Culture
Researchers have shown how worms learn to optimise their foraging activity by switching their response to pheromones in the environment, according to a report published today in eLife.
The findings are an important advance in the field of animal behaviour, providing new insights on how sensory cues are integrated to facilitate foraging and navigation.
Foraging food is one of the most critical yet challenging activities for animals, with food often patchily distributed and other animals trying to find and consume the same resources.
DURHAM, N.C. -- Plant-based meat substitutes taste and chew remarkably similar to real beef, and the 13 items listed on their nutrition labels - vitamins, fats and protein -- make them seem essentially equivalent.
But a Duke University research team's deeper examination of the nutritional content of plant-based meat alternatives, using a sophisticated tool of the science known as 'metabolomics,' shows they're as different as plants and animals.
BOSTON - A skin pigmentation mechanism that can darken the color of human skin as a natural defense against ultraviolet (UV)-associated cancers has been discovered by scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). Mediating the biological process is an enzyme, NNT, which plays a key role in the production of melanin (a pigment that protects the skin from harmful UV rays) and whose inhibition through a topical drug or ointment could potentially reduce the risk of skin cancers. The study was published online in Cell.
A transplant of healthy gut microbes followed by fibre supplements benefits patients with severe obesity and metabolic syndrome, according to University of Alberta clinical trial findings published today in Nature Medicine.
Patients who were given a single-dose oral fecal microbial transplant followed by a daily fibre supplement were found to have better insulin sensitivity and higher levels of beneficial microbes in their gut at the end of the six-week trial. Improved insulin sensitivity allows the body to use glucose more effectively, reducing blood sugar.
Researchers from HSE University and Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences have discovered how the theta rhythm of the brain and the gender differences in attitudes to risk are linked. In an article published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience, the researchers addressed which processes can be explained by knowing this connection. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2021.608699/full
"Plant a hundred kinds of crops"
Wangjinzhuang village is nestled amongst the steep slopes of the South Taihang Mountains in Hebei Province, China. To prosper in the northern climate, the villagers have developed a tried-and-true strategy: "using the land to plant a hundred kinds of crops and not rely on the sky". Their fields contain red millet, white sorghum, purple and green eyebrow beans, and yellow radishes. Having survived for over a thousand years, this agrobiodiversity is a vibrant cornerstone of the village's agricultural heritage that is too precious to lose.
BOSTON - Significant amounts of atherosclerotic plaque have been found in the coronary arteries of people with HIV, even in those considered by traditional measures to be at low-to-moderate risk of future heart disease, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open.
In Brazil, researchers at the University of São Paulo’s Medical School (FM-USP) have discovered that SARS-CoV-2 infects and replicates in the salivary glands.
Analysis of samples from three types of salivary gland obtained during a minimally invasive autopsy procedure performed on patients who died from complications of COVID-19 at Hospital das Clínicas, FM-USP’s hospital complex, showed that tissues specializing in producing and secreting saliva serve as reservoirs for the novel coronavirus.
Five Simon Fraser University scholars are among international scientists sounding an alarm over the "pervasive social and ecological consequences" of the destruction and suppression of the knowledge systems of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
Their paper, published today in the Journal of Ethnobiology, draws on the knowledge of 30 international Indigenous and non-Indigenous co-authors, and highlights 15 strategic actions to support the efforts of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in sustaining their knowledge systems and ties to lands.
People who receive mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are up to 91 percent less likely to develop the disease than those who are unvaccinated, according to a new nationwide study of eight sites, including Salt Lake City. For those few vaccinated people who do still get an infection, or "breakthrough" cases, the study suggests that vaccines reduce the severity of COVID-19 symptoms and shorten its duration.
Researchers say these results are among the first to show that mRNA vaccination benefits even those individuals who experience breakthrough infections.
When traffic is clogged at a downtown intersection, there may be a way to reduce some of the congestion: Eliminate a few left turns.
According to Vikash Gayah, associate professor of civil engineering at Penn State, well-placed left-turn restrictions in certain busy intersections could loosen many of the bottlenecks that hamper traffic efficiency. He recently created a new method that could help cities identify where to restrict these turns to improve overall traffic flow.
Using artificial intelligence, UT Southwestern scientists have identified thousands of genetic mutations likely to affect the immune system in mice. The work is part of one Nobel laureate's quest to find virtually all such variations in mammals.
A new screening method that can test the effectiveness of therapeutic molecules designed to 'glue' proteins together in the body has been developed by researchers at the University of Birmingham and the University of Leicester.
The research paves the way for drug developers to screen large numbers of potential new drug compounds to discover new treatments for diseases such as breast cancer and Parkinson's disease.
CLEVELAND, Ohio (July 7, 2021)--Estrogen has been thought to play a role in a woman's risk of developing Alzheimer disease (AD). A new study has taken a different approach to identifying risk factors for AD by examining the association between a woman's reproductive life span as an indicator of endogenous estrogen exposure and levels of cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers. Study results are published online in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS).
A new study in the Journal of the European Economic Association, published by Oxford University Press, finds that electoral districts with a larger gender pay gaps show favoritism toward male political candidates in Parliamentary elections, with fewer female candidates on the ballot.