science

Abstract

Social media use is endemic among emerging adults, raising concerns that this trend may harm users. We tested whether reducing the quantity of social media use, relative to improving the way users engage with social media, benefits psychological well-being. Participants were 393 social media users (ages 17–29) in Canada, with elevated psychopathology symptoms, who perceived social media to negatively impact their life somewhat. They were randomized to either (a) assistance to engage with social media in a way to enhance connectedness (tutorial), (b) encouragement to abstain from social media (abstinence), or (c) no instructions to change behavior (control). Participants’ social media behaviors were self-reported and tracked using phone screen time apps while well-being was self-reported, over four timepoints (6 weeks in total). Results suggested that the tutorial and abstinence groups, relative to control, reduced their quantity of social media use and the amount of social comparisons they made on social media, with abstinence being the most effective. Tutorial was the only condition to reduce participants’ fear of missing out and loneliness, and abstinence was the only condition to reduce internalizing symptoms, relative to control. No condition differences emerged in eating pathology or the tendency to make social comparisons in an upward direction. Changes in social media behaviors mediated the effects of abstinence (but not of tutorial) on well-being outcomes. Participant engagement and perceptions of helpfulness were acceptable, but the abstinence group possibly perceived the content as less helpful. In conclusion, using social media differently and abstaining from social media may each benefit well-being.

Abstract

Ketogenic diet (KD) is an excess fat, enough protein, and minimal carbohydrate diet. The high fat content in KD lowers the oesophageal sphincter tone, slows gastric emptying, and decreases intestinal transit time. The primary aim of the current clinical trial was to study the effect of L-carnitine supplementation on gastric emptying in children with drug resistant epilepsy (DRE) on KD. Assessment of the protective effect of L-carnitine on bowel function and habits in those patients was a secondary aim. The current study recruited 30 patients aged 12 months to 18 years newly diagnosed with DRE assigned to start KD who were following up at the Pediatric Clinical Nutrition and Neurology Outpatient Clinics or were admitted due to DRE at the Pediatric Neurology Inpatient Department, Children’s Hospital, Ain Shams University (Egypt). Participants were assigned randomly into 2 arms; arm I: received KD with L-carnitine supplementation, arm II: received KD only. Patients were assessed at baseline and after 3 months of starting KD, the assessments of children included: 24-hour dietary recall, Chalfont Seizures Severity Scale, gastrointestinal symptoms score and Bristol stool chart, frequency of defecation per week, anthropometric measurements assessment, fasting serum lipid profile and measurement of the antral length by ultrasound. There was significant increase in antral length in the patients who received KD with L-carnitine supplementation compared to the non-supplemented group. The antral length showed a significant negative correlation with GI symptoms score in all cases and the L-carnitine supplemented group. It also showed a significant positive correlation with Bristol stool score in all patients and a significant positive correlation with stool frequency in the L-carnitine supplemented group only. L-carnitine supplementation to children with DRE on KD has a significant role in improving gastric motility and it increases the frequency of defecation. Further studies are recommended to explore additional benefits, meanwhile it is prudent to advise L-carnitine supplementation for such patients.

Abstract

Developing instant detection systems with disease diagnostic capabilities holds immense importance for remote or resource-limited areas. However, the task of creating these systems—which are simultaneously easy to operate, rapid in detection, and cost-effective—remains a challenge. In this study, we present a compact highly sensitive photothermal reverse transcriptase–loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) chip (SPRC) designed for the detection of multiple diseases. The nucleic acid (NA) amplification on the chip is achieved through LAMP driven by either LED illumination or simple sunlight focusing. SPRC performs sample addition and amplification within a limited volume and autonomous enrichment of NA during the sample addition process, achieving a limit of detection (LOD) as low as 0.2 copies per microliter. Through 120 clinical samples, we achieved an accuracy of 95%, with a specificity exceeding 97.5%. Overall, SPRC has achieved promising progress in the application of point-of-care testing (POCT) by using light energy to simultaneously detect multiple diseases.

Abstract

: Lifetime’s “Married at First Sight” (MAFS) aired its seventeenth season in 2024, averaging 2.58 million viewers per weekly episode. In this paper, we ask, how does MAFS reflect and intervene in contemporary marriage politics, particularly regarding race, gender, class, and sexuality in the U.S.? To answer this question, we draw on scholarship about marriage as a political institution, and on reality TV as a window into contemporary socio-economic issues. Using interpretive, feminist methods of analysis, we find that MAFS reflects and intervenes in contemporary marriage politics by offering viewers a very traditional and exclusionary version of the institution at a time when it and everything else (reproductive rights and same-sex marriages, to name just two examples) is in flux. However, even as it attempts to offer a “balm” to all of this upheaval, in practice, the show’s “experimental results” offer something more complex, which both reflects the contemporary realities of marriage and attracts viewers.

Abstract

Humans perceive a range of basic emotional connotations from music, such as joy, sadness, and fear, which can be decoded from structural characteristics of music, such as rhythm, harmony, and timbre. However, despite theory and evidence that music has multiple social functions, little research has examined whether music conveys emotions specifically associated with social status and social connection. This investigation aimed to determine whether the social emotions of dominance and affiliation are perceived in music and whether structural features of music predict social emotions, just as they predict basic emotions. Participants (N = 1513) listened to subsets of 750 music excerpts and provided ratings of energy arousal, tension arousal, valence, dominance, and affiliation. Ratings were modelled based on ten structural features of music. Dominance and affiliation were readily perceived in music and predicted by structural features including rhythm, harmony, dynamics, and timbre. In turn, energy arousal, tension arousal and valence were also predicted by musical structure. We discuss the results in view of current models of music and emotion and propose research to illuminate the significance of social emotions in music.

Abstract

A growing concern is that as local newspapers disappear, communities lose trusted gatekeepers and develop information voids, creating openings for misinformation to thrive. Previous work has not evaluated whether residents of news deserts have developed different information acquisition habits. We fill this gap by directly comparing information consumption and referral patterns inside and outside of news deserts in a novel dataset of engagement with online media by millions of users on the Edge browser. We find little evidence that those in news deserts consume more low-quality sites or are more likely to be referred to low-quality sites from search engines or social media. We find some evidence that those in news deserts do consume more national news than locations with local media outlets. These results contribute to our understanding of how the loss of local newspapers has impacted online information acquisition.

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (KCTV) - An Independence woman, who doctors told would be partially blind for the rest of her life, is regaining her vision due to a relatively new implant approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Abstract

To investigate air pollution’s effect in the form of PM~2.5~ (particulate matter measuring less than 2.5 microns) on head and neck aerodigestive cancer incidence, an epidemiological cohort analysis was performed using data from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results national cancer database from the years 2002–2012. The relationship between US county mean PM~2.5~ levels and head and neck cancer (HNC) incidence rates were examined using a linear mixed model. Lagged effect of the pollutant’s effect on HNC incidence was analyzed. Our results showed a significant association between the incidence of HNC and certain subtypes with PM~2.5~ exposure after controlling for demographic characteristics, smoking and alcohol use. We observed the highest association at a 5-year lag period (β = 0.24, p value < 0.001). We observed significant associations at no lag (β = 0.16, p value = 0.02) and up to a 20-year lag period (β = 0.15, p value < 0.001). PM~2.5~ exposure is associated with an increased incidence of HNC, with the strongest association at a 5-year lag period. To better understand the relationships between exposure and cancer pathogenesis, further subgroup analysis is needed.

AlphaFold3 is open at last. Six months after Google DeepMind controversially withheld code from a paper describing the protein-structure prediction model, scientists can now download the software code and use the artificial intelligence (AI) tool for non-commercial applications, the London-based company announced on 11 November.

When AlphaFold3 was first published the code wasn't publicly available (which is pretty bad for computational research), so this is good news that they finally released the code repository.

The GitHub repository: https://github.com/google-deepmind/alphafold3

Note that to request access one needs to sign a form & has to represent a non-commercial entity. If you receive access then allegedly you can easily run AlphaFold3 via docker

Occupational stress is a trigger for Rebecca Wilde, a 32-year-old tech worker in Buckinghamshire. Four years ago, work pressures combined with family issues affected her sleep, leading to a severe manic episode. She was hospitalised for a month and a half, and diagnosed with type 1 bipolar disorder, also known as bipolar 1, a mood condition that can have devastating consequences if not managed well. Mania, and sometimes psychosis, is present in type 1.

Wilde was experiencing both: at one point, she thought she could talk to dogs. She was put on the antipsychotic drug olanzapine and another mood stabiliser, lithium. She has now been taking lithium alone for a year, and it has been transformative. “On the lithium, I definitely feel like me,” she says.

While Wilde was transitioning to lithium only, researchers were furiously debating the evidence around the drug. In 2023, the journal Bipolar Disorders published an editorial co-written by editor-in-chief Gin S Malhi, titled “Lithium first: not merely first line”. This asserted that lithium should be considered not only as one of several possible initial treatments for bipolar disorder, but as the first and foremost of these. Lithium “needs to be championed”, maintains Malhi, a visiting psychiatry professor at Oxford University.

This is not the only heated dispute among lithium researchers from the past couple of years. A 2024 critique led to professors trading words such as “pseudoscience” and “extraordinarily venomous”. Feuds such as these point to the high stakes over the declining popularity of lithium.

Medicinal lithium is remarkable. There is more evidence of lithium’s effectiveness in managing bipolar disorder than for any other medicine. As a naturally occurring ion, lithium can’t be patented. And unlike most medicines, it’s not metabolised by the body.

Malhi explains why this is significant: “With lithium, the body can be thought of simply as a bucket of water with input and output of fluid. Then, whatever lithium you add gives you a plasma level. It means we can accurately make changes with sensitivity around plasma levels and clinical response and tolerability.”

Abstract

The ability to detect threats quickly is crucial for survival. Primates, including humans, have been shown to identify snakes quickly and accurately due to their evolutionary history. However, it is unclear which visual features humans and primates detect as threat targets. Several studies have suggested that snake scales possess potent visual features. My previous study demonstrated that removing snake scales through digital image processing reduces attention directed toward snakes. Here, I conducted a visual search task using luminance- and contrast-adjusted photographs of snakes and salamanders in monkeys that had never seen these real reptiles and amphibians. This study demonstrates that the presence or absence of snake scales is responsible for the rapid detection of target animals. The monkeys quickly detected one snake photograph from the eight salamander photographs than vice versa. However, when the same salamanders were clothed with snake scales using image processing, the difference in detection speed between snakes and salamanders disappeared. These results are consistent with the snake-detection theory that snakes were a strong selective pressure favoring modifications in the primate visual system that allow them to detect snakes more quickly or reliably. This strongly suggests that primates’ snake detection depends on the snake-scale shapes, which are both snake-specific and common to all snakes.

Abstract

To compare the economic burden of disease and quality of life in patients with premature ejaculation (PE) and erectile dysfunction (ED). A convenience sampling method was used, and self-designed general information questionnaire, disease economic burden questionnaire, and SF-12 quality of life questionnaire were used to investigate 494 patients with ED and 285 patients with PE who attended a tertiary hospital in Taiyuan City from October 2021 to May 2023, and the relevant data were analysed using SPSS26.0 statistical software. The direct, indirect, intangible, and total economic burdens of the two groups were compared, and the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05), and the direct, indirect, intangible, and total economic burdens of ED patients were higher than those of PE patients; the scores of the two groups in the dimensions of PF (physical function), RP (role physical), RE (role emotion), and MH (mental health) as well as in the MCS (mental component score), and overall quality of life scores, the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05), with ED patients having lower quality of life scores than PE patients. Compared with PE patients, ED patients have a heavier economic burden of disease and lower quality of life, suggesting that the government and relevant departments of society should pay attention to the economic burden of disease and quality of life of ED patients and take appropriate measures to improve them.

When a dog shakes water off its fur, the action is not just a random flurry of movements — nor a deliberate effort to drench anyone standing nearby.

This instinctive reflex is shared by many furry mammals including mice, cats, squirrels, lions, tigers and bears. The move helps animals to remove water, insects or other irritants from hard-to-reach places. But underlying the shakes is a complex — and previously mysterious — neurological mechanism.

Now, researchers have identified the neural circuit that triggers characteristic ‘wet dog’ shaking behaviour in mice — which involves a specific class of touch receptors, and neurons that connect the spinal cord to the brain. Their findings were published in Science on 7 November.

“The touch system is so complex and rich that [it] can distinguish a water droplet from a crawling insect from the gentle touch of a loved one,” says Kara Marshall, a neuroscientist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. “It’s really remarkable to be able to link a very specific subset of touch receptors to this familiar and understandable behaviour.”

Research article was featured on the cover of this issue of Science, with a glorious picture of a brown bear doing the "wet dog shake" (https://www.science.org/toc/science/current)

Research article: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adq8834

Please let me know if there is paywall