RENO, Nev. - New evidence identifies 64 pesticide residues in milkweed, the main food for monarch butterflies in the west. Milkweed samples from all of the locations studied in California's Central Valley were contaminated with pesticides, sometimes at levels harmful to monarchs and other insects.
The study raises alarms for remaining western monarchs, a population already at a precariously small size. Over the last few decades their overwintering numbers have plummeted to less than 1% of the population size than in the 1980s - which is a critically low level.
USC researchers have discovered that an old antibiotic may be a powerful new tool against a deadly superbug, thanks to an innovative screening method that better mimics conditions inside the human body.
The antibiotic, rifabutin, is "highly active" in fighting multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, a significant cause of life-threatening infections in medical facilities, researchers found.
The study appears today in Nature Microbiology.
Researchers at the University of Missouri and the University of Essex in the United Kingdom found boys' poor reading skills in adolescence, combined with the social attitudes about women attending college, can help explain why fewer men than women enroll in higher education or other types of post-high school education.
Their findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Mobile apps are helping track the spread of COVID-19 to contain the outbreak, but the apps also raise concerns about personal privacy.
We tend to like people who like us--a basic human trait that psychologists have termed "reciprocity of attraction." This principle generally works well to start relationships because it reduces the likelihood of rejection. Yet, making the chase harder also has its upsides. Which one then is the better strategy for finding a partner?
Opponents to the felling of the statue of Edward Colston argue that it was vandalism and represents an attempt to erase history. But the statue has its own peculiar story – and it is far removed from the Colston who lived from 1636-1721.
The statue was erected in 1895, more than 170 years after his death. Colston’s reputation was cemented and writ large over the 19th century of Bristol in south-west England because influential men in the city wanted to create a paternalist local idol.
Primary hyperoxaluria type 1 (PH1) is an autosomal recessive inherited disorder that begins in childhood and adolescence. Various defects in the enzyme alanine-glyoxylate aminotransferase cause an overproduction of oxalate in the liver, which is excreted in the urine (hyperoxaluria). It leads to the formation of recurrent kidney stones, renal calcification (nephrocalcinosis) and kidney injury, even kidney failure; many such patients require dialysis even before they reach adulthood.
Monkeys can overcome their aversion to animated monkeys through a more realistic avatar, according to research recently published in eNeuro.
Humans feel more comfortable toward life-like humanoid robots, but if a robot gets too life-like, it can become creepy. This "uncanny valley" effect plagues monkeys, too, which becomes a problem when scientists use animated monkey faces to study social behavior. However, monkeys overcome the uncanny valley when presented with a sufficiently realistic monkey avatar created using movie industry animation technology.
By developing a lab-engineered model of the human blood-brain barrier (BBB), neuroscientists at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory have discovered how the most common Alzheimer's disease risk gene causes amyloid protein plaques to disrupt the brain's vasculature and showed they could prevent the damage with medications already approved for human use.
The three-dimensional structure of the human genome is essential for providing a rapid and robust inflammatory response but is surprisingly not vital for reprogramming one cell type into another, according to research published today in Nature Genetics. The findings shed new light on the fundamental relationship between how a genome folds and the function of a cell.
Reno, Nev. (June 8, 2020) - The long-standing rules for assigning scientific names to bacteria and archaea are overdue for an update, according to a new consensus statement backed by 119 microbiologists from around the globe.
Distinct from virus transmission patterns identified elsewhere, analysis of SARS-CoV-2 genomes from a small number of California-based patients suggests the virus arrived in northern California through a complex series of introductions, not only from state to state but also from international travel. These results, say the authors, emphasize the need for social distancing and travel restrictions to contain SARS-CoV-2 spread in California and in other states. The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 resulted in more than 52,000 cases in California as of May 4, 2020.
What The Study Did: This observational study looked at the rate and risk factors of stroke caused by bleeding within the brain (intracerebral hemorrhage) between 1948 and 2016 among 10,000 participants in the Framingham Heart Study. There have been conflicting results in other studies on whether the rate of this often deadly type of stroke is changing.
Authors: Vasileios-Arsenios Lioutas, M.D., of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston, is the corresponding author.
More than half of pregnant women recently admitted to a UK hospital with covid-19 infection were from black or other ethnic minority groups, finds a national surveillance study published by The BMJ today.
Most women had good outcomes, and transmission of covid-19 to infants was uncommon, but the researchers say the high proportion of women from black or minority ethnic groups admitted with infection "needs urgent investigation and explanation."
A Roadmap to fast-track flourishing green roofs, walls and facades in Australian cities released today promotes six positive actioned based strategies to help grow green cities.
Researchers collaborating on the project also say the recommendations could provide a COVID-19 stimulus and support recovery.