The belief that online user ratings are good indicators of product quality is largely an illusion, according to a new University of Colorado Boulder study.
Yet almost all retailers provide user ratings on their websites and many consumers rely on the information when making purchase decisions, according to the paper, published this month in the Journal of Consumer Research.
DENVER - Capturing and summarizing the remarkable progress in lung cancer prevention, diagnosis, staging, and treatment in 2015, the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) announces the inaugural publication of "Scientific Advances in Lung Cancer 2015" in the May 2016 issue of the IASLC's Journal of Thoracic Oncology (JTO).
The Entomological Society of America (ESA) has issued a statement about the dangers of invasive species and the potential threats they pose to U.S. national interests by undermining food security, trade agreements, forest health, ecosystem services, environmental quality, and public health and recreation.
Invasive insects alone incur control costs of over $2.5 billion in the U.S. per year and cause losses to crops, lawns, forests, and pastures totaling at least $18 billion per year.
Doctors have long known that men with low testosterone are at greater risk for developing type 2 diabetes. For the first time, researchers have identified how testosterone helps men regulate blood sugar by triggering key signaling mechanisms in islets, clusters of cells within the pancreas that produce insulin. The findings, co-authored by Tulane University researchers, are published in the journal Cell Metabolism.
Road crashes are the world's leading cause of preventable death and injury in people under 35, accounting for around 5 million casualties every year. Repeat offenders make a disproportionate contribution to these statistics - and are known for their poor response to education and prevention efforts.
But a better understanding of the subconscious and emotional processes of high-risk drivers could make a difference, according to new research from McGill University.
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Bisphenol A (BPA) is an industrial chemical that is used in a variety of consumer products, such as water bottles, metal food and beverage containers, and thermal paper cash register receipts. Long considered to have health effects on animals and humans, exposure to BPA may lead to reduced quality of embryos during reproduction. Fred vom Saal, a University of Missouri endocrinologist and researcher, has studied BPA and its effects on the reproductive system for more than 20 years.
The human genome contains some 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes, which is surprisingly similar to the number of genes in worms and flies. Where does complexity of our organism and behaviour come from? In many genes, coding regions called "exons" are separated by intervening "introns". Mammals may substantially increase their molecular complexity by removing introns and joining exons in a combinatorial manner. This process known as "alternative splicing" and allowing a single gene to generate multiple protein variants is especially prevalent in the mammalian brain.
Researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on April 28 say that climate change will cause a disproportionate decline in African antelopes with the smallest geographic ranges, placing the most-threatened taxa in "double jeopardy." The findings are the first to suggest that animals already living in the most-restricted areas will be hardest hit as the climate shifts in the coming decades.
If a woman's female relatives have fraternal twins, she is more likely to give birth to twins herself, but the genes behind this phenomenon have remained a mystery. Now, researchers reporting April 28 in the American Journal of Human Genetics have nailed down two genes associated with twinning. They show genetic links between having twins and female production of, and response to, follicle-stimulating hormone, which may help predict how some women respond to infertility treatments.
Researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on April 28 have found a gene that helps explain why some people appear more youthful than others.
The gene in question, known as MC1R, is already well known for producing red hair and pale skin. Now, it appears that variation in this same gene is also related to differences in how old people look to other people--their perceived age. People carrying particular MC1R variants in their DNA look, on average, almost 2 years older than they are.
Age-related changes in the human pancreas govern how our bodies respond to rising and falling blood sugar levels throughout our lifetimes, and could affect whether we develop diabetes as adults. But it's been nearly impossible to study this process in detail because human pancreatic tissue is not readily available.
Instead, most researchers have relied on animal models to learn more about the development and function of the pancreas.
A pair of molecular signals controls skin and hair color in mice and humans -- and could be targeted by new drugs to treat skin pigment disorders like vitiligo, according to a report by scientists at NYU Langone Medical Center.
When it comes to replicating their DNA so they can propagate, normal cells are perfectionists. Cancer cells, on the other hand, have no problem tolerating mistakes while copying their DNA. In fact, messed-up DNA is a big part of what lets them keep changing and eluding the body's efforts to fight them.
Now, University of Minnesota researchers have figured out how some cells do an end-run on replication quality control -- opening the door to developing new cancer-quashing treatments.
Researchers in a USC-led study said they have identified a key action of a watershed gene critical to bone formation and the evolution of vertebrates.
The Sp7 or Osterix gene more than likely emerged from an ancestral gene family about 400 million years ago, expanding the diversity of life and programming the development of bone-secreting osteoblast cells. Bone-forming vertebrates now range from the tiny frog Paedophryne amauensis to the mighty blue whale.
Scientists have announced a major breakthrough in their understanding of how the fungus Aspergillus terreus - the cause of serious illness in humans - can move around the body, rather than remaining in the lungs as with similar fungal infections.
The study, led by researchers at The University of Nottingham and published in the academic journal Cell Chemical Biology, has discovered that infections from A.terreus could hitch a ride on immune cells in order to transport themselves and cause systemic infection.