Original title: "AI and the Quantity and Quality of Creative Products: Have LLMs Boosted Creation of Valuable Books?"
Abstract: "With the diffusion of LLMs between 2022 and 2025, new book releases have tripled, raising a question of AI's impact on book quality. We develop a ratings-based usage measure that is comparable across book release vintages, and we find that the vintages from the AI influx period have lower average quality. Yet, the top 1,000 monthly releases per category - albeit not the top 100 - have higher quality than before; and the effect is larger in categories with faster growth in new titles. Authors entering since the LLM influx produce predominantly low-quality work; and the higher-quality output of pre-LLM authors entrants has risen. A nested logit calibration shows that LLM-enhanced book production could, in steady state, raise the surplus that consumers derive from book markets by a quarter to a half."
"Results. Compared to a noise-free control night, EN reduced N3 deep sleep (p < .0001) while PN reduced REM sleep (p < .001). Adding PN to EN worsened sleep structure, despite minor dose-dependent improvements of EN-induced sleep fragmentation and N3 sleep increases. Earplugs mitigated nearly all EN effects on sleep but started failing at the highest EN level (65 dBA). Morning cognition, cardiovascular measures, and hearing were not affected by nighttime noise, but subjective assessments of sleep, alertness and mood were significantly worse after EN and PN exposure.
Conclusions. In contrast to PN, earplugs proved efficacious in mitigating the effects of EN on sleep. Considering the importance of REM sleep for memory, emotion regulation, and neurodevelopment, the negative effects of PN on REM sleep caution against the widespread and indiscriminate use of broadband noise (BN). Additional research on optimal BN color/level and long-term use is needed, especially in vulnerable populations."
Abstract: "Chlamydia pneumoniae is an intracellular bacterium implicated in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but its role in retinal pathology and disease progression is unclear. Here we identify Chlamydia pneumoniae inclusions in the retina, showing higher burden in AD retina and brain, increasing with APOEε4, disease stage, and cognitive deficit. Retinal and cortical proteomics reveal bacterial-infection and related NLRP3-inflammasome pathways. Retinal NLRP3 is elevated in mild cognitive impairment and activated in AD dementia, evidenced by increased caspase-1, cleaved interleukin-1β, and cleaved N-terminal gasdermin-D. Chlamydia pneumoniae associates with amyloid-β42, inflammation, apoptosis, pyroptosis, and AD status. In neuronal cultures and APPSWE/PS1ΔE9 model mice, infection induces amyloid-β, inflammasome activation, neuroinflammation, and neurotoxicity, and chronic infection worsens cognition. Fewer pathogen-colocalized microglia are found in AD retinas, implying impaired clearance. Machine learning detects retinal Chlamydia pneumoniae or NLRP3, combined with amyloid-β42, as predictors of AD diagnosis and stage. These findings support a disease-amplifying role for Chlamydia pneumoniae and propose NLRP3-attenuation or antibiotic-based early interventions."
Abstract: "Aging is characterized by a decline in the ability of tissue repair and regeneration after injury. In skeletal muscle, this decline is largely driven by impaired function of muscle stem cells (MuSCs) to efficiently contribute to muscle regeneration. We uncovered a cause of this aging-associated dysfunction: a cellular survivorship bias that prioritizes stem cell persistence at the expense of functionality. With age, MuSCs increased expression of a tumor suppressor, N-myc down-regulated gene 1 (NDRG1), which, by suppressing the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway, increased their long-term survival potential but at the cost of their ability to promptly activate and contribute to muscle regeneration. This delayed muscle regeneration with age may result from a trade-off that favors long-term stem cell survival over immediate regenerative capacity."
> We uncovered a cause of this aging-associated dysfunction: a cellular survivorship bias that prioritizes stem cell persistence at the expense of functionality.
Past forty, pitiless new equations take hold. Sacrifices must be made...
Abstract: "Transiting circumbinary planets (CBPs) are conspicuously rare and entirely absent around stellar binaries with periods ≤7 days. Here we exploit a secular resonance to stimulate the orbit of a CBP into strong, disruptive interactions with the host binary. The process requires no tertiary companion and is triggered when the general relativistic precession of a tightening binary matches the Newtonian precession it induces in its companion planet. Adiabatic capture in this resonance sees the binary draining angular momentum from the CBP’s orbit, which grows steadily in eccentricity until destabilization and eventual ejection or engulfment. We map this resonance in phase space and then investigate the dynamical outcomes of encounter in the course of tidally shrinking binaries. With the help of orbit-averaged simulations of a suite of systems, we find that, around tightening binaries, 8 out of 10 CBPs encounter and are captured in the resonance, 3 out of 4 are 'destroyed,' and survivors lurk on remote, low transit probability orbits. This suggests that the very process that forms tight binaries effectively clears the region where transiting CBPs could reside."
Abstract: "Biases in information gathering are common in the general population and reach pathological extremes in paralysing indecisiveness, as in obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). Here we adopt a new perspective on information gathering and demonstrate an information integration bias whereby there is over-weighting of most recent information via evidence strength updates (ΔES). In a crowd-sourced sample (N = 5,237), we find that a reduced ΔES weighting drives indecisiveness along an obsessive–compulsive spectrum. We replicate this attenuated ΔES weighting in a second lab-based study (N = 105) that includes a transdiagnostic obsessive–compulsive spectrum encompassing OCD and generalized anxiety patients. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we trace ΔES signals to a late neural signal peaking at ~920 ms. Critically, highly obsessive–compulsive participants, across diagnoses, show an attenuated neural ΔES signal in mediofrontal areas, while other decision-relevant processes remain intact. Our findings establish biased information weighting as a driver of information gathering, where attenuated ΔES is linked to indecisiveness across an obsessive–compulsive spectrum."
Original article: "Machine learning based screening of potential paper mill publications in cancer research: methodological and cross sectional study" - https://www.bmj.com/content/392/bmj-2025-087581
"Results. The model achieved an accuracy of 0.91. When applied to the cancer research literature, it flagged 261 245 of 2 647 471 papers (9.87%, 95% confidence interval 9.83 to 9.90) and revealed a large increase in flagged papers from 1999 to 2024, both across the entire corpus and in the top 10% of journals by impact factor. More than 170 000 papers affiliated with Chinese institutions were flagged, accounting for 36% of Chinese cancer research articles. Most publishers had published substantial numbers of flagged papers. Flagged papers were overrepresented in fundamental research and in gastric, bone, and liver cancer."
"RESULTS. Higher plant-sourced nitrate intake was non-linearly associated with lower rates of incident dementia (fifth vs first quintile hazard ratio 95% confidence interval: 0.90 [0.83, 0.98]), while increased risk was seen for higher intakes of animal-sourced, additive-permitted meat-sourced, and tap water-sourced nitrate. Similar associations were seen for source-specific nitrite intake and were more pronounced for early-onset dementia. No clear effect modification was observed."
Abstract: "The gaihōzu (外邦図), ‘maps of outer lands' produced by the Japanese Imperial Army between 1873 and 1945, represent one of the most comprehensive cartographic records of East and Inner Asia. Created during Japan's imperial expansion, the gaihōzu offer rich detail of territories beyond Japanese control. Despite their military origins, the gaihōzu now serve as geographical time capsules, preserving landscapes since transformed by modernization. This study documents the Great Mongolian Road, a major yet understudied east-west caravan route across Inner Asia. Through analysis of the Tōa Yochizu (東亞輿地圖) ‘Maps of East Asia’ series and field verification across 1200 km of southern Mongolia, we document the route's infrastructure for the first time. The gaihōzu capture not merely routes but complete support systems, including water sources, terrain features, and settlements vital for navigation and survival in these harsh arid environments. By mapping this historical corridor, these once-secret military documents provide valuable baseline data for historical geography, cultural heritage preservation, and environmental change assessment across the landscapes of Asia."
Abstract: "Rapid and high-impact journal publications are pivotal for career advancement in the current 'publish or perish' academic climate. In geosciences, such publications often follow catastrophic events like asteroid impacts, global tsunamis, and supervolcanic eruptions. One notable event, the explosive eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai (HTHH) volcano on January 15, 2022, led to six rapid publications in Nature and Science submitted within 2.5 months of the event, and over 200 papers indexed in Web of Science Core Collection in 2022 and 2023. This study quantifies their bibliometric variables and compares them to the bibliometric variables of other catastrophic events like global tsunamis, meteorite impacts, and climate extremes published in 2022. Additionally, survey of corresponding authors assessed opinions on various aspects of publication strategies. Findings reveal that HTHH-related articles experienced significantly faster evaluations and higher citation rates than on other topics, even in top-level letters geosciences journals such as Geophysical Research Letters. Most surveyed researchers viewed rapid publications as beneficial for career advancement but acknowledged the heightened risk of research misconduct. This study highlights the need for balancing the pursuit of knowledge dissemination and career progression with maintaining research integrity and advancing the understanding of Earth systems."
Abstract: "With the diffusion of LLMs between 2022 and 2025, new book releases have tripled, raising a question of AI's impact on book quality. We develop a ratings-based usage measure that is comparable across book release vintages, and we find that the vintages from the AI influx period have lower average quality. Yet, the top 1,000 monthly releases per category - albeit not the top 100 - have higher quality than before; and the effect is larger in categories with faster growth in new titles. Authors entering since the LLM influx produce predominantly low-quality work; and the higher-quality output of pre-LLM authors entrants has risen. A nested logit calibration shows that LLM-enhanced book production could, in steady state, raise the surplus that consumers derive from book markets by a quarter to a half."
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