A new interdisciplinary study led by researchers from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), with collaborators from the City University of Hong Kong, has found that El Niño events significantly reduce life expectancy across high-income Pacific Rim countries, resulting in economic losses of up to US$35 trillion by the end of the 21st century.

 

Using over six decades of mortality records from 10 high-income Pacific Rim countries, the research team shows that El Niño is a persistent driver of health and economic loss, not just a short-term weather anomaly. El Niño-driven climate extremes, such as heatwaves and air pollution, disrupt healthcare systems and raise long-term mortality risks, particularly among vulnerable populations.

 

The research, published in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change and part of NTU’s Climate Transformation Programme, shows that El Niño events not only cause immediate health impacts but also persistently slow long-term improvements in mortality rates, leading to enduring reductions in life expectancy.

The study proposes LA-TextCNN-BiLSTM, an ICD-11 automatic coding model using MC-BERT and label attention. Experiments on clinical records show 83.86% accuracy, 75.82% macro-F1, and 82.83% micro-F1. The model effectively handles long-distance dependency and Chinese semantic diversity in electronic medical records.

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a leading cause of disability among adolescents, yet the efficacy of Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)—a gold-standard treatment for severe cases—varies significantly among individuals. Predicting who will respond to treatment remains a challenge due to the complex interplay of brain structure and function. To address this, a research team led by Dr. Du Lei from Chongqing Medical University developed a novel deep learning model, the Dual-Branch Graph Attention Network (DBGAN). By fusing multi-modal MRI data, this model successfully predicts ECT treatment response with high accuracy, paving the way for personalized treatment strategies in adolescent psychiatry.

Artificial intelligence is quietly transforming how scientists monitor and manage invisible biological pollutants in rivers, lakes, and coastal waters, and a new review explains how this technological shift could better protect ecosystems and public health.

Earthworms could become unexpected allies in the global fight against antibiotic resistance, by helping farmers turn manure into safer, high-value organic fertilizer through a process called vermicomposting. Researchers report that this low energy, nature-based technology can remove antibiotic resistance genes far more consistently than conventional composting, while also improving soil health and supporting sustainable agriculture.

Environmental antimicrobial resistance is turning rivers, soils, and even the air into hidden highways for “superbugs,” according to a new review that calls for urgent, coordinated action across human, animal, and environmental health. The authors argue that protecting people from drug resistant infections now depends as much on wastewater plants and farms as it does on hospitals.