the generation process of these resources. The instructions, case studies, application examples and sample codes, which help users and other practitioners to utilize these ...

Particle accelerators hold great potential for semiconductor applications, medical imaging and therapy, and research in materials, energy and medicine. But conventional accelerators require plenty of elbow room — kilometers — making them expensive and limiting their presence to a handful of national labs and universities. Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin, several national laboratories, European universities and the Texas-based company TAU Systems Inc. have demonstrated a compact particle accelerator less than 20 meters long that produces ...

University of Birmingham Press Release  STRICTLY EMBARGOED UNTIL 00.01 Tuesday 28th November UK TIME/ 19.01 Monday 27th November EASTERN TIME   Experts from the University of Birmingham are calling for global cooling and cold chain to be considered as critical infrastructure as the planet continues to heat.   The report, The Hot Reality: Living in a +50°C World, comes as world leaders, businesses, scientists, and environmental agencies gather in Dubai for the start of COP 28.   The Hot Reality: Living in a +50°C World project is led by the Centre for Sustainable Cooling and the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling ...

Greater adherence to the World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research (WCRF/AICR) cancer prevention recommendations — which encourage a healthy lifestyle — is associated with a lower risk of all cancers combined and some individual cancers such as breast cancer. The findings are published in BMC Medicine. The 2018 WCRF/AICR cancer prevention recommendations aim to reduce the risk of cancer by encouraging individuals to maintain a healthy weight, be physically active, and eat a diet rich in wholegrains, vegetables, fruit, and beans, but low in highly processed foods, red and processed meat, sugar-sweetened drinks, and alcohol. John Mathers and ...

[Jerusalem, Israel] Professor Asaf Hellman and his research team at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School have unveiled new findings in the realm of methylation-directed regulatory networks. Their study sheds light on the mechanisms governing the activation and suppression of mutation-driven disease genes, particularly in cases like glioblastoma, offering insights into variations in disease expression among patients. This research has the potential to revolutionize disease research and clinical applications, paving the way for personalized medicine, diagnostic biomarkers, and improved patient care. Currently, 98% of individuals hospitalized ...

A groundbreaking study co-authored by Rachita Sumbria, associate professor in the Chapman University School of Pharmacy, has uncovered a new contributor to the formation of brain hemorrhages. Contrary to previous beliefs that such hemorrhages were solely linked to blood vessel injuries, the research reveals that increased interactions between aged red blood cells and brain capillaries can lead to brain microhemorrhages. This discovery not only enhances new understandings of the mechanisms behind these microhemorrhages but also opens up new possibilities ...

A new study zooming in on how smartphones influence our photography habits found Australians aged 20 to 40 years old take more selfies than teenagers and older Australians.  The research, from RMIT University and the Pathshala South Asian Media Institute, studied over 1,200 smartphone photos taken during a two-week period by 30 participants and found older participants overall took more photos than teenage participants.   Research lead and RMIT Senior Lecturer Dr TJ Thomson said older participants often used their smartphone cameras in more functional ways, such as capturing information ...

It’s well-known that when those around us get sick, there’s a good chance we’ll catch what they have, but new research reveals that simply observing a sick individual triggers a biological response.   Patricia Lopes, an assistant professor of biology at Chapman University, is studying how the body anticipates the possibility of infection just by witnessing someone else's symptoms. This phenomenon raises questions about the interconnectedness of individuals within a social group and how the perception of sickness can influence the health and behavior of others.    Her recent work showed that when healthy ...

Life on Earth is facing the greatest rate of extinction in history – and humans are the disruptive force, according to a leading ecologist. Protecting biodiversity, according to consultant ecologist Nigel Dudley who has worked with international organizations including WWF International and UNESCO, does not mean prioritizing animal lives at all costs or focusing narrowly on nature’s economic values. The author defines biodiversity rights here as ‘the right of all species to continue their natural span of existence within a functioning ecosystem’. Dudley says the failure of some governments to respect biodiversity ...

University of Oxford News Release Oxford Internet Institute Strict Embargo until 00.01 GMT Tuesday, 28 November 2023    No ‘smoking gun’ mental health harm from internet: landmark Oxford survey   Study of two million individuals’ psychological well-being from 2005 to 2022 in 168 countries, in relation to country-level internet-use and mobile broadband statistics Negative and positive experiences had increased on average, but little to no evidence suggesting (mobile) internet use was associated with these changes Links between internet adoption ...

Advertising content generated by artificial intelligence (AI) is perceived as being of higher quality than content produced by human experts – according to a new research paper in Judgment and Decision Making, a journal published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making and the European Association for Decision Making.  In the first study of its kind, the findings challenge the view that knowing a piece of content is generated with AI involvement lowers the perceived quality of content – known as algorithm aversion. ChatGPT4 outperforms human experts in generating advertising content for ...

The first published evidence from humans that semaglutide specifically reduces the symptoms of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) has been published in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry and details a recent collaboration between clinicians and scientists at the University of Oklahoma School of Community Medicine and Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences. The paper outlines the outcomes of six patients who received semaglutide during treatment for weight loss, demonstrating a significant and noteworthy decrease in their Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) scores. The paper is titled "Significant ...

Researchers assessed Veterans Affairs participants’ patterns of coping strategies, as well as the stability and change in strategies, at three timepoints (December 2020-March 2021) when COVID-19 vaccines became widely available. Two thousand and eighty-five participants completed surveys at any time point during the specified time frame and 930 participants completed all three surveys. Researchers identified three distinct coping styles: Adaptive, Distressed, and Disengaged. They then assessed stability and change ...

Researchers studied communication about erectile dysfunction (ED) between doctors and 120 Asian male patients with diabetes in a primary care clinic in Kedah, Malaysia. At the outset of the study, all participating physicians received a brief introduction to the fundamentals of ED treatment. Prior to a regular consultation, 60 men (the intervention group) were given a simple prompt sheet on which they could indicate whether they wanted to discuss, or were already discussing, ED with their doctor; physicians in the intervention group were provided with a knowledge translation flipchart developed by the researchers to ...

Adults and older children with asthma can take objective measures of symptoms such as peak expiratory flow (PEF), the volume of airflow in one forced exhalation, at home. This provides a more complete picture of their disease and helps them detect asthma exacerbations or negative changes to their condition at the onset. However, a 2022 report by the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) identifies continuous respiratory sounds such as wheezes, rhonchi, as the best indicators of asthma exacerbation, especially in children under 5 years of age. Assessment of these symptoms, still primarily done by doctors using ...

Researchers from around the United States collaborated on a clinical trial to test the effectiveness of a practice intervention for improving outcomes for patients with both physical and mental health problems by enhancing integrated behavioral health (IBH) activities. The research team recruited 42 primary care practice sites in 13 states, including internal medicine, family medicine, small and large groups, for-profit, academic, and safety-net clinics. Each site had a co-located behavioral health provider (a psychologist, social worker, or licensed counselor ...

International Group of Research Experts Establish Checklist Detailing Key Consensus Reporting Items for Primary Care Studies   In an effort to fill the need for primary care–focused guidelines, an international group of top researchers has developed the Consensus Reporting Items for Studies in Primary Care (CRISP) Checklist, which outlines 24 items that describe the research team, patients, study participants, health conditions, clinical encounters, care teams, interventions, study measures, settings of care, and implementation of ...

Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday 27 November 2023 Annals of Internal Medicine Tip Sheet @Annalsofim Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also on behalf of the organization they represent. ---------------------------- 1. Unfiltered ...