Because humans live in societies, they may feel social pressure to conform to majority opinions. This follow-up study explores whether teenagers are likely to change their opinions to match others’, particularly in ambiguous situations.
Read More...Majority and Minority Influence in Teenagers for Different Social Dilemmas
Because humans live in societies, they may feel social pressure to conform to majority opinions. This follow-up study explores whether teenagers are likely to change their opinions to match others’, particularly in ambiguous situations.
Read More...The effect of the pandemic on the behavior of junior high school students
Here, seeking to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the social interactions of junior high school students, the authors surveyed students, teachers, and parents. Contrary to their initial hypotheses, the authors found positive correlation between increased virtual contact during social isolation and in-person conflict and disregard for social norms after the pandemic. While the authors identified the limitations of their study, they suggest that further research into the effect of online interactions is becoming increasingly important.
Read More...Characterizing Quorum Sensing-Induced Bioluminescence in Variable Volumes With Vibrio fischeri Using Computer Processing Methods
Understanding how bacteria respond to other bacteria could facilitate their ability to initiate and maintain their infectiousness. The phenomenon by which bacteria signal to each other via chemical signals is called quorum sensing, which could be targeted to deter bacterial infection in some cases if better understood. In this article, the authors study how a bacterium called V. fischeri uses quorum sensing to change bioluminescence, an easy readout that facilitates studying quorum sensing in this strain.
Read More...Using explainable artificial intelligence to identify patient-specific breast cancer subtypes
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, with approximately 300,000 diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023. It ranks second in cancer-related deaths for women, after lung cancer with nearly 50,000 deaths. Scientists have identified important genetic mutations in genes like BRCA1 and BRCA2 that lead to the development of breast cancer, but previous studies were limited as they focused on specific populations. To overcome limitations, diverse populations and powerful statistical methods like genome-wide association studies and whole-genome sequencing are needed. Explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) can be used in oncology and breast cancer research to overcome these limitations of specificity as it can analyze datasets of diagnosed patients by providing interpretable explanations for identified patterns and predictions. This project aims to achieve technological and medicinal goals by using advanced algorithms to identify breast cancer subtypes for faster diagnoses. Multiple methods were utilized to develop an efficient algorithm. We hypothesized that an XAI approach would be best as it can assign scores to genes, specifically with a 90% success rate. To test that, we ran multiple trials utilizing XAI methods through the identification of class-specific and patient-specific key genes. We found that the study demonstrated a pipeline that combines multiple XAI techniques to identify potential biomarker genes for breast cancer with a 95% success rate.
Read More...A Quantitative Analysis of the Proliferation of Microplastics in Williamston’s Waterways
Plastic debris can disrupt marine ecosystems, spread contaminants, and take years to naturally degrade. In this study, Wu et al aim to establish an understanding of the scope of Williamston, Michigan’s microplastics problem, as well as to attempt to find the source of these plastics. Initially, the authors hypothesize that the Williamston Wastewater Treatment Plant was the primary contributor to Williamston’s microplastics pollution. Although they find a general trend of increasing concentrations of microplastics from upstream to downstream, they do not pinpoint the source of Williamston’s microplastics pollution in the present research.
Read More...Developing a wearable, skin-based triboelectric nanogenerator
The authors designed a system that runs off of body heat to track body temperature that could help prevent injuries that result from elevated body temperature.
Read More...Integrated Ocean Cleanup System for Sustainable and Healthy Aquatic Ecosystems
Oil spills are one of the most devastating events for marine life. Finding ways to clean up oil spills without the need for harsh chemicals could help decrease the negative impact of such spills. Here the authors demonstrate that using a combination of several biodegradable substances can effectively adsorb oil in seawater in a laboratory setting. They suggest further exploring the potential of such a combination as a possible alternative to commonly-used non-biodegradable substances in oil spill management.
Read More...A novel in vitro blood-brain barrier model using 3D bioprinter: A pilot study
The authors looked at how a 3D bioprinter could be used to model the blood brain barrier.
Read More...DNA repair protein mutations alter blood cancer sensitivity to cisplatin or gemcitabine in vitro
The authors investigate whether human blood cancers carrying mutations in DNA repair genes possess increased sensitivity to common chemotherapy drugs cisplatin or gemcitabine.
Read More...The Impacts of Varying Types of Light on the Growth of Five Arabidopsis Varieties
Arabadopsis, “the fruit fly of plants”, is an easy to grow plant system for genetic manipulation. Here, researchers tested the effects of varied light conditions on plants with specific mutations in the light sensing pathways.
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