Friendships are critical parts of our lives. Staying in touch with friends online is crucially important, especially for teenagers. Fostering friendships online, however, takes time and might require near constant availability, which can cause digital stress that can arise when expectations on social media are not met. This in turn, can lead to conflicts among friends. New research published in Frontiers in Digital Health by scientists in Italy highlights how social media expectations within friend groups and digital stress shape adolescent friendships and conflicts over time. “We show that adolescents’ perceptions of social media norms and perceptions of unique features ...

XIAMEN, China, 18 March 2025 – A groundbreaking peer-reviewed Thought Leaders Invited Review article in Brain Medicine (Genomic Press, New York) explores how CD2-associated protein (CD2AP) contributes to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), one of the most devastating neurodegenerative disorders affecting millions worldwide. CD2AP, initially identified for its role in cellular transport and cytoskeletal architecture, has now emerged as a crucial factor in AD pathology​. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have established CD2AP as a major genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease ...

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia, 18 March 2025 – A pioneering peer-reviewed research study published in Brain Medicine provides compelling evidence that maternal infections during pregnancy can have lasting effects on offspring brain function. Researchers from the Slovak Academy of Sciences investigated the impact of maternal immune activation (MIA) on hippocampal pyramidal neurons in newborn rat offspring and found that prenatal inflammation significantly impairs neuronal excitability. These changes in brain function may underlie the increased risk of neurodevelopmental disorders associated with maternal infections​. “Maternal ...

Zürich/Lausanne, Switzerland – 18 March 2025 – inait today announced a collaboration with Microsoft to accelerate the development and commercialization of inait’s innovative AI technology, using its unique digital brain AI platform. The collaboration will focus on joint product development, go-to-market strategies, and co-selling initiatives, initially targeting the finance and robotics sectors. inait's AI technology, born from decades of neuroscience research offers a paradigm shift in artificial intelligence. Its “brain programming language” and ability to learn from experience and understand cause and effect delivers cognitive ...

LAUSANNE, March 18, 2025 – The Open Brain Institute (OBI) launches today as a groundbreaking non-profit organization, transforming neuroscience from the physical to the virtual world. Building on the pioneering achievements of the EPFL’s Blue Brain Project, OBI opens the era of simulation neuroscience—empowering researchers to build and simulate digital brains with unprecedented detail, scale, and speed. AI has been given access to the software recipe to build digital brains, providing natural language support to researchers to explore, build and ...

Helicobacter pylori bacteria is considered to be the main cause of gastric cancer, with the infection rate particularly high in the Asia-Pacific region. Approximately 90% of cases are linked to H. pylori bacterial infections, but preemptive eradication can reduce the incidence of gastric cancer by 30-40%. However, the increase in antimicrobial drug-resistant bacteria used in eradication therapy is a major issue. In addition, while secondary prevention through endoscopic examinations is also important for the early detection of gastric cancer, it is not clear to what extent Asia-Pacific practitioners recognize its importance. An international ...

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 00:01 AM UK TIME ON TUESDAY 18 MARCH 2025 Almost one in ten people (9.1%) in England think they could have Long Covid but aren’t sure, according to a new analysis of NHS England survey data by the University of Southampton. Researchers also found that 4.8% of people reported having Long Covid, with higher rates among people living in deprived areas, people with particular ethnic backgrounds, parents or carers, and those with another long-term condition. The findings are published today [18 March] ...

Researchers at Heriot-Watt University have made a ground-breaking discovery paving the way for a transformative era in photonic technology. For decades, scientists have theorised the possibility of manipulating the optical properties of light by adding a new dimension—time. This once-elusive concept has now become a reality thanks to nanophotonics experts from the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences in Edinburgh, Scotland. The team’s breakthrough emerged from experiments with nanomaterials known as transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) - a special ...

(MEMPHIS, Tenn. – March 17, 2025) As the H5N1 avian influenza outbreak continues, scientists are working to better understand the virus’s threat to human health. The virus has been found in dairy cows’ milk and has infected farm workers, prompting scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to study potential treatments. Results showed that in a preclinical model, two FDA–approved flu antivirals generally did not successfully treat severe H5N1 infections. Additionally, the researchers found that the route of infection, whether through ...

Thomas Jefferson University has initiated a phase 1 clinical trial for a Lassa virus (LASV) vaccine developed at Jefferson in collaboration with the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), at the Center of Vaccine Development and Global Health, UMB. Currently, there are no approved vaccines against the Lassa virus. The clinical study is a dose-ranging study that will assess the safety and immunogenicity of the candidate vaccine for both the rabies virus and LASV. The experimental vaccine is based on an attenuated and killed rabies virus vaccine similar to current rabies vaccines and has an additional ...

Outpatient primary care clinics at Hebrew SeniorLife’s Orchard Cove and NewBridge on the Charles communities have been recognized by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) as Age-Friendly Health Systems — Committed to Care Excellence. “I want to express my gratitude to the team at Hebrew SeniorLife for your dedication to age-friendly care,” said Leslie Pelton, MPA, Vice President, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). “Age-Friendly Health Systems and IHI celebrate your recognition as an Age-Friendly ...

For decades, atomic clocks have been the pinnacle of precision timekeeping, enabling GPS navigation, cutting-edge physics research, and tests of fundamental theories. But researchers at JILA, led by JILA and NIST Fellow and University of Colorado Boulder physics professor Jun Ye, in collaboration with the Technical University of Vienna, are pushing beyond atomic transitions to something potentially even more stable: a nuclear clock. This clock could revolutionize timekeeping by using a uniquely low-energy transition within the nucleus of a thorium-229 atom. This transition is less sensitive to environmental disturbances than modern atomic clocks and has been proposed for tests of fundamental ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, March 17, 2025 Contact: Jillian McKoy, jpmckoy@bu.edu  Michael Saunders, msaunder@bu.edu  ##  As health complications and deaths from alcohol use disorder (AUD) increase in the United States, it is critical that people who could benefit from medications have access to the drugs that the US Food and Drug Administration has approved to treat AUD. Yet, for individuals who have alcohol use disorder and are covered by Medicaid, accessing these medications is difficult; past research indicates that only about 1 in 20 Medicaid enrollees with alcohol use disorder receive these ...

Mount Sinai Researchers Find Specific Therapy That Teaches Patients to Tolerate Stomach and Body Discomfort Improved Functional Brain Deficits Linked to Visceral Disgust That Can Cause Food Avoidance in Adolescent Females with Anorexia Nervosa and other Low-Weight Eating Disorders Corresponding Author:  Kurt P. Schulz, PhD, Associate Professor, Center of Excellence in Eating and Weight Disorders, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, and other co-authors Bottom Line: A trial of interoceptive exposure - a therapy that teaches patients how to tolerate stomach and body discomfort in order to reduce restrictive eating - improved functional deficits in a brain region ...

Follow @Annalsofim on X, Facebook, Instagram, threads, and Linkedin         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 ...

18th March 2025, Sydney: In an Australian first, a team of scientists led by Australian Museum and UNSW Sydney palaeontologist, Dr Matthew McCurry, have described a new species of 15-million-year-old fossilised freshwater fish, Ferruaspis brocksi, that shows preserved stomach contents as well as the pattern of colouration. The research is published today in The Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology (DOI - 10.1080/02724634.2024.2445684) Named after Professor Jochen J. Brocks from the Australian National University, who discovered several of the fossilised species at the Australian Museum’s, McGraths Flat fossil site near Gulgong, NSW, Ferruaspis brocksi is the first ...

  EMBARGOED UNTIL 3/17/2025, 3:00PM ET   March 17, 2025   Slow, Silent ‘Scream’ of Epithelial Cells Detected for First Time Team from UMass Amherst uncovers communication by “electric spiking” in cells once thought to be mute, which could enable bioelectric applications   AMHERST, Mass. — It has long been thought that only nerve and heart cells use electric impulses to communicate, while epithelial cells — which compose the linings of our skin, organs ...

Modern birds are the living relatives of dinosaurs. Take a look at the features of flightless birds like chickens and ostriches that walk upright on two hind legs, or predators like eagles and hawks with their sharp talons and keen eyesight, and the similarities to small theropod dinosaurs like the velociraptors of Jurassic Park fame are striking. Yet birds differ from their reptile ancestors in many important ways. A turning point in their evolution was the development of larger brains, which in turn led to changes in the size and shape of their skulls. New research from ...

Iguanas have often been spotted rafting around the Caribbean on vegetation and, ages ago, evidently caught a 600-mile ride from Central America to colonize the Galapagos Islands. But for long distance travel, the Fiji iguanas can't be touched. A new analysis conducted by biologists at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of San Francisco (USF) suggests that sometime after about 34 million years ago, Fiji iguanas landed on the isolated group of South Pacific islands after voyaging 5,000 miles from the western coast of North America — the longest known transoceanic dispersal of any terrestrial vertebrate. Overwater ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — It may someday be possible to listen to a favorite podcast or song without disturbing the people around you, even without wearing headphones. In a new advancement in audio engineering, a team of researchers led by Yun Jing, professor of acoustics in the Penn State College of Engineering, has precisely narrowed where sound is perceived by creating localized pockets of sound zones, called audible enclaves. In an enclave, a listener can hear sound, while others standing nearby cannot, even if the people are in an enclosed space, like a vehicle, or standing ...

By taking two flakes of special materials that are just one atom thick and twisting them at high angles, researchers at the University of Rochester have unlocked unique optical properties that could be used in quantum computers and other quantum technologies. In a new study published in Nano Letters, the researchers show that precisely layering nano-thin materials creates excitons—essentially, artificial atoms—that can act as quantum information bits, or qubits. “If we had just a single ...

Backgrounds and objectives Gastrointestinal complications are common in patients after ischemic stroke. Gastric motility is regulated by gastric pace-making activity (also called gastric myoelectrical activity (GMA)) and autonomic function. The aim of this study was to evaluate GMA, assessed by noninvasive electrogastrography (EGG), and autonomic function, measured via spectral analysis of heart rate variability derived from the electrocardiogram in patients with ischemic stroke. Methods EGG and electrocardiogram were simultaneously recorded in both fasting and postprandial states in 14 patients with ischemic stroke and 11 healthy controls. ...

The American College of Cardiology (ACC) has issued its first Concise Clinical Guidance (CCG) to create more streamlined and efficient processes to implement best practices in patient care. This CCG focuses on evaluating and managing cardiogenic shock (CS), addressing important questions around clinical decision-making and providing actionable guidance for health care providers. “ACC has a long history of developing clinical policy to complement clinical practice guidelines and to inform clinicians about areas where evidence is new and evolving or where randomized data is more limited. Despite this, ...

A new analysis led by surgeons at UCLA Health finds that psychological prehabilitation can significantly enhance recovery after surgery. The research, led by Anne E. Hall in the lab of Dr. Justine Lee analyzed data from 20 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) conducted between 2004 and 2024, involving a total of 2,376 patients. It is published in the Annals of Surgery What is Psychological Prehabilitation? Prehabilitation is a proactive approach aimed at improving surgical outcomes through preventive measures. Traditionally, ...

Trial of strength at the cellular level: cells are in constant competition with each other and so eliminate diseased or unwanted cells. Cell competition is therefore a central principle for maintaining the health of tissues and organs. Researchers have investigated the success factors of superior cells and discovered a previously unknown winning strategy in mechanical cell competition. They identified a variety in the ability of cells to exert mechanical forces onto other cells as the decisive regulator. With their results ...