Eurekalert

A content recommendation system based on the user's brain model would be ideal for targeted advertising. Creating such a brain model, however, is computationally expensive. In a new study, researchers from Japan propose and validate a machine learning scheme to infer a user's brain model from their profile with high accuracy while optimizing the information collection cost using a feature selection technique, providing hope for its real-world application following further optimizations.

Led by the University of Minnesota, a study found that a majority of adolescents and their parents considered health care provider discussions about sexual health important, but less than one-third reported conversing with a health professional.

A recent study led by Geoff Burns, an elite runner and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan Exercise & Sport Science Initiative, compared the "bouncing behavior"--the underlying spring-like physics of running--in elite-level male runners (sub-four-minute milers) vs. highly trained but not elite runners.

Ten years after one of the largest nuclear accidents in history spewed radioactive contamination over the landscape in Fukushima, Japan, a University of Georgia study has shown that radioactive contamination in the Fukushima Exclusion Zone can be measured through its resident snakes.

A news study in PNAS shows soil microbes boost "hybrid vigor," a well-known phenomenon where crosses between inbred lines of corn and other crops produce offspring that outperform their parents in yield, drought resistance and other desirable qualities.

Highly reactive molecules cannot survive for long in nature. If researchers want to study them more closely, they therefore have to be produced under very specific laboratory conditions. Compared to "normal" molecules, many of these tiny particles have a distinguishing feature: they simply bind with everything around them and are therefore very difficult to direct.

Top U.S. health agencies retain the trust of the vast majority of the American public, as does Dr. Anthony Fauci, according to a new survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center. Public confidence has grown in the safety and effectiveness of vaccines to prevent Covid-19. But people who say they rely on conservative media have less confidence in Fauci and are more likely to accept misinformation and conspiracy theories.

In a new University of California, Irvine-led study, researchers found that a certain protein prevented regulatory T cells (Tregs) from effectively doing their job in controlling the damaging effects of inflammation in a model of multiple sclerosis (MS), a devastating autoimmune disease of the nervous system.

When it comes to improving access to mental health services for children and families in low-income communities, a University of Houston researcher found having a warm handoff, which is a transfer of care between a primary care physician and mental health provider, will help build trust with the patient and lead to successful outcomes.

Researchers compared data for pregnant women in two cities who were infected by zika virus in 2015-16. Factors that influenced the risk of fetal malformation were the high zika attack rate in the area and being infected in the first trimester of pregnancy.

New research adds to a body of evidence indicating decisions about withdrawing life-sustaining treatment for patients with moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) should not be made in the early days following injury.

Diagnosing a rare medical condition is difficult. Identifying a treatment for it can take years of trial and error. In a serendipitous intersection of research expertise, an ill patient in this case a child and innovative technology, Bachmann-Bupp Syndrome has gone from a list of symptoms to a successful treatment in just 16 months.

Forensics specialists can use a commercial assay targeting mitochondrial DNA to accurately discriminate between wolf, coyote and dog species. The genetic information could aid authorities in prosecuting hunting jurisdiction violations and preserving protected species.

Every spring, the Daylight Saving Time shift robs people of an hour of sleep - and a new study shows that DNA plays a role in how much the time change affects individuals. People whose genetic profile makes them more likely to be "early birds" can adjust to the time change in a few days. But those who tend to be "night owls" could take more than a week to get back on track.

EPFL researchers have found that a form of neuron-to-neuron communication that has long been dismissed as 'background noise' is required to keep nerve junctions intact as animals age. The finding suggests that defects in this type of neural communication could contribute to neurodegenerative disorders and other brain conditions.

Researchers in the BOTTLE Consortium, including from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the University of Portsmouth, have identified using enzymes as a more sustainable approach for recycling polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a common plastic in single-use beverage bottles, clothing, and food packaging that are becoming increasingly relevant in addressing the environmental challenge of plastic pollution. An analysis shows enzyme-recycled PET has potential improvement over conventional, fossil-based methods of PET production across a broad spectrum of energy, carbon, and socioeconomic impacts.

Although photovoltaic systems constitute a promising way of harnessing solar energy, power grid managers need to accurately predict their power output to schedule generation and maintenance operations efficiently. Scientists from Incheon National University, Korea, have developed a machine learning-based approach that can more accurately estimate the output of photovoltaic systems than similar algorithms, paving the way to a more sustainable society.

The high monetary cost and environmental toll of disposable N95 masks could be dramatically cut by adopting reusable masks, according to an MIT study that calculated the financial and environmental cost of several different mask usage scenarios.

Certain regions of the SARS-CoV-2 genome might be a suitable target for future drugs. This is what researchers at Goethe University, together with their collaborators in the international COVID-19-NMR consortium, have now discovered. With the help of dedicated substance libraries, they have identified several small molecules that bind to certain areas of the SARS-CoV-2 genome that are almost never altered by mutations.

To better understand how familiarity impacts social fishes, a group of research scientists studied this idea using schooling coral reef fish.