Culture
Cancer, aging-related diseases and other illnesses are closely tied to an important enzyme called "telomerase." UCLA researchers report in the journal Cell the deepest scientific understanding yet of this once-mysterious enzyme, whose catalytic core -- where most of its activity occurs -- can now be seen in near atomic resolution.
Struggling to finish that report for your boss? One way to increase your interest in a task is to add immediate rewards, rather than wait until the end to reward yourself, according to new Cornell research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology titled "It's About Time: Earlier Rewards Increase Intrinsic Motivation".
Researchers from the Biomedical Engineering Department at Rutgers University have developed an end-to-end blood testing device that integrates robotic phlebotomy with downstream sample processing. This platform device performs blood draws and provides diagnostic results in a fully automated fashion at the point-of-care. By reducing turnaround times, the device has the potential to expedite hospital work-flow, allowing practitioners to devote more time to treating patients.
Short and long daily sleep duration were risk factors for dementia and premature death in a study of Japanese adults aged 60 years and older. The findings are published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
In a study published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research, investigators have identified urinary markers that differentiate total hip replacement patients who eventually develop bone tissue destruction, or osteolysis, from patients who do not.
For the study, researchers used a repository of 24-hour urine samples collected prior to surgery and annually thereafter in 26 patients, 16 who developed osteolysis and 10 who did not.
Outside Asia, no country produces as much rice as does Brazil. It is the ninth largest rice producer in the world. Average annual yields are close to 15 million tons.
Rice production in Brazil is a multi-billion-dollar industry. It employs hundreds of thousands of people, directly and indirectly.
Given the importance of rice farming in Brazil, researchers are working to develop improved rice varieties.
"We are looking for rice varieties that satisfy farmers, the industry, and consumers," says researcher Ariano Martins de Magalhães Jr.
Dinosaur-age fossilised remains of tiny organisms normally found in the sea have been discovered in inland, arid Australia - suggesting the area was, for a short time at least, inundated by sea water 40 million years before Australia's large inland sea existed.
The fossils are the egg-like cysts of microorganisms known as dinoflagellates, best known for producing red tides or algal blooms that can turn the sea water blood red. The cysts rest on the sea floor before hatching new dinoflagellates.
African-Americans are still much more likely to be diagnosed with HIV than white Americans. A new paper on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the African-American community shows that despite recent drops in HIV diagnoses across every population in the US, there are still great disparities between ethnic groups. The paper was led by Cato T. Laurencin of the University of Connecticut in the US and is published in Springer's Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.
New findings are now being presented on possible mechanisms behind gender differences in the occurrence of rheumatism and other autoimmune diseases. The study, published in Nature Communications, can be of significance for the future treatment of diseases.
"It's very important to understand what causes these diseases to be so much more common among women," says Asa Tivesten, professor of medicine at Sahlgrenska Academy, Sweden, a chief physician and one of the authors of the study. "In this way, we can eventually provide better treatment for the diseases."
In a viral haemorrhagic disease where up to 40% of people developing it die, it is remarkable that doctors still do not agree whether the only recognised treatment, an antiviral drug called ribavirin, makes a difference. In a new Cochrane Review a team of authors at LSTM, along with colleagues in London, The Philippines and in Greece, evaluated the evidence to assess the effectiveness of treating Crimean Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF).
Researchers at ETH Zurich under the direction of ETH Professor Kristina Shea and colleagues at Caltech in Pasadena, California, have developed a new propulsion concept for swimming robots. The robot exploits temperature fluctuations in the water for propulsion without the need for an engine, propellant or power supply.
A group of men who may be underestimating their HIV risk has been identified in a new study.
Public health messages should be targeted specifically at this neglected group, suggest researchers who carried out the work.
The men are a distinct group who have sex with other men, but are not open about their sexuality.
They tend to mix with, and acquire infection from, each other and not from openly gay men.
They are unlikely to mix in the same social venues as openly gay men and are not likely to disclose that they have sex with other men.
A new blood test being developed to diagnose heart attacks could one day be carried out on a simple handheld device, giving a rapid diagnosis in A&E departments without the need for samples to be sent to a lab, according to new research presented today at the British Cardiovascular Society Conference in Manchester.
Male guppies exposed to predators in the wild or in captivity have heavier brains than those living in relatively predator-free conditions, according to new research published in the journal Functional Ecology.
Behavioural ecologists from Liverpool John Moores University, UK and McGill University, Canada sampled guppies from two rivers in northern Trinidad. In each river, guppies live above a waterfall, a location that only guppies and a few other small species of fish have managed to colonize, and below the fall, where many predators including pike cichlids live.
Pilot study results indicate that a sleep and yoga intervention has promising effects on improving sleep disturbance, sleep-related impairment, and sleep health behaviors.
Sleep problems are very common in low income communities yet often under-recognized and untreated, and are often related to sleep health behaviors, stress, and adverse environmental conditions. This study researched how to effectively deliver sleep health education and yoga interventions in underrepresented communities.