Culture
A study of women who experienced mental ill-health from a hormonal contraception indicates they value their mental well-being higher than a satisfactory sex life. Their experiences can influence their choice of contraception. This is one of four themes that researchers have identified in interviews with 24 women who experience negative effects of some hormonal contraception. The study, from Linköping University in Sweden, has been published in the European Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Health Care.
Organic soybean producers using no-till and reduced-tillage production methods that incorporate cover crops -- strategies that protect soil health and water quality -- can achieve similar yields at competitive costs compared to tillage-based production.
That's the conclusion of a new study by researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. These findings are significant, according to lead researcher John Wallace, assistant professor of weed science, because they may contribute to increased sustainable domestic production of organic soybeans.
Amyloid plaque formation directly causes brain tissue loss in animals, but a drug called lithium reduces the life-shortening effects of this loss, shows a study published today in eLife.
Patients with Alzheimer's disease experience progressive memory loss and loss of brain matter over time. This study provides new details about what happens in the brain in Alzheimer's disease and suggests a potential strategy to slow it.
WASHINGTON--Individuals taking a class of steroid hormones called glucocorticoids for conditions such as asthma, allergies and arthritis on a routine basis may be unable to mount a normal stress response and are at high risk if they are infected with the virus causing COVID-19, according to a new editorial published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
Philadelphia, March 31, 2020 - Genetic studies of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) show that it takes many common genetic variations combining together in one individual to increase risk substantially. At the same time, neuroimaging experts have found differences in how the brains of people diagnosed with ADHD are functionally connected. However it's unclear how genetic risk might be directly related to altered brain circuitry in individuals diagnosed with ADHD.
According to a popular view, creativity is a product of the brain’s right hemisphere – innovative people are considered “right-brain thinkers” while “left-brain thinkers” are thought to be analytical and logical. Neuroscientists who are skeptical of this idea have argued that there is not enough evidence to support this idea and an ability as complex as human creativity must draw on vast swaths of both hemispheres.
Fast communication between our brain cells - or neurotransmission as it is called - is hugely important for our brain to work properly. Some of the messengers involved in this form of communication are neuropeptides, which are chemicals produced in the brain.
Some of these peptides are involved in causing the feeling of pain. In a new study, researchers from the University of Copenhagen show how the neuropeptide Big Dynorphin binds to a receptor involved in sending pain signals around the brain.
TROY, N.Y. -- The temptation for businesses to use artificial intelligence and other technology to improve performance, drive down labor costs, and better the bottom line is understandable. But before pursuing automation that could put the jobs of human employees at risk, it is important that business owners take careful stock of their operations.
A novel vaccine against pneumonia that is less expensive and more effective than those currently used in Brazil is being tested in human patients. Developed by researchers at the Butantan Institute (Brazil) and Boston Children's Hospital, part of the Harvard Medical School (USA), the innovation is capable of providing protection against all serotypes of the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae.
During the 2016 election cycle, politically polarizing tweets by Russian trolls about vaccination included pro- and anti-vaccination messages targeted at people with specific political inclinations through an assortment of fake persona types, according to a new analysis published this month.
Astronomers have found the best evidence for the perpetrator of a cosmic homicide: a black hole of an elusive class known as "intermediate-mass," which betrayed its existence by tearing apart a wayward star that passed too close.
Weighing in at about 50,000 times the mass of our Sun, the black hole is smaller than the supermassive black holes (at millions or billions of solar masses) that lie at the cores of large galaxies, but larger than stellar-mass black holes formed by the collapse of a massive star.
When Spanish invaders arrived in the Americas, they were generally able to subjugate the local peoples thanks, in part, to their superior weaponry and technology. But archeological evidence indicates that, in at least one crucial respect, the Spaniards were quite dependent on an older indigenous technology in parts of Mesoamerica (today's Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras).
A new study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, highlights the feasible use of mobile health (mHealth) devices to help with the screening and detection of a common heart condition.
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Increasing numbers of bison in Yellowstone National Park in recent years have become a barrier to ecosystem recovery in the iconic Lamar Valley in the northern part of the park, according to a study by Oregon State University scientists.
In the valley, foraging by bison exerts 10 times the environmental pressure of elk, historically the area's dominant herbivore - that's a problem because bison are powerful "ecosystem engineers."
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) - When UC Davis announced the first case of community transmission of COVID-19 in the U.S. on Feb. 26, it solved a medical mystery at the hospital and led to important changes to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines for novel coronavirus testing.