Kyoto, Japan – December 2023   Anxiety disorders (ADs) affect more than 280 million people worldwide, making them one of the most common mental health conditions. ADs have a genetic basis as seen from inheritance in families, and people with one subtype of AD tend to have another subtype, suggesting a shared genetic basis. Although the brain circuitry involved in ADs has been identified, its link with gene expression remains unclear. Two researchers at Kyoto University in Japan set out to uncover this link and found two gene clusters expressed in ...

Using a novel experimental approach, Max Planck researchers have discovered a core set of genes required by commensal bacteria to colonize their plant hosts. The findings may have broad relevance for understanding how bacteria establish successful host–commensal relationships. Plants are colonized by an enormous variety of microorganisms, including bacteria, archaea and fungi, that form complex communities, or microbiomes, on their roots and organs. Although invisible to the naked eye, the importance of these tiny inhabitants should not be underestimated. They play a crucial role in plant nutrition, influence the health of plants, strengthen their tolerance to stress factors such as ...

A new study provides the latest data on the low rates for screening and documenting Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) in healthcare settings. SDOHs are a person's social, environmental and economic conditions highly correlated with their health outcomes. This includes unemployment, homelessness and illiteracy, among many other factors. Although SDOHs can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of a patient's health and inform important policy changes, clinical offices fall short of tracking this information. To better understand ...

On December 9, 2023, the 5th International Conference on Flexible Electronics (ICFE 2023) was held in Hangzhou, China. The international academic journal, FlexTech, was officially inaugurated at this conference. FlexTech is an initiative led by Tsinghua University, with academic support from the Laboratory of Flexible Electronics Technology Laboratory, Tsinghua University. This journal is co-published by Tsinghua University Press and John Wiley & Sons, Inc. The editorial board of FlexTech is under the distinguished leadership of Professor Xue ...

CLEVELAND—Throughout our lives, changes in our DNA, called genetic mutations, occur in every healthy cell of the human body—mutations which have long been thought to be an important reason why our bodies age. But it’s not known whether some people accumulate mutations at a faster or slower rate with age, and whether those differences might predict how long we live and the risk for aging-related diseases like cancer. With a $3.5 million research project grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Jonathan Shoag, a surgeon-scientist at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and urologic oncologist at ...

(LOS ANGELES) – December 18, 2023 - The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) has named Ali Khademhosseini, Ph.D., Director and CEO of the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI), as a 2023 National Academy of Inventors Fellow. This distinctive honor is the highest professional award that is exclusively bestowed upon inventors. The Academy has chosen to honor him for his achievements and contributions to the innovation ecosystem, which vastly influences science, society, and the global economy. Dr. Khademhosseini will be formally recognized at the NAI thirteenth annual meeting on June 18, 2024, where he will be presented with a medal by a senior official from the United States ...

How is cooperation affected when people can receive secondhand information about what others are contributing? Ashley Harrell and Tom Wolff investigated this question through an online cooperation game. Participants were recruited from a large subject pool of university students and other adults, maintained by the Interdisciplinary Behavioral Research Center at Duke University. Over 200 participants were placed in groups of 6–10; however, each participant was only linked to some of the other participants. In the control condition, players could only see the contributions ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – New technology has allowed scientists to see how a major sporting event can disrupt public transportation in an entire city for hours before and after the event.   Researchers conducted a case study in Columbus on days that The Ohio State University had home football games, attracting more than 100,000 fans to Ohio Stadium on the university’s campus.   Findings showed that bus service across the entire city was significantly less reliable for more than 7 hours on game days compared to other days, meaning that even bus riders who were not traveling near the university ...

In a perspective, Athanassios S. Fokas considers a timely question: whether artificial intelligence (AI) can reach and then surpass the level of human thought. Typically, researchers have sought to measure the ability of computer models to accomplish complex goals, such as winning the game of Go or carrying on a conversation that seems human enough to fool an interlocutor. According to Fokas, this approach has a key methodological limitation. Any AI would have to be tested on every single conceivable human goal before anyone could claim that the program was thinking as well as a human. Alternative methodologies are therefore needed. In addition, the “complex goal” focus does not ...

In an editorial, Monica M. Bertagnolli assesses the promise of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) to study and improve health. The editorial was written by Dr. Bertagnolli in her capacity as director of the National Cancer Institute. AI/ML offer powerful new tools to analyze highly complex datasets, and researchers across biomedicine are taking advantage. However, Dr. Bertagnolli argues that human judgment is still required. Humans must select and develop the right computational models and ensure that the data used to train ...

Bethesda, MD (Dec. 19, 2023) — The American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) has released the first comprehensive evidence-based guideline on the management of pouchitis, the most common complication people with ulcerative colitis experience following surgery to remove their colon.   Between 150,000 and 300,000 people with ulcerative colitis in the U.S. live with a surgically created internal reservoir or “pouch” created from their small intestine as an alternate way to store and pass ...

Scientists have so far identified around 800 different neuromuscular diseases. These conditions are caused by problems in the way muscle cells, motor neurons and peripheral cells interact. These disorders, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and spinal muscular atrophy, lead to muscle weakness, paralysis, and in some cases death. “These diseases are highly complex, and the causes of the dysfunction can vary widely,” says Dr. Mina Gouti, head of the Stem Cell Modeling of Development and Disease Lab at the Max Delbrück Center. The problem might lie with the neurons, the muscle cells or the connections between the two. ...

Addressing climate change has become a central issue in Chile’s public policy. As part of that debate, Dr. Maisa Rojas, researcher in Atmospheric Physics, who currently serves as Chilean Minister for Environment and Marco Billi of the Centre for Climate and Resilience Research, Universidad de Chile, propose a new model of governance at the country level to facilitate the changes needed. The proposal – written before Dr. Rojas’ appointment to the Chilean government – is published in IOP Publishing’s journal Environmental Research Letters.   The model proposed places climate action ...

p38a protein, which is associated with cancer and other diseases, adopts a previously unknown structure regulated by cellular redox conditions. The finding may have implications when designing new drugs to block it. The work developed by IRB Barcelona, ​​in collaboration with the University of Barcelona and the company Nostrum Biodiscovery, has been published in the journal Nature Communications. Barcelona, 19 December 2023 - p38a protein, a key enzyme in the regulation of various cellular functions, plays a crucial ...

Physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, or neglect, either alone or combined with other types of childhood trauma, increases the risk of chronic pain and related disability in adulthood, according to new research.    These new findings underscore the urgency of addressing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) – potentially traumatic events that occur before 18 years of age – and taking steps to mitigate their long-term impact on people’s health.    The study ...

Pandas, long portrayed as solitary beasts, do hang with family and friends – and they’re big users of social media. Scent-marking trees serve as a panda version of Facebook. An article in the international journal Ursus paints a new lifestyle picture of the beloved bears in China’s Wolong Nature Reserve, a life that’s shielded from human eyes because they’re shy, rare, and live in densely forested, remote areas. No one really knows how pandas hang, but a new study indicates pandas are around others ...

Air quality in the office may affect our level of creativity at work, scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have found. Working with the global air filter manufacturer Camfil on a shared research project, the NTU Singapore scientists found in a study that high levels of volatile organic compounds – gases released from products such as detergents, pesticides, perfumes, aerosol sprays and paint – affected the study participants’ creativity when they were asked to build 3D models with LEGO bricks. Using a statistical analysis, the NTU team estimated that reducing total ...

Lexical simplification (LS) aims to simplify a sentence by replacing complex words with simpler words without changing the meaning of the sentence，which can facilitate comprehension of the text for people with non-native speakers and children. Traditional LS methods utilize linguistic databases or word embedding models to extract synonyms or high-similar words for the complex word, and then sort them based on their appropriateness in context. Recently, BERT-based LS methods entirely or partially mask ...

Almost all eukaryotic organisms, from plants and animals to fungi, can’t survive without mitochondria – the “powerhouses of the cell,” which generate chemical energy using oxygen. However, a new study by Lukáš Novák and Vladimír Hampl of Charles University, published in the journal PLOS Genetics, finds that multiple members of the oxymonads, a group of single-celled protists that live inside the guts of termites and other animals, have evolved to live quite happily without them. Many groups of protists have evolved simplified mitochondria, but for a long time, scientists ...

December 19, 2023--Routinely collected patient experience surveys provide an opportunity for patients to share their creative ideas for improvement, according to a new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Researchers in Health Policy and Management developed and assessed a methodological strategy that validates questions designed to elicit creative ideas from patients. Until now the pace of translating patient insights into innovation has been slow and its effectiveness inadequate.  The findings are ...

The Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and its partners at Hitachi America Energy Solutions Laboratory have released a new open-source software platform for simulating how all the parts of an electric grid work together, along with a graphic interface that makes it much easier for users to understand and apply the results.  Together, these two tools can help utilities harden their distribution systems against extreme weather and wildfires, integrate renewable energy sources like wind and solar into electric grids and set the rates they charge customers, among other things.  The grid ...

In quantum mechanics, particles can exist in multiple states at the same time, defying the logic of everyday experiences. This property, known as quantum superposition, is the basis for emerging quantum technologies that promise to transform computing, communication, and sensing. But quantum superpositions face a significant challenge: quantum decoherence. During this process, the delicate superposition of quantum states breaks down when interacting with its surrounding environment. To unlock the power of chemistry ...

Barbie should consider expanding her medical and scientific careers into areas where women and other under-represented groups remain a minority, suggests a study published in the Christmas issue of The BMJ.  The ever-popular fashion doll has been everything from a construction worker, teacher, and veterinarian to a judge, scientist, and medical doctor, symbolising careers that children can aspire to one day hold. But no previous studies have analysed Barbie medical professional and scientist ...

A new Doctor Who episode shown during the festive period, especially on Christmas Day, is associated with lower death rates in the subsequent year across the UK, finds a study published in the Christmas issue of The BMJ.  The findings highlight the positive effect doctors can have when working during the festive period and may prompt the BBC and Disney+ to broadcast new episodes of Doctor Who every festive period, ideally on Christmas Day, says the author. Sixty years ago, the ...

Healthcare workers will be relieved to know that hospital coffee machines are not responsible for spreading disease and a general ban doesn’t seem necessary, finds a study published in the Christmas issue of The BMJ.  In a bid to eliminate hospital acquired (nosocomial) infections, various objects have been investigated as breeding grounds for bacteria including doctors’ ties and even hospital Bibles. But despite being regularly touched by lots of bare hands, the potential of hospital coffee machines as a source of infection had not previously been explored. To address this, researchers in Germany assessed the microbial population in healthcare associated coffee machines, ...