Finishing |Zhou Shuyi.
The shock capsule "deceives the brain and provides a false feeling of satiety."
Published Dec. 22 in Science Advances, the researchers have developed a "shock capsule" that can stimulate nerve endings in the stomach with vibrations to "trick" the brain into saying it's time to stop eating. This capsule can significantly reduce the amount of food eaten in experimental pigs, and there is no obvious potential application value in human obesity.
Eating causes the stomach to expand, stimulating receptors in the stomach wall to send signals to the brain through the vagus nerve to create a feeling of fullness. Taking advantage of this effect, the researchers developed a capsule with a size of 31 10 mm and a built-in micro-motor and battery. When ingested orally, the gel dissolves rapidly upon contact with gastric juice, activating the circuit to start spinning the motor. The capsule will continue to shake for about 38 minutes (close to the time it stays in the stomach), during which time the vagus nerve endings are stimulated, sending a satiety signal. The researchers sent it into the stomach of an experimental piglet that was similar in size and weight to a human. It was found that the capsule caused the same hormonal level changes in the pig as in the fed state: an increase in insulin levels and a decrease in ghrelin levels. Compared to the control group, the piglets ate about 40% less food and were less active, as if they were "sleepy after eating". The capsule was excreted approximately 4 days after ingestion, and no *** was found
However, some experts questioned that "a pig won't tell you how uncomfortable it is". In addition, the stomach nerve endings in obese patients are less sensitive to stretching, and it is unclear whether they respond to capsule stimulation in the same way as the average person. Some experts believe that GLP-1 receptor agonists such as semaglutide are not effective for everyone and are expensive, and that the new research provides an inexpensive and safe alternative.
*Link: Having a pet delays the decline of language skills in the elderly who live alone.
Over the past few decades, the proportion of people living alone has been on the rise, reaching 29 in the UK and 29 in the US in 20214% and 285%。Previous studies have shown that older adults living alone have a higher risk of developing dementia, with a population attribution score (PAF) of 8 for the factor of living alone9%。Therefore, it is crucial to identify factors associated with the risk of dementia in older adults living alone. Recently, a prospective cohort study found that if accompanied by pets, the decline of language function in the elderly living alone will be slower;No similar phenomenon has been observed in people who do not live alone.
***pixabay
The researchers retrieved data from cohorts 5 (June 2010 to July 2011) to 9 (June 2018 to July 2019) of the UK Longitudinal Study on Ageing (ELSA) cohort, which included 7945 participants aged 50 years and older, 4446 (56.)0%) were female, with an average age of 663 years old. The study analysed the association between living alone and having a pet with verbal memory, verbal fluency, and the rate of decline in comprehensive language cognition. It was found that living alone was significantly associated with a faster decline in language ability;Pet ownership is associated with a delayed decline in language skills in people who live alone;There was no significant difference in the rate of decline between those who lived alone and those who did not live alone with pets – pet companionship "offset" the association between living alone and faster decline in language ability. Researchers say owning a pet can reduce loneliness, which is a significant risk factor for dementia and cognitive decline. Further studies are needed to assess whether pet ownership slows the rate of cognitive decline in older adults living alone. Related**Published on Jama Network Open on December 26.
doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.49241
Take a tube of long-acting smart insulin for a week.
Researchers from Zhejiang University recently published in Nature Biomedical Engineering** that they have developed a long-acting insulin preparation that can intelligently sense blood sugar fluctuations, dynamically regulate the rate of insulin release, and intelligently regulate blood glucose levels over a long period of time.
Diabetes is a growing global public health problem, with up to 53.7 billion people are affected by it. The key to effective control of type and mid-to-late diabetes is to monitor blood glucose levels in real time and inject insulin in a timely manner. However, the current model requires subcutaneous insulin injections multiple times a day, placing a significant burden on the daily lives of diabetic patientsOnce too much insulin is used, it can also lead to hypoglycemia, posing a safety risk to patients.
The researchers have developed a phenylboric acid-based glucose-responsive insulin delivery system consisting of gluconic acid-modified recombinant human insulin (glu-insulin) combined with 4-carboxy-3-fluorophenylboronic acid-modified poly-L-lysine (PLL-FPBA). Under euglycemic conditions, electrostatic attraction and phenylboronic acid-diol complexation bind the two together, releasing only a small amount of insulin slowly and continuously, thereby maintaining basal blood glucose stability. In the hyperglycemic state, the competitive binding of glucose to the FPBA moiety will reduce the positive charge density of PLL-FPBA, break the phenylborate bond, thereby weakening the force between Glu-Insulin and the polymer, promoting the rapid release of insulin, and regulating blood glucose to the normal range. The new formulation has been successfully validated in mouse and miniature pig models. After subcutaneous injection, the preparation will form a "drug storehouse" in the fat layer, which can maintain normal blood sugar for more than a week in the 30 kg type diabetic model pigs without symptoms of hypoglycemia. It is worth noting that the new preparation has good biocompatibility, and the relevant polymer materials will be rapidly absorbed by the human body with the release of insulin, which will not lead to the deposition of fibroblasts and the formation of fibroblasts, which is conducive to the long-term safe function of the preparation. According to the researchers, the team is actively promoting the clinical trial application, and it is expected that in the future, a single injection of insulin can safely and smoothly control blood sugar levels for a week or even longer.
* Link: Opposites attract, same-sex "lead".
Academia is a part of society, and although more and more women are stepping into the field of scientific research, they still face the bottleneck of insufficient influence. A new study suggests a different explanation for this: women's bumpy academic paths stem in part from the widespread phenomenon of "same-sex citations" in academic citations, resulting in a significantly lower number of citations for female authors than men under the same conditions in fields with a low proportion of female researchers, which brings a cumulative disadvantage to their careers.
The researchers retrieved 2432806 articles in the field of life sciences from 2002 to 2017 in the United States, counted the number of citations in the three years since the publication of **, and inferred the gender of the leader (i.e., the first author and the last author) through a program algorithm. After taking into account factors such as subdivisions, published journals, author resumes, and team size, the study found that the phenomenon of "same-sex citation" in academic publishing is very common: there is a tendency for gender congruence between the citer and the cited person, and female authors receive fewer citations from male authors and more citations from female authors than men. In fields with a large number of male researchers, the citation advantage of female researchers from the same sex is not enough to compensate for the citation disadvantage of the opposite sex, resulting in an imbalance in the overall sex ratio of citationsIn areas where the gender ratio is more balanced, the gap has narrowed, but this may be because the advantages of same-sex citations mask the disadvantages of opposite-sex citations, and "same-sex citations" still exist. Researchers believe that this gender divide in academic citations can distort academic communication, deepen gender rigidity in subdivided fields, and limit the possibility of innovation. Fortunately, among the younger generation of scientists, this phenomenon is weakening.
To confirm the root cause of "same-sex citations", the researchers compared citations to the same author's full name (easily recognizable author's gender) and only the abbreviation (difficult to identify author's gender). It was found that the gender bias of the citation persisted regardless of whether the full name was displayed, suggesting that "same-sex citation" did not come from the inference of gender discrimination by strangers based on their names. Further analysis shows that this phenomenon is partly due to gender bias in subdivisions, which leads to gender-biased scientific communication, and researchers tend to collaborate with each other, which in turn further contributes to the phenomenon of same-sex introduction. Many efforts to promote gender equality in academia have focused on enhancing communication among women researchers, but this may inadvertently confine researchers to their respective gender circles, leading to a structural imbalance in academic communication. Researchers say academia needs to go one step further and promote the integration of the two gender circles. Related** was recently published in Research Policy.
*Link: The Falcon 9 rocket booster capsized and disintegrated on the way back to port.
Falcon 9 | spacex
SpaceX announced on social media on December 26 that the Falcon 9 rocket booster B1058 capsized and disintegrated due to high winds and waves on the way back to Port Canaveral, Florida. SpaceX says the new Falcon booster has upgraded landing legs and self-leveling capabilities, helping to reduce such problems. On December 23, local time, B1058 carried out its 19th and final mission, sending **23 SpaceX Starlink broadband satellites, and then successfully landed on an unmanned offshore platform in the Atlantic Ocean. This reusable rocket booster is available in about 3During its five-year service, 19 launches were completed, two astronauts and more than 860 satellites were transported, with a total weight of more than 260 tons. （spacex）
The new "intranasal mask" is effective in protecting against viral respiratory infections.
Aerosols are the main mode of transmission of viral respiratory infections. Researchers recently published in Nature Communications**, proposing a protective strategy of "intranasal masks", in which the liquid agent is rapidly converted to a gel state at the nasal cavity wall after nasal spray administration, thus forming a protective layer that can intercept viral aerosols and inactivate the virus. Verified by the digital model of mice, human nasal cavity and human respiratory tract**, the new strategy has a significant effect on the protection against viral respiratory infectious diseases.
Mechanism of action of "intranasal mask" | nature communications
The new "mask" consists of a temperature-sensitive hydrogel (GEL) carrying a positive charge and a micron-sized cellular vesicle (MV) with a high expression of viral receptors on the surface to form a protective layer (mv@gel). When the viral aerosol is inhaled into the nasal cavity, the positively charged gel in the protective layer can adsorb and intercept the negatively charged viral aerosol particlesThe MV embedded in the gel can protect nasal epithelial cells from viral infection by trapping viruses into the vesicles and inactivating them with the help of receptors that are highly expressed on the surface. The synergistic effect of "interception" and "inactivation" described above reduces the risk of viral infection. **Calculations show that the mv@gel has a rejection rate of 93 for aerosol particles2%。Since the virus mutates and does not affect its binding to the receptor, the "intranasal mask" has the same protection against aerosols from different variants. The researchers said that the new system is still in the research stage, and the actual clinical effect needs to be further verified. In the future, it is expected that virus-specific "intranasal masks" can be rapidly constructed by replacing the virus receptors on micron-sized cell vesicles in response to viral respiratory infections in the future.
*Link: ChatGPT full text plagiarism news report?The first shot of the AI copyright war has been fired.
On December 27, local time, the New York Times took OpenAI and Microsoft to court, accusing the two companies of using their millions of articles to train generative AI systems such as ChatGPT without authorization, and even providing full-text plagiarized reports to users, which seriously affected the number of visits and copyright-related revenue of the New York Times. The New York Times demanded that OpenAI and Microsoft stop using its content and destroy models and training data that contain infringing materialAlthough the exact amount of the economic claim was not mentioned, it stated that the defendant was liable for "billions of dollars worth of statutory and actual losses" caused by it.
According to the Associated Press, the copyright lawsuit has been heard in federal court in Manhattan, New York. The indictment alleges that the defendants "illegally used" The New York Times' original content to train an AI chatbot, in direct competition with The New York Times;Failure to protect their independent reporting will lead to a decline in original news content, and "a vacuum in society that computers and AI cannot fill." According to the indictment, Microsoft's Bing Search's "Browse with Bing" feature plagiarized almost verbatim the content of "the wirecutter", a New York Times review guide, but Bing did not quote the relevant content, and deleted the rebate link that was originally attached to the product recommendation. According to the New York Times, this type of behavior has led to a decrease in the traffic of original articles, resulting in a loss of revenue.
OpenAI expressed surprise and disappointment at this, and Microsoft has not yet taken a position. Some analysts believe that as the first major American company to sue a tech giant for copyright infringement, the New York Times' lawsuit will have a profound impact on the emerging AI-related legal framework. It was revealed that since April, The New York Times has been in talks with OpenAI and Microsoft about "content payment", but the two sides have not reached an agreement, and the lawsuit was filed after the negotiations broke down. (AP, Interface News).
Read: OpenAI will pay for Springer's news content
This article is supported by the Science Popularization China Star Program Project, produced by the Science Popularization Department of the China Association for Science and Technology, supervised by the China Science and Technology Press, Beijing Zhongke Galaxy Culture Media***