Earth
(Boston)--Using an experimental positron emission tomography (PET) scan, researchers have found elevated amounts of abnormal tau protein in brain regions affected by chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in a small group of living former National Football League (NFL) players with cognitive, mood and behavior symptoms. The study was published online in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The global burden of COPD is high, and prevalence of nonsmokers with COPD has been increasing. In a study to be presented at CHEST Congress Thailand 2019, researchers in Nagpur, India, sought to describe the characteristics of nonsmoking patients with COPD and to determine associated comorbidities and exposures.
Led by the University of York's Mental Health Addictions Research Group, SCIMITAR+ is the largest ever trial to support smoking cessation among people who use mental health services. Smoking rates among people with mental health conditions are among the highest of any group having changed little over the last 20 years, while other smokers have quit. This new study demonstrates that with the right support this inequality could be a thing of the past.
Orlando, Fla. (April 8, 2019) - Antioxidants such as vitamin C could help reduce harmful effects from hexavalent chromium, according to a new study performed with human cells. The contaminant, which is often produced by industrial processes, was featured in the biographical movie Erin Brockovich.
The field of materials science has become abuzz with "metal-organic frameworks" (MOFs), versatile compounds made up of metal ions connected to organic ligands, thus forming one-, two-, or three-dimensional structures. There is now an ever-growing list of applications for MOF, including separating petrochemicals, detoxing water from heavy metals and fluoride anions, and getting hydrogen or even gold out of it.
Sophia Antipolis, 7 April 2019: The full financial cost of a heart attack or stroke is twice as much as the medical costs when lost work time for patients and caregivers is included.
As companies seek and are required to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, the world's carbon markets are expanding. A government-run program in the Amazon rainforest in northwestern Brazil transforms forest carbon value into public wealth by focusing on labor rather than land rights. In the Brazilian state of Acre, some of the revenue from carbon credits is distributed to rural laborers and family farmers without land rights.
The international collaboration, led by the University of Exeter and published in Nature Communications, has found 47 links between our genetic code and the quality, quantity and timing of how we sleep. They include ten new genetic links with sleep duration and 26 with sleep quality.
On the Hawaiian island of O'ahu, where native birds have nearly been replaced by invasive ones, local plants depend almost entirely on invasive birds to disperse their seeds, new research shows. The findings are an example of how ecological communities dominated by introduced or invasive non-native species can be as dynamic, complex and stable as native communities, with invaders maintaining crucial ecosystem functions.
Globally, one in five deaths (11 million deaths) in 2017 were associated with poor diet, with cardiovascular disease being the biggest contributor, followed by cancers and type 2 diabetes.
Largest shortfalls in global consumption were seen for foods such as nuts and seeds, milk, and whole grains, while sugary drinks, processed meat and sodium were overeaten.
Adults who report high levels of stress and who also had stressful childhoods are most likely to show hormone patterns associated with negative health outcomes, according to findings published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological
Science.
ORLANDO, Fla., April 3, 2019 -- Wood may seem more at home in log cabins than modern architecture, but a specially treated type of timber could be tomorrow's trendy building material. Today, scientists report a new kind of transparent wood that not only transmits light, but also absorbs and releases heat, potentially saving on energy costs. The material can bear heavy loads and is biodegradable, opening the door for its eventual use in eco-friendly homes and other buildings.
In "Conspicuous Plumage Does Not Increase Predation Risk: A Continent-Wide Test Using Model Songbirds," published in the American Naturalist, Kristal E. Cain examines the factors that drive the predation levels of Australia's fairy wrens. After measuring attack rates on both conspicuously and dull colored 3D fairy wren models in various habitats, Cain found that bright or "conspicuous" plumage is not associated with an increase in predation.
A student at the University of California, Riverside, presented research results at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, or AACR, in Atlanta showing that surgery is associated with higher survival rates for patients with HER2-positive stage 4 breast cancer compared with those who did not undergo surgery.
The protein HER2, or human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, can play a role in the development of breast cancer.
The central goal of nanotechnology is the manipulation of materials on an atomic or molecular scale, especially to build microscopic devices or structures. Three-dimensional cages are one of the most important targets, both for their simplicity and their application as drug carriers for medicine. DNA nanotechnology uses DNA molecules as programmable "Legos" to assemble structures with a control not possible with other molecules.