Shinsuke Suzuki at The University of Melbourne, Australia reports distinct patterns of reward-seeking behavior between obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and problem gambling, in a study publishing in the open access journal PLOS Biology on March 14th. OCD is associated with lower-than-normal learning rates when rewards are less than expected. On the other hand, people with problem gambling exhibit boosted and blunted learning from rewards higher and lower than expected, respectively. Understanding the differences between obsessive and addictive behaviors is essential for developing treatments for conditions like problem gambling ...

A global maternal immunization program for group B Streptococcus - strep B - would save millions in healthcare costs by reducing death and disability, but without tiered pricing, equitable access would likely not be achieved. Several vaccines are currently under development, and an assessment of the impact and value of a global program is publishing March 14th in the open access journal PLOS Medicine. It finds that this could avert over 200,000 cases and more than 31,000 deaths, and reduce disability in children. Strep B can infect pregnant women and their babies, causing sepsis and meningitis in newborns, and sometimes leading to death or disability. ...

X-ray detection is widely used in medical imaging, radioactivity detection, security checking, industrial flaw inspection, and so on. In recent years, metal halide perovskites have demonstrated excellent performances in the detection of X-rays and gamma-rays. However, most studies focus on perovskite single-pixel devices. To achieve the application goal of X-ray imagers, the detectors should be integrated with pixel circuits. This means that the device dark current is an important figure of merit to be considered. The low dark current can guarantee ...

WASHINGTON, March 14, 2023 – The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases daily with no sign of stopping or slowing. Too much of civilization depends on the burning of fossil fuels, and even if we can develop a replacement energy source, much of the damage has already been done. Without removal, the carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere will continue to wreak havoc for centuries. Atmospheric carbon capture is a potential remedy to this problem. It would pull carbon dioxide out of the air and store it permanently to reverse the effects of climate change. Practical carbon capture technologies are still in the early stages of development, with the most promising involving ...

WASHINGTON, March 14, 2023 – In a world experiencing growing inequality and intolerance, tools borrowed from science and mathematics could be the key to understanding and preventing prejudice. In Chaos, by AIP Publishing, Luis A. Martinez-Vaquero of the Polytechnic University of Madrid applied evolutionary game theory, which combines techniques from economics and biology, and complex system analysis to investigate the relationship between inequality and intolerance. He found that inequality boosts intolerance and that redistribution ...

About The Study: Implementation in California of its Insurance Gender Nondiscrimination Act was associated with a significant increase in utilization of gender-affirming surgery in California compared with the control states Washington and Arizona. These data might inform state legislative efforts to craft policies preventing discrimination in health coverage for state residents, including transgender and gender-diverse patients.  Authors: Anna Schoenbrunner, M.D., of Ohio State University in Columbus, is ...

About The Study: In this study of 318 mothers in Australia, the U.K., and the U.S., antenatal COVID-19–related stress was significantly associated with poor postpartum maternal mental health outcomes and increased negative affectivity among infants. Pregnant individuals should be classified as a vulnerable group during pandemics and should be considered a public health priority, not only in terms of physical health but also mental health.  Authors: Susanne Schweizer, Ph.D., of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, United Kingdom, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link ...

About The Study: The results of this study showed that intimate partner violence experiences at the start of the pandemic were associated with worse mental health symptoms and modifiable health factors for female participants younger than age 60. Screening and interventions for intimate partner violence and related health factors are needed to prevent severe, long-term health consequences.  Authors: Arielle A. J. Scoglio, Ph.D., of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, ...

PASADENA, Calif. — A Kaiser Permanente study of more than 800,000 young people between the ages of 3 and 17 showed that youth at the upper range of average weight had a 26% higher risk of developing hypertension than those closer to what is considered average weight. The study was published March 14, 2023, in JAMA Network Open. “Hypertension during youth tracks into adulthood and is associated with cardiac and vascular organ damage. Since the organ damage can be irreversible, preventing hypertension in our young people is critically important,” said the lead author, Corinna Koebnick, PhD, of the ...

WASHINGTON, March 14, 2023 – Burn wounds are notoriously prone to bacterial infection and typically lead to a larger amount of scar tissue than laceration wounds. In APL Bioengineering, by AIP publishing, researchers from Boston University and Harvard University created a biomimetic model to study wound healing in burn and laceration wounds. They discovered that fibroblasts – normally considered building cells that give shape and strength to tissues and organs – clear away damaged tissue before depositing new material. This ...

COVID-19 related stress had a greater impact on the mental health of those who were pregnant during the pandemic, compared to those who weren't, new UNSW Sydney research has found.   In a longitudinal study of 742 pregnant participants, Dr Susanne Schweizer from UNSW Science, together with colleagues in Europe and the US, collected data on mental health at multiple time points, both during and after pregnancy.    Their analysis found COVID-19 related stress had the greatest impact on pregnant people who had a tendency to worry, felt lonely, ...

New research emphasizes how important children’s well-being is for their sense of achievement. Pupils' sense of how good their results are at school is linked to how well they are thriving, both in the school setting and with the subject matter. “We’re finding a connection between pupils’ well-being at school and the subject matter, and with how well the pupils think they’re able to do the school work in all the subjects we examined,” says Hermundur Sigmundsson, a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's (NTNU) Department ...

UVA Health researchers have identified a potential treatment to prevent severe COVID-19 in patients at great risk. The new research from UVA’s Jie Sun, PhD, and colleagues suggests a way to protect patients with obesity or diabetes from the runaway inflammation and dangerous blood sugar spikes that COVID-19 can cause. Such patients are at high risk for severe COVID-19, and, with the effectiveness of existing COVID treatments waning, new treatment options are needed urgently. “Our work has uncovered ...

With the aid of some sea slugs, University of Nebraska–Lincoln chemists have discovered that one of the smallest conceivable tweaks to a biomolecule can elicit one of the grandest conceivable consequences: directing the activation of neurons. Their discovery came from investigating peptides, the short chains of amino acids that can transmit signals among cells, including neurons, while populating the central nervous systems and bloodstreams of most animals. Like many other molecules, an amino acid in a peptide can adopt one of two forms that feature the same atoms, with the same connectivity, but in mirror-image orientations: L and ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – In a study of over a million women, digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) showed improved breast cancer screening outcomes over screening with standard digital mammography alone. The results of the study were published in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the United States. While breast cancer mortality has been on the decline since the late 1980s due to improvements in early detection and treatment, it still remains the leading cause of cancer death among women. The five-year relative survival rate of breast cancer when it is detected early in its localized ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – Regions of the U.S. with an extreme level of socioeconomic disadvantage were less likely to have access to accredited medical imaging facilities and centers of excellence, according to a research letter published in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Higher proportions of the disadvantaged zip codes were located in the rural southern portion of the U.S. A lack of access to high-quality imaging facilities has the potential to lead to delayed or missed diagnoses, further exacerbating the health disparities experienced by people who live in disadvantaged communities. “Patients ...

A recent study in the Journal of Biological Chemistry has revealed the secret behind an evolutionary marvel: a bacteriophage with an extremely long tail. This extraordinary tail is part of a bacteriophage that lives in inhospitable hot springs and preys on some of the toughest bacteria on the planet. Bacteriophages are a group of viruses that infect and replicate in bacteria and are the most common and diverse things on Earth. “Bacteriophages, or phages for short, are everywhere that bacteria are, including the dirt and water around you and in your own body’s microbial ecosystem as well,” said Emily Agnello, a graduate student at the University of ...

A clinical study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden shows that the hunger hormone ghrelin can increase the heart’s pump capacity in patients with heart failure. The results have been published in the European Heart Journal. Millions of people worldwide live with heart failure, a condition in which the pump function of the heart is reduced, such as after a myocardial infarction or angina. In heart failure, the heart muscle is weakened, leaving the heart unable to pump the amount of blood needed to provide the body with sufficient oxygen ...

Peru’s first great empire, the Wari, stretched for more than a thousand miles over the Andes Mountains and along the coast from 600-1000 CE. The pottery they left behind gives archaeologists clues as to how the empire functioned. In a new study in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, researchers showed that rather than using “official” Wari pottery imported from the capital, potters across the empire were creating their own ceramics, decorated to emulate the traditional Wari style. To figure it out, the scientists analyzed the pottery’s chemical make-up, with help from laser beams. “In this study, ...

Most animals can quickly transition from walking to jumping to crawling to swimming if needed without reconfiguring or making major adjustments.  Most robots cannot. But researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have created soft robots that can seamlessly shift from walking to swimming, for example, or crawling to rolling. "We were inspired by nature to develop a robot that can perform different tasks and adapt to its environment without adding actuators or complexity," said Dinesh K. Patel, a post-doctoral fellow in the Morphing Matter Lab in the School of Computer Science's Human-Computer Interaction Institute. "Our bistable actuator ...

Scientists to retrofit large shipping vessels with ultramodern sails in efforts to cut carbon emissions University of Southampton initiative will investigate how modern vessels perform on the ocean when fitted with the wing-sails Funding from Innovate UK to investigate the potential of the technology and decarbonise the UK’s maritime sector   SHIPS of the future could once again be powered by wind if a pioneering project which retrofits large vessels with ultramodern wing-sails proves successful in cutting carbon emissions. Scientists ...

Shixin Liu receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for developing cutting-edge biophysical tools to directly visualize and understand the physiological function of nanometer-scale biomolecular machines such as those that carry out genome replication and gene transcription. The Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise is a $50,000 prize awarded annually by the Vilcek Foundation as part of its prizes program. Awarded annually since 2006, the Vilcek Foundation prizes recognize and celebrate immigrant contributions to scientific research and discovery, and to artistic and cultural advancement in the United States. In addition ...

National Institutes of Health researchers compared a new genetic animal model of Down syndrome to the standard model and found the updated version to be enhanced. The new mouse model shows milder cognitive traits compared to a previously studied Down syndrome mouse model. The results of this study, published in Biological Psychiatry, may help researchers develop more precise treatments to improve cognition in people with Down syndrome.  Scientists found that the new mouse model, known as Ts66Yah, had memory difficulties and behavior traits, but the symptoms were not as severe as seen with the ...

Ithaca, NY— Bald Eagles and dairy farmers exist in a mutually beneficial relationship in parts of northwestern Washington State. According to a new study, this "win-win" relationship has been a more recent development, driven by the impact of climate change on eagles' traditional winter diet of salmon carcasses, as well as by increased eagle abundance following decades of conservation efforts. The research is published in the journal Ecosphere.   "The narrative ...

Spanning long distances across variable terrains, electric power systems can spark wildfires in the event of dry weather and high winds. This may occur when conductor cables oscillate in such a way to become close to the surrounding vegetation. Data from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection shows that between 2016-2020, at least five of the top 20 most destructive California wildfires started from power systems. Paired with the extreme weather conditions and nearby vegetation, ...