Font size can ‘nudge’ customers toward healthier food choices

Restaurants can persuade patrons to choose healthier foods by adjusting the font size of numbers attached to nutritional information on menus, according to a study headed by a Washington State University researcher. Lead researcher Ruiying Cai, an assistant professor in the WSU School of Hospitality Business Management, said U.S. restaurants…

Gene therapy hope for children with kidney disease

Researchers at the University of Bristol have made a remarkable step forward in finding a potential cure for a type of childhood kidney disease. The research project has shown that just one dose of gene therapy targeting cells in the kidney has the potential to cure a condition known as…

Scientists reverse hearing loss in mice

New research from The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London has successfully reversed hearing loss in mice. The research, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, used a genetic approach to fix deafness in mice with a defective Spns2 gene, restoring their hearing…

Common cold virus linked to potentially fatal blood clotting disorder

Platelets, or thrombocytes, are specialized cellular fragments that form blood clots when we get scrapes and traumatic injuries. Viral infections, autoimmune disease, and other conditions can cause platelet levels to drop throughout the body, termed thrombocytopenia. After a robust clinical and research collaboration, Stephan Moll, MD, and Jacquelyn Baskin-Miller, MD,…

Researchers find new pathway for HIV invasion of cell nucleus

The researchers also identified three proteins that are needed for the virus to carry out the invasion and have in turn synthesized molecules (potential drugs) that can target one of the proteins, potentially leading to new treatments for AIDS. “We have revealed a protein pathway that appears to have a…

A new mechanism encouraging the brain to self-repair after an ischemic stroke

Patients often experience functional decline after an ischemic stroke, especially due to the brain’s resistance to regenerate after damage. Yet, there is still potential for recovery as surviving neurons can activate repair mechanisms to limit and even reverse the damage caused by the stroke. How is it triggered though? In…

New international guidelines will improve cystic fibrosis treatment

People living with cystic fibrosis (CF) will benefit from improved treatment as international experts produce clinical practice guidance for exercise assessments. The European CF Society Exercise Working Group (ECFS) document, led by Dr Zoe Saynor from the University of Portsmouth in England, provides comprehensive recommendations and instructions for health and…

Turning ChatGPT into a ‘chemistry assistant’

Developing new materials requires significant time and labor, but some chemists are now hopeful that artificial intelligence (AI) could one day shoulder much of this burden. In a new study in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, a team prompted a popular AI model, ChatGPT, to perform one particularly…

Poland plans to move around 10,000 troops to border with Belarus | CNN

CNN  —  Poland is planning to move around 10,000 troops to its eastern border with Belarus amid mounting concerns over Wagner forces in the region. Wagner troops have been stationed within Belarus – a close ally of Russia – in the wake of a short-lived rebellion carried out by the…

Live updates: Russia’s war in Ukraine

Ukraine has provided the Pentagon with a report about the use of controversial American cluster munitions in the fight with Russia, a Ukrainian official told CNN on Wednesday.  The official said the information transmitted to the Defense Department included both the number of rounds fired and the number of Russian…

How sure is sure? Incorporating human error into machine learning

Researchers are developing a way to incorporate one of the most human of characteristics — uncertainty — into machine learning systems. Human error and uncertainty are concepts that many artificial intelligence systems fail to grasp, particularly in systems where a human provides feedback to a machine learning model. Many of…

Long-term use of certain acid reflux drugs linked to higher risk of dementia

People who take acid reflux medications called proton pump inhibitors for four-and-a-half years or more may have a higher risk of dementia compared to people who do not take these medications, according to new research published in the August 9, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the…

Stem cell therapy rescues symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease

In the ongoing search for a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, a burgeoning branch of medicine is bringing new hope. Stem cell therapies are already being used to treat various cancers and disorders of the blood and immune system. In a new proof-of-concept study, scientists at University of California San Diego…

Research hints at links between babies’ microbiome and brain development: Small pilot study suggests levels of certain microbe species might be associated with cognitive abilities

In a small, exploratory study, levels of certain types of microbes in babies’ guts were shown to be associated with performance in tests of early cognitive development. Sebastian Hunter of the University of British Columbia, Canada, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on August 9,…

US municipal bond market pricing may be biased by race, unphased by climate risk: Communities with larger shares of Black residents pay more in bond insurance costs, while those with higher physical climate risk do not

New research suggests that the US municipal bond market systemically misprices risk, as the pricing of municipal debt does not account for local physical climate risk, but does demand larger credit spreads from communities with a larger proportion of Black residents. Erika Smull of Duke University, US, and colleagues present…