Type 2 diabetes (T2D) and obesity are metabolic conditions with many causes, including overlapping and distinct genetic features. A polygenic risk score (PRS) can capture multiple genetic risk factors to provide an estimate for whether a person may develop a complex medical condition and how they might fare long-term. By integrating genetic findings from several of the world’s largest biobanks, investigators from Mass General Brigham built metabolic PRSs for predicting obesity and T2D, which outperformed existing ...

Dielectric ceramic capacitors are critical components in modern electronics and pulsed power systems, prized for their ultra-fast charge–discharge capabilities and high-power density. However, their real-world application has been constrained by modest recoverable energy storage density (Wrec) and energy efficiency (η), especially under extreme operating conditions. Now, a research team led by Professor Changzheng Hu from the College of Materials Science and Engineering at Guilin University of Technology has developed a new class of lead-free relaxor ferroelectric ceramics that overcome these limitations. By integrating high-entropy design with bandgap engineering, ...

Dielectric ceramic capacitors are essential core components for electronics, smart grids and new energy vehicles, prized for their high power density. As electronic devices move toward miniaturization and intelligence, the demand for lead-free dielectric ceramics with ultrahigh recoverable energy storage density (Wrec) and high efficiency (η) is becoming increasingly urgent. Relaxor ferroelectrics (RFE) suffer from relatively large remnant polarization, while superparaelectric relaxor ferroelectrics (SPE-RFE) see ...

Febrile neutropenia (FN) is a serious chemotherapy complication defined by fever (≥38.3°C) and low neutrophil count (<0.5×10⁹/L). It affects 7–8 per 1,000 cancer patients, with 9.5% mortality. FN often leads to chemotherapy delays, compromising treatment efficacy. Current standard care—antibiotics and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF)—faces limitations including antibiotic resistance, G-CSF side effects (bone pain, vasculitis), and refractory cases. Traditional Chinese ...

Thermal barrier coatings are indispensable shields that protect the hot-end components of gas turbines and aircraft engines from extreme temperatures. Current industry-standard YSZ coatings face several critical limitations: an unstoppable phase transition that restricts operating temperatures below 1200 °C, dramatically rising thermal conductivity due to thermal radiation above 900 °C, severe corrosion by CaO–MgO–Al2O3–SiO2 (CMAS) melts, and vulnerability to moisture degradation. These combined deficiencies have driven urgent demand for next-generation TBC materials capable of sustained service at 1200–1500 °C. High-entropy ...

(Toronto, March 16, 2026) JMIR Publications is proud to announce the appointment of Dr. Sara Simblett as the new editor in chief of JMIR Neurotechnology. Dr. Sara Simblett is a clinical academic whose work focuses on digital health innovation, patient engagement, and the integration of technology into neuropsychology and broader mental health services. Her research is translational, combining clinical psychology, implementation science, and data-driven methodologies, such as ecological momentary assessment and the use of mobile technology, to evaluate and scale digital interventions that improve ...

SAN ANTONIO — March 16, 2026 — Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has received a contract from the U.S Air Force Academy to characterize inspection methods for bolt holes in aging aircraft to inspect through bushings without removing them. Assessing bolt hole condition inspection supports wider efforts that inform repair decisions and ensure aircraft safety. For decades, SwRI has supported the U.S. Air Force’s Aircraft Structural Integrity Program (ASIP) and the U.S. Air Force Academy Center for Aircraft Structural Life Extension ...

PULLMAN, Wash. — Again and again, Washington State University professor Mesut Cicek and his colleagues fed hypotheses from scientific papers into ChatGPT and asked it to determine whether the statements had been upheld by research — whether they were true or false. They did this with more than 700 hypotheses, repeating each query 10 times. AI answered correctly 76.5% of the time when the experiment was run in 2024. When it was repeated in 2025, the accuracy improved to 80%. When accounting for random guessing, however, AI was only about 60% better than chance ...

Nearly 1 in 5 teens in the United States is obese, putting their long-term health at serious risk. Obesity in adolescence leads to many deleterious medical conditions including diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and mental health struggles with low self-esteem and depression.   Understanding patterns of obesity and weight-loss efforts in U.S. adolescents is critical for shaping effective clinical and public health interventions. Yet, data remain sparse on whether and how adolescents attempt to lose weight. To explore these issues, researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s Charles E. Schmidt ...

PULLMAN, Wash. — Livestock breeders could soon have more tools to improve the health and quality of their animals, thanks to a recent study that sheds new light on regulatory elements in the sheep genome. Previous research demonstrated that several areas of the genome, regardless of species, are responsible for modulating or regulating gene expression. This study, the first of its kind on sheep, resulted in a detailed map that illuminates more specifically where those gene promoters and enhancers are located. The findings could help livestock breeders select for beneficial traits such as efficient food digestion or muscle development, while avoiding traits associated with disease.  “A ...

(Boston)—Elevated Lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] is an independent, genetically determined risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), with levels >50 mg/dL affecting 20–30% of the global population. Despite therapeutic limitations, interest in Lp(a) has increased, driven by its prognostic value and the emergence of targeted therapies. However, with increasing guideline-directed Lp(a) testing, clinician response to elevated concentrations, especially in the absence of guideline-based treatment indications, remains unclear.   In a new study and presentation at the American College of ...

Reliable and scalable water level prediction is crucial in hydrology for effective water resources management, especially when considering challenges owing to climate change, urbanization, improper land use, and high-water demand. It directly impacts the availability and distribution of freshwater in rivers and reservoirs. Therefore, accurate forecasting via early warning systems is a highly useful technique for flood mitigation, agricultural irrigation, ecosystem and environmental sustainability, and numerous other applications. In this regard, physically-based hydrodynamic river models can be used. However, these tools require enormous amounts of data, making them less useful in data-scarce ...

Climate change threatens global food security; however, climate mitigation policies may increase hunger risk by driving competition for land through bioenergy production and afforestation. Based on simulations from six global agroeconomic models, researchers from The University of Tokyo, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto University, National Institute for Environmental Studies, and E-Konzal Co. Ltd, together with collaborators from other countries, report that the ozone reduction benefits of climate mitigation ...

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 10:00 GMT / 6:00 ET MONDAY 16 MARCH 2026 A study led by the University of Oxford has identified a new type of planet beyond our Solar System – one that stores large amounts of sulphur deep within a permanent ocean of magma. The findings have been published today (16 March) in Nature Astronomy. The exoplanet (a planet that orbits a star outside the Solar System), known as L 98-59 d, orbits a small red star about 35 light-years from Earth. Recent observations from the James Webb Space Telescope ...

A drug to treat Parkinson’s disease can be made from waste plastic bottles using a pioneering method, a study shows. The approach harnesses the power of bacteria to transform post-consumer plastic into L-DOPA, a frontline medication for the neurological disorder. It is the first time a natural, biological process has been engineered to turn plastic waste into a therapeutic for a neurological disease, researchers say. Scientists at the University of Edinburgh engineered E. coli bacteria to turn a type of plastic used widely in food and drink ...

A new clinical trial led by the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology will investigate if a combination of drug therapies after radiation therapy improves outcomes for people with newly-diagnosed, grade 3 IDH-mutant astrocytoma, a type of brain cancer. Supported in part by a grant from the National Cancer Institute, the study (Alliance A072301) will look at whether adding the oral medication vorasidenib to the standard oral chemotherapy can help keep the cancer from coming back after radiation. People diagnosed with IDH-mutant, grade 3 astrocytoma usually receive surgery, followed by radiation and temozolomide, an oral chemotherapy pill. Temozolomide works by damaging the DNA of tumor ...

Infants and toddlers with unilateral cerebral palsy, which affects the brain’s control of muscles on one side of the body, show lasting improvements in hand and arm function when they receive early, high-dose therapy, according to a new multisite clinical trial led by Virginia Tech researchers at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC. The Baby CHAMP study — short for Children with Hemiparesis Arm-and-Hand Movement Project — directly compared three therapist-delivered interventions: two forms of constraint-induced movement therapy, which limit the stronger arm to encourage use of the weaker one when ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Motor vehicle crashes remain a leading cause of death for teens and young adults, yet many families may underestimate the risks close to home, suggests a new national poll. One in three parents worry their teen or young adult driver could cause an accident, according to the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health. Yet, nearly all parents believe their child drives as well as or better than other young drivers and relatively few said they imposed consequences for their teen’s unsafe driving behaviors. “Our report suggests a ...

As inflamed regions of the gut form scar tissue, the space within the gut lumen becomes smaller and more restricted, leading to symptoms of gut obstruction. There is currently no drug treatment available for this complication – eventually as fibrosis worsens, surgery becomes the only option. The researchers discovered that the biggest build up of scar tissue takes place in the submucosa (a layer of tissue beneath the inner lining of the bowel) – this indicates that the submucosa could be the starting point where the scarring begins.  Inflammation, the hallmark of Crohn’s ...

Recent advances in drug discovery research have led to the development of numerous drug candidate compounds with high therapeutic efficacy. However, many of these compounds possess properties that make them difficult to handle, such as poor water solubility and large molecular weights. This leads to poor absorption in the body and difficulty in achieving sufficient therapeutic effects. Further, the drugs distribute to normal tissues, which lead to severe side effects. Fortunately, active research is underway to develop drug delivery systems (DDS) that effectively ...

Recommender systems suggest potentially relevant content by evaluating user preferences and are essential in reducing information overload. However, when users join a new online platform, recommendation systems often struggle to understand their preferences. With no prior interactions in the new environment, these ‘cold-start’ users are difficult to serve accurately. One promising solution is cross-domain recommendation (CDR), which transfers knowledge about a user’s tastes from one domain to another. However, many existing cross-domain systems rely heavily on a user’s highly rated items while ignoring low ratings. In fact, dislikes can be just as informative ...

Extending the monitoring period for severe pregnancy complications showed more than 40% of cases were missed using traditional delivery-focused monitoring, according to new research published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.251425 that extended monitoring from conception to 6 weeks postpartum. Severe maternal morbidity (SMM) describes complications in pregnancy that can result in death, extended hospitalization, or long-term disability. Current practices in Canada monitor ...

Asian parents experience a 1.5-fold higher rate of obstetric trauma than White parents, and Black economic immigrant and refugee parents have a 20% to 30% higher risk, according to new research published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.250633. Obstetric trauma, defined as severe injury to the perineum, cervix, vagina, or surrounding area during childbirth, occurs in 4% to 6% of vaginal births in Canada and can lead to short-term complications, such ...

Hamilton, ON, Mar. 16, 2026 – The first major update to resistance-training guidelines in 17 years delivers one clear message: any amount of resistance training improves strength, muscle size, power and physical function. The new recommendations, published by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) as a Position Stand, are based on 137 systematic reviews involving more than 30,000 participants, making them the most comprehensive resistance-training guidelines to date. “The best resistance ...

One in ten emergency patients with visible blood in their urine die within three months of presenting at A&E, new research has found. The WASHOUT study, presented today [Monday 16 March] at the European Association of Urology Congress (EAU26) in London, found that a scan within 48 hours could reduce this risk. Such a scan also ensured patients with cancer were diagnosed significantly faster. Around 1 in 4 people who presented at A&E with visible blood in their urine had an underlying cancer, with the most common being bladder cancer, the study found. Around 25,000 people visit UK A&E departments each year because they have blood in their ...