Search

Given rising diabetes prevalence globally, access to diabetes treatments is gaining urgency. Here, the authors show patterns of glucose-lowering medication use for diabetes across 62 low- and middle-income countries.

Recent global disruptions have revived the food self-sufficiency debate. This study analyses countries’ trade dependencies and the discrepancy between their domestic food production and guidelines for a healthy and sustainable diet across seven essential food groups.

The first experimental demonstration of saturable absorption in core-electron transitions in aluminium paves the way for investigating warm dense matter, which potentially has an important role in planetary science and the realization of inertial confinement fusion.

Using survey data from over 3 million individuals, Geldsetzer et al. present evidence for cardiovascular disease risk factors among individuals living in extreme poverty in low- and middle-income countries.

Catalytic cracking is an emerging technology allowing to convert plastic waste into hydrocarbon feedstocks. Here, the authors show that the activity of ultrastable zeolite Y depends on the concentration of acid sites located outside of micropores.

Curved cell shapes are common among bacteria, but the underlying morphogenetic mechanisms are incompletely understood. Here, the authors identify an outer-membrane protein complex that promotes cell curvature in Rhodospirillum rubrum by forming helical ribbon structures that modulate the dynamics of cell wall biosynthesis, biasing cell growth towards the cell’s outer curve.

Simulation of improvements in hypertension care across wealth quintiles in 44 low- and middle-income countries demonstrates that targeted improvements in diagnosis and treatment could considerably reduce within-country, socioeconomic-based inequalites in cardiovascular disease burden.

Analysis of the largest behaviour change programme for prediabetes globally provides causal evidence that lifestyle advice and counselling implemented at scale can improve key cardiovascular risk factors.

Despite its importance for the targeting of interventions, little is known about the degree to which cardiovascular risk factors cluster within different socio-geographic levels in South Asia. Here the authors report on a cross-sectional study identifying wide variations in the clustering between risk factors and socio-geographic levels in India.

Although progress in the coverage of routine measles vaccination in children in low- and middle-income countries was made during 2000–2019, many countries remain far from the goal of 80% coverage in all districts by 2019.

Fine-scale geospatial mapping of overweight and wasting (two components of the double burden of malnutrition) in 105 LMICs shows that overweight has increased from 5.2% in 2000 to 6.0% in children under 5 in 2017. Although overall wasting decreased over the same period, most countries are not on track to meet the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target of <5% in over half of LMICs by 2025.

Analyses of the proportions of individuals who have completed key levels of schooling across all low- and middle-income countries from 2000 to 2017 reveal inequalities across countries as well as within populations.

Biologically informed neural networks promise to lead to more explainable, data-driven discoveries in genomics, drug development and precision medicine. Selby et al. highlight emerging opportunities, as well as challenges that will need to be overcome to enable their wider adoption.

Adler et al. identify granulocyte-derived lipocalin-2 as a mediator of inflammatory astrocyte activation, which in turn facilitates brain metastasis in breast cancer and melanoma.

When monolayers of π-conjugated organic semiconductors interact with metal surfaces, most remain semiconducting. In some cases, however, the metallic character of the substrate is seen to extend onto the molecules. A mechanism for this intriguing phenomenon is now suggested and new strategies for chemical surface engineering are proposed.

Rhode et al. investigate the applicability of smartphone-based point-of-care diagnostics for monitoring HbA1c levels of diabetes patients under real-world conditions in a lower-middle income setting. They discover that the method offers an acceptable alternative for accessible monitoring under these conditions.

The STARD-AI statement, which was developed through a multistage process involving over 240 international stakeholders, provides a minimum set of criteria that allows for comprehensive reporting of AI-centered diagnostic test accuracy studies.

There is an urgent need to rethink the Nobel Prize in Physics in the light of the climate crisis. As expressed by its founder, the award should acknowledge research that addresses pressing challenges for humanity.

For machine learning developers, the use of prediction tools in real-world clinical settings can be a distant goal. Recently published guidelines for reporting clinical research that involves machine learning will help connect clinical and computer science communities, and realize the full potential of machine learning tools.

The CONSORT-AI and SPIRIT-AI extensions improve the transparency of clinical trial design and trial protocol reporting for artificial intelligence interventions.

The CONSORT-AI and SPIRIT-AI extensions improve the transparency of clinical trial design and trial protocol reporting for artificial intelligence interventions.

Topological insulators in contact with a superconductor could house unusual physical states such as Majorana fermions. Here, the authors fabricate and report the  electron-transport characteristics of Josephson junctions built using a nanoscale topological insulator, finding evidence for ballistic transport in the surface states of the nanocrystals.

As artificial intelligence moves into the realm of clinical trials, consideration is needed on whether the current CONSORT and SPIRIT reporting statements are sufficient to ensure transparency.

De Neve et al. determine the relationship between anemia and school attendance among adolescents using a large national dataset from India. In this within-household analysis, the relationship between anemia and schooling is more muted compared to more conventional analyses which do not account for all household-level factors.

Haggenmüller et al. evaluate the performance of a smartphone app for non-invasive hemoglobin estimation that was developed in the USA in rural India. Performance improved when the app was retrained on the data collected in India.

The DECIDE-AI checklist, resulting from a multi-stakeholder group of experts in a Delphi process and following the EQUATOR Network’s recommendations, includes key items that should be reported in early-stage clinical studies of AI-based decision support systems, to ensure a responsible and transparent deployment of AI systems in healthcare.