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Gifted dogs learn new words by overhearing humans

HPV vaccine could help to protect the unvaccinated against cervical cancer

How fasting boosts breast cancer therapy

Making progress on global health will need high-quality evidence

Nationwide genetic screening proves effective at catching disease risk early

Ancient pottery reveals early evidence of mathematical thinking

Ice age wolf pup’s stomach yields rare DNA from woolly rhino

Quality prediction using multiscale convolutional VAEs for thin plate parts

Induced tolerance to UV stress drives survival heterogeneity in isogenic E. coli cell populations

MCI-LB brain networks reorganization in relation to specific cognitive domains deficits

Southern hemisphere ceratosaurs evolved feeding mechanics paralleling those of Northern hemisphere tyrannosaurids

Abstract Ceratosaurs (Ceratosauria), including Ceratosaurus and derived abelisaurids such as Carnotaurus , were the dominant large-bodied predators in Cretaceous ecosystems of the Southern Hemisphere, paralleling the ecological role of tyrannosaurids in the Cretaceous Northern Hemisphere. They are known for their short, deep skulls and prominent cranial ornamentation. These traits have often been interpreted as potential adaptations for intraspecific combat, sexual display, and as a buttress during feeding-induced mechanical stresses. While these adaptations have often been discussed, they have been subject to little mechanical testing, particularly using 3D models due to previous limitations in software. Here we used a mixture of computed tomography (CT) scanning and surface scanning to create accurate 3D models of four ceratosaurian skulls: Ceratosaurus , Masiakasaurus , Carnotaurus , and Majungasaurus . Using finite element analysis, we assessed the mechanical performance of the skull during feeding, notably including the small-bodied noasaurid Masiakasaurus . Our results show that despite their compact shape, large abelisaurs do not exhibit low stress under bite loading. Cranial ornamentation also fails to act as a structural buttress. Additionally, functional analyses of Masiakasaurus combined with its procumbent teeth imply that it was suited for grasping small prey, suggesting niche partitioning with the large sympatric abelisaur Majungasaurus . These findings challenge prevailing assumptions about ceratosaur skull strength and suggest that large abelisaurs fulfilled ecological roles comparable to large tyrannosaurids.

Object detection on low-compute edge SoCs: a reproducible benchmark and deployment guidelines

Delta gamma oscillatory interactions support visuomotor processing in the lateral frontal cortex of macaque monkeys

Exploring the link between ruminal methane production and physiological changes in Japanese Black cattle during fattening

The influence of the menstrual cycle on muscle injuries - a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract This systematic review and meta-analysis examined the relationship between menstrual cycle phases and the incidence of muscle injuries in female team sport athletes, following PRISMA 2020 and PERSiST guidelines. A comprehensive search was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, and SPORTDiscus from inception to mid-January 2024. Studies were included if they examined female team sport athletes of reproductive age with regular menstrual cycles and compared the occurrence of muscle injuries across at least two menstrual phases. Studies involving hormonal contraceptive use, medications affecting the menstrual cycle or musculoskeletal system, or menstrual dysfunction were excluded. Three studies met the inclusion criteria, involving 318 participants. Meta-analysis yielded a pooled Risk Ratio of 1.18 (95% CI: 0.75 to 1.86, p  = 0.46) for injury risk between the luteal and follicular phases, suggesting no statistically significant association. However, the certainty of the cumulative evidence was rated as very low due to methodological limitations, including inconsistent phase classifications and reliance on imprecise methods for identifying menstrual phases. Consequently, no practical or clinical recommendations can be made at this time. Future research employing standardised, physiologically accurate methods for classifying and detecting menstrual cycle phases is necessary to better understand the potential links between hormonal fluctuations and injury risk.

Divergent creativity in humans and large language models

Abstract The recent surge of Large Language Models (LLMs) has led to claims that they are approaching a level of creativity akin to human capabilities. This idea has sparked a blend of excitement and apprehension. However, a critical piece that has been missing in this discourse is a systematic evaluation of LLMs’ semantic diversity, particularly in comparison to human divergent thinking. To bridge this gap, we leverage recent advances in computational creativity to analyze semantic divergence in both state-of-the-art LLMs and a substantial dataset of 100,000 humans. These divergence-based measures index associative thinking—the ability to access and combine remote concepts in semantic space—an established facet of creative cognition. We benchmark performance on the Divergent Association Task (DAT) and across multiple creative-writing tasks (haiku, story synopses, and flash fiction), using identical, objective scoring. We found evidence that LLMs can surpass average human performance on the DAT, and approach human creative writing abilities, yet they remain below the mean creativity scores observed among the more creative segment of human participants. Notably, even the top performing LLMs are still largely surpassed by the aggregated top half of human participants, underscoring a ceiling that current LLMs still fail to surpass. We also systematically varied linguistic strategy prompts and temperature, observing reliable gains in semantic divergence for several models. Our human-machine benchmarking framework addresses the polemic surrounding the imminent replacement of human creative labor by AI, disentangling the quality of the respective creative linguistic outputs using established objective measures. While prompting deeper exploration of the distinctive elements of human inventive thought compared to those of AI systems, we lay out a series of techniques to improve their outputs with respect to semantic diversity, such as prompt design and hyper-parameter tuning.

Quantum denoising autoencoder improves retinal fundus image quality for early diabetic retinopathy screening

Application of group A streptococcal collagen-like protein 1-expressing Lactococcus as a novel immunotherapeutic against pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Association between a structured training programme and self-reported clinical inertia in type 2 diabetes management in primary care

Mechanical properties of thermoformed and direct-printed aligner materials after immersion in 37 °C water: a 14-day in vitro study

Abstract This study compared the mechanical properties of direct-printed dental aligner materials made from 3D-printed resins TC-85, TR-07, and TA-28 with those of two conventional thermoformed materials—Zendura-A and Zendura-Flx—to evaluate their performance under simulated physiological conditions. Test specimens were immersed in a 37 °C water bath for 12 different durations: 0, 5, and 30 min; 1, 3, 6, and 9 h; and 1, 3, 7, and 14 d. Tensile tests were performed using a universal testing machine (Zwick Z010, Zwick, Ulm, Germany) to measure the Young’s modulus (MPa), elongation at break (%), and tensile force (N) at strains of 1%, 2%, and 3%. After 14 d of immersion, TC-85, TA-28, and TR-07 exhibited forces in the range of 4.04–7.24 N at 1% strain and 7.30–13.48 N at 3% strain, while Zendura A and Zendura FLX exhibited forces of 26.26–32.91 N at 1% strain and 32.91–65.23 N at 3% strain. The Young’s modulus and UTS results exhibit a trend similar to that of the tensile force. Direct-printed aligners exhibited a 25.3% (TC-85) increase in elongation at break after 30 min, whereas thermoformed aligners exhibited a 5.5% reduction. Direct-printed resins, such as TC-85, TA-28, and TR-07, with temperature-responsive viscoelastic behavior, exhibited statistically significant differences from thermoformed aligner materials, delivering lower mechanical loads that could favor a more suitable orthodontic force profile for clear aligners.