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A computational framework is presented for thinking about how increasingly popular online environments modulate the social uncertainty the authors experience, depending on the type of social inferences they make, which draws on Bayesian inference.

Considering TikTok’s young demographic, these findings are more than alarming; TikTok even fails to apply its own Terms of Service, which do not allow content “deliberately designed to provoke or antagonize people, or are intended to harass, harm, hurt, scare, distress, embarrass or upset people or include threats of physical violence”.

This review addresses some of the more popular foods and dietary patterns that are promoted for cardiovascular health to provide clinicians with accurate information for patient discussions in the clinical setting.

It is suggested that IF may have beneficial effects on a range of health outcomes for adults with overweight or obesity, compared to CER or non-intervention diet in adults with overweight or obesity, and in people with overweight or obesity, and type 2 diabetes.

In Western societies, singlehood has become increasingly normative over historical time. But whether singles are more satisfied nowadays remains unclear. In this preregistered cohort-sequential study, we analyzed data from 2,936 German participants (M = 21.01 years, SD = 7.60 years) from different birth cohorts. Singlehood satisfaction and life satisfaction were reported annually at two different time periods (2008-2011 and 2018-2021). This design allowed us to compare earlier-born and later-born singles during adolescence (14-20 years), emerging adulthood (24-30 years), and established adulthood (34-40 years). Results from multilevel growth-curve models indicated that adolescent singles born in 2001 to 2003 (vs. 1991-1993) were more often single and more satisfied with singlehood. No cohort-related differences emerged among emerging and established adults. Younger age and lower neuroticism predicted higher satisfaction, regardless of birth cohort. The results highlight the importance of considering both societal and individual factors to understand singles' satisfaction.

The association between grandparents' educational attainment and their grandchildren's epigenetic-based age acceleration and whether the association was mediated by parental educational attainment and mothers' life course health-related factors was examined.

Children's relationship with nature is crucial for their health and future environmental attitudes. Exposure to natural environments provides numerous benefits for children, including improved immune function, cognitive development, and stress reduction. These early experiences in nature are essential for developing a strong commitment to environmental conservation later in life. Recent societal changes have made natural environments less accessible to children, leading to growing concerns abo

Time spent watching television during childhood and adolescence is associated with the risk of metabolic syndrome in mid-adulthood, and interventions to reduce screen time for children and young people may have long-lasting benefits for health.

The 15 Minute Challenge effectively increased physical activity levels and improved self-reported health outcomes among participating employees, highlighting the potential of workplace wellness programs to combat sedentary behavior and promote a healthier, more active lifestyle.

It is found that access to generative AI ideas causes stories to be evaluated as more creative, better written, and more enjoyable, especially among less creative writers, which point to an increase in individual creativity at the risk of losing collective novelty.

Climate change is a pressing global issue that requires effective communication to promote public understanding and action. A recent study conducted across 27 countries examined how different types of messages about scientific consensus on climate change affect people's beliefs and attitudes. The research focused on two main types of messages: a classic consensus message and an updated consensus message. The classic consensus message emphasized the scientific agreement that climate change is re

Past research on interspecies communication has shown that animals can be trained to use Augmentative Interspecies Communication (AIC) devices, such as soundboards, to make simple requests of their caretakers. The recent uptake in AIC devices by hundreds of pet owners around the world offers a novel opportunity to investigate whether AIC is possible with owner-trained family dogs. To answer this question, we carried out two studies to test pet dogs’ ability to recognise and respond appropriately to food-related, play-related, and outside-related words on their soundboards. One study was conducted by researchers, and the other by citizen scientists who followed the same procedure. Further, we investigated whether these behaviours depended on the identity of the person presenting the word (unfamiliar person or dog’s owner) and the mode of its presentation (spoken or produced by a pressed button). We find that dogs produced contextually appropriate behaviours for both play-related and outside-related words regardless of the identity of the person producing them and the mode in which they were produced. Therefore, pet dogs can be successfully taught by their owners to associate words recorded onto soundboard buttons to their outcomes in the real world, and they respond appropriately to these words even when they are presented in the absence of any other cues, such as the owner’s body language.

A predictive model of trolling behavior reveals that mood and discussion context together can explain trolling behavior better than an individual's history of trolling, and suggests that ordinary people can, under the right circumstances, behave like trolls.

We present GameNGen, the first game engine powered entirely by a neural model that enables real-time interaction with a complex environment over long trajectories at high quality. GameNGen can interactively simulate the classic game DOOM at over 20 frames per second on a single TPU. Next frame prediction achieves a PSNR of 29.4, comparable to lossy JPEG compression. Human raters are only slightly better than random chance at distinguishing short clips of the game from clips of the simulation. GameNGen is trained in two phases: (1) an RL-agent learns to play the game and the training sessions are recorded, and (2) a diffusion model is trained to produce the next frame, conditioned on the sequence of past frames and actions. Conditioning augmentations enable stable auto-regressive generation over long trajectories.

Two experimental studies (Ns = 261, 684) investigated how diagnostic labels affect perceptions of people experiencing marginal levels of mental ill-health. These effects offer insight into the consequences of diagnostic “concept creep”, in which concepts of mental illness broaden to include less severe phenomena. The studies found consistent evidence that diagnostic labeling increases the perception that people experiencing marginal problems require professional treatment, and some evidence that it increases empathy towards them and support for affording them special allowances at work, school, and home. The studies also indicated that labels may reduce the control people are perceived to have over their problems and their likelihood of recovering from them. These findings point to the potential mixed blessings of broad diagnostic concepts and the cultural trends responsible for them. Expansive concepts may promote help-seeking, empathy, and support, but also undermine perceived agency and expectations that problems can be overcome.

Music is omnipresent in daily life and may interact with critical cognitive processes including memory. Despite music’s presence during diverse daily activities including studying, commuting, or working, existing literature has yielded mixed results as to whether music improves or impairs memory for information experienced in parallel. To elucidate how music memory and its predictive structure modulate the encoding of novel information, we developed a cross-modal sequence learning task during which participants acquired sequences of abstract shapes accompanied with paired music. Our goal was to investigate whether familiar and structurally regular music could provide a “temporal schema” (rooted in the organized and hierarchical structure of music) to enhance the acquisition of parallel temporally-ordered visual information. Results revealed a complex interplay between music familiarity and music structural regularity in learning paired visual sequences. Notably, compared to a control condition, listening to well-learned, regularly-structured music (music with high predictability) significantly facilitated visual sequence encoding, yielding quicker learning and retrieval speed. Conversely, learned but irregular music (where music memory violated musical syntax) significantly impaired sequence encoding. While those findings supported our mechanistic framework, intriguingly, unlearned irregular music–characterized by the lowest predictability–also demonstrated memory enhancement. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that concurrent music can modulate visual sequence learning, and the effect varies depending on the interaction between both music familiarity and regularity, offering insights into potential applications for enhancing human memory.

It is proposed that the ideal mouthwash, whilst combatting oral disease, should “balance” antimicrobial communities, especially those associated with health.

Cancer rates in the United States have changed significantly over time. A recent study examined cancer data from 2000 to 2019, revealing important trends in cancer occurrence and deaths across different age groups. The researchers analyzed 23,654,000 cancer diagnoses covering 34 types of cancer. They also looked at 7,348,137 deaths from 25 cancer types. This extensive data showed how cancer rates have changed for people born in different decades. People born in 1990 had much higher rates of ce

Findings suggest that sleep-initiation insomnia and sleep-medication usage may elevate dementia risk, and sleep disturbances should be considered when assessing the risk profile for dementia.

Meeting the Paris Agreement’s climate targets necessitates better knowledge about which climate policies work in reducing emissions at the necessary scale. We provide a global, systematic ex post evaluation to identify policy combinations that have led to large emission reductions out of 1500 climate policies implemented between 1998 and 2022 across 41 countries from six continents. Our approach integrates a comprehensive climate policy database with a machine learning–based extension of the common difference-in-differences approach. We identified 63 successful policy interventions with total emission reductions between 0.6 billion and 1.8 billion metric tonnes CO2. Our insights on effective but rarely studied policy combinations highlight the important role of price-based instruments in well-designed policy mixes and the policy efforts necessary for closing the emissions gap. Editor’s summary It is easy for countries to say they will reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases, but these statements do not mean that the policies they adopt will be effective. Stechemesser et al. evaluated 1500 climate policies that have been implemented over the past 25 years and identified the 63 most successful ones. Some of those successes involved rarely studied policies and unappreciated combinations. This work illustrates the kinds of policy efforts that are needed to close the emissions gaps in various economic sectors. —Jesse Smith

With surface temperatures already reaching unprecedented highs, resulting in significant adverse consequences for societies and ecosystems, there is an increasing call to expand research into climate interventions, including Stratospheric Aerosol Intervention (SAI). However, research and dissemination are currently fragmented and would benefit from a comprehensive international assessment of the current state of knowledge regarding impacts, risks, and recommendations for future SAI research directions. The goals of a scientific assessment would be to describe the current state of SAI research and evaluate proposed scenario-strategy combinations through well-designed evaluation guidelines. The suggested iterative approach would integrate natural and social science considerations to guide future research toward more plausible scenarios and strategy development to reduce uncertainties and minimize the risks of SAI. Here, we outline multidisciplinary research criteria to guide the assessment process and provide an overview of the benefits and risks of proposed SAI applications. We group these criteria into three categories: 1) technical and design requirements, 2) response and impacts, and 3) societal considerations. Including all three categories in a comprehensive assessment of potential SAI applications outlined here promotes enhanced interdisciplinary and international collaborations, intentionally engaging the underrepresented Global South. The assessment structure further promotes the need for recurring reports every few years with globally representative participation and could also be applicable to other Solar Radiation Modification methods or combined approaches. Such assessments are necessary to align research with considerations for decision-makers and the public on the feasibility of SAI in reducing the impacts of climate change and its potential societal and ecological trade-offs.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assesses global climate change. Its Sixth Assessment Report projects subsurface carbon storage rates of 1-30 billion tonnes of CO2 per year by 2050. These projections have limitations. They don't fully account for geological, geographical, and techno-economic obstacles. These factors could impact our ability to achieve high storage rates. Geological limitations involve underground formation properties. Not all rocks suit CO2 storage. Some ma

Der Klimawandel ist eine globale Herausforderung, die uns alle betrifft. Die Auswirkungen des Klimawandels sind regional sehr unterschiedlich, sodass eine Anpassung an diese Veränderungen auf verschiedenen Ebenen erforderlich ist. Dabei sind nicht nur staatliche Akteure gefordert, sondern auch viele andere gesellschaftliche Gruppen müssen eingebunden werden. Der Klimawandel führt zu Veränderungen wie steigenden Temperaturen, häufigeren Extremwetterereignissen und Verschiebungen von Niederschlag

It is concluded that ArSK/CCK1 acts as an autotomy-promoting factor in starfish and as such it is the first neuropeptide to be identified as a regulator of autotomy in animals.

Group-living animals sleep together, yet most research treats sleep as an individual process. Here, we argue that social interactions during the sleep period contribute in important, but largely overlooked, ways to animal groups’ social dynamics, while patterns of social interaction and the structure of social connections within animal groups play important, but poorly understood, roles in shaping sleep behavior. Leveraging field-appropriate methods, such as direct and video-based observation, and increasingly common on-animal motion sensors (e.g., accelerometers), behavioral indicators can be tracked to measure sleep in multiple individuals in a group of animals simultaneously. Sleep proximity networks and sleep timing networks can then be used to investigate the collective dynamics of sleep in wild group-living animals.

Accurate and reliable flood forecasting is crucial for reducing disaster risks and adapting to climate change. Floods can have devastating consequences, causing loss of life, damage to property, and disruption to communities. To address this challenge, researchers have developed an advanced artificial intelligence (AI) model to improve short-term (0-7 day) forecasts of extreme riverine events. Existing global flood forecasting systems, such as the Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS), have li

This study examines the albedo values and adjusted modelled melt for five ice shelves in Antarctica during the months when they experience the most melting. Albedo refers to how much of the sun's energy is reflected back into space by a surFACe, while modelled melt refers to estimates of how much melting is occurring based on climate models. Understanding the dynamics of surface meltwater on ice shelves is crucial because this meltwater can contribute to the collapse of these important features

Waste management is a critical global issue with far-reaching consequences for the environment and human health. One of the most pressing concerns is the leakage of municipal solid waste (MSW) into aquatic ecosystems, such as rivers, lakes, and coastal areas. This leakage can have devastating impacts on fragile aquatic habitats and the communities that rely on them. The study examined in this article provides a comprehensive assessment of the scale of this problem and the potential of circular

Ants are fascinating creatures that live in highly organized societies. A recent study has uncovered an incredible discovery about how ants in the Camponotus floridanus species use a unique strategy to combat infections in their injured nestmates - they amputate the injured leg. This is the first known example of a non-human animal purposefully removing the injured limbs of its own kind to improve their chances of survival. The researchers who conducted this study wanted to understand how ants

A multi-omics approach to characterize oncom, a fermented food traditionally produced from soymilk by-products in Java, Indonesia, found that N. intermedia grew on diverse by-products such as fruit and vegetable pomace and plant-based milk waste, did not encode mycotoxins, and could create foods that were positively perceived by consumers outside Indonesia.

Planet formation models are necessary to understand the origins of diverse planetary systems. Circumstellar disc substructures have been proposed as preferred locations of planet formation, but a complete formation scenario has not been covered by a single model so far. We aim to study the formation of giant planets facilitated by disc substructure and starting with sub-micron-sized dust. We connect dust coagulation and drift, planetesimal formation, $N$-body gravity, pebble accretion, planet migration, planetary gas accretion, and gap opening in one consistent modelling framework. We find rapid formation of multiple gas giants from the initial disc substructure. The migration trap near the substructure allows for the formation of cold gas giants. A new pressure maximum is created at the outer edge of the planetary gap, which triggers the next generation of planet formation resulting in a compact chain of giant planets. A high planet formation efficiency is achieved, as the first gas giants are effective at preventing dust from drifting further inwards, which preserves material for planet formation. Sequential planet formation is a promising framework to explain the formation of chains of gas and ice giants.

For a long time, scientists have used a simple mathematical model to describe the relationship between the size of an animal's brain and its body. This model assumed a straightforward, linear connection - as an animal's body gets bigger, its brain gets bigger too, but at a slower rate. However, a new study has challenged this conventional view, demonstrating that the real relationship is more complex and curvilinear in nature. The researchers found that the connection between brain and body mas

In response to increasing urbanization and the need for infrastructure resilient to natural hazards, this study introduces an AI-driven predictive model designed to assess the risk of soil liquefaction. Utilizing advanced ensemble machine learning techniques, the model integrates geotechnical and geographical data to accurately predict the potential for soil liquefaction in urban areas, with a specific focus on Yokohama, Japan. This methodology leverages comprehensive datasets from geological surveys and seismic activity to enhance urban planning and infrastructure development in smart cities. The primary outputs include detailed soil liquefaction risk maps that are essential for effective urban risk management. These maps support urban planners and engineers in making informed decisions, prioritizing safety, and promoting sustainability. The model employs a robust combination of artificial neural networks and gradient boosting decision trees to analyze and predict data points, assessing soil susceptibility to liquefaction during seismic events. Notably, the model achieves high accuracy in predicting soil classifications and N-values, which are critical for evaluating soil liquefaction risk. Validation against an extensive dataset from geotechnical surveys confirms the model’s practical effectiveness. Moreover, the results highlight the transformative potential of AI in enhancing geotechnical risk assessments and improving the resilience of urban areas against natural hazards.

The response of the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) to climate change is the largest uncertainty in projecting future sea level. The impact of three-dimensional (3D) Earth structure on the AIS and future global sea levels is assessed here by coupling a global glacial isostatic adjustment model incorporating 3D Earth structure to a dynamic ice-sheet model. We show that including 3D viscous effects produces rapid uplift in marine sectors and reduces projected ice loss for low greenhouse gas emission scenarios, lowering Antarctica’s contribution to global sea level in the coming centuries by up to ~40%. Under high-emission scenarios, ice retreat outpaces uplift, and sea-level rise is amplified by water expulsion from Antarctic marine areas.

A novel approach for a simple all-optical sampling is to utilise the frequency-time coherence of each signal, based on only using two coupled modulators driven with an electrical sine wave.

It is found that access to generative AI ideas causes stories to be evaluated as more creative, better written, and more enjoyable, especially among less creative writers, which point to an increase in individual creativity at the risk of losing collective novelty.

In online communities, antisocial behavior such as trolling disrupts constructive discussion. While prior work suggests that trolling behavior is confined to a vocal and antisocial minority, we demonstrate that ordinary people can engage in such behavior as well. We propose two primary trigger mechanisms: the individual’s mood, and the surrounding context of a discussion (e.g., exposure to prior trolling behavior). Through an experiment simulating an online discussion, we find that both negative mood and seeing troll posts by others significantly increases the probability of a user trolling, and together double this probability. To support and extend these results, we study how these same mechanisms play out in the wild via a data-driven, longitudinal analysis of a large online news discussion community. This analysis reveals temporal mood effects, and explores long range patterns of repeated exposure to trolling. A predictive model of trolling behavior shows that mood and discussion context together can explain trolling behavior better than an individual’s history of trolling. These results combine to suggest that ordinary people can, under the right circumstances, behave like trolls.

Der Einsatz von Künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) bietet große Möglichkeiten, die Effizienz und Qualität des öffentlichen Nahverkehrs zu verbessern. Insbesondere in den Leitstellen der Verkehrsbetriebe können KI-Systeme die Disponenten bei ihren komplexen Entscheidungen unterstützen. Dabei geht es darum, die Stärken von Mensch und Maschine zu kombinieren - ein Konzept, das auch als "Hybride Intelligenz" bezeichnet wird und Teil des Industrie 5.0-Paradigmas ist. In der Praxis zeigt sich jedoch, dass

Der Einsatz von Künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) in der Medizin bietet große Möglichkeiten, aber bringt auch neue Herausforderungen mit sich. Einerseits können KI-Systeme Ärzte bei vielen Aufgaben unterstützen und entlasten, andererseits ergeben sich durch den Einsatz von KI neue Fragen, die vor allem die Beziehung zwischen Ärzten, Patienten und der Technologie betreffen. Ärzte spielen eine zentrale Rolle bei der Einführung von KI in der Medizin. Sie müssen nicht nur lernen, wie sie KI-Systeme effe

Künstliche Intelligenz (KI) eröffnet neue Möglichkeiten für das Lernen und kann Bildung individueller, zeitlich und räumlich flexibler gestalten. Die rasante Entwicklung im KI-Bereich, wie etwa die Veröffentlichung von ChatGPT, führt zu einem wachsenden Interesse am Einsatz von KI in der Bildung. Dies fördert den wichtigen Austausch zwischen den zentralen Beteiligten. Dieses Papier stellt drei Zukunftsszenarien für den Einsatz von KI in der institutionellen Bildung vor: in Hochschulen, in der W

In recent years, the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence has led to the development of large language models (LLMs) like GPT-4 and LLaMA. These powerful AI systems have become fundamental in driving progress in natural language processing (NLP). LLMs are multi-billion parameter models that demonstrate remarkable abilities in language comprehension and generation. They possess emergent properties like reasoning and in-context learning, which have enabled them to tackle complex NLP tasks

Do large language models (LLMs) display rational reasoning? LLMs have been shown to contain human biases due to the data they have been trained on; whether this is reflected in rational reasoning remains less clear. In this paper, we answer this question by evaluating seven language models using tasks from the cognitive psychology literature. We find that, like humans, LLMs display irrationality in these tasks. However, the way this irrationality is displayed does not reflect that shown by humans. When incorrect answers are given by LLMs to these tasks, they are often incorrect in ways that differ from human-like biases. On top of this, the LLMs reveal an additional layer of irrationality in the significant inconsistency of the responses. Aside from the experimental results, this paper seeks to make a methodological contribution by showing how we can assess and compare different capabilities of these types of models, in this case with respect to rational reasoning.

A weighted voting based ensemble model is employed for the multimodal fusion process using recurrent neural network (RNN), bi-directional long short term memory (Bi-LSTM), and deep belief network (DBN) and depicts the novelty of the work.

In response to increasing urbanization and the need for infrastructure resilient to natural hazards, this study introduces an AI-driven predictive model designed to assess the risk of soil liquefaction. Utilizing advanced ensemble machine learning techniques, the model integrates geotechnical and geographical data to accurately predict the potential for soil liquefaction in urban areas, with a specific focus on Yokohama, Japan. This methodology leverages comprehensive datasets from geological surveys and seismic activity to enhance urban planning and infrastructure development in smart cities. The primary outputs include detailed soil liquefaction risk maps that are essential for effective urban risk management. These maps support urban planners and engineers in making informed decisions, prioritizing safety, and promoting sustainability. The model employs a robust combination of artificial neural networks and gradient boosting decision trees to analyze and predict data points, assessing soil susceptibility to liquefaction during seismic events. Notably, the model achieves high accuracy in predicting soil classifications and N-values, which are critical for evaluating soil liquefaction risk. Validation against an extensive dataset from geotechnical surveys confirms the model’s practical effectiveness. Moreover, the results highlight the transformative potential of AI in enhancing geotechnical risk assessments and improving the resilience of urban areas against natural hazards.

On fine-tuning tasks addressing genome biology with questions of genome element identification and protein–DNA binding, GROVER exceeds other models’ performance and can be used to compose a grammar book for the code of life.

Large language models have the potential to enrich neuroscience datasets by adding valuable meta-information, such as advanced text sentiment, and summarize vast information sources to overcome divides between siloed neuroscience communities.

A new imaging system to analyze and extract tongue color features at different color saturations and under different light conditions from five color space models is proposed and the XGBoost algorithm was chosen as the classifier of the proposed imaging system and linked with a graphical user interface to predict tongue color and its related diseases in real time.

We present GameNGen, the first game engine powered entirely by a neural model that enables real-time interaction with a complex environment over long trajectories at high quality. GameNGen can interactively simulate the classic game DOOM at over 20 frames per second on a single TPU. Next frame prediction achieves a PSNR of 29.4, comparable to lossy JPEG compression. Human raters are only slightly better than random chance at distinguishing short clips of the game from clips of the simulation. GameNGen is trained in two phases: (1) an RL-agent learns to play the game and the training sessions are recorded, and (2) a diffusion model is trained to produce the next frame, conditioned on the sequence of past frames and actions. Conditioning augmentations enable stable auto-regressive generation over long trajectories.

In pregnant and postpartum women, AI-guided screening using a digital stethoscope improved the diagnosis of pregnancy-related cardiomyopathy.

Insight is provided into the GM and metabolomic profile of participants following an IF-P or CR diet and important differences in microbial assembly associated with WL and body composition responsiveness are highlighted.

Pru-C12 inhibited alveolar bone resorption in a mouse experimental periodontitis model by P. gingivalis infection and may be helpful in the development of oral hygiene products for the prevention and control of periodontal disease and related disorders.

Findings suggest that sleep-initiation insomnia and sleep-medication usage may elevate dementia risk, and sleep disturbances should be considered when assessing the risk profile for dementia.

Women with PND are at higher risk of CVD in middle adulthood, and Reproductive history, including PND, should be considered in CVD risk assessments of women.

Cancer rates in the United States have changed significantly over time. A recent study examined cancer data from 2000 to 2019, revealing important trends in cancer occurrence and deaths across different age groups. The researchers analyzed 23,654,000 cancer diagnoses covering 34 types of cancer. They also looked at 7,348,137 deaths from 25 cancer types. This extensive data showed how cancer rates have changed for people born in different decades. People born in 1990 had much higher rates of ce

Higher egg consumption was positively associated with the risk of diabetes in Chinese adults, and three trajectory groups of egg consumption were identified.

Objective T o examine the associations between egg consumption and cardiovascular disease (CVD), ischaemic heart disease (IHD), major coronary events (MCE), haemorrhagic stroke as well as ischaemic stroke. Methods During 2004–2008, over 0.5 million adults aged 30–79 years were recruited from 10 diverse survey sites in China. Participants were asked about the frequency of egg consumption and were followed up via linkages to multiple registries and active investigation. Among 461 213 participants free of prior cancer, CVD and diabetes, a total of 83 977 CVD incident cases and 9985 CVD deaths were documented, as well as 5103 MCE. Stratified Cox regression was performed to yield adjusted hazard ratios for CVD endpoints associated with egg consumption. Results A t baseline, 13.1% of participants reported daily consumption (usual amount 0.76 egg/day) and 9.1% reported never or very rare consumption (usual amount 0.29 egg/day). Compared with non-consumers, daily egg consumption was associated with lower risk of CVD (HR 0.89, 95% CI 0.87 to 0.92). Corresponding multivariate-adjusted HRs (95% CI ) for IHD, MCE, haemorrhagic stroke and ischaemic stroke were 0.88 (0.84 to 0.93), 0.86 (0.76 to 0.97), 0.74 (0.67 to 0.82) and 0.90 (0.85 to 0.95), respectively. There were significant dose-response relationships of egg consumption with morbidity of all CVD endpoints (P for linear trend <0.05). Daily consumers also had an 18% lower risk of CVD death and a 28% lower risk of haemorrhagic stroke death compared to non-consumers. Conclusion A mong Chinese adults, a moderate level of egg consumption (up to <1 egg/day) was significantly associated with lower risk of CVD, largely independent of other risk factors.

By collecting and analyzing thermal facial images, Yu et al. find that human facial temperature distribution contains information on aging and metabolic states and has potential for rapid screening of aging and metabolic disorders and for revealing intervention strategies.

This review addresses some of the more popular foods and dietary patterns that are promoted for cardiovascular health to provide clinicians with accurate information for patient discussions in the clinical setting.

Perivascular macrophages (PVMs) and, to a lesser degree, microglia are targets and reservoirs of HIV and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) in the brain. Previously, we demonstrated that colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) in PVMs was upregulated and activated in chronically SIV-infected rhesus macaques with encephalitis, correlating with SIV infection of PVMs. Herein, we investigated the role of CSF1R in the brain during acute SIV infection using BLZ945, a brain-penetrant CSF1R kinase inhibitor. Apart from three uninfected historic controls, nine Indian rhesus macaques were infected acutely with SIVmac251 and divided into three groups (n = 3 each): an untreated control and two groups treated for 20-30 days with low- (10 mg/kg/day) or high- (30 mg/kg/day) dose BLZ945. With the high-dose BLZ945 treatment, there was a significant reduction in cells expressing CD163 and CD206 across all four brain areas examined, compared with the low-dose treatment and control groups. In 9 of 11 tested regions, tissue viral DNA (vDNA) loads were reduced by 95%-99% following at least one of the two doses, and even to undetectable levels in some instances. Decreased numbers of CD163+ and CD206+ cells correlated significantly with lower levels of vDNA in all four corresponding brain areas. In contrast, BLZ945 treatment did not significantly affect the number of microglia. Our results indicate that doses as low as 10 mg/kg/day of BLZ945 are sufficient to reduce the tissue vDNA loads in the brain with no apparent adverse effect. This study provides evidence that infected PVMs are highly sensitive to CSF1R inhibition, opening new possibilities to achieve viral clearance.

Common snacking patterns among US adults with diabetes are elucidates and the need for clinicians and policymakers to take snacking into consideration when evaluating and providing dietary recommendations is highlighted.

In recent years, there has been a growing trend towards plant-based and animal-free food options, driven by increasing awareness of the negative environmental and animal welfare impacts of traditional animal-based products. This has led to a rise in the number of vegetarians and vegans, particularly in Germany. Alternative dairy products, such as those produced through a process called precision fermentation (PF), are gaining popularity as they are perceived to be more sustainable and ethical c

People think that patients who share incorrect beliefs will be viewed negatively, and Physicians need to be educated on patients' concerns so they can help patients disclose what may be most important for education.

Researchers have long been interested in understanding the factors that influence the pace of biological aging, as this can provide valuable insights into health and disease risk. This study, conducted by a team of scientists, investigated how both neighborhood-level and individual-level social determinants of health (SDOH) are associated with a measure of biological aging called the DunedinPACE epigenetic clock. The study focused on a diverse population of Japanese American, Native Hawaiian, an

Depression is a major global health challenge, affecting around 4.4% of the world's population and being a leading cause of disability. Researchers have been exploring non-pharmacological approaches to address this issue, and one promising avenue is the use of music listening. Music has the ability to modulate neural activity in brain regions involved in emotion and reward processing, such as the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) and the nucleus accumbens (NAc). These brain structures

Time spent watching television during childhood and adolescence is associated with the risk of metabolic syndrome in mid-adulthood, and interventions to reduce screen time for children and young people may have long-lasting benefits for health.

Feelings of love are among the most significant human phenomena. Love informs the formation and maintenance of pair bonds, parent-offspring attachments, and influences relationships with others and even nature. However, little is known about the neural mechanisms of love beyond romantic and maternal types. Here, we characterize the brain areas involved in love for six different objects: romantic partner, one's children, friends, strangers, pets, and nature. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain activity, while we induced feelings of love using short stories. Our results show that neural activity during a feeling of love depends on its object. Interpersonal love recruited social cognition brain areas in the temporoparietal junction and midline structures significantly more than love for pets or nature. In pet owners, love for pets activated these same regions significantly more than in participants without pets. Love in closer affiliative bonds was associated with significantly stronger and more widespread activation in the brain's reward system than love for strangers, pets, or nature. We suggest that the experience of love is shaped by both biological and cultural factors, originating from fundamental neurobiological mechanisms of attachment.

Climate change is a pressing global issue that requires effective communication to promote public understanding and action. A recent study conducted across 27 countries examined how different types of messages about scientific consensus on climate change affect people's beliefs and attitudes. The research focused on two main types of messages: a classic consensus message and an updated consensus message. The classic consensus message emphasized the scientific agreement that climate change is re

The association between grandparents' educational attainment and their grandchildren's epigenetic-based age acceleration and whether the association was mediated by parental educational attainment and mothers' life course health-related factors was examined.

Children's relationship with nature is crucial for their health and future environmental attitudes. Exposure to natural environments provides numerous benefits for children, including improved immune function, cognitive development, and stress reduction. These early experiences in nature are essential for developing a strong commitment to environmental conservation later in life. Recent societal changes have made natural environments less accessible to children, leading to growing concerns abo

Wisdom is the hallmark of social judgment, but how people across cultures recognize wisdom remains unclear—distinct philosophical traditions suggest different views of wisdom’s cardinal features. We explore perception of wise minds across 16 socio-economically and culturally diverse convenience samples from 12 countries. Participants assessed wisdom exemplars, non-exemplars, and themselves on 19 socio-cognitive characteristics, subsequently rating targets’ wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Analyses reveal two positively related dimensions—Reflective Orientation and Socio-Emotional Awareness. These dimensions are consistent across the studied cultural regions and interact when informing wisdom ratings: wisest targets—as perceived by participants—score high on both dimensions, whereas the least wise are not reflective but moderately socio-emotional. Additionally, individuals view themselves as less reflective but more socio-emotionally aware than most wisdom exemplars. Our findings expand folk psychology and social judgment research beyond the Global North, showing how individuals perceive desirable cognitive and socio-emotional qualities, and contribute to an understanding of mind perception.

Academic freedom is a critical norm of science. Despite the widely postulated importance of academic freedom, the literature attests to a dearth of research on the topic. Specifically, we know little about how academic freedom relates to indicators of societal progress, such as innovation. We address this research gap by empirically assessing the impact of academic freedom on the quantity (patent applications) and quality (patent citations) of innovation output using a comprehensive sample of 157 countries over the 1900–2015 period. We find that improving academic freedom by one standard deviation increases patent applications by 41% and forward citations by 29%. The results are robust across a range of different specifications. Our findings constitute an alarming plea to policymakers: global academic freedom has declined over the past decade for the first time in the last century and our estimates suggest that this decline poses a substantial threat to the innovation output of countries in terms of both quantity and quality.

The 15 Minute Challenge effectively increased physical activity levels and improved self-reported health outcomes among participating employees, highlighting the potential of workplace wellness programs to combat sedentary behavior and promote a healthier, more active lifestyle.

OBJECTIVES Social contact may alleviate loneliness, but little is known about within-person daily fluctuations in loneliness and social encounters. Older adults who feel lonely may engage in different modes of social contact (in-person, phone, digital). This study asked how different forms of contact are associated with loneliness throughout the day. METHODS Participants were 313 community-dwelling older adults (aged 65-90). They completed ecological momentary assessments reporting on their social encounters (e.g., type of social partner, mode of contact) and their loneliness every 3 hr for 5-6 days. We differentiated close social ties from ties not identified as close (i.e., weak ties). RESULTS We examined within-person effects using multilevel models. Findings revealed that momentary loneliness predicted a greater likelihood of phone contact in the next 3 hr. However, only in-person contact was associated with lower levels of loneliness. Regarding close and weak ties, momentary loneliness was associated with more in-person and phone contact with close ties, yet fewer in-person contacts with weak ties. In-person contact with both close and weak ties predicted lower levels of loneliness. DISCUSSION Although older adults engage in both in-person and phone contact when they feel lonely, it appears that only in-person contact may reduce loneliness. Digital contact was not widely adopted as a response to momentary loneliness among these older adults. Findings underscore older adults' willingness to maintain regular contact with close ties. Interventions addressing older adults who are lonely may consider innovative approaches to increase in-person contact.

The adoption of agriculture triggered a rapid shift towards starch-rich diets in human populations1. Amylase genes facilitate starch digestion, and increased amylase copy number has been observed in some modern human populations with high-starch intake2, although evidence of recent selection is lacking3,4. Here, using 94 long-read haplotype-resolved assemblies and short-read data from approximately 5,600 contemporary and ancient humans, we resolve the diversity and evolutionary history of structural variation at the amylase locus. We find that amylase genes have higher copy numbers in agricultural populations than in fishing, hunting and pastoral populations. We identify 28 distinct amylase structural architectures and demonstrate that nearly identical structures have arisen recurrently on different haplotype backgrounds throughout recent human history. AMY1 and AMY2A genes each underwent multiple duplication/deletion events with mutation rates up to more than 10,000-fold the single-nucleotide polymorphism mutation rate, whereas AMY2B gene duplications share a single origin. Using a pangenome-based approach, we infer structural haplotypes across thousands of humans identifying extensively duplicated haplotypes at higher frequency in modern agricultural populations. Leveraging 533 ancient human genomes, we find that duplication-containing haplotypes (with more gene copies than the ancestral haplotype) have rapidly increased in frequency over the past 12,000 years in West Eurasians, suggestive of positive selection. Together, our study highlights the potential effects of the agricultural revolution on human genomes and the importance of structural variation in human adaptation.

Historical and ethnographic sources depict use of portable braced shaft weapons, or pikes, in megafauna hunting and defense during Late Holocene millennia in North and South America, Africa, Eurasia and Southeast Asia. Given the predominance of megafauna in Late Pleistocene North America during the centuries when Clovis points appeared and spread across much of the continent (13,050–12,650 cal BP), braced weapons may have been used in hunting of megaherbivores and defense against megacarnivores. Drawing from historical examples of pike use against lions, jaguars, boars, grizzlies, carabao and warhorses we consider the possibility of a fluted lithic pike. Associated osseous rods have been problematic as Clovis foreshafts due to the bevel angle and the apparent weakness of the splint haft when great strength is needed for deep penetration in megafauna hunting. However our review of Late Holocene pike use in megafauna encounters indicates the sharp tip becomes less important after hide or armor has been pierced because compression is sustained. Thus, foreshaft collapse after hide entry may not limit but rather increase the efficacy of the braced weapon. We conduct preliminary static experiments to model a fluted pike that adjusts during compression such that haft collapse and point detachment (when point jams on impact with bone) preserve the fluted biface, beveled rod and wooden mainshaft tip. In addition to Clovis point attributes and association with osseous rods, potential archaeological correlates of Clovis pike use include the high frequency of Clovis point isolates and concentrations of complete points with unbutchered mammoth remains at sites such as Naco in Arizona.

Robots are becoming increasingly advanced, with the goal of developing humanoid robots that can operate in complex environments and interact with people in a natural way. A key challenge in this field is creating robot skin that can mimic the comprehensive biological functions of human skin, including the ability to self-heal. This research explores a novel approach to attaching living skin to the face of a robot, using a special type of anchor inspired by the structure of human skin ligaments.

The need for further research on the metabolic and reproductive endocrinologic effects of space travel, if the authors are to become a successful interplanetary species is strongly suggested.

The occurrence, characteristics, and evolution of space headaches and the effects of treatment and countermeasures during long-haul flights with onboard questionnaires and correlated them with prevailing temperature, pressure, and ambient O2 and CO2 levels, measured within the International Space Station were evaluated.

This review discusses how emerging holographic optical elements and lithography-based devices are enhancing the performances of augmented reality and virtual reality displays with glasses-like form factor and casts a perspective on potential developments and research directions of these photonic devices for future AR and VR displays.

dark matter is one of the biggest mysteries in modern physics. We know it exists because we can see its gravitational effects on galaxies and galaxy clusters, but we don't know what it's actually made of. One promising candidate for dark matter is a hypothetical particle called the "dark photon." Dark photons are similar to regular photons (the particles that make up light), but they would be much lighter and interact very weakly with normal matter. If dark photons do exist, they could potentia

In the 21st century, the internet has become deeply integrated into our daily lives, enabling rapid global communication and fostering strong connections between countries in key areas like commerce, politics, economics, and culture. However, this widespread adoption of network technologies has also introduced significant security challenges. Cybersecurity is essential to protect the security, integrity, and confidentiality of communication, assets, and data within electronic environments. Cybe

Controlling solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) in batteries is crucial for their efficient cycling. Herein, we demonstrate an approach to enable robust battery performance that does not rely on high fractions of fluorinated species in electrolytes, thus substantially decreasing the environmental footprint and cost of high-energy batteries. In this approach, we use very low fractions of readily reducible fluorinated cations in electrolyte (∼0.1 wt%) and employ electrostatic attraction to generate a substantial population of these cations at the anode surface. As a result, we can form a robust fluorine-rich SEI that allows for dendrite-free deposition of dense Li and stable cycling of Li-metal full cells with high-voltage cathodes. Our approach represents a general strategy for delivering desired chemical species to battery anodes through electrostatic attraction while using minute amounts of additive.

Imagine a future where our electronic devices can seamlessly integrate with our bodies, monitoring our health and responding to our movements with ease. This vision is becoming a reality, thanks to the development of a new type of electrode that is both flexible and highly permeable to water vapor. Researchers have created conductive nanosheets composed of single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) assembled on an elastomeric polymer called poly(styrene-b-butadiene-b-styrene) (SBS). These SWCNT-SBS

This policy brief by Erik Brattberg, Associate Partner at the Albright Stonebridge Group in Washington, D.C., assesses the achievements and shortcomings of the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC) to date, charts its possible future evolution, and offers recommendations to enhance transatlantic cooperation on trade and technology issues over the next four years.

We outline and test the argument that globalization contributes to the electoral success of the new far right in Western Europe. We also draw on the theory of embedded liberalism to advance and test the hypothesis that a comprehensive, generous and employment-orientated system of social protection lessens the economic insecurities attendant to internationalization and, in turn, weakens support for far-right parties. In empirical analysis of national elections in 16 European polities from 1981 to 1998, we find that the universal welfare state directly depresses the vote for radical right-wing populist parties and conditions the linkages between capital mobility, trade openness and foreign immigration on the one hand and electoral support for the new far right on the other. In conclusion, we consider our findings’ implications for understanding the domestic political effects of globalization and sources of right-wing populism as well as for policy reforms that promote political economic stability in an era of international integration.

In recent years, there has been a concerning trend of right-wing populist and extremist groups attempting to appropriate and reinterpret the concept of religious freedom from the government or others. for their own ideological purposes. This issue poses a significant challenge for churches and religious communities, who have a moral responsibility to address it. The research discussed in this article examines how right-wing ideologies are often in fundamental contradiction with the basic teachi

Social and computer science research regarding belief in fake news and the mechanisms by which it spreads is discussed, focusing on unanswered scientific questions raised by the proliferation of its most recent, politically oriented incarnation.

In 2015, the European Union (EU) faced a significant challenge - a large influx of migrants and refugees crossing into Europe. This event, often referred to as the "refugee crisis," dominated headlines and sparked intense political debates within the EU. Rather than directly addressing the political tensions and controversies surrounding this issue, the European Commission sought to reframe the problem in a different way. The Commission created the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF) as a

In 2019, the European Commission announced an ambitious plan called the European Green Deal by 2050. It aims to reduce carbon emissions and promote environmentally-friendly practices across various sectors. (EGD). This plan represents a major effort by the European Union (EU) to transition towards a climate-neutral economy. The key goals of the EGD are to reduce carbon emissions by at least 50% by 2030 and achieve complete carbon neutrality by 2050. The EGD is seen as an opportunity to reshape

Since the end of the Cold War, the sanctions against Russia have been the harshest and most costly imposed on a major economy. They appear to be unprecedented in terms of speed, breadth, and global coordination. The latest situation heightens the sense of danger that comes with cross-border financial and operational vulnerability. Even if future oil and gas embargoes are imposed, the economy of Russia will rest on its current export strategy, which may be tough to weaken. The important factors to take into account at the onset of the war are the opportunity cost of military investment, the humanitarian loss of the financial system, and the burden of repairing post-war damage. In this paper we review the economic impact of war, and discuss the potential implications of the Russia Ukraine war on the local and global economies. Overall, there are human costs of war along with the economic influences like building, devastation, inflation, limitation of services debt increase, and daily economic life.

The European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) have a long history of working together on security matters, despite the UK's departure from the EU. Even without a formal agreement, the two entities have coordinated their efforts to address major geopolitical challenges, particularly Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The EU and UK have collaborated through various international forums, such as the G7, NATO, and bilateral partnerships, to provide military, financial, and humanitarian assistance