Culture
A genome-wide analysis of ancient DNA from more than 500 individuals from across South and Central Asia sheds light on the complex genetic ancestry of the region's modern people. "The scale of this data set enables [the authors] to compare genomes across more space and time points than ever before, allowing them to hone in on increasingly specific questions that would have been unanswerable even a few years ago," write Nathan Shaefer and Beth Shapiro in a related Perspective.
Scientists have designed an ultra-miniaturised device that could directly image single cells without the need for a microscope or make chemical fingerprint analysis possible from a smartphone.
The device, made from a single nanowire 1000 times thinner than a human hair, is the smallest spectrometer ever designed. It could be used in potential applications such as assessing the freshness of foods, the quality of drugs, or even identifying counterfeit objects, all from a smartphone camera. Details are reported in the journal Science.
ROCKVILLE, MD - The American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) today affirmed the crucial role of genetic and genomic data sharing to advance medicine and health research, and asserted core principles about privacy protections that should apply to all human genetics and genomics research regardless of funding source. The Society's views appear today in The American Journal of Human Genetics (AJHG).
KANSAS CITY, MO--Small-cell clones in proliferating epithelia - tissues that line all body surfaces - organize very differently than their normal-sized counterparts, according to a recent study from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research. Published online September 5, 2019, in Developmental Cell, these findings from the laboratory of Matthew Gibson, PhD, may contribute to a better understanding of how some human diseases progress.
Spanish may seem to be spoken at a higher speed than Vietnamese, but that doesn't make it any more "efficient". Researchers affiliated with the CNRS and Université Lumière Lyon 2 (Dynamique du Langage laboratory) have shown that human languages are equally effective at transmitting information, even if the speeds at which they are spoken differ. To come to this conclusion, they compared recordings in 17 languages (1) of 15 short texts describing daily situations, read out loud by 10 native speakers per language.
Fewer children, distant relatives or friends, and an increasing plurality of family models: These factors impact on the availability of support and care in old age. Tiziana Nazio, a researcher at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, has explored how early family formation events relate to the emotional and practical support that people give and receive in older age. Her results show that women still bear the brunt of the burden of care.
How much water single-family residences use is closely related to a community's built environment, according to a University of Arizona-led study. In particular, design factors such as vegetated land cover, housing density and lot size appear to have a strong impact on water use.
The results can provide key data for city planners and water managers looking to develop sustainable water use strategies for their communities, the authors suggest in the paper that was published today in the Journal of the American Planning Association.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Young adults with student loans who participate in financial education programs become better financial managers who are able to build their personal wealth after college, researchers at the University of Illinois found in a recent study.
Social work professor Min Zhan and graduate student Gaurav Sinha analyzed data on 1,924 young adults in the U.S. to explore which factors helped those with student loans prosper after college.
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) - Button battery injuries in children have been increasingly severe--resulting in devastating injuries and even death. Button batteries damage esophageal tissue through isothermic hydrolysis reactions, resulting in alkaline caustic injury, which leads to tissue necrosis. Prompt removal of the battery is critical to minimizing damage. However, when children swallow a button battery, the injury can progress even after it is removed.
It is hard to get people excited about research software says Eliza Grames, a PhD candidate in ecology and evolutionary biology. Yet, the software she has developed is exciting and to understand why, it is important to put yourself into the shoes of a researcher.
In the quest to prove that matter can be produced without antimatter, the GERDA experiment at the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory in Italy is looking for signs of neutrinoless double beta decay. The experiment has the greatest sensitivity worldwide for detecting the decay in question. To further improve the chances of success, a follow-up project, LEGEND, uses an even more refined decay experiment.
MAYWOOD, IL - A sepsis care quality improvement program saves lives, shortens hospital stays and reduces healthcare costs, according to a study by researchers at Loyola Medicine and Loyola University Chicago.
The study is published in the journal Critical Care Medicine.
Loyola's sepsis care quality improvement program includes a multidisciplinary sepsis committee, an education campaign, electronic health record tools and early warning system.
A new American Cancer Society study finds that colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence is increasing exclusively in young adults in nine high-income countries spanning three continents. The study, appearing in the journal Gut, finds the rising rates are in contrast to stable or declining trends in older adults, suggesting that changes in early-life exposures are increasing CRC risk.
Women who experienced six or more symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at some point in life had a twofold greater risk of developing ovarian cancer compared with women who never had any PTSD symptoms, according to a new study from researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Moffitt Cancer Center.
The brain stores memories through a neuronal ensemble, termed engram cells. A unique system was established to transfer neuronal population activity into light with discrimination between engram and non-engram cells using fluorescence proteins. By using this system, it is revealed that engram sub-ensembles represent distinct pieces of information, which are then orchestrated to constitute an entire memory. In addition, some sub-ensembles preferentially reappear during post-learning sleep, and these replayed sub-ensembles are more likely to be reactivated during retrieval.