Culture
While smaller dinosaurs needed speed, huge predators like T. rex were optimized for energy-efficient walking, according to a study published May 13, 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Alexander Dececchi of Mount Marty College, South Dakota and colleagues.
Long legs may make good runners, but they're great for walking, too. Scientists have generally assumed that long-limbed dinosaurs evolved their leggy proportions for speed to catch prey and avoid predators.
But a new study by the University of Maryland's Thomas Holtz and his colleagues suggests that long legs evolved among the biggest dinosaurs to help them conserve energy and go the distance as they ambled along searching for prey. The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE on May 13, 2020.
CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Companies best equipped to provide safe workplaces are the least likely to do so, because they benefit financially from forgoing the cost of enacting workplace safety practices, a recent study found. In some cases, companies with worker injury claims were more than 50% more likely to survive than their safer counterparts.
When it's cheaper to pay nominal fines for violating workplace regulations than to provide safe workplaces, that indicates current safety regulations are not enough to protect workers, researchers say.
The seemingly chaotic bacterial soup of the gut microbiome is more organized than it first appears and follows some of the same ecological laws that apply to birds, fish, tropical rainforests, and even complex economic and financial markets, according to a new paper in Nature Microbiology by researchers at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
Doctors and nurses across the country are experiencing occupational burnout and fatigue from the increased stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A team of researchers and medical professionals at Texas A&M University and Houston Methodist Hospital are working together to fight two afflictions: COVID-19 and the mental strain experienced by medical professionals.
For something that has evolved with us over millions of years, and remains part of our physiology over our entire lives, our gut microbiome, oddly, remains somewhat of a mystery. Comprised of trillions of microbes of at least a thousand different species, this community of bacteria, viruses, protozoa and fungi in our gastrointestinal tracts is unique to each individual and has been found to be intimately connected to various fundamental aspects of our fitness, from our immunity to our metabolism and mental health.
Washington, DC - The average cost of childbirth varies widely from state to state, according to new national analysis from the Health Care Cost Institute, which also found that spending on postpartum care extended across the full year after delivery. The research drew on HCCI's database of medical claims from approximately 40 million U.S. individuals with employer-sponsored insurance.
MADISON, Wis. -- In a study published today (May 13, 2020) in the New England Journal of Medicine, scientists in the U.S. and Japan report that in the laboratory, cats can readily become infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and may be able to pass the virus to other cats.
The final results of the randomized phase two trial E3311 will be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, to occur virtually from May 29-31. The trial, conducted in patients undergoing transoral robotic surgery (TORS), tested reduced postoperative radiation therapy in patients with human papillomavirus-associated oropharynx squamous cell carcinoma at intermediate risk for recurrence. ASCO is highlighting the importance of the positive results by making it the first presentation in its Head and Neck Oral Abstract Session (Abstract 6500).
Allowing users to create objects from simple toys to custom prosthetic parts, plastics are a popular 3D printing material. But these printed parts are mechanically weak -- a flaw caused by the imperfect bonding between the individual printed layers that make up the 3D part.
MIAMI--Researchers at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science have uncovered a new connection between tropical weather events and U.S. rainfall during El Niño years. The results can help explain why California received significantly less rainfall than predicted during the 2015 El Niño event while massive flooding occurred in the Mississippi River basin.
This ingredient is an essential component of the malaria parasite, a protein known as RPL6, which makes the parasite "visible" to a type of immune cells, the T cells, in the liver. The researchers added the protein to their existing vaccine strategy, known as 'prime and trap', and tested their discovery in mice, finding the combination offered complete protection against malaria.
Earth-based experiments on iron-sulfur alloys thought to comprise the core of Mars reveal details about the planet's seismic properties for the first time. This information will be compared to observations made by Martian space probes in the near future. Whether the results between experiment and observation coincide or not will either confirm existing theories about Mars' composition or call into question the story of its origin.
Amsterdam, May 13, 2020- While history shows us that power tends to corrupt, a team of Swiss and German researchers have recently examined historical examples of large-scale business fraud and misconduct at the highest-levels of government in order to highlight how leaders sometimes lose all sense of morality. Inflicting serious harm on their company or society in the process.
At a glance
Researchers have discovered the reason why the excessive amounts of mucus produced by patients with respiratory illnesses is thicker than usual.
Mucus viscosity is driven by proteins called 'trefoil factors' that bind to 'mucin glycoproteins' which are very long protein strands coated with unique sugar molecules.
Understanding these mechanisms could help to significantly improve airway-clearing treatments for patients with chronic respiratory diseases.