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Behind any study that hits the media with eye-catching headlines there are usually numbers to back it up. Analysing the statistics of a study is one of the greatest challenges in communicating any finding with rigour.
After lengthy negotiations, the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the EU - which represents the member states - reached a provisional agreement last night on the content of the 'AI Act', the future law that will regulate the development of artificial intelligence in Europe, the first in the world. The agreement limits the use of biometric identification systems by security forces, includes rules for generative AI models such as ChatGPT and provides for fines of up to 35 million euros for those who violate the rules, among other measures. The text must now be formally adopted by the Parliament and Council before it becomes EU law.
A review of epidemiological data examines the physical and psychological complications that occur after childbirth in the medium and long term. More than a third of women reported lasting, and often neglected, health problems six weeks after childbirth. The most common complaints were: pain during sexual intercourse (35%), lower back pain (32%), urinary incontinence (8-31%), anxiety (9-24%), anal incontinence (19%), depression (11-17%) or significant fear of childbirth (6-15%). In their paper, published today in the journal The Lancet Global Health as part of a special series, the authors stress the importance of providing comprehensive health services beyond six weeks postpartum.
A study of more than 5,000 patients has developed a method to predict the biological age of our organs. They have analysed more than 4,000 proteins present in the blood and used machine learning models adapted to 11 different organs. According to the authors, almost 20 % of the population has accelerated organ ageing, which in many cases is associated with an increased risk of mortality of between 20 and 50 %. The results are published in the journal Nature.
An early first menstrual period (menarche) - compared with the average of 13 years - is associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes in women under the age of 65 and also with an increased risk of stroke among those living with diabetes, says a study published in BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health. The research analyses data from a national health survey in the US, focusing on women aged 20-65 between 1999 and 2018.
Global carbon emissions from fossil fuels have increased again in 2023, reaching record levels, reaching 36.8 billion tonnes of CO2. This means they are 1.4% above pre-pandemic CO2 levels. This is one of the forecasts in the Global Carbon Budget 2023 report that researcher Pep Canadell presented at a briefing organised by SMC Spain.
At the current level of emissions, there is a 50% chance that global temperatures will exceed the 1.5°C target consistently over seven years. This is one of the forecasts in the Global Carbon Budget 2023 report, which estimates that CO2 emissions from fossil fuels will reach record highs in 2023, reaching 36.8 billion tonnes, 1.1 % more than in 2022. The report, published in the journal Earth System Science Data, shows that emissions have decreased in the EU as a whole and in the United States, while they continue to increase in India and China.
People who do not have coeliac disease or wheat allergy sometimes reduce their gluten intake because they believe it is the cause of their gastrointestinal symptoms. A study has found that there may be a nocebo effect - negative anticipation of a substance or treatment, the opposite of the placebo effect - on gluten sensitivity in these people, so that the mere thought of ingesting gluten causes more symptoms in those who believe they are sensitive to it. The results are published in the journal The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology.
According to a survey conducted in Spain, with 403 respondents from the biomedical research field, four out of ten admit to having committed some type of misconduct in their work. The press regularly reports on scandals in science. Among the most recent cases, El País reported that the CSIC has opened a disciplinary proceeding against five individuals suspected of receiving money in exchange of false affiliations. These cases of misconduct may seem isolated, but they reflect broader dysfunction of the research system. In this guide, we provide keys to better understand how these cases arise and evolve, and to cover their nuances.
In a recent study of the experiences of biomedical researchers in Spain, 43% of respondents admitted to having intentionally committed some form of scientific misconduct. The most frequent kind of misconduct was false authorship of scientific articles: 35% of the 403 respondents said they had been involved in some instance of it, says the study published in the journal Accountability in Research. Ten per cent of respondents reported a lack of informed consent, and 3.6 per cent admitted to having been involved at least once in falsification or manipulation of data.