Culture
Rearing its head in infancy, Christianson Syndrome is a rare disorder whose symptoms include intellectual disability, seizures and difficulty standing or walking. Although it is becoming increasingly diagnosed, with little being known about the neural mechanism behind the disease, therapeutic options for patients remain limited.
Treatment for individuals who experience psychosis, such as hallucinations and delusions as a result of a psychiatric illness, can be targeted to a specific structural mutation, according to a study published by researchers from McLean Hospital and other institutions in the journal Biological Psychiatry.
In the near future, we will be able to mass-produce meat directly from animal cells.
This cultured meat could change the world - or it could falter like GM 'frankenfoods'.
Writing in Frontiers in Nutrition, researchers warn that the most common media framing of cultured meat - as a 'high-tech' innovation - may be the least effective in garnering consumer acceptance.
The revolution will be televised
Antibodies are the biomolecules our immune systems deploy to find, tag and destroy invading pathogens. They work by binding to specific targets, called epitopes, on the surfaces of antigens - like locks to keys.
New research published in Respirology suggests that some respiratory symptoms may predict an earlier death in older adults. Also, such predictions differ by smoking status.
In the study of 2087 older Australians with 22 years of follow-up, shortness of breath predicted a shorter life expectancy irrespective of smoking status. Cough in former smokers and wheeze in current smokers predicted shorter life expectancy.
In a study of 375 adults who have successfully maintained weight loss and who engage in moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity, most reported consistency in the time of day that they exercised, with early morning being the most common time.
Depression is common in people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but the actual causes of depression in this group are unknown. In a Neurogastroenterology & Motility study, depression was linked with more severe IBD symptoms, and a less positive cognitive bias in emotional recognition (a reduced ability to recognize basic emotions in others) was involved in this association.
In a Cancer Medicine study of 298,434 patients diagnosed with breast cancer between 2004 and 2012, married patients had a better prognosis than patients who were single, who in turn had a better prognosis than those who were divorced, separated, or widowed.
When considering race and tumor characteristics, the better prognosis of single patients was only observed in white patients and in patients with tumors expressing estrogen receptors and progesterone receptors.
By the end of fourth quarter 2018, total household debt in the United States reached a new high of $13.54 trillion. A new Economic Inquiry study found that nonprofit credit counseling--which reaches millions of consumers a year and provides financial education, individualized financial counseling, and debt restructuring services--can be an effective strategy for addressing consumer debt issues.
The Tibet ASgamma experiment, a China-Japan joint research project, has discovered the highest energy cosmic gamma rays ever observed from an astrophysical source - in this case, the "Crab Nebula." The experiment detected gamma rays ranging from > 100 Teraelectron volts (TeV) (see Fig.1) to an estimated 450 TeV. Previously, the highest gamma-ray energy ever observed was 75 TeV by the HEGRA Cherenkov telescope.
New evidence suggests that high-energy particles from space known as galactic cosmic rays affect the Earth's climate by increasing cloud cover, causing an "umbrella effect".
Do differences in performance have an impact on the appetite for risk-taking in decision-makers? Economists at the University of Göttingen have addressed this question. The result of their study is that people's willingness to take risks increases as soon as they get a lower return than other people with whom they compare themselves. At the same time, decision-makers take lower risks if they get a higher return than their peers. The study was published in the journal Games and Economic Behavior.
Prenatal exposure to low levels of methylmercury does not affect child cognition, but certain gene variants may increase susceptibility. These are the main conclusions of a study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), an institution supported by "la Caixa", in collaboration with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the University of Bristol.
A study from the University of Exeter has found that mycoprotein, the protein-rich food source that is unique to Quorn products, stimulates post-exercise muscle building to a greater extent than milk protein.
The study evaluated the digestion of protein, which allows amino acids (the building blocks of protein) to increase in the bloodstream and then become available for muscle protein building in 20 healthy, trained young men at rest and following a bout of strenuous resistance exercise.
In Belgium, there are 70,000 new adult cases of cancer every year, compared to 350 in children. Owing to lack of interest from pharmaceutical groups, treatments for paediatric cancers are developing much less rapidly than those for adults. The chemotherapy recommended for most childhood cancers is just as toxic as it was 20 years ago. In addition, it has significant consequences for the child: infertility, deafness, and premature ageing. After chemotherapy sessions, the child suffers a loss of stem cells, which are crucial to the healing and regeneration of tissues.