A tiny marine crustacean with a great big claw has shown that not only does size matter, but left or right-handedness (or in this case, left or right-clawedness) is important too.
The 5-6mm marine amphipod Dulichiella appendiculata, related to the land-based beach-hopper or sand flea we see hopping around on beaches, has one large claw on one side (either right or left), and a small claw on the opposite side.
DALLAS, May 31, 2016 - Both short- and long-term exposure to some air pollutants commonly associated with coal burning, vehicle exhaust, airborne dust and dirt are associated with the development of high blood pressure, according to new research in the American Heart Association's journal Hypertension.
Financial relationships between biomedical companies and organizations that produce clinical practice guidelines are common, but often unreported.
Sixty-three per cent of organizations that published clinical practice guidelines on the National Guideline Clearinghouse website in 2012 reported receiving funds from biomedical companies, but these relationships were seldom disclosed in the guidelines, according to a new study published by Henry Stelfox and colleagues from the University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada, in PLOS Medicine.
Many children with concussion initially sought care through primary care and not the emergency department, although younger children and those insured by Medicaid were more likely to go to the ED, according to an article published online by JAMA Pediatrics.
Concussion diagnosis is symptom-based and does not require advanced diagnostic tools such as imaging. A better understanding of the points of health care entry for children with concussion is necessary to guide health care networks and clinicians on where training and resources should be directed.
New research from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) highlights a substantial gap in how the United States currently estimates the nation's burden of pediatric concussions.
A key cellular signal provides a vital balance between the body's ability to destroy invading microbes and its need to prevent autoimmune disease, in which immune cells attack the body's own tissues. That is the finding of a study led by researchers from NYU Langone Medical Center and published May 31 in the journal Immunity.
Many animals depend on their microbiome to digest their food. Symbiotic microorganisms produce enzymes their hosts cannot, and these work alone or together with the animals' own enzymes to break down their food. Many plant-feeding insects need microbial enzymes, such as pectinases, that degrade plant cell walls; yet some insects have overcome this dependency in a surprising way. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, found that stick insects make microbial enzymes themselves.
There is a high probability that the friendly game between France and Germany, which took place in Paris on 13 November 2015 was abruptly interrupted by the terror attacks, will be replayed as a tournament match at this year's EURO semifinal. The winner of this match will most likely play against Spain in the final as the results of a study carried out by statistician Prof. Achim Zeileis from the University of Innsbruck and his two colleagues Dr. Christoph Leitner and Prof. Kurt Hornik from the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Vienna) show.
Since 2008, the overall rate of reported gonorrhoea infections has more than doubled across Europe, going up from 8 per 100 000 population to 20 cases per 100 000 persons in 2014.
Due to the exponential growth of biodiversity information in recent years, the questions of how to mobilize such vast amounts of data has become more tangible than ever. Best practices for data sharing, data publishing, and involvement of scientific and citizen communities in data generation are the main topic of a recent report by the EU FP7 project Building the European Biodiversity Observation Network (EU BON), published in the innovative Research Ideas & Outcomes (RIO) journal.
The dragonfly considered the most primitive in the world lives in Australia and Tasmania, and was believed to be extinct four decades ago. But it is far from being so. A Spanish researcher has observed thousands of these insects in one of the few habitats in which it has been detected and it displays sexual behaviour that is unique, not only directed towards reproduction.
A new blood test to detect Mycobacteria in blood has been developed by a team at The University of Nottingham led by Dr Cath Rees, an expert in microbiology in the School of Biosciences and Dr Ben Swift from the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science.
The researchers have used this new method to show that cattle diagnosed with bovine tuberculosis (bTB) have detectable levels of the bacterium Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis) in their blood which causes this disease.
The vibrations and pulses that male fiddler crabs produce when they are trying to lure females into their burrows to mate are surprisingly informative. These signals serve as a type of "Morse code" that the females decipher to learn more about the size and stamina of their suitors. This is according to a study by Japanese researchers Fumio Takeshita of Nagasaki University and Minoru Murai of the University of the Ryukyu, published in Springer's journal The Science of Nature.
Although researchers have been seeking the origins of preterm birth for many years, the causes are still relatively unknown. By studying the electrical activity that causes contractions, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and their collaborators have developed a multiscale model they believe may aid in predicting preterm birth.
Senior citizens living in retirement homes often lack adequate ophthalmological care, according to a study by Luisa Thederan and co-authors published in the current issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztbl Int 2016; 113. 323-7). Almost 21% of the surveyed residents were last seen by an ophthalmologist more than 5 years ago, while 39.9% were unable to provide any information about past ophthalmological examinations.