Latest news with #UniversityofNottingham
The Guardian
6 hours ago
- The Guardian
Domestic abuse and the risks and benefits of location sharing apps
It was good to see the pros and cons of location tracking software being considered in your article ('If I switch it off, my girlfriend might think I'm cheating': inside the rise of couples location sharing, 24 July). One thing that might usefully be added to the debate is a discussion on how location tracking software has become 'dual use' in relation to technology-facilitated domestic abuse. The same technology that is used by abusers to exert control is also being used by victim-survivors to enhance their safety. For victim-survivors of domestic abuse, the risks of an abusive partner being able to track your every move are obvious. However, location sharing technologies can also serve a protective function by letting family and friends know where you are. Many domestic abuse support services and police forces are now recommending these technologies to victim-survivors as safeguarding measures. My advice to anyone would be not to share your location in the early months of a relationship. Wait until you really know and trust someone. Discuss the pros and cons with your partner. If your partner tries to pressurise you into sharing your location with them, consider asking for advice or support from local or national domestic abuse services. You can look for your local service using the Women's Aid Kathryn BrookfieldAssistant professor of criminology, University of Nottingham Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Brains Aged Faster In 2021–2022: What Did The Pandemic Do To Us?
A new study suggests that the pandemic may have had a significant impact on our brains, whether or not we contracted COVID-19. Leveraging an extensive database of brain scans, British researchers say that people's brains showed accelerated aging during 2021 and 2022, including signs of shrinkage. While people who were infected with COVID also showed cognitive decline, like slower processing speed, the study was notable because it said even the non-infected were likely to experience harm to their brain. While the study did not delve into the exact causes of the accelerated aging, the study's first author, Ali-Reza Mohammadi-Nejad, a neuroimaging researcher at the University of Nottingham, theorizes that it may have been the result of stress and other factors. 'But it is likely that the cumulative experience of the pandemic—including psychological stress, social isolation, disruptions in daily life, reduced activity and wellness—contributed to the observed changes… In this sense, the pandemic period itself appears to have left a mark on our brains, even in the absence of infection,' said Mohammadi-Nejad, per NBC. The researchers found that males and 'those from more socioeconomically deprived backgrounds' experienced the most significant brain aging. Overall, the pandemic was thought to be linked to a 5.5-month acceleration in the aging process. This is not the first time researchers have reached similar conclusions. Last year, a previous study found that teenagers experienced dramatic brain aging during the pandemic. Notably, the study suggested that girls' brains aged 4.2 years faster and boys' brains aged 1.3 years faster, on average. The latest study does not indicate whether the structural changes identified in individuals who have never contracted COVID will result in any noticeable changes in brain function. Nor does the study confirm whether the physical changes will persist over the long term, says Adam Brickman, a professor of neuropsychology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, who was not involved in the study.
The Print
2 days ago
- Health
- The Print
COVID-19 pandemic may have aged your brain, even if you weren't infected, finds UK study
According to the researchers, however, these changes could be 'partially reversible' but the most significant aspect highlighted in the study was how much simply living through the uncertainty and isolation of the pandemic affected brain health. Using brain scans from nearly 1,000 healthy adults from before and after the pandemic, researchers found signs of faster brain ageing, especially in older adults, men, and those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Of these samples, those who were infected with COVID-19 also showed some decline in thinking speed and flexibility. But overall, the pandemic's stress alone did shift brain structure in all individuals whose scans were reviewed. New Delhi: A new study from the University of Nottingham has found that just living through the COVID-19 pandemic may have aged people's brains faster, even if they never got infected with the virus itself. The peer-reviewed study was published on 22 July in the journal Nature Communications and is based on data from the UK Biobank Study. It's a powerful reminder that our environment matters for our brain's growth. Read more here. Also Read: A UK health study has collected a whopping 100,000 full-body scans, and Neanderthals had 'family recipes' Spiders originally came from the sea? Next, we might have evidence that spiders could have originally been sea creatures. At least that is what a new peer-reviewed study published in the journal Current Biology on 22 July suggests, after researchers closely examined a preserved fossil from half a billion years ago. The fossil is called Mollisonia symmetrica, and it has a nervous system very similar to that of modern-day arachnids like spiders and scorpions. Until now, scientists thought these creatures only evolved once their ancestors moved onto land 400 million years ago and have remained the same ever since. But this new study flips that theory on its head, quite literally. It cites evidence of the brain of the fossil Mollisonia, which shows a reversed organisation—a signature trait seen in today's arachnids. This arrangement may have given them faster reflexes, better control, and precision, which are all traits modern-day spiders use to hunt and weave webs. The fossil places Mollisonia as a close relative of modern arachnids, meaning these creatures might have started evolving in the ocean long before they crept onto land. Read more here. Scientists genome sequence 100-yr-old Spanish Flu virus A 100-year-old lung sample from Switzerland helped scientists decode the deadliest flu in human history. A new peer-reviewed study by researchers from the Universities of Basel and Zurich published in BMC Biology Journal on 1 July sequenced the genome of the 1918 'Spanish flu' virus. They used preserved tissue from a young patient who died during the pandemic's first wave in Switzerland. The Spanish flu that spread across Europe and Asia in the 1910s is said to have killed between 20-100 million people. By decoding the genome, scientists now have insights into how this flu had already adapted to humans early on. They found three key mutations in the genome—two which helped the virus evade the human immune system, and one which boosted its ability to infect human cells. What makes this study stand out is also how they conducted the study. In viral flus, the genetic information rests in the RNA, not the DNA. The RNA is very quick to degrade but these scientists developed a method to recover ancient viral RNA. This technique could open the door to learning more from historic outbreaks. Read more here. Arctic winter is melting, and researchers have noticed it A group of scientists led by Dr James Bradley from Queen Mary University, London, published a commentary in Nature Communications on 21 July talking about the 'shockingly warm' winter conditions in the Arctic. The team described how they had geared up for winter Arctic fieldwork in Svalbard, wearing layers of thermal clothing, only to find themselves drenched in rain, standing on bare grass, and working without even needing gloves in what is supposed to be the middle of winter in February 2025. Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago located where the Arctic Ocean converges with the Atlantic Ocean. In the commentary, they raised alarms about melted snow pools, blooming vegetation, and rain replacing snow in the Arctic Circle during winters. Svalbard is heating up six to seven times faster than the global average, and the Arctic winter is no longer reliably frozen, said the team. These conditions not only disrupted their research but also raised safety concerns, like how to retreat from polar bears without their snowmobiles working. The team warns that winter warming in the Arctic is not a fluke but rather the new norm. The message sent by the commentary is clear: climate policy needs to catch up, and fast. Read more here. Also Read: A fiery side-effect of melting glaciers & paging Dr Droid for gallbladder surgery
Gulf Insider
2 days ago
- Health
- Gulf Insider
COVID-19 Pandemic Accelerated Brain Aging Even In People Who Didn't Get Virus: Study
Brain aging appears to have accelerated by several months during the COVID-19 pandemic, even in people who did not get sick from the virus, according to a new study. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications on July 22, found that in 2021 and 2022, brain scans from a large UK database showed signs of aging, including brain shrinkage, even in individuals who were never infected. Although people who had a COVID-19 infection showed some declines in overall cognitive performance, the authors said that structural brain changes were seen across a larger population. They highlighted pandemic-related stressors, such as anxiety, social isolation, and economic and health insecurity, as possible reasons for the increase in brain aging. The research suggested that the pandemic may have also prematurely aged some individuals' brains by an average of 5.5 months, even among those who never contracted the virus. The impacts of the pandemic on the brain were most pronounced in men and people from 'deprived socio-demographic backgrounds,' the study said. The team analyzed brain scans collected from 15,334 healthy adults, with an average age of 63, in the UK Biobank—a long-term monitoring program—and then used machine-learning models to examine 'hundreds of structural features of the participants' brains, which taught the model how the brain looks at various ages,' the study's lead author, Ali-Reza Mohammadi-Nejad, a researcher at the University of Nottingham, stated in a paper released alongside the study. After that, they applied the model to a group of 996 healthy UK Biobank participants who had two brain scans at least 'a couple of years apart,' he added. Some participants had one scan done before the pandemic and another following the onset of the pandemic, in early 2020, the study stated. 'What surprised me most was that even people who hadn't had Covid showed significant increases in brain ageing rates,' Mohammadi-Nejad said in a statement. 'It really shows how much the experience of the pandemic itself, everything from isolation to uncertainty, may have affected our brain health.' The long-term impacts of the brain changes aren't clear, the team of researchers said, but they concluded that there is a need to 'address health and socio-economic inequalities in addition to lifestyle factors to mitigate accelerated brain ageing.' More research is also crucial to 'improve brain health outcomes in future public health crises,' they added. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in an update several days ago that COVID-19 cases are rising in some parts of the United States, although the overall levels for the virus remain low. COVID-19 activity, the CDC said on July 18, is now increasing in some Southeast, Southern, and West Coast states. Citing wastewater data for COVID-19, the agency said that positive tests are increasing around the United States, while emergency department visits appear to be increasing among children aged 0 to 4. Wastewater detections for COVID-19 updated by the CDC suggest that high levels of the virus are being reported in California, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Nevada, South Carolina, and Texas. No states were experiencing very high levels, according to a map from the agency.
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Business Standard
4 days ago
- Health
- Business Standard
Your brain might have aged faster during the pandemic, even without Covid-19
The Covid-19 pandemic may have accelerated the ageing of the human brain, even in people who were never infected, according to a new study. Mounting stress, prolonged isolation, and widespread disruption during the pandemic appear to have left lasting biological effects on brain structure. Researchers have now found measurable signs of this accelerated ageing across the general population, with older adults, men, and those from disadvantaged backgrounds being most affected. The study, led by researchers at the University of Nottingham and published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications, titled Accelerated brain ageing during the Covid-19 pandemic, analysed brain scans of 996 healthy adults sourced from UK Biobank, which holds the de-identified biological and health data of over half a million people. The scans taken before and after the pandemic showed that brains aged an average of 5.5 months faster during lockdown. The findings showed that while men aged about six months faster, women aged by around 4.5 months. Those from disadvantaged backgrounds experienced up to seven months of additional brain ageing. According to the researchers, this is the first major study to isolate pandemic stress from actual Covid infection and still find evidence of measurable brain ageing. How did researchers measure brain ageing? Using AI models trained on more than 15,000 brain scans, scientists calculated each participant's 'brain age gap'—the difference between how old their brain appeared versus their actual age. A larger gap indicated faster ageing. They compared people scanned twice before the pandemic with those scanned once before and once after. The latter group, who lived through lockdowns, social isolation, and economic stress, showed significantly faster brain ageing. Can stress actually age your brain? Emerging research suggests it can. Chronic stress, lack of social stimulation, disrupted routines, and reduced cognitive engagement can all affect brain regions responsible for memory and executive function. The researchers emphasised that brain health is shaped not only by disease but also by environmental factors and everyday experiences. Who was most affected by accelerated brain ageing? According to the study, the most affected groups were: Men (33 per cent more acceleration than women) Older adults Individuals from low-income or disadvantaged backgrounds The findings suggest that socioeconomic vulnerability, limited healthcare access, and lower social support systems heightened the impact of pandemic-related stress. How did Covid infection affect the brain differently? While brain ageing was seen across the general population, cognitive decline was reported only in those who had been infected with Covid-19. Infected individuals performed worse on mental flexibility and processing speed tests, especially the Trail Making Test (TMT), which is often used to assess early dementia symptoms. Thus, while pandemic stress altered brain structure, infection was linked to functional cognitive decline. Are these brain changes permanent? It is unclear. Since the study only measured two time points per person, researchers cannot yet confirm whether brain ageing will stabilise or reverse over time. However, they remain cautiously optimistic. 'Our study highlights the pandemic's significant impact on brain health, beyond direct infection effects, and underscores the need to address broader social and health inequalities,' the authors noted. How can you protect your brain now? Even if the pandemic aged your brain slightly, there are proven ways to support brain health: Maintain regular social connections Engage in physical activity Follow a brain-healthy diet Prioritise mental well-being and sleep Keep your mind active with learning and problem-solving While ageing is inevitable, experts say the rate of cognitive decline can still be influenced. According to experts, by avoiding certain everyday habits, like prolonged sitting, skipping meals, excessive screen time, chronic stress, and social isolation, we may be able to slow down cognitive ageing and protect our mental well-being.
