High blood pressure is known to increase a person’s chances of having a stroke. But a study led by Michigan Medicine narrows in on the cumulative effects of years of high systolic blood pressure — the top number on the blood pressure reading and how hard the heart pumps blood to the arteries — finding that a higher average reading during adulthood is linked with a greater risk for the two most common types of stroke.    The study, published in JAMA Network Open, analyzed the average systolic blood pressure years ahead of the first stroke for more than 40,000 people ...

IMDEA Software researchers Facundo Molina, Juan Manuel Copia and Alessandra Gorla present FIXCHECK, a novel approach to improve patch fix analysis that combines static analysis, randomized testing and large language models. Their innovations, embodied in the paper: "Improving Patch Correctness Analysis via Random Testing and Large Language Models" were presented at the International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation (ICST 2024). Context Generating patches that fix software defects is a crucial task in the maintenance of software systems. Typically, software ...

A study of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by new cars on hot summer days finds concerning levels of formaldehyde and other aldehydes. Consumers are familiar with—and even drawn to—the “new car smell” produced as VOCs from carpets, upholstery, and other interior materials in newly manufactured passenger vehicles. These VOCs can cause a range of health effects, including headaches, inflammation of the eyes, nose and throat, fatigue, irritability, dry cough, lung disease, and disorientation. Jianyin Xiong, Shaodan Huang, and colleagues sought to capture the levels of VOCs in the passenger cabins of new cars on ...

Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), nicknamed ‘forever chemicals,’ pose a growing environmental and health threat. Since the invention of Teflon in 1938, PFASs and perfluorinated polymers or PFs have been widely used for their exceptional stability and resistance to water and heat. These properties made them ideal for countless applications, from cookware and clothing to firefighting foam. However, this very stability has become a major problem. PFASs do not easily break down in the environment, leading ...

Malaria remains a serious health issue globally, especially in Africa. The disease is caused by protozoan parasites in the Plasmodium genus. In 2021, there were 247 million cases of malaria and 619,000 deaths reported worldwide. At present, the first line of treatment against malaria is artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) and the administration of artemisinin derivatives in combination with other drugs. After the introduction of ACTs in Africa, which accounts for more than 90% of the world’s malaria cases, the number of deaths due to malaria greatly declined in the mid-2000s. However, Plasmodium falciparum, the most virulent malaria parasite, is resistant to ACT and has been spreading ...

Nearly four decades ago, Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie launched a game-winning, mid-field touchdown pass to upset the University of Miami on the game’s final play—prompting a subsequent surge in applications to the school in what has been dubbed the “Flutie Effect.”  A team of NYU researchers has now found evidence of this effect beyond the gridiron—and athletic competition. During and after Morocco’s surprising run to the World Cup semi-finals in the fall 2022, online searches on non-sports topics related to Morocco increased ...

Data from the Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer’s (A4) study, the first and largest clinical trial of pre-symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease, is now widely available to researchers studying the condition. The comprehensive dataset has already yielded key insights about Alzheimer’s disease, which affects nearly seven million people in the United States, and sharing the data opens avenues for further progress. A4 researchers screened more than 7,500 people and enrolled 1,169 people with pre-symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease. This stage ...

Scientists have succeeded in pinpointing the neurons within a female fruit fly’s brain that respond to signals from the male during mating. Male fruit flies transfer a substance called a sex-peptide during mating in the seminal fluid together with sperm. This sex pheromone influences the female fly’s behaviour so she will start to lay eggs and be less inclined to mate further. This is a common phenomenon in insects but until now, it was not known where in the nervous system the neurons are located that direct ...

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that an artificial intelligence (AI) model solved medical quiz questions—designed to test health professionals’ ability to diagnose patients based on clinical images and a brief text summary—with high accuracy. However, physician-graders found the AI model made mistakes when describing images and explaining how its decision-making led to the correct answer. The findings, which shed light on AI’s potential in the clinical setting, were published in npj ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Medications used by astronauts on the International Space Station might not be good enough for a three-year journey to Mars.      A new study led by Duke Health shows that over half of the medicines stocked in space -- staples such as pain relievers, antibiotics, allergy medicines, and sleep aids -- would expire before astronauts could return to Earth.     Astronauts could end up relying on ineffective or even harmful drugs, according to the study appearing July 23 in npj Microgravity, a Nature journal.      “It doesn’t necessarily mean ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Lead levels in moss are as much as 600 times higher in older Portland, Oregon, neighborhoods where lead-sheathed telecommunications cables were once used compared to lead levels in nearby rural areas, a new study of urban moss has found. The findings raise concerns about lead exposure in pre-1960 neighborhoods where the cables were common and in some cases are still in place even though they are no longer in use, said Alyssa Shiel, an environmental geochemist at Oregon State University, and the study’s ...

A new preclinical model offers a unique platform for studying the Parkinson’s disease process and suggests a relatively easy method for detecting the disease in people, according to a new study led by Weill Cornell Medicine researchers. In the study, published July 23 in Nature Communications, the researchers showed that knocking out a key component involved in protein transportation in the light-sensing rod cells of mice leads to the retinal accumulation of the aggregates of a protein called alpha-synuclein found in patients with Parkinson’s disease. “This is a really unique model involving a pathology that seems more like human Parkinson’s than what we see in ...

A new method that can rapidly determine whether a virus is infectious or non-infectious could revolutionise the response to future pandemics.  Called FAIRY (Fluorescence Assay for vIRal IntegritY), the assay can screen viruses against virucidal antivirals in minutes, allowing for the effectiveness of antiviral measures, such as disinfectants that break the chain of infection, to be quickly determined.    Dr Samuel Jones from Birmingham’s School of Chemistry led the research team that developed the FAIRY assay.  ...

The results of the PrEPVacc HIV vaccine trial conducted in Eastern and Southern Africa, which ran between 2020 and 2024, show conclusively that neither of the two experimental vaccine regimens tested reduced HIV infections among the study population. Vaccinations in the PrEPVacc trial were stopped in November 2023 (and publicly announced in December 2023) when it became clear to independent experts monitoring the study data that there was little or no chance of the vaccines demonstrating efficacy in preventing HIV acquisition. The PrEPVacc ...

In addition to exhaust emissions, abrasion emissions from tyres and brakes have become increasingly important when assessing the environmental impact of traffic. However, the focus here was on road vehicles; rail was hardly considered. In a study commissioned by the German Centre for Rail Transport Research (DZSF), researchers from the Institute of Thermodynamics and Sustainable Propulsion Systems at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) have now been able to prove that so-called non-exhaust emissions from rail transport also have a relevant influence on air quality and soil pollution. Half of the daily particulate matter limit due to trains ...

Trees in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest are migrating in search of more favourable temperatures with species in mountain forests moving uphill to escape rising heat caused by climate change, a new study reveals. Most species in higher parts of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest are moving upwards as temperatures rise, but scientists say that those trees which thrive in colder temperatures are at risk of dying out as the world continues to warm. Researchers studying the forest, which stretches along the Brazil’s Atlantic seaboard, have also discovered that some trees in ...

Commercial arm robots are increasingly deployed in order to aid stroke patients in their recovery. Around 80% of patients have problems with their arm function. Robots are also seen as a solution for financial, and staffing, shortcomings in the healthcare sector. However, research led by Amsterdam UMC now shows that they offer no clinically meaningful effects for patients. The research is published today in Neurology.   "In particular countries such as China, Japan and South Korea, but also in North America and Europe, are UL-Robots seen more ...

Osaka, Japan — Needing a hip replacement is unfortunate, but even more unfortunate is to need to do it again. Surgeons at Osaka Metropolitan University have provided new insights into the performance of two types of stems used in total hip replacement surgery. Their findings are expected to contribute to the enhancement of long-term outcomes, improving patients’ quality of life and reducing the need for revision surgeries. Their paper was published in The Bone & Joint Journal on June 1. The hip joint, which connects the femur, or thighbone, to the pelvis, plays a crucial ...

Late-life depression, typically defined as depression with onset in individuals over 60 years of age, can affect up to a third or more of people older than 60 and can be debilitating. But, like other neurological conditions, an individual’s risk may be influenced by lifestyle choices. Researchers from Mass General Brigham previously developed and validated the Brain Care Score (BCS) for helping patients and clinicians identify lifestyle changes that may reduce their risk of dementia and stroke. Now, with collaborators at Yale University, they have shown that a higher BCS is also associated with a ...

World leaders must take advantage of a pivotal window of opportunity for forging a much-needed joined-up approach to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss, say scientists from ZSL and York University. Without this, work on tackling either crisis could inadvertently harm progress on the other. Published today (Tuesday 23 July) in the Journal of Applied Ecology, a paper from international conservation charity ZSL and researchers at York University, Toronto, titled ‘The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Paris Agreement need a joint work programme for climate, nature, and people’ conceptualises how a joint work ...

In a landmark move to advance the frontiers of artificial intelligence, the Quantitative Biology (QB) journal has published a comprehensive commentary titled "Current Opinions on Large Cellular Models," highlighting the cutting-edge developments in the field of large cellular models (LCMs). The journal has brought together a consortium of leading scholars from China, the United States, and Canada to delve into the future of AI-driven biological research. The commentary features influential authors behind some of the most impactful LCMs, such as scBERT, Geneformer, scGPT, scFoundation, and GeneCompass. These AI ...

Compact city is an urban planning strategy aimed at promoting environmental, economic, and social sustainability through spatial configurations featured with relatively high density and mixed land use. The continuous growth in car ownership forces cities to construct more static transportation facilities such as parking lots, squeezing the activity spaces of residents and consequently giving rise to a series of efficiency and equity issues. Thus, the conflict between people and vehicles in compact cities is increasingly prominent and urgently ...

The prevalence of kidney disease has been increasing in Japan, with it now affecting one in eight adults, but developing effective treatment remains a challenge. The kidneys are among the most energy-intensive organs in the body. For the kidneys to function, they constantly produce and consume large amounts of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is a chemical that the body uses to store and transport energy. However, ATP dynamics—the changes over time in ATP production and utilization—within the kidney have been poorly understood because of the lack of suitable imaging technologies.   Using a newly developed ATP imaging system, the researchers ...

Guides typically assist tourists with directions, but the experience could be greatly enhanced if they offered personalized services tailored to individual interests. Recently, researchers have transformed guide RNAs, which direct enzymes, into a smart RNA capable of controlling networks in response to various signals. This innovative research is gaining significant attention in the academic community.   A research team consisting of Professor Jongmin Kim and PhD candidates Hansol Kang and Dongwon Park from the Department of Life Sciences at POSTECH has developed a multi-signal ...

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), with toxicity and irritability, could cause atmospheric environmental problems such as haze and photochemical smog, seriously threatening the ecological environment and human health. The primary source of VOCs is human production, such as the petrochemical industry, pharmaceutical industry, footwear industry, electronic manufacturing, and cooking fumes. Catalytic oxidation technology can highly effectively remove organic pollutants without secondary pollution, and it is receiving increasing attention in VOC pollution control. In real-world operating conditions, the ...