Culture
Tularemia is a rare but often lethal disease. It is caused by one of the most aggressive pathogens on earth, the bacterium Francisella tularensis. The microbe, transported by a variety of animals and insects, is able to enter and attack the body through a range of pathways, resulting in different constellations of symptoms and degrees of severity.
Together with scientists from Paris and Munich, a team of researchers working under Prof. Dr. Johannes Hegemann and Dr. Katja Moelleken has published these findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).
Several coronaviruses circulate worldwide and constantly infect humans, which normally caused only mild respiratory disease. Currently, however, we are witnessing a worldwide spread of a new coronavirus with more than 90,000 confirmed cases and over 3,000 deaths. The new virus has been named SARS coronavirus-2 and has been transmitted from animals to humans. It causes a respiratory disease called COVID-19 that may take a severe course. The SARS coronavirus-2 has been spreading since December 2019 and is closely related to the SARS coronavirus that caused the SARS pandemic in 2002/2003.
Schistosomiasis is a severe infectious disease caused by parasitic worms. As an intermediate host, freshwater snails play a central role in the life cycle of the parasite. In a recent study published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in cooperation with the Kenya-based International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) succeeded in proving that snail populations in waterbodies contaminated with pesticides were significantly larger than in uncontaminated waterbodies.
Most humans feel bad about hurting others. This so called 'harm aversion' is key to normal moral development and is reduced in violent antisocial individuals. Unfortunately, little is known about what makes us harm averse and we lack effective pharmacological treatments for violence in psychopathic criminals characterized by a lack of harm aversion. In a new paper published in the leading journal Current Biology, a team of neuroscientists of the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (NIN) shows that male and female rats show harm aversion.
Anxieties and behaviour problems may be common across dog breeds, according to a study published in Scientific Reports. The findings suggest that noise sensitivity is the most common anxiety trait, followed by fear.
Mice exposed to stress in the womb and soon after birth can expect a lifetime of immune system deficiencies that hinder the ability to ward off infections and cancer, Yale University researchers report March 5 in the journal Cell.
Energy-dense food, obesity and compulsive food intake bordering addiction: the scientific literature has been pointing to connections between these for years. Scientists at the CNRS and Université de Paris have just shown for the first time how fatty nutrients act on the brain in the reward circuit. Published in Cell Metabolism on 5 March 2020, these results shed new light on the connection between food and eating disorders.
NEW YORK (March 5, 2020) -- Health systems can protect healthcare workers during the COVID-19 outbreak when best practices for infection control are diligently applied along with lessons learned from recent outbreaks, according to a study published today in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.
Have you taken an Uber ride and disagreed with the "fastest" route that the GPS app suggested because you - or the driver - know a "better" way?
For society to truly embrace self-driving cars, the experience of passengers must feel just as comfortable as any trip with a human driver - including choosing the "best," or more comfortable, way to get there.
It turns out that this is an extremely difficult computational challenge, but researchers are getting us a little bit closer to that ideal comfy ride.
To help answer one of the great existential questions - how did life begin? - a new study combines biological and cosmological models. Professor Tomonori Totani from the Department of Astronomy looked at how life's building blocks could spontaneously form in the universe - a process known as abiogenesis.
On Thursday in the National Academy of Medicine's Perspectives, public health leaders including CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy Distinguished Lecturer Scott Ratzan, MD called for informed and active public policy leadership to employ strategically coordinated health communication and outreach on COVID-19 and other emerging global health threats.
A study by Carme Bach, a lecturer with the Department of Translation and Language Sciences at UPF, and Cristina Aliagas, a lecturer with the Faculty of Education at the UAB, both members of the GR@EL research group, analyses the view of families regarding the eduCAT1x1 programme, an education reform implemented in Catalonia by the Escola 2.0 programme, a state-wide project to introduce ICT into the education system through the 1x1 (one computer per student) model, which aimed to fit out classrooms with the necessary technological infrastructure and
Scientists at UC Davis have used CRISPR technology to genetically engineer rice with high levels of beta-carotene, the precursor of vitamin A. The technique they used provides a promising strategy for genetically improving rice and other crops. The study was published today in the journal Nature Communications.