Almost all the oxygen in the atmosphere today was produced by cyanobacteria 3,000 million years ago; cyanobacteria continue to produce between 20% and 30% of the photosynthetic activity on Earth. Furthermore, they perform additional vital tasks: along with other microorganisms called Archaea, they are the only living beings able to convert nitrogen from the atmosphere into chemical forms which can be used by any life form. According to one of the authors of the research, Saúl Ares of Grupo Interdisciplinar de Sistemas Complejos (GISC; Interdisciplinary Complex Systems Group) at UC3M.
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Preeclampsia is one of the most common complications to occur during pregnancy, yet its causes are still unknown. A new study involving patients, cell cultures and animal experiments has now shown that those affected by the disease have lower quantities of the placenta's immune protein CD74, and that certain inflammatory factors are higher. These factors disrupt the formation of the placenta and leave the fetus undernourished.
PITTSBURGH, June 2, 2016 - Surgery to remove the primary tumor in women diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer, followed by the standard combination of therapies, adds months to the patients' lives, compared with standard therapy alone, an international clinical trial led by a University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) professor revealed.
A group of scientists from Russia, US, Canada and Germany has developed a simple and effective web service called GAM (Genes And Metabolites) to help researchers study complex biological processes in cells. The program identifies links between changes in metabolism and genes, enabling a better understanding of how, for example, cancer or immune system cells work. Metabolic regulation plays a major role in these biological objects.
It has been established that not all cancer cells are equally aggressive -- most can be neutralised with radiation and chemotherapy. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have now discovered that some cancer cells can accumulate fat droplets, which appear to make them more aggressive and increase their ability to spread.
The interior of a cancer tumour is a hostile environment with oxygen deficiency, low pH levels and lack of nutrients. The cells that survive in this environment are called "stressed cells" and are considered to be more aggressive.
Sally Fields's famous Academy Award outburst of gratitude - "You like me, you really like me" - apparently holds true for customers who are asked to participate in retailer-sponsored Web panels, according to an article forthcoming in the June 2016 issue of the Journal of Retailing. One result of these panels, which are growing in popularity, is that participants feel valued by being invited to take part and tend to express their gratitude by buying more and across more different product categories.
For consumers with two left thumbs, purchasing a product that comes with installation included makes a lot of sense. But for retailers, the quandary is how to price the package in a way that's attractive to the buyer and profitable for the seller. Marketing Professors Jeffrey Meyer and Venkatesh Shankar posit a solution in "Pricing Strategies for Hybrid Bundles: Analytical Model and Insights." The article is forthcoming in the June 2016 issue of the Journal of Retailing.
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers have found that increases in unemployment in California during the Great Recession were associated with an increased risk for weight gain among the state's 1.7 million public school students, suggesting that economic troubles could have long-term health consequences for children.
Philadelphia, PA, June 2, 2016 - Basal cell carcinoma is one of the most common cancers and its incidence is increasing worldwide, putting a significant burden on health services. Topical treatments are available for superficial basal cell carcinoma (BCC) but there has a lack of long-term follow-up data to guide treatment decisions.
A new research report appearing in the June 2016 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, opens up the possibility that small electrical currents might activate certain immune cells to jumpstart or speed wound healing. This discovery, made by a team of scientists from the United Kingdom, may be of particular interest to those with illnesses that may cause wounds to heal slowly or not at all.
Researchers at Ruhr-Universität Bochum were the first ones to prove the existence of an olfactory receptor in pigment-producing cells in human skin, the so-called melanocytes. The team headed by Prof Dr Dr Dr habil. Hanns Hatt demonstrated that the violet-like scent Beta-Ionone can activate the receptor.
Together with colleagues from Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the university hospital in Jena, the researchers at Bochum's Department for Cellphysiology reported their findings in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
A new rain frog species has been described from Amazonian Peru and the Amazonian foothills of the Andes. The frog, given the name Pristimantis pluvialis, was found by researchers from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, the University of Michigan, and the National University of San Antonio Abad of Cusco in Peru. The discovery is published in the open access journal ZooKeys.
Inaccessibility and mysticism surrounding the mist-veiled mountains of the central Andes make this region promising to hide treasures. With an area of 2197 km2, most of the Llanganates National Park, Ecuador, is nearly unreachable and is traversed only by foot.
A study of almost 150,000 men from 8 European countries, presented at this year's European Obesity Summit (Gothenburg, 1-4 June) shows that higher body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference are associated with an increased risk of aggressive prostate cancer. This analysis of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) is by Dr Aurora Perez-Cornago, Cancer Epidemiology Unit, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, UK, and colleagues.
NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. (June 2, 2016): New research by the USDA Forest Service reveals the motivations, management activities, future plans, and challenges faced by the nearly 11 million families, individuals, trusts, and estates, referred to as family forest owners. Collectively, family forest ownerships control 286 million acres of forestland, or 36 percent of the nation's forestland. The federal government is the nation's second largest forestland owner with 31 percent.