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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on June 10, 2023 at 1:13pm

Millions wasted on reformatting papers

Scientists are spending millions of dollars’ worth of time reformatting rejected papers for submission to alternative journals. An analysis shows that, in 2021, the global price tag on all of tha... — just for biomedical journals. If current journal practices don’t change, the authors estimate that reformatting could cost about $2.5 billion between 2022 and 2030. Suggested remedies include universal journal guidelines, free-format submissions or a ‘golden middle’ solution that allows researchers to submit manuscripts that abide by minimal structural requirements, such as total word count. “The current system is not sustainable,” says study co-author Tibor Varga.

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Why didn't the Big Bang collapse in a giant black hole?

Despite the enormous densities, the early universe didn't collapse into a black hole because, simply put, there was nothing to collapse into.

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Limiting global warming to 2C is not enough—why the world must keep...

The Paris Climate agreement represented a historic step towards a safer future for humanity on Earth when it was adopted in 2015. The agreement strove to keep global heating below 2℃ above pre-industrial levels with the aim of limiting the increase to 1.5℃ if possible. It was signed by 196 parties around the world, representing the overwhelming majority of humanity.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on June 10, 2023 at 10:52am

What Dreams May Mean
Dreams can be bizarre and disturbing, and even sometimes frightening. Do some betray a pathology? Dreams alone are not enough to diagnose a mental illness. But some characteristics of a dream may hint at disorders: for example, the frequency of nightmares is generally higher in people with a mental disorder, whether depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder (they’re particularly indicative of a person’s risk for suicide).

Why this is cool: Dreams may serve to integrate memories and lessen negative emotions around difficult life experiences; in fact, people tend to wake up happier than when they went to sleep (what I’m hearing: more naps, because SCIENCE). Those systems can get derailed in people with depression or PTSD.

What the experts say: Dreams can be useful in diagnosing some brain disorders, like differentiating between Alzheimer's and Lewy body dementia. Both involve cognitive loss, but the latter is accompanied by REM sleep behavior disorder, where the dreamer tries to physically act out what’s happening in their dream.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-dreams-reveal-brain-...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on June 10, 2023 at 8:10am

At rest, the expired air of older subjects (60-76) contained an average respiratory aerosol particle concentration of 310 particles/L compared to 105 particles/L in younger subjects. The study found differences between elderly men and women, with elderly men emitting 210 particles/L compared to elderly women at 500 particles/L. While the elderly women had more than twice the particle load per liter of air, the elderly men ventilated 57% more volume than elderly women making the overall difference insignificant.

The difference was more significant during exercise as the young group averaged 620 particles/L while the elderly group reached an average of 2,090 particles/L.

While age significantly affected aerosol particle emission, sex and body mass index differences were not significant. The study highlights that one size may not fit all when planning mitigation measures, especially for indoor fitness facilities or elder care facilities during heightened infection waves or future pandemics.

 Benedikt Schumm et al, Lung aerosol particle emission increases with age at rest and during exercise, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2023). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2301145120

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on June 10, 2023 at 8:10am

Older folks found to foist more moist particles into the air

Research led by the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Aerodynamics, Universität der Bundeswehr München, Germany, has found unexpectedly high aerosolized respiratory particle emissions from people over 60 years old.

In their paper, "Lung aerosol particle emission increases with age at rest and during exercise," published in PNAS, the researchers detail their findings after testing 80 individuals with a recently improved method of measuring respiratory aerosol particle emission.

Airborne respiratory diseases are transmitted via viruses in respiratory aerosol particles. When a person breathes out, a high-speed stream of air rushes over the surface of the wet lining of the respiratory tract, and some of this moisture is aerosolized and carried out with the exhale. Particles within the lining hitch a ride on the exiting moisture containing a mix of salts, proteins, mucus, and potential pathogens of bacteria and viruses.

Typically the emission of aerosol particles can increase by more than 100-fold from rest to peak exercise, and with the increase, the risk of infection can rise by more than 10-fold. While testing their improved measuring method, the researchers found another significant parameter affecting the amount of particle spread—age.

Subjects aged 60 to 76 years old emitted over twice as many aerosol particles at rest and during exercise and five times as much aerosol volume. This suggests that aerosol particle emission increases when the respiratory system ages.

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on June 9, 2023 at 11:23am

Researchers discover a new way to develop drugs without side effects

Have you ever wondered how drugs reach their targets and achieve their function within our bodies? If a drug molecule or a ligand is a message, an inbox is typically a receptor in the cell membrane. One such receptor involved in relaying molecular signals is a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR). About one-third of existing drugs work by controlling the activation of this protein. Researchers now reveal a new way of activating GPCR by triggering shape changes in the intracellular region of the receptor. This new process can help researchers design drugs with fewer or no side effects.

If the cell membrane is like an Oreo cookie sandwich, GPCR is like a snake with seven segments traversing in and out of the cookie sandwich surface. The extracellular loops are the inbox for messages. When a message molecule binds to the extracellular side of the receptor, it triggers a shape change activating G proteins and the ß-arrestin protein attached to the intracellular side of the receptor. Like a molecular relay, the information passes downstream and affects various bodily processes. That is how we see, smell, and taste, which are sensations of light, smell, and taste messages.

Adverse side effects ensue if drugs acting on GPCRs activate multiple signaling pathways rather than a specific target pathway. That is why drug development focuses on activating specific molecular signal pathways within cells. Activating the GPCR from inside the cell rather than outside the cell could be one way to achieve specificity. But until now, there was no evidence of direct activation of only the intracellular side of GPCRs without the initiations from the extracellular side.

A team of researchers discovered a new receptor activation mode of a bone metabolism-related GPCR called human parathyroid hormone type 1 receptor (PTH1R) without signal transduction from the extracellular side.

Kazuhiro Kobayashi et al, Class B1 GPCR activation by an intracellular agonist, Nature (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06169-3

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on June 9, 2023 at 11:18am

Scientists develop artificial molecules that behave like real ones

Scientists  have developed synthetic molecules that resemble real organic molecules. A collaboration of researchers can now simulate the behaviour of real molecules by using artificial molecules. In this way, they can tweak properties of molecules in ways that are normally difficult or unrealistic, and they can understand much better how molecules change.

Researchers developed a system in which they can trap electrons. Electrons surround a molecule like a cloud, and they used those trapped electrons to build an artificial molecule. The results the team found were astonishing.  "The resemblance between what they built and real molecules was uncanny."

Using this simulator, the researchers created an artificial version of one of the basic organic molecules in chemistry, benzene. Benzene is the first component for a number of chemicals, like styrene, which is used to make polystyrene. By making benzene, they simulated a textbook organic molecule, and built a molecule that is made up of elements that are not organic. In addition, the molecules are 10 times bigger than their real counterparts, which makes them easier to work with.

E. Sierda et al, Quantum simulator to emulate lower-dimensional molecular structure, Science (2023). DOI: 10.1126/science.adf2685. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf2685

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on June 9, 2023 at 11:04am

US lawyer sorry after ChatGPT creates 'bogus' cases

What happened when a US lawyer used ChatGPT to prepare a court filing? The artificial intelligence program invented fake cases and rulings, leaving the attorney rather red-faced.

New York-based lawyer Steven Schwartz apologized to a judge this week for submitting a brief full of falsehoods generated by the OpenAI chatbot.

"I simply had no idea that ChatGPT was capable of fabricating entire case citations or judicial opinions, especially in a manner that appeared authentic," Schwartz wrote in a court filing.

The blunder occurred in a civil case being heard by Manhattan federal court involving a man who is suing the Colombian airline Avianca.

Roberto Mata claims he was injured when a metal serving plate hit his leg during a flight in August 2019 from El Salvador to New York.

After the airline's lawyers asked the court to dismiss the case, Schwartz filed a response that claimed to cite more than half a dozen decisions to support why the litigation should proceed.

They included Petersen v. Iran Air, Varghese v. China Southern Airlines and Shaboon v. Egyptair. The Varghese case even included dated internal citations and quotes.

There was one major problem, however: neither Avianca's attorneys nor the presiding judge, P. Kevin Castel could find the cases.

Schwartz was forced to admit that ChatGPT had made up everything.

"The court is presented with an unprecedented circumstance," judge Castel wrote last month.

"Six of the submitted cases appear to be bogus judicial decisions with bogus quotes and bogus internal citations," he added.

The judge ordered Schwartz and his law partner to appear before him to face possible sanctions.

In a filing on Tuesday, ahead of the hearing, Schwartz said that he wanted to "deeply apologize" to the court for his "deeply regrettable mistake."

Source: AFP

https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-lawyer-chatgpt-bogus-cases.html...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on June 9, 2023 at 10:46am

Long COVID can impact fatigue and quality of life worse than some cancers, finds new study

Fatigue is the symptom that most significantly impacts the daily lives of long COVID patients, and can affect quality of life more than some cancers, finds a new study by researchers.

The research, published in BMJ Open , examines the impact of long COVID on the lives of over 3,750 patients who were referred to a long COVID clinic .

Patients were asked to complete questionnaires on the app about how long COVID was affecting them—considering the impact of long COVID on their day-to-day activities, levels of fatigue, depression, anxiety, breathlessness, brain fog, and their quality of life.

The researchers found that many long COVID patients were seriously ill and on average had fatigue scores worse or similar to people with cancer-related anemia or severe kidney disease. Their health-related quality of life scores were also lower than those of people with advanced metastatic cancers, like stage IV lung cancer.

Overall, the team found that the impact of long COVID on the daily activities of patients was worse than that of stroke patients and was comparable to that of patients with Parkinson's disease.

These results have found that long COVID can have a devastating effect on the lives of patients—with fatigue having the biggest impact on everything from social activities to work, chores and maintaining close relationships."

Not only does long COVID negatively impact the lives of patients on an individual level, the researchers also think that it could have a significant economic and social impact on any country.

Henry Goodfellow et al, The impact of fatigue as the primary determinant of functional limitations amongst patients with Post-COVID syndrome: a cross-sectional observational study, BMJ Open (2023). DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-069217

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on June 9, 2023 at 9:11am

Researchers looked at levels of taurine in the bloodstream of mice, monkeys, and people and found that the taurine abundance decreases substantially with age. In people, taurine levels in 60-year-old individuals were only about one-third of those found in five-year-olds.

That's when they started to ask if taurine deficiency is a driver of the aging process, and they set up a large experiment with mice.

The researchers started with close to 250 14-month-old female and male mice (about 45 years old in people terms). Every day, the researcher fed half of them a bolus of taurine or a control solution. At the end of the experiment, they found that taurine increased average lifespan by 12% in female mice and 10% in males. For the mice, that meant three to four extra months, equivalent to about seven or eight human years.

Experts measured various health parameters in mice and found that at age two (60 in human years), animals supplemented with taurine for one year were healthier in almost every way than their untreated counterparts.

The researchers found that taurine suppressed age-associated weight gain in female mice (even in "menopausal" mice), increased energy expenditure, increased bone mass, improved muscle endurance and strength, reduced depression-like and anxious behaviors, reduced insulin resistance, and promoted a younger-looking immune system, among other benefits. Not only did researchers find that the animals lived longer, they also found that they're living healthier lives.

At a cellular level, taurine improved many functions that usually decline with age: The supplement decreased the number of "zombie cells" (old cells that should die but instead linger and release harmful substances), increased survival after telomerase deficiency, increased the number of stem cells present in some tissues (which can help tissues heal after injury), improved the performance of mitochondria, reduced DNA damage, and improved the cells' ability to sense nutrients. Similar health effects of taurine supplements were seen in middle-aged rhesus monkeys, which were given daily taurine supplements for six months. Taurine prevented weight gain, reduced fasting blood glucose and markers of liver damage, increased bone density in the spine and legs, and improved the health of their immune systems.

The researchers do not know yet if taurine supplements will improve health or increase longevity in humans, but two experiments they conducted suggest taurine has potential.

Parminder Singh et al, Taurine deficiency as a driver of aging, Science (2023). DOI: 10.1126/science.abn9257. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn9257

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on June 9, 2023 at 9:06am

Taurine may be a key to longer and healthier life

A deficiency of taurine—a nutrient produced in the body and found in many foods—is a driver of aging in animals, according to a new study by researchers and involving dozens of aging researchers around the world.

The same study also found that taurine supplements can slow down the aging process in worms, mice, and monkeys and can even extend the healthy lifespans of middle-aged mice by up to 12%. The study was published June 8 in Science.

Over the past two decades, efforts to identify interventions that improve health in old age have intensified as people are living longer and scientists have learned that the aging process can be manipulated.

Many studies have found that various molecules carried through the bloodstream are associated with aging. Less certain is whether these molecules actively direct the aging process or are just passengers going along for the ride. If a molecule is a driver of aging, then restoring its youthful levels would delay aging and increase healthspan, the years we spend in good health.

Researchers realized that if taurine is regulating all these processes that decline with age, maybe taurine levels in the bloodstream affect overall health and lifespan.

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