Research

Twitter can Reveal our Shared Mood

In the largest study of its kind, researchers from the University of Bristol have analysed mood indicators in text from 800 million anonymous messages posted on Twitter. These tweets were found to reflect strong patterns of positive and negative moods over the 24-hour day.

Circadian rhythms, widely referred to as the 'body clock', allows people's bodies to predict their needs over the dark and light periods of the day.

Video Game Improves Doctors' Recognition and Triage of Severe Trauma Patients

Playing an adventure video game featuring a fictitious, young emergency physician treating severe trauma patients was better than text-based learning at priming real doctors to quickly recognize the patients who needed higher levels of care, according to a new trial led by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The results, published by The BMJ, held even though doctors assigned to the game enjoyed it less than those assigned to traditional, text-based education.

Researchers 3-D Print Lifelike Artificial Organ Models

A team of researchers led by the University of Minnesota has 3D printed lifelike artificial organ models that mimic the exact anatomical structure, mechanical properties, and look and feel of real organs. These patient-specific organ models, which include integrated soft sensors, can be used for practice surgeries to improve surgical outcomes in thousands of patients worldwide.

New Software can Verify Someone's Identity by their DNA in Minutes

In the science-fiction movie Gattaca, visitors only clear security if a blood test and readout of their genetic profile matches the sample on file. Now, cheap DNA sequencers and custom software could make real-time DNA-authentication a reality. Researchers at Columbia University and the New York Genome Center have developed a method to quickly and accurately identify people and cell lines from their DNA.

Virtual Reality for Bacteria

Scientists at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria) have managed to control the behavior of individual bacteria by connecting them to a computer. The interdisciplinary team including experimental biologist Remy Chait and mathematician Jakob Ruess (now at the Institut Pasteur and Inria Saclay in France) as first authors of the study, as well as Professors Calin Guet and Gasper Tkacik used the setup to build a genetic circuit that is partly living and partly digital.

Social Mobile Gaming Boosts Rehabilitation for Physically Impaired Patients

The researchers from Imperial have designed a video game called Balloon Buddies, which is a tool that enables those recovering from conditions such as a stroke to engage and play together with healthy volunteers such as therapists and family members as a form of rehabilitation. Balloon Buddies is designed to level the playing field by allowing healthy participants to support the less abled player.

Mental Health Mobile Apps Are Effective Self-Help Tools

When it comes to strengthening your mental or emotional health, would you trust an app? A trio of Brigham Young University health science researchers has published new research that says the answer is yes. The group was looking to identify what it is about health apps that influences users' behavior. Over three studies, they surveyed roughly 600 people who had used diet, physical activity or mental health apps in the past six months.

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