Culture
Cat breeds differ from each other in behaviour with regard to activity, aggressiveness, shyness, sociability and stereotypical behaviour. A study conducted at the University of Helsinki discovered that behavioural traits are highly heritable. Heritability of behaviour explains differences between breeds.
Cats are our most popular pets but few studies have been conducted on their behaviour.
Lead VITALE investigator Dr Marie Courbebaisse (Paris, France), commented: "Our study shows that currently recommended doses of vitamin D are not sufficient to protect patients from the risk of fracture after kidney transplantation. This challenges advice in the current international KDIGO guidelines, which recommend using low doses of cholecalciferol similar to those recommended for the general population."
A recent case study from the University of Helsinki examines different ways of framing oil spill risks with regard to the Norwegian Barents Sea where new areas have been recently opened for oil exploration and exploitation. The study demonstrates that there is an urgent need for new ways of integrating different risk frames and multiple ways of knowing into the risk governance processes of complex socio-ecological risks, such as oil spill risks.
Without being aware of it, people sometimes wrongly perceive tactile sensations. A new study in the scientific journal Current Biology shows how healthy people can sometimes misattribute touch to the wrong side of their body, or even to a completely wrong part of the body. The study was conducted by researchers at Bielefeld University's Cluster of Excellence CITEC, the University of Hamburg, and New York University.
An alignment of researchers, health ministries and the World Health Organization has outlined the key steps to develop a global program to control scabies - the parasitic disease that affects 450 million people each year in mainly low-income countries.
Seven years have gone by since the first publication of the strawberry plant's complete genoma (Fragaria vesca), and all the information necessary to understand the thousands of biological processes going on within these plants, became available to the international scientific community. It is not such a long time for the Plant Biotechnology and Pharmacognosy research group at the University of Cordoba, a group that has spent over 20 years working on understanding strawberry defense strategies.
About 15% of couples in fertile age have experienced fertility problems. Men contribute to 50% of the cases when a couple cannot achieve the desired pregnancy. The proportion of overweight men has tripled in parallel with the increase in fertility problems worldwide. The doctoral thesis conducted at the University of Tartu Institute of Clinical Medicine confirmed that central obesity affects fertility parameters negatively. To alleviate their fertility problems, men should pay attention to their lifestyle.
In a new study, Lund University economic historian Erik Bengtsson debunks the myth that Sweden was destined to become a social democratic country. Instead, he argues that it was actually against all odds, as Sweden in the early 1900s was one of the western world's most unequal countries - and the least democratic in western Europe.
Has Sweden always flown the flag for equality and welfare? No, that is a misleading, romanticized picture, according to Erik Bengtsson from the School of Economics and Management at Lund University in Sweden.
Studies by scientists at British American Tobacco have shown that aerosol from potentially reduced-risk products (PRRPs), such as vapour and tobacco heating products (THPs), cause significantly less staining to tooth enamel, skin, cloth and wallpaper than does the smoke from conventional cigarettes.
The study results are presented today at the Global Forum on Nicotine in Warsaw, Poland.
The first time Vayu Maini Rekdal manipulated microbes, he made a decent sourdough bread. At the time, young Maini Rekdal, and most people who head to the kitchen to whip up a salad dressing, pop popcorn, ferment vegetables, or caramelize onions, did not consider the crucial chemical reactions behind these concoctions.
Better community education and communication are critical for increasing levels of blood donation among minorities, according to a study by researchers at Georgia State University and Georgia Southern University.
Nursing associate professor Regena Spratling in the Byrdine F. Lewis College of Nursing and Health Professions at Georgia State and her colleagues in the Georgia Southern University School of Public Health conducted the first systematic literature review of research on barriers and facilitators among minorities with blood donations.
The timing of a hurricane is one of the primary factors influencing its impact on the spread of mosquito-borne infectious diseases such as West Nile Virus, dengue, chikungunya and Zika, according to a study led by Georgia State University.
Based on preliminary results from a new Gemini Observatory survey of 531 stars with the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI), it appears more and more likely that large planets and brown dwarfs have very different roots.
We often look to people's faces for signs of how they're thinking or feeling, trying to gauge whether their eyes are narrowed or widened, whether the mouth is turned up or down.