Background and Aims Clinical unmet need in managing nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a common liver disorder affecting 25–30% of American adults is to develop noninvasive and robust biomarkers.   Methods We re-measured liver AC by placing a region of interest (ROI, 3 cm tall and 3 cm wide) at 4.5 cm, 6 cm, and 7.5 cm from the skin and a large ROI (6.0 cm tall and 7.3 cm wide) on pre-recorded ATI images from 117 participants screened for NAFLD. The difference in AC value at variable ROI depths was tested using one-way ANOVA (analysis of variance). Diagnostic ...

A new study – published in the Human-Animal Interactions journal – reveals that cows who are cuddled as therapy animals showed a strong preference for interactions with women when compared to men. In turn, the research, which opens a new era on whether some therapies may be initially stronger based upon gender and not procedure, highlighted that the women also reported greater attachment behaviours towards the steers. Dr Katherine Compitus, Clinical Assistant Professor at New York University, and Dr Sonya Bierbower, Associate Professor at United States Military Academy West Point, conducted the research using the ...

I’m not touching you! When another person’s finger hovers over your skin, you may get the sense that they’re touching you, feeling not necessarily contact, but their proximity. Similarly, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces have designed a soft, flexible film that senses the presence of nearby objects without physically touching them. The study features the new sensor technology to detect eyelash proximity in blink-tracking glasses. Noncontact sensors can identify or measure an object without directly touching it. Examples of these devices include ...

Discoveries and progress in materials science often lay the foundation for technological breakthroughs that reshape many industrial and commercial fields, including medicine, consumer electronics, and energy generation, to name a few. Yet, the development of experimental techniques crucially underpins the exploration of new materials, paving the way for groundbreaking discoveries. These techniques allow scientists to delve into a material’s chemical and physical properties, unlocking insights essential for realizing their potential applications. In a recent study ...

Toronto, ON, May 22, 2024 – A new study published in the journal Psychological Medicine estimates that teens using cannabis are at 11 times higher risk of developing a psychotic disorder compared to teens not using cannabis.   This finding suggests that the association between cannabis and psychotic disorders may be stronger than indicated by previous research, which has relied largely on older data when cannabis was less potent than today. For context, the average THC potency of cannabis in Canada has increased from roughly 1% in 1980 to 20% in 2018.  Researchers from the University of Toronto, the Centre for Addiction and Mental ...

Background and objectives Patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer (PCA) face the critical decision of whether to undergo treatment with curative intent (TCI, surgery or radiation) or conservative treatment on the background of a cancer where the potential for over-treatment and under-treatment is real. This study aimed to investigate the influence of cancer- and patient-related factors on the initial treatment decision for men with a new diagnosis of PCA and to evaluate treatment decisions against relevant guidelines.   Methods This study undertook a retrospective ...

Background and objectives Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is a cost-efficient technique for the management of thyroid nodules. Changes in the World Health Organization classification of thyroid tumors can influence reliability of cytology. The 2023 Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology has adapted cytological nomenclature to these changes. The aim of this paper was to review the management of atypia of undetermined significance (AUS) in our institution. https://www.xiahepublishing.com/2771-165X/JCTP-2023-00062   Methods Retrospective review of thyroid FNAC diagnosed with AUS in a single hospital between 2014 and 2022. We analyzed the management ...

As much as 70% of California was covered by wildfire smoke during parts of 2020 and 2021, according to a study from the University of California, Davis. The study, published today in the journal Communications: Earth & Environment, combined lake-based sensors with satellite imagery to find that maximum smoke cover has increased by about 116,000 square miles since 2006. The study measured lake responses to wildfire smoke in 2018, 2020 and 2021 — the three largest fire seasons on record in California. It found the lakes were exposed ...

Embargoed for release: Wednesday, May 22, 2024, 5:00 AM ET Key points: In a large, multinational investigation of the link between extreme temperatures and stroke mortality, researchers found that of every 1,000 ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke deaths, about 11 were attributable to extreme cold and hot days. The study also found that low-income countries bore a higher burden of heat-related hemorrhagic stroke mortality than high-income countries. The researchers foresee an increase in fatal strokes, as well as a widening disparity ...

Osaka, Japan – Part of what makes us human is our ability to think about people, places, or events that aren’t currently present—but we still don’t know exactly how our brains do this. Now, researchers from Osaka University have identified a specific kind of brain activity linked with these kinds of thoughts, such as when we daydream or let our minds wander. When we think about things that aren’t actually happening, like when we daydream, the brain is essentially making up information rather than receiving and ...

New research led by King’s College London has found that thousands of DNA sequences originating from ancient viral infections are expressed in the brain, with some contributing to susceptibility for psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression. Published in Nature Communications, the study was part-funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). About eight percent of our genome is comprised of sequences called Human Endogenous Retroviruses (HERVs), which are products of ancient viral infections ...

The discovery of thousands of stone artefacts and animal bones in a deep cave in Timor Island has led archaeologists to reassess the route that early humans took to reach Australia. Researchers from The Australian National University (ANU), Flinders University, University College London (UCL) and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage dated and analysed the artefacts and sediment at the Laili rock shelter in central-north Timor-Leste, north of Australia, to pinpoint the arrival ...

Background and objectives About 30% of lung cancer patients are accessible to targeted therapy or immunotherapy based on the current criteria. In this study, a novel gene cluster expression analysis was introduced with a goal to potentially expand the treatments to more patients based on the proposed criteria.   Methods Selected gene expression omnibus data sets were downloaded, normalized, and analyzed. A univariate recurrence prediction model was built based on the receiver operating characteristic, for which an optimal cutoff was determined to set abnormality status, called ...

Javier Pérez Barbuzano, Aisling Irwin, Ruairi Mackenzie, Jacopo Pasotti, Samuel Schlaefli, Vedrana Simičević, and Zuzana Vitková are the chosen candidates for the inaugural round of the FRONTIERS Residency Program. This ERC-supported initiative will finance journalists to spend 3 to 5 months at a European research institution. Originating from Spain, Slovakia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Switzerland, and Croatia, the selected journalists will develop their journalistic projects, during their residencies in scientific institutions. The initiative will award a monthly ...

A new Child Development study from researchers at the University of Virginia provides the first long-term, longitudinal evidence for the transmission of empathic care across three generations: from mother to teen to child.  The findings suggest that interactions with close friends in adolescence may provide a “training ground” in which teens can practice providing care in their peer relationships and pay forward the empathy they experience from their mothers, which may help strengthen their future parenting skills. For families and service providers, ...

Cambridge scientists have shown that problems regulating emotions – which can manifest as depression, anxiety and explosive outbursts – may be a core symptom of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In research published in Nature Mental Health, the team found that as many as one in two children with ADHD show signs of emotional dysregulation, and that Ritalin – the commonly-prescribed drug to help the condition – appears to be less effective at treating this symptom. ADHD affects around ...

Philadelphia, May 22, 2024 – Obesity and metabolic disorders are increasingly significant global public health issues. In a novel study, a team of dermatologists evaluated the effect of ultraviolet (UV) exposure on appetite and weight regulation. They found that UV exposure raises norepinephrine levels, decreases leptin levels, and induces the browning of subcutaneous fat, thereby increasing energy expenditure. These results potentially pave the way for new approaches to prevent and treat obesity and metabolic disorders. Their findings appear in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, published by Elsevier. UV ...

It’s well established that babies in the womb hear and learn about speech, at least in the third trimester. For example, newborns have been shown to already prefer the voice of their mother, recognize a story that had been repeatedly told to them while in the womb, and tell apart their mother’s native language. What wasn’t known until now was how developing fetuses learn about speech when their mother speaks to them in a mix of languages. Yet this is common: there are 3.3 billion bilingual people (43% of the population) worldwide, and in many countries, bilingualism or multilingualism is the norm.   “Here we show that exposure to monolingual or a bilingual speech ...

A team from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, a centre supported by the "la Caixa" Foundation, and the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), has carried out an analysis of hospital admissions related to high summer temperatures in Spain over more than a decade. The study concludes that the causes of hospitalisation in which the heat has the most notable impact are: Metabolic disorders and obesity Renal failure Urinary tract infection Sepsis Urolithiasis Poisoning by drugs and other non-medicinal substances The research, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, included ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – If someone collapsed after going into cardiac arrest, would you be prepared to help? For nearly half of Americans, the answer is no. A new survey from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center finds many Americans are ill-prepared to help in emergency situations.  The national poll of 1,005 people found only 51% of Americans feel they would be able to perform hands-only CPR in an emergency. When it comes to serious bleeding, 49% said they could step in to help. And 56% of survey ...

Bottom Line: The risk of detecting cervical precancer eight years after a negative human papillomavirus (HPV) screening was found to be similar to the risk after three years (the commonly recommended screening interval) after a negative cytology screening. Journal in Which the Study was Published: Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Authors: Anna Gottschlich, PhD, MPH, assistant professor at Wayne State School of Medicine and the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute Background: ...

Lithium-ion batteries are widely used in new energy vehicles due to their low self-discharge rate and long cycle life. Currently, the anode material of commercial lithium-ion batteries mainly adopts graphite, with a theoretical capacity of only 372 mAh g-1 — which has gradually failed to meet the increasing demand for energy density. Silicon has been widely studied by virtue of its high theoretical capacity of 4200 mAh g-1. However, silicon produces volume changes of up to 300% during lithiation and delithiation, and the ensuing mechanical degradation and capacity loss hinder applications. To reduce the adverse effects caused by mechanical deformation, silicon structure optimization ...

An Oregon State University study found evidence that Indigenous groups in the Pacific Northwest were intentionally harvesting edible camas bulbs at optimal stages of the plant’s maturation as far back as 3,500 years ago. The findings contribute to the growing body of research around Traditional Ecological Knowledge and practices, demonstrating the care and specificity with which Indigenous groups have been stewarding and cultivating natural resources for millennia. Camas is an ecological and cultural keystone, meaning it is a species that many other organisms depend on and that features prominently within many cultural practices. “If you think about salmon as being a charismatic ...

Regular use of fish oil supplements might increase, rather than lessen, the risk of first time heart disease and stroke among those in good cardiovascular health, but may slow progression of existing poor cardiovascular health and lower the risk of death, suggest the results of a large long term study, published in the open access journal BMJ Medicine.   Fish oil is a rich source of omega 3 fatty acids, and as such, is recommended as a dietary preventive to ward off the development of cardiovascular disease. But the evidence on how much protection it affords is inconclusive, explain the researchers. To strengthen the evidence base, they set out to estimate the associations ...

Some teenage girls are clocking up close to 6 hours a day on their smartphones, with a significant proportion of them likely addicted to social media, finds research published online in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood. Social media addiction was associated with poorer health and wellbeing, the findings indicate. Recent research has linked increasing levels of anxiety among teen girls with social media use, note the researchers. This may involve several factors, one of which is addiction, with  estimated international prevalence ranging from 5% to 31%, they add. Because both anxiety and social media use are more common among girls, the researchers wanted to: measure ...