Brain
Today, ball games are one of the most popular leisure activities in the world, an important form of mass entertainment and big business. But who invented balls, where and when? The oldest balls that are currently known about were made in Egypt about 4,500 years ago using linen. Central Americans have been playing ball games for at least 3,700 years, as evidenced through monumental ball courts made of stone and depictions of ball players. Their oldest balls were made of rubber.
Floating in fluid deep in the brain are small, little understood fronds of tissue. Two new studies reveal that these miniature organs are a hotbed of immune system activity. This activity may protect the developing brain from infections and other insults -- but may also contribute to neurodevelopmental disorders like autism.
University of Adelaide scientists have shown how droughts are threatening the health of wetlands globally.
Published in the journal Earth-Science Reviews, the scientists highlight the many physical and chemical changes occurring during droughts that lead to severe, and sometimes irreversible, drying of wetland soils.
One in 12 partners experience post-traumatic stress after miscarriage, suggests a new study.
The research, led by Imperial College London, surveyed over 100 couples who had experienced early stage pregnancy loss (miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy before 12 weeks).
The study, the first ever to investigate post-traumatic stress (PTS) in partners following miscarriage, follows previous research from the same team that found around one in five women experience long-term PTS following early pregnancy loss.
Peter Meylakhs, from HSE University - St. Petersburg, together with colleagues from Georgia State University (USA) and Tarbiat Modares University (Tehran), have developed the HIV-PWID Policy Index (HPPI)--an international policy index for HIV prevention among people who inject drugs. This is the first major tool for assessing and comparing the extent to which HIV/AIDS prevention policies among PWID have been developed in 105 countries.
Stem cells are cell factories that constantly divide themselves to create new cells. Implanting stem cells in damaged organs can regenerate new tissues. Cell sheet engineering, which allows stem cells to be transplanted into damaged areas in the form of sheets made up of only cells, completely eliminates immune rejection caused by external substances and encourages tissue regeneration. A research team led by POSTECH recently succeeded in drastically reducing the harvest period of such stem cell sheets.
Scientists have found that as the world undergoes profound environmental change, identifying and protecting 'novel' communities of species can help prevent extinctions within vulnerable ecosystems.
The cover for issue 40 of Oncotarget features Figure 5, "miR-210 silences the proapoptosis member CASP8AP2," by Kling, et al. which reported that hypoxic Ewing's sarcoma cells release exosomes that promote sphere formation, a stem-like phenotype, in EWS cells by enhancing survival.
New Rochelle, NY --Ableist language is often used by autism researchers, which assumes that autistic people are "broken" or inferior to non-autistic people. Strategies for avoiding ableist language are provided in Autism and Adulthood. Click here to read the full article.
"We provide practical guidance to help researchers make language choices that reduce stigmatization, misunderstanding, and exclusion of autistic people," state Kristen Bottema-Beutel, PhD, Boston College, and coauthors.
A new study by University of California researchers shows the promise of high-throughput DNA-sequencing technologies to improve prenatal diagnosis and pregnancy outcomes for women who have experienced an abnormal prenatal ultrasound.
In the UCSF-led study, scientists used a technique called exome sequencing to identify genetic diseases as the underlying cause in 37 of 127 cases of nonimmune hydrops fetalis (NIHF), a life-threatening condition in which the fetus is overloaded with fluid. The study was published online Oct. 7, 2020, in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
A scientist from RUDN University suggested a new physical model to describe the optical properties of dense plasma. The model was tested on available experimental data and does not require complex calculations. The work was published in the Annals of Physics journal.
The opioid crisis, in which addiction and harm are related to pain-relieving opioid drugs, has been well documented. It has been concentrated in the USA but is now affecting most Western nations and increasingly, developing countries also. In some cases, this addiction and subsequent harm begins when the patient is given these drugs for pain relief after surgery.
A failure by governments to deliver on commitments under a global nature conservation treaty, the Convention on Biological Diversity, could have devastating effects.
The warning comes after a consortium of scientists, led by Dr Sean Maxwell and Professor James Watson from The University of Queensland, reviewed national area-based conservation efforts, including protected areas.
In 2018, 701 cases of severe invasive listeriosis were communicated to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), which translates into 0.8 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. Most listeriosis illnesses reported are severe and are associated with blood poisoning, meningitis or miscarriages, for example. In 2018, the disease was fatal in 5% of cases. Elderly people, people with weakened immune defences, pregnant women and their new-born babies are particularly vulnerable. Listeria can be found in a large variety of foods of plant and animal origin.
A National Institutes of Health study in mice suggests that parents have an innate capacity to respond to an infant's cries for help and this capacity may serve as a foundation from which a parent learns to adjust to an infant's changing needs. The study was conducted by Robert C. Froemke, Ph.D., of New York University School of Medicine, and colleagues. It appears in Nature.