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Exercise leaves muscles riddled with microscopic tears, so after a rigorous workout, the control centers of muscle cells — called nuclei — scoot toward these tiny injuries to help patch them up, scientists recently discovered.

In the new study, published Oct. 14 in the journal Science, researchers uncovered a previously unknown repair mechanism that kicks in after a run on the treadmill. Striking images show how, shortly after the exercise concludes, nuclei scuttle toward tears in the muscle fibers and issue commands for new proteins to be built, in order to seal the wounds. That same process likely unfolds in your own cells in the hours after you return home from the gym.

AI can detect signals that are informative about mental health from questionnaires and brain scans.

A study published today by an interdisciplinary collaboration, directed by Denis Engemann from Inria, demonstrates that machine learning from large population cohorts can yield “proxy measures” for brain-related health issues without the need for a specialist’s assessment. The researchers took advantage of the UK Biobank, one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive biomedical databases, that contains detailed and secure health-related data on the UK population. This work is published in the open access journal GigaScience.

Mental health issues have been increasing worldwide, with the WHO determining that there has been a 13% increase in mental health conditions and substance abuse disorders between 2007 and 2017. The burden these diseases place on society is extensive, negatively impacting nearly every area of life: school, work, family, friends, and community engagement. Among the many issues impeding the ability of society to address these disorders is that diagnoses of such health issues requires specialists; the availability of which ranges drastically across the globe. The development of machine learning methodology for the purposes of facilitating mental-health assessments could provide a much needed additional means to help detect, prevent and treat such health issues.

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Papers referenced in the video:
Chocolate consumption and all-cause and cause-specific mortality in a US population: a post hoc analysis of the PLCO cancer screening trial.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34329196/

Continue reading “Chocolate Intake Is Associated With Reduced All-Cause And Cause-Specific Mortality Risk” »

Ask a manufacturing company what their current top headaches are, and supply chain disruptions and staff shortages will probably top the list. Vecna Robotics might have the solution for both.

Vecna Robotics develops autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) used in distribution, logistics, warehousing and manufacturing (the company first cut its teeth in hospitals and other health care facilities). Their secret sauce is the software; after all, explains founder and Chief Innovation Officer Daniel Theobald, robotics is 90–95% software. Vecna Robotics implants its software brains in existing equipment like forklifts and pallet trucks, making them autonomous – though the company does build some hardware of its own.

What sets Vecna Robotics apart is the combination of an ambitious vision with a pragmatic attitude, articulated in three key principles:

Findings from study believed to be largest of its kind contradict smaller studies showing treatment’s promise.

Regular doses of the hormone oxytocin do not appear to overcome deficits in social functioning among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), suggests a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The findings contradict earlier reports that indicated the hormone could alleviate the difficulties in social functioning characteristic of ASD. Oxytocin is associated with empathy and social bonding. The study was conducted by Linmarie Sikich, M.D., of Duke University, and colleagues. It appears in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Funding was provided by NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.

Implantable heart technology is being used in Manchester to assess when a patient is at high risk of dying, thanks to an NIHR ARC-GM and University of Manchester led research published today.

The pacemakers and defibrillators contain multiple sensors that allow continuous monitoring of a patient’s heart health, 24 hours a day. The study published in Europace and funded by the Medical Research Council is a collaboration between The University of Manchester, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT), Health Innovation Manchester, the National Institute for Health Applied Research Collaboration Greater Manchester (ARC-GM) and Medtronic – who manufacture implantable devices.

The research team examined remotely monitored health related data from 439 patients at Manchester Royal Infirmary over two years. The study reported a three-fold increase in odds of mortality for patients who spent at least one day in high-risk status. There was also a 26% increase in the odds of mortality for patients who had 14 consecutive days or more in a high-risk status compared with those whose high-risk episodes were shorter. Higher percentages of time spent in a high-risk status, and less time in a low-risk status, were also associated with increased risk of death.

China could soon outlaw all the news media outlets that are not directly funded by the Communist Party. China’s top economic planner has unveiled a new proposal that would bar private investment in news-related entities. China says that it is proposing to ban private investments to control “unlawful news media-related businesses”. Beijing is preparing to exercise greater control over the news industry, which is already heavily regulated. The current crackdown comes in the midst of a campaign by Xi Jinping to limit the power of private businesses.
#ChinaMediaBan #ChinaCrackdown #Xijinping.

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Continue reading “Xi Jinping’s China Plans To Ban Non-Communist Media Outlets In Yet Another Setback To Free Speech” »

“Lower levels of DHA are associated with inflammation, cardiovascular and brain disorders, such as depression, which are all linked to migraine risk.”

Professor Nyholt said LPE(20:4) was a chemical compound that blocked the production of an anti-inflammatory molecule called anandamide.

Summary: Researchers have identified causal genetic links to three blood metabolite levels that increase migraine risks.

Continue reading “Migraines Caused by Alterations in Metabolite Levels” »

In the United States, animal health authorities are now on high alert. The US Department of Agriculture has pledged an emergency appropriation of $500 million to ramp up surveillance and keep the disease from crossing borders. African swine fever is so feared internationally that, if it were found in the US, pork exports—worth more than $7 billion a year—would immediately shut down.

“Long-distance transboundary spread of highly contagious and pathogenic diseases is a worse-case scenario,” Michael Ward, an epidemiologist and chair of veterinary public health at the University of Sydney, told WIRED by email. “In agriculture, it’s the analogue of Covid-19.”

As with the Covid pandemic at its start, there is no vaccine—but also as with Covid, there is the glimmer of hope for one, thanks to basic science that has been laying down findings for years without receiving much attention. Two weeks ago, a multinational team led by scientists at the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service announced that they had achieved a vaccine candidate, based on a weakened version of the virus with a key gene deleted, and demonstrated its effectiveness in a field trial, in pigs, in Vietnam.