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Previous studies on background music and children's creativity have yielded conflicting conclusions, which may be due to the modulation of the effects of background music by task nature, music attributes, broadcast timing, and individual differences. We explored the effects of background music tempo and broadcast timing on prototype-based inventive thinking through two experiments. The results show that slow tempo background music enhances the children's retention of prototype knowledge, while fast tempo background music during the inventive thinking process promotes the fluency and flexibility of scientific inventive thinking but hinders novelty. Playing slow tempo background music during the learning of scientific knowledge can enhance the retention of scientific knowledge and improve scientific inventive thinking. Playing fast tempo background music during the inventive thinking process can change the attention pattern, processing efficiency, and information processing mode, thereby improving the fluency and flexibility of scientific inventive thinking.
China's National Drug Centralized Procurement Policy (NDCPP) aims to reduce drug prices through a 'price-for-volume' mechanism. While effective in cost containment, its impact on pharmaceutical firms' innovation remains debated, with existing studies often focusing on short-term or static effects. This study utilises an unbalanced panel of 160 listed Chinese pharmaceutical firms from 2015 to 2023. We employ a multi-period staggered difference-in-differences (DID) model to identify the causal impact of the NDCPP on innovation input (R&D investment intensity) and output (authorised invention patents). Mediation models are constructed to test the roles of cost and operational efficiency. Baseline estimates indicate that the NDCPP significantly increases innovation activities. The implementation of the NDCPP led to an increase in innovation input by 0.0118 units (representing a 1.18 percentage point increase in R&D intensity, or a 22.06% increase relative to the mean) and innovation output by 0.847 units (representing an average annual increase of 0.847 authorised invention patents per firm, or a 14.20% increase relative to the mean). Dynamic analyses reveal an immediate response and continuous enhancement, with promotional effects strengthening from the first to fourth years after policy implementation respectively. Mediation analyses show that cost efficiency significantly mediates innovation output, while strategic inventory management mediates R&D investment. Heterogeneity analyses demonstrate strong responses among private, large, and chemical pharmaceutical firms, with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) firms also showing significant gains in innovation input. The result indicates a strategic reorientation of pharmaceutical firms, incentivizing a resource reallocation from marketing activities toward substantive R&D activities. The 'price-for-volume' effect offsets price deductions through rapid reorganisation of resources. Future policies should consolidate this momentum and guide enterprises toward high-quality, sustainable innovation.
Zing-Yang Kuo (1898-1970), an iconic figure in Chinese and global psychology, invented the "Kuo Vaseline technique"-a pioneering method for observing avian embryonic behavior-using chicken eggs. However, existing research lacks clarity on three key aspects: the exact invention time, the developmental context of its naming, and its comprehensive academic impact. Based on firsthand historical materials and international literature, this study systematically sorts out the invention process and naming development of the technique and deeply analyzes its influences on research methodology, interdisciplinary collaboration, and academic inheritance. The findings supplement the research on original techniques in the history of Chinese psychology and highlight the unique contributions of Chinese scholars to global embryonic behavior research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
United States taxpayers invest nearly $200 billion each year in research and development conducted at universities, federal laboratories, and hospitals to generate inventions with the potential to improve lives and transform industries. Historically, this public investment has produced world-changing technologies, including water filtration systems, insulin pumps, cochlear implants, charge-coupled devices, memory foam, and globally impactful companies. In select cases, federally developed technologies licensed through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have advanced all the way to market, contributing to more than 50 FDA-approved drugs and vaccines, including recent approvals of first-in-class vaccines derived from NIH-licensed technologies. Yet despite these successes, fewer than 0.1 percent of federally funded inventions are ultimately commercialized, leaving most of the taxpayer-supported innovation dormant.
Following electronic processes in molecules and materials at the level of the quantum mechanical electron wavefunction with ångström-level spatial resolution and with full access to its femtosecond temporal dynamics is at the heart of ultrafast condensed matter physics. A breakthrough invention allowing experimental access to electron wavefunctions was the reconstruction of molecular orbitals from angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy data in 2009, termed photoemission orbital tomography (POT). This invention opens a route towards ultrafast three-dimensional (3D) POT, with many new prospects for the study of ultrafast light-matter interaction, femtochemistry, and photo-induced phase transitions. Here, we develop a synergistic experimental-algorithmic approach to realize the first 3D-POT experiment using a short-pulse extreme ultraviolet light source. We combine a new variant of photoelectron spectroscopy, namely ultrafast momentum microscopy, with a table-top spectrally-tunable high-harmonic generation light source and a tailored algorithm for efficient 3D reconstruction from sparse, undersampled data. This combination dramatically speeds up the experimental data acquisition, while at the same time reducing the sampling requirements to achieve complete 3D information. We demonstrate the power of this approach by full 3D imaging of the frontier orbitals of a prototypical organic semiconductor adsorbed on pristine Ag(110).
The development of technologies in the field of organ transplantation is a highly relevant topic due to the significant impact these techniques have on improving the quality of life of patients with kidney diseases. This work presents the description of an invention designed to be used as a single-use, affordable product in hypothermic perfusion machines. The invention, named Renal Container, is a flexible polyvinyl chloride (PVC) receptacle, disposable, single-use, highly resistant, with an internal cradle designed to accommodate the kidney. The results of pilot experiments of hypothermic machine perfusion using the Renal Container showed good process performance over 4 hours of perfusion, with no visible histological alterations in the perfused renal tissues.
By the time of the first published issue of Physics in Medicine and Biology in 1956, the fundamentals of nuclear medicine were well established. The nature of radioactivity and its nuclear origins had been discovered, the tracer principle had been invented, radiation detectors had been developed and methods for generating diagnostic images and exploiting the therapeutic eTects of radionuclides were already in their infancy. Despite this, a practitioner in the 1950s would find it almost impossible to imagine the technology used in nuclear medicine today, the quality of the images produced, or the breadth of clinical and research applications it has enabled. Over the last 7 decades nuclear medicine has been transformed from a medical curiosity into a mainstream component of the modern healthcare system globally and an important tool in clinical research and therapeutic trials. This article highlights the landmark discoveries and technological advances since 1956 that have significantly shaped the field and got us to where we are today.
Purpose of the researchEmergency Departments (ED) continue to get busier internationally and across Australia with mental health presentations rising who typically experience increased length of stays in EDs. A pilot Time in Motion study was implemented to examine how ED mental health clinicians spend their time and explore tasks which could be diverted to an existing team leader. The study examined these tasks both before and after the movement of an existing team leader to the ED. Limited research has been conducted into how the ED mental health clinician utilises their time and the multiple non-clinical tasks they are required to complete.Major findingsPre- and post-invention results indicated considerable improvements in clinical service delivery. For initial assessments, the wait times were reduced by over 2 hours, and the number of initial assessments doubled. Operational requirements were cut by two thirds, and individual tasks by the ED clinician were reduced by one quarter. Documentation and other administrative tasks still take up a considerable portion of the clinician's time.ConclusionsThis study has provided a valuable insight into daily clinical, administrative and organisational tasks the clinician balances, and highlights alternatives that may free up the clinician to focus more on clinical work.
Medical mycology is a traditional field of medicine that has developed over a long history through the contributions of numerous researchers and clinicians. This paper focuses on the most influential individuals, discoveries, and inventions within the field, examining the development of medical mycology from the perspective of a return to its origins, including on-site investigations. This return to origins is not merely a historical retrospective but also an effort to reevaluate and deepen our understanding through practical research, aiming to explore the foundational studies that marked the beginning of medical mycology and its related disciplines. Furthermore, this paper highlights the conceptual meaning of the "light and shadow" of medical mycology. While the field has made substantial progress, it has often been overshadowed by the remarkable achievements of other disciplines, such as botany, symbolized by Linnaeus, and bacteriology, represented by Koch. This study attempts to reassess the history and significance of medical mycology. Additionally, it examines the resurgence of medical mycology and the dramatic paradigm shift triggered by a single publication from the United States. Through these considerations, this paper aims to provide a long-term and multidimensional reexamination of the progress of medical mycology.
One-hot constraints are widely used for quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) in quantum and simulated annealing to solve optimization problems. They correspond to exactly-one constraints for Boolean satisfiability problems (SAT), which have many different encodings proposed mainly to reduce SAT problem size. We have examined QUBO encodings, both corresponding to previously proposed SAT encodings and newly invented, to determine the best encoding in terms of QUBO size and solution quality. Our experiments show that reduced commander, our new encoding, gives one of the best trade-offs between QUBO size and solution quality for the benchmark problem studied in this work.
When Freud invented/discovered psychoanalysis, he devised not just a theory of mind but also a tool that enabled him to observe the "mind." And with the tool of psychoanalysis, he was able to observe the workings of the default mode network (DMN) some hundred years before anyone knew of its existence. Since then, various operations of the DMN have been identified. One is the integration of perception into memory through the process of functional connectivity. In posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) there is significant pathology in functional connectivity involving multiple brain networks-especially the DMN and the intrinsic alarm system. This article addresses the causes and consequences of this pathophysiology as it relates to the sense of time, safety, and story in PTSD.
The rapid emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has unveiled the clinical, public health, and economic value of Canada's health data assets. However, the Canadian industry developing technologies to improve the standard and quality of Canadian healthcare has limited, and often dysfunctional, access to data. The eighth principle of the Pan-Canadian Health Data Charter calls for data-driven social and technological innovation through partnership, invention, discovery, value creation, and international best practice. Trustworthy and efficient innovation data access is essential for realizing a data ecosystem that improves the health and clinical outcomes for Canadians. This article examines the innovation data access landscape in Canada and identifies structural and cultural challenges. It proposes governance mechanisms in the context of current legislation to address challenges and promote trust in ethical data use while looking internationally for inspiration, and reinforces that achieving the eighth principle is structurally dependant on addressing the other nine in turn.
Payment reform is a central policy lever for influencing cost, quality, and access in the United States health care system. Despite decades of reform activity, confusion persists regarding how modern reimbursement models differ, overlap, and redistribute financial risk, particularly as hybrid arrangements proliferate across payers. This update addresses structural payment layering, AI-enabled coding intensity, and the dominance of Medicare Advantage, developments not present at the time of Quinn's original framework. To update Quinn's Eight Basic Payment Methods to reflect the 2026 reimbursement environment, using the Health Care Spending Identity to characterize risk allocation across payment methods. Conceptual and policy-based analysis of current Medicare programs, Medicaid, and commercial reimbursement regulations, supplemented by targeted review of recent Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rulemaking documents and related evaluation studies. Quinn's framework remains the stable foundation of healthcare reimbursement. Contemporary reforms-including accountable care organizations, bundled payment initiatives, Medicare Advantage risk contracting, and population-based payment models-represent hybrid combinations of these methods rather than fundamentally new payment structures. Rather than introducing new structural forms of payment, recent policy experimentation has primarily altered the degree and direction of financial risk borne by providers, payers, and patients within the established units of Quinn's framework. Policymakers and leaders should recognize that contemporary reforms are hybrid combinations of established units rather than novel inventions. Recognizing this helps clarify both the conceptual boundaries and operational mechanics of value-based payment models. Greater conceptual clarity regarding units of payment and units of accountability is necessary to design administratively feasible, transparent value-based policies that can be implemented and sustained over time.
Rapid profiling of an unexpected blood group antibody spectrum plays a critical role in emergency medicine. However, field-deployable profiling still remains elusive due to the requirement of tedious erythrocyte sensitization and multistep result readout procedures. Therefore, we invented a pocketed immunoblotting disc assay (PiDa) capable of rapidly profiling multiple unexpected antibodies in a field-deployable manner. First, we constructed a molecular reaction microenvironment by devising a cotton linter@polyethylene glycol-modified hydrogel sticker to accelerate molecular collision within a confined three-dimensional microwell mesh, realizing ultrafast erythrocyte-IgG antibody agglutination within 2 min. Then, the hydrogel sticker was stamped onto a Blu-ray disc to form an immunoblot array; thereby, multiantibody signals could be read out within 5 min using a pocketed BD driver equipped with a machine learning algorithm. In a pilot study, the proposed PiDa successfully identified 28 unexpected antibody classes simultaneously within 8 min, which is 8 times faster than classical gel-card assays. Also, 100% accuracy was attained in analyzing 150 clinical blood samples, validating its feasibility in constructing a portable and versatile platform toward high-throughput biomolecular determination.
Natural products keep earning their place in molecular science for a simple reason: they are chemically inventive, biologically "opinionated", and often arrive with a legacy of pre-existing relationship to human use that invites hypotheses instead of guesswork [...].
War and terrorism demonstrate the need for an improved antidote against nerve agents that cause brain damage following inhibition of acetylcholinesterase (AChE). Our laboratories invented substituted phenoxyalkyl pyridinium oxime AChE reactivators (US patent 9,227,937) that demonstrate the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier in in vivo rat tests with a sarin surrogate by reducing time to cessation of seizure-like behaviors, glial fibrillary acidic protein levels, and neuropathology, compared to the FDA-approved oxime, 2-pyridine aldoxime methyl chloride (2-PAM). This study investigated the safety profile of novel oximes through evaluation of their cytotoxicity and genotoxicity. Cytotoxicity was evaluated in mouse areolar fibroblasts using a lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) assay and an MTS assay. All novel oximes showed no toxicity in the LDH assay from 1.25 nM to 5 mM, whereas 2-PAM did; novel oximes were significantly different from 2-PAM (P < .00001). The MTS assay demonstrated that novel oximes at 2 µM to 500 µM significantly reduced the metabolic activity of fibroblasts compared to 2-PAM (P = .00001). A modified Ames assay using 5 bacterial strains with and without S9 assessed the genotoxicity of the lead compound, Oxime 20, at concentrations from 100 µM to 10 mM. No concentration, whether with S9 or without, showed any genotoxicity. The LDH and Ames results indicated no cytotoxicity or genotoxicity was caused by the novel oximes.
Large language models (LLMs) are evolving from chatbots with limited tool-using capabilities to agentic AI systems that can perform deep research, assist in proposing hypotheses, help design experiments, automate data analysis, and draft scientific reports. However, there are currently two bottlenecks limiting LLMs' real-world impact on the broader scientific research community beyond academic demonstrations: lack of interoperability (repetitive manual tool-integration is required across scenarios) and the need for scalable coordination (unstructured communication and memory become brittle as the number of agents grows). In this Perspective, we argue that the next phase of agentic scientific discovery requires the development of an ecosystem of protocol-native agents and tools organized through hierarchies inspired by human society, beyond the current paradigm of a single monolithic "AI scientist". We use Model Context Protocol (MCP) as a concrete example of an emerging interoperability layer for scientific tool and context exchange, and we propose three complementary pathways to increase the scaling capabilities of an MCP-native scientific ecosystem by addressing the composability issues: (1) MCP servers for high-value scientific tools maintained by domain experts, (2) automated transformation of existing code repositories into MCP services, and (3) autonomous invention and evolution of new agents and workflows. Finally, we provide a practical roadmap for scaling AI-driven scientific discovery by expanding tool supply and coordination in MCP-native scientific ecosystems.
Konjac gum is derived from the tuber Amorphophallus konjac K. Koch and is rich in Glucomannan, a polysaccharide with high gelling power. This study aims to evaluate, through a bibliographic and patent survey, the use of Konjac gum in the production of pharmaceutical hydrogels. The research was carried out through databases such as Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, and Medline, and by the Orbit Intelligence platform from 2004 to February 2025. In total, 12 articles and 25 patent families were identified, including patents related to the use of the Konjac hydrogel formulation range. 32% of the hydrogel formulations used on skin injuries analyzed had konjac in their composition due to its gelling action, and in 24% of patents, researchers introduced konjac gum in the development because of its healing potential. A 0.05 g concentration of konjac gum was the most common method for preparing antibacterial gels, which exhibited good biocompatibility and possessed excellent antibacterial and hemostatic properties, potentially aiding in the healing of infected wounds. Inventions using 1 g of glucomannan aimed to improve the hydrogel structure. Konjac, due to its greater biocompatibility, biodegradability, and renewability, in addition to its high gelling, healing, and inflammatory process reduction power, has aroused growing interest in the production of biomedical materials such as hydrogels for the treatment of skin wounds.