Exploring long term, complex biodiversity change in Scotland’s landscapes Despite growing concern about biodiversity loss due to the ongoing biodiversity and climate crises, scientists have relatively little understanding of the pace and complexity of biodiversity change over preceding millennia. To address this challenge, ecologists from the University of Edinburgh, University of St Andrews and National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan have applied a recently developed technique to explore how plant biodiversity ...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 19, 2025 — Our sense of smell is more important than we often realize. It helps us enjoy food, detect danger like smoke or gas leaks, and even affects memory and emotion. Many people — especially after COVID-19, aging, or brain injury — suffer from a loss of smell. However, there are very few effective treatments, and those that exist often use strong scents or medicines that cause discomfort in patients. In a study published this week in APL Bioengineering, by AIP Publishing, researchers ...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 19, 2025 — One of the world’s most popular sports, badminton is played by around 220 million people across the globe. As with other racket sports, a well-executed serve can establish a consequential advantage at the start of a rally. The “spin serve” was introduced by a Danish player at the Polish Open 2023 badminton tournament. The technique adds pre-spin before the racket touches the shuttlecock, whose natural spin is typically determined by its feathers’ inclination ...

About The Study: In this study, cancer survivors were significantly more likely to take medications for depression and anxiety compared with noncancer survivors, underscoring the importance of mental health in cancer. However, the findings suggested disparities associated with this, with non-Hispanic Black patients exhibiting decreased use. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Nosayaba Osazuwa-Peters, BDS, PhD, MPH, CHES, email nosa.peters@duke.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For ...

The most common cancer-causing strain of human papillomavirus (HPV), HPV16, undermines the body’s defenses by reprogramming immune cells surrounding the tumor, according to new research from the Keck School of Medicine of USC. In mice, blocking this process boosted the ability of experimental treatments for HPV to eliminate cancer cells. The results were just published in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer. HPV16 causes more than half of cervical cancer cases and roughly 90% of HPV-linked throat cancers. It can be neutralized with the ...

“Our findings contribute to better understanding of the role of a pre-diagnostic epigenetic aging biomarker and its interplay with lifestyles in CRC carcinogenesis, informing risk stratification strategies for aged individuals.” BUFFALO, NY — August 19, 2025 — A new research paper was published in Volume 17, Issue 7 of Aging (Aging-US) on July 7, 2025, titled “Epigenetic age and accelerated aging phenotypes: a tumor biomarker for predicting colorectal cancer.” In this study led by Su Yon Jung from the University of California, ...

Recently, a team from the Space-based Intelligence Laboratory at the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites of Chinese Academy of Sciences, reviewed the recent development trends in orbital edge computing. They conducts a comprehensive survey and analysis of OEC's system architecture, applications, algorithms, and simulation tools, providing a solid background for researchers in the field. By discussing OEC use cases and the challenges faced, potential research directions for future OEC research are proposed.   The team published ...

With the rapid development of electrified transportation, there has been a growing demand for high-dynamic and high-precision Electro-Mechanical Actuation (EMA) servo drives in the aviation field. However, EMA applications face more severe multi-source disturbances than industrial servo drives. This issue has received extensive attention in the aviation field. Active Disturbance Rejection Control (ADRC) is a novel control structure that employs disturbance suppression. ADRC does not rely on an accurate model, exhibiting robustness to uncertainties. Recently, ...

(Toronto, August 18, 2025) A new study published in JMIR Serious Games by JMIR Publications reveals that playing the open-world video game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and watching Studio Ghibli films can significantly improve young people’s overall happiness and sense of purpose in life. Led by researchers from Imperial College London, Kyushu Sangyo University, and Georgia State University, the exploratory randomized controlled study, titled “Effects of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Studio Ghibli Films on Young People’s Sense of Exploration, Calm, Mastery and Skill, Purpose and Meaning, and Overall Happiness ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – A hybrid reading strategy for screening mammography, developed by Dutch researchers and deployed retrospectively to more than 40,000 exams, reduced radiologist workload by 38% without changing recall or cancer detection rates. The study, which emphasizes AI confidence, was published today in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).  “Although the overall performance of state-of-the-art AI models is very high, AI sometimes makes mistakes,” said Sarah D. Verboom, M.Sc., a doctoral candidate in the Department of Medical Imaging ...

HOUSTON (AUGUST 19, 2025) – Texas Children’s is pleased to announce that a three-year-old girl has been successfully treated with the first-ever FDA-approved gene therapy treatment for AADC deficiency.    Aromatic l-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC) deficiency is an extremely rare, inherited neurological disorder that prevents the brain from producing dopamine and serotonin — essential chemicals for controlling movement, mood and basic nervous system functions. The literature reports approximately 350 people with this condition worldwide. Historically, there was no cure or approved treatment for AADC, and the shortened life expectancy was estimated between ...

A new vaccine for pneumococcal disease will be tested under an international trial aiming to provide greater protection to babies against the common infection that causes pneumonia, sinusitis and meningitis. The Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) led study is evaluating a promising vaccine developed to protect against 21 strains of pneumococcus, up from the current 13 strains included in the National Immunisation Program (NIP). The Melbourne arm of the randomised controlled trial is recruiting 50 families with heathy two month olds who haven’t had ...

Heat waves — prolonged periods of abnormally hot weather — influence egg prices, energy bills and even public transit. And they’re becoming more common as temperatures increase. In a new study, UIC researchers report that heat waves across Africa are hotter, longer and more frequent today than 40 years ago, mainly due to increased greenhouse gas and black carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels. Understanding heat waves’ origins and effects can help African countries predict them and ...

Mental health providers are trained to guide others through trauma, yet their own exposure to clients’ suffering can take a significant toll. Studies show that between 40% and 85% of providers experience compassion fatigue or secondary traumatic stress – key signs of reduced professional quality of life. These stressors are often ongoing and layered, and when combined with limited coping tools and a sense that they have little control over their circumstances, the impact can be even greater. Researchers from Florida Atlantic University examined how different coping styles affect the relationship between a provider’s sense of control over ...

Background and Aims Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV)-infected patients may exhibit liver fibrosis and other pathological changes despite normal alanine aminotransferase (ALT). This study aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of tenofovir amibufenamide (TMF) in chronic HBV-infected patients with normal ALT levels. Methods The ongoing PROMOTE study (NCT05797714) is the first prospective, multicenter, randomized, open-label, blank-controlled clinical trial involving chronic HBV-infected patients with normal ALT levels. Participants were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive ...

Automated insulin delivery (AID) systems such as the UVA Health-developed artificial pancreas could help more type 1 diabetes patients if the devices become fully automated, according to a new review of the technology. Even as the artificial pancreas and other AID systems have helped millions of people with type 1 diabetes better manage their blood sugar and improve their overall health, there are still limitations to overcome, according to the review from University of Virginia Center for Diabetes Technology scientists and their colleagues. These limitations include: AID systems are not yet fully ...

West Nile virus (WNV) has been the dominant cause of mosquito-borne illness in the United States since its introduction into North America in 1999. There are no vaccines nor medications to prevent or treat illness in people, so surveillance, prevention, and control remain the best options to protect the public. Mosquito surveillance for WNV is a central component of the public health response, but this approach is labor intensive and limited by practical constraints on the number of locations that can be sampled. To address this limitation, Joseph McMillan and colleagues developed a validated machine learning model that uses freely ...

Sub-Saharan Africa currently has the highest infant mortality rate in the world, with 27 babies out of every 1,000 live births dying in their first month. As the climate warms, pregnant women in the region are increasingly exposed to extreme heat, which can cause reduced placental blood flow and dehydration, potentially affecting fetal development. In addition, extreme heat can lead to the proliferation of pathogenic bacteria in the environment, and can make it  difficult for women to travel to prenatal care appointments. Jiafu An and colleagues sought to determine whether in-utero exposure to extreme ...

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (08/19/2025) — Researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities have made a groundbreaking discovery by observing and analyzing the first new type of plasma wave in Jupiter’s aurora. This research helps us understand “alien aurora” on other planets, which in turn teaches us more about how Earth’s magnetic field protects us from the sun’s harmful radiation.  The research is published in Physical Review Letters, a peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary, high-impact scientific journal. The observation is based on data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which made a historic low ...

Stroke remains one of the leading causes of long-term disability worldwide, affecting millions each year. Among its most debilitating consequences is gait impairment, which affects over 80% of stroke survivors. Impaired walking not only reduces independence but also limits participation in daily and social activities, significantly diminishing the quality of life. While some patients regain partial ambulatory function, walking speed and coordination often remain impaired. Alarmingly, up to 22% of survivors never regain the ability to walk and are ...

Cerebrovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis and stroke remain a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. A common feature of these diseases is vascular stenosis, i.e., the narrowing of blood vessels, which disrupts normal blood flow and contributes to chronic inflammation in the vessel wall. Endothelial cells lining the vasculature play a key role in sensing shear stress from blood flow and responding to disturbed hemodynamics by expressing pro-inflammatory molecules. However, studying this phenomenon in vivo is challenging due to the complexity ...

The tongue contains numerous taste buds—tiny sensory organs responsible for detecting taste. Taste buds consist of specialized cells that translate chemical stimuli into neural signals. Among them, type II cells, which respond to sweet, umami, and bitter stimuli, utilize channel-based signal transmission. In contrast, type III cells are believed to mediate sour signals via synaptic vesicle release. While the signaling mechanisms of type II cells are well-characterized, the process of vesicular synaptic transmission in type III cells is poorly understood.   Synaptic signal transmission relies on the SNARE complex, ...

The International Progressive MS Alliance announces the launch of its MS Clinical and Imaging Data Resource (CIDR), which provides the academic and research community access to anonymized and harmonized MRI and clinical data from thousands of people living with MS who participated in one of many clinical trials. The Alliance, in conjunction with McGill University in Montréal, Canada, and four industry partners – Biogen, Novartis, Roche and Sanofi - is making this resource available exclusively to the MS research community to help accelerate ...

Osaka, Japan－Researchers at The University of Osaka have discovered a new type of chiral symmetry breaking (CSB) in an organic crystalline compound. This phenomenon, involving a solid-state structural transition from an achiral to a chiral crystal, represents a significant advance in our understanding of chirality and offers a simplified model to study the origin of homochirality. This transformation also activates circularly polarized luminescence, enabling new optical materials with tunable light properties. Chirality, or "handedness," is a fundamental property of objects, from galaxies to molecules, and plays a crucial role in biological ...

A newly developed system transforms human waste into a powerful tool for profitable and sustainable energy and agriculture in resource-limited regions. The prototype, outlined in a Stanford-led study published Aug 19 in Nature Water, recovers a valuable fertilizer from urine, using solar energy that can also provide power for other uses. In the process, the system provides essential sanitation, making wastewater safer to discharge or reuse for irrigation. “This project is about turning a waste problem into a resource opportunity,” said study ...