Evolution is the basis of biological diversity, driven by mechanisms that allow organisms to adapt and survive. One such mechanism is polyploidy, where organisms carry extra copies of their genomes. While polyploidy provides genetic redundancy by allowing mutations without affecting survival, it can also slow evolutionary progress by diluting beneficial mutations. This paradox has intrigued scientists for many years now, and a recent study from Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at Institute of Science Tokyo offers new insights into polyploidy's role in evolution. Led by ELSI’s ...

A new study published today in the scientific journal Addiction has found that opioid smoking appears to be associated with lower mortality risk compared with opioid injecting. The authors, however, caution that opioid smoking still carries a substantial overdose risk and that these results should not be interpreted as suggesting that opioid smoking is safe. The study analysed substance use treatment data from 2006 to 2021, comparing 287,481 individuals who reported smoking opioids as their primary form of substance use and an equal weighted number of individuals who reported ...

Deep learning techniques are drawing more and more attention to Web developers. A lot of Web apps perform inference of deep neural network (DNN) models within Web browsers to provide intelligent services for their users. Typically, GPU acceleration is required during DNN inference, especially on end devices. However, it has been revealed that GPU acceleration in Web browsers has an unacceptably long warm-up time, harming the quality of service (QoS). To solve the problems, a research team led by Yun MA published their new research on ...

Ovarian cancer, a deadly gynecologic malignancy, has seen a significant shift in its treatment paradigm with the introduction of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors, which are now standard in the maintenance setting following first-line chemotherapy. This retrospective cohort study investigates the real-world effectiveness and safety of olaparib, a PARP inhibitor, in patients with newly diagnosed advanced-stage, high-grade serous ovarian cancer who are HRD positive but BRCA wild-type, a demographic less extensively explored in previous research. The primary goal was to assess the 1-year progression-free ...

Camel milk udderly good alterative to traditional dairy       In addition to being hypoallergenic, camel milk could potentially protect the gut from harmful enzymes and create healthier digestion.   New research from Edith Cowan University (ECU) has found that camel milk contained more naturally occurring bioactive peptides when compared to its bovine counterpart.   “This is a good thing. We now know that camel milk has the potential to be hypoallergenic compared to cow’s milk, but also that it has higher potential to yield bioactive peptides which can have antimicrobial ...

We humans excel at generalization. If you taught a toddler to identify the color red by showing her a red ball, a red truck and a red rose, she will most likely correctly identify the color of a tomato, even if it is the first time she sees one. An important milestone in learning to generalize is compositionality: the ability to compose and decompose a whole into reusable parts, like the redness of an object. How we get this ability is a key question in developmental neuroscience – and in AI research. The earliest ...

Game, set, match: Exploring the experiences of women coaches in tennis As the Australian Open continues in full swing, a new study can reveal female tennis coaches experience significantly more barriers in their profession – including discrimination and marginalisation – than their male counterparts, with fewer than half seeing themselves continuing as coaches long term. Led by Dr Jasmine Petersen from Flinders University’s Caring Futures Institute, the study interviewed 243 Australian tennis coaches, a third of which were women, assessing their motivation and barriers towards coaching and the support they received. “Women coaches continue ...

There was a 65% increase in the number of children and young people being admitted to general acute medical wards in hospitals in England because of a mental health concern between 2012 and 2022, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The study, published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health journal and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and the NIHR Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR GOSH BRC), analysed data on all admissions of five- to 18-year-olds to medical wards in England from April 1st 2012 to March 31st 2022. General acute medical wards are specialised hospital wards designed to provide rapid ...

A new study published in The BMJ suggests that prehabilitation (also called prehab) may be able to reduce complications and length of hospitalization after surgery, while also improving quality of life and physical recovery. The systematic review and meta-analysis, which is the largest of its kind, examined data from more than 15,000 patients who participated in 186 randomized controlled clinical trials around the world. The researchers looked at various kinds of prehab, including exercise, nutritional enhancement, psychological support, cognitive ...

Actively preparing for major surgery by exercising and improving diet (known as “prehabilitation”) is associated with fewer complications, less time in hospital, and improved recovery and quality of life in adults, finds an analysis of clinical trials published by The BMJ today. The researchers stress that the certainty of evidence for all comparisons was generally low to very low, but they say prehabilitation based on exercise, nutrition, or exercise combined with other components, may be beneficial. Existing evidence suggests that prehabilitation can improve outcomes after surgery, but there’s a lack of clarity about which components, ...

Adults with overweight or obesity and type 2 diabetes who are given the sodium glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT-2) inhibitor drug dapagliflozin alongside moderate calorie restriction achieve much higher rates of remission compared with calorie restriction alone, finds a trial published by The BMJ today. The researchers say this study provides a practical strategy to achieve remission for patients with early type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes affects over 400 million adults worldwide. It’s not necessarily a permanent condition and can be reversed by intensive weight management, ...

Gather around, and let Susan Hough tell you the tale of the Summerville Light. Legend has it that the strange orb sometimes seen hovering over the railroad tracks in the remote area around Summerville, South Carolina is a lantern borne by a ghost whose husband lost his head in a train accident. But Hough, a seismologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, wonders if there might be a less ethereal but no less intriguing possibility: is the source of the Summerville Light a phenomenon known as earthquake ...

(SACRAMENTO) — Nearly a quarter of adults in the U.S. have chronic pain, but a new study from the UC Davis School of Medicine shows a concerning drop in residents applying to pain medicine fellowship programs. The study was published in PAIN Practice. It found the number of anesthesiology residents applying for pain medicine fellowships — historically the key pool of applicants — dropped 45% between 2019 and 2023. “While the demand for pain specialists is growing in the U.S., the pipeline of new doctors to fill these roles is drying up,” said Scott Pritzlaff, the study’s ...

Key takeaways The team used the environmental circumstances and fecal samples collected from the six years prior to the El Niño drought to study the relationship between the endocrinologic stress response and survival in the white-faced capuchins. Monkeys who showed a steeper rise in these stress hormones during the mild droughts were more likely to survive the severe El Niño drought. As weather intensifies globally, longitudinal studies of how wild animals cope with changes in temperature, rainfall and food availability can help us understand which species ...

In a joint experimental-theoretical work, a team of researchers, including theorists from UC San Diego, have shown for the first time that heat transfer in the form of infrared radiation can influence chemical reactions more strongly than traditional convection and conduction methods. Using an optical cavity to confine infrared light waves, researchers focused on the thermal dehydration of an inorganic crystal, copper sulfate pentahydrate. They found that light-matter vibrational coupling (resulting in states known as polaritons) lowered ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- A few things come to mind when we imagine the “alpha male” type. They’re the ones calling the shots, who get all the girls. But there’s a downside to being a strong and powerful alpha stud -- at least if you’re a baboon. Studies show that despite their high rank, the No. 1 males in baboon society are also some of the most stressed out, as measured by their high levels of glucocorticoids, the hormones involved in the ‘fight-or-flight’ response. But the leaders’ stress burden comes from a surprising source. New research reveals ...

Patients with atrial fibrillation are typically prescribed an anticoagulant, or blood thinner, to reduce the risk of stroke, but many may discontinue them or never receive a prescription due to concerns of increased risk of bleeding complications. Researchers from Mass General Brigham evaluated a drug that represents a new class of anticoagulants known as Factor XI inhibitors for treating patients with atrial fibrillation as part of the AZALEA-TIMI 71 Study. The trial was stopped early by the recommendation of the Data Monitoring Committee due to an overwhelming reduction in bleeding compared to ...

Maine’s lobster fishery — one that supports thousands of jobs statewide — is extensively monitored. Management efforts are informed by biological monitoring surveys observing changes in abundance and distribution of the lobster population, and dealer and harvester reporting from the industry. Yet these statistics don't tell the whole story of an industry shaken by supply and market disruptions and geopolitical conflict, or the welfare of the people and communities that rely on ...

People genetically susceptible to Huntington’s disease often see their movement, mood, and cognition decline slowly over time.  The cause is related to expansion of repeating DNA units, in which specific strings of genetic code—in this case, a series of cytosine-adenine-guanine nucleotides, or CAG, on one strand of the DNA and cytosine-thymine-guanine, or CTG, on the complementary strand—begin to repeat over and over, expanding to as many as 40 to 120 copies.  The extended copies create kinks in the DNA, making it more susceptible ...

SAN ANTONIO — January 22, 2025 —Four small suitcase-sized spacecraft, designed and built by Southwest Research Institute, have made a final Earth-side pit stop at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. NASA’s Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere, or PUNCH, mission is sharing a ride to space with the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) observatory. “The PUNCH mission will integrate our understanding of the Sun’s corona, the outer atmosphere ...

The magnitude 7.9 Bonin Islands earthquake sequence, which ruptured deep within the earth near the base of the upper mantle, did not include an aftershock that extended to record depths into the lower mantle, according to a study in The Seismic Record. When Hao Zhang of the University of Southern California and colleagues re-examined the aftershock sequence of the May 2015 earthquake, they did not find evidence for a 751-kilometer-deep aftershock as reported by previous researchers. This aftershock has been called the deepest earthquake ever recorded. Instead, their study found a distribution of aftershocks that is compatible with a 12-kilometer sliver of a mantle mineral called olivine ...

MSU has a satellite uplink/LTN TV studio and Comrex line for radio interviews upon request. EAST LANSING, Mich. – Researchers from Michigan State University’s Department of Human Development and Family Studies revealed that sleep patterns may vary across different racial and ethnic groups — notably for non-white and multiracial children. Yijie Wang is an associate professor of human development and family studies in the College of Social Science, and her research team published a ...

MINNEAPOLIS — Pregnant people with multiple sclerosis (MS) have a higher chance of experiencing mental illness both during their pregnancy and in the first years after they give birth than those without MS, according to a study published in the January 22, 2025 online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. “Previous studies have shown that women with MS are more likely to have depression, anxiety disorders and bipolar disorder compared to women without MS,” said study author Ruth Ann Marrie, MD, PhD, of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, and ...

Toronto, ON, January 22, 2025 – People with multiple sclerosis (MS) face a significantly higher risk of perinatal mental illness compared to those with other chronic conditions, according to a new study analyzing over 890,000 births in Ontario.   The research, published online in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, sheds light on the mental health challenges faced by people with MS during pregnancy and the first year after childbirth. Using population-based health ...

Two West Virginia University researchers have designed a curriculum to engage liberal arts faculty in discussions on the social, ethical and technical aspects of artificial intelligence and its role in classrooms. Through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Erin Brock Carlson, assistant professor of English, and Scott Davidson, professor of philosophy, both at the WVU Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, have designed an interdisciplinary, cross-institutional program to facilitate conversations among faculty about the ...