Kyoto, Japan -- Predicting earthquakes has long been an unattainable fantasy. Factors like odd animal behaviors that have historically been thought to forebode earthquakes are not supported by empirical evidence. As these factors often occur independently of earthquakes and vice versa, seismologists believe that earthquakes occur with little or no warning. At least, that's how it appears from the surface. Earthquake-generating zones lie deep within the Earth's crust and thus cannot be directly observed, but scientists have long proposed that faults may undergo a precursory phase before an earthquake during which micro-fracturing and slow slip occur. ...

Hospitals do not always have the opportunity to collect data in tidy, uniform batches. A clinic may have a handful of carefully labelled images from one scanner while holding thousands of unlabelled scans from other centres, each with different settings, patient mixes and imaging artefacts. That jumble makes a hard task—medical image segmentation—even harder still. Models trained under neat assumptions can stumble when deployed elsewhere, particularly on small, faint or low-contrast targets.   Assistant Professor Zhao Na from SUTD and collaborators set out to embrace ...

Two pioneering studies published in the journal Animals have explored how dog and cat guardians perceive more sustainable pet food options.   Co-led by Griffith University Adjunct Professor Andrew Knight, the research sheds new light on the potential for alternative proteins and plant-based diets in the companion animal sector.  Study One – Dogs: ‘Consumer Acceptance of Sustainable Dog Diets: A Survey of 2,639 Dog Guardians’   In the first study, the team surveyed 2,639 dog guardians worldwide.  About 84 per cent of respondents were currently feeding their dogs either conventional or raw meat-based ...

Professor Zaifa Shi's team at Xiamen University developed an ultra-high temperature flash vacuum pyrolysis (UT-FVP) device to form giant fullerenes from single-carbon molecules within a short time (15 s) at extremely high temperatures (∽3000 ℃). Due to the strong intermolecular forces between giant fullerene molecules and soot, traditional ultrasonic or Soxhlet extraction methods cannot separate most giant fullerenes from soot in toluene. To overcome these strong intermolecular forces, two ...

The University of Florida is part of a multi-university, interdisciplinary research team that will tackle the global challenge of halting corrosion of infrastructure, like bridges.   Mitigating corrosion is a global challenge that costs the United States nearly half a trillion dollars annually.   Current corrosion mitigation measures require costly chemical coatings, such as primers and top-coat layers, that cause human and environmental health risks. This project seeks to develop a coating system that uses naturally existing microbial biofilms growing on metal surfaces ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Polycystic kidney disease (PKD) is a debilitating hereditary condition in which fluid-filled sacs form and proliferate in the kidneys. Over time, the painful, growing cysts rob the organs of their function, often leading to dialysis in advanced cases There is currently no cure.  Researchers at UC Santa Barbara, however, have proposed a cyst-targeted therapy that could interrupt the runaway growth of these sacs by leveraging the target specificity of the right monoclonal antibodies — lab-made proteins that are used in immunotherapy. “The cysts just keep growing endlessly,” said UCSB biologist ...

A new study from researchers at the University of Western Australia and Universitas Brawijaya has found that adding biochar to advanced food waste recycling systems can significantly increase the clean energy yields of hydrogen and methane. This breakthrough offers promising strategies for municipalities and industries aiming to turn food scraps into valuable renewable fuels while reducing environmental impacts. Turning Waste Into Energy Food waste generated by households, restaurants, and processing plants is a growing environmental challenge around the world. Innovative recycling solutions are urgently needed to keep this waste ...

An array of seismic sensors deployed to capture aftershocks from the 2018 magnitude 7.1 Anchorage earthquake also collected distinctive signals from hundreds of flights crossing over Alaska. In their study published in The Seismic Record, Isabella Seppi and colleagues at the University of Alaska Fairbanks show that these signals can be used to identify the type of aircraft, along with details such as the closest time, distance and speed of each plane or helicopter as it flew above the seismic array. Acoustic waves generated by flying aircraft vibrate the ground below, transforming sound energy into ground motion that can ...

The Lancet: Experts warn global rise in ultra-processed foods poses major public health threat; call for worldwide policy reform A new three paper Series published in The Lancet reviews evidence that ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are displacing fresh and minimally processed foods and meals, worsening diet quality, and are associated with an increased risk of multiple chronic diseases. The Lancet Series on Ultra-Processed Foods and Human Health argues, although additional studies on the impact of UPFs on human health will be valuable, further research should not delay immediate and decisive public ...

The health impacts of eating disorders, such as anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating, are not only complex, affecting many different organ systems, but long-lasting, finds a large tracking study, published in the open access journal BMJ Medicine.   The risks of serious conditions, such as diabetes, renal and liver failure, fractures, and premature death, are particularly high within the first 12 months of diagnosis. But these heightened risks persist for years, highlighting the need for timely integrated multidisciplinary health services and continued monitoring to improve outcomes, conclude the researchers.   UK rates of eating disorders ...

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 00:01 GMT WEDNESDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2025 / 19:01 ET TUESDAY 18 NOVEMBER 2025 Ape ancestors and Neanderthals likely kissed, new analysis finds A new study led by the University of Oxford has found evidence that kissing evolved in the common ancestor of humans and other large apes around 21 million years ago, and that Neanderthals likely engaged in kissing too. The findings have been published today (19 November) in Evolution and Human Behavior. Kissing occurs in a variety of animals, but presents an evolutionary puzzle: it appears to carry high risks, such as disease transmission, while offering no obvious reproductive or survival advantage. Despite kissing carrying cultural ...

Scientists have revealed that ancient bogs in the Southern Hemisphere hold clues to a major shift in the Earth's climate thousands of years ago. Researchers looking at peatlands have discovered that sudden shifts in the Southern Westerly Winds 15,000 years ago triggered a massive growth of the swamps. Geo-experts have never fully understood what caused the bogs to form across the Southern Hemisphere after the last Ice Age. But the scientists behind the new paper, published in Nature Geoscience, now ...

A study published in the Journal of Patient Experience, with the participation of the D'Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR), analyzed the perceptions of over 47,000 healthcare professionals on institutional efforts to improve patient experience in private hospitals in Brazil. The research indicated that engaging care teams remains the biggest challenge for concrete improvements in the quality of care. What Healthcare Professionals Think About Patient Experience Patient experience, understood as how patients and their families perceive the care they receive, has gained prominence as a quality indicator in healthcare. However, while research often prioritizes ...

A new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder carries a warning for one of the Rocky Mountains’ most iconic animals—the American pika (Ochotona princeps), a small and fuzzy creature that often greets hikers in Colorado with loud squeaks. The study draws on long-running surveys of pikas living in a single habitat about 10 miles south of Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.  The researchers discovered that the “recruitment “of juveniles to this site seems to have plummeted ...

Instruments typically used to detect the ground motion of earthquakes can also be used to identify the type of aircraft flying far overhead, research by University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists shows. That’s because aircraft sound waves also shake the ground, though to a much lesser extent. An aircraft’s type — a Cessna 185 Skywagon, for example — can be determined by analyzing a seismic spectrogram to find the aircraft’s frequency imprint from the sound waves it creates and then matching ...

Research Highlights: Adults who were light smokers — smoking 2-5 cigarettes daily — were more than twice as likely than those who did not smoke to have serious health problems and had a 60% increased risk of death from any cause, according to a study of more than 320,000 adults followed for 20 years. While quitting smoking greatly reduced smoking-related health risks in the first 10 years, it may take 30 years or more for health risks among people who previously smoked to be on par with people who never smoked. The message: Don’t smoke — and for those who do, quit early in life and strive to ...

Bladder cancer ranks among the ten most common types of cancer worldwide. The main treatment is bladder removal surgery, and despite advances in systemic therapies, recurrence is frequent in the most aggressive forms of the disease. For this reason, researchers have been seeking less invasive and more effective strategies to fight it. A study involving the D’Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR) and published in Biochemical Genetics points to a promising path: by blocking a small molecule called miR-21, bladder cancer cells lose their ability to multiply and spread. This discovery could ...

PHOENIX — Current genetic screening guidelines fail to identify most people with an inherited condition known as familial hypercholesterolemia that can cause dangerously high cholesterol and early heart disease, a Mayo Clinic study found.  The condition often passes silently through families for generations. It is highly treatable, yet people who remain undiagnosed are at greater risk for heart attacks and strokes.  Cardiovascular disease remains the leading ...

Assessing the severity of illness in critically ill patients is a crucial task in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) worldwide. However, current systems are often based on local realities and can fail when applied to international contexts. An article published in the journal Critical Care Science, co-authored by researchers from the D'Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR), argues that an international scoring system is urgently needed for intensive care medicine research and for the advancement of global public health. Speaking the Same Language in the ICU Severity scores ...

URBANA, Ill. – Chronic Wasting Disease, a prion protein disease that is fatal in elk, deer, and other cervids, has spread rapidly across the United States since it was first identified in 1967. CWD has now reached Idaho near the Oregon border, causing concern for the Columbian white-tailed deer, a rare subspecies found only in two regions in Oregon. The deer have little genetic protection against CWD, but a new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign shows that about half of Oregon elk carry a gene that makes them less susceptible to ...

UCLA research finds that fewer than 1 in 4 eligible younger adults completed colorectal cancer screenings after the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) lowered the recommended screening age to 45 from 50. The researchers had suspected that unmet social needs such as insecure access to housing, transportation, or food may have played a role in suboptimal screening rates, but their investigation found no significant differences in testing uptake for this early midlife cohort after controlling for sociodemographic and clinical covariates, leaving the barriers ...

A study published in the Journal of Critical Care, conducted with the participation of the D’Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR), investigated how to measure efficiency in the use of resources for patients with severe community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), an illness contracted outside hospital settings and most common among older adults. Severe CAP represents one of the greatest challenges for ICUs. It requires complex resources, ranging from prolonged hospitalizations to respiratory support, directly affecting hospitals’ ability to deliver quality care. Despite its ...

Growing from a single cell into a complex organism with specialized tissues and organs requires a complex and coordinated process. But the mechanical signals that guide tissue and organ development—cells pushing, pulling, compressing, and swelling against one another and their environment—remain mysterious. Researchers from the University of Rochester’s Department of Biomedical Engineering will shed new light on tissue and organ development by studying how cells interact mechanically with the extracellular matrix, a biological polymer produced by cells that acts like scaffolding for building more complicated structures. Assistant Professor Marisol ...

Cambridge, MA -- Determining the least expensive path for a new subway line underneath a metropolis like New York City is a colossal planning challenge — involving thousands of potential routes through hundreds of city blocks, each with uncertain construction costs. Conventional wisdom suggests extensive field studies across many locations would be needed to determine the costs associated with digging below certain city blocks. Because these studies are costly to conduct, a city planner would want to perform as few as possible while still gathering the most useful data for making an optimal decision. With ...

A new heart monitoring system combining 3D printing and artificial intelligence could transform the way doctors measure and diagnose patients' heart health. Developed at SFU’s School of Mechatronic Systems Engineering, the system features reusable dry 3D-printed electrodes embedded in a soft chest belt – the folding origami-shaped design uses gentle suction to stick to the skin. Carbon-based ink printed on the suction cup replaces electrolyte gel, conducting the heart’s electrical signals through to a wearable ...