Animals tend to get smaller as their populations grow because of increased competition for food resources among members of the same species. That’s not what has happened with California sea lions, however, according to a new study led by scientists at UC Santa Cruz. Published April 27 in Current Biology, the study found that male California sea lions have gotten bigger as the population grew over the past 50 years, while female body size has remained stable. “It’s counterintuitive. You would expect that their body size would decrease as dietary resource competition intensified,” said coauthor Paul Koch, professor of Earth and planetary sciences at UCSC. The ...

In a new translational study from UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, researchers analyzed genetic changes in the organs of recently deceased patients to understand how metastatic cutaneous melanoma spreads in those who had initially benefited from precision therapies. Results are published online ahead of print in Nature Medicine. The researchers, including collaborators at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tennessee, said unveiling the landscape of DNA and RNA alterations ...

A unique treatment combining radiation and immunotherapy can eradicate pancreatic tumors while stopping the cancer from spreading, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Colorado Cancer Center. The study, published today in the journal Cancer Cell, offers new hope to those with this often deadly disease. “This is the first time we’ve seen the eradication of a pancreatic tumor that suggests the cancer cell has memory, meaning we can stop the disease from coming back,” said lead author Sana Karam, MD, PhD, member of the CU ...

A study of ChatGPT found the artificial intelligence tool answered less than half of the test questions correctly from a study resource commonly used by physicians when preparing for board certification in ophthalmology. The study, published in JAMA Ophthalmology and led by St. Michael’s Hospital, a site of Unity Health Toronto, found ChatGPT correctly answered 46 per cent of questions when initially conducted in Jan. 2023. When researchers conducted the same test one month later, ChatGPT scored more than 10 per cent higher. The potential of AI in medicine and exam preparation ...

Habitats suitable for Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) across Asia have decreased by over 64% – equating to 3.3 million square kilometres of land – since the year 1700, estimates a study published in Scientific Reports. The authors suggest that habitat loss from 1700, after centuries of relative stability, coincides with the colonial-era use of land and subsequent agricultural intensification in South Asia. Asian elephants live in a range of habitats including grasslands and rainforests, but with increasing human use of land and habitat loss, elephants can come ...

Health and environmental advocates today called on communities, school boards and governments at every level to accelerate the electrification of school buses, replacing tens of thousands of diesel-powered school buses spewing toxic fumes that can seriously harm child health and interfere with learning. Led by the Canadian Partnership for Children’s Health and Environment (CPCHE), a coalition of 34 organisations made the goal of all-electric school bus fleets in Canada the central focus of this year’s national Healthy Environments for Learning Day (April 27). The joint call for urgent action by ...

About The Study: This systematic review and meta-analysis suggests a higher incidence of Bell palsy (BP) among SARS-CoV-2–vaccinated versus placebo groups. The occurrence of BP did not differ significantly between recipients of the Pfizer/BioNTech versus Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines. SARS-CoV-2 infection posed a significantly greater risk for BP than SARS-CoV-2 vaccination.  Authors: Amir Kheradmand, M.D., of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and Mehran Rahimlou, Ph.D., of the Zanjan University of Medical Sciences in Zanjan, Iran, are the corresponding authors.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamaoto.2023.0160) Editor’s ...

About The Study: In this study that included 125 text-based multiple-choice questions provided by the OphthoQuestions free trial for ophthalmic board certification examination preparation, ChatGPT answered approximately half of the questions correctly. Medical professionals and trainees should appreciate the advances of AI in medicine while acknowledging that ChatGPT as used in this investigation did not answer sufficient multiple-choice questions correctly for it to provide substantial assistance in preparing for board certification at this time. Authors: Rajeev H. Muni, M.D., M.Sc., of St. Michael’s Hospital/Unity Health Toronto in Toronto, is the corresponding ...

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that ChatGPT provides postoperative instructions that are helpful for patients with a fifth-grade reading level or different health literacy levels. However, ChatGPT generated instructions scored lower in understandability, actionability, and procedure-specific content than Google Search– and institution-specific instructions.  Authors: Noel Ayoub, M.D., M.B.A., of the Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, California, 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/jamaoto.2023.0704) Editor’s ...

An international team of researchers led by Prof. MA Keping from the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IBCAS) has shown that forests with higher tree species richness tend to have greater arthropod diversity. The researchers showed that higher tree diversity promotes productivity through the suppression of herbivores by enemy arthropods. These findings, published recently in Nature Ecology & Evolution, underscore the importance of arthropod diversity as a mediator of the effects of tree diversity ...

Researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) utilize an advanced DNA sequencing technique to reveal the factors that contributed to the death of a 5-year-old child with COVID-19 Tokyo, Japan – Sudden, unexplained child mortality is a tragedy; determining the cause of death is important for improving healthcare and providing loved ones with closure. Now, researchers from Japan have reported the use of an advanced DNA sequencing technique, whole-exome sequencing (WES), to determine why a young child died after a relatively mild infection. In a study published ...

A team led by bioinformatics experts Andreas Keller and Fabian Kern from Saarland University together with researchers at Stanford University have gained new insights into manifestations of ageing at the molecular level. They found that the process of reading genetic information does not run as smoothly in older individuals as it does in younger ones. These changes in the transcription process are due to particular RNA molecules that influence the activity of individual genes and thus determine which proteins the body produces – physiological ...

New research out of the University of Cincinnati examines the association between genetics and the presence of opioid use disorder (OUD). The study identified six single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) or genetic variants that are linked to OUD. The study was published in the journal Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics. “We are trying to identify some of the genetic variants that might play into OUD,” says Caroline Freiermuth, MD, associate professor in the Department of Emergency ...

WASHINGTON — Researchers have developed a new light-based computing scheme that uses a photonic integrated circuit to reduce the energy necessary for cryptocurrency and blockchain applications. Mining cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin—a process of verifying transactions and adding new cryptocurrency to the blockchain—consumes up to 1% of the world’s energy. This energy expenditure is expected to grow as cryptocurrency and blockchain applications become increasingly mainstream. Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies created using encryption algorithms. These alternative currencies require ...

The State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution (SKLMP) of City University of Hong Kong (CityU) received approval from the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) Sub-Commission for the Western Pacific (WESTPAC) to establish the first UNESCO regional training and research Centre (the Coastal-COMMIT Centre, also known as the “Centre”) on coastal contaminant monitoring and marine innovative technologies in Hong Kong for the Western Pacific region. The Centre aims to strengthen the monitoring capacity for marine pollution in the Western Pacific region, promote the development of marine innovation ...

NEWPORT NEWS, VA – Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility and DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory partnered early on to take on the design and construction of the Electron-Ion Collider. To keep the project moving forward, Jefferson Lab tapped members of its experienced leadership team to ensure project success. Now, Jefferson Lab is proud to announce it has appointed a dedicated EIC project manager: James Fast will lead the lab’s EIC project team and honor the lab’s project commitments going forward. “The EIC project is central to the future of ...

The team developed a deep learning AI model that can identify which at-risk infants have ROP that may lead to blindness if left untreated, and they hope their technique could improve access to screening in the many areas with limited neonatal services and few trained ophthalmologists. The study, by an international team of scientists and clinicians in the UK, Brazil, Egypt and the US, supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, is published in The Lancet Digital Health. Lead author Dr Konstantinos Balaskas ...

Embargoed until 9 AM ET on Thursday, April 27, 2023 COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study may help explain why people choose to include themselves in some photos – and it is not vanity.   Researchers found that first-person photos (capturing the scene as it looks from one’s own eyes) best represent the physical experience of an event for people.   But third-person photos like selfies (documenting a moment with themselves in it) better depict the deeper meaning of the event in their lives.   “We found that people have a natural intuition about which perspective to take to capture what they want out ...

Imagine you are eating your dream meal and want to commemorate the moment: Should you snap a picture of the food by itself or take a selfie with your partner while you eat? New research suggests that people use first-person photography, taking a photo of the scene from one’s own perspective, when they want to document a physical experience, but opt for third-person photos, depicting themselves in the scene (like selfies), to capture the deeper meaning of events. Previous research has focused how the photo-taker wants to present themselves to others. The current research, published today in Social Psychological and Personality Science, ...

Multiple myeloma is a rare blood cancer caused by the uncontrolled multiplication of abnormal plasma cells. These plasma cells are a special type of white blood cells that play an important role in the immune system by producing essential antibodies in the bone marrow and lymph nodes. Despite an increasing number of approved drugs and treatment approaches such as immunotherapy becoming available, the disease is still not curable. The average life expectancy of patients after diagnosis is only five years. One of the main challenges is the cancer’s tendency to return even after treatment. This is because treatment makes the cancer cells ...

In a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a team of researchers has published an editorial calling for national governments to consider mandating real-time indoor air quality monitoring in at least all public buildings.   Their editorial is published in the journal Building Simulation on 25 April 2023.   The three-year-long COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has revealed that there is a global indoor-air crisis. Vaccination alone has not completely controlled the COVID-19 pandemic and the virus continues to threaten human health and life. Scientists now know most if not nearly all ...

April 27, 2023 – For breast cancer patients undergoing breast reconstruction after mastectomy, avoiding postoperative oral antibiotics does not reduce the risk of infections, reports a study in the May issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer. "Our experience suggests that discontinuing routine oral antibiotic treatment after implant-based breast reconstruction ...

HOUSTON and SOMERVILLE, Mass. ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Generate:Biomedicines today announced a strategic collaboration to jointly discover and co-develop protein therapeutics for up to five oncology targets in advanced cancers, including small-cell and non-small-cell lung cancer. Under the co-development and commercialization agreement, MD Anderson and Generate:Biomedicines will each contribute toward creating optimized, potentially best-in-class therapeutics that can rapidly advance into proof-of-concept clinical trials. The agreement combines Generate:Biomedicines’ integrated machine-learning capabilities and experimental/wet lab capabilities – ...

Gambling addiction, also called “pathological gambling” and “gambling disorder (GD),” is known to have severe economic, social, mental, and physical consequences on those affected. One of the major factors contributing to the development and relapse of this disorder is stress. However, studies show that replacing gambling with alternative leisure activities may reduce the likelihood of developing the disorder. In recent years, forest bathing, or “shinrin-yoku,” a form of nature therapy, has emerged ...

“The surface is the skin through which our ocean breathes. It is a critical nursery ground for hundreds, possibly thousands, of species, and it is also one of the most vulnerable regions to human impacts. This is why we must treat the surface with exceptional care. It is an extremely unique and fragile environment, and small impacts at the surface could ripple into large impacts above and below the waves.” - Dr. Rebecca Helm, Assistant Professor of Environmental Science at Georgetown University   New research ...