Ad blockers, the digital shields that nearly one billion internet users deploy to protect themselves from intrusive advertising, may be inadvertently exposing their users to more problematic content, according to a new study from NYU Tandon School of Engineering. The study, which analyzed over 1,200 advertisements across the United States and Germany, found that users of Adblock Plus's "Acceptable Ads" feature encountered 13.6% more problematic advertisements compared to users browsing ...

A new study led by UCLA investigators shows that Verbal Reaction Time (VRT), the amount of time it takes a person to respond verbally, can be a marker of sleepiness in older adults. The study, which measured participants’ voice data through standardized cognitive assessments, show how VRT can passively detect excessive sleepiness, especially among older individuals using sedative medications. Why it matters Sleepiness is a major contributor to safety risks in daily life, but is often underreported or unnoticed, especially among older ...

The University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) Palliative Medicine Program has launched a new clinical trial funded by the National Institute on Aging to explore a potential treatment for agitation in patients with dementia nearing the end of life. The study focuses on an investigational oral drug, T2:C100, which contains the two active ingredients in cannabis: THC and CBD. Currently, standard medications such as morphine, valium, and Haldol are commonly used to manage agitation in hospice-eligible patients with dementia. However, these treatments are often ineffective ...

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsb.2025.04.006 This new article publication from Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B, discusses targeting stem-property and vasculogenic mimicry for sensitizing paclitaxel therapy of triple-negative breast cancer by biomimetic codelivery.   Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is aggressive, with high recurrence rates and poor prognosis. Paclitaxel (PTX) remains a key chemotherapeutic agent for TNBC, but its efficacy diminishes due to the emergence of drug resistance, largely driven by cancer stem-like cells (CSCs), vasculogenic mimicry (VM) formation and tumor immunosuppressive ...

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsb.2025.04.017 This new article publication from Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B, discusses how SRSF7 promotes pulmonary fibrosis through regulating PKM alternative splicing in lung fibroblasts.   Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a chronic interstitial lung disease, is characterized by aberrant wound healing, excessive scarring and the formation of myofibroblastic foci. Although the role of alternative splicing (AS) in the pathogenesis of organ fibrosis has garnered increasing attention, ...

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsb.2025.04.001 This new article publication from Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B, discusses how a psychological stress-activated NR3C1/NUPR1 axis promotes ovarian tumor metastasis.   Ovarian tumor (OT) is the most lethal form of gynecologic malignancy, with minimal improvements in patient outcomes over the past several decades. Metastasis is the leading cause of ovarian cancer-related deaths, yet the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood.   Psychological stress is known to activate ...

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsb.2025.04.008 This new article publication from Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B, discusses how an anti-complement homogeneous polysaccharide from Houttuynia cordata ameliorates acute pneumonia with H1N1 and MRSA coinfection through rectifying Treg/Th17 imbalance in the gut–lung axis and NLRP3 inflammasome activation.   The coinfection of respiratory viruses and bacteria is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, despite the development of vaccines and powerful antibiotics. As a macromolecule that is difficult to absorb in the gastrointestinal tract, a homogeneous polysaccharide from Houttuynia cordata (HCPM) has been reported ...

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsb.2025.04.018 This new article publication from Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B, discusses how ALKBH3-regulated m1A of ALDOA potentiates glycolysis and doxorubicin resistance of triple negative breast cancer cells.   Chemotherapy is currently the mainstay of systemic management for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), but chemoresistance significantly impacts patient outcomes.   This research indicates that Doxorubicin (Dox)-resistant TNBC cells exhibit increased glycolysis and ATP generation compared to their parental cells, with this metabolic shift contributing to chemoresistance. It was discovered ...

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsb.2025.04.007 This new article publication from Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B, discusses how a photodynamic nanohybrid system reverses hypoxia and augments anti-primary and metastatic tumor efficacy of immunotherapy.   Photodynamic immunotherapy is a promising strategy for cancer treatment. However, the dysfunctional tumor vasculature results in tumor hypoxia and the low efficiency of drug delivery, which in turn restricts the anticancer effect of photodynamic immunotherapy.   The ...

https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/acta-pharmaceutica-sinica-b/vol/15/issue/6 Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B (APSB) was founded with the goal of creating a global high-level forum centred around drug discovery and pharmaceutical research/application. APSB was included by Chemical Abstracts in 2011, accepted by PubMed Central in 2015, indexed by Science Citation Index in 2017 and has evolved to become one of the most important international journals in the field of pharmaceutical sciences. APSB is a monthly journal, in English, which publishes ...

LA JOLLA (July 9, 2025)—Pain isn’t just a physical sensation—it also carries emotional weight. That distress, anguish, and anxiety can turn a fleeting injury into long-term suffering. Researchers at the Salk Institute have now identified a brain circuit that gives physical pain its emotional tone, revealing a new potential target for treating chronic and affective pain conditions such as fibromyalgia, migraine, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Published on July 9, 2025, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study identifies a group of neurons in a central brain area called the thalamus ...

The graphite found in your favorite pencil could have instead been the diamond your mother always wears. What made the difference? Researchers are finding out. How molten carbon crystallizes into either graphite or diamond is relevant to planetary science, materials manufacturing and nuclear fusion research. However, this moment of crystallization is difficult to study experimentally because it happens very rapidly and under extreme conditions. In a new study published July 9 in Nature Communications, researchers from the University of California, Davis and George Washington ...

Scientists have used ultracold atoms to successfully demonstrate a groundbreaking method of particle acceleration that could unlock new understanding of how cosmic rays behave, a new study reveals.  After more than 70 years from its formulation, researchers have observed the Fermi acceleration mechanism in a laboratory by colliding ultracold atoms against engineered movable potential barriers – delivering a significant milestone in high-energy astrophysics and beyond.  Fermi acceleration is the mechanism responsible for the generation of cosmic rays, as postulated by physicist Enrico Fermi in 1949.   ...

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is pleased to announce a new journal, ACM AI Letters (AILET), a unique venue for rapid publication of impactful, concise, and timely communications in artificial intelligence. In keeping with ACM’s broader goals, all AILET papers will be open access, with no publication charges for the first three years. ACM AI Letters will open for submissions in summer 2025. Bridging a crucial gap between traditional conferences and journals, AILET will feature short peer-reviewed contributions that accelerate knowledge dissemination across academia and industry. This unique publication prioritizes theoretical breakthroughs, algorithmic ...

In a new study published in the European Heart Journal, researchers reported the successful development and validation of a medical artificial intelligence (AI) model that screens for cardiac amyloidosis, a progressive and irreversible type of heart disease. The results showed that the AI tool is highly accurate, outperforming existing methods and potentially enabling earlier, more accurate diagnoses so patients can benefit from getting the right treatment sooner. What is cardiac amyloidosis? Cardiac amyloidosis is a heart condition in which abnormal proteins ...

Loneliness is common and is a strong and independent predictor of depression and poor health outcomes, according to a new study published July 9, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Dr. Oluwasegun Akinyemi, a Senior Research Fellow at the Howard University College of Medicine, Washington DC, U.S. Loneliness has emerged as a significant public health concern in the United States, with profound implications for mental and physical health. In the new study, researchers analyzed Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data collected via phone surveys between 2016 and 2023. The study population included 47,318 non-institutionalized adults living in the U.S., predominantly ...

Excitons – bound pairs of electrons and electron hole – are quasiparticles that can arise in solids. While so-called “bright” excitons emit light and are therefore accessible, dark excitons are optically inactive. As a result, they have a significantly longer lifetime – which makes them ideal for storing and controlling quantum states and using them for advanced methods to generate entanglement. Gregor Weihs and his team from the Department of Experimental Physics at the University of Innsbruck, together with researchers in Dortmund, ...

An international study led by researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus has identified a promising strategy to enhance the safety of nanomedicines, advanced therapies often used in cancer and vaccine treatments, by using drugs already approved by the FDA for unrelated conditions. The study was published today in Science Advances. Their research suggests that repurposing existing medications can reduce harmful immune responses associated with nanoparticles. These ultra-small particles are designed ...

Despite widespread human impacts to wildlife diversity worldwide, many fish communities on the seafloor have maintained their uniqueness, reports a new study led by Zoë Kitchel, formerly of Rutgers University, and colleagues, published July 9 in the open-access journal PLOS Climate.  Around the world, humans have transformed ecosystems through development, hunting and fishing, invasive species and climate change. On land and in freshwater ecosystems, these changes have typically led to a process called homogenization, where the types ...

Somali women describe a complex and shifting tradition of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) in Somalia, according to a study published July 9, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS Global Public Health by Zamzam I.A. Ali from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK and the Mayo Clinic, US, and colleagues.  Female genital mutilation/cutting, which increases the risks of immediate and long-term psychological, obstetric, genitourinary and sexual and reproductive health complications, has no health benefits. It continues to be a human rights issue globally, with the UN and the Human Rights Council calling for a complete end to the practice. ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — As summer kicks into full gear and people are spending more time outside, there’s one thing on many people’s minds — ticks. Tick season is starting earlier and lasting longer, and ticks are popping up in areas they haven’t been found before, expanding the risk of tick-borne viruses. One emerging tick-borne virus in North America — including in Pennsylvania — is the Powassan virus (POWV), which can cause encephalitis, seizures, paralysis and ...

As waiting rooms fill up, doctors get increasingly burnt out, and surgeries take longer to schedule and more get cancelled, humanoid surgical robots offer a solution. That’s the argument that UC San Diego robotics expert Michael Yip makes in a perspective piece out July 9 in Science Robotics.  Why? Today’s surgical robots are costly pieces of equipment designed for specialized tasks and can only be operated by highly trained physicians. However, this model doesn’t scale. Despite the drastic improvements in artificial intelligence and autonomy for industrial and humanoid robots in the past year, these improvements haven’t ...

An estimated 4 million children undergo surgical procedures in hospitals across the United States each year. Although postoperative complications, such as infections, can pose significant health risks to kids, timely detection following hospital discharge can prove challenging.   A new study published in Science Advances — and led by researchers at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and University of Alabama at Birmingham — is the first to use consumer wearables to quickly and precisely predict postoperative complications in children and shows potential for facilitating faster treatment ...

New York, NY — July 9, 2025 — A study led by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai shows that exposure to lead during pregnancy and early childhood may accelerate the rate at which children forget information—a critical marker of memory impairment that may have implications for learning and development. Using delayed matching-to-sample task (DMTS)—a cognitive task that can be used to evaluate underlying neurobehavioral functions, such as attention and working memory, and has been demonstrated to be sensitive to metal neurotoxicants—the study examined how both prenatal ...

Imagine a physician attempting to reach a cancerous nodule deep within a patient's lung – a target the size of a pea, hidden behind a maze of critical blood vessels and airways that shift with every breath. Straying one millimeter off course could puncture a major artery, and falling short could mean missing the cancer entirely, allowing it to spread untreated.  This is the high-stakes reality physicians face in thousands of procedures daily, where accuracy is critical and the task is complicated by anatomical obstacles that are non-penetrable or sensitive. Can artificial intelligence (AI) and robots help address these challenges and ...