All posts tagged: identified

Brain region identified as key controller of aggression

Brain region identified as key controller of aggression

Published by José

Scientists have discovered that a specific area within the brain, known as the cortical amygdala, plays a pivotal role in determining whether male mice behave aggressively or in a friendly manner. This region becomes active when male mice detect scents from other males and when they engage in aggressive actions. Researchers found that reducing the activity of this brain area lessened aggressive behaviors and encouraged more sociable interactions. This work, published in Nature, is the first to pinpoint a single brain area capable of halting aggressive social behavior and encouraging pro-social actions. Researchers at Mount Sinai were interested in this topic because aggression is a fundamental behavior across species, and studying it in detail could reveal general principles about how the brain controls behavior. “Aggression is a highly conserved behavior of great importance throughout the animal kingdom, explained study author Antonio Aubry, an instructor at the Icahn School of Medicine. “Thus, by studying the neurobiology of aggression, it has the potential to uncover general principles regarding the relationship between the brain and behavior across a …

Russian Officials Who Looted Southern Ukrainian Museums Identified

Russian Officials Who Looted Southern Ukrainian Museums Identified

Published by skeptic

A Russian military officer and three Russian-appointed officials from occupied Crimea illegally removed more than 33,000 historical artifacts and artworks from two museums in the Ukrainian city Kherson in the fall of 2022, the Kyiv Independent reported Thursday, calling it the largest museum theft in Europe since World War II. The looting was carried out while Russian forces were fleeing a Ukrainian counteroffensive. A journalist working for the Kyiv Independent posed as a Russian television producer and investigator to identify local collaborators who helped Russian troops with the looting. Through the investigation, it was discovered that Russian officer and head of communications of the Russian Black Sea Fleet Dmitry Lipov, who served as the city’s commandant during the city’s occupation, secured the collections during the government-sanctioned removal and personally sealed the trucks transporting the stolen items. Related Articles Sergey Patrushev, who was appointed by Russian authorities to lead the museum department of the Crimean Ministry of Culture, moved paintings from the Kherson Art Museum to Crimea. During the theft, two Russian-appointed directors of the Crimean museums, …

Dogs identified as spreaders of antimicrobial-resistant Salmonella

Dogs identified as spreaders of antimicrobial-resistant Salmonella

Published by skeptic

Antibiotic-resistant Salmonella is a serious public health concern that has increased recently as the bacteria has developed ways to survive drugs. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people can get Salmonella from eating contaminated food products or from infected people or animals — typically via unintentional contact. A team of Penn State researchers has now discovered that household dogs are an overlooked transmission point for zoonotic pathogens that cause Salmonella. This can cause diarrhoea, fever, and abdominal cramps, and some infections can potentially have life-threatening complications. The researchers reported that, given dogs’ proximity to humans and the use of critically important antibiotics in companion animal medicine, household dogs represent a risk for the spread of antimicrobial-resistant Salmonella. They found that better awareness of the risk and proper hygiene could potentially help mitigate cross-species infections. How dogs spread antimicrobial-resistant Salmonella Salmonella infections in dogs can be clinical — showing signs or symptoms — or asymptomatic, with numerous studies reporting Salmonella isolation from clinically healthy dogs, according to team leader Erika Ganda. She …

New AI system redefines how skin cancer is identified, managed, and treated

New AI system redefines how skin cancer is identified, managed, and treated

Published by skeptic

Skin cancer is a pervasive global health issue, with melanoma as its deadliest subtype. Responsible for 80% of all skin cancer deaths, melanoma highlights the urgent need for early and accurate detection. Research shows that delays in diagnosis can reduce five-year survival rates by as much as 20%. However, traditional diagnostic methods, such as the widely used 7-point checklist (7PCL), primarily focus on melanoma. This narrow scope has limited their effectiveness in detecting other types of skin cancers like basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). A groundbreaking study led by researchers from Anglia Ruskin University, the University of Essex, Check4Cancer, and Addenbrooke’s Hospital introduces a revolutionary approach. Their artificial intelligence (AI)-based framework not only expands detection capabilities across all skin cancer types but also significantly outperforms existing methods in sensitivity and specificity. This innovation is expected to redefine how skin cancer is identified, managed, and treated. Skin cancer diagnosis in the UK follows a two-week pathway system for urgent referrals. This process prioritizes patients with suspicious lesions for specialist evaluation within two …

Newly identified scorpion species ‘spits’ venom to defend itself

Newly identified scorpion species ‘spits’ venom to defend itself

Published by skeptic

This scorpion (Tityus achilles) can spray venom out of its stinger Léo Laborieux A Colombian scorpion that is new to science can spray venom from its stinger to hit something up to 35 centimetres away rather than always having to inject it. The tactic is thought to be a way of defending against would-be predators. It isn’t known what effect the venom has when it gets into an animal’s eye, mouth or nose, says Léo Laborieux, who made the discovery while at Harvard University.… Source link

Hidden Figure Identified in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel Fresco

Hidden Figure Identified in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel Fresco

Published by skeptic

  For the past 500 years, Mary Magdalene has been hiding in plain sight on the walls of the Sistine Chapel, according to new research by Italian art restorer and researcher Sara Penco. Her recently-announced book, Mary Magdalene in Michelangelo’s Judgement, makes the case for the Biblical woman’s forgotten presence in the Italian Renaissance fresco, which is chock-full of fascinating figures.   “The Fresco Was Screaming That Something Was Missing” Detail of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel fresco. Source: Sara Penco/Scripta Maneant.   It was 25 years after he completed the Sistine Chapel ceiling that Michelangelo began working on The Last Judgment, a fresco that covers the entire altar wall of the Vatican City landmark. The scene depicts the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the final judgment of humanity as written in the New Testament. Over the course of four years, Michelangelo painted over 300 figures in The Last Judgment. Christ appears at the center of the composition, surrounded by the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, Saint Peter, and other prominent Catholic saints. Above them, the saved float …

Can the Real King Arthur Be Identified as Athrwys of Gwent?

Can the Real King Arthur Be Identified as Athrwys of Gwent?

Published by skeptic

  The search for the real King Arthur has occupied the pages of countless books. Often, this investigation is focused on any hidden traces of Arthur’s existence. A method used by some other researchers, however, is to try to identify the legendary figure of Arthur with a known historical person. Athrwys of Gwent, the son of King Meurig, is one such historical person. In the late eighteenth through to the early twentieth century, he was an extremely popular candidate for the real King Arthur. Is this old theory worth another look?   Who Was Athrwys of Gwent? Wooden sculpture of Tewdrig grandfather of Athrwys, St Tewdric’s Church, Mathern, Wales. Source: Shortwalkslongpaths.com   Athrwys of Gwent was the son of a king named Meurig. This dynasty ruled over much of southeast Wales. Although the borders were not always consistent it generally included the historic regions of Glamorgan and Gwent.   Athrwys also inherited the kingdom of Ergyng, since he was the eldest son of Onbrawst, the daughter of that kingdom’s ruler, Gwrgan the Great. The kingdom …

40 Allegedly Counterfeit Paintings Identified on eBay Using AI

40 Allegedly Counterfeit Paintings Identified on eBay Using AI

Published by skeptic

An artwork authentication expert recently said she identified 40 supposedly fake painting being offered for sale on eBay, including two attributed to Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Dr. Carina Popovici, CEO and co-founder of the Swiss firm Art Recognition, told The Guardian earlier this week that she applied “cutting edge artificial intelligence (AI)” technology to photos on the e-commerce platform and found “up to 40” paintings had a high probability of not being authentic. “The algorithm identified all of them as fakes,” she told The Guardian. “We looked today and we downloaded some images, and there were fakes all over the place. Everything that we have analysed turns out to be not real art, a negative probability with 95% or so. I’m sure that this is just the tip of the iceberg.” Related Articles According to The Guardian, the images identified as fakes by Dr. Popovici’s AI tests included one listed as a work by ‘Monet’ titled Forest With a Stream priced at $599,000. Another item described as a study by ‘Renoir’ was priced at …

Ancient Egyptian Structure Identified Alongside the Giza Pyramids

Ancient Egyptian Structure Identified Alongside the Giza Pyramids

Published by skeptic

A previously unknown L-shaped structure has been identified by researchers using ground-penetrating technology in an ancient Egyptian cemetery in Giza, according to a study published in the journal Archaeological Prospection on Monday. The researchers, a joint team of researchers from Higashi Nippon International University, Tohoku University, and Egypt’s National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics, scanned below the sand’s surface in a “blank area” of Giza’s Western Cemetery alongside the Great Pyramid of Khufu. Related Articles The Western Cemetery is, according to the researchers, “an important burial place of members of the royal family and high-class officers” that is densely populated with mastabas, a type of tomb with rectangular funerary chapels that give way to shafts connected to underground burial chambers. However, there is the afforementioned blank space in the center of the cemetery with no aboveground structures and on which no noteworthy excavations have been conducted. Over two years beginning in 2021, the team conducted a geophysical survey, using a combination of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) to see under the surface. …