Brain
Strong painkillers are very important in the management of patients with cancer and heart attack or requiring surgery. They extert their effect by binding to so-called opioid receptors in the body.
These painkillers have excellent efficacy, but also severe side effects. On the one hand, there is the danger of dependency, on the other hand, patients may become tolerant - i.e. the effectiveness of the drugs decreases with repeated use. This means that the dose must be increased over time to achieve the same effect.
Basic research on opioid receptors
What is interaction and when does it occur? Intuition suggests that the necessary condition for the interaction of independently created particles is their direct touch or contact through physical force carriers. In quantum mechanics, the result of the interaction is entanglement--the appearance of non-classical correlations in the system. It seems that quantum theory allows entanglement of independent particles without any contact. The fundamental identity of particles of the same kind is responsible for this phenomenon.
The habenula is a small region at the centre of the brain, but is crucial for people's lives. It is made up of groups of nerve cells that control the "neurotransmitters" of the brain, that is to say substances like dopamine, noradrenaline and serotonin. The release of these substances is fundamental to respond to stimuli, for example to perceive pain or fear and to regulate mood-related behaviours, and is implicated in conditions like schizophrenia, autism and depression.
Young children go on to achieve more academic success when their verbal skills are enhanced, a new study suggests.
The study, by researchers at the University of York, looked at why children from wealthier and well-educated family backgrounds tend to do better at school.
The researchers found that children from families of higher socioeconomic status had better language abilities at nursery school age and that these verbal skills boosted their later academic performance throughout school.
Old human cells return to a more youthful and vigorous state after being induced to briefly express a panel of proteins involved in embryonic development, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
The researchers also found that elderly mice regained youthful strength after their existing muscle stem cells were subjected to the rejuvenating protein treatment and transplanted back into their bodies.
Sometimes, fixing one problem can create another.
Concrete production contributes 8 percent of global greenhouse gases, and demand continues to rise as populations and incomes grow. Yet some commonly discussed strategies to reduce the sector's global GHG emissions could, under some scenarios, increase local air pollution and related health damages, according to a study from the University of California, Davis.
For years, core-shell structured particles have been recognized as well-designed catalysts that can facilitate reaction activity owing to their distinct synergism at the interface.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - A multistate study of Medicaid enrollees led by researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center found that suicide risk was highest among youth with epilepsy, depression, schizophrenia, substance use and bipolar disorder. In addition, the odds of suicide decreased among those who had more mental health visits within the 30 days before the date of suicide.
Oak Brook, IL - April's edition of SLAS Discovery features the cover article, "Maximizing the Value of Cancer Drug Screening in Multicellular Tumor Spheroid Cultures: A Case Study in Five Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cell Lines." Stanton J. Kochanek, Ph.D., David A. Close, Ph.D., Daniel P. Camarco, Ph.D., and Paul A. Johnston, Ph.D., (University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA) disseminate their recent study that shows how incorporating morphology and dead cell readouts into cancer drug screening helps improve the drug selection rate.
TROY, N.Y. -- Could there be a new kind of light in the universe? Since the late 19th century, scientists have understood that, when heated, all materials emit light in a predictable spectrum of wavelengths. Research published today in Nature Scientific Reports presents a material that emits light when heated that appears to exceed the limits set by that natural law.
Nashville, Tennessee - New research finds that as education policy has shifted, post-No Child Left Behind and as a result of Race to the Top (RTTT), the rollout of statewide teacher evaluation systems have proven to phase out lower performing teachers and retain more effective teachers for longer periods of time - particularly in urban districts and low-performing schools.
The photoelectric effect, whereby photons impinging on matter cause the emission of electrons, is one of the quintessential effects of quantum mechanics. Einstein famously explained the key mechanism underlying the phenomenon in 1905, earning him the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics. He built on a concept introduced merely five years earlier by Max Planck: electromagnetic energy is absorbed and emitted only in discrete packets --- that is, in quanta. The quantum concept revolutionised physics.
The current pace of climate change exceeds historical events by 1-2 orders of magnitude, which will make it hard for organisms and ecosystems to adapt. For a long time, it has been assumed that adaptation was only possible by changes in the genetic makeup - the DNA base sequence. Recently, another information level of the DNA, namely epigenetics, has come into focus.
Water balloons may seem like a trivial matter. A toy for mischievous kids in summer. But for scientists, the behavior of balls of liquid wrapped in a thin elastic membrane is critical to everything from understanding blood cells to fighting fires.
PHILADELPHIA - As adults age, they accumulate a number of medications for chronic conditions. Older patients take anywhere between 5-15 medications per year, which increases the risk that some of the drugs will counteract each other. Older patients also make up the majority of cancer patients, and the majority of cancer deaths. What happens when cancer therapy is added onto an already full plate of medications?