Culture
West African lions are a critically endangered subpopulation, with an estimated 400 remaining and strong evidence of ongoing declines.
About 90% of these lions live in West Africa's largest protected area complex, the W-Arly-Pendjari. The WAP Complex includes five national parks and 14 hunting concessions across roughly 10,200 square miles in Burkina Faso, Niger and Benin.
Joint diseases, such as knee osteoarthritis, are common in the elderly population and severely impair their quality of life. Conventional treatments like artificial joint replacements offer temporary relief but come with several disadvantages, including limited functionality and the need for replacement. A better solution is to find a way to promote tissue regeneration in joints: interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) hydrogels, when injected into joints, do exactly this--by acting as scaffolds for the growth of new cells and mimicking the cellular environment.
They make sauerkraut sour, turn milk into yogurt and cheese, and give rye bread its intensive flavour: bacteria that ferment nutrients instead of using oxygen to extract their energy. Acetobacterium woodii (short: A. woodii) is one of these anaerobic living microbes. Cheese and bread are not its line of business - it lives far from oxygen in the sediments on the floor of the ocean, and can also be found in sewage treatment plants and the intestines of termites.
In recent years, brown fat has garnered increasing attention as the so-called good fat that can protect against obesity and associated health risks, like cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Brown fat is located in small pockets throughout the body and helps maintain body temperature in cold environments. It gets its color from high amounts of iron-containing mitochondria, unlike the standard white fat linked to obesity.
Nafamostat mesylate (brand name: Fusan), which is the drug used to treat acute pancreatitis, may effectively block the requisite viral entry process the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) uses to spread and cause disease (COVID-19). The University of Tokyo announced these new findings on March 18, 2020.
Researchers at Queen Mary University of London have shown that zebrafish can provide genetic clues to smoking, a complex human behaviour.
By studying genetically-altered zebrafish they were able to pinpoint a human gene, Slit3, involved in nicotine addiction and also discover the ways in which it may act.
While zebrafish have been used extensively in genetic research, they've been used only in developmental models, such as identifying genes associated with disease, rather than to predict genes involved in a complex cognitive behaviour such as smoking.
The heart is the driving force of circulating blood in the body and pumps blood to the entire body by repeating contraction and relaxation of the heart muscles continuously. Human stem cells are used in the clinical therapies of a dead heart, which happens when a blood vessel is clogged or whole or a part of heart muscles is damaged. The clinical use of human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) have been expanded but failure of the transplanted stem cells in the heart still remains a problem. Recently, an international joint research team of POSTECH, Seoul St.
Though many negative repercussions of human immunodeficiency virus infection can be mitigated with the use of antiretroviral therapy (ART), one area where medical advances haven't made as much progress is in the reduction of cognitive impacts. Half of HIV patients have HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND), which can manifest in a variety of ways, from forgetfulness and confusion to behavior changes and motor deficiencies.
HOUSTON - (March 27, 2020) - One nanotube could be great for electronics applications, but there's new evidence that two could be tops.
Rice University engineers already knew that size matters when using single-walled carbon nanotubes for their electrical properties. But until now, nobody had studied how electrons act when confronted with the Russian doll-like structure of multiwalled tubes.
MAYWOOD, IL--Large events are cancelled, restaurants and non-essential businesses are closed, and in many states, residents have been asked to shelter in place, all to limit the spread and impact of the COVID-19 virus. But are strict and early isolation and other preventative mandates really effective in minimizing the spread and impact of a disease outbreak?
URBANA, Ill. - Pigs have better feed conversion rates with copper in their diets, but until now, scientists didn't fully understand why. Existing research from the University of Illinois shows copper doesn't change fat and energy absorption from the diet. Instead, according to new research, the element seems to enhance pigs' ability to utilize fat after absorption, resulting in increased energy utilization of the entire diet.
As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, inaccurate medical information has flooded social media and other channels. One potentially lethal example is that patients who take renin-angiotensin system (RAS) blockers, particularly angiotensin II type 1 receptor blockers (ARBs), may be more susceptible to the virus.
In a study published online yesterday focused on the medical products industry - which includes medical devices, pharmaceuticals and biologics - a group of researchers found that, compared to firms with all-male boards, firms with female directors announced high-severity product recalls 28 days sooner. This is a 35% reduction in the time between when a firm was first made aware of the defect and when the firm decided to recall the defective product.
Researchers have developed a triad of innovative tools to engineer low-pH-tolerant yeast Issatchenkia orientalis for production of valuable bioproducts from renewable biomass.
A paper published in Metabolic Engineering outlines the study's three-pronged approach and its importance to the field of sustainable chemical production.
WASHINGTON--A plant-based diet can help prevent and manage asthma, while dairy products and high-fat foods raise the risk, according to a new review published in Nutrition Reviews.
Asthma is a common chronic condition in which the airways become narrow and inflamed--sometimes leading to difficulty with breathing, coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath.