Culture
AMHERST, Mass. - A major factor holding back development of wearable biosensors for health monitoring is the lack of a lightweight, long-lasting power supply. Now scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst led by materials chemist Trisha L. Andrew report that they have developed a method for making a charge-storing system that is easily integrated into clothing for "embroidering a charge-storing pattern onto any garment."
AMHERST, Mass. - A new predictive model developed by an ecologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a climate scientist at the University of Washington suggests that climate change may allow common ragweed to extend its growing range northward and into major northeast metro areas, worsening conditions for millions of people with hay fever and asthma.
Nov. 9, 2018--Babies with cystic fibrosis may breathe better by inhaling hypertonic saline, according to a randomized controlled trial conducted in Germany and published in the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Drawing from almost 200 scientific studies on workplace meetings, a team of psychological scientists provides recommendations for making the most out of meetings before they start, as they're happening, and after they've concluded.
Potatoes, native to South America, became an agricultural crop thousands of years ago in the Andean highlands of Peru. And just as the ancient Andean people turned wild tubers into the domesticated potato, the potato may have altered the genomes of the Andeans who made it a staple of their diet.
Science Advances published the findings. DNA analyses show that ancient populations of the Peruvian highlands adapted to the introduction of agriculture and an extreme, high-altitude environment in ways distinct from other global populations.
Repetition is the best method for memorization, for neurons themselves. This is the principle behind what neurobiologists call sequence reactivations: during sleep, neurons in the hippocampus related to a task activate very quickly in turn in a precise order, which consolidates the memory of this task. Sequence reactivations are fundamental for long-term memorization and for exchanges between the hippocampus and the rest of the brain. These are only present at rest so they appear after initial neuron activity, which implies that they "memorize" the order they should turn on in.
Globally, pneumonia and diarrhea together led to nearly one of every four deaths that occurred in children under five years of age in 2016. The 2018 Pneumonia and Diarrhea Progress Report--released ahead of the 10th annual World Pneumonia Day, on November 12, by the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health--describes efforts to fight pneumonia and diarrhea in 15 countries with the greatest number of deaths from these illnesses.
Because of their antimicrobial and antifungal properties, silver nanoparticles measuring between one and 100 nanometers (billionth of a meter) in size, are being incorporated outside the United States into a variety of kitchen products known as food contact materials (FCMs). Among the nanosilver-infused FCMs now on the market overseas are spatulas, baby mugs, storage containers and cutting boards. However, the use of these items raises concerns that the nanoparticles in them will migrate into foods and the environment, and in turn, whether this poses risks to human health.
A geology professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has discovered that a set of 28 footprints left behind by a reptile-like creature 310 million years ago, are the oldest ever to be found in Grand Canyon National Park.
The fossil trackway covers a fallen boulder that now rests along the Bright Angel Trail in the national park. Rowland presented his findings at the recent annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Overall, men are at greater risk of heart attack than women, but several studies have suggested that certain risk factors have more of an impact on the risk in women than in men.
To look more closely at this association, researchers looked at data on almost half a million people enrolled in the UK Biobank - a database of biological information from British adults.
The 471,998 people had no history of cardiovascular disease, were aged 40 to 69 years and 56% of them were women.
Osaka, Japan - Technological advances have enabled scientists to obtain massive amounts of data on different information-carrying molecules in cells and tissues, such as DNA, proteins and various forms of RNA. However, to date, it has been difficult to perform integrated analyses of such information to further our knowledge on the molecules and processes involved in the development of particular diseases.
Young men who are overly preoccupied with building muscle have a significantly higher risk of depression, weekend binge drinking, and dieting that is not connected to obesity.
They also have four times the probability of using legal and illegal supplements, and anabolic steroids, a new study from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and Harvard University has shown.
The study also shows that ten per cent of men have what is thought of as the more common type of body image disorder. That is, they think they are too fat and want to be thinner.
A study published in The Lancet HIV shows that HIV-2 is more pathogenic than previously demonstrated. The new findings indicate that early treatment should be applied to all patients with HIV, not only to those with HIV-1.
A pioneering technique designed to spot differences between immune cells in tumours could speed the development of cancer treatments, research suggests.
Scientists say the approach could be used to help doctors choose the best treatments for individual patients and predict which tumours are likely to respond to a particular therapy.
Menlo Park, Calif. -- Despite its role in shaping life as we know it, many aspects of photosynthesis remain a mystery. An international collaboration between scientists at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and several other institutions is working to change that. The researchers used SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray laser to capture the most complete and highest resolution picture to date of Photosystem II, a key protein complex in plants, algae and cyanobacteria responsible for splitting water and producing the oxygen we breathe.