Body

It turns out a spoonful of sugar might not just help the medicine go down, but could also help stave off tiredness faced by weary marathon runners - or other long-distance athletes - when they hit the wall.

According to health researchers at the University of Bath, stirring in table sugar from the baking cupboard into a water bottle before a big physical event could be the difference between success and failure.

(Jena) -- It's laundry day and the only clean T-shirt sports the big logo of a brand that used to be trendy but is only embarrassing now. What can you do? Wait until the tumble dryer has finished and be too late for the date or just put on the T-shirt? How you decide in a situation like this depends on a person's 'brand embarrassment tendency' (BET).

Scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a novel technique to efficiently culture clusters containing circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in 14 days. The study has shown that CTCs can predict the outcome of cancer treatment and assists clinicians on patients' chemother-apy regimen, as well as to monitor the status of cancer. This work was a collaborative research partnership between (MBI & CSI) NUS and the National University Cancer Institute, Singapore (NCIS).

Bodies of water are "sinks", and thereby bind contaminants particularly well. If even slightly toxic concentrations in water are to be detected, the growth and swimming behavior of small crustaceans, mini-snails and copepods should be used for ecotoxicological assessments. This was the conclusion of a scientist from the TUM, who carried out a number of studies on the subject in cooperation with the University of California in Davis.

A new study indicates that Statistics Canada data can be used to determine prescription opioid-related deaths and aid public health. The research is published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal)

Canada, unlike the United States, lacks coherent national statistics on opioid-related deaths because information on prescription opioid-related deaths is collected locally, rather than provincially or nationally.

TORONTO, Nov. 30, 2015--A new study indicates that Statistics Canada data could be used to estimate the number of prescription opioid-related deaths in Canada to aid in national surveillance of this important public health issue by provincial and national public health agencies.

The Genome Analysis Centre (TGAC) in collaboration with IBERS, has sequenced and assembled the DNA of red clover to help breeders improve the beneficial traits of this important forage crop. The genome is published in Scientific Reports, a journal from the Nature publishing group.

Today, we are seeing a rise in the demand by consumers for health-giving, nutritious products that improve physical performance, cut the risk of disease and increase lifespan. So the scientific community is redoubling its efforts to obtain foodstuffs with greater nutraceutical quality: quantity of minerals, proteins, carbohydrates, antioxidant compounds, vitamins, etc.

New research shows a network of immune cells helps the appendix to play a pivotal role in maintaining the health of the digestive system, supporting the theory that the appendix isn't a vestigial -- or redundant -- organ.

The research team, a collaborative partnership between the groups of Professor Gabrielle Belz of Melbourne's Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, and Professor Eric Vivier at the Centre d'Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy, France, found that innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) are crucial for protecting against bacterial infection in people with compromised immune systems.

(BOSTON) - For the first time, scientists can accurately measure population growth rates of the microbes that live inside mammalian gastrointestinal tracts, according to a new method reported in Nature Communications by a team at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School.

Yin and Yang, Venus and Mars, the Moon and the Sun, however you want to describe it, becoming a female or a male can make a big difference in your life, and not just for human beings. Dr. Misato O. Miyakawa, a former post-doc at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) and Professor Alexander S. Mikheyev, leader of the Ecology and Evolution Unit have discovered the two ancient genetic components of sex determination in ants. This paper has just been published in PLOS Genetics.

Cardiorespiratory fitness in young adults was associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease and death but it was not associated with the development of coronary artery calcification in a long-term study of a large racially diverse group of U.S. adults, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.

Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) has been associated with decreased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in older adults but less is known about the role of CRF and its changes in young adulthood on long-term cardiovascular outcomes.

LA JOLLA, CA - November 30, 2015 - Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found evidence that a mutant protein responsible for most cases of cystic fibrosis is so busy "talking" to the wrong cellular neighbors that it cannot function normally and is prematurely degraded.

By removing this chatter, researchers partially restored the protein's normal function. The findings suggest that therapies could one day treat the root cause of cystic fibrosis, not just the symptoms.

An international research collaboration has shed new light on how DNA sequence variation can influence gene activity in the developing human brain.

Nitrogen is a key chemical element for life and an essential nutrient for all living organisms. In particular, modern intensive agriculture totally depends on nitrogen fertilizers. However, fertilization with nitrogen compounds has its drawbacks. Following chemical conversion by nitrification, the nitrogen from fertilizers ends up in groundwater, rivers and lakes and disturbs the ecological balance in these waters. This problem is aggravated by additional nitrogen from domestic and industrial waste especially in countries that lack proper wastewater treatment.