Body

Washington, DC--As people in developing nations relocate from rural areas to cities, the increased stress is affecting their hormone levels and making them more susceptible to diabetes and other metabolic disorders, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

About 387 million people worldwide have diabetes, and 77 percent of them live in low- and middle-income countries, according to the International Diabetes Federation. In the Middle East and north Africa, one in 10 adults has diabetes.

Washington, DC--Women who experience moderate to severe hot flashes and night sweats during menopause tend to have lower bone mineral density and higher rates of hip fracture than peers who do not have menopausal symptoms, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Menopause is the life stage when a woman's ovaries stop producing hormones and her menstrual periods stop. About 60 percent of women experience hot flashes, which can last for several years.

A group of researchers from the University of Barcelona (Spain), the CNRS in Montpellier (France) and Princeton University (USA) report in The American Naturalist that the vaccination of females of a long-lived seabird species, the Cory's shearwater, results in levels of antibodies that allow their transmission to their offspring for several years and could provide several weeks of protection after hatching to these offspring.

HOUSTON - (Dec. 18, 2014) - Cars that run on natural gas are touted as efficient and environmentally friendly, but getting enough gas onboard to make them practical is a hurdle. A new study led by researchers at Rice University promises to help.

LA JOLLA, CA--December 18, 2014--Collaborating scientists from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and the University of California (UC) San Diego have developed a powerful new system for studying how proteins and other biological molecules form and lose their natural folded structures.

Using the new system, researchers can force a sample of molecules to unfold and refold by boosting and then dropping the temperature, so quickly that even some of the fastest molecular folding events can be tracked.

ST. LOUIS - Saint Louis University research findings published in the December issue of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy report a family of molecules known as nucleotidyltransferase superfamily (NTS) enzyme inhibitors are promising candidates for new herpes virus treatments.

Illinois is the most critical hub in the network of U.S. domestic food transfers, according to a new study by Megan Konar, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, and colleagues at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The study was published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

The United States is a melting pot of different racial and ethnic groups, but it has not been clear how the genetic ancestry of these populations varies across different geographic regions. In a landmark study published by Cell Press December 18th in the American Journal of Human Genetics, researchers analyzed the genomes of more than 160,000 African Americans, Latinos, and European Americans, providing novel insights into the subtle differences in genetic ancestry across the United States.

Golden-winged warblers apparently knew in advance that a storm that would spawn 84 confirmed tornadoes and kill at least 35 people last spring was coming, according to a report in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on December 18. The birds left the scene well before devastating supercell storms blew in.

Many recent studies showed that calorie restrictions reduce the incidence of cancer, whereas high-calorie diets cause obesity and diabetes, both of which increase the risk of developing cancers. However, tumor biology still hides complex mechanisms, as revealed by researchers from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland.

Berkeley -- When birds unexpectedly flee their nesting grounds, it may be a demonstration of Mother Nature's early-warning system that a massive storm is approaching.

TORONTO -- Very small segments of genes called "microexons" influence how proteins interact with each other in the nervous system, scientists at the University of Toronto have found, opening up a new line of research into the cause of autism.

RESEARCHERS have discovered the unique genetic paths that the childhood brain tumour medulloblastoma follows when the disease comes back, according to research* published in Cancer Cell today (Thursday).

The study - funded by Cancer Research UK, Action Medical Research and others** - shows that taking an extra tumour sample at recurrence, when there are no effective therapies, could identify subsets of patients that might be treatable with existing drugs that target the genetic faults.

There are two main families of bacteria : those that are surrounded by a single membrane (or one outer wall) and those that are surrounded by two membranes (or two outer walls). The team of Jean-François Collet, professor at the de Duve Institute at UCL, looked at this second type of bacteria.

This latest research by Joshua Brickman and his research team from Danish Stem Cell Center (Danstem) at the University of Copenhagen specifically found that inhibiting or blocking stem cells ability to make a specific decision, leads to better cell growth and could lead to defined ways to differentiate stem cells.