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Most autism spectrum disorders have a complex, multifactorial genetic component, making it difficult to find specific treatments. Rett syndrome is an exception. Babies born with this form of the disorder have mutations specifically in the MECP2 gene, causing a severe impairment in brain development that primarily affects females. Yet there is still no treatment -- current therapies are aimed at alleviating symptoms, but don't address the root cause.
Is gravity a quantum phenomenon? That has been one of the big outstanding questions in physics for decades. Together with colleagues from the UK, Anupam Mazumdar, a physicist from the University of Groningen, proposed an experiment that could settle the issue. However, it requires studying two very large entangled quantum systems in freefall. In a new paper, which has a third-year Bachelor's student as the first author, Mazumdar presents a way to reduce background noise to make this experiment more manageable.
In recent years, hydrogen (H2) has emerged as the best option for clean energy in our pursuit of an alternative fuel for mitigating environmental problems such as global warming. Hailed as "batteries of the future," H2 fuel cells are touted as the fuel for the future generation. While this is all well and good, there is one major problem with H2: like every other gas fuel, it is highly explosive.
The first lockdown led to a significant increase in symptoms of depression among children, highlighting the unintended consequences of school closures, according to a new study from the University of Cambridge.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK Government implemented a national "lockdown" involving school closures and social distancing. There has been widespread concern that these measures would negatively impact child and adolescent mental health. To date, however, there is relatively little direct evidence of this.
Johns Hopkins researchers have found that more is not always better in the case of vitamin D consumption and seniors' fall risk.
A ground-breaking method to label and track manufactured nano-plastics could signal a paradigm shift in how we understand and care for environments, finds a new study.
Nano-plastics are particles of at least one dimension below one μm. While there has been growing awareness of the dangers of visible plastic pollution to marine life, nano-plastics are thought to be even more dangerous as unseen, smaller animals and fish can ingest them.
Scientists from the School of Biomedicine of Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) with colleagues from Italy, Spain, Romania, and Sweden suggest a way to protect the brain and minimize neurodegenerative processes after concussion head injuries in the presence of extensive previous sleep deprivation. This methodology is especially important given the retirement-age increase that has recently become an international trend. A related article appears in the Progress in Brain Research journal.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- After several decades of improvement, inequality in infant health is once again on the rise in the United States, a pair of Brown University researchers has found.
Social media influencers vaping glamorously into their social media feeds are often not doing so for free. And new research suggests that calling out their pay-to-play posts as advertisements in a plain, obvious way might have an impact on young people.
A study of 200 teens and young adults used eye-tracking technology to determine that tagging vaping-related influencer Instagram posts with #ad or #sponsored was effective in grabbing attention. The study appears online in the Journal of Health Communication.
University of Victoria biologists have discovered how some corals managed to survive a globally unprecedented heatwave, in a first-ever study that provides new hope for the long-term survival of coral reefs in the face of climate change.
"The devastating effects of climate change on coral reefs are well known. Finding ways to boost coral survival through marine heatwaves is crucial if coral reefs are to endure the coming decades of climate change," says UVic marine biologist Julia Baum, the study's senior author.
Epileptic spasms are a type of brief seizures that are the hallmark of catastrophic seizure disorders, which are characterized by severe cognitive and motor deficits. Researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital now provide evidence that epileptic spasms originate from the pyramidal cells in the deep layers of the neocortex. Further, they uncovered a novel neurophysiological phenomenon that explains how cortical neurons generate spasms. This is also the first study to reveal a hitherto unknown relationship between a normal brain state, like sleep, and spasms.
Injury or disease that afflicts a relatively small number of brain cells causes a chain reaction that stops activity across a vast network of neural circuits, according to new research from Oregon Health & Science University.
The findings, published today in the journal Neuron, may help to explain why people can suffer from temporary but severe loss of cognitive function in cases of traumatic brain injury or disease.
Approximately 200,000 cancer patients are diagnosed with brain metastases each year, yet few treatment options exist because the mechanisms that allow cancer to spread to the brain remain unclear. However, a study recently published in the journal Cancer Cell by VCU Massey Cancer Center scientist Suyun Huang, M.D., Ph.D., offers hope for the development of future therapies by showing how a poorly understood gene known as YTHDF3 plays a significant role in the process.
Researchers from the DSI/NRF Center for Invasion Biology at Stellenbosch University in South Africa have found that, scarcely a hundred years after Guttural Toads were introduced to the islands of Mauritius and Réunion, their overall body size has been reduced by up to a third compared to their counterparts in South Africa.
Marine scientists have mapped previously unknown foraging grounds and migratory routes of Western Australia's green turtles to support conservation of the iconic threatened species.
The Australian Institute of Marine Science-led study also examined where turtles spent time during the nesting season which will allow researchers to identify the area's most important to them and to determine where this overlaps with industrial activity.