The targeted treatment of brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or brain tumours is challenging because the brain is a particularly sensitive organ that is well protected. That’s why researchers are working on ways of delivering drugs to the brain precisely, via the bloodstream. The aim is to overcome the blood-brain barrier which normally only allows certain nutrients and oxygen to pass through. Microbubbles that react to ultrasound are a particularly promising method for this sort of ...

A new automated web application scanner autonomously understands and executes tasks and workflows on web applications. The tool named YuraScanner harnesses the world knowledge stored in Large Language Models (LLMs) to navigate through web applications in the same way a human user would. It is capable of working through tasks in a coherent fashion, performing the correct sequence of steps as required by, for example, an online shop. YuraScanner was tested against 20 web applications, unearthing 12 zero-day cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities. The technique behind YuraScanner as well as the tool itself have been developed by researchers ...

Preeclampsia, a complication of pregnancy characterized by high blood pressure and high levels of protein in the urine (proteinuria), indicating damage to the kidneys or other organ damage, is the main cause of maternal-fetal death in Brazil and the runner-up worldwide. In a Brazilian study published in the journal PLOS ONE, the pattern of substances present in patient blood samples varied according to the severity of the preeclampsia concerned.  The findings from the study, which was supported by FAPESP, ...

Researchers from the University of Vaasa, Finland, and Kent Business School, UK, have gathered insights on innovation policy, its current status and future perspectives in their new book “The Evolving Innovation Space”. The book offers research-based insights on how innovation can best be used to drive economic change and to find solutions to global problems. – In a changing world, where geopolitical tensions are rising and artificial intelligence is gaining ground, innovation policy must also be reconsidered from new perspectives, says Helka Kalliomäki, one of the editors.  With digital ...

Most dietary programs are designed to help people achieve weight loss or adhere to U.S. nutrition guidelines, which currently make no mention of ultra-processed foods (UPFs). UPFs – like chips or candy – are the mass-produced, packaged products that contain little or no naturally occurring foods. Eating UPFs is strongly associated with increased risk of diseases and early death. Because almost no existing programs focus specifically on reducing UPF intake, researchers from Drexel University’s College of Arts and Sciences designed an intervention that included a variety of tactics to target the uniquely problematic ...

The University of Vaasa has received funding from Business Finland for the FlexiPower research and development project, which focuses on developing and commercializing the "Building as a Battery" (BaaB) solution. The project aims to find solutions that utilize existing building infrastructure as flexible energy sources. The goal of the FlexiPower project is to develop and commercialize a solution that enables the dynamic response of building heating and cooling systems to the needs of the power system. This innovation offers a cost-effective and scalable solution for balancing the power grid without significant initial ...

Infection with Zika virus in pregnancy can lead to neurological disorders, fetal abnormalities and fetal death. Until now, how the virus manages to cross the placenta, which nurtures the developing fetus and forms a strong barrier against microbes and chemicals that could harm the fetus, has not been clear. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine with collaborators at Pennsylvania State University report in Nature Communications a strategy Zika virus uses to covertly spread in placental cells, raising little alarm in the immune system. “The Zika virus, which is transmitted by mosquitoes, triggered an epidemic in the Americas that began in 2015 and ...

In the delicate balancing act between human development and protecting the fragile natural world, sand is weighing down the scales on the human side. A group of international scientists in this week’s journal One Earth are calling for balancing those scales to better identify the significant damage sand extraction across the world heaps upon marine biodiversity. The first step: acknowledging sand and gravel (discussed as sand in this publication) – the world’s most extracted solid materials by mass – are a threat hiding in plain sight. “Sand is a critical resource that shapes the built and ...

About The Study: This study found persistent patterns of potentially aggressive care, but low uptake of supportive care, among Medicare decedents with advanced cancer. A multifaceted approach targeting patient-, physician-, and system-level factors associated with potentially aggressive care is imperative for improving quality of care at the end of life. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Youngmin Kwon, PhD, email youngmin.kwon@vumc.org. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2024.5436) Editor’s Note: Please see the article ...

About The Study: In this systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis, a daily 1-hour increment in digital screen time was associated with 21% higher odds of myopia (nearsightedness) and the dose-response pattern exhibited a sigmoidal shape, indicating a potential safety threshold of less than 1 hour per day of exposure, with an increase in odds up to 4 hours. These findings can offer guidance to clinicians and researchers regarding myopia risk. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Young Kook Kim, PhD, email md092@naver.com. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.60026) Editor’s ...

About The Study: In this cohort study using a target trial emulation, a higher proportion of weight loss after initiating anti-obesity medications within 1 year was associated with a lower risk of 5-year and 10-year revision among patients with obesity undergoing joint replacement. These results suggest that anti-obesity medication use, with relatively safe and sustainable weight loss, may be an effective strategy for improving implant survivorship of hip and knee replacements in the obese population. Corresponding Author: To ...

Despite considerable efforts to improve the quality of end-of-life care in the United States, a new retrospective study led by American Cancer Society (ACS) researchers revealed that close to half of patients with advanced cancer received potentially aggressive care at the end-of-life at the expense of supportive care. The findings are out today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Health Forum. “Even though clinicians and professional healthcare organizations have recommended early integration of supportive and ...

Investigators at Mass General Brigham have developed a tool that can identify older adults at increased risk of emergency healthcare needs, rehospitalization or death. The tool measured patient frailty, an aging-related syndrome, by integrating the health records of more than 500,000 individuals collected across multiple hospitals at Mass General Brigham. These findings, published in Journal of the American Geriatric Society, could help clinicians care for high-risk patients even without the availability of comprehensive primary care records. “Frailty ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The combination of prescribed central nervous system stimulants, such as drugs that relieve ADHD symptoms, with prescribed opioid medications is associated with a pattern of escalating opioid intake, a new study has found. The analysis of health insurance claims data from almost 3 million U.S. patients investigated prescribed stimulants’ impact on prescription opioid use over 10 years, looking for origins of the so-called “twin epidemic” of combining the two classes of drugs, which can increase the risk for overdose deaths. “Combining the two drugs is associated ...

 As the severity of climate change and carbon emissions becomes a global concern, technologies to convert carbon dioxide (CO₂) into resources such as chemical fuels and compounds are urgently needed. Dr. Dahee Park’s research team from the Nano Materials Research Division at the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS), has collaborated with Professor Jeong-Young Park’s team from the Department of Chemistry at KAIST to develop a catalyst technology that significantly enhances the efficiency of carbon dioxide (CO2) conversion.  Conventional ...

Mechanochemistry using a ball mill demonstrates versatility for generating academically and industrially significant organolithium compounds. Organolithium compounds, molecules containing a carbon–lithium bond, are excellent precursors for building new carbon–carbon and other carbon–heteroatom bonds. They are widely utilized in both academia and industry for their applications in polymer synthesis, pharmaceuticals, and general organic synthesis. A conventional method for generating organolithiums is done ...

Rubidium could be the next key player in oxide-ion conductors. Researchers at Institute of Science Tokyo have discovered a rare rubidium (Rb)-containing oxide-ion conductor, Rb₅BiMo₄O₁₆, with exceptionally high conductivity. Identified through computational screening and experiments, its superior performance stems from low activation energy and structural features like large free volume and tetrahedral motion. Its stability under various conditions offers a promising direction for solid oxide fuel cells and clean energy technologies. Oxide-ion ...

Houston, we have a problem. The ‘Space City’ boasts 50 buildings over 150 meters tall. These were designed to withstand hurricanes, to which Texas is prone. But on May 16th, 2024, a derecho – a wide, long-lived windstorm associated with rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms – managed to cause unexpected damage to many of the tall buildings downtown. The socio-economic impact was significant, due to traffic disruptions, businesses temporarily closing, and the need for repairs. Why ...

Optical atomic clocks can increase the precision of time and geographic position a thousandfold in our mobile phones, computers, and GPS systems. However, they are currently too large and complex to be widely used in society. Now, a research team from Purdue University, USA, and Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, has developed a technology that, with the help of on-chip microcombs, could make ultra-precise optical atomic clock systems significantly smaller and more accessible – with significant benefits for navigation, autonomous vehicles, and geo-data monitoring. Today, our mobile phones, computers, ...

Scientists have now mapped the forces acting inside a proton, showing in unprecedented detail how quarks—the tiny particles within—respond when hit by high-energy photons. The international team includes experts from the University of Adelaide who are exploring the structure of sub-atomic matter to try and provide further insight into the forces that underpin the natural world. “We have used a powerful computational technique called lattice quantum chromodynamics to map the forces acting inside ...

Four young children have gained life-changing improvements in sight following treatment with a pioneering new genetic medicine through UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital, with the support of MeiraGTx. The children were born with a severe impairment to their sight due to a rare genetic deficiency that affects the AIPL1 gene. The condition, a form of retinal dystrophy, means those affected are born with only sufficient sight to distinguish between light and darkness. The gene defect causes ...

Workplace bullying affects not only the employee’s sleep but their partner’s too, according to new research published today. Exposure to bullying by superiors and/or colleagues has been linked to a variety of negative health outcomes, such as sleep problems. Now research by the University of East Anglia (UEA) in the UK, and Complutense University of Madrid and Seville University in Spain, sheds light on the short-term consequences of workplace bullying on various indicators of sleep. These include waking up too early (sleep severity), interference with daily life (sleep impact) and dissatisfaction with own sleep (sleep satisfaction). Writing in ...

A new study led by the University of Cambridge has revealed that as our springs and summers get hotter and drier, the UK wildfire season is being stretched and intensified. More fires, taking hold over more months of the year, are causing more carbon to be released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. Fires on peatlands, which are carbon-rich, can almost double global fire-driven carbon emissions. Researchers found that despite accounting for only a quarter of the total UK land area that burns each year, dwarfed by moor and heathland, peatland fires have caused up to 90% of annual UK fire-driven carbon emissions since 2001 – with emissions ...

A new USC study reveals a dramatic surge in building collapses in the ancient Egyptian port city of Alexandria, directly linked to rising sea levels and seawater intrusion. Once a rare occurrence, building collapses in Alexandria — one of the world’s oldest cities, often called the “bride of the Mediterranean” for its beauty — have accelerated from approximately one per year to an alarming 40 per year over the past decade, the researchers found. “The true cost of this loss extends far beyond bricks and mortar. We are witnessing the gradual disappearance of historic coastal ...

DALLAS, Feb. 20, 2025 — The American Heart Association, a global force devoted to changing the future of health for all, and Walgreens, one of the nation's largest community-based pharmacies, are stepping up to support the Association’s Nation of Lifesavers™ movement nationwide. Walgreens will lead efforts in its stores and communities to raise awareness of CPR and drive CPR training and consumer support of the Association’s ...