Culture
Salt apparently affects allergic immune reactions. A team working with Prof. Christina Zielinski at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has demonstrated in cell cultures that salt leads to the formation of Th2 cells. These immune cells are active in allergic conditions such as atopic dermatitis. The team also detected elevated salt concentrations in the skin of patients.
Researchers in Japan think they have found an answer to the fundamental biological question of how individual cells know which way to position themselves within a complex, multicellular body. Depending on a cell's purpose in the larger structure, contact or diffuse chemical signals direct it to its final destination.
Cervical cancer could potentially be eliminated as a major public health problem in 149 out of 181 countries by 2100.
In high-income countries including the USA, Finland, the UK, and Canada, cervical cancer is predicted to be eliminated as a public health problem within 25-40 years.
The connection between bird diet and skull shape is surprisingly weak for most species according to a new study led by UCL and the Natural History Museum, rewriting our understanding of how ecosystems influence evolution.
Charles Darwin's 19th century observations of finches on the Galápagos Islands concluded that bird speciation was primarily influenced by ecosystem; the way a bird forages and eats forms its skull shape and drives evolutionary change.
Is evolution predictable? What are the mechanisms that allow different fish to respond to the same environmental challenge in slightly different ways? When the same jaw bones and muscles change to produce the same feeding behaviour, are the morphologies of these fish that evolved independently from one another modified in an identical way? What is the genetic basis for this kind of convergence? These are some of the questions that Dr C.
As many as half of all patients who undergo cardiac surgery may experience delirium, a form of acute confusion that can result in disorientation, impaired memory, delusions, and abrupt changes in mood and behavior, including aggression.
PHILADELPHIA - Patients taking diuretics are often at risk for low potassium levels, which can put patients at an increased risk of death from cardiac arrhythmias or other causes. But researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found that taking prescription potassium supplements can reduce these patients' risk by nearly 10 percent as daily outdoor temperatures increase--a time when patients may be at highest risk due to loss of potassium while sweating. These findings are detailed in a study published today in BMJ Open.
DURHAM, N.C. -- Israel's targeting of agricultural, water and energy infrastructures in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has had dire impacts on human welfare and livelihoods in both locations, a new report by researchers at Duke University and the University of New Hampshire shows.
The report is based on an original database that identifies 982 incidents between 2006 and 2017 in which Israeli forces, agencies or settlers damaged, destroyed, disabled or restricted access to sites and structures that provided food, clean water and other essential services to Palestinians.
Climate change is shifting the energy in the atmosphere that fuels summertime weather, which may lead to stronger thunderstorms and more stagnant conditions for midlatitude regions of the Northern Hemisphere, including North America, Europe, and Asia, a new MIT study finds.
A new map of newborn babies' brains offers details of structure that will provide a new reference for researchers studying both typical brain development and neurological disorders. Using noninvasive, 20-minute magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, researchers have revealed some of the complex and precisely organized brain architecture that emerges as the brain reshapes itself during the third trimester of pregnancy.
Specialized lung cells appear in the developing fetus much earlier than scientists previously thought. A new animal study reports how cells that become alveoli, the tiny compartments in which gas exchange occurs in the lung, begin their specialized roles very early in prenatal life. The researchers say that investigating the fetal signaling pathways active in this biological event may offer future opportunities to treat lung damage caused by prematurity and other lung injuries.
AUGUSTA, Ga. (Feb. 18, 2019) - Directly activating a gene important to exciting our excitatory neurons and associated with major depression may help turn around classic symptoms like social isolation and loss of interest, at least for males, scientists report.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- With medical marijuana now legal in about two-thirds of U.S. states, there's growing concern about how dispensaries may impact surrounding neighborhoods and communities.
And parents in a new national poll overwhelmingly agree on one place dispensaries should not be allowed: anywhere near children.
DALLAS, February 18, 2019 -- Patients receiving hormone therapy as part of their gender-transition treatment had an elevated risk for cardiovascular events, including strokes, heart attacks and blood clots, according to a study published in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation.
The results are based on analysis of medical records of 3,875 Dutch individuals who received hormone treatment between 1972and 2015 as part of their gender transition.
EVANSTON --- Northwestern University researchers are developing a predictive model to help NASA anticipate conflicts and communication breakdowns among crew members and head off problems that could make or break the Mission to Mars.