Culture
Maternal obesity increases the risk for obesity and metabolic perturbations in their offspring, but what are the mechanisms? In a new study published March 12 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology, Sebastien Bouret of the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) in Lille, France, and colleagues show that a key step in the process is the triggering of stress in a complex membrane system within all cells called the endoplasmic reticulum (ER).
African swine fever (ASF) is a devastating infectious disease in swine and has been catastrophic for the global pig industry. In 2018, ASFV was transmitted to pigs in China and ten other Asian countries, which mauled heavily pig industry in these areas. The fact demonstrates that ASF is hard to be controlled by culling infected pigs alone in China, and the development and application of an efficacious vaccine is urgently needed. Different vaccine strategies for ASF have been evaluated in the past decades.
Scientists have discovered a possible link between Parkinson's disease and a gene impacted by a neurotoxin found in blue-green algae.
University of Queensland scientist Dr Jacob Gratten said the findings increased the understanding of the environmental risk factors of Parkinson's disease.
"We looked for a link between Parkinson's and changes in the human genome that control how genes are turned on and off, because these changes can be influenced by the environment," Dr Gratten said.
Young adults don't know what's in the products they vape and often don't know what brand of vaping products they use, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
The findings come from a study of California residents that will be published online March 16 in the Journal of Adolescent Health. The study asked 445 participants, ages 17-24, about their use of pod-based e-cigarettes, including specific questions about products made by Juul, Suorin Drop, Phix and Myblu.
What The Study Did: Data collected from 155 adult transgender women and 55 transgender men were used to identify the earliest age at which gender dysphoria was experienced in this patient population seeking genital gender-affirming surgery at a California hospital.
Authors: Maurice M. Garcia, M.D., M.A.S., of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, is the corresponding author.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
A new study examines energy inequality for income classes across 86 countries, from highly industrialised to developing ones, revealing extreme disparity in energy footprints, both within nations and globally.
In the first study of its kind, University of Leeds researchers combined European Union and World Bank data to calculate the distribution of energy footprints, as well as what energy-intensive goods and services different income groups tend to spend their money on.
Scientists can now edit multiple sites in the genome at the same time to learn how different DNA stretches co-operate in health and disease.
Males that face tougher competition for females risk having offspring with a greater number of harmful mutations in their genome than males without rivals. Researchers at Uppsala University have discovered this correlation in the beetle species Callosobruchus maculatus. Their study is published in the scientific journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
To eat or not to eat fish is a question that has long concerned pregnant women. Now, a new USC study shows that children whose mothers ate fish from one to three times a week during pregnancy were more likely to have a better metabolic profile -- despite the risk of exposure to mercury -- than children whose mothers ate fish rarely (less than once a week).
NEW YORK (March 16, 2020)—Undetected cases, many of which were likely not severely symptomatic, were largely responsible for the rapid spread of the COVID-19 outbreak in China, according to new research by scientists at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. The findings based on a computer model of the outbreak are published online in the journal Science.
The researchers report:
86 percent of all infections were undocumented prior to the January 23 Wuhan travel shutdown
Acne treatment including the highly effective acne medication isotretinoin should be made more readily available despite reports of its association with depression and teen suicide. That's the implication of a study just published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.
Isotretinoin has been linked to depression and suicide. But UCR researcher Misaki Natsuaki, one of the study's authors, said severe acne itself, when left untreated, poses a serious risk for depression and anxiety.
In advancing research to tackle the problem of burgeoning global economic inequality, researchers at Simon Fraser University used a poverty simulation game called SPENT to foster greater understanding of what causes poverty and economic inequality.
Some 500 million years ago - when our continents were connected in a single land mass and most life existed underwater - hornworts (Anthoceros) were one of the first groups of plants to colonize land. An international team led by University of Zurich (UZH) and the Boyce Thompson Institute has now sequenced three hornwort genomes, providing insights into the genetics underlying the unique biology of the group, an extant representative of the earliest land plants.
DNA only persists through replication - naturally or synthetically. While humans need the genetic material to be reproduced in order to replace old or damaged cells, the ability to replicate DNA in a laboratory setting can provide researchers insights into the mechanisms of disease or the platform to develop treatments.
Silkworms are useful for more than just making strong and absorbent strings of silky thread for the textiles industry. A group of KAUST scientists has now coaxed these grub-like insects into making the human form of E-selectin, a critical adhesion molecule involved in inflammation, cancer and other disease processes.