Culture
Amsterdam, NL, February 27, 2019 - A pioneering clinical trials program that delivered an experimental treatment directly to the brain offers hope that it may be possible to restore the cells damaged in Parkinson's disease. The study investigated whether boosting the levels of a naturally-occurring growth factor, Glial Cell Line Derived Neurotrophic Factor (GDNF), can regenerate dying dopamine brain cells in patients with Parkinson's and reverse their condition, something no existing treatment can do.
Teen-agers and young adults who intentionally hurt themselves engage in such behavior based, in part, on how they experience pain and their emotional distress, according to a Rutgers study.
The study, which examines physical pain in non-suicidal self-injuries, appeared online ahead of in print in the March 2019 issue of the journal Clinical Psychological Science.
The popular view that music enhances creativity has been challenged by researchers who say it has the opposite effect.
Psychologists from the University of Central Lancashire, University of Gävle in Sweden and Lancaster University investigated the impact of background music on performance by presenting people with verbal insight problems that are believed to tap creativity.
They found that background music "significantly impaired" people's ability to complete tasks testing verbal creativity - but there was no effect for background library noise.
Aerial migration is the fastest, yet most energetically demanding way of seasonal movements between habitats. A new study led by scientists at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) investigated the energy requirements and travel speeds of migrating Nathusius' bats (Pipistrellus nathusii).
A team of biologists has uncovered a mechanism that determines faithful inheritance of short chromosomes during the reproductive process. The discovery, reported in the journal Nature Communications, elucidates a key aspect of inheritance--deviation from which can lead to infertility, miscarriages, or birth defects such as Down syndrome.
The research centers on how short chromosomes can secure a genetic exchange. Genetic exchanges are critical for chromosome inheritance, but are in limited supply.
The pros and cons of policing methods have been heavily debated for decades in the United States.
Now, a Florida State University-led team of researchers has created a model to measure the differences between two distinct approaches to policing -- the warrior approach and the guardian approach.
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.