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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 5 hours ago

Heart attack study reveals 'survival paradox'
Analysis of over 900,000 heart attack patients shows that while severe frailty is more common in women, frail men have a higher one-year mortality risk. This "sex-frailty paradox" indicates that frailty impacts outcomes differently by sex, challenging current risk assessments and highlighting the need for sex-specific care pathways and frailty assessment tools in acute myocardial infarction management.

New Research challenges the "one-size-fits-all" approach to heart attack care, adding critical nuance to the debate on sex disparities. A new study involving more than 900,000 patients has revealed a "sex-frailty paradox" in heart attack outcomes, challenging the prevailing narrative that high clinical risk is predominantly a female issue.
While considerable focus has rightly been placed on addressing the fact that women are often undertreated compared to men after a heart attack, this new research, published in The Lancet Regional Health—Europe, highlights a hidden and profound vulnerability in men.
The study found that while severe frailty is indeed more common in women following a heart attack (acute myocardial infarction, or AMI), the actual risk of dying within one year is significantly higher for frail men.

This creates a complex picture where women face inequalities in access to care, but frail men face a "malignant" prognosis that current standard treatments are failing to address.

The study is the largest of its kind, analyzing national data over a 15-year period to disentangle the relationship between sex, frailty, and survival.
It challenges current risk assessments including patient frailty and age used by clinicians to determine treatment strategies, highlighting the need for sex informed care pathways to be included.

Patient frailty has long been an indicator of poorer outcomes, including mortality, rehospitalization and recurrent cardiovascular events, with frailty scores underpinning treatment decisions.

Hasan Mohiaddin et al, Sex–specific associations between frailty and long-term outcomes in patients with acute myocardial infarction: a national population-based study, The Lancet Regional Health - Europe (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.lanepe.2026.101612

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 5 hours ago

Air pollution may directly contribute to Alzheimer's disease—new study
Higher exposure to fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) is associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease, independent of other risk factors such as high blood pressure, stroke, and depression. PM2.5 particles, primarily from fossil fuel combustion and wildfires, may contribute to brain inflammation and oxidative stress. Global regions with elevated PM2.5 levels face rising dementia rates.

https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.p...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 5 hours ago

Our brains may learn more from rare events than from repetition

Associative learning in the brain relies more on the timing and rarity of cue-reward pairings than on repetition. Mice learned associations just as effectively from infrequent, widely spaced rewards as from frequent ones, with dopamine responses emerging after fewer rare events. These findings suggest that rare or intermittent experiences can drive rapid learning, challenging traditional repetition-based models.
More than a century ago, Pavlov trained his dog to associate the sound of a bell with food. Ever since, scientists have assumed the dog learned this through repetition. The more times the dog heard the bell and then got fed, the better it learned that the sound meant food would soon follow.
Now, scientists are upending this 100-year-old assumption about associative learning. The new theory asserts that it depends less on how many times something happens and more on how much time passes between rewards.
It turns out that the time between these cue-reward pairings helps the brain determine how much to learn from that experience.
When the experiences happen closer together, the brain learns less from each instance and this could explain why students who cram for exams don't do as well as those who studied throughout the semester.
Scientists have traditionally thought of associative learning as a process of trial and error. Once the brain has detected that certain cues might lead to rewards, it begins to predict them. Scientists have postulated that at first the brain only releases dopamine when a reward like tasty food arrives.

But if the reward arrives often enough, the brain begins to anticipate it with a release of dopamine as soon as it gets the cue. The dopamine hit refines the brain's prediction, the theory goes, strengthening the link with the cue if the reward arrives—or weakening it if the reward fails to appear.
The findings could shift the way we look at learning and addiction. Smoking, for example, is intermittent and can involve cues—like the sight or smell of cigarettes—that increase the urge to smoke. Because a nicotine patch delivers nicotine constantly, it may disrupt the brain's association between nicotine and the resulting dopamine reward, blunting the urge to smoke and making it easier to quit.

Dennis A. Burke et al, Duration between rewards controls the rate of behavioral and dopaminergic learning, Nature Neuroscience (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41593-026-02206-2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 5 hours ago

Restored woodlands show only partial ability to bounce back after fire
Restored Banksia woodlands exhibit only partial recovery after fire, with seed-regenerating species rebounding well but resprouting species showing limited recovery, especially in younger sites. This incomplete resilience suggests that restored ecosystems may lack key plant groups essential for long-term stability, highlighting the need for targeted planning and monitoring in restoration efforts.

https://phys.org/news/2026-02-woodlands-partial-ability.html?utm_so...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 6 hours ago

Junk to high-tech: India bets on e-waste for critical minerals
India is increasingly extracting critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel from e-waste to reduce import dependency and support technological ambitions. While formal recycling capacity is growing, over 80% of e-waste is still processed informally, leading to loss of valuable materials and hazardous conditions. Integrating informal workers into formal supply chains could improve recovery and safety.
Source: News agencies

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 6 hours ago

Too many satellites? Earth's orbit is on track for a catastrophe—but we can stop it

The rapid expansion of satellite megaconstellations, with over a million satellites proposed, threatens to permanently alter the night sky, increase light pollution, disrupt astronomy, and raise collision and environmental risks. Current regulations overlook cultural and environmental impacts. A Dark Skies Impact Assessment is recommended to systematically evaluate and mitigate these effects before deployment.

https://theconversation.com/too-many-satellites-earths-orbit-is-on-...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 6 hours ago

Brainwaves of mothers and children synchronize when playing together—even in an acquired language

Interbrain synchrony is the simultaneous activity of neural networks across the brains of people who are socially interacting—for example, talking, learning, singing, or working together. Having brains that are thus synchronized or "in tune" can help people boost their emotional connection, improve communication, and align their attention.

Neural synchrony is thought to be important for healthy bonding between parents and children. And now, a team of scientists  has found that neural synchrony doesn't appear to get "lost in translation." The results are published in Frontiers in Cognition.

The researchers showed that the brains of bilingual moms and their kids stay just as 'in sync' through neural synchrony irrespective of whether they play in the mom's native language or in an acquired second language.

This is an important finding because it suggests that using a second language doesn't disrupt the brain-to-brain connection that supports bonding and communication.

Second-language speakers often report a sense of emotional distancing when using their non-native language, which may influence how they express affection, discipline, or empathy in parent-child interactions.

But the results of this work done on immigrants in the UK  showed that brain synchrony was equally strong when participants played in English as when they played in the mother's native language.

The researchers concluded that talking in an acquired language didn't impinge on a mom's ability to synchronize her brain activity with that of her child during interactive play. These results suggest that this key condition for effective learning and bonding can be met irrespective of language.

The Impact of Language Context on Inter-Brain Synchrony in Bilingual Families, Frontiers in Cognition (2026). DOI: 10.3389/fcogn.2025.1695132

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 6 hours ago

Chitosan-nickel biomaterial becomes stronger when wet, and could replace plastics

A new study led by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) has unveiled the first biomaterial that is not only waterproof but actually becomes stronger in contact with water. The material is produced by the incorporation of nickel into the structure of chitosan, a chitinous polymer obtained from discarded shrimp shells. The development of this new biomaterial marks a departure from the plastic-age mindset of making materials that must isolate from their environment to perform well. Instead, it shows how sustainable materials can connect and leverage their environment, using their surrounding water to achieve mechanical performance that surpasses common plastics.

 The use of biomaterials as substitutes for conventional plastics has long been explored. However, their widespread adoption has been limited by a fundamental drawback: Most biological materials weaken when exposed to water. Traditionally, this vulnerability has forced engineers to rely on chemical modifications or protective coatings, thereby undermining the sustainability benefits of biomaterial-based solutions.

Now, a recent study led by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), in collaboration with the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), has overturned this paradigm. Inspired by the arthropod cuticle, the researchers adapted chitosan—the second most abundant organic molecule on Earth after cellulose—to create a biointegrated material that resists hydration and increases in strength to values well above those of commodity plastics when wet.

The method, published in Nature Communications, demonstrates the potential for a paradigm shift in manufacturing, with zero-waste production of both consumables and large objects that could meet the global demand for plastic.

Crucially, the process does not alter the biological nature of chitosan.

Stronger when wet: Aquatically robust chitinous objects via zero-waste coordination with metal ions, Nature Communications (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-69037-4

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Does the cold really 'seep into your bones?'
Bones themselves do not directly sense cold, as they lack temperature-sensitive receptors found in skin. However, nerves in the periosteum, the bone’s outer layer, can detect temperature changes and mechanical strain, potentially causing pain. Prolonged cold exposure may reduce bone density and thickness. Cold also stiffens joints, tendons, and ligaments, and low vitamin D in winter increases pain sensitivity.

https://theconversation.com/does-the-cold-really-seep-into-your-bon...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

In bright outdoor light, the pupil constricts to protect the eye while still allowing ample light to reach the retina. When people focus on close objects indoors, such as phones, tablets, or books, the pupil can also constrict, not because of brightness, but to sharpen the image. In dim lighting, this combination may significantly reduce retinal illumination
According to this mechanism, myopia develops when poor retinal illumination fails to generate robust retinal activity because the light sources are too dim and pupil constriction is too excessive at short viewing distances. Conversely, myopia does not develop when the eye is exposed to bright light and the pupil constriction is regulated by image brightness instead of viewing distance.

The new study demonstrates that negative lenses reduce retinal illumination by constricting the pupil through a process known as accommodation (i.e., an accommodative increase in the lens power of the eye when focusing on images at short distances). Such pupil constriction becomes stronger when accommodation is increased by shortening viewing distance or wearing excessively-strong negative lenses.

Moreover, pupil constriction becomes even stronger when lens accommodation is sustained for prolonged periods of time (e.g., tens of minutes), and even stronger when the eye becomes myopic. The study also demonstrates additional myopia disruptions of eye turning with accommodation and eye-blink efficacy at constricting the pupil.
If proven correct, the mechanism proposed could lead to a paradigm shift in our understanding of myopia progression and control. According to this mechanism, myopia can be controlled by exposing the eye to safe bright light levels under limited accommodative pupil constriction.

Accommodative pupil constriction can be limited by reducing accommodation strength with lenses (multifocal or contrast-reduction), blocking directly the muscles driving pupil constriction (atropine drops), or by simply spending time outdoors without engaging accommodation (looking at far distances).

Perhaps most importantly, the new mechanism predicts that any approach to myopia control will fail if the eye is exposed to excessive accommodation indoors under low light for prolonged periods of time.

Human accommodative visuomotor function is driven by contrast through ON and OFF pathways and is enhanced in myopia, Cell Reports (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2026.116938. www.cell.com/cell-reports/full … 2211-1247(26)00016-1

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