What if a construction project could rewrite its own schedule the moment a problem appears? A new peer-reviewed study from the University of East London (UEL) suggests that artificial intelligence could make this possible—detecting emerging risks and automatically adjusting project plans before delays spread across a site. The research is published in the journal Frontiers in Built Environment.
Rather than proposing a single new tool, the research outlines how existing technologies could be connected in ways they currently are not. Today, safety monitoring systems, digital risk registers and scheduling platforms typically operate in isolation. As a result, risks are identified, but the project timetable often continues unchanged.
The findings come from a systematic review of 60 peer-reviewed studies on AI in construction management. The research proposes a framework showing how risk warnings could trigger immediate, machine-readable planning decisions.
People who lose their ability to conjure visual memories after a brain injury share damage that connects to a single, highly specific brain region. A recent analysis of these rare medical cases reveals that a structure called the fusiform imagery node acts as an essential hub for the human imagination. These results, published in the journal Cortex, help explain the physical origins of our mind’s eye.
Most people can easily close their eyes and picture a childhood bedroom or the face of a loved one. This ability is known as visual mental imagery. It allows human beings to relive past events, solve spatial problems, and envision future scenarios without any external sensory input.
However, a small fraction of the population lacks this internal visual experience entirely. This absence of a mind’s eye is called aphantasia. It occurs from birth in an estimated one to three percent of people across the globe.
Deficiency in the leukocyte integrin LFA1 increases susceptibility to commensal human papillomaviruses (HPVs) by impairing T cell homing and surveillance in the skin. Learn more in Science Immunology.
Human inherited integrin αL (CD11a) deficiency selectively impairs skin homing of T cells and surveillance of commensal papillomaviruses.
Men with erectile dysfunction (ED) who used sildenafil had a higher risk for serous retinal detachment than those who did not use the drug, a new study finds.
“Our results extend prior claims-based signals of an association between” phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) inhibitors and serous retinal detachment, the researchers reported.
The absence of associations with retinal vascular occlusion and ischemic optic neuropathy suggest sildenafil’s ocular risks may be specific to serous retinal pathology rather than ischemic events affecting the vessels or optic nerve, they wrote.
The study was led by Jaffer Shah of Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City. It was published online on February 21 in Eye.
The use of electronic health records may have introduced residual confounding and misclassification of the use of sildenafil.
Many patients show (DSWA) and IED, reflecting widespread cortical dysfunction.
Importantly, diffuse slowing and absence of deep (N3) sleep may signal a worse prognosis. — @Natalia Olaru.
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Objective The clinical manifestations of autoimmune encephalitis associated with contactin-associated protein-like 2 (CASPR2) were atypical and progressed slowly. We aimed to summarize the characteristics of video-electroencephalography (V-EEG) and video-polysomnography (V-PSG) to achieve early recognition and assess long-term outcomes.
Could ocean worlds in the outer solar system have boiling water underneath their icy crusts? This is what a recent study published in Nature Astronomy hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated the geochemical processes that could be occurring on ocean worlds orbiting in the outer solar system. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the conditions on ocean worlds throughout the solar system and where we can best search for life beyond Earth.
For the study, the researchers examined several icy moons orbiting Saturn and Uranus and what could happen as the ice shell on these moons becomes thinner over time. Specifically, they explored changes to the interior oceans beneath the icy shells, as some icy moons currently have oceans while others have evidence of past oceans that have since completely frozen over or escaped to space as water vapor.
In the end, the researchers identified different outcomes depending on the size of the moons. For example, if the ice shells on smaller moons like Saturn’s Mimas and Enceladus and Uranus’ Miranda become thinner, this could cause underlying oceans to boil from the decrease in pressure. However, if the ice shells on larger moons like Saturn’s Iapetus and Uranus’ Titania become thinner, this could lead to the ice shell collapsing, resulting in a type of plate tectonics.
Can life transport between planets from impacts? This is what a recent study published in PNAS Nexus hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated how microbes could have come to Earth via asteroid impacts on planets like Mars. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand how life started on Earth and other worlds throughout the cosmos.
For the study, the researchers conducted a series of laboratory experiments where they subjected microorganisms to space-like conditions, specifically extreme pressure changes. The goal of the study was to ascertain the survival rate and overall response to the extreme environment, which could help determine if microorganisms could survive the extreme vacuum of space during a journey from Mars to Earth. This is because meteorites on Earth have been discovered to have originated from large impacts Mars, flinging chunks of rocks into deep space for millions of years, and crashing on Earth.
In the end, the researchers were surprised to find that the microorganisms in their experiments could survive the harshness of outer space, potentially even being able to travel from planet-to-planet. Potentially, if a large impact occurred on Mars, any microorganisms that existed there could survive the long and harsh journey to Earth.
Scientists have designed nanoagents that act like smart drug-delivery capsules—carrying an antibiotic deep into bacterial infection sites and releasing it only when activated by gentle ultrasound. Delivering antibiotics locally, directly to the site of an infection, is important, because treating the whole body with high doses increases the chances of bacteria developing resistance. Nanoagents can carry drugs straight to the infected area providing localized therapy with minimal amount of drug, reducing the risks of antibiotic resistance.
Publishing their findings in JACS Au, researchers from the University of Birmingham and Nottingham Trent University reveal the results of designing the particles so they can hide an antibiotic, rifampicin, in their interior and testing their antibacterial activity when ultrasound is applied. An antimicrobial drug, rifampicin, is used to treat tuberculosis and Staphylococcus aureus infections, including those associated with medical implants.
Many bacterial infections form biofilms—sticky, protective layers that make them very hard to treat. Biofilms cause a lot of infections and resist many antibiotics because the drugs cannot easily penetrate their thick structure. Water repelling antibiotics like rifampicin are especially ineffective because they struggle to get deep inside these moist, gel-like biofilms.
Space is huge, immense beyond our wildest dreams. In order to explore and settle it, we’ll need to learn to dream a lot bigger and bolder than ever before.
