Passive scrolling linked to anxiety and other mental health concerns in teens

Exceeding two hours of weekday screen time doubled odds of clinically elevated anxiety, quadrupled emotional and behavioral difficulties

University of Western Ontario

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Emma Duerden, Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience and Learning Disorders at Western University. 

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Credit: Western University

Heightened anxiety, depression, aggression and impulsiveness in vulnerable adolescents can be attributed to prolonged screen time, specifically passive scrolling, according to a new Western University study. 

Approximately 45 per cent of study participants, including more than 500 adolescents without any prior mental health conditions, reported heightened anxiety in the clinical range, which indicates a need for further medical evaluation, regardless of time spent on screens.  

“This is really quite surprising,” said Western professor Emma Duerden, Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience and Learning Disorders and senior author of the study. “It is much higher than what we would expect to see. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, rates of anxiety in the adolescent population were somewhere between 8 and 15 per cent. Now, we see almost half of the sample size reporting heightened anxiety, which is obviously alarming and needs to be addressed.”

The study also showed exceeding two hours of screen time on weekdays doubled the odds of clinically elevated anxiety and quadrupled the odds of experiencing emotional and behavioural difficulties. 

The findings were published May 9 in the journal Computers in Human Behavior.  

In the study, 580 adolescents aged 12 to17 participated in a nine-month online survey. Pre-existing vulnerabilities such as mental health conditions, as well as screen use, demographic data, emotional and behavioural difficulties and levels of perceived anxiety were collected using self-report questionnaires. 

Time spent on screens during weekdays and weekends, as well as screen-use behaviours such as frequency, total time, posting content on social media and passive scrolling were tracked in the study and analyzed. Passive scrolling resoundingly had the strongest negative influence on adolescents.

“Passive scrolling is a major concern. We get sucked in and time just disappears. For the teens we surveyed, passive scrolling heightens their anxiety and really impacts their mental health,” said Duerden, an education professor and associate director of the Western Institute for Neuroscience. “It’s also associated with boredom, which can lead to frustration, aggression and even impulsive behaviour. Passive scrolling also maximizes the viewing of inappropriate content and making destructive social comparisons.”

The study suggests managing screen time and increased physical activity may help support adolescent well-being, but Duerden understands it’s not so easy to just put down your phone. 

“In past studies, we’ve shown some teens reporting 15 hours of screen time a day. They wake up, go on a screen and stay the whole day,” said Duerden. “But reducing cell phone use is easier said than done. I think cell phone bans in schools are key. Getting outside and being part of the real world is also important. We all just need to take a break from our phones for our mental and overall well-being.”

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Journal

Computers in Human Behavior

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Screen time woes: Social media posting, scrolling, externalizing behaviors, and anxiety in adolescents

Article Publication Date

13-May-2025

 

Butterflies hover differently from other flying organisms, thanks to body pitch

A butterfly’s center of mass while hovering may look random and jagged, but it’s key to counteracting gravity, potentially inspiring micro aerial vehicles

American Institute of Physics

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Tracking the movement of a white cabbage butterfly in a chamber constructed of transparent acrylic panels.

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Credit: Wu et al.

WASHINGTON, May 13, 2025 – Butterflies’ flight trajectories often appear random or chaotic, and compared with other hovering insects, their bodies follow seemingly mysterious, jagged, jerking motions.

These unique hovering patterns, however, can potentially provide critical design insights for developing micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) with flapping wings. To help achieve these applications, researchers from Beihang University studied how butterflies use aerodynamic force generation to achieve hovering. They discuss their findings in Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing.

“Hovering serves as an essential survival mechanism for critical behaviors, including flower visitation and predator evasion,” said author Yanlai Zhang. “Elucidating its aerodynamic mechanisms provides fundamental insights into the evolutionary adaptations of butterflies’ flight kinematics.”

The scientists used high-speed cameras to capture this process in wild-caught white cabbage butterflies. To avoid damaging the butterflies’ wings with physical markers — and thus altering their flight patterns — the researchers trained a deep learning model for tracking the butterflies’ body features and specific wing points during their flight sequences.

By comparing multiple factors — including the size and shape of butterfly wings, and the mechanisms of upstrokes and downstrokes — the researchers found the primary factor contributing to butterflies’ hovering is their body pitch. Unlike other insects, butterflies continuously adjust the angle of their body as they hover, modifying the orientation of their aerodynamic forces to ensure their wing strokes provide sufficient vertical force while counteracting gravity. This adjustment, along with adjustments to their wing pitch angles, allows butterflies to generate adequate force to sustain hovering flight.

Butterflies’ ability to maintain hovering with light wings flapping at low frequencies can help engineer stealthy MAVs with low structural demands. Though MAVs have already successfully replicated other insects’ and birds’ hovering capabilities, butterflies offer unique applications ranging from safety to conservation.

“This capability could revolutionize their operational scope, from navigating confined disaster zones for search-and-rescue missions, to conducting precision pollination in greenhouse environments,” said Zhang. “We are particularly excited about deploying such silent hover-capable MAVs for noninvasive wildlife observation, where their biomimetic appearance and quiet operation would minimize disturbance to natural behaviors.”

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The article “The roles of body and wing pitching angles in hovering butterflies” is authored by Jianghao Wu, Songtao Chu, Long Chen, and Yanlai Zhang. It will appear in Physics of Fluids on May 13, 2025 (DOI: 10.1063/5.0265833). After that date, it can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0265833.

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

Physics of Fluids is devoted to the publication of original theoretical, computational, and experimental contributions to the dynamics of gases, liquids, and complex fluids. See https://pubs.aip.org/aip/pof.

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Journal

Physics of Fluids

DOI

10.1063/5.0265833 

Article Title

The roles of body and wing pitching angles in hovering butterflies

Article Publication Date

13-May-2025

 

Stigmatizing and positive language in birth clinical notes associated with race and ethnicity

JAMA Network Open

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About The Study:

 In this cross-sectional study examining clinical notes of more than 18,000 patients admitted for labor and birth, there were notable disparities in how stigmatizing and positive language was documented across racial and ethnic groups. This underscores the necessity for improving documentation and communication practices to reduce the use of stigmatizing language.

Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Veronica Barcelona, PhD, RN, email vb2534@cumc.columbia.edu.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.9599)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

#  #  #

http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.9599?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=051325

About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is an online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. On weekdays, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication. 

 

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JAMA Network Open

African genetic ancestry, structural and social determinants of health, and mortality in Black adults

JAMA Network Open

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About The Study: 

In this study, associations of structural and social determinants of health with mortality persisted with adjustment for percentage African genetic ancestry. The findings support the hypothesis that structural and social determinants of health should be the primary factors to consider for eliminating health disparities.

Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Hari S. Iyer, ScD, MPH, email hi97@cinj.rutgers.edu.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.10016)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

#  #  #

 http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.10016?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=051325

About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is an online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. On weekdays, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication. 

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Journal

JAMA Network Open

 INTEL INSIDE

ETH researchers discover new security vulnerability in Intel processors

ETH Zurich

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All Intel processors since 2018 are affected by Branch Privilege Injection. The image shows an example of an Intel server system.

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Credit: (Image: ETH Zurich / Computer Security Group, Corporate Communications)

Anyone who speculates on likely events ahead of time and prepares accordingly can react quicker to new developments. What practically every person does every day, consciously or unconsciously, is also used by modern computer processors to speed up the execution of programs. They have so-called speculative technologies which allow them to execute instructions on reserve that experience suggests are likely to come next. Anticipating individual computing steps accelerates the overall processing of information.

However, what boosts computer performance in normal operation can also open up a backdoor for hackers, as recent research by computer scientists from the Computer Security Group (COMSEC) at the Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering at ETH Zurich shows. The computer scientists have discovered a new class of vulnerabilities that can be exploited to misuse the prediction calculations of the CPU (central processing unit) in order to gain unauthorised access to information from other processor users.

PC, laptop and server processors all affected

“The security vulnerability affects all Intel processors,” emphasises Kaveh Razavi, head of COMSEC. “We can use the vulnerability to read the entire contents of the processor’s buffer memory (cache) and the working memory (RAM) of another user of the same CPU.” The CPU uses the RAM (random access memory) and cache to temporarily store calculation steps and information that is likely to be needed next.

This vulnerability fundamentally undermines data security, particularly in the cloud environment where many users share the same hardware resources. It affects the processors of the world’s largest CPU manufacturer, which are used in PCs and laptops, as well as those used in data centre servers.                                       

Nanosecond gap in authority check

The so-called BPRC (Branch Predictor Race Conditions) emerge during a brief period of a few nanoseconds when the processor switches between prediction calculations for two users with different permissions, explains Sandro Rüegge, who has been examining the vulnerability in detail over the past few months.

Breaking through the built-in protective barriers between users, known as privileges, is possible because the permissions for individual activities are not stored at the same time as the calculations. With special inputs, it is now possible to cause ambiguity in the sequence of events when changing users, resulting in incorrect assignment of privileges. An attacker could exploit this in order to read an information byte (a unit consisting of eight binary 0/1 pieces of information).

Unlocking entire contents of memory byte by byte

The disclosure of a single byte would be negligible. However, the attack can be repeated in quick succession, allowing the contents of the entire memory to be read over time, explains Rüegge. “We can trigger the error repeatedly and achieve a readout speed of over 5000 bytes per second.” In the event of an attack, therefore, it is only a matter of time before the information in the entire CPU memory falls into the wrong hands.  

Part of a series of security vulnerabilities

The vulnerability that the ETH researchers have now identified is not the first to be discovered in the speculative CPU technologies introduced in the mid-1990s. In 2017, Spectre and Meltdown were the first two vulnerabilities of this kind to hit the headlines, and new variants have been appearing regularly ever since. Johannes Wikner, a former PhD student in Razavi's group, already identified a vulnerability known as Retbleed back in 2022. He exploited traces of speculatively executed instructions in the CPU’s cache to access information from other users.

Suspicious signal reveals vulnerability

The starting point for the discovery of the new vulnerability class was work that followed on from the Retbleed investigations. “I examined the functions of the protective measures that Intel had introduced to patch up the Retbleed vulnerability,” says Johannes Wikner.

In doing so, he discovered an unusual signal from the cache memory that appeared regardless of whether the protective measures were enabled or disabled. Rüegge then took over detailed analysis of the cause of the signal and, based on this work, was able to uncover the new attack vector.

Fundamental architectural problem

The vulnerability was discovered back in September 2024. Since then, Intel has implemented protective measures to secure its processors. Nevertheless, there are many indications that the problem is more serious. “The series of newly discovered vulnerabilities in speculative technologies is an indication of fundamental flaws in the architecture,” Razavi points out. “The gaps have to be found one by one and then closed.”

Closing these sorts of gaps requires a special update to the processor’s microcode. This can be done via a BIOS or operating system update and should therefore be installed on our PCs in one of the latest cumulative updates from Windows.

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Article Title

Branch Privilege Injection: Compromising Spectre v2 Hardware Mitigations by Exploiting Branch Predictor Race Conditions

Article Publication Date

13-May-2025

 

Study reveals pharmacy care perceived differently by diverse populations, including patients with disabilities

University of Kansas

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LAWRENCE — Research carried out at the University of Kansas School of Pharmacy based on a survey of 1,218 pharmacy care patients in the United States shows more than half were satisfied with care they’ve received in pharmacies. But, according to the researchers, “gaps remain — especially in how pharmacy staff address drug therapy in relation to patients' race, ethnicity and disabilities.”

Based on survey data gathered via Qualtrics (an online survey and analysis platform widely used in scholarly research), the most acute differences in perspectives on pharmacy interactions come from communication issues specific to hearing loss and “limited physical space for patients in wheelchairs” experienced by respondents.  

The findings appear in the International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy.

Because quality pharmacy care is so critical to patient outcomes, co-author Brittany Melton, professor and interim chair of pharmacy practice at the KU School of Pharmacy, said gauging perceptions of care experienced by diverse individuals with disabilities could save lives.

"We like to say that pharmacy is really the last line of defense for the patient,” she said. “They may have had an interaction with a physician and not asked all of their questions — because of timing or because of a language barrier. It’s the pharmacy’s responsibility to make sure that prescription is safe and appropriate for the patient, but also to communicate clearly. If you give a patient a prescription and they don’t understand why they need to take it or how they should take it, it may not benefit them — it may actually harm them.”

Melton said it’s vital for pharmacists and pharmacy staff to communicate effectively with such patients so they can receive the full benefit of their medication — and, ultimately, of the health care system they deserve.

“A significant portion of the population have some sort of limitation or disability — and those are people who are going to interact with pharmacists and pharmacy staff,” Melton said. “They're going to get prescriptions just like anybody else. We were really curious what those patient populations — particularly those who were of ethnically diverse backgrounds rather than your traditional white patients — what their perceptions of pharmacy and pharmacist interactions were.”

The KU researcher and her colleagues, lead author Cambrey Nguyen of the University of Iowa and co-author Kristin Villa of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, divided respondents into three demographic categories: white/non-Hispanic without disabilities, ethnically diverse without disabilities and ethnically diverse with disabilities.

“We really were looking at patients who had gone into the pharmacy, had gotten prescriptions and had at least some sort of interaction with pharmacy staff, rather than those who are perfectly healthy and never go into the pharmacy,” Melton said. “In looking at them across the groups, for the most part people were fairly satisfied with their pharmacy interactions.”

The satisfaction was true of patients living with disabilities as well, with notable dips in satisfaction for ethnically diverse patients with disabilities relating to hearing and physical space for wheelchair access.

The KU researcher said the data could help pharmacies provide better service for patient customers with better outcomes for health.

“Broadly speaking, pharmacies could improve the interaction with better planning for patients with hearing limitations,” Melton said. “If patients were deaf or had reduced hearing, they felt pharmacies could do a better job in communicating with those patients, as well as things like the space around the pharmacy for things like wheelchairs. If you've been in a pharmacy, you know how tightly packed they can be — and how difficult it can be to get something like a wheelchair up to the counseling desk.”

The survey respondents’ pharmacy care could have come at a large corporate chain or from a small mom-and-pop pharmacy, and those interactions may have involved picking up prescriptions and receiving instructions for taking them, or receiving other pharmacy services like vaccines, blood-pressure readings or diabetes support.

According to Melton, pharmacists and pharmacy staff should heed the results of the new study. As of 2020, white Americans received the majority of Pharm.Ds, according to the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. The KU researcher said more could be done to ensure cultural differences don’t affect the patients’ quality-of-care.

“I think there's still a lot that we can do to look at pharmacy and pharmacy technicians, pharmacists — their perceptions of providing care for patients with certain disabilities and with different ethnic backgrounds,” she said. “One of the comments that came up frequently was participants weren’t sure if the pharmacy staff felt comfortable with people of different ethnic backgrounds — and they may not have engaged with the pharmacy staff as thoroughly because of that difference in ethnic background.”

Melton added that along with those practicing in clinical settings, schools and programs educating future cohorts of pharmacists could prepare students to serve patients from a wide variety of backgrounds and identities.

“There are things we can do to help better educate student pharmacists as they're coming through to address drug therapy in relation to patients' racial and ethnic backgrounds or providing continuing education and training for pharmacy staff once they're out — to help improve that interaction as well.”

The authors suggest other measures pharmacies might consider include hiring more diverse staff and increasing professional development for cultural intelligence.

In the education setting, Melton stressed the value of incorporating some patient characteristics into things like skills-lab interactions or patient cases they're working with “so students recognize when there’s a difference with a patient they need to understand and to work with.”

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Journal

International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy

DOI

10.1007/s11096-025-01911-5 

 

New study reveals our skin’s own bacteria can help protect us from the bad effects of sunlight

An intriguing interplay between skin bacteria and UV radiation reported in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology paves the way for microbiome-aware sun protection

Elsevier

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Philadelphia, May 13, 2025 – The skin microbiome plays an important role in health and disease. Researchers have now substantiated that certain skin bacteria can protect us from the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) radiation specifically by metabolizing cis-urocanic acid using an enzyme called urocanase. This enables the skin's ability to fine-tune how it responds to UV radiation The findings of the study in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, published by Elsevier, provide a striking case study that demonstrates the ability of the skin microbiome to remodel host immune functions.

The skin hosts a vast ecosystem composed of millions of microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi, and viruses. The composition of the cutaneous microbiome is highly unique, complex, and varies greatly depending on the anatomical location. Commensal microbes, also known as normal microbiota or indigenous microbiota that live in a beneficial or neutral relationship without causing harm, adapt their metabolism to the resources available in their microenvironment, feeding on our skin's nutrients and producing various molecules that affect their environment and interact with our skin cells.

Lead investigator VijayKumar Patra, PhD, Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie; Lyon, France, and Research Unit for Photodermatology, Medical University of Graz, Austria, explains, "To date, many internal and external factors have been identified that influence the composition of the skin microbiome. These include various individual parameters such as race, gender, age, hormone levels, diet, and hygiene, but environmental factors and the effects of occupation, pollution, and climate also have a major influence. We have known for a long time that UV radiation modulates immune responses directed against environmental antigens on the surface of the skin and, more recently, that the skin microbiome also plays a role in regulating these responses. What intrigued us was the idea that certain microbes could be actively involved in or even interfere with UV effects. The overlap between microbial metabolism and host immunity became the focus of our investigation."

Researchers used a combination of microbiome sequencing, immunological assays, in vitro cultures, and gnotobiotic mouse models, in which all microorganisms present are defined, to study how skin bacteria respond to UVB radiation, the type of UV radiation that typically causes sunburn. They discovered that certain skin bacteria specifically metabolize cis-urocanic acid, a photoproduct of a major UV-absorbing chromophore of the stratum corneum, trans-urocanic acid, using an enzyme called urocanase. Compared to trans-urocanic acid, cis-urocanic acid is endowed with potent immunomodulatory properties. This microbial metabolism then limits the ability of cis-urocanic acid to inhibit immune responses, which means that skin bacteria fine-tune our skin's response to UV radiation.

The researchers point out the intriguing interplay between sunscreens, cis-urocanic acid, and the microbiome with each other, competing in and on the stratum corneum, as the most superficial layer of the skin.

Co-investigator Marc Vocanson, PhD, Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie, Lyon, France, notes, "This is the first time we have demonstrated a direct metabolic link between UV radiation, a host-derived molecule, and bacterial behavior that affects immune function. As interest grows in both microbiome research and personalized medicine, understanding these microbe-host interactions could reshape the way we think about sun protection, immune diseases, skin cancer, or even treatments like phototherapy."

Co-investigator Peter Wolf, MD, Research Unit for Photodermatology, Medical University of Graz, Austria, concludes, "These findings open the door to microbiome-aware sun protection, where we not only protect the skin from UV radiation, but also consider how resident microbes can alter the immune landscape after exposure. In the future, topical treatments that modulate microbial metabolism could be used to minimize, maintain, or enhance UV-induced immunosuppression when clinically beneficial, such as with phototherapy."

Commenting on the findings, noted expert in the field Anna Di Nardo, MD, PhD, University of California San Diego, and San Gallicano Dermatological Institute IRCCS, Rome, says, “This pivotal study shows that microbial communities are not passive victims of environmental stress but dynamic regulators of immune responses, capable of metabolizing UV-induced skin products such as cis-urocanic acid. This newly uncovered role of microbial metabolism in modulating UV tolerance reshapes our understanding of the skin barrier — not just as a structural shield but as a metabolically active, microbially regulated interface. With increasing concerns about UV exposure, skin aging, and cancer, a deeper understanding of this axis offers promising avenues for therapy and prevention.”

 

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Journal

Journal of Investigative Dermatology

DOI

10.1016/j.jid.2025.03.035) 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Cells

Article Title

Urocanase-Positive Skin Resident Bacteria Metabolize cis-Urocanic Acid and in Turn Reduce the Immunosuppressive Properties of UV Radiation

Article Publication Date

13-May-2025