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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 24, 2024 at 11:05am

Virus spreading in Latin America may cause stillbirths and birth defects
Brazilian Ministry of Health tells doctors to closely monitor pregnant women infected with the little-known Oropouche virus
Fears over viral infection during pregnancy
The 2015-2016 outbreak of the Zika virus in Brazil caused thousands of birth defects after women were infected during pregnancy; now the country is facing the same fears with the Oropouche virus. Brazil’s health ministry has reported four cases of microcephaly — a type of reduced brain development — in newborns of infected mothers and one fetal death that might be associated with the virus. The virus is transmitted by Culicoides paraensis, a tiny midge found across the Americas. Cases of Oropouche fever have surged in Brazil since late 2022. “The cases are worrisome and a sign to be alert,” says virologist Amilcar Tanuri.

https://www.science.org/content/article/virus-spreading-in-latin-am...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 24, 2024 at 10:50am

Evidence of ‘Dark oxygen’ production from the sea floor

A chemical reaction could be producing oxygen by splitting water molecules, but its source of energy remains unknown.

The phenomenon was discovered in a region strewn with ancient, plum-sized formations called polymetallic nodules, which could play a part in the oxygen production by catalysing the splitting of water molecules, researchers suspect. The findings are published in Nature Geoscience.
Something is pumping out large amounts of oxygen at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, at depths where a lack of sunlight makes photosynthesis impossible. The find has surprised scientists and the source remains a mystery. The oxygen might be generated by metal-rich mineral deposits, or nodules. To researchers’ surprise, they measured voltages of up to 0.95 volts across the surface of the nodules. It is possible that the nodules catalyse the splitting of water into oxygen and hydrogen, but more experiments are needed.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01480-8?utm_source=Live+...

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02393-7?utm_source=Live+...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 24, 2024 at 9:44am

Chinese lunar probe finds water in moon samples

A Chinese lunar probe found traces of water in samples of the moon's soil, scientists have said, as the country pushes its ambitious space program into high gear.

The Chang'e-5 rover completed its mission in 2020, returning to Earth with rock and  soil samples from the moon.

The lunar samples "revealed the presence of trace water", the group of scientists from Chinese universities wrote in the Nature Astronomy journal published recently.

Shifeng Jin et al, Evidence of a hydrated mineral enriched in water and ammonium molecules in the Chang'e-5 lunar sample, Nature Astronomy (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-024-02306-8 , www.nature.com/articles/s41550-024-02306-8

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 24, 2024 at 9:35am

Electric scooter and bike accidents are soaring across the US, researchers report

In the crowded urban landscape, where small electric vehicles—primarily scooters and bicycles—have transformed short distance travel,  researchers are reporting a major national surge in accidents tied to "micromobility."

The researchers analyzed injuries and hospitalizations from electric bicycles, electric scooters, conventional bicycles and conventional scooters. The study, which appears July 23 in JAMA Network Open, is believed to be the first investigation into recent injury patterns in the U.S.

E-bicycle injuries doubled every year from 2017 to 2022, while e-scooter injuries rose by 45%. Injured e-riders tended to be slightly older and wore helmets less often than conventional riders. And e-scooter riders were more likely to sustain internal injuries than conventional scooter riders, while upper extremity injuries were more common among non-EV riders.

JAMA Network Open (2024). jamanetwork.com/journals/jaman … tworkopen.2024.24131

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 24, 2024 at 9:30am

The AI model and human physicians answered questions from the New England Journal of Medicine's Image Challenge. The challenge is an online quiz that provides real clinical images and a short text description that includes details about the patient's symptoms and presentation, then asks users to choose the correct diagnosis from multiple-choice answers.

The researchers tasked the AI model to answer 207 image challenge questions and provide a written rationale to justify each answer. The prompt specified that the rationale should include a description of the image, a summary of relevant medical knowledge, and provide step-by-step reasoning for how the model chose the answer.

Nine physicians from various institutions were recruited, each with a different medical specialty, and answered their assigned questions first in a "closed-book" setting, (without referring to any external materials such as online resources) and then in an "open-book" setting (using external resources). The researchers then provided the physicians with the correct answer, along with the AI model's answer and corresponding rationale. Finally, the physicians were asked to score the AI model's ability to describe the image, summarize relevant medical knowledge, and provide its step-by-step reasoning.

The researchers found that the AI model and physicians scored highly in selecting the correct diagnosis. Interestingly, the AI model selected the correct diagnosis more often than physicians in closed-book settings, while physicians with open-book tools performed better than the AI model, especially when answering the questions ranked most difficult.

Importantly, based on physician evaluations, the AI model often made mistakes when describing the medical image and explaining its reasoning behind the diagnosis—even in cases where it made the correct final choice. In one example, the AI model was provided with a photo of a patient's arm with two lesions. A physician would easily recognize that both lesions were caused by the same condition. However, because the lesions were presented at different angles—causing the illusion of different colors and shapes—the AI model failed to recognize that both lesions could be related to the same diagnosis.

The researchers argue that these findings underpin the importance of evaluating multi-modal AI technology further before introducing it into the clinical setting.

 Hidden Flaws Behind Expert-Level Accuracy of Multimodal GPT-4 Vision in Medicine, npj Digital Medicine (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41746-024-01185-7. www.nature.com/articles/s41746-024-01185-7

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 24, 2024 at 9:28am

New findings shed light on risks and benefits of integrating AI into medical decision-making

Researchers have found that an artificial intelligence (AI) model solved medical quiz questions—designed to test health professionals' ability to diagnose patients based on clinical images and a brief text summary—with high accuracy. However, physician-graders found the AI model made mistakes when describing images and explaining how its decision-making led to the correct answer.

The findings, which shed light on AI's potential in the clinical setting, were published in npj Digital Medicine. 

Integration of AI into health care holds great promise as a tool to help medical professionals diagnose patients faster, allowing them to start treatment sooner.

However, as this study shows, AI is not advanced enough yet to replace human experience, which is crucial for accurate diagnosis.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 24, 2024 at 9:17am

Dual action antibiotic could make bacterial resistance nearly impossible

A new antibiotic that works by disrupting two different cellular targets would make it 100 million times more difficult for bacteria to evolve resistance, according to new research.

For a new paper in Nature Chemical Biology, researchers probed how a class of synthetic drugs called macrolones disrupt bacterial cell function to fight infectious diseases. Their experiments demonstrate that macrolones can work two different ways—either by interfering with protein production or corrupting DNA structure.

Because bacteria would need to implement defenses to both attacks simultaneously, the researchers calculated that drug resistance is nearly impossible.

The beauty of this antibiotic is that it kills through two different targets in bacteria. If the antibiotic hits both targets at the same concentration, then the bacteria lose their ability to become resistant via acquisition of random mutations in any of the two targets.

Macrolones are synthetic antibiotics that combine the structures of two widely used antibiotics with different mechanisms. Macrolides, such as erythromycin, block the ribosome, the protein manufacturing factories of the cell. Fluoroquinolones, such as ciprofloxacin, target a bacteria-specific enzyme called DNA gyrase.

Elena V. Aleksandrova et al, Macrolones target bacterial ribosomes and DNA gyrase and can evade resistance mechanisms, Nature Chemical Biology (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41589-024-01685-3

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 23, 2024 at 12:49pm

Scientists use AI to predict a wildfire's next move accurately

Researchers  have developed a new method to accurately predict wildfire spread. By combining satellite imagery and artificial intelligence, their model offers a potential breakthrough in wildfire management and emergency response.

Detailed in an early study proof published in Artificial Intelligence for the Earth Systems, the new model uses satellite data to track a wildfire's progression in real time, then feeds this information into a sophisticated computer algorithm that can accurately forecast the fire's likely path, intensity and growth rate.

This model represents an important step forward in our ability to combat wildfires.

 Bryan Shaddy et al, Generative Algorithms for Fusion of Physics-Based Wildfire Spread Models with Satellite Data for Initializing Wildfire Forecasts, Artificial Intelligence for the Earth Systems (2024). DOI: 10.1175/AIES-D-23-0087.1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 23, 2024 at 12:45pm

Switching from gas to electric stoves cuts indoor air pollution

Switching from a gas stove to an electric induction stove can reduce indoor nitrogen dioxide air pollution, a known health hazard, by more than 50 percent according to new research led by scientists.  The findings appear in the journal Energy Research & Social Science.

this study is the the first to evaluate the feasibility and benefits of transitioning from gas to induction stoves in affordable housing. The study is the first to evaluate the effects of residential cooking electrification in a public housing setting.

 Misbath Daouda et al, Out of Gas, In with Justice: Findings from a gas-to-induction pilot in low-income housing in NYC, Energy Research & Social Science (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2024.103662

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 23, 2024 at 12:42pm

'New El Niño' discovered south of the equator

A small area of the southwestern Pacific Ocean, near New Zealand and Australia, can trigger temperature changes that affect the entire Southern Hemisphere, a new study has found.

The new climate pattern, which shares some characteristics with the El Niño phenomenon, has been named the "Southern Hemisphere Circumpolar Wavenumber-4 Pattern."

Unlike El Niño, which starts in the tropics, this new pattern begins in the mid-latitudes. The study, published this month in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, highlights how important the interaction between the ocean and atmosphere is for our climate.

This discovery is like finding a new switch in Earth's climate. It shows that a relatively small area of the ocean can have wide-reaching effects on global weather and climate patterns.

Understanding this new weather system could greatly improve weather forecasting and climate prediction, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. It might help explain climate changes that were previously mysterious and could improve our ability to predict extreme weather and climate events.

 Balaji Senapati et al, Southern Hemisphere Circumpolar Wavenumber‐4 Pattern Simulated in SINTEX‐F2 Coupled Model, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans (2024). DOI: 10.1029/2023JC020801

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