Earth
DURHAM, N.C. -- Even kids who are nearly grown still need a parental figure to help them navigate the long path to adulthood -- and our closest animal relatives are no exception.
A new study of wild chimpanzees finds that males whose moms were present during their tween and teen years had higher odds of survival later in life, compared with their peers who lost their mothers before they finished puberty.
The results appear in the February 2020 issue of the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.
A study of gliding animals has challenged the idea that evolutionary innovations - adaptations that bring new abilities and advantages - spur the origin of other new body types and other characteristics in descendent species. The research, undertaken by evolutionary biologists at UNSW Sydney and universities in the US and Spain, examined the key innovation of gliding in two types of gliding animals: 'flying' dragons (family Agamidae) and 'flying' squirrels (family Sciuridae), both common to forests in Southeast Asia.
The research report "Refugee Protection in Germany" by the EU project "Multilevel Governance of Migration (RESPOND)" paints a gloomy picture of the human rights protection for asylum seekers in Germany. Among other things, the authors speak of a "differential exclusion" of ever larger groups from German asylum law on the basis of more or less arbitrary criteria.
The study looked at areas in the Brazilian Amazon with varying levels of disturbance from activities like logging or burning. The researchers found that not only did human disturbance reduce overall tree diversity, it increased the proportion of trees with seeds dispersed by animals as opposed to other mechanisms like wind.
Brussels, 18 February 2020 - Today, at a European Parliament lunch debate hosted by Christophe Hansen MEP (Luxembourg), Alzheimer Europe launched a new report presenting the findings of its collaborative analysis of recent prevalence studies and setting out updated prevalence rates for dementia in Europe.
Over the past three decades, a number of significant pieces of work have been undertaken to estimate the prevalence of dementia at a European level, including:
EURODEM study in the early 80s (updated in 2000)
Children conceived with assisted reproductive techniques including in vitro fertilization (IVF) have a somewhat higher mortality risk during their first weeks of life than children conceived naturally, according to a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in the journal Fertility and Sterility. The researchers link the increased risk to a higher degree of premature births in IVF children and emphasize that the risk of infant mortality is still very small for both groups.
WHAT:
Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) found in breastmilk may influence a child's growth from infancy through early childhood, according to a study supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study also suggested that maternal obesity may affect HMO composition in breastmilk. The study was led by Lars Bode, Ph.D., at the University of California, San Diego. It appears in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
MRI brain scans suggest there are characteristic differences in brain structure of individuals who exhibit life-course-persistent antisocial behaviour.
An auditory illusion thought to synchronize brain waves and alter mood is no more effective than other sounds, according to research in adults recently published in eNeuro. The effect reported in other studies might be a placebo but could still have helpful effects for some people.
TAMPA, Fla. (Feb. 18, 2020) -- The protein β-arrestin-2 increases the accumulation of neurotoxic tau tangles, a cause several forms of dementia, by interfering with removal of excess tau from the brain, a new study by the University of South Florida Health (USF Health) Morsani College of Medicine found.
HOUSTON - Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) accounts for 14% of all lung cancers and is often rapidly resistant to chemotherapy, resulting in poor clinical outcomes. Treatment has changed little for decades, but a study at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center found that chemotherapy results in increased heterogeneity within the tumor, leading to the evolution of multiple resistance mechanisms.
Physical climate risk from extreme weather events remains unaccounted for in financial markets. Without better knowledge of the risk, the average energy investor can only hope that the next extreme event won't trigger a sudden correction, according to new research from University of California, Davis.
The paper, "Energy Finance Must Account for Extreme Weather Risk," was published Feb. 17 in the journal Nature Energy.
Treatment of patients suffering from bile duct cancer could be improved by tailoring medication to the levels of a key protein in people with the disease, according to new research.
Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a deadly disease with few treatments, but researchers in the UK and Thailand have discovered that the PRH/HHEX protein is a key driver in the disease, with increased levels affecting the response of cancer cells to therapeutic drugs.
February 12, 2020, Nutley, NJ - Reversing runaway inflammation in the bone marrow could lead to major breakthroughs in treatments for some blood cancers, according to a new publication by scientists at Hackensack Meridian Health's Center for Discovery and Innovation.
The CDI team's findings could ultimately improve cancer treatments for people of advanced age, like that of adult acute myeloid leukemia (AML), as they indicate in the paper in the journal Nature Communications.
A Swansea University academic has contributed to a major study published in the journal Science, which shows the increases in aridity in some parts of the world will damage ecosystems in areas where more than 2 billion people live.