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Technology14 Jan 2025

Digital meditation to target employee stress

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that a brief, digital mindfulness-based program is an easily accessible and scalable method for reducing perceptions of stress. Future work should seek to clarify mechanisms by which such interventions contribute to improvements in work-specific well-being. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Aric A. Prather, PhD, email aric.prather@ucsf.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.54435) Editor’s Note: Please see ...

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Medicine14 Jan 2025

Electronic patient-reported outcome system implementation in outpatient cardiovascular care

About The Study: In this randomized clinical trial, implementation of the electronic patient-reported outcome (ePRO) monitoring system significantly enhanced patient-physician communication and the clarity of physicians’ explanations about treatment. These findings suggest that the ePRO monitoring system is capable of supporting patient-centered cardiovascular care. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Yoshinori Katsumata, MD, PhD, email goodcentury21@keio.jp. To ...

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Science14 Jan 2025

Knowledge and use of menthol-mimicking cigarettes among adults in the US

About The Study: In this survey study of U.S. adults, a substantial proportion were aware of and had already experimented with synthetic cooling agent menthol-mimicking cigarettes. These products may serve as a substitute for menthol cigarettes and reduce the public health benefits of a menthol cigarette ban in promoting smoking cessation. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Kelvin Choi, PhD, email kelvin.choi@nih.gov. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.54608) Editor’s ...

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Medicine14 Jan 2025

Uncurling a single DNA molecule and gluing it down helps sharpen images

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14, 2025 – Most microscopes can only illuminate objects down to a certain size before tiny features blur together. This blurring is known as the diffraction limit of light. Super-resolution imaging techniques, however, can distinguish between tiny biomolecular features, especially when thermal fluctuations are minimized. Using advanced imaging techniques and precise microfluidics control to stretch out curly DNA into a straight line, research published this week in AIP Advances, from AIP Publishing, demonstrates ...

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Medicine14 Jan 2025

Medicare Advantage beneficiaries did not receive more dental, vision or hearing care

As the privatized form of Medicare, Medicare Advantage plans advertise dental, vision, and hearing benefits not covered by traditional Medicare, but a recent analysis found that Medicare Advantage beneficiaries do not typically receive more of these supplemental services than traditional Medicare beneficiaries. Additionally, out-of-pocket spending was similar for most supplemental services. The research led by a team from Mass General Brigham is published in JAMA Network Open. “Medicare Advantage plans receive more money per beneficiary than traditional Medicare plans, but our findings add to the evidence that this increased cost is not justified,” said first author Christopher ...

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Environment14 Jan 2025

Green hydrogen: Big gaps between ambition and implementation

"Over the past three years, global project announcements for green hydrogen have almost tripled," says PIK researcher and lead author Adrian Odenweller. "However, only seven percent of the production capacity originally announced for 2023 has been completed on time during this period." According to the study, the recent problems with the market ramp-up of green hydrogen can be attributed to increased costs, a lack of willingness to pay on the demand side and uncertainties about future subsidies and regulation. "Enormous additional subsidies of around one trillion US dollars would be required to realise all announced hydrogen projects by 2030," explains Falko ...

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Science14 Jan 2025

Global study pinpoints genes for depression across ethnicities

New genetic risk factors for depression have been identified across all major global populations for the first time, allowing scientists to predict risk of depression regardless of ethnicity. The world’s largest and most diverse genetic study ever into major depression has revealed nearly 300 previously unknown genetic links to the condition, experts say. 100 of the newly discovered genetic variations – small differences in the DNA sequence that makes up a gene – were identified due to the inclusion of people of African, East Asian, Hispanic and South Asian descent, the study found. Previous research into the genetics ...

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Science14 Jan 2025

Epigenetics ensures placenta functioning

If the development of blood vessels in the placenta is impaired, fetal growth retardation may result. Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the Mannheim Medical Faculty of Heidelberg University discovered that the correct development of functioning blood vessels in the mouse placenta is controlled epigenetically: One of the enzymes that modify gene activity using methyl groups is responsible. The researchers also observed a connection with a deficiency of this “methyltransferase” in a well-known pregnancy complication. In all female mammals, including humans, the growing fetus in the uterus is supplied via the placenta. Through this temporary ...

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Medicine14 Jan 2025

New computer models open door to far more targeted antibiotics

With antibiotic resistance a growing problem, University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers have developed cutting-edge computer models that could give the disease-fighting drugs a laser-like precision to target only specific bacteria in specific parts of the body. As it stands, antibiotics kill bacteria indiscriminately. Because the drugs are used so widely, increasing numbers of dangerous bugs are growing resistant, threatening one of modern medicine’s most important weapons against disease. UVA’s new approach, on the other hand, would dramatically limit how ...

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Medicine14 Jan 2025

Researchers discover how cigarette smoke impairs critical lung immune cells

Cigarette smoking is widespread and deadly, yet our understanding of how cigarette smoke actually causes serious respiratory illnesses is incomplete, which has severely hampered the development of effective treatments. Today (TBC) Australian researchers reveal how multiple chemicals found in cigarette smoke and e-cigarettes alter the function of a key type of immune cell found in the lungs. The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM), suggests that these alterations make cigarette smokers, ...

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Medicine14 Jan 2025

Commonly prescribed medications increase fall risk and related injuries in people with COPD

Miami (January 14, 2025) – People with COPD experience more falls and related injuries requiring medical care when using common fall-risk increasing drugs, according to a new study. The study is published in the November 2024 issue of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases: Journal of the COPD Foundation, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an inflammatory lung disease, comprising several conditions, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Symptoms include breathlessness, fatigue and chronic cough. The disease affects more than 30 million Americans and is the fourth leading ...

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Technology14 Jan 2025

This metaphorical cat is both dead and alive – and it will help quantum engineers detect computing errors

UNSW engineers have demonstrated a well-known quantum thought experiment in the real world. Their findings deliver a new and more robust way to perform quantum computations – and they have important implications for error correction, one of the biggest obstacles standing between them and a working quantum computer. Quantum mechanics has puzzled scientists and philosophers for more than a century. One of the most famous quantum thought experiments is that of the “Schrödinger’s cat” – a cat whose life or death depends on the decay of a radioactive atom. According to quantum mechanics, unless the atom is directly observed, ...

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Environment14 Jan 2025

Digitizing hope: Collaboration helps preserve a species on the brink of extinction

The vaquita, which means “little cow” in Spanish, is the world’s smallest porpoise and most endangered marine mammal. They also have the smallest range of any marine mammal; about 1,500 square miles within the northern Gulf of California. Since 1997, vaquitas have experienced a dramatic population loss from about 600 individuals to an estimate of less than 10 animals to date. At this current rate, vaquitas are expected to become extinct imminently. The vaquita’s decline is caused by entanglement in illegal gillnets used to fish totoaba, an endangered species prized for its swim bladder. Despite a gillnet ban and conservation efforts, ...

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Environment14 Jan 2025

The Dark Side of the ocean: New giant sea bug species named after Darth Vader

Giant isopods of the genus Bathynomus, which can reach more than 30 cm in length, are known as bọ biển or “sea bugs” in Vietnam. For the first time, one such species was described from Vietnamese waters and named Bathynomus vaderi. The name “vaderi” is inspired by the appearance of its head, which closely resembles the distinctive and iconic helmet of Darth Vader, the most famous Sith Lord of Star Wars. Bathynomus vaderi belongs to a group known as “supergiants,” reaching lengths of 32.5 cm and weighing over a kilogram. So far, this ...

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Medicine14 Jan 2025

Roman urbanites followed medical recommendations for weaning babies

Babies were weaned earlier in cities in the Roman Empire than in smaller and more rural communities, according to a study of ancient teeth. Urban weaning patterns more closely hewed to guidelines from ancient Roman physicians, mirroring contemporary patterns of adherence to medical experts in urban and rural communities. Roman health authorities recommended breastfeeding babies for two years. Carlo Cocozza and colleagues were interested in how ancient Romans actually fed their babies in varying settlement types. Carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios in dentine from the first permanent molars record ...

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Social Science14 Jan 2025

Strength connected to sexual behavior of women as well as men

VANCOUVER, Wash. – While many studies have looked at possible evolutionary links between men’s strength and sexual behavior, a Washington State University study included data on women with a surprising result. Women, as well as men, who had greater upper body strength tended to have more lifetime sexual partners compared to their peers. The study, published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior, was designed to test evolutionary theories for human sexual dimorphism—namely that in early human history there was likely a reproductive advantage selecting for men’s greater upper body strength. Another ...

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Science14 Jan 2025

Eating pork linked with better handgrip strength, vegetable intake in Korean older adults

New research1 underscores the potential role of pork consumption in supporting dietary and muscle health in Korean older adults. Older adults are a nutritionally vulnerable population who often face unique challenges, including meeting daily protein and micronutrient requirements. The study,* conducted through a collaborative partnership between researchers from Gachon University in South Korea, Tufts University, Think Healthy Group, LLC, and other leading institutions, suggests that pork consumption may be positively linked to nutrient intake, diet quality and handgrip strength—an indicator of overall muscle strength in older adults. Using data from more than 2,000 ...

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Environment14 Jan 2025

Direct discharge electrical pulses for carbon fiber recycling

The world is hurtling rapidly towards a developed future, and carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRPs) play a key role in enabling technological and industrial progress. These composite materials are lightweight and highly strong, making them desirable for applications in various fields, including aviation, aerospace, automotive, wind power generation, and sports equipment. However, recycling CFRPs presents a significant challenge, with waste management being a pressing issue. Conventional recycling methods ...

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Science14 Jan 2025

Scientists uncover rapid-acting, low-side-effect antidepressant target

The global burden of anxiety- and depression-related disorders is on the rise. While multiple drugs have been developed to treat these conditions, current medications have several limitations, including slow action and adverse effects with long-term use. This underscores the urgent need for novel, rapidly-acting therapeutic agents with minimal side effects. The delta opioid receptor (DOP) plays a key role in mood regulation, making it a promising target for therapeutic intervention. Studies have shown that selective DOP agonists (compounds that activate DOP), such as SNC80 ...

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Technology14 Jan 2025

Diamond continues to shine: new properties discovered in diamond semiconductors

CLEVELAND and CHAMPAIGN-URBANA, ILL.—Diamond, often celebrated for its unmatched hardness and transparency, has emerged as an exceptional material for high-power electronics and next-generation quantum optics. Diamond can be engineered to be as electrically conductive as a metal, by introducing impurities such as the element boron. Researchers from Case Western Reserve University and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have now discovered another interesting property in diamonds with added boron, known as boron-doped diamonds. Their findings could pave the way for new types ...

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Technology14 Jan 2025

Researchers find the key to Artificial Intelligence’s learning power – an inbuilt, special kind of Occam’s razor

A new study from Oxford University has uncovered why the deep neural networks (DNNs) that power modern artificial intelligence are so effective at learning from data. The new findings demonstrate that DNNs have an inbuilt ‘Occam's razor,’ meaning that when presented with multiple solutions that fit training data, they tend to favour those that are simpler. What is special about this version of Occam’s razor is that the bias exactly cancels the exponential growth of the number of possible solutions with complexity. The study has been published ...

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Medicine14 Jan 2025

Genetic tweak optimizes drug-making cells by blocking buildup of toxic byproduct

An international team of researchers led by the University of California San Diego has developed a new strategy to enhance pharmaceutical production in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, which are commonly used to manufacture protein-based drugs for treating cancer, autoimmune diseases and much more. By knocking out a gene circuit responsible for producing lactic acid—a metabolite that makes the cells’ environment toxic—researchers eliminate a primary hurdle in developing cells that can produce higher amounts of pharmaceuticals like Herceptin and Rituximab, without compromising their growth or energy production. The research, published on Jan. 14 in Nature Metabolism, ...

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Medicine14 Jan 2025

University of Birmingham researchers awarded grant to tackle early-stage heart disease in chronic kidney disease

New research funding will investigate the early stages of heart disease associated with chronic kidney disease led by the University of Birmingham. Dr Davor Pavlovic will lead an international research team after receiving almost £300,000 from the British Heart Foundation to understand the mechanisms driving the early stages of CKD-associated cardiomyopathy. The research approach will allow detailed investigation of cellular and electrophysiological changes before irreversible damage to the heart occurs. Researchers will also test whether in the setting of CKD, early treatment can reverse or prevent heart disease. The research will be ...

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Medicine14 Jan 2025

Researchers harness AI to predict cardiovascular risk from CT scans

CLEVELAND—Researchers at Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals and Houston Methodist will harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to more accurately predict risk of heart failure and other cardiovascular events, including estimating when an adverse event might occur, by developing an AI model that “learns” from patient scans. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, claiming over 17 million lives every year, according to the American Heart Association. Accurately ...

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Science14 Jan 2025

Samsung takes top spot in U.S. patents for third year running while TSMC rises into second place; after four-year falloff, grants increase nearly 4%

New Haven, Conn., Jan. 14, 2025—After four years of decline, U.S. patent grants headed upward, rising 3.8 percent from calendar year 2023 to 324,043 and Samsung retained the top spot for the third year in a row, according to IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, the world’s most trusted patent data source. IFI CLAIMS Patent Services is a Digital Science company that compiles and tracks data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and other patent-issuing agencies around the globe. IFI translates its world-leading data into an annual U.S. Top 50 and ...

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