New research to be presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2025, Malaga, Spain, 11-14 May) suggests that weight loss programmes targeting a particular % weight loss are often failing, and that other factors should be considered including improvement of obesity-related complications, enhancing quality of life and overall physical and social functioning. The research is by an international team including Dr Sanjeev Sockalingam, Obesity Canada and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and colleagues. Identifying the most appropriate targets for obesity management is crucial due to the complexity of obesity ...

By most accounts, confidence is a prerequisite for workplace success. What if it could be trained, even subtly rewired, using something as simple as a smartphone app? That’s the premise behind a first-of-its-kind study from the University of California, Riverside, where psychologists tested whether workers could reshape their self-image through a digital tool that reinforces positive beliefs. The findings, published in Computers in Human Behavior Reports, suggest they can—and that belief systems, often assumed to be deeply ...

New York City's automated speed cameras reduced traffic crashes by 14% and decreased speeding violations by 75% over time, according to research from NYU Tandon's C2SMARTER published in Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives that tracked more than 1,800 cameras across school zones from 2019 to 2021. With speeding contributing to approximately one-third of all motor vehicle fatalities nationwide, these findings translate to potentially hundreds of lives saved in America's most densely populated city. The ...

If someone picks up a newspaper in China, there’s a good chance it contains some government propaganda masquerading as news, according to a new study co-led by a University of Oregon expert. Hannah Waight, an assistant professor of sociology at the UO, and her collaborators found that the use of state-planted propaganda is on the rise in China. And it’s not just a tool for spreading ideological content. It’s also used to control and constrain other kinds of information beyond political ideals, including natural disaster and public health ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Comparing wealth and survival rates in the U.S. with those in Europe, researchers found that over a 10-year period, Americans across all wealth levels were more likely to die than their European counterparts. The findings were detailed in a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine by a team led by researchers at the Brown University School of Public Health. The analysis compared data from more than 73,000 adults in the U.S. and different regions of Europe who were age 50 to 85 in 2010 to ...

At only two days old, Sophie was losing too much weight, and too quicky.   Further genetic testing would show that Sophie has one of a group of rare conditions called CODE (congenital diarrhea and enteropathies) that disrupts the function of cells in the intestine, causing diarrhea and preventing infants from absorbing the nutrients they need to grow and thrive. For Sophie’s parents, Samantha and Kyle, this meant a complete re-envisioning of the life they had expected as a family.   “Suddenly, our days were filled with medical treatments and frequent hospital visits, requiring us to adjust to being not ...

People living in Bronze Age-era Denmark may have been able to travel to Norway directly over the open sea, according to a study published April 2, 2025, in the open-access journal PLOS One by Boel Bengtsson from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and colleagues. To complete this study, the research team developed a new computer modeling tool that could help other scientists better understand how ancient peoples traversed the sea. The Bronze Age cultures of what are now northern Denmark and southwestern Norway are quite alike, with similar ...

Technology can improve on existing platforms’ sensitivity and speed by 20 times Microcantilevers coated in specific antibodies exhibited very high affinity for corresponding HIV antigens Platform could bring cost-effective HIV testing to remote settings where lab-based testing is impractical EVANSTON, Ill. --- A team of Northwestern University scientists spanning disciplines have developed new technology that could lead to the creation of a rapid point-of-care test for HIV infection competitive with traditional lab-based HIV ...

Nearly 16 million American adults have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but evidence suggests that more than 30 percent of them don’t respond well to stimulant medications like Ritalin and Adderall. A new clinical trial provides a surprising explanation for why this may be the case: There are individual differences in how our brains circuits are wired, including the chemical circuits responsible for memory and concentration, according to a new study co-led by the ...

MINNEAPOLIS — Cervical artery dissection is a tear in an artery in the neck that provides blood flow to the brain. Such a tear can result in blood clots that cause stroke. A new study has found almost a five-fold increase in the number of U.S. hospitalizations for cervical artery dissection over a 15-year period. The study is published on April 2, 2025, online in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). A dissection in the artery wall is most often caused by trauma due to motor vehicle accidents but can also occur with smaller ...

For the first time researchers demonstrate in an animal how heavy alcohol use leads to long-term behavioral issues by damaging brain circuits critical for decision-making. Rats exposed to high amounts of alcohol exhibited poor decision-making during a complex task even after a monthslong withdrawal period. Key areas of their brains had undergone dramatic functional changes compared to healthy rats. The findings, published today in Science Advances, provide a new explanation of alcohol’s long-term effects on cognition. “We now have a new model for the unfortunate cognitive changes that humans with alcohol use disorder show,” said ...

Patients prescribed medicinal cannabis in Australia maintained improvements in overall health-related quality of life (HRQL), fatigue, and sleep disturbance across a one-year period, according to a study published April 2, 2025, in the open-access journal PLOS One by Margaret-Ann Tait from The University of Sydney, Australia, and colleagues. Anxiety, depression, insomnia, and pain also improved over time for those with corresponding health conditions. Research into the therapeutic benefits of medicinal cannabis has increased since the discovery of the analgesic properties in cannabis plant compounds. In 2016, advocacy groups lobbied the Australian government to ...

In a small study of eight cats at early stages of pregnancy, researchers detected 19 different kinds of microplastic particles in fetuses from two cats and in the placentas of three cats. Ilaria Ferraboschi of the University of Parma, Italy, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on April 2, 2025. Humans and other animals worldwide are increasingly exposed to microplastics, which are small particles of plastic contaminants. Studies suggest that microplastics can have a variety of adverse health effects. For instance, research in rodents suggests that fetuses exposed to microplastics ...

Dozens of amphibians perished together on an ancient floodplain around 230 million years ago, according to a study published April 2, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Aaron M. Kufner of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, U.S., and colleagues. Early in the Age of Dinosaurs, alligator-sized amphibians called metoposaurid temnospondyls were common in freshwater habitats. Several fossil sites contain large concentrations of temnospondyls buried together, but determining how these bonebeds formed is often difficult due to ...

Article URL: https://plos.io/4hxJYYP Article title: First unambiguous record of pneumaticity in the axial skeleton of alvarezsaurians (Theropoda: Coelurosauria) Author countries: Argentina, China Funding: We thank P. Chafrat from Museo Patagónico de Ciencias Naturales, General Roca, Río Negro Province, Argentina. The authors gratefully acknowledge "Fundacion Patagonica de Ciencias Naturales" and "Sanatorio Juan XXIII" for making the CT images possible. MP was supported by the Faculty of Science of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. We thank Hans-Dieter Sues, an anonymous reviewer, and the editorial team of PLOS ONE for their comments ...

The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is also known as the pomace or vinegar fly. It can be found in large numbers in organic waste bins during the summer and in the fruit and vegetables section of grocery stores on hot days. It is attracted to the odor of pre-rotting fruit, where microorganisms, especially yeasts, have multiplied and invaded the fruit and switched their metabolism to alcoholic fermentation. This is why rotten fruit contains significant amounts of alcohol. Alcohol consumption requires a risk assessment There is no doubt that the consumption of large amounts of alcohol is harmful to human beings.. ...

TB patients globally often incur "catastrophic costs" of up to $11,329 USD, despite many countries offering free treatment, with predominant drivers of cost being hospitalization and loss of income.  #### Article URL: https://plos.io/3QXqJ07 Article Title: The catastrophic cost of TB care: Understanding costs incurred by individuals undergoing TB care in low-, middle-, and high-income settings – A systematic review   Author Countries: Canada, Eswatini, Germany, United States Funding: The authors received no specific funding for ...

Excessive screen time among adolescents negatively impacts multiple aspects of sleep, which in turn increases the risk of depressive symptoms — particularly among girls. That is the conclusion of a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS Global Public Health by Sebastian Hökby of Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, and colleagues.   Recently, the Swedish Public Health Agency published recommendations that adolescents use no more than two-to-three hours of daily leisure screen time, partly to promote better sleep. ...

When we move, it’s harder for existing wearable devices to accurately track our heart activity. But University of Missouri researchers found that a starfish’s five-arm shape helps solve this problem.  Inspired by how a starfish flips itself over — shrinking one of its arms and using the others in a coordinated motion to right itself — Sicheng Chen and Zheng Yan in Mizzou’s College of Engineering and collaborators have created a starfish-shaped wearable device that tracks heart health in real time.  Because the starfish-inspired device has multiple points touching the skin near the heart, it stays more ...

Jurassic dinosaurs milled about ancient Scottish lagoons, leaving up to 131 footprints at a newly discovered stomping ground on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, according to a study published April 2, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Tone Blakesley of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland and colleagues. In the rocks of the Isle of Skye, dinosaur footprints are abundant, providing insights into dinosaur distribution and behavior during an important time in their evolution. The footprints were left in the rippled sands of an ancient subtropical lagoon, dating back to the Middle Jurassic ...

Irvine, Calif., April 2, 2025 — Machine learning algorithms utilizing electronic health records can effectively predict two-year dementia risk among American Indian/Alaska Native adults aged 65 years and older, according to a University of California, Irvine-led study. The findings provide a valuable framework for other healthcare systems, particularly those serving resource-limited populations.   The computer modeling results also found several new predictors for dementia diagnosis that were identified consistently across different machine-learning models. Findings are published in the Lancet Regional Health – Americas. The National Institutes ...

The United States Cystic Fibrosis Foundation released the first guideline on newborn screening for cystic fibrosis (CF), in order to improve timely detection of CF in infants from all racial and ethnic backgrounds. The new guideline, based on systematic literature reviews and published in the International Journal of Neonatal Screening, reflects rigorous scientific investigation and perspectives from parents, CF specialists, public health representatives, primary care providers and genetic counselors. CF is a genetic disorder that causes problems with digestion and breathing. Currently, newborns in every state are screened for ...

World leaders should look to existing international law on the use of force to address the threat of space becoming ever more militarized, a new study shows. Space has the potential to be a source and place of armed conflict and regulating military activities in space is of pressing international concern. Tests of anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons have fuelled fears of warfare in space. Resulting space debris from ASAT weapon threatens other satellites in orbit, many of which underpin the operation of human societies and the functioning of global economies. Conflict ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Mosquitoes have been transmitting the West Nile virus to humans in the United States for over 25 years, but we still don’t know precisely how the virus cycles through these pests and the other animals they bite. A federally funded project aims to help pin down the process by using mathematical models to analyze how factors like temperature, light pollution, and bird and mosquito abundance affect West Nile virus transmission. The ultimate goal is to advise health departments of the best time of year to kill the bugs. “I’m hopeful that what we will uncover in this grant will help us to better understand what’s driving West Nile virus transmission, ...

Genevieve Graaf spent years as a mental health social worker specializing in children and youth with complex behavioral health needs. Many had to travel to other states or hundreds of miles from family to access adequate medical care. Drawing on her experience, Dr. Graaf, an assistant professor of social work at The University of Texas at Arlington, has continuously sought ways to improve community-based support programs and ease the burden on families. She will build on that work with her latest research through UT Arlington’s Center ...