Scientists investigating the severe developmental disorder known as Rett syndrome have discovered a series of crucial molecular changes that occur long before symptoms appear. The findings could be used to develop better treatments for the devastating, life-shortening condition, the researchers say. Rett syndrome strikes girls almost exclusively. Children with Rett initially appear healthy and appear to develop normally for the first six to 18 months before beginning to regress and lose previously acquired skills. For example, children who crawl can become unable to do so, and language skills ...

WASHINGTON — Researchers have developed a laser-based artificial neuron that fully emulates the functions, dynamics and information processing of a biological graded neuron. With a signal processing speed of 10 GBaud —a billion times faster than its biological counterparts — the new laser graded neuron could lead to breakthroughs in fields like artificial intelligence and other types of advanced computing. The body contains various types of nerve cells, including graded neurons that encode ...

As the world faces the pressing challenge of climate change, global and national organizations are on the constant lookout for strategies to combat this concern. In this vein, world leaders adopted the ‘Pact for the Future,’ including a Global Digital Compact and a Declaration on Future Generations as annexes, at the ‘Summit of the Future’ held at the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in September 2024. To align with the UN initiatives, the Global Young Academy (GYA), the International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable ...

A newly published review in eGastroenterology compiles recent research on alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD), offering an overview of its pathogenesis and efforts to better understand this condition. ALD, caused by excessive alcohol consumption, remains a significant contributor to liver-related mortality worldwide. Effective treatments are still limited, underscoring the need for a deeper understanding of its mechanisms. This review summarizes findings on the cellular, molecular, and systemic processes involved in ALD progression, with a focus on liver ...

For people taking popular blood thinners after having a blood clot, a reduced dose may limit the future risk of bleeding as well as hospital visits, a Michigan Medicine-led study suggests. The research team focused the study on the two most prescribed direct oral anticoagulants, or DOACs, rivaroxaban (brand name Xarelto) and apixaban (brand name Eliquis). Investigators analyzed nearly1,000 cases of patients who were treated for a blood clot, also known as venous thromboembolism, and who were taking the medications to prevent one from recurring. Some patients had their doses reduced after six months, while others stayed on the full therapeutic dose.  While ...

The best way to deal with narcissistic people in your personal life may be the hardest advice to take, according to an expert who has studied narcissism for more than 20 years.   The best course of action is to identify narcissistic people early on and get them out of your life, said Amy Brunell, professor of psychology at The Ohio State University’s Mansfield campus.   Brunell said that is often difficult because narcissists can be charming and likable early in a relationship. But there are usually subtle signs that you should not ignore.   “If you’re in a new relationship and you’re ...

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (12/19/2024) — A first-of-its-kind study from researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities shows how remote sensing can help monitor and remove plastic debris from freshwater environments like the Mississippi River. The research, published in Nature, a peer-reviewed scientific journal, helps to increase the understanding of plastic debris behavior in freshwater environments. Plastic pollution in oceans continues to be a growing environmental issue, with the United Nations Environment Programme naming it one of the leading pollution challenges. ...

Wearing sunscreen is important to protect your skin from the harmful effects of UV radiation but doesn’t cool people off. However, a new formula, described in ACS’ Nano Letters, protects against both UV light and heat from the sun using radiative cooling. The prototype sunblock kept human skin up to 11 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celsius) cooler than bare skin, or around 6 F (3 C) cooler than existing sunscreens. Radiative cooling involves either reflecting or radiating heat away from something, cooling whatever’s underneath. It is already used to create cooling fabrics and coatings that could both cool and ...

The vast majority of women who contract bird flu during pregnancy and their unborn baby will die from the virus, according to a new study. And the findings stress the importance of early inclusion of pregnant women in public health vaccination programs during pandemics. The research, led by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI), recommends that as human cases of avian influenza viruses A (H5N1 and H5N2) increase, an awareness around the vulnerability of pregnant women to a new pandemic is urgently needed. The systematic review of more than 1500 research ...

Hand choice is an unconscious decision frequently made in daily life, whether it's reaching for an object such as a cup or performing any other task. This decision is influenced by target-related information, such as the location, shape, and orientation of the object. However, the selection probability for each hand reaches equilibrium when the target-related factors are similar for the left and right hands. Recent findings suggest that hand choice in such ambiguous situations is biased by prior information before the target presentation. One such factor is prior somatosensory stimulation on one wrist, which likely affects brain activity, enhancing the likelihood ...

 Arizona State University and Banner Alzheimer’s Institute researchers, along with their collaborators, have discovered a surprising link between a chronic gut infection caused by a common virus and the development of Alzheimer’s disease in a subset of people. It is believed most humans are exposed to this virus — called cytomegalovirus or HCMV — during the first few decades of life. Cytomegalovirus is one of nine herpes viruses, but it is not considered a sexually transmitted disease. The virus is usually ...

Seattle, WASH.—December 19, 2024—Today, the Allen Institute announced eight distinguished scientists who will make up the 2024 Next Generation Leaders (NGL) in bioscience cohort. New this year, the program has expanded beyond neuroscience to welcome researchers from the fields of bioengineering, chemistry, and medicine. Their diverse and impressive range of research expertise includes social cognition, music mindfulness, and psychedelics, to using computational machine learning methods for single-cell omics to study inflammatory disease. The program is run out of the Allen Institute’s Learning, ...

The operating life and life span of buildings are often far apart. If a property is no longer fit for purpose, it is usually demolished even though it would still be perfectly usable. Even in the event of damage to individual parts of the building, the entire building usually has to make way. This is because in most cases it is cheaper to build a new building than to carry out a conversion or renovation of the existing one. However, this approach does not conserve resources. In the MOHOHO project, an interdisciplinary team from the Institute of Architectural Technology and the Institute of Timber Engineering ...

Researchers at University of California San Diego have developed and tested a new software package, called Spatial Modeling Algorithms for Reactions and Transport (SMART), that can realistically simulate cell-signaling networks — the complex systems of molecular interactions that allow cells to respond to diverse cues from their environment. Cell-signaling networks involve many distinct steps and are also greatly influenced by the complex, three-dimensional shapes of cells and subcellular components, making them difficult to simulate with existing tools. SMART offers a solution to this problem, which could help accelerate research in fields across ...

When introducing genes into yeast to make it produce drugs and other useful substances, it is also necessary to reliably switch the production on or off. A Kobe University team found three gene regulation design principles that provide a flexible guideline for the effective control of microbiological production. It’s said that DNA is the blueprint of life, telling our cells what to produce. But DNA also contains the switches telling those cells when to produce something and how much of it. Therefore, when introducing new genes into cells to produce useful chemicals such ...

More American cities – even those seen as affluent – are home to people living without running water as people are being ‘squeezed’ by unaffordable housing and the cost-of-living crisis, new research finds. Published in Nature Cities, the study revealed the problem worsened following changes to the housing market triggered by the 2008 global crash. And since 2017 it has been “expanding in scope and severity” to affect a broader array of US cities including Portland (OR), Phoenix, Houston, Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Philadelphia, as well as large urban areas such as Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco. The research ...

A new study from the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center at the Mailman School of Public Health reveals significant improvements in the health of older adults in England when compared to previous generations. Rather than considering health through the presence or absence of disease, the study, published in Nature Aging, applied a new approach that examined trends in people’s functioning – their cognitive, locomotor, psychological, and sensory capacities. Using data from the English Longitudinal Study ...

Living organisms monitor time – and react to it – in many different ways, from detecting light and sound in microseconds to responding physiologically in pre-programmed ways, via their daily sleep cycle, monthly menstrual cycle, or to changes in the seasons. Such ability to react at different timescales is made possible via molecular switches or nanomachines that act or communicate as precise molecular timers, programmed to turn on and off in response to the environment and time. Now, ...

Artificial intelligence that is as intelligent as humans may become possible thanks to psychological learning models, combined with certain types of AI. This is the conclusion of Robert Johansson, who in his dissertation from Linköping University has developed the concept of Machine Psychology and how it can contribute to AI development. Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) has been the holy grail of AI research since the 1950s. So far, humanity has not managed to create an artificial intelligence that can solve intellectual tasks in the same way ...

Walking speed can provide insights into health, extending beyond mere mobility, so much so that it is considered to be the “sixth vital sign.” Past studies have suggested that a slow walking speed is correlated with the development of cardiovascular diseases and an increased risk of mortality in the elderly. A recent study led by Prof. Kojiro Ishii from Doshisha University, in collaboration with Dr. Yukio Yamamoto, Dr. Kentaro Ikeue, Dr. Kan Oishi, and Dr. Takaaki Mori from Doshisha University, ...

HOUSTON-(Dec. 18, 2024) –Houston Methodist researchers have discovered that certain components of so-called “good” cholesterol -- high-density lipoproteins (HDL) – may be associated with an increased prevalence of cardiovascular disease.   Led by Henry J. Pownall, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry in medicine at the Houston Methodist Research Institute, and Khurram Nasir, M.D., M.P.H., a cardiologist and division chief of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at Houston Methodist, the research team is using innovative methods to investigate the role of certain properties of HDL in heart health.   “During ...

Chronic liver damage can lead to hepatitis, which causes fibrosis of the liver. This buildup of collagen and other fibrous tissue accelerates when hepatic stellate cells become activated during hepatitis, often resulting in liver cancer or cirrhosis, both of which can be fatal. As there are no effective drugs to treat cirrhosis, suppressing the activation of the stellate cells is considered as a way of controlling the progression of liver fibrosis. “It is estimated that one out of every 3-4 ...

Efficient gas separation is vital in various industries, from medical applications to energy production. However, isolating oxygen from mixtures presents a significant technological challenge. Because many gases, including argon and oxygen, share similar physical properties, separating them is difficult. Now, Ryotaro Matsuda and his team at Nagoya University have developed a unique porous metal-organic framework (MOF), which represents a novel approach to gas separation: a combined phenomenon of "adsorption" and "dissolution" that they term the "adsorptive-dissolution" ...

Physical examinations are important diagnostic tools that can reveal critical insights into a patient’s health, but complex conditions may be overlooked if a clinician lacks specialized training in that area. While previous research has investigated using large language models (LLMs) as tools to aid in providing diagnoses, their use in physical exams remains untapped. To address this gap, researchers from Mass General Brigham prompted the LLM GPT-4 to recommend physical exam instructions based on patient symptoms. ...

Inflammation in the hippocampus – the brain’s memory centre – significantly alters motivation and behaviour in mice, including food-seeking behaviour, with notable differences between males and females, a recent study reveals. The hippocampus plays a crucial role in memory formation, learning and emotional regulation. Hippocampal neuroinflammation occurs in a range of diseases and disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Multiple Sclerosis and Depression.  People with these diseases often experience common symptoms such as apathy, difficulty with daily activities and changes to food preferences. These symptoms also tend to be more severe in women than in men. “While ...