Researchers have paired a deep learning model with experimental data to “decode” mouse neural activity. Using the method, they can accurately determine where a mouse is located within an open environment and which direction it is facing just by looking at its neural firing patterns. Being able to decode neural activity could provide insight into the function and behavior of individual neurons or even entire brain regions. These findings, publishing February 22 in Biophysical Journal, could also inform the design of intelligent machines that currently ...

A large language model (LLM) artificial intelligence (AI) system can match, or in some cases outperform, human ophthalmologists in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with glaucoma and retina disease, according to research from New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai (NYEE). The provocative study, published February 22, in JAMA Ophthalmology, suggests that advanced AI tools, which are trained on vast amounts of data, text, and images, could play an important role in providing decision-making support to ophthalmologists in the diagnosis and management of cases involving glaucoma and retina ...

"Trans masculine people are people born female but do not identify as such, for example they feel male, gender fluid or non-binary. Our examination of their ovarian tissue shows that 33% of them show signs of recent ovulation, despite being on testosterone and no longer menstruating," says Joyce Asseler, PhD candidate at Amsterdam UMC.   Trans masculine people often use hormone treatment with testosterone to masculinize physically. This hormone usually stops them from menstruating. In that ...

A new study led by investigators from Mass General Brigham demonstrated the use of deep brain stimulation (DBS) to map a ‘human dysfunctome’ — a collection of dysfunctional brain circuits associated with different disorders. The team identified optimal networks to target in the frontal cortex that could be used for treating Parkinson’s disease, dystonia, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and Tourette's syndrome. Their results are published in Nature Neuroscience. “We were able to use brain stimulation to precisely identify and target circuits for the optimal treatment of four different ...

About The Study: This study found that all-sites cancer incidence in the U.S. was significantly lower than expected in March through December 2020, with 134,395 potentially undiagnosed cancer cases. The overall and differential findings can be used to inform where the health care system should be looking to make up ground in cancer screening and detection.  Authors: Krystle A. Lang Kuhs, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the University of Kentucky in Lexington, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2023.6969) Editor’s ...

About The Study: The results of this study suggest a high burden of refractive error–associated correctable refractive error in African American adults, making it the leading cause of visual impairment in this population. Providing universal coverage for vision care and prescription glasses is an affordable and achievable health care intervention that could reduce the burden of visual impairment in African American adults by over two-thirds and likely raise the quality of life and work productivity, ...

About The Study: Vision impairment was associated with several psychosocial outcomes, including symptoms of depression and anxiety and social isolation in this study including 2,822 U.S. adults age 65 and older. These findings provide evidence to support prioritizing research aimed at enhancing the health and inclusion of people with vision impairment. Authors: Pradeep Y. Ramulu, M.D., M.H.S., Ph.D., of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed ...

Stress is inevitable. But too much of it can be terrible for our health. Chronic stress can increase our risk for heart disease and strokes. It may also help cancer spread. How this works has remained a mystery—a challenge for cancer care. Xue-Yan He, a former postdoc in Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Adjunct Professor Mikala Egeblad’s lab, says, “Stress is something we cannot really avoid in cancer patients. You can imagine if you are diagnosed, you cannot stop thinking about the disease or insurance ...

Over 134,000 cancer cases went undiagnosed in the U.S. during the first 10 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center study.  The report published in JAMA Oncology Feb. 22 provides the first estimates of missed cancer diagnoses in 2020 using nationwide surveillance data. Researchers have expected impacts to cancer detection as a result of delayed screenings and missed health care appointments due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the extent of this impact had not been quantified until ...

New research at the Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health building has discovered a potential treatment for an underlying cause of cardiovascular disease in people with Type 2 diabetes. More than 30 million Americans live with Type 2 diabetes. One common feature of diabetes is the hardening and inflexibility of blood vessels caused by damage to the endothelial cells in the vascular system. Over time, this can lead to the development and progression of cardiovascular disease, which is the number one cause of death in diabetics. Because endothelial dysfunction is causally linked to cardiovascular disease, there is a considerable ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Drugs that target a receptor on immune cells called activin receptor 1C may combat tumor-induced immune suppression and help patients’ immune systems fight back against cancer, according to a study by investigators at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and its Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. The study, published online Jan. 8 in Oncoimmunology, identifies a new strategy cancer cells use to protect themselves from immune system attack, and suggests treatments that could counteract it. It shows that tumor cells and some immune cells produce proteins called activins that ...

Researchers have made significant progress in the development of artificial neural networks using tiny silicon devices called microresonators, paving the way for faster and more energy-efficient artificial intelligence systems. These networks mimic the computing capabilities of the human brain, breaking away from traditional digital computer architectures and leveraging the speed, low power dissipation and multi-wavelength capabilities of photonics. A review article describing the implementations of neural networks using silicon microresonators was published Jan. 16 in Intelligent Computing, a Science Partner Journal. Silicon microresonators ...

  Scientists develop a simple blood test to quickly diagnose sarcoidosis NIH-funded tool can accurately identify the potentially life-threatening inflammatory disease   A research project supported by the National Institutes of Health has developed a tool to rapidly and inexpensively diagnose sarcoidosis, a chronic inflammatory disease marked by the growth of tiny lumps called granulomas in the lungs and other organs in the body. The tool, which uses a simple blood test, could allow for selective use of more invasive diagnostic tests often used to identify the ...

A research team at Tsinghua University led by Professor Huijuan Liu has developed a new electrochemical system that promises to revolutionize metal recovery from industrial wastewater. The research was published in Engineering. Industrial wastewater poses significant environmental hazards due to heavy metal pollution. Current methods for metal recovery, such as electrodeposition, suffer from interfacial ion transport limitations, resulting in slow and low-quality recovery. In their study, the team proposed a novel approach that integrates a transient electric field (TE) and swirling flow (SF) to improve mass transfer and promote interfacial ...

In a groundbreaking study, Professor Won-Jin Kwak in the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST, in collaboration with researchers from Hanyang University, have pioneered a method to significantly enhance the performance and lifespan of organic electrode-based batteries. The findings promise to accelerate the commercialization of eco-friendly batteries and pave the way for further advancements in the field. Organic electrodes have long been recognized for their cost-effectiveness and natural abundance, making them a promising alternative to traditional lithium-ion battery ...

BGI Europe A/S, a wholly owned subsidiary of BGI Genomics, announced its NIFTY® non-invasive prenatal testing kit and software (CE-IVDD List B) were granted an extension under its existing CE-IVDD certification to include the DNBSEQ-G99 model to meet the European Union regulations for medical devices. In January 2024, BGI Genomics unveiled the NIFTY® ultra-fast non-invasive prenatal genetic testing product, utilizing the innovative DNBSEQ-G99 platform. Designed for both small and medium throughput, this platform ensures top-notch testing ...

Living in neighborhoods with high levels of violence can affect children’s development by changing the way that a part of the brain detects and responds to potential threats, potentially leading to poorer mental health and other negative outcomes, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. However, nurturing parents can help protect kids against these detrimental effects, according to the study, published in the journal Developmental Psychology. “Decades of research ...

A groundbreaking technology that can recognize human emotions in real time has been developed by Professor Jiyun Kim and his research team in the Department of Material Science and Engineering at UNIST. This innovative technology is poised to revolutionize various industries, including next-generation wearable systems that provide services based on emotions. Understanding and accurately extracting emotional information has long been a challenge due to the abstract and ambiguous nature of human affects such as emotions, ...

HOUSTON ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center today announced it has acquired certain assets from Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. related to the CaspaCIDe® switch platform and the GoCAR® platform. The transaction also includes clinical-grade stocks of rimiducid, an agent used to trigger the switches. As a result of this acquisition, MD Anderson may incorporate these platforms into its own cell therapy programs. The institution also intends to make the technology ...

From Bangladesh to India to Texas, Tom Varner is leveraging his research to improve sources for drinking water around the world. Varner, a UTSA doctoral student in environmental science and engineering, explored the mobility of arsenic from the sediments surrounding the Meghna River in Bangladesh as part of a National Science Foundation-funded project. The river flows through central Bangladesh, where elevated concentrations of arsenic in the groundwater threaten the welfare of millions of people. Long-term exposure to arsenic, which is toxic when ingested, can lead ...

A large-scale clinical trial of treatment strategies for Crohn’s disease has shown that offering early advanced therapy to all patients straight after diagnosis can drastically improve outcomes, including by reducing the number of people requiring urgent abdominal surgery for treatment of their disease by ten-fold. The PROFILE trial, led by researchers at the University of Cambridge, involved 386 patients with newly-diagnosed active Crohn’s disease. Recruiting from 40 hospitals across the UK, and supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network, it sought to test whether a biomarker – a genetic signature ...

Anxiety-related disorders can have a profound impact on the mental health and quality of life of affected individuals. Understanding the neural circuits and molecular mechanisms that trigger anxiety can aid in the development of effective targeted pharmacological treatments. Delta opioid receptors (DOP), which localize in the regions of the brain associated with emotional regulation, play a key role in the development of anxiety. Several studies have demonstrated the therapeutic effects of DOP agonists (synthetic compounds which selectively bind to DOPs and mimic the effect of ...

If storms become stronger in the future due to climate change, more nitrogen may be released from the bottom of coastal seas. This is shown by research of marine biogeochemist Dunia Rios-Yunes at NIOZ in Yerseke. Rios-Yunes will defend her PhD-thesis today at the University of Utrecht. “The dynamics of nutrients in deltas and estuaries have been a bit of a blind spot for marine science, so far”, she says.  Inflatable couch  For her experiments, Rios-Yunes spent many hours on an inflatable couch on ...

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (02/19/2024)—For the first time, researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities (UMN) and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) have demonstrated that it is possible to provide accurate, high-resolution predictions of carbon cycles in agroecosystems, which could help mitigate the impacts of climate change. The study by scholars from the UMN-led National Artificial Intelligence Institute for Climate-Land Interactions, Mitigation, Adaptation, Tradeoffs and Economy (AI-CLIMATE) and UIUC-led Agroecosystem Sustainability ...

We know that greenhouse gas emissions like carbon dioxide should increase rainfall. The emissions heat the atmosphere, causing a one-two punch: warmer oceans make it easier for water to evaporate, and warmer air can hold more water vapor, meaning more moisture is available to fall as rain. But for much of the 20th century, that increase in precipitation didn’t clearly show up in the data. A new study led by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley ...