Using a unique setup, researchers from the Social Brain Lab at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience have researched the neural mechanism behind a universal dilemma: deciding whether to help someone else even when it involves a personal sacrifice. We often have opportunities to give up something we care about to help others. What brain mechanisms help us make those decisions, and why do some people help more than others? Over the years, philosophers and scientists have suggested that the extent to which a person empathizes with the distress of others influences their willingness to help. To explore this hypothesis experimentally, Kalliopi ...

Osteoporosis is characterised by low bone mineral density and bone fragility.5 During menopause, falling oestrogen levels impair normal bone turnover, with an average reduction in bone mineral density of 10%.5 This is compounded by the age-related bone loss that occurs in both men and women. With an ageing population, post-menopausal osteoporosis represents a growing health problem.   These new data are from a case-control cohort study of over 128,000 women included in the French national claim database. The main aim was to estimate the incidence of long-term discontinuation of bisphosphonates – ...

VEXAS is characterised by predominantly rheumatic and haematologic systemic involvement, and caused by somatic mutation in UBA1 – a gene encoding ubiquitin-activating enzyme 1,1,2 which is necessary for a post-translation modification that affects protein functions ranging from degradation to subcellular localisation and kinase activation.3 The syndrome was first described in 2020, but diagnosis can be challenging as the symptoms overlap with many other inflammatory conditions.1 Hot on the heels of this recent discovery, research is underway to better understand pathogenesis, clinical features, and potential treatment options.1   To support this, ...

Arthritis affects various joints differently, despite systemic inflammatory cues.2 In people with rheumatoid arthritis, transcriptomic variances identified in synovial fibroblasts from various joint sites have been shown to translate into joint-specific phenotypes with distinct characteristics and responsiveness to cytokines.2,3 These findings suggest that different joints may potentially respond variably to specific immunosuppressive treatments. To expand on this, Ciurea and colleagues set out to investigate whether joints at different anatomical locations in people with PsA might respond differently to treatment with a tumour necrosis ...

The estimated prevalence of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) in people with psoriasis ranges widely –between 6% and 42% – but in most cases, skin symptoms precede PsA, thus making skin psoriasis a model for pre-PsA.2 Assuming that there are shared pathways in the pathogenesis, it is possible that stringent treatment of moderate-to-severe psoriasis could reduce progression to clinically overt PsA.3,4 Biologic treatments are effective at controlling psoriasis, but there are no conclusive data that these treatments help prevent people from developing PsA. Several risk factors for transition have previously been identified by a EULAR taskforce.5 ...

The synovial tissue inflammation seen in RA shows high degree of heterogeneity – which may be a factor in people’s variable response to treatments. We also know that distinct synovial tissue macrophage subsets regulate inflammation and remission in rheumatoid arthritis.1 The potential of high-throughput analyses has been shown, and these technologies can help dissect disease heterogeneity and identify novel biomarkers that could be used in prognosis.2   To explore this further, 373 treatment-naïve RA patients were enrolled and given an ultrasound-guided synovial tissue biopsy. The synovitis degree and synovial pathotype was then determined for ...

A multi-centre, observational, prospective study was designed to evaluate the clinical usefulness of the systemic score in predicting life-threatening evolution – defined as the development of macrophage activation syndrome (MAS) and/or mortality. The intention was also to derive a more aggressive clinical patient subset. To achieve this, Ruscitti and colleagues collected data from 597 patients taking part in the GIRRCS (Gruppo Italiano Di Ricerca in Reumatologia Clinica e Sperimentale) AOSD-study ...

The 2024 EULAR congress in Vienna included a clinical abstract session focusing on pain and prognosis in RA, where two groups presented their research into ways to characterise early RA.    The first looked at dissecting early RA patient trajectories through time-independent disease state patterns of inflammation in blood or joints. Presenting the work, Nils Steinz said “Previous studies have identified smooth time trajectories of rapid, slow, or no progression of disease activity, assessed through DAS28. In real life, we observe more chaotic disease evolvements – and particularly the detours could ...

However, this recommendation is not always followed in practice. This could be because the ASDAS was developed for research, and it is not known how well it performs in daily practice. Possibly, the cut-off of 2.1 as currently endorsed may be too strict in an everyday setting. To address this, Webers and colleagues set out to investigate which ASDAS cut-off values correspond best with treatment intensification in practice.   Data were taken from a prospective multi-centre registry for SpA, and treatment ...

Significant progress has been made at Tufts University School of Engineering in the development of a small device, about the size of a vitamin pill, that can be swallowed and passed through the gastrointestinal tract to sample the full inventory of microorganisms in an individual’s gastro-intestinal tract. This device has the potential to advance research on the relationship between resident bacteria and a wide range of health conditions. It could also serve as a diagnostic tool for adjusting the microbiome or administering drugs to treat those conditions. The device has completed ...

As you travel your usual route to work or the grocery store, your brain engages cognitive maps stored in your hippocampus and entorhinal cortex. These maps store information about paths you have taken and locations you have been to before, so you can navigate whenever you go there. New research from MIT has found that such mental maps also are created and activated when you merely think about sequences of experiences, in the absence of any physical movement or sensory input. In an animal study, the researchers found that the entorhinal cortex harbors a cognitive map of what animals experience while they use a joystick to browse through a sequence of images. ...

Immune system cells called macrophages play an unexpected role in the complicated connection between obesity and cancer, a Vanderbilt University Medical Center-led research team has discovered.  Obesity increases the frequency of macrophages in tumors and induces their expression of the immune checkpoint protein PD-1 — a target of cancer immunotherapies. The findings, published June 12 in the journal Nature, provide a mechanistic explanation for how obesity can contribute to both increased cancer ...

Ubiquitous wearable technologies, like smartwatches, could help researchers better understand progressive neurological disorders like Parkinson’s disease and speed up the approval of new therapies, a critical need given that no drugs exist to slow progression of the world’s fastest growing brain disease. New research appearing today in the journal njp Parkinson’s Disease adds to growing evidence that widely used and user-friendly consumer devices, in this instance an Apple Watch paired with an iPhone, ...

About 2.5 billion years ago, free oxygen, or O2, first started to accumulate to meaningful levels in Earth’s atmosphere, setting the stage for the rise of complex life on our evolving planet. Scientists refers to this phenomenon as the Great Oxidation Event, or GOE for short. But the initial accumulation of O2 on Earth was not nearly as straightforward as that moniker suggests, according to new research led by a University of Utah geochemist. This “event” lasted at least 200 million years. And tracking the accumulation of O2 in the oceans has been very difficult until now, ...

About The Study: In this cohort study of World Trade Center responders who survived these unique exposures and participated in a longitudinal follow-up study of cognition from 2014 through 2022, when compared with responders with the lowest exposure levels or responders who used personalized protective equipment (PPE), more severe exposure to dust or debris was significantly associated with a higher risk of dementia before 65 years of age. This study suggests that the reliable use of PPE might help prevent the onset of dementia before age 65 years among individuals exposed to an uncontrolled building collapse. Future ...

About The Study: Neighborhood deprivation was associated with increased breast cancer mortality among non-Hispanic white women in this cohort study. Neighborhood racial composition, residential mobility, and rurality did not explain the lack of association among non-Hispanic Black women, suggesting that factors beyond those explored here may contribute to breast cancer mortality in this racial group.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Lauren E. Barber, Ph.D., email lauren.barber@emory.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.16499) Editor’s ...

It is one of the most hotly debated topics in today’s workplace: Is allowing employees to log in from home a few days a week good for their productivity, careers, and job satisfaction? Nicholas Bloom, a Stanford economist and one of the foremost researchers on work-from-home policies, has uncovered compelling evidence that hybrid schedules are a boon to both employees and their bosses. In a study, newly published in the journal Nature, of an experiment on more than 1,600 workers at Trip.com — a Chinese company that is one of the world’s largest online travel agencies — Bloom finds that employees who work from home ...

hat: Researchers have identified inherited genetic variants that may predict the loss of one copy of a woman’s two X chromosomes as she ages, a phenomenon known as mosaic loss of chromosome X, or mLOX. These genetic variants may play a role in promoting abnormal blood cells (that have only a single copy of chromosome X) to multiply, which may lead to several health conditions, including cancer. The study, co-led by researchers at the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, was published ...

A Dartmouth study conducted on fruit flies reports the first evidence in any organism that oocytes—the cells that become eggs—regularly rejuvenate the critical protein linkages that bind chromosomes together. The findings are a potentially important step toward helping women reduce their risk of pregnancy complications as they age, the researchers report in the journal Current Biology.    Women are born with the oocytes they will have for life, and the cohesive linkages that connect chromosomes are established in those cells prenatally. When they reach childbearing age, ovulation triggers the ...

BOSTON – Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for approximately one in every three deaths, with more than 20 million deaths reported in 2021 according to a 2024 World Heart Federation report. Improvements in heart disease prevention, treatment and intervention have led to substantial declines in cardiovascular deaths in recent decades, but climate change caused by the continued combustion of fossil fuels may undermine this progress. Over the last century, NASA confirms the average global temperature has risen by more than two degrees Fahrenheit, leading to long-term shifts in average weather patterns, disturbance ...

Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) researchers harness long-read RNA sequencing to decode genetic intricacies and disease links. Tokyo, Japan – Alternative splicing, a process where a single gene can give rise to multiple different proteins via inclusion or exclusion of certain segments of the gene sequence, is known to occur in over 90% of human genes. This leads to the production of numerous transcript isoforms (splice variants of an expressed gene) crucial for protein function and cellular processes. Despite previous research on mechanisms underlying alternative splicing ...

Many modern bridges use orthotropic steel bridge decks (OSBD), the decks being the surface sections of the bridge. OSBDs were designed to be lightweight and economical. However, this design has shown increasing issues with pavement cracking and fatigue damage at the welds that connect the bridge deck to the bridge superstructure. Fatigue damage is damage that accrues over time with use.   To ameliorate these problems, a new bridge deck was designed. The composite bridge deck system (CBD) added a layer of concrete to decrease the probability of damage due to fatigue. More recently the use of high-performance materials, such as ultra-high-performance ...

In recent years, the high complexity of integrated devices has made heat accumulation increasingly critical and has resulted in higher heat dissipation requirements for substrates and packaging materials. In this study, boron nitride microribbon (BNMR)/Al2O3 composite ceramics are prepared using spark plasma sintering (SPS). This study examines the effect of varying the amount of toughened phase BNMR on the density, mechanical properties, dielectric constant, and thermal conductivity of BNMR/Al2O3 composite ceramics while also exploring the mechanisms behind the toughening and increased ...

With the escalating impacts of climate change and depletion of resources, dielectric capacitors are emerging as promising high-demanded candidates for high-performance energy storage devices. However, due to the shortcomings of various dielectric ceramics (e.g., paraelectrics, ferroelectrics, and antiferroelectrics), their low polarizability, low breakdown strength, and large hysteresis loss limit their standalone use in the advancing of energy storage ceramics. Therefore, synthesizing novel perovskite-based materials that exhibit high energy density, high energy efficiency, and low loss is crucial in achieving superior energy ...

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic and progressive lung disease marked by the thickening and scarring of lung tissue with unclear etiology. Affecting around five million people worldwide, IPF causes severe respiratory problems and greatly diminishes the quality of life. Despite ongoing medical research, the exact cause of IPF is still unknown, and treatment options are limited. The prognosis for IPF is grim, with only about 20% of patients surviving five years post-diagnosis, highlighting the critical need for better therapies and a deeper understanding ...