Culture
April 5, 2019 -- Even tiny amounts of gluten in foods are troublesome for people with celiac disease, and restaurants may be the hardest places to avoid the protein, finds a study by Benjamin Lebwohl, MD, MS, Celiac Disease Center at NY-Presbyterian Hospital and assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School. More than half of gluten-free pizza and pasta dishes in restaurants tested positive for the presence of gluten; about one-third of supposedly gluten-free foods had detectable gluten.
With new genome analysis tools, scientists have made significant advances in our understanding of modern humans' origins and ancient migrations.
But trying to find ancient DNA, let alone prove that the ancient DNA is ancestral to a population living today is extremely challenging.
The health claims made on the product packaging for a large proportion of foods marketed to children in the UK are 'confusing', and could be contributing to rising rates of childhood obesity, suggests research published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Stricter regulations are needed for food labelling and product content to lessen this risk, urge the researchers
Mass drug administration (MDA) of two antibiotics can be highly effective at reducing cases of scabies and the bacterial infection impetigo, according to new research published in Lancet Infectious Diseases.
The study was conducted by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI), the Kirby Institute at UNSW Sydney and the Solomon Islands Ministry of Health and Medical Services.
TROY, N.Y. --Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is best known for revealing itself in one certain way: as an unexpected, fatal heart attack during strenuous exercise. But researchers suspect as many as 300 mutations can individually cause enlargement of the heart that renders it vulnerable to strain. Recent studies examining three of those mutations at the molecular level found separate mechanisms at work, said Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute muscle protein and contraction expert Doug Swank, whose most recent paper on the topic was published today in the Journal of Physiology.
Chestnut Hill, Mass. (4/5/2019) - Like old photographs, memories fade in quality over time - a surprising finding for a team of Boston College researchers who expected recollections would become less accurate, but found people also report declines in the vibrancy and visual qualities of their memories.
A small peptide produced in the skin of predatory nematodes prevents them from cannibalizing their immediate family members, while they feed upon their close relatives, a new study finds. The ability to recognize self is an important trait and regulates many crucial biological processes. While it's observed in a wide variety of organisms, the molecular mechanisms that underlie self-recognition systems are not well understood.
Tucked away in the noncoding regions of bird DNA, researchers have discovered molecular roots of the loss of flight seen in so many disparate paleognathous birds. In contrast with previous work, which emphasized changes to protein-coding DNA as driving flightlessness, this study associates loss of flight more strongly with regulatory evolution in noncoding DNA. The results provide an example for future genome studies of so-called convergent phenotypes throughout the animal kingdom. Over time, species of divergent lines of the tree of life can develop similar evolutionary traits.
DURHAM, N.C. -- In late 2018, the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service proposed a rule change that would reverse current policy and allow the agency to use public funds to underwrite low-interest, fixed-term loans for the construction of new commercial fishing vessels.
The proposed change, which is still pending final approval, lacks scientific merit and should be rejected, according to a new analysis by a Duke University economist.
Although separated by more than one billion years of evolution, plants and animals have hit upon similar immune strategies to protect themselves against pathogens. One important mechanism is defined by cytoplasmic receptors called NLRs that, in plants, recognize so-called effectors, molecules that invading microorganisms secrete into the plant's cells. These recognition events can either involve direct recognition of effectors by NLRs or indirect recognition, in which the NLRs act as 'guards' that monitor additional host proteins or 'guardees' that are modified by effectors.
With the growth of 3D printing, it's entirely possible to 3D print your own prosthetic from models found in open-source databases.
But those models lack personalized electronic user interfaces like those found in costly, state-of-the-art prosthetics.
Now, a Virginia Tech professor and his interdisciplinary team of undergraduate student researchers have made inroads in integrating electronic sensors with personalized 3D-printed prosthetics -- a development that could one day lead to more affordable electric-powered prosthetics.
Inside the body, disease and injury can leave behind quite the mess -- a scattering of cellular debris, like bits of broken glass, rubber and steel left behind in a car accident.
Inside the central nervous system (CNS), a region that includes the brain and spinal cord, it is the job of certain cells, called microglia, to clean up that cellular debris. Microglia have counterparts called macrophages that serve similar function outside the CNS in the peripheral nervous system (PNS), the region that contains most of the sensory and motor nerves.
Government and NHS leaders could do more to encourage collaborative relationships between healthcare
The Nuffield Council on Bioethics has published a briefing note outlining the factors that can contribute to disagreements between parents and healthcare staff about the care and treatment of critically ill babies and young children. It concludes that the Government and NHS leaders could do more to foster good, collaborative relationships between parents and healthcare staff across the UK.
New research has indicated that people with autism have an altered sense of self, which may explain some of the differences shown in social functioning.
The study, which was carried out by scientists at Anglia Ruskin University and published in the journal Autism, involved a group of 51 adults, half with and half without autism.
It is the first time that responses to the self-altering 'full body illusion', which simulates an out of body experience, have been measured in people with autism.
Plants can't run away to avoid being eaten, so instead they employ a variety of chemical defenses to keep herbivores at bay. Understanding plant chemical defenses is critical for keeping crops healthy, and for answering a variety of more academic questions about ecology and evolution. However, current techniques for assessing plant chemical defenses are time consuming and require impractically large amounts of plant tissue.