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Mapping Microvascular Flow via Radon Transform Ultrasound: Technical Advances and Pilot Application

Objective: This study aims to develop a contrast-free, high-sensitivity ultrasound method, denoted as Radon transform-based flow measurement (R-Flow), for in vivo mapping of microvascular flow vectors and for establishing R-Flow-derived vector-field metrics to noninvasively quantify microcirculatory patterns in liver cirrhosis. Impact Statement: R-Flow enables robust, contrast-free imaging of microvascular dynamics and demonstrates translational feasibility in the human liver. Its direction-aware indices offer pilot in vivo quantification of flow redistribution and remodeling, providing unique insights into hepatic flow dynamics. Introduction: Microvascular dysfunction is a hallmark of many diseases, yet noninvasive visualization and quantitative assessment of abnormal microcirculation remain limited.

A short-acting psychedelic intervention for major depressive disorder: a phase IIa randomized placebo-controlled trial

A single intravenous dose of the psychedelic dimethyltryptamine, combined with psychological support, produces rapid and lasting reductions in depressive symptoms in adults with major depressive disorder.

Pharmacists, Medications, and Contingency Management for Smoking in HIV Clinics

RCT: Among people with HIV who smoke, clinical pharmacist-delivered nicotine replacement with contingency management improved tobacco-related outcomes, providing evidence-based strategies for smoking reduction in HIV clinics.

Question What are optimal clinical pharmacist–delivered treatment strategies for promoting cigarette smoking reduction among people with HIV?

Findings In this randomized clinical trial involving 323 participants, those receiving nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) with or without contingency management (CM) had similar reductions in cigarettes per day (CPD) at 12 weeks. Among participants who started with NRT alone and did not achieve week 12 abstinence, adding CM led to lower CPD than switching to oral medications. Participants who started with NRT and then added CM achieved lowest CPD at week 24.

Meaning Study findings, indicating that CM is an effective adjunct to clinical pharmacist–delivered NRT for improving tobacco-related outcomes, provide HIV clinics with guidance on strategies for addressing cigarette smoking reduction among people with HIV.

Study suggests protein made in the liver is a key factor in men’s bone health

New research suggests the liver plays a previously unrecognized role in bone health, but only in males. A McGill University-led study published in Matrix Biology found that a protein made in the liver helps regulate bone growth in male mice, but not in females. The findings may help explain why men with liver disease are more likely to experience bone loss.

The protein, known as plasma fibronectin, is naturally present in blood at higher levels in men than in women, declines when the liver is damaged and builds up in bone to modulate bone formation. This suggests men rely more heavily on the protein to maintain bone strength than do women.

“About 60% of osteoporosis cases in men are secondary to other underlying health conditions,” said senior author Mari Tuulia Kaartinen, Associate Professor in McGill’s Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences. “Our findings suggest this protein may be one of the biological links connecting liver disease to bone loss.”

Jobs AI Will Never Replace, Study Finds

Which Careers Are Most At Risk from AI Impact.

Artificial intelligence is reshaping the global labor market, with white-collar workers, especially those with higher education, facing the highest risk of job displacement.

Routine and structured tasks in administration, customer service, translation, and content production are most vulnerable, while roles requiring empathy, creativity, or physical skill, such as doctors, teachers, and electricians, remain relatively protected.

By 2026, AI is expected to handle up to 75% of customer service interactions, while 40% of the global workforce will need reskilling. Governments and companies must prioritize training and social protection to prevent widening labor and social inequality.

CHAPTERS:
0:12 Safest Jobs.
0:37 AI-Proof Careers.
1:05 Jobs AI Cannot Replace.
1:49 Future-Proof Jobs.
2:26 Tech Job Market.
3:01 AI and Employment.
3:44 Most Secure Careers.
4:22 Jobs Safe from Automation.
4:59 Jobs Safe from Automation 2025
5:18 Artificial Intelligence Impact.
6:57 Stable Tech Careers.

Produced by: Samantha Harvey.

Continue reading “Jobs AI Will Never Replace, Study Finds” | >

The Nervous System and Behavior

Many central issues with which neurosciences is concerned, such as how we perceive the world around us, how we learn from experience, how we remember, how we direct our movements, and how we communicate with each other, have commanded the attention of thoughtful men and women for centuries. But it was not until after World War II that neuroscience began to emerge as a separate and increasingly vigorous scientific discipline that has as its ultimate objective providing a satisfactory account of animal (including human) behavior in biological terms. This ambitious goal has as its basis the central realization that all behavior is, in the last analysis, a reflection of the function of the nervous system. It is the organized and coordinated activity of the nervous system that ultimately manifests itself in the behavior of the organism. The challenge to neuroscience then, is to explain, in physical and chemical terms, how the nervous system marshalls its signaling units to direct behavior.

The real magnitude of this challenge can perhaps be best judged by considering the structural and functional complexity of the human brain and the bewildering complexity of human behavior. The human brain is thought to be composed of about a hundred billion (1011) nerve cells and about 10 to 50 times that number of supporting elements or glial cells. Some nerve cells have relatively few connections with other neurons or with such effector organs as muscles or glands, but the great majority receive connections from thousands of other cells and may themselves connect with several hundred other neurons. This means that at a fairly conservative estimate the total number of functional connections (known as synapses) within the human brain is on the order of a hundred trillion (1014). But what is most important is that these connections are not random or indiscriminate:

They constitute the essential “wiring” of the nervous system on which the extraordinarily precise functioning of the brain depends. We owe to the great neuroanatomists of the last century, and especially to Ramón y Cajal, the brilliant insight that cells with basically similar properties are able to produce very different actions because they are connected to each other and to the sensory receptors and effector organs of the body in different ways. One major objective of modern neuroscience is therefore to unravel the patterns of connections within the nervous system—in a word, to map the brain.

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