Is it possible to investigate menopausal age, or not? In more than one in three women aged 50, the body provides no clear answer about the menopause, a University of Gothenburg study shows. Increased use of hormonal intrauterine devices and contraceptive pills are the cause.
The springboard for the study was previous research, published in the scientific journal Menopause, showing that women's menopausal age had risen over time. The question addressed this time was whether this trend has persisted.
The cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China was first reported on December 30, 2019 by the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) later determined and announced a novel coronavirus (CoV), denoted as Wuhan CoV (2019-nCoV), had caused the outbreak of the pneumonia. The current public health emergency partially resembles the emergence of the SARS outbreak in southern China in 2002, which led to more than 8,000 human infections and 774 deaths.
Up to now, cancer is still one of the major diseases that threaten the survival of mankind, and it is difficult to cure clinically. In addition to single or combined surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which are commonly used clinically, a number of promising therapeutic strategies have been recently put forward including immunotherapy and gene therapy, photothermal therapy (PTT), photodynamic therapy, and so on.
Many farmers associate grassland biodiversity with lower yields and financial losses. "Biodiversity is often considered unprofitable, but we show that it can, in fact, pay off," says Nina Buchmann, Professor of Grassland Sciences at ETH Zurich. In an interdisciplinary study at the interface of agricultural sciences, ecology and economics, Buchmann and her colleagues were able to quantify the economic added value of biodiversity based on a grassland experiment that examined different intensities of cultivation.
Migration, both domestic and abroad, is playing a major role in transforming the world's largest cities, and Moscow is no exception. Researchers at HSE University, the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IGRAN) and Strelka KB identified which cities' residents are buying newly built apartments in the capital and how economic inequality between Russia's regions is changing the face of the city.
Cervical cancer is the third most common cancer in women worldwide, but most American women can prevent it by being screened with tests that detect human papillomaviruses (HPV).
A new study led by University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center scientists shows that screening every three years instead of annually prevents most cervical cancers. And of the cancers that are found during routine screenings, most are caught before they've had a chance to spread, making them far easier to treat.
A completely passive solar-powered desalination system developed by researchers at MIT and in China could provide more than 1.5 gallons of fresh drinking water per hour for every square meter of solar collecting area. Such systems could potentially serve off-grid arid coastal areas to provide an efficient, low-cost water source.
Gatersleben, 07.02.2020 Roots are plant organs, that typically absorb water and minerals from soil. It is lesser known that roots also secrete metabolites, so-called root exudates, which impact the properties of soil directly around the root. This thin layer of soil is called the rhizosphere and is home to a rich microbial diversity, the root microbiota. By producing certain exudates, plants communicate with and govern the microbial life within their rhizosphere for their own benefit. Now, researchers have discovered that this is not a one-way process.
Proteins are the molecular machines that make all living things hum -- they stop deadly infections, heal cells and capture energy from the sun. Yet because our basic understanding of how proteins work has until now remained a mystery, humans have only been able to harness the power of proteins by modifying ones we happen to find in nature. This is beginning to change. Enabled by decades of basic research, the rise of inexpensive computing, and the genomics revolution in reading and writing DNA, scientists can now design new proteins from scratch with specific functions.
Joyce Tait, Innogen Founder and co-Director, has an interdisciplinary background in natural and social sciences including risk assessment and regulation, policy analysis, technology management, strategic and operational decision making in companies and public bodies. Tait speaks about re-engineering biological components through computational modelling and bio-systems design technologies and how they will require new frameworks for adaptive and responsible regulation that takes account of the relevant benefits and risks and also of the needs and wants of the full spectrum of stakeholders.