Culture
An international team of scientists has used ancient DNA samples to elucidate the population history of dogs. The results show that dogs had already diverged into at least five distinct lineages by about 11,000 years ago and that their early population history only partially reflects that of human groups.
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich researchers have developed photoresponsive derivatives of the anticancer drug Taxol®, which allow light-based control of cytoskeleton dynamics in neurons. The agents can optically pattern cell division and may elucidate how Taxol acts.
Researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil have shown for the first time that stimulating expression of a protein naturally produced by the human body can be a strategy to combat loss of skeletal muscle mass, which happens normally with aging but can intensify in cases of neurodegenerative or inflammatory disease, or in patients who spend long periods in intensive care units (ICUs).
Solving the equations of general relativity for colliding black holes is no simple matter.
Physicists began using supercomputers to obtain solutions to this famously hard problem back in the 1960s. In 2000, with no solutions in sight, Kip Thorne, 2018 Nobel Laureate and one of the designers of LIGO, famously bet that there would be an observation of gravitational waves before a numerical solution was reached.
The incidence of dementia in patients with rheumatoid arthritis is lower in patients receiving biologic or targeted synthetic disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) than in patients who receive conventional synthetic DMARDs, according to a new study. The study was presented at the virtual annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology.
In a current opinion article "Reduction of environmental pollutants for prevention of cardiovascular disease: it's time to act", published in the European Heart Journal this week, a group of international environmental researchers from the University Medical Center of Mainz (Thomas Münzel and Andreas Daiber), from the University/BHF Centre for Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom (Mar Miller), the Diet, Genes and Environment, Danish Cancer Society Research Center, Copenhagen, Denmark (Mette Sørensen), the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Atmospheric Chemistry
MISSOULA - Warmer winters, earlier springs, shrinking ice and increased human development - the Arctic is undergoing dramatic changes impacting native animals. And now, scientists can track the movements of thousands of Arctic and sub-Arctic animals over three decades with the new global Arctic Animal Movement Archive.
November 6, 2020 - Botulinum toxin - best known by the brand name Botox - is a popular treatment to reduce facial lines and wrinkles. Over the years, plastic surgeons have explored alternative approaches to maximize effectiveness while minimizing side effects of botulinum toxin injection, including smaller doses and more-diluted concentrations.
For our cells to assemble into tissues and whole organs, the extracellular ma-trix (ECM) as well as the integrins are required. The ECM forms a kind of extra-cellular protein meshwork, the integrins are surface proteins, which our cells use to attach to this extracellular support structure. How human cells balance attachment to versus detachment from the ECM is a yet unsolved question. The research team led by Professor Christof Hauck in the Department of Biolo-gy at the University of Konstanz, now identified a key enzyme, PPM1F, which regulates the integrins' detachment from the ECM.
ITHACA, N.Y. - In emerging renewable energy industries, are producers' decisions to shut down or upgrade aging equipment influenced more by technology improvements or government policies?
It's an important long-term question for policymakers seeking to increase renewable electricity production, cost-effectiveness and efficiency with limited budgets, says C.-Y. Cynthia Lin Lawell, associate professor in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University.
TAMPA, Fla (Nov. 6, 2020) -- SARS-CoV-2, the respiratory virus that causes COVID-19, attacks the body in multiple steps. Gaining entry into cells deep within the lungs and hijacking the human host cell's machinery to churn out copies of itself are two of the earliest steps -- both essential for viral infection.
JUPITER, FL--A new strategy for treating a variety of diseases known as RNA-repeat expansion disorders, which affect millions of people, has shown promise in proof-of-principle tests conducted by scientists at Scripps Research.
The results suggest that someday, a handful of well-targeted drugs might be able to treat the more than 40 human disorders--including Huntington's disease and variants of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)--that arise from RNA-repeat expansions.
High deductible health plans (HDHPs) have become much more common among all racial/ethnic and income groups, but the health savings accounts (HSAs) that make these plans potentially workable are far less common among Black, Hispanic, and lower-income enrollees--and the gap is growing.
That's according to a new Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) study published in the November issue of the journal Health Affairs, the first to examine these trends.
A new Boston University School of Public Health study of the first four months of America's coronavirus epidemic, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, shows that physical distancing (also called "social distancing") policies had little effect on lower income people still needing to leave their homes to go to work--but does show them staying home when they could.
MIAMI--A new study by researchers at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science projects an increase in Florida's late summertime rainfall with rising Atlantic Ocean temperatures.