A link between the neurotransmitter dopamine and the mentalising abilities of healthy people has been identified for the first time in a new study.  Mentalising describes the act of attributing and understanding mental states (such as thoughts, feelings or intentions) in other people and in oneself. Researchers at the University of Birmingham have been able to show that changing people’s brain dopamine levels affects their mentalising abilities. Their results are published today in PLOS Biology.  Dopamine ...

Bacteriophages, viruses that attack and destroy bacteria, are everywhere in the natural world where they play a vital role in regulating microbe populations in ways that are not yet well understood. New research led by the University of Utah and University College London (UCL) has found that plant bacterial pathogens are able to repurpose elements of their own bacteriophages, or phages, to wipe out competing microbes. These surprise findings suggest such phage-derived elements could someday be harnessed as an alternative to antibiotics, according to Talia Karasov, an assistant professor in the U’s School of ...

Smithsonian Conservation Research Brief:  Carbon dioxide-fueled accelerated plant growth dilutes nutrients, impacting herbivore populations.  A new study from researchers at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) warns that as human activities increase carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere, they may decrease the nutrient contents of plants. Declines in nutrient content, known as Nutrient Dilution, may already be harming plant-eating animals and could cause further population declines farther up the ecological chain. The paper, published today in the journal Trends ...

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is pleased to announce that 2023 ACM A.M. Turing Award recipient Avi Wigderson will give his Turing Lecture at the 2024 ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing (STOC) on Thursday, June 27 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Wigderson received the A.M. Turing Award for foundational contributions to the theory of computation, including reshaping our understanding of the role of randomness in computation, and for his decades of intellectual leadership in theoretical computer science. In "Alan Turing: A TCS Role Model," Wigderson ...

Opioids are a broad group of effective pain-relieving medicines that can become highly addictive in some individuals. According to government sources, nearly 40 million people are addicted to illicit drugs worldwide. In 2017, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declared the opioid crisis a national public health emergency. To combat the opioid epidemic, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine will develop an AI model that will more accurately predict opioid addiction in high-risk patients.  The project is funded through a three-year contract with Wellcome Leap as part of a $50 million groundbreaking initiative, called ...

Opioid overdoses for pregnant patients are at an all-time high in the United States, even as overall numbers are improving. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is highly correlated with substance use disorders, yet treatment protocols to help expecting parents manage opioid use disorders and ADHD together are essentially nonexistent. New research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis may help change that. A study published in Nature Mental Health indicates that patients with opioid use disorders and ADHD who remain on their ADHD medications during their pregnancies are far more likely to adhere to treatment for opioid use, and far less likely to ...

The small footprint and dim light of white dwarfs, remnants of stars that have burned through their fuel, may make excellent backdrops for studying planets with enough water to harbor life. The trick is spotting the shadow of a planet against a former star that has withered to a fraction of its size and finding that it’s a planet that has kept its water oceans for billions of years even after riding out the star’s explosive and violent final throes. A new study of the dynamics of white dwarf systems suggests that, in theory, some watery planets may indeed thread the celestial needles necessary to await ...

The ecosystem that surrounds a tumor, also known as the tumor microenvironment, includes immune cells, tissues, blood vessels and other cells that interact with each other and with the tumor. Over time, the tumor shapes this ecosystem to its own benefit, monopolizing all of the nutrients and shielding it from immune attack. In working to understand the ecosystem’s role in cancer risk, development and treatment, researchers at The Jackson Laboratory have not only identified how two immune cells work together to fight cancer but also revealed the cascade of molecules that help coordinate this attack. The work, ...

Québec City, June 13, 2024–Increased use of blood transfusions after major traumatic brain injury could help people hospitalized in intensive care units regain greater functional independence and a better quality of life.   Six months after a major traumatic brain injury (TBI), patients who benefited from this approach regained more functional independence and had a better quality of life than those subjected to a more restrictive approach, even though the combined incidence of death and major ...

In a session on diagnosing and managing complex diseases at the 2024 EULAR congress in Vienna, two abstracts tackled this issue.   First, Filippo Vesentini presented on the risk of flare with glucocorticoid compared to low-dose maintenance – based on a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data from people with SLE. Flare-free remission and predictors of such were evaluated respectively in remitted patients on and off glucocorticoids.   During follow-up, 484 patients achieved remission at least once during ...

An HPR abstract sessions at the 2024 EULAR congress looked specifically at harnessing the benefits of exercise in rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMD) – and the challenges to their practical implementation.   Mohamed Saadi presented a systematic review examining barriers and facilitators affecting adherence to EULAR’s physical activity recommendations. Across 68 selected articles, 29 different themes were identified – 9 of which were social, 16 environmental, and 4 systemic. The five most frequently found themes were having supportive family and friends, a supportive health professional, followed by costs, and access or proximity to adapted and ...

Even though early therapeutic interventions have proven successful in inducing drug-free remission in other inflammatory rheumatic diseases, such studies remain difficult to conduct in axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA), which manifests itself by insidious onset inflammatory back pain. As a result it is often diagnosed late,5 and a consensus definition of early disease was only recently published.6   At the 2024 EULAR congress, Łukasik and colleagues shared data from their prospective study evaluating the efficacy of a ...

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease that causes joint inflammation and destruction.1 There is currently no cure – and although there are many treatments, their effectiveness varies from person to person, suggesting an undefined pathogenic diversity.1 Deep characterisation of myeloid cell subsets by single cell RNA sequencing across healthy and inflamed tissues in RA has led to the identification of new pathogenic cell states and subsets – with data coming from five large-scale studies.1-5 But subset overlap across studies and compartments – such as in blood versus synovial tissue – has not yet ...

The Gabriella Miller Kids First Data Resource Center (Kids First DRC) announces the release of an upgraded Kids First Data Resource Portal, designed to streamline big data search and data analysis. Accessible at portal.kidsfirstdrc.org, the new portal represents a significant advancement in data accessibility, user experience, and collaborative potential with researchers, families, and patients. Elevated User Experience Introducing several key enhancements, the new Kids First DRC Portal prioritizes user-centric ...

In a world where external and internal stimuli can throw our entire body system off balance, how does our brain prevent itself from becoming overly stimulated? The answer lies in our brain’s ability to maintain the balance of neural excitation (E) and inhibition (I), known as the E/I ratio. By regulating the E/I ratio, the brain prevents over-stimulation and under-stimulation. The E/I ratio of children decreases with healthy development. Children with a lower E/I ratio were observed to have better performance than their peers in cognitive tests such as memory and intelligence, according to studies by researchers from the Centre for Sleep and Cognition ...

Climate change has many widespread and complicated effects on the well-being of people and the planet, and a new study in iScience on June 13 has now added a surprising one to the list. After analyzing the language used in seven million parliamentary speeches around the world, it shows that high temperatures lead to a significant and immediate reduction in politicians’ language complexity. The results suggest that rising heat may come with impacts on our cognitive abilities with real and immediate consequences, the researchers say. The study also showcases ...

Men tend to eat meat more frequently than women and the extent of the differences in meat consumption frequency between both genders tend to be greater within countries with higher levels of gender equality and social and economic development, according to a study published in Scientific Reports. The authors suggest that this could be due individuals within these countries having greater opportunities to express food preferences. Christopher Hopwood and colleagues investigated differences in meat consumption between men and women across countries with differing levels of social ...

PITTSBURGH, June 13, 2024 – New University of Pittsburgh research points to a potential approach to reducing the risk of diabetes associated with widely prescribed antipsychotic medications. The study presents early evidence in support of co-administering antipsychotic medications that block dopamine receptors in the brain alongside drugs that stop antipsychotics from blocking those same receptors in the pancreas. This approach, published today in Diabetes, could limit metabolic side effects, including impaired control over blood sugar, or dysglycemia. This research may also explain why weight control medications, including new neuropeptide drugs Wegovy and Ozempic, may not ...

FORT COLLINS, Colo., June 13, 2024 — We may go to the woods seeking peace and quiet, but are we taking our noise with us? A recent study published in the journal, Current Biology, led by scientists from the USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station indicates that the answer is yes—and that this noise can trigger a fear response, as if escaping from predators. This new science calls into question whether otherwise high-quality habitat truly provides refugia for wildlife when recreationists are present and underscores the challenges land managers face in balancing ...

A new study led by UCLA Health and the U.S. Veterans Affairs Office found chronic pain among older adults could be significantly reduced through a newly developed psychotherapy that works by confronting past trauma and stress-related emotions that can exacerbate pain symptoms.  Published in JAMA Network Open on June 13, the study compared the newer therapy, known as emotional awareness and expression therapy, or EAET, to traditional cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, in treating chronic pain as well as mental health symptoms such as depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms among older veterans.  The ...

About The Study: This cross-sectional study identified a post-pandemic pediatric respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) surge that resulted in markedly increased hospital volumes and advanced respiratory support needs in older children with fewer comorbidities than pre-pandemic seasons. These clinical trends may inform novel vaccine allocation to reduce the overall burden during future RSV seasons. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding authors, email Zachary A. Winthrop, M.D. (zachary.winthrop@childrens.harvard.edu), and Melody G. Duvall, M.D., Ph.D. (melody.duvall@childrens.harvard.edu). To ...

About The Study: The elimination of cost sharing might be associated with increased naloxone dispensing to commercially insured and Medicare patients. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Kao-Ping Chua, M.D., Ph.D., email chuak@med.umich.edu.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2024.8378) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support. Embed this link ...

PASADENA, CA – June 13, 2024 – The Giant Magellan Telescope and IDOM today announced that the telescope’s enclosure, set to be one of the world’s largest astronomical facilities, passed its final design review and is now ready for construction in Chile. The review marks a major milestone for the telescope, which is now 40% under construction and on track to be operational by the early 2030s. “A team of ten international subject matter experts validated two years of design work by IDOM and the Giant Magellan Telescope. The final design of the enclosure is unique and an important feat of technical management, design, and engineering. We are very grateful ...

In just a few months, hospitals and health systems nationwide will start working to vaccinate as many staff as possible against the flu.  And a new study suggests that more of those hospitals than ever before will require employees to get vaccinated, or seek an exemption. That means more patients could avoid catching the flu while receiving health care -- a key goal for improving patient safety. In all, the new study shows that 96% of the hospitals that serve America’s veterans, and ...

Analysis of more than 1,500 natural conversations suggests that humans may have evolved more complex facial muscle movements to help us bond with each other. In the first part of the study, researchers posed as participants in semi-structured video calls with 52 people to record natural reactions and expressions during various everyday scenarios. The conversations were designed to involve a range of behaviours, including listening, humour, embarrassment, and conflict. To test ability to inhibit facial expression, participants were also asked to keep a still face while their partner tried to make them move. The same individuals ...