Culture
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Experts recommend starting conversations about inappropriate touching during the preschool years, but less than half of parents of preschoolers in a national poll say they've begun that discussion.
Meanwhile, one in four parents of elementary school-age children say they have not yet begun talking about inappropriate touching, according to the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health at the University of Michigan.
The report is based on responses from 1,106 parents who had at least one child age 2-9 years.
A unique rock carving found in the Teymareh rock art site (Khomein county) in Central Iran with six limbs has been described as part man, part mantis. Rock carvings, or petroglyphs, of invertebrate animals are rare, so entomologists teamed up with archaeologists to try and identify the motif. They compared the carving with others around the world and with the local six-legged creatures which its prehistoric artists could have encountered.
Tokyo, Japan - Scientists from Tokyo Metropolitan University have discovered that Drosophila flies lose long-term memory (LTM) of a traumatic event when kept in the dark, the first confirmation of environmental light playing a role in LTM maintenance. The team also identified the specific molecular mechanism responsible for this effect. LTMs are notoriously difficult to erase; this work may lead to novel treatments for sufferers of trauma, perhaps even the erasure of life-altering traumatic memories.
Individuals with Down syndrome are at a much greater risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, with inflammation of the brain starting early in life and the risk of Alzheimer's reaching nearly 80% by the age of 60.
The root cause of Alzheimer's disease is unknown. However, its frequency in patients with Down syndrome suggests that targeting inflammation in preclinical models of that syndrome could be an attractive strategy for designing therapies to promote healthier aging.
Highlight
Study results call into question the utility of testing blood pressure load--the proportion of elevated blood pressure readings detected over 24 hours--for diagnosing hypertension in children.
Washington, DC -- Results from a new study provide insights on evaluating high blood pressure in children. The findings appear in an upcoming issue of CJASN.
Microbiologists have long adopted the language of human settlement to describe how bacteria live and grow: They "invade" and "colonize." Relations dwelling in close proximity are "colonies."
Prehistoric humans left Africa for the first time about 2 million years ago. The research community has been aware of this for some time. Now, novel research reveals that hyenas apparently did the same thing.
'Our new study shows that prehistoric humans and hyenas left Africa at approximately the same time. And like humans, spotted hyenas have had extensive and complex migration between continents. We can observe repeated gene flow events between Africa and Eurasia', says Michael Westbury, corresponding author and postdoc at GLOBE Institute at the University of Copenhagen.
Among the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease are the Alzheimer fibrils: deposits of the protein tau, which accumulate in nerve cells in the form of fibres and disrupt communication between nerve cells. But how does this fibre formation take place? Why do such harmful deposits develop from the originally useful protein tau, which normally stabilizes cells? This question was addressed by a team of researchers from the University of Konstanz and Utrecht University (Netherlands), led by Konstanz chemist Professor Malte Drescher.
Research published today in Science Advances sheds new light on the molecular machinery that enables the shape, growth and movement of neurons. It is the first time scientists have revealed how the brain shuttles genetic code within its cells, a process believed to be crucial for the formation and storage of long-term memories.
Adaptive immunity is a powerful defense mechanism in vertebrates. A finely tuned interplay of different cell types provides a pathogen-specific immune response to eliminate for example bacteria and viruses. Max Planck researchers now identify the mechanistic basis of antigen receptor gene assembly that more than 500 million years ago independently evolved in one of the two sister branches of vertebrates.
URBANA, Ill. - Edamame may be a niche crop in the United States, but growers and processors still need the best possible information to make sound management decisions. That's why USDA Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) and University of Illinois researchers are making new plant density recommendations for machine-harvested edamame, at less than half the rate suggested by seed companies.
Erythropoietin, or Epo for short, is a notorious doping agent. It promotes the formation of red blood cells, leading thereby to enhanced physical performance - at least, that is what we have believed until now. However, as a growth factor, it also protects and regenerates nerve cells in the brain. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine in Göttingen have now revealed how Epo achieves this effect. They have discovered that cognitive challenges trigger a slight oxygen deficit (termed 'functional hypoxia' by the researchers) in the brain's nerve cells.
ITHACA, NY, March 13, 2020 -- Some 500 million years ago - when our continents were likely connected in a single land mass and most life existed underwater - hornworts were one of the first groups of plants to colonize land. But biologists have never understood much about the genetics of these ancient plants, which have very unique biology.
Infectious disease researchers at The University of Texas at Austin studying the novel coronavirus were able to identify how quickly the virus can spread, a factor that may help public health officials in their efforts at containment. They found that time between cases in a chain of transmission is less than a week and that more than 10% of patients are infected by somebody who has the virus but does not yet have symptoms.
Current guidance on coronavirus "largely ignores" the implications for public health and clinical responses in light of those most at risk, according to an international group of global health experts.