Culture
Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy - NMR spectroscopy for short - is one of the most important methods of physicochemical analysis. It can be used to precisely determine molecular structures and dynamics. The importance of this method is also evidenced by the recognition of ETH Zurich's two latest Nobel laureates, Richard Ernst and Kurt Wüthrich, for their contributions to refining the method.
The study, carried out by experts from the University of Nottingham and funded by the NIHR School for Primary Care Research, found that there was nearly a 50% increased risk of dementia among patients aged 55 and over who had used strong anticholinergic medication daily for three years or more.
Anticholinergic drugs help to contract and relax muscles. They work by blocking acetylcholine, a chemical that transmits messages in the nervous system.
Serotonin is a multipurpose molecule found throughout the brain, playing a role in memory, cognition, and feelings of happiness and other emotions. In particular, researchers have long debated serotonin's role in sleep: Does serotonin promote sleep, or its opposite, wakefulness?
Now, Caltech scientists have found that serotonin is necessary for sleep in zebrafish and mouse models.
USC researchers have discovered a secret sauce in the brain's vascular system that preserves the neurons needed to keep dementia and other diseases at bay.
The finding, in a mouse model of the human brain, focuses on specific cells called pericytes and reveals that they play a previously unknown role in brain health. Pericytes secrete a substance that keeps neurons alive, even in the presence of leaky blood vessels that foul brain matter and result in cognitive decline.
Bottom Line: Food insecurity is when you worry that your food will run out before you have enough money to buy more. This study used nationally representative data to examine the association between food insecurity and migraine in young U.S. adults because the economic and education transition of young adulthood may increase risk for food insecurity. The study included almost 14,800 young people (ages 24 to 32). Overall, 11% of young adults were food insecure, and migraine was more common among young adults who were food insecure.
Bottom Line: Having a family member who was previously dispensed prescription opioids was associated with higher odds of overdose for individuals who themselves didn't have an opioid prescription in this analysis of insurance company data. The study included 2,303 people with the earliest date of an opioid overdose in a family and 9,212 others in the insurance database for comparison. Researchers report the increased risk of opioid overdose for an individual if a family member was prescribed an opioid applied to all age groups and increased with greater quantities of opioids prescribed.
INDIANAPOLIS - In a commentary published in JAMA Internal Medicine, three Regenstrief Institute research scientists write that while they and other researchers have identified a strong and consistent link between anticholinergic drugs and cognitive impairment from observational studies, randomized clinical trials represent the only rigorous method to definitively establish a causal relationship between these frequently used drugs and various dementias.
Patients with type 1 diabetes have to regularly inject themselves with insulin, a hormone that helps their cells absorb glucose from the bloodstream. Another hormone called glucagon, which has the opposite effect, is given to diabetic patients to revive them if they become unconscious due to severe hypoglycemia.
Boston, MA -- Every three minutes, a food-related allergic reaction sends someone to the emergency room in the U.S. Currently, the only way to prevent a reaction is for people with food allergies to completely avoid the food to which they are allergic. Researchers are actively seeking new treatments to prevent or reverse food allergies in patients. Recent insights about the microbiome -- the complex ecosystem of microorganisms that live in the gut and other body sites -- have suggested that an altered gut microbiome may play a pivotal role in the development of food allergies.
Berkeley -- The rise of anti-immigration rhetoric and policies in the United States following the 2016 presidential election may be taking its toll on the health of California's Latinx youth, including those who are U.S. citizens, suggests a new study led by University of California, Berkeley, researchers.
Scientists at Harvard University, collaborating with researchers at Bio-Rad Laboratories, have developed a new platform for rapid single-cell sequencing. The approach combines microfluidics and novel software to scale up single-cell ATAC-seq, which identifies parts of the genome that are open and accessible to regulatory proteins.
Published in Nature Biotechnology, the innovation signals a major acceleration in single-cell genomics research.
What is single-cell sequencing?
Nestled between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes mountains, Peru's coastal region relies on surface water from the Andes for drinking water, industry, and animal and crop farming.
The region, which includes Peru's capital city Lima, is often overwhelmed with rain in the wet season - but by the time the dry season comes, water is scarce.
These factors, together with Lima's rapidly growing population, mean the city struggles to supply water to its 12 million residents during the dry months of May to October.
HANOVER, N.H. – June 24, 2019 –Using smartphones, fitness bracelets and a custom app, researchers have created a mobile-sensing system that judges employee performance.
The system works by monitoring the physical, emotional and behavioral well-being of workers to classify high and low performers.
The latest supplement to the American Ornithological Society's checklist of North and Middle American birds is being published in The Auk: Ornithological Advances, and it includes several major updates to the organization of the continent's bird species. The official authority on the names and classification of the region's birds, the checklist is consulted by birdwatchers and professional scientists alike and has been published since 1886.
Logging roads are expanding dramatically in the Congo Basin, leading to catastrophic collapses in animal populations living in the world's second-largest rainforest, according to research co-led by a scientist at James Cook University in Australia.
Just as worrying is that the rate of forest destruction caused by new roads in the Congo Basin has risen sharply over time, quadrupling since 2000.