Culture
Vienna, 25 June 2019: Ovarian reserve, a term widely adopted to reflect the number of resting follicles in the ovary and thus a marker of potential female fertility, has been found in a large-scale study to be adversely affected by high levels of air pollution.
The thymus is the powerhouse producing the immune system's T cells, which combat infection in our body. Yet this vital organ is one of the first to diminish in function as we age, resulting in a gradual loss of T cell production and eventually increased susceptibility to infections and cancer in the elderly.
People exposed to chemical warfare agents (CWAs) often incur chronic damage to their lungs, skin and eyes, for example. They also frequently succumb to depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. This is shown by research on survivors from the 1988 gas attacks against Kurdish Halabja in Iraq.
"The findings show that exposure to chemical warfare agents, especially sulfur mustard, results in lifelong physical and mental ill-health," says Faraidoun Moradi, a doctoral student of occupational and environmental medicine at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
BELLEVUE, WA--Researchers studying the behavior and neuroscience of octopuses have long suspected that the animals' arms may have minds of their own.
A new model being presented here is the first attempt at a comprehensive representation of information flow between the octopus's suckers, arms and brain, based on previous research in octopus neuroscience and behavior, and new video observations conducted in the lab.
One of the great attractions of the island of Santorini, in Greece, lies in its spectacular volcanic landscape, which also contains places similar to those of Mars. A team of European and U.S. scientists has discovered it after analysing basaltic rocks collected in one of its coves.
The Greek island of Santorini is now one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Mediterranean, but 3,600 years ago it suffered one of the largest volcanic eruptions recorded in history. Among the material that has been exposed, scientists have now found rocks similar to those of Mars.
Researchers from the University of Seville, the Seville Biomedicine Institute and Lund University (Sweden) have been able to describe how the body responds to a component present in the brain in Alzheimer's patients. This discovery opens new pharmacological possibilities for the control of brain inflammation and its harmful effects.
Ion channels are pores in the membrane of cells or cell organelles. They allow positively or negatively charged particles, so-called ions, to be transported across the membrane. Biochemists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have now succeeded in imaging an important regulatory region of the human TRPML2 calcium ion channel at high resolution, an area of the channel shaped like a large ring on one side of the membrane. This ring acts like a doorman, deciding whether ions can move through the channel.
The identification of specific neural signatures can help develop specific biomarkers and personalized treatments for Huntington's disease.
Research results underscore the value of multimodal approaches in the characterization of heterogeneous patterns of neurodegeneration
Kefir is a fermented dairy product that is gradually becoming more and more common to see on the shelves of Spanish shops and supermarkets. Since it is a milk-based product, made from lactic acid and alcoholic fermentation, it is assumed to have several health-enhancing functions resulting from its protein and peptide content with biological activity (molecules made up of amino acids, smaller than proteins, that are beneficial for one's health).
Researchers have shown for the first time that these insects use different directional sensors to achieve the highest possible navigational precision in different conditions.
The discovery of the dung beetles' wind compass and how it complements the sun compass was made by an international research team comprising biologists from Sweden and the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University) in South Africa.
Plants use light energy from the sun for photosynthesis to turn carbon dioxide (CO2) into biomass. Animals can't do that. Therefore, some of them have teamed up with bacteria that carry out a process called chemosynthesis. It works almost like photosynthesis, only that it uses chemical energy instead of light energy. Many animals rely on chemosynthetic bacteria to supply them with food. The symbionts turn CO2 into biomass and are subsequently digested by their host. Kentron, a bacterium nourishing the ciliate Kentrophoros, was thought to be 'just another' chemosynthetic symbiont.
Researchers have shown for the first time that an animal uses different directional sensors to achieve the highest possible navigational precision in different conditions. When the sun is high, dung beetles navigate using the wind.
The discovery of the dung beetles' wind compass and how it complements the sun compass was made by an international research team comprising biologists from Sweden and South Africa.
Researchers from Lund University, together with the Roche pharmaceutical company, have used a method to develop a new blood marker capable of detecting whether or not a person has Alzheimer's disease. If the method is approved for clinical use, the researchers hope eventually to see it used as a diagnostic tool in primary healthcare. This autumn, they will start a trial in primary healthcare to test the technique.
Sclerostin is a protein produced by osteocytes in the bone that inhibits bone formation. A recent analysis of results from a clinical trial reveals the beneficial effects of romosozumab, an antibody therapy that targets sclerostin, on bone tissue in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. The findings are published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.
The findings of a research expedition to coastal Greenland which examined, for the first time, how melting ice is affecting supplies of nutrients to the oceans has been published in the journal Progress in Oceanography.
The European Research Council-funded expedition on board the RSS Discovery took place during the summer of 2017. It was led by Dr Kate Hendry a geochemist from the University of Bristol's School of Earth Sciences.