Culture
In recent years, scientists have conducted more than 100 clinical trials in the hopes of finding new indicators capable of diagnosing Alzheimer's disease prior to the manifestation of clinical symptoms such as memory loss. Though MBI, characterized by changes in the normal patterns of behaviour in the elderly, had already been suggested to be an indicator, its role had not yet been validated.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Medical marijuana users who say they have high levels of pain are more likely than those with low pain to say they use cannabis three or more times a day, a new study finds.
However, daily marijuana users with severe pain also reported their health had become worse in the past year.
The results don't necessarily mean that marijuana is not effective in treating at least some kinds of pain, according to the researchers. But it suggests more research is needed before marijuana is accepted as an effective treatment for severe pain.
Toronto - Whether it's blocking traffic outside a Donald Trump rally or preventing women from entering an abortion clinic, social activists take a risk when they choose extreme tactics to make their point.
New research has found that social change advocates face an "activist's dilemma." While extreme actions can bring more attention to a cause than moderate ones, they are more likely to diminish support, even among natural sympathizers, the study found.
Plant-derived chemicals called cardenolides have long been used to treat heart disease, and have shown potential as cancer therapies. But the compounds are very toxic, making it difficult for doctors to prescribe a dose that works without harming the patient.
As agriculture emerged in early civilizations, crops were domesticated in four locations around the world -- rice in China; grains and pulses in the Middle East; maize, beans and squash in Mesoamerica; and potatoes and quinoa in the Andes. Now, an international team of researchers have confirmed a fifth domestication area in southwestern Amazonia where manioc, squash and other edibles became garden plants during the early Holocene, starting over 10,000 years ago.
The human body is composed of billions of cells, each of which is made and maintained through countless interactions among its molecular parts. But which interactions sustain health and which ones can cause disease when they go awry? The human genome project has provided us with a "parts list" for the cell, but only if we can understand how these parts go together, or interact, can we really begin to understand how the cell works and what goes wrong in disease.
A team at the University of Bristol has developed a new method of dating pottery which is allowing archaeologists to date prehistoric finds from across the world with remarkable accuracy.
The exciting new method, reported in detail today in the journal Nature, is now being used to date pottery from a range of key sites up to 8,000 years old in Britain, Europe and Africa.
Pottery and the dating game
Fungi play an important role for mankind. In the soil, they decompose dead organic material, making it accessible to plants as a nutrient. In industrial biotechnological plants, fungi produce vast quantities of chemicals and food every day. In addition, fungi produce very complex active ingredients that could have potential for medical applications.
To this end, the team identified several thousand proteins, determined their respective amounts in mutant and reference lines and combined the findings with measurements of photosynthetic performance. Their findings were published in the journal Nature Communications on 3 April 2020.
Mutations cause defects
A new study provides some of the earliest pieces of evidence that the COVID-19 outbreak affected people mentally as well as physically.
The preliminary results reveal adults in locations more affected by COVID-19 had distress, and lower physical and mental health, and life satisfaction.
Researchers from the University of Adelaide, Tongji University and University of Sydney surveyed 369 adults living in 64 cities in China after they had lived under one-month of confinement measures in February this year.
Recently, platinum-containing core-shell structures with tunable magnetic and catalytic properties have attracted intensive attentions and offered a wide range of applications. To date, their synthetic routes are mostly based on galvanic replacement, co-reduction, thermal decomposition and seed-mediated method. But the detailed formation mechanisms of core-shell structures in solution, especially, at gas-liquid interface are still not completely clear, which is mostly achieved based on post reaction studies or ex situ characterizations.
Photosensitized generation of singlet oxygen attracted a great deal of interest reaching applications in various fields owing to its high biological activity and strong oxidation, including organic synthesis, wastewater treatment, photodynamic therapy (PDT). Although singlet oxygen can be produced in a variety of ways, triplet state energy transfer from some organic molecules under light illuminations is one of the most efficient and controllable way to produce the active oxygen species, where the organics are called photosensitizers.
A European Union (EU) programme aimed at reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions has made significant progress despite low prices in carbon markets, according to a study at the Universities of Strathclyde and Pittsburgh.
Under the EU's Emissions Trading System (ETS), introduced in 2005 in response to the Kyoto Protocol, governments set a cap on an allowable total amount of emissions over a certain period. They also issue tradable emission permits, which allow for one ton of CO2.
New research published by NUI Galway's Centre for Climate & Air Pollution Studies (C-CAPS) has shone light on the impact of clouds on climate change. The study has raised serious doubts of the likely impact of human-led interventions involving methods of cloud 'brightening' to counteract climate change. The new study has been published today in the Nature's journal - Climate and Atmospheric Science.
In the summer of 2017, Christie Petrenko, an assistant professor and research associate at the University of Rochester's Mt.