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Category: education
Brain stimulation found to improve vision recovery after stroke
Scientists at EPFL have developed an innovative, non-invasive brain stimulation therapy to significantly improve visual function in stroke patients who have suffered vision loss following a stroke. The approach could offer a more efficient and faster way to regain visual function in such cases.
Each year, thousands of stroke survivors are left with hemianopia, a condition that causes loss of half of their visual field (the “vertical midline”). Hemianopia severely affects daily activities such as reading, driving, or just walking through a crowded space.
There are currently no treatments that can restore lost visual function in hemianopia satisfactorily. Most available options focus on teaching patients how to adapt to loss of vision rather than recovering it. To achieve some degree of recovery, months of intensive neurorehabilitative training are required for only moderate restoration at best.
Inspiring elementary students in STEAM+ education
SpaceKids Global; Inspiring students to excel in STEAM+ Environment education; with a focus on empowering young girls.
Exploring the Multifaceted Landscape of MASLD: A Comprehensive Synthesis of Recent Studies, from Pathophysiology to Organoids and Beyond
Soft drink consumption is linked to an increased risk of major depressive disorder and greater depressive symptom severity, mediated by changes in gut microbiota, particularly Eggerthella abundance.
Question Is soft drink consumption related to depression diagnosis and severity, and is this association mediated by gut microbiome alteration?
Findings In this cohort study, soft drink consumption was significantly associated with diagnosis of major depressive disorder, as well as depression severity, across a single-study cohort of 932 clinically diagnosed patients and healthy controls. This association was significantly mediated by Eggerthela abundance in female patients and controls.
Meaning Education, prevention strategies, and policies aiming to reduce soft drink consumption are urgently required to mitigate depressive symptoms; in addition, interventions for depression targeting the microbiome composition appear promising.
Hints to the H.I.N.T.S. Exam for Acute Vestibular Syndrome
This Neurology Education Teaching Neurovisual by Sutherland and Gummerson details the Head-Impulse-Nystagmus-Test-of-Skew (HINTS) exam, which uses special maneuvers to identify central etiologies of acute vestibular syndrome with greater sensitivity than hyperacute MRI.
Letters to the Editor.
The Letters section represents an opportunity for ongoing author debate and post-publication peer review. View our submission guidelines for Letters to the Editor before submitting your comment.
Elements in Research Methods in Education
Join us, Dr Sal Consoli (University of Edinburgh) and Dr Samantha Curle (University of Bath) for a dynamic 60-minute webinar celebrating the inaugural volume in the series Elements in Research Methods in Education series.
We will interview the author of How to Use Generative AI in Educational Research — Dr Jasper Roe, to explore why he chose this specific topic, the writing process behind this book, and how he hopes it will influence educational researchers and practitioners.
Then we’ll open the floor to attendees interested in contributing to the series. We will provide a unique opportunity to ask questions about the commissioning process, editorial expectations, and how to develop a successful proposal.
Self-adapting LLMs behave more like students to absorb new knowledge
In an MIT classroom, a professor lectures while students diligently write down notes they will reread later to study and internalize key information ahead of an exam.
Humans know how to learn new information, but large language models can’t do this in the same way. Once a fully trained LLM has been deployed, its “brain” is static and can’t permanently adapt itself to new knowledge.
This means that if a user tells an LLM something important today, it won’t remember that information the next time this person starts a new conversation with the chatbot.
Pressure to publish is rising as research time shrinks, finds survey of scientists
About 68% of respondents said the pressure to publish their research is greater than it was two to three years ago and only 45% agreed that they have sufficient time for research (see ‘Researchers are feeling the pressure’). Another concern is uncertainty over funding — just 33% of respondents expect funding in their field to grow in the next 2–3 years. And that proportion fell to just 11% in North America, reflecting unprecedented cuts to US research funding this year.
“As a researcher based in Brazil, I strongly relate to the survey’s findings, particularly the growing pressure to publish despite limited time and resources,” says Claudia Suemoto, a gerontologist at the University of São Paulo Medical School. “The demand for productivity has indeed increased in recent years, yet opportunities for funding and access to qualified personnel remain constrained in Brazil and other low-and middle-income countries.”
Suemoto says this imbalance of high demands and restricted resources often forces researchers to do more with less, which could affect the quality and innovation of research. Comments researchers made as part of the survey indicate that the lack of time is down to factors including growing administrative and teaching demands and trying to identity and acquire funding.
Ultra-thin 3D display delivers wide-angle, highly-detailed images
Researchers have developed an ultra-thin 3D display with a wide viewing angle, clear image quality and vivid display depth. By overcoming tradeoffs that typically limit glasses-free 3D displays, the advance could open new possibilities for highly detailed interactive experiences in health care, education and entertainment.
“The new display is just 28 mm thick, dramatically slimmer than conventional directional backlight systems, which typically exceed 500 mm,” said research team leader Xu Liu, from Zhejiang University in China. “This level of compactness, combined with the substantial boost in resolution we achieved, represents an important step toward making the technology practical for real-world products.”
In Optica, the researchers demonstrate an ultra-slim 32-inch directional backlight-based prototype based on the new display design. The prototype is roughly the size of a large computer monitor, has a wide viewing angle of over 120° and a large 3D display volume of 28 × 16 × 39 inches.