Author: healthadmin
Recent research published in Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry This provides evidence that many children with autism can learn a second language without social exposure. These findings suggest that children with autism often acquire language skills through non-interactive sources such as videos and tablets. This opens up new ways to think about early language development in children with nonverbal abilities. Autism is a developmental condition that affects how individuals communicate, behave, and interact with the world. It often involves differences in social behavior, repetitive behaviors, and highly focused interests. Many children with autism experience language delays early on, often…
A new study led by the University of Barcelona and published in 2016 reveals that climate change is dramatically changing the way Greenland’s ice sheet melts. nature communications. Researchers found that extreme melt events are now occurring more frequently, covering larger areas, and producing significantly more meltwater than in the past. Since 1990, the surface area affected by these extreme events has increased by approximately 2.8 million km2 every decade. At the same time, the amount of water released from melting ice is rapidly increasing. Between 1950 and 2023, extreme melt events produced an average of 12.7 gigatonnes of water…
Scientists are developing new ways to simultaneously tackle two major global problems: plastic pollution and the demand for clean energy. They are trying to find a way to turn discarded plastic into useful fuel by harnessing sunlight. Recent research led by University of Adelaide PhD candidate Xiao Lu is investigating how solar power systems can convert waste plastics into hydrogen, syngas and other industrial chemicals. This approach could help create a more sustainable circular economy by giving new value to materials that would normally be thrown away. Plastic waste as a hidden energy resource More than 460 million tonnes of…
A new KFF analysis finds that 48% of women of reproductive age on Medicaid live in states that restrict coverage of abortion services. Of the affected patients, 19% live in states that completely ban abortion, and 29% live in states that follow the Hyde Amendment. The regulation prohibits the use of federal funds for abortions, with exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest, or for pregnancies that endanger the pregnant woman’s life. A March report from the Guttmacher Institute found that an estimated 1.126 million abortions will be provided in 2025, a number “virtually unchanged” from the estimated 1.124…
Researchers at the University of Kansas led a large-scale study of undergraduate students to better understand how psychological conditions such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and eating disorders are related. The study, published in the Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science, relied on the Hierarchical Classification of Psychopathology (HiTOP), a new alternative to the traditional guide for diagnosing and treating patients, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). This finding suggests that the use of symptom dimensions by HiTOP may better support more accurate and individualized mental health care. The way we diagnose people with mental…
Mary Elizabeth Baugh, a researcher at Virginia Tech’s VTC Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, received a National Institutes of Health-mentored Investigator Development Award to study how metabolic health affects the brain systems that shape what and how we eat. The four-year award will support Bo’s research into how obesity and insulin resistance affect reward learning and decision-making in the human brain. “This will help launch my independent career as a researcher focused on the interaction between metabolic and brain processes that influence eating behavior. This project will focus on the unconscious biological processes that underlie people’s relationship with food,” said Bo,…
Scientists are developing new ways to simultaneously tackle two major global problems: plastic pollution and the demand for clean energy. They are trying to find a way to turn discarded plastic into useful fuel by harnessing sunlight. Recent research led by University of Adelaide PhD candidate Xiao Lu is investigating how solar power systems can convert waste plastics into hydrogen, syngas and other industrial chemicals. This approach could help create a more sustainable circular economy by giving new value to materials that would normally be thrown away. Plastic waste as a hidden energy resource More than 460 million tonnes of…
Climate change is likely to push rodent-borne arenaviruses into regions of South America that have never faced these diseases, putting new human communities at risk, a University of California, Davis study found. For research published in journals, npj virusScientists incorporated climate projections, rodent population trends, and human infection risk into their models to provide early risk predictions for arenaviruses and other diseases over the next 20 to 40 years. As climate change accelerates, our research shows that the risk of dangerous new world arenavirus outbreaks could extend to millions more across South America as rodent populations change. ” …
Keratoconus is a progressive eye disease that weakens and thins the cornea, the transparent front surface of the eye. In the early, asymptomatic stage, the cornea may still appear normal on routine examinations. However, at this time, especially when a patient is being evaluated for refractive surgery, an accurate diagnosis is paramount. A recent study found that combining polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) with artificial intelligence reveals subtle corneal changes that are often missed by standard image processing. Published in Discovery of biophotonicsthis study is based on a large clinical dataset and points to new methods to improve early detection…
White Americans who regularly get their political news from Fox News have much higher levels of support for the Great Replacement Theory than those who don’t watch Fox News. By tracking individual viewers over time, researchers found that increases in viewership of certain television shows on this network coincided with increased belief in this conspiracy theory. These findings were published in the journal PS: Political Science & Politics. The Great Replacement Theory is a xenophobic framework with origins in French right-wing political thought. The paper proposes that powerful elites are intentionally relaxing immigration policies to flood the United States with…