Culture
Chestnut Hill, Mass. (2/26/2019) -- New research that innovatively integrates empirical and theoretical work from economics and psychology shows how rising economic inequality makes upward mobility feel less possible among disadvantaged youth, and produces negative consequences for their motivation and behavior, a finding that should influence public policy.
MADISON -- Scientists in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Biochemistry are watching evolution happen in real time.
In a recent study published online in the Journal of Bacteriology, biochemistry professor Michael Cox and his team describe blasting E. coli bacteria with ionizing radiation once a week, causing the bacteria to become radiation resistant. In doing so, they have uncovered genetic mutations and mechanisms underlying this resistance.
Maasai farmers do not kill lions for retribution whenever they lose sheep or cattle, new research shows.
It is widely believed that Maasai farmers kill lions after losing livestock - even if lions are not involved - but the study shows this is not the case.
Instead, researchers from the University of Exeter and the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi found that lion killing only increases when lions are thought to have killed livestock.
If livestock are lost to other predators, theft, drought or disease, lion killing does not increase.
When it comes to the immune system, we usually think about lymphocytes like B and T cells or macrophages going on constant seek-and-destroy missions against invading pathogens like bacteria and viruses. But our immune system actually includes a lesser-known and less-studied first line of defense referred to as "innate immunity".
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The federal government considers many factors when dividing money nationwide to prevent structure fires. The key driver, however, is economic losses -- for example, the greater the cost of fire within a state, the more aid that state is likely to receive.
A new model developed by University at Buffalo engineers emphasizes an additional factor: the losses associated with human fatalities and injuries. That tweak throws the current system off-track, suggesting that some states receive an outsized share of fire protection money, while others are shortchanged.
Enzymes have clearly defined active sites to allow the substrate molecule to fit intricately. This is often coupled with an enzymatic conformational change prior to the occurrence of the catalysis reaction. For Ago, the catalysis step requires insertion of a "glutamate finger" to form the catalytic plugged-in conformation, which can be stabilized through hydrogen-bonding networks provided by two symmetric positively-charged residues.
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have discovered a new and rare skeletal disease. In a study published in the journal Nature Medicine they describe the molecular mechanism of the disease, in which small RNA molecules play a role that has never before been observed in a congenital human disease. The results are important for affected patients but can also help scientists to understand other rare diagnoses.
The newly identified skeletal disease was first observed in a parent and a child from a Swedish family.
Researchers at William & Mary's Virginia Institute of Marine Science have issued the first annual update of their sea level "report cards," marking 50 years of water-level observations from 1969 through 2018.
ATHENS, Ohio (Feb. 25, 2019) - The damage done to America's health by the opioid epidemic is well-recognized and enormous, with drug overdose death rates helping to drive down U.S. life expectancy in recent years. Yet as the problem has worsened, American hospitals collectively have seen a loss of programs dealing with substance abuse.
SAN FRANCISCO, C.A. - Until now it has been believed that in order for a tick to trigger an allergic immune response to alpha-gal in humans, the tick would need to have recently fed on the alpha-gal-rich blood of a mammal. New research from the UNC School of Medicine presented at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) annual conference in San Francisco shows that may not be so.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN- February 22, 2019 - Nearly 3 million Americans are living with atrial fibrillation (AFib), which is described as quivering or irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia). With increasing lifespan and increasing prevalence of risk factors such as obesity, experts believe the number of people living with AFib will increase at an exponential rate in the next decade. This has important public implications since AFib is associated with a higher risk of stroke, heart failure, cognitive decline and dementia, and death.
Whether healthy or diseased, human cells exhibit behaviors and processes that are largely dictated by growth factor molecules, which bind to receptors on the cells. For example, growth factors tell the cells to divide, move, and when to die--a process known as apoptosis.
Neighbourhood income and education level is associated with risk of disability progression in patients with multiple sclerosis, suggests new research from the University of British Columbia.
UBC researchers, along with colleagues in Wales, compared population health data across several measures of socioeconomic status, and found that lower neighbourhood-level income and educational attainment was associated with an increased likelihood of reaching key physical disability milestones, such as difficulties with walking.
Fact: About 66 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous period, 75 percent of plant and animal species went extinct, including the dinosaurs (except those that evolved into birds).
Fact: About 66 million years ago, an enormous asteroid or comet hit the Earth near what is now Chicxulub, Mexico, throwing rock, dust and water vapor into the atmosphere.
SAN FRANCISCO - Promising new therapies for food allergies are on the horizon, including an experimental immunotherapy awaiting federal approval that enables people who are very allergic to eat peanut protein without suffering serious side effects.
Good news, right?
As it turns out, the idea of a child who is highly allergic to a specific food eating that same food item makes kids with lifelong food allergies and their parents a bit queasy.