Poor heart health predicts premature brain ageing

By estimating people's brain age from MRI scans using machine learning, a team led by UCL researchers has identified multiple risk factors for a prematurely aging brain.

Regular physical activity linked to lower risk of COVID-19 infection and severity

Regular physical activity is linked to a lower risk of COVID-19 infection and severity, including hospital admission and death, finds a pooled data analysis of the available evidence, published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Caffeine metabolite may slow progression of short-sight (myopia) in children

A metabolite of caffeine, known as 7-MX, may slow the progression of short-sightedness, also known as myopia, in children, suggests observational research published online in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.

A reinforcement learning framework to improve the soccer shooting skills of quadruped robots

Researchers University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), Université de Montréal and Mila have recently developed a hierarchical reinforcement learning framework to improve the precision of quadrupedal robots in soccer shooting. This framework, introduced in a paper pre-published on arXiv, was deployed on a Unitree A1, a quadruped robot developed by UnitreeRobotics.

source https://www.lifetechnology.com/blogs/life-technology-technology-news/a-reinforcement-learning-framework-to-improve-the-soccer-shooting-skills-of-quadruped-robots

Tracking air pollution disparities—daily—from space

Studies have shown that pollution, whether from factories or traffic-snarled roads, disproportionately affects communities where economically disadvantaged people and Hispanic, Black and Asian people live. As technology has improved, scientists have begun documenting these disparities in detail, but information on daily variations has been lacking. Today, scientists report preliminary work calculating how inequities in exposure fluctuate from day to day across 11 major U.S. cities. In addition, they show that in some places, climate change could exacerbate these differences.

source https://www.lifetechnology.com/blogs/life-technology-science-news/tracking-air-pollution-disparities-daily-from-space

How did the early COVID-19 pandemic affect cancer survivors?

Recent research indicates that during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the proportion of working-aged U.S. adults without health insurance did not change despite increases in unemployment, and the prevalence of unhealthy behaviors decreased. The findings, which were published in CANCER, pertained to individuals with and without a history of cancer.