Parents who are using popular low-riding pushchairs could be exposing their babies to alarming levels of air pollution, finds a new study from the University of Surrey.
Online and blended (online and in-person) STEM instruction can produce the same learning outcomes for students as traditional, in-person classes at a fraction of the cost, finds research published today in Science Advances.
The novel coronavirus began spreading in New York City in February, before widespread testing began, and the strain so far identified in local samples came from Europe, a scientist said Wednesday.
Researchers have demonstrated the ability to implant an ultrathin, flexible neural interface with thousands of electrodes into the brain with a projected lifetime of more than six years. Protected from the ravaging environment ...
People who live in urban areas with higher levels of air pollution may score lower on thinking and memory tests and may also lose cognitive skills faster over time, or it is possible they also may not, according to a study ...
In recent years, scientists have conducted more than 100 clinical trials in the hopes of finding new indicators capable of diagnosing Alzheimer's disease prior to the manifestation of clinical symptoms such as memory loss. ...
Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have succeeded in restoring mobility and sensation of touch in stroke-afflicted rats by reprogramming human skin cells to become nerve cells, which were then transplanted into the ...
A pre-print study using data from medical wristbands suggests that evidence of disrupted sleep could predict when study participants were coming down with the flu—24 hours before they became contagious.
New data from a landmark study done by Monash University researchers in Australia raises significant concerns that even short-term exposure to low level air pollution can affect gene expression, leaving us at risk of other ...
Researchers at the University of Southampton have transformed optical fibers into photocatalytic microreactors that convert water into hydrogen fuel using solar energy.
According to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), groundwater supplies half of the world's population with fresh water and makes up 43% of the water used in irrigation. Despite its ...
At several points in the history of our planet, increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have caused extreme global warming, prompting the majority of species on Earth to die out.
The tiny hairs found on plant roots play a pivotal role in helping reduce soil erosion, a new study has found. The research, led by the University of Bristol and published in Communications Biology, provides compelling evidence ...
Does relativity lie at the source of quantum exoticism?
Fossil skull casts doubt over modern human ancestry
Deep-sea worms and bacteria team up to harvest methane
A sponge found in Manado Bay, Indonesia, makes a molecule called manzamine A, which stops the growth of cervical cancer cells, according to a recent publication in the Journal of Natural Products submitted by researchers ...
The new coronavirus might spread through the air via normal breathing and speaking, a top US scientist said Friday as the government was poised to recommend the use of face masks for everyone.
Normal speech by individuals who are asymptomatic but infected with coronavirus may produce enough aerosolized particles to transmit the infection, according to aerosol scientists at the University of California, Davis. Although ...
New research from Stanford University has found that stress can hinder our ability to develop informed plans by preventing us from being able to make decisions based on memory.
A team at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC), working in partnership with researchers at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, has discovered a new molecular mechanism mediated by nuclear receptors that determines the identity and expansion of macrophages—one of the cell types that act as immune sentinels in the body. The newly discovered mechanism specifically affects macrophages resident in the serous cavities, the membrane-surrounded cavities that enclose and protect many organs. The findings, published today in Nature Communications, could have important implications for the treatment of diseases that affect the serous cavities and the organs they contain, including many cancers and myocardial infarction.
An international study involving researchers from QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute has found women who breastfeed their babies may lower their risk of developing ovarian cancer by almost 25 percent.
New research has found that allotment gardening promotes positive body image, which measures someone's appreciation of their own body and its functions, and an acceptance of bodily imperfections.
It turns out that there may be some limits to the influence of Western culture on the rest of the world, after all. A new paper in Frontiers in Psychology that examined men's attitudes towards and behaviors around muscularity ...
Overconfidence in one's own abilities despite clear evidence to the contrary is present and persistent in children as young as four, a new study by the University of Sussex Business School has revealed.
A new study by members of the Cumming School of Medicine (CSM) at the University of Calgary finds niacin, commonly called vitamin B3, combined with chemotherapy can help immune cells attack glioblastoma (a type of brain tumor), ...
Learning how people interact with artificial intelligence-enabled machines—and using that knowledge to improve people's trust in AI—may help us live in harmony with the ever-increasing number of robots, chatbots and other ...
MAR 31, 2020
Engineers 3-D print soft, rubbery brain implants
The brain is one of our most vulnerable organs, as soft as the softest tofu. Brain implants, on the other hand, are typically made from metal and other rigid materials that over time can cause inflammation and the buildup ..
Most structures and materials have defects, and if the conditions are right, these defects can lead to the initiation and propagation of cracks. Finding out where and with what orientation a surface crack is most likely to ...
People with Parkinson's disease who engage in cognitive behavioral therapy—a form of psychotherapy that increases awareness of negative thinking and teaches coping skills—are more likely to overcome depression and anxiety, according to a Rutgers study.
Chicken with salmonella can make you sick. So can romaine lettuce with E. coli and buffets with lurking norovirus. So why aren't health officials warning people about eating food contaminated with the new coronavirus?
Some call it baby fat. But recent research has shown that adults have it too—which is a good thing. Brown fat, the so-called good fat that can protect against obesity and associated health risks, like cardiovascular disease ...MAR 31, 20200
A team of researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, has taken another step toward the development of a computer able to decipher speech in the human mind. In their paper published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, the group describes their approach to using AI systems to read and translate human thoughts. Gregory Cogan with Duke University has published a News & Views piece outlining the work by the team in California in the same journal issue.
APRIL 1, 2020
Most diets lead to weight loss and lower blood pressure, but effects largely disappear after a year
by British Medical Journal
Reasonably good evidence suggests that most diets result in similar modest weight loss and improvements in cardiovascular risk factors over a period of six months, compared with a usual diet, finds a study published by The BMJ today.
A team of researchers at the University of Tokyo has found that people tend to consume smaller amounts of food when they are with someone else than when alone, but eat more often. In their paper published in the journal Royal ...
Surgery performed on a fetus in the womb to repair defects from spina bifida triggers the body's ability to restore normal brain structure, Mayo Clinic research discovered.
Researchers from the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the Central South University (CSU) in China have for the first time identified a gene that increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease.
it will employ different neurons to recognize a photo of a cat than it will to recognize a school bus.
"You don't need to train all the neurons on every case," Medini said.
Deep learning networks were inspired by biology, and their central feature, artificial neurons, are small pieces of computer code that can learn to perform a specific task.
For example, if a deep neural network is trained to
identify objects in photos,
it will employ different neurons to recognize a photo of a cat than it will to recognize a school bus.
"You don't need to train all the neurons on every case," Medini said.
"We thought, 'If we only want to pick the neurons that are relevant, then it's a search problem.'
So, algorithmically, the idea was to use locality-sensitive hashing to get away from matrix multiplication."
Hashing is a data-indexing method invented for internet search in the 1990s. It uses numerical methods to encode large amounts of information, like entire webpages or chapters of a book, as a string of digits called a hash. Hash tables are lists of hashes that can be searched very quickly.
...
Shrivastava said SLIDE hasn't yet come close to reaching its potential.
"We've just scratched the surface," he said. "There's a lot we can still do to optimize. We have not used vectorization, for example, or built-in accelerators in the CPU, like Intel Deep Learning Boost. There are a lot of other tricks we could still use to make this even faster."
Shrivastava said SLIDE is important because it shows
Older adults with irregular sleep patterns—meaning they have no
regular bedtime and
wakeup schedule,
or they get different amounts of sleep each night—
are nearly twice as likely to develop
cardiovascular disease
as those with more regular sleep patterns,
according to a new study funded in part by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health.
The five-year study suggests that an irregular sleep pattern may be a novel and independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), and that
maintaining regular sleep patterns
could help prevent heart disease just as
physical activity,
a healthy diet,
and other lifestyle measures do, the researchers said.
"Research has linked irregular sleep schedules to a constellation of disease-causing abnormalities in body function, including changes in
blood sugar and
inflammation,"
said Michael Twery, Ph.D., director of the NHLBI's National Center on Sleep Disorders Research.
"This study is Important because it is among the largest of its kind, and it specifically associates these irregular sleep patterns with an increased risk for cardiovascular disease."
...
The researchers said they are still unclear about the exact biological mechanisms behind the sleep irregularity and CVD link, but they suspect that multiple factors, including
harmful disturbances in the body's circadian rhythm
—the 24-hour internal body clock which controls the sleep-wake cycle—
may be in play.
Recent studies by the same researchers linked
irregular sleep patterns to
harmful metabolic changes associated with
obesity,
diabetes, and
high cholesterol,
and they suspect similar processes might also influence
CVD risk.
...
In future studies, the researchers said they will look for
blood biomarkers
that may help explain the apparent link.
Larger studies with longer follow-up will also be important to confirm these findings.
A better understanding of the root causes could lead to new interventions that could help people better regulate their sleep patterns, such as
wearing devices or
using specialized mobile apps
designed to reduce irregular sleep,
the researchers said.
Medicinal interventions also may be possible, they noted.
participation in running, regardless of its dose, would probably lead to
substantial improvements in
population health and
longevity.
Any amount of running, even just once a week, is better than no running,
but higher doses of running may not necessarily be associated with greater mortality benefits.
Fourteen studies from six prospective cohorts with a pooled sample of 232 149 participants were included. In total, 25 951 deaths were recorded during 5.5–35 year follow-ups. Our meta-analysis showed that
running participation is associated with
27%, 30% and 23% lower risk of
all-cause,
cardiovascular and
cancer mortality, respectively,
compared with no running.
A meta-regression analysis showed no significant dose–response trends for weekly frequency, weekly duration, pace and the total volume of running.
“Strategically reduce your goals” . Instructors need to identify a few specific things that they want their students to learn, and focus on those.
Don’t rely on live video.
Invite student engagement and feedback.
The best online instructors, Reich and Lee agree, set up their courses so that students can pursue self-paced enquiry — exploring the topic under their own initiative. For example, you can give students a range of links for further reading.
Asking students what they hope to get out of the online course, and
how you can best serve them,
offers instructors ideas for teaching and gives students ownership of the process, he says.
Check in with students often.
Consider interactive elements such as short quizzes.
Students might also miss on-campus social interaction, so it helps to engage them with opportunities to talk to one another during a live session, says Lee. She groups students into teams of five so that they can support one another. If students have a question about content, they ask their group first, and come to her only if they still can’t get a satisfactory answer. “Make sure students support each other. Don’t try to do everything yourself,” she says.
Identify and support struggling students.
Reich says that the most successful virtual teachers conduct frequent assessments, and check in by phone, text or e-mail with each student — most often with those who are struggling.
To identify those students, instructors can ask whether class members have adequate Wi-Fi and access to devices, and how concerned they are about the transition to online learning.
he records several short videos of himself explaining maths concepts,
adding up to 15–30 minutes collectively.
During their day, the students
watch the videos on a website and, in turn,
insert videos they make of their assigned theorem proofs, for example, or
a question,
a comment or
a critique of a classmate’s proof.
Together, Rolla and his students produce an interactive, if asynchronous, class recording.
Working together
Rolla has one crucial tip:
seek constant feedback from students.
“I am the director of this movie,” he says, “but we are all in this together.”
He asks his students precise questions to demonstrate
what they have just learnt and
how each concept builds on their existing base of knowledge.
He also asks for feedback to improve the course.
When students asked for more concrete examples of complex, abstract theorems to make sure they understood the concepts, he obliged.
“The biggest risk is that you become a talking head
explaining things that students are not following,” he says,
“and they give up and
just pretend.”
His video-based approach has earned high praise from students and colleagues.
“The hardest part is that it takes a lot of time,” says Rolla, “at least three times as much work as a traditional lecture, and that’s once you’re familiar with the tools.” He estimates that since February, he’s been spending 35 hours weekly preparing his online teaching content.
