(Toronto, May 13, 2025) JMIR Publications invites submissions to a new theme issue titled “AI-Powered Therapy Bots and Virtual Companions” in its open access journal JMIR Mental Health (2024 Impact Factor 4.8). The premier, peer-reviewed journal is indexed in PubMed Central and PubMed, MEDLINE, Scopus, Sherpa/Romeo, DOAJ, EBSCO/EBSCO Essentials, SCIE, PsycINFO and CABI.    Artificial intelligence (AI)–driven mental health tools—including chatbots, avatars, and virtual agents—have gained traction for their accessibility and scalability. However, most studies to date have focused ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – In one of the larger studies of its kind, researchers have identified six breast texture patterns that may be associated with increased cancer risk, according to a new study published today in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Women with dense breasts, which are breasts with a higher proportion of glandular tissue compared to fatty tissue, make up a large proportion of screening-eligible women. Breast cancer can be difficult to detect on mammograms of dense breasts due to the similarity ...

Martela’s latest study finds that generative AI meets all three of the philosophical conditions of free will —  the ability to have goal-directed agency, make genuine choices and to have control over its actions. It will be published in the journal AI and Ethics on Tuesday. Drawing on the concept of functional free will as explained in the theories of philosophers Daniel Dennett and Christian List, the study examined two generative AI agents powered by large language models (LLMs): the Voyager agent in Minecraft and fictional ‘Spitenik’ killer drones with the cognitive function of today's unmanned aerial vehicles. ...

A research paper by scientists at Kyushu University presented a novel needle-free reagent injection method that improves the depth of reagent injection by reflecting shock waves through microbubble dynamics. The research paper, published on Mar. 19, 2025 in the journal Cyborg and Bionic Systems. Currently, drug administration for disease treatment and prophylaxis generally adopts an injector with a metal needle. However, because the needle is in direct contact with the patient’s mucus and blood, the spread of infectious diseases through the use of different ...

A newly published clinical feeding study out of South Dakota State University suggests that lean pork can play a central role in plant-forward dietary patterns for aging adults, offering high-quality protein, broad acceptability and alignment with current dietary guidance.i*  The PRODMED study, an 18-week crossover randomized controlled trial published in Current Developments in Nutrition, compared diets centered on lean pork to those built around plant proteins (such as lentils and chickpeas) in free-living older adults. ...

In a groundbreaking discovery, researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine have identified a never-before-seen mechanism that enables the human immunodeficiency type 1 virus (HIV-1) to evade the body’s natural defenses and use it to support its survival and replication. The “loophole?” A biological process that involves circular RNAs (circRNAs), which form a “loop” or circle inside cells – unlike regular RNA molecules that are shaped like a straight line. This looped shape makes circRNAs much more ...

Over 6 million Americans are impacted by Alzheimer’s disease, and researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the University of Pittsburgh  are discovering how lifestyle habits can impact the likelihood of developing the disease. According to a new research study published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, researchers found that increased sedentary behavior, time spent sitting or lying down, in aging adults was associated with worse cognition and brain shrinkage in areas related to risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease.   The research ...

DARIEN, IL – Five individuals have been selected as the 2025 American Academy of Sleep Medicine award recipients for their outstanding contributions to the field of sleep medicine. They will be recognized Monday, June 9, during the plenary session of the SLEEP 2025 annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies in Seattle. “Congratulations to this year’s award recipients for their exceptional dedication to advancing the field of sleep medicine,” said AASM President Dr. Eric J. Olson. “Their leadership and achievements in research, education, advocacy, and clinical care reflect ...

Images available via link in the notes section Researchers at the University of Oxford, Durham University and the University of Toronto have detailed the geological ingredients required to find clean sources of natural hydrogen beneath our feet. The work details the requirements for natural hydrogen, produced by the Earth itself over geological time, to accumulate in the crust, and identifies that the geological environments with those ingredients are widespread globally. Hydrogen is $135 billion industry, essential for making fertiliser and other important societal ...

UNDER STRICT EMBARGO UNTIL TUESDAY 13 MAY 2025 AT 10AM UK TIME  Peer reviewed | Observational study | People    The results of an international study led by researchers from Queen Mary University of London’s Precision Healthcare University Research Institute (PHURI) shed new light the underlying biological mechanisms which cause differences in health risks, symptoms and outcomes between males and females.   The study, carried out in collaboration with the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité, ...

Researchers at UCL and the Francis Crick Institute have, for the first time, identified the origin of cardiac cells using 3D images of a heart forming in real-time, inside a living mouse embryo. For the study, published in The EMBO Journal, the team used a technique called advanced light-sheet microscopy on a specially engineered mouse model. This is a method where a thin sheet of light is used to illuminate and take detailed pictures of tiny samples, creating clear 3D images without causing any damage to living tissue. By doing this, they were able to track individual cells as they moved and divided over the course ...

Astronomers have developed a groundbreaking computer simulation to explore, in unprecedented detail, magnetism and turbulence in the interstellar medium (ISM) — the vast ocean of gas and charged particles that lies between stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. Described in a new study published today in Nature Astronomy, the model is the most powerful to date, requiring the computing capability of the SuperMUC-NG supercomputer at the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre in Germany. It directly challenges our understanding of how magnetized turbulence operates in astrophysical environments. James Beattie, ...

From the ocean’s rolling swells to the bumpy ride of a jetliner, turbulence is everywhere. It breaks large waves into smaller ones, cascading energy across scales. It is ubitquitous throughout our Galaxy and the broader Universe, shaping the behavior of plasma, stars, and magnetic fields. Yet despite its ubiquity, turbulence remains one of the greatest unsolved problems in physics. Now, by developing the world’s largest-ever simulations of magnetized turbulence, an international team of scientists has measured — with unprecedented precision — how ...

Barcelona, 13 May 2025 – Just as species adapt over generations, our body’s cells accumulate DNA changes throughout life. Most are harmless, yet a few “driver” mutations give a cell a competitive edge and can spark cancer. Chemotherapy then adds a new evolutionary pressure, encouraging further genetic changes that let tumours bounce back. Researchers at IRB Barcelona have developed DiffInvex, a computational framework that tracks how evolutionary pressures on genes change as healthy cells become tumours and as tumours face chemotherapy. Applied to more than 11,000 human cancer and healthy tissue genomes spanning ...

People with multiple long-term physical health conditions are at a significantly greater risk of developing depression, a study shows.   Researchers found that some combinations of illnesses – particularly cardiometabolic ones like diabetes and heart disease – could more than double the likelihood of a future depression diagnosis.   With multimorbidity – when patients live with two or more chronic conditions – continuing to put pressure on an already stretched healthcare ...

Plants have small pores on the underside of their leaves, known as stomata. When the sun rises, these pores open and the plants absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, which they need, in addition to sunlight and water, for photosynthesis. At the same time, water evaporates through the open stomata; for a tree, this may be several hundred liters per day. When water is scarce, plants can close their stomata and thus prevent it from evaporating too much water. The fact that plants have this protective mechanism at their disposal is nothing new. Until now, however, it has not been clear when this closure occurs and what the trigger was. ...

ROCHESTER, New York, USA, 29 April 2025 -- In a comprehensive Genomic Psychiatry review article published today, researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center have synthesized decades of research on stress hormone systems in primate brains, potentially unlocking new paths toward treating stress-related psychiatric disorders. The article offers groundbreaking insights into how corticotropin releasing factor (CRF), a key stress hormone, interacts with dopamine neuron populations in ways that differ significantly between rodents and primates. The Stress-Dopamine Connection: More Complex Than Previously Understood Stress ...

OTTAWA, Ontario, Canada, 13 May 2025 - In a comprehensive Genomic Press Commentary published today, researchers have identified what could be the first reliable biomarker for depression risk, potentially transforming how this devastating condition is identified and treated. The commentary examines recent findings demonstrating that individuals with depression consistently exhibit a functionally enlarged salience network compared to non-depressed controls. Distinctive Brain Connectivity Pattern Identified The salience network, a neural system responsible for attention allocation and switching between different brain ...

Brief facts about the study: fertility // randomised, clinical trial // 1,466 women. The study has been published in Frontiers in Endocrinology.  About 15 per cent of all couples of reproductive age are involuntarily childless. A major reason why so many need assisted reproduction is that nowadays more and more people are putting off starting a family.  “This is a global trend that is expected to increase in the coming years. In Europe alone, one million IVF treatments are carried out each year; in Sweden, the corresponding number is 25,000,” ...

  COLUMBUS, Ohio - As kids spend more time on screens, a new national survey conducted by Ipsos on behalf of The Kids Mental Health Foundation, founded by Nationwide Children’s Hospital, identifies parents’ greatest fears for their children around screen time. The top three fears parents have around their child and screen time are: privacy and safety concerns (47%), exposure to misinformation (36%) and not socializing in person (34%). Fewer parents ranked concerns around body image and schoolwork high on their list. “My biggest concerns with screens are making sure that my kids don't get exposed to things before I'm ready ...

Fukuoka, Japan—In a paper published in Geophysical Research Letters, researchers from Kyushu University report on the activity of sporadic E layers—about 90-120 km above sea level—during the Mother’s Day geomagnetic storm. The team found that the E layers were significantly enhanced during the recovery phase of the geomagnetic storm. Sporadic E layer, as the name suggests, is a phenomenon in which thin—about 1-5 km thick—but dense patches of ionized metals suddenly appear in the E layer of the ionosphere. Moreover, the team found that these ...

The genome structure — how genes are organized within DNA sequences in an organism — is fundamental to the processes and functions of organisms. A team at the University of Tokyo has developed a system to control and accelerate the evolution of changes in bacterial genome structure, targeting small “jumping genes,” or DNA sequences known as insertion sequences. “Most of what we know about evolution comes from studying the past. But some events, like the origin of mitochondria or other organelles, leave few traces, making it hard to reconstruct how they happened,” explained ...

Kyoto, Japan -- Stifling heat and sticky air often make summertime in the city uncomfortable. Due to the heat island effect, urban areas are significantly warmer than nearby rural areas, even at night. This, combined with more frequent extreme weather events caused by climate change, often render the city an unpleasant environment in the summer. Urbanization and climate change modify the thermal environment of urban areas, with an expectation that urban disasters from extremely hot weather and heavy rainfall will only become more severe. Mitigating potential damage involves reducing the intensity of the heat island effect and adapting to climate ...

Research from the University of Adelaide shows microbial communities in echidna pseudo-pouches undergo dramatic changes while the animal is lactating, which could help in creating an environment for their young, known as puggles, to thrive. Echidnas are monotremes, which are the only mammals that lay eggs. The early developmental stage at which they hatch from their egg means that the puggles lack a functioning immune system. “We know the reproductive microbiome is important to infant health, including for humans, but little is known about how it ...

Transmasculine and gender-diverse individuals who use testosterone are not at increased risk of gynecological cancer in the first years of hormone therapy. This is evident from large-scale research by Amsterdam UMC, which was published today in eClinicalMedicine. The results provide important insights for healthcare providers and transmasculine and gender-diverse individuals who are considering starting hormone therapy.  Transmasculine and gender-diverse people are registered as women at birth, but do not feel male, non-binary or otherwise ...