The Sapayoa, a rainforest bird from Central and South America, is an evolutionary enigma--genetic analysis shows that its closest relatives are bird species living across the ocean in Asia and Africa. Now, new research in The Auk: Ornithological Advances demonstrates for the first time that its natural history links it to its evolutionary relatives thousands of miles away.
Body
Since 2006, several published studies have associated the use of some acid suppression medications in hospitalized high-risk babies with infections, necrotizing enterocolitis and increased risk of death. Those medications - histamine-2 receptor antagonists such as ranitidine (Zantac and others), and proton pump inhibitors such as esomeprazole (Nexium and others) - were originally approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in adults and older children.
California is known for its high biological diversity. The state encompasses a wide variety of habitats, from temperate coastal scrub and cool redwood forests to high-elevation conifer forests and grasslands that are home to an equally diverse variety of plants and animals. Biologists have been intensively studying and characterizing the biodiversity of California for centuries.
Researchers at University of Montreal have created a programmable DNA thermometer that is 20,000x smaller than a human hair. This scientific advance reported this week in the journal Nano Letters may significantly aid our understanding of natural and human designed nanotechnologies by enabling to measure temperature at the nanoscale.
The next generation of vaccines may soon see the light of day, because Danish researchers have discovered a completely new and simple method which sets new standards for the development of vaccines.
Sophia Antipolis, 27 April 2016: China is paying the price of adopting a western lifestyle with soaring childhood obesity, shows a 29 year study in nearly 28 000 children and adolescents published today in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.1 Less than 1% of children and adolescents were obese in 1985 compared to 17% of boys and 9% of girls in 2014. The authors speculate that boys may be fatter than girls because of a societal preference for sons.
Writing in the May issue of The Lancet Oncology, leading oncologists from the UK and EU express their support for the UK remaining in Europe. In doing so, they join many other scientists and clinicians [1] who have publically declared their support for remaining in the EU when Britain votes in the referendum on June 23, 2016.
A new Cochrane Review, published in the Cochrane Library today, suggests that yoga may have a beneficial effect on symptoms and quality of life in people with asthma, but effects on lung function and medication use are uncertain.
Asthma is a common chronic disease affecting about 300 million people worldwide. The many typical symptoms of asthma include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness and shortness of breath.
Happiness. It's something we all strive for, but how do we measure it--as a country? A global community?
Researchers at the University of Iowa are turning to social media to answer these questions and more. In a study published in March in the journal PLOS One, UI computer scientists used two years of Twitter data to measure users' life satisfaction, a component of happiness.
The Zika virus was present in Haiti several months before the first Zika cases were identified in Brazil, according to new research by infectious-disease specialists at the University of Florida.
This finding confirms that the Zika virus was present in the Americas prior to March 2015, when the virus was first identified in Brazil, and suggests that the spread of Zika virus in the Americas was likely more complicated than early theories presumed.
The combination of cell and gene therapy is rapidly raising clinical interest, although their combination has been under investigation for several decades. This is mainly due to the availability and feasibility of clinically relevant gene delivery options. This review focuses on cell therapies for heart failure and their use combined with cardiac surgery as well as with gene therapy. The review also provides insight into how financial and authority-based decisions and restrictions influence research in this field.
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. -- April 26, 2016 -- Using the latest in genomic analysis technologies, scientists at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) have tracked the likely origins and dispersal of the fungus that causes Valley Fever, according to a study published today in the journal mBio, the premiere journal for reporting high impact microbiological research.
Honey bee colonies in the United States are in decline, due in part to the ill effects of voracious mites, fungal gut parasites and a wide variety of debilitating viruses. Researchers from the University of Maryland and the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently completed the first comprehensive, multi-year study of honey bee parasites and disease as part of the National Honey Bee Disease Survey. The findings reveal some alarming patterns, but provide at least a few pieces of good news as well.
LA JOLLA--Salk Institute scientists showed how an FDA-approved drug boosts the health of brain cells by limiting their energy use. Like removing unnecessary lighting from a financially strapped household to save on electricity bills, the drug--called rapamycin--prolongs the survival of diseased neurons by forcing them to reduce protein production to conserve cellular energy.
COLUMBIA, Mo. - In 2004, research found that resumes submitted by people with distinctly sounding African-American names were less likely to get callbacks regarding the job. Now, new research from the University of Missouri finds no evidence of employer preferences for applicants from a particular race or gender at the initial stage of the hiring process.