Culture
Older adults with depression may be at much higher risk of remaining depressed if they are experiencing persistent or worsening sleep problems, according to a study from researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The researchers, who published their findings online April 30 in the journal Sleep, analyzed data from almost 600 people over 60 years old who visited primary care centers in the Northeast U.S. All patients met clinical criteria for major or minor depression at the outset of the study.
African naked mole-rats are sometimes referred to as animal superheroes. They resist cancer, tolerate pain, and live a remarkably long time. They're also known for their ability to handle high levels of carbon dioxide and can go for several minutes without oxygen. But researchers reporting in Current Biology on April 30 say they may have found the mole-rats' kryptonite: they need high levels of carbon dioxide to function.
Despite the infamy of the transatlantic slave trade, scientific research has yet to fully explore the history of the enslaved Africans brought into Latin America. In a study appearing April 30th in the journal Current Biology, scientists tell the story of three 16th century African slaves identified from a mass burial site in Mexico City.
Five centuries after Charles I of Spain authorized the transport of the first African slaves to the Viceroyalty of New Spain, the ancestry of the hundreds of thousands of abducted and enslaved people forms an integral part of the genetic and cultural heritage of the Americas. The origins and experiences of those enslaved individuals, however, remains largely unknown.
WASHINGTON--Older men who have lower lean body mass as they age are more prone to developing diabetes, while similar findings were not found in older women, according to a new study published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society.
One in four adults aged 65 and older has diabetes, making them the group with the greatest burden of diabetes. Skeletal muscle is the largest insulin-sensitive tissue in the body and plays an essential role in blood sugar regulation. Age-related muscle loss, called sarcopenia, may contribute to the development of diabetes in older adults.
Osaka, Japan - Homologous recombination is an essential process of DNA repair to maintain genomic integrity of the organism. Now, researchers from Japan have identified mechanisms that choose between alternate pathways of DNA repair to limit anomalous and deleterious chromosomal combinations that may be predisposed to cancer and genetic diseases.
Durham, NC - A new study released today in STEM CELLS suggests for the first time that regulatory T-cells (Treg) induced by mesenchymal stromal cells can yield an abundant replacement for naturally occurring T-cells, which are vital in protecting the body from infection. Led by Rita I. Azevedo, Ph.D., at the Instituto de Medicina Molecular in Lisbon, Portugal, this study could yield new treatments for a long list of chronic inflammatory diseases that includes everything from cancer and asthma to inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis and more.
April 29, 2020 - Early reports of COVID-19 symptoms and the compelling need to quickly identify treatment options and curb the growing number of critically ill patients have led to erroneous and potentially dangerous comparisons between COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases like high altitude pulmonary edema, or HAPE.
While the capability for organisms to work together is by no means novel, humans possess an unparalleled capacity for cooperation that seems to contradict Darwinian evolutionary principles. Humans often exhibit traits--such as sympathy, loyalty, courage, and patriotism--that prioritize collective well-being over individual fitness, and often cooperation occurs among individuals with no shared biological relation. This behavior, likewise, adapts in response to changing conditions, demonstrating the flexible nature of human cooperation.
As retrenchments continue to cloud the foreseeable future of businesses worldwide, new research from the University of South Australia, the University of Melbourne and RMIT indicates that some businesses will fare better than others - and it's all dependent on their type of human resource management system.
Understanding the principles of cancer evolution is important in designing a therapeutic strategy. A research group at The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo (IMSUT) announced a new simulation model that describes various modes of cancer evolution in a unified manner.
The Gerontological Society of America's highly cited, peer-reviewed journals are now publishing scientific articles on COVID-19. The following were published between April 21 and 29; all are free to access:
LISLE, Ill. (April 30) - In a groundbreaking study, an international team of 21 scientists led by Sean Hoban, PhD, Conservation Biologist at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, evaluated five genera spanning the plant tree of life (Hibiscus, Magnolia, Pseudophoenix, Quercus and Zamia) to understand how much genetic diversity currently exists in collections in botanical gardens and arboreta worldwide.
EUGENE, Ore. - April 30, 2020 - Entrepreneurs launching a crowdfunding campaign to fund new product development benefit by reaching out early to engage with potential end-users, say business researchers from three universities.
Emerging companies that did so, tweaking their prototypes in an active and open exchange, reached their fundraising goals and drew media coverage more easily than those that didn't, said Alex Murray of the University of Oregon and lead author of a study published online ahead of print in Organization Science.
Every now and then, scientists need to control the process of mixing liquids in vessels so small that the thinnest needle or even a hair wouldn't fit in there. At the same time, controlling the diffusion speed of molecules in the so-called microreactors is extremely important for the purposes of designing new drugs, conducting biological experiments and even to perform fast disease detection tests. Scientists from ITMO University and their colleagues from the Czech Academy of Sciences proposed to solve this problem by using the energy of light.