Culture
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- While lifestyle choices and genetics go a long way toward predicting longevity, a new study shows that certain community characteristics also play important roles. American communities with more fast food restaurants, a larger share of extraction industry-based jobs, or higher population density have shorter life expectancies, according to researchers from Penn State, West Virginia, and Michigan State Universities. Their findings can help communities identify and implement changes that may promote longer lifespans among their residents.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The virus that causes barley yellow dwarf, the most widespread disease of cereal crops, manipulates its host plant and insect vector to promote its own survival, according to an international team of researchers. The group found that the virus raises the temperature of its host plants along with the heat-tolerance of its aphid vectors to create regions on the plants where aphids can feed free from competing insects. The findings could have implications for crop health as the global climate warms.
EAST LANSING, Mich. - The belief that "real men" must be strong, tough and independent may be a detriment to their social needs later in life. A study co-authored by a Michigan State University sociologist found that men who endorse hegemonic ideals of masculinity -- or "toxic masculinity" -- can become socially isolated as they age, impacting their health, well-being and overall happiness.
ANN ARBOR--A hypothetical particle called the axion could solve one of physics' great mysteries: the excess of matter over antimatter, or why we're here at all.
According to the Standard Model of particle physics, when our universe was born, the meeting of matter and antimatter should have annihilated each other. That means that nothing--no Earth, no sun, no galaxies, no humans--would exist. But we do.
Washington, DC -Vaccines have reduced the global burden of disease by preventing an estimated 2 to 3 million deaths worldwide each year. In India, the reduction in annual under-five deaths, from 3.4 to 1.2 million between 1990 and 2015, was largely due to expansions in coverage of routine childhood vaccination. Vaccines have been linked to increased economic productivity as well as improved cognition, growth, and schooling among children.
The finding was by chance, when the scientists were working on the results from the first light of one of the four telescopes of the project, in Chile. Shortly after the building of the first SECULOOS telescopes, and during the test observations, the team pointed at a well kown brown dwarf 2MASSW J1510478-281817, since renamed 2M1510, in the constellation of Libra. The observations of SPECULOOS picked up an unusual signal which made the researchers suggest that 2M1510 could be two brown dwarfs instead of one, and in orbit around each other.
Caregivers in low-income settings will be able to respond to the challenges of bringing up children with disabilities, thanks to a new model created by the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI).
Caregivers experience multiple deprivations, including inadequate resources, lack of support, negative responses from others in the community, and poverty. Not surprisingly, many caregivers experience fatigue, distress and isolation.
University of Melbourne researchers have identified and implemented the key interventions and tools that countries can - and should - use to improve the quality and availability of critical birth and death data and ultimately, improve health outcomes.
Published in BMC Medicine, it is the first Civil Registration and Vital Statistics collection to report on experience in implementing technical interventions over the first four years of the Bloomberg Data for Health Initiative.
Scientists at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) Munich and Denali Therapeutics (South San Francisco, CA, USA) have developed an approach to stimulate immune cells of the brain in such a way that they might possibly provide better protection against Alzheimer's disease. Their report has been published in the journal "EMBO Molecular Medicine". These findings could ultimately enable development of novel therapies to treat Alzheimer's disease.
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- For plants, sunlight can be a double-edged sword. They need it to drive photosynthesis, the process that allows them to store solar energy as sugar molecules, but too much sun can dehydrate and damage their leaves.
A primary strategy that plants use to protect themselves from this kind of photodamage is to dissipate the extra light as heat. However, there has been much debate over the past several decades over how plants actually achieve this.
Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have shown that the Atox1 protein, found in breast cancer cells, participates in the process by which cancer cells metastasise. The protein could therefore be a potential biomarker for assessing the aggressiveness of the disease, as well as a possible target for new drugs. The research was recently published in the journal PNAS.
LOS ANGELES - Keck Medicine of USC urologists are launching a clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness of spinal cord stimulation in patients with an overactive bladder due to neurological conditions, such as a spinal cord injury or stroke, and idiopathic (unknown) causes.
Researchers will use a technique known as Transcutaneous Electrical Spinal Cord Neuromodulation (TESCoN), a noninvasive therapy that delivers low-intensity electric impulses to the spinal cord.
BEER-SHEVA, ISRAEL...March 10, 2020 - Biomass fuels derived from various grasses could significantly mitigate global warming by reducing carbon, according to a long-term field study by researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and Michigan State University (MSU).
In a new paper published in Environmental Science and Technology, the researchers examined a number of different cellulosic biofuel crops to test their potential as a petroleum alternative in ethanol fuel and electric light-duty vehicles which includes passenger cars and small trucks.
For more than a decade, two-dimensional nanomaterials, such as graphene, have been touted as the key to making better microchips, batteries, antennas and many other devices. But a significant challenge of using these atom-thin building materials for the technology of the future is ensuring that they can be produced in bulk quantities without losing their quality. For one of the most promising new types of 2D nanomaterials, MXenes, that's no longer a problem.
Published today, during World Glaucoma Week 2020, a new study demonstrates how commercially available head mounted displays (HMD) can be used to simulate the day-to-day challenges faced by people with glaucoma.
Glaucoma is an umbrella term for a group of degenerative eye diseases that affect the optic nerve at the back of the eye. It is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide, and is estimated to represent 11% of cases of serious sight impairment in the UK1.