Study suggests that adhering to a Mediterranean diet may alleviate or prevent posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms The human gut microbiome has a significant impact on our health. Research has shown that it can influence the development and response of emotions, but the relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the gut microbiome has been unexplored. PTSD is a fear-based mental health disorder that develops in some individuals who experience a disturbing and horrifying situation involving severe injury, actual or threat of death, or violence. A new study by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare ...

About The Study: The findings of this study that involved the use of data from Hong Kong and Singapore suggest that trust in health authorities was fundamental to overcoming COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. As such, engendering trust in health care professionals, experts, and public health agencies should be incorporated into pandemic preparedness and response.  Authors: Michael Y. Ni, M.D., of the University of Hong Kong, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.37909) Editor’s Note: Please see the article ...

About The Study: In this study of 394 individuals, females with a family history of mood disorders were prone to weight gain starting around puberty and predating mood disorder onset. Early interventions aiming to prevent adverse mental and physical outcomes in this vulnerable group need to start in childhood.  Authors: Rudolf Uher, M.D., Ph.D., of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.38540) Editor’s ...

Scientists have a new tool to precisely illuminate the roots of nerve pain.  Engineers at MIT have developed soft and implantable fibers that can deliver light to major nerves through the body. When these nerves are genetically manipulated to respond to light, the fibers can send pulses of light to the nerves to inhibit pain. The optical fibers are flexible and stretch with the body.  The new fibers are meant as an experimental tool that can be used by scientists to explore the causes and potential treatments for peripheral nerve disorders in animal models. ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A new electrical method to conveniently change the direction of electron flow in some quantum materials could have implications for the development of next-generation electronic devices and quantum computers. A team of researchers from Penn State developed and demonstrated the method in materials that exhibit the quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect — a phenomenon in which the flow of electrons along the edge of a material does not lose energy. The team described the work in a paper appearing today (Oct. 19) in the journal Nature ...

Touch plays a fundamental role in our physical, emotional, and social well-being. From a primary way of conveying emotions to sensory integration, it is crucial for the complex growth of cognitive, emotional, social, and behavioral abilities especially during the early development of infants and children. Touch allows us to build connections with others, eases pain and stress, and helps us to understand the world around us giving crucial information such as the texture, temperature, and shape of objects. When sensing any stimuli, such as when the body is being touched, the mechanical signals are transformed into biological responses ...

A breakthrough development in photonic-electronic hardware could significantly boost processing power for AI and machine learning applications. The approach uses multiple radio frequencies to encode data, enabling multiple calculations to be carried out in parallel. The method shows promise for outperforming state-of-the-art electronic processors, with further enhancements possible. In a paper published today in Nature Photonics, researchers from the University of Oxford, along with collaborators from the Universities of Muenster, Heidelberg, and Exeter, report on their development ...

In recent years, self-powered electrochromic (EC) devices have shown significant potential in various fields such as optoelectronics, sensors, and security systems. These self-powered EC systems, capable of reversible color switching without external power sources, have garnered considerable interest for next-generation electronic devices.  However, this field is still in its infancy, with several unresolved challenges, including monochromatic displays, limited cycle durability, and the use of aqueous electrolytes. All these limitations have become ...

Global coastal adaptations are ‘incremental in scale’, short-sighted and inadequate to address the root causes of vulnerability to climate change, according to an international team of researchers.  The 17 experts, including Prof Robert Nicholls, Professor of Climate Adaptation at the University of East Anglia (UEA), have contributed to the paper, ‘Status of global coastal adaptation’, which is published today in Nature Climate Change.   Prof Nicholls said: “Recent analyses conclude that despite adaptation undertaken in all regions and sectors, global action remains incremental in scale: policies and projects ...

A “two-for-one” cancer immunotherapy is potentially more effective and at least as safe as standard immunotherapies, physician-scientists from UPMC Hillman Cancer Center who led an international, early-phase clinical trial report today in the journal Nature Medicine. The findings, which involved hundreds of patients with different types of advanced solid tumors or blood cancers, point to an enticing new path for bispecific therapies that more efficiently unleash the patient’s own immune system to eliminate the cancer. “No approved ...

An international team of scientists has recently developed a novel type of nano engine made of DNA. It is driven by a clever mechanism and can perform pulsing movements. The researchers are now planning to fit it with a coupling and install it as a drive in complex nano machines. Their results were just published today in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. Petr Šulc, an assistant professor at Arizona State University's School of Molecular Sciences and the Biodesign Center for Molecular Design and Biomimetics, has collaborated with professor ...

Researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University(TMDU) find that a periodontal pathogen, Porphyromonas gingivalis, inhibits autophagosome–lysosome fusion, and can therefore worsen cardiac remodeling and cause cardiac rupture after myocardial infarction Tokyo, Japan – Brushing and flossing regularly can keep your smile shining as brightly as ever, but did you know that it could also help protect your heart? Now, researchers in Japan report that an infected mouth could lead to a broken ...

Controlling the process of destabilization is important when manipulating the unfolding and refolding of proteins in vitro (outside their native environment). To this end, urea and alcohol are used as cosolvents, substances added in small amounts along with water, to destabilize and denature proteins. Urea disturbs a native protein to produce disordered coils, and the interference by alcohol treatment yields helical structures. Research on the mechanism of cosolvents has shown that a protein’s stability between its native and denatured states is tied ...

Hook-ups where one partner is drunker than the other are more likely to be seen as assault, researchers at the University of Essex revealed.       A study by Dr Veronica Lamarche, from the Department of Psychology, discovered equal consumption was more important than levels of drunkenness.      This was the case even when couples had drunk to excess and was the same across sexualities and genders.       Dr Lamarche discovered that romantic rendezvous were seen most positively when couples drank the same low level of alcohol.      And encounters where one partner was ...

They published their work on Sep. 12 in Energy Material Advances.   "The great electrochemical phase-field simulation efforts devoted to exploring the dendrite growth mechanism under the temperature field recently," said paper author Shi, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University. "The uniformity of temperature distribution inside batteries has a substantial impact on the stability of Li electrodeposition and dissolution, and the mechanism underlying the temperature-dependent Li dendrite growth remains controversial."   Shi said ...

(WASHINGTON, Oct. 19, 2023) – Patients with multiple myeloma treated with idecabtagene vicleucel, known as “ide-cel,” a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, had no difference in overall survival outcomes regardless of race and ethnicity, according to a study published in Blood Advances. “With this study, we see that Black and white patients with multiple myeloma both respond well to ide-cel,” explained Laura Peres, PhD, an epidemiologist at Moffit Cancer Center and the study’s lead author. “We hope that these findings encourage the use of ide-cel ...

Biodiversity is essential for sustaining food security, livelihood, ecosystem health, and economic development and for preventing future epidemics. Asia, with nearly 60% of the world's population, stands out as a priority for urgent biodiversity conservation due to its large threatened species and protected areas (PAs), and many countries globally are facing extreme biodiversity and ecological threats. Satellite observations have shown that the human activities (i.e., cropland and artificial surface creations) in Asia have rapidly expanded since the 21st century and are being expanded to highlands (hilly and mountainous regions). Obviously, the intensification of human activities ...

Many people have experienced a muddy off-flavor in farmed fish. While the aquaculture industry has known about the problem for 20 years, it continues to impact the consumption of otherwise healthy and potentially sustainable fish. Now, University of Copenhagen researchers have been able to pinpoint exactly when the off-flavors emerge. And this can make it easier to deal with the compounds that turn people away from farmed fish. Yuk! Musty, earthy or muddy-tasting fish is never going to go over well with the family. Perhaps you’ve tasted it in trout caught from a put-and-take pond. The off-flavor ...

Highlights: High blood pressure affects a large share of the global adult population. Previous studies suggest probiotics may help prevent hypertension. New findings point to 2 additional probiotics as potential treatments. Blood pressure in hypertensive mice returned to healthy levels after treatment with Bifidobacterium lactis and Lactobacillus rhamnosus.  The researchers also identified relationships between unexplored gut microbes and hypertension. Washington, D.C. –  An estimated 40% of the global adult population have high blood pressure, or hypertension, ...

As a combustible fuel, the burning of hydrogen gas does not contribute to global warming.  Today, the majority of hydrogen gas is generated from fossil fuels, however, and this process releases greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.  Generating hydrogen gas from clean sources, such as the splitting of water molecules with electricity through electrolysis, is important to achieving future carbon neutrality, but current methods are inefficient and limit the commercial practicality of hydrogen-based technologies.  ...

HOUSTON – (Oct. 19, 2023) – Rice University scientists used a commercially available mixed-reality headset with custom-designed software to measure and analyze forest floor vegetation, demonstrating a correlation between animal diversity and the mapped habitat of a Tanzanian national park. According to the paper published in the journal Ecology, the greater the microhabitat surface area, the richer the biodiversity of its mammals. Traditional habitat field research requires a significant amount of time and effort, but Rice postdoctoral researcher Daniel Gorczynski reduced those costs by ...

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Oct. 18, 2023 — In a significant breakthrough that could eventually extend the survival of patients with one of the deadliest of all malignancies, an international team of researchers have devised an investigational blood test that might one day help doctors detect pancreatic cancer earlier. The team from the U.S., China, South Korea and Japan created and tested a biomarker panel that detects small amounts of RNA genetic material that breaks off from pancreatic cancer cells and circulates in the bloodstream, known ...

Scientists and natural resource managers from Canadian First Nations, governments, academic institutions, and conservation organizations published the first results of a unique salmon population monitoring tool in Frontiers in Marine Science. This groundbreaking new technology, dubbed “Salmon Vision,” combines artificial intelligence with age-old fishing weir technology. Early assessments show it to be remarkably adept at identifying and counting fish species, potentially enabling real-time salmon population monitoring for fisheries managers.  “In ...

Unemployment among the youth is a serious problem in many developing countries, especially in Africa. This issue stems in great part from a stagnant manufacturing sector. Firms in African countries have failed to grow significantly over the past decade, leading to fewer job positions for the youth. Foreign direct investment (FDI) is a promising avenue for addressing this challenge. Local firms in developing countries can learn advanced technologies and management strategies from multinational companies. This transmission of knowledge, in general, helps make ...

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are the largest and most diverse group of cell surface proteins in humans. These receptors, which can be seen as ‘traffic directors,’ transmit signals from the outside to the inside of cells and are involved in many physiological processes. Given their prominent roles in cellular communication, cell growth, immune responses, and sensory perception, many drugs have been developed to target GPCRs, for the treatment of conditions such as asthma, allergies, depression, hypertension, and heart disease. In fact, more than 300 GPCR-related drugs are currently in clinical trials, 36% ...