Category: Science and Nature

  • Campus surveillance: students and professors decry sensors in buildings

    Campus surveillance: students and professors decry sensors in buildings

    Staff members and students protest outside the Lipsius building at Leiden University in the Netherlands in December 2021.Credit: Marc de Haan In April, staff members in the Bancroft building at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) received an e-mail telling them that sensors were going to be installed in their offices. Stuart Grieve, a geographer…

  • Rapid improvements and subsequent effects in major depressive disorder patients with somatic pain using rTMS combined with sertraline

    Rapid improvements and subsequent effects in major depressive disorder patients with somatic pain using rTMS combined with sertraline

    Abstract This study aims to explore changes in depression and pain for major depressive disorder (MDD) patients with somatic pain after repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) using the event-related potentials (ERPs) technique. Eighty MDD patients with somatic pain were randomly assigned to drug therapy (DT) and combined therapy (CT) groups. CT group underwent intermittent theta…

  • Large language models propagate race-based medicine

    Large language models propagate race-based medicine

    Abstract Large language models (LLMs) are being integrated into healthcare systems; but these models may recapitulate harmful, race-based medicine. The objective of this study is to assess whether four commercially available large language models (LLMs) propagate harmful, inaccurate, race-based content when responding to eight different scenarios that check for race-based medicine or widespread misconceptions around…

  • Effects of oxytocin on the hair growth ability of dermal papilla cells

    Effects of oxytocin on the hair growth ability of dermal papilla cells

    Abstract Oxytocin (OXT) is a neuropeptide hormone termed “love hormone” produced and released during childbirth and lactation. It is also produced in response to skin stimulation (e.g., during hugging and massaging) and music therapy. The effects of OXT on various organs have been revealed in recent years; however, the relationship between hair follicles and OXT…

  • Long-term outcomes of endoscopic resection for duodenal neuroendocrine tumors

    Long-term outcomes of endoscopic resection for duodenal neuroendocrine tumors

    Abstract Duodenal neuroendocrine tumors (d-NETs) ≤ 10 mm in size, confined to the submucosal layer, without lymph node or distant metastasis, can be treated safely and effectively by endoscopic management. However, most results are based on limited data and short follow-up outcomes. Herein, we aimed to evaluate the short-term and long-term outcomes of endoscopic resection for d-NETs. We…

  • Effect of morpholine, and 4-methylmorpholine on urethane formation: a computational study

    Effect of morpholine, and 4-methylmorpholine on urethane formation: a computational study

    Abstract A theoretical study of urethane formation through the reaction of phenyl isocyanate and butan-1-ol was carried out, without and in the presence of morpholine, and 4-methylmorpholine catalysts. The reaction with and without catalysts was studied at BHandHLYP/6-31G(d) and G3MP2BHandHLYP levels of theories. The reaction mechanism in the presence of catalysts differs significantly from the…

  • Robots may transform the way we produce and prepare food

    Robotics technologies are finding their way into the food production chain, from agriculture robots ‘working’ on farms, to 3D food printers generating customized dishes in the kitchen. In this Viewpoint, two roboticists, Hod Lipson and Salah Sukkarieh, discuss the possible roles of robotics in shaping the future of food, highlighting how robots may be able…

  • The politics of energy security

    Energy security concerns must be considered not only in terms of energy availability at an affordable price, but also from a political and social sciences perspective. Energy security concerns have recently been thrown into stark relief for the Global North. Supply-chain issues and protectionist policies brought an energy crisis to the fore during the COVID-19…

  • Trans-inclusive gender categories are cognitively natural

    On the basis of decades of cognitive science research into the nature of lexical concepts, we argue that gender categories that reflect the reality of the experiences of transgender people are more useful and cognitively natural than sex-based category definitions. Many people make a distinction between gender and sex: sex-based categories are defined on the…

  • Land cover dataset of the China Central-Asia West-Asia Economic Corridor from 1993 to 2018

    Land cover dataset of the China Central-Asia West-Asia Economic Corridor from 1993 to 2018

    Abstract Land Cover (LC) maps offer vital knowledge for various studies, ranging from sustainable development to climate change. The China Central-Asia West-Asia Economic Corridor region, as a core component of the Belt and Road initiative program, has been experiencing some of the most severe LC change tragedies, such as the Aral Sea crisis and Lake…