Sleep quality is a crucial aspect of health, yet while adults spend around a third of their lives sleeping, there is surprisingly little research on mattresses. Mass General Brigham researchers developed and tested the Boston Mattress Satisfaction Questionnaire (BMSQ), a new tool to rigorously assess mattress satisfaction and characteristics. They administered the BMSQ to a representative sample of over 1,000 adults in the United States, finding that the tool is internally consistent and viable for assessing mattress ...

Recent studies on economic growth report that preventing the abuse of state power through democratic institutions is critical to a nation’s development. However, there has been little prior research on how societies transition in response to the two conflicting goals of limiting the state’s stranglehold on governance while improving its administrative capacity through citizens’ political participation. Osaka Metropolitan University Associate Professor Ryosuke Okazawa of the Graduate School of Economics led a team that ...

The Smart 3D Printing Research Team at KERI, led by Dr. Seol Seung-kwon, has developed the world’s first technology for printing high-resolution 3D microstructures using 'MXene,' a material known as the dream material. MXene, first discovered in the United States in 2011, is a two-dimensional nanomaterial composed of alternating metal and carbon layers. MXene possesses high electrical conductivity and electromagnetic shielding capabilities. Due to its easy combination with various metal chemicals, MXene has gained significant attention ...

The rate of development of poikilothermic animals, such as insects, fish, and reptiles, is determined by environmental temperature. A research team at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) has recently demonstrated how temperature can affect brain development in fruit flies. "In the area of the brain we examined, neurons formed more synapses and connected to more synaptic partners at lower temperatures," stated Dr. Carlotta Martelli, head of the team at the Institute of Developmental Biology and Neurobiology of JGU. In their study, the scientists focused on the olfactory circuit of Drosophila melanogaster, because the sense of smell determines important behavioral patterns in ...

CLEVELAND, Ohio (March 12, 2025)—Multiple menopause symptoms can make women feel fatigued. Hot flashes, sleep problems, pain, and depression are just a few. A new study suggests that heavy or prolonged menstrual bleeding may increase fatigue, which helps to explain why midlife women are two-to-four times more likely to experience debilitating forms of syndromic fatigue. Results of the study are published online today in Menopause, the journal of The Menopause Society. Most women transitioning through ...

Kyoto, Japan -- We're all familiar with Pavlovian conditioning, in which a reward-anticipatory behavior follows a reward-predicting stimulus. Perhaps you experience it yourself when passing a café or restaurant and catching a whiff of something delectable. Behind this mechanism is dopamine released within the striatum, the largest structure of the subcortical basal ganglia, which links motor movements and motivation. Yet it has remained unclear exactly what kind of dopamine signal is transmitted to the striatum to cause this behavior in primates. In order to understand this dopamine signal, a team of researchers from Kyoto University ...

University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) researchers helped conduct an important new global health study that found a vaccine that protects against five strains of meningitis prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa is safe and effective for use in young children beginning at 9 months of age. This study provided evidence that formed the basis for the World Health Organization’s (WHO) decision last year to recommend the pentavalent Men5CV meningitis vaccine for infants ages 9 months and older. Results of the study were published today in the journal Lancet. In January 2024, the WHO recommended that all countries in the African meningitis belt introduce Men5CV into their routine immunization ...

Research from the University of Bath, funded by Cancer Research UK, published on No Smoking Day 2025, shows that integrating smoking cessation support into NHS Talking Therapies for depression and anxiety increases quit rates. This is an important step in addressing the high rates of smoking in this population. Led by Dr Gemma Taylor at the University of Bath, alongside researchers from several other institutions, the study published in Addiction also found that adding smoking support to mental health treatment didn’t disrupt therapy. Instead, it offered a practical way to tackle mental and physical health together. About the Study The trial was conducted across four NHS ...

Death rates from breast cancer will fall in 2025 in every age group in the EU and the UK apart from in EU patients aged 80 years and older. In these older patients, overall mortality rates from the disease are predicted to rise by nearly 10% in 2025. However, in the UK, breast cancer death rates are expected to decrease by 7% in this age group, compared to rates observed between 2015-2019. In Spain, there is also a 4% decrease in patients aged 80 and over. These findings are from a new study published in the leading cancer journal Annals of Oncology [1] today (Wednesday), ...

A lung function test used to help diagnose asthma works better in the morning, becoming less reliable throughout the day, Cambridge researchers have found. Using real world data from 1,600 patients, available through a database created for speeding up research and innovation, the team also found that its reliability differs significantly in winter compared to autumn. Asthma is a common lung condition that can cause wheezing and shortness of breath, occasionally severe. Around 6.5% of people over six years old in the UK are affected by the condition. Treatments include the use of inhalers or nebulisers to carry ...

Prescriptions for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in England have risen 18%  year on year since the pandemic. This is higher than previously reported, and masks wide regional variations in prescribing rates, finds research published in the open access journal BMJ Mental Health. The trends likely reflect growing public and professional awareness of the condition, driven in part by social media, as well as the potential impact of COVID-19, suggest the researchers. But the regional variations point to inequalities in access to care, they add. ADHD is ...

Public health advice on the safe consumption of glycerol-containing slush ice drinks, also known as slushees, may need revising, conclude researchers after carrying out a detailed review of the medical notes of 21 children who became acutely unwell shortly after drinking one of these products.   Their findings, published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, show that in each case the child became acutely unwell with a cluster of symptoms soon after drinking a slush ice drink, which the researchers refer to as glycerol intoxication ...

Water/aqua aerobics for 10 or more weeks at a time can trim waist size and aid weight loss, finds a pooled data analysis of the available evidence, published in the open access journal BMJ Open This type of exercise is particularly effective in overweight/obese women and the over 45s, the analysis indicates. Global estimates for 2022 indicate that more than 43% of adults worldwide were overweight, and that 504 million women and 374 million men were obese, note the researchers, adding that obesity contributes to an estimated 2.8 million deaths every year. The buoyancy of water helps reduce joint injuries commonly associated with land based exercise ...

A new study published in The Lancet HIV reveals gaps in knowledge surrounding the prevention of HPV-related cancers in people living with HIV and outlines future research priorities. A literature review, conducted by a team of international experts underscores the need for further research and highlights existing disparities in healthcare for this vulnerable population. HPV-related cancers are preventable, primarily through vaccination. However, a Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Tartu and one of the study’s authors Anneli Uusküla said that the study found a lack of evidence on the effectiveness of ...

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — As poultry companies weigh cost and efficiency with higher animal welfare standards, research comparing conventional and slow-growing broiler breeds showed that the slow-growing chickens displayed behaviors more closely associated with positive welfare. Broilers — chickens specifically bred for meat production — are typically raised for six to eight weeks, while slow-growing broilers need up to 12 weeks to reach maturity. Though gaining popularity in some European ...

Charging forward at top speed, a garden snail slimes up 1 millimeter of pavement per second. By this logic, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology researchers’ new 3D printing process speeds past existing methods — at a snail’s pace. Researchers in Beckman’s Autonomous Materials Systems Group created “growth printing,” which mimics tree trunks’ outward expansion to print polymer parts quickly and efficiently without the molds and expensive equipment typically associated with 3D printing. Their work appears in the journal Advanced Materials. “Humans ...

Even cells experience peer pressure. Scientists have long studied the ins and outs of cancer cells to learn more about the disease, but they’re increasingly finding that noncancerous cells near the cancer cells exert a powerful influence over a tumor’s trajectory. “Not all cells in a tumor are cancer cells — they’re not even always the most dominant cell type,” said Sylvia Plevritis, PhD, chair of Stanford Medicine’s department of biomedical data science. “There are many other cell types that support tumors.” To better capture the whole picture of cells’ locations and interactions, Plevritis ...

As major changes continue for our planet’s climate, scientists are concerned about how plants will grow and adapt. Researchers in the MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory, or PRL, Sharkey lab are studying changes in plant metabolism that occur when plants are grown in high light, high CO2 (HLHC) conditions. They found that under these conditions, plants photosynthesize more, which can lead to larger plants, and potentially larger crop yields. However, there are tradeoffs; scientists also found that plants lose carbon under these conditions, which they need to make food. This ...

With Australia’s National Assessment Program (NAPLAN) beginning today, new research from the University of South Australia highlights a critical but often overlooked factor in student success – wellbeing.   In a world first* study of more than 215,000 students, UniSA researchers found that while standardised tests measure academic skills, different dimensions of wellbeing - emotional wellbeing, engagement, and learning readiness - can play a crucial role in performance.   Specifically, the study found that learning readiness ­- which includes foundational skills such as perseverance, confidence, and engagement ...

Among 289 million adults in 18 European countries, more than 16 million years of life were lost from 2020 through 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study published March 11th in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Sara Ahmadi-Abhari of Imperial College London, UK, and colleagues. The direct and indirect impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on both total and disability-free years of life lost are important for policy setting and resource allocation, but they have not been thoroughly investigated. In the new study, researchers ...

A simple neural change alters mating preferences in male butterflies, aiding rapid behavioral evolution, Nicholas VanKuren and Nathan Buerkle at the University of Chicago, US, and colleagues, report March 11th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology. Heliconius are a group of tropical butterflies known for their wide variety of wing patterns and colors, which act as a warning to predators. Because wing coloration is crucial for their survival, males have evolved a preference for females with the same wing color. But the sensory and neurological mechanisms behind these preferences are poorly understood. Researchers ...

SAN ANTONIO — March 11, 2025 —Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has received a three-year, $2,999,998 million grant from NASA to identify and characterize life and its biosignatures in frozen sand dunes in Alaska, under conditions similar to dune fields on early Mars and Saturn’s moon Titan. The Assessing Regional Reflectors of Astrobiology in Kobuk dunes for Interplanetary Science (ARRAKIS) project team, which includes researchers from Brigham Young University and the University of California—Davis, seek insight into ...

A unique analysis of district-level data reveals why inequality is so destructive to the home consumption welfare of people living below the poverty line, especially during times of significant economic decline, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. During negative economic growth, the welfare of the poor should be the main focus area. Research from the University of Johannesburg shows how inequality can demolish most of the benefits of positive economic growth and social grants for people living in poverty, especially during economic downturns. The study by Prof ...

At this year’s American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) annual meeting, investigators at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) presented several significant studies, with three focused on new ways to help patients recover faster after total knee arthroplasty (TKA), also known as knee replacement surgery. What follows are highlights from these studies: Limiting Use of Tourniquets During Knee Replacement Surgery Improves Patient Outcomes Tourniquets have traditionally been used during TKA to reduce blood loss and the need for transfusions. However, a new study of almost 18,000 patients from 2019 to 2023 found that prolonged tourniquet use was linked ...

Catalytic function and its efficiency play a significant role in industrial reactions, and consistent reforms are made in the methodology to enhance the large-scale synthesis of drugs, polymers, and other desired products. Available catalysts can be homogeneous, which means that they possess the same phase as the reactants and products, making them difficult to separate from the reaction mixture. On the other hand, heterogeneous catalysts are a preferred choice for such reactions because of their ease of separation and reusability. The past decade has seen the emergence of porous ...