Earth
CORVALLIS, Ore. -- New research shows that mice and voles scurry to bear scats to forage for seeds, finding nutritional value in the seeds and in some cases further dispersing them.
The study is published in the journal Ecosphere by researchers at Oregon State University and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The research builds on an OSU study that determined that bears are the primary seed dispersers of berry-producing shrubs in Alaska.
Rockville, Md. (July 5, 2018)--A drug used in stem cell therapy to treat certain cancers may also protect against cigarette smoke-induced lung injury. The study, published ahead of print in the American Journal of Physiology--Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology, was chosen as an APSselect article for July.
SAN DIEGO, CA - ACL injuries are one of the most common sports injuries affecting adolescent athletes, leading to lost playing time and high healthcare costs. Research presented today at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's Annual Meeting in San Diego shows athletes who experience fatigue - tested on a standardized assessment -¬ demonstrated increased risk of ACL injury. The study is the first to measure the direct impact of fatigue on injury risk in the adolescent population.
The Baltic Sea is home to some of the world's largest dead zones, areas of oxygen-starved waters where most marine animals can't survive. But while parts of this sea have long suffered from low oxygen levels, a new study by a team in Finland and Germany shows that oxygen loss in coastal areas over the past century is unprecedented in the last 1500 years. The research is published today in the European Geosciences Union journal Biogeosciences.
Electronic radio tags could be used to track invasive Asian hornets and stop them colonising the UK and killing honeybees, new research shows.
Scientists from the University of Exeter attached tiny tags to Asian hornets, then used a tracking device to follow them to their nests; the first time this has been achieved.
They tested the technique in southern France and Jersey - where Asian hornets are well established - and the tags led researchers to five previously undiscovered nests.
As climate change continues to push summer temperatures ever higher, the increased use of air conditioning in buildings could add to the problems of a warming world by further degrading air quality and compounding the toll of air pollution on human health, according to a new study.
Hurricane season didn't officially start until June 1, but Subtropical Storm Alberto made an appearance early, causing more than $50 million in damage as it made its way inland and up the coast in late May. Twelve people -- seven in Cuba and five in the U.S. -- died as Alberto's fallout included flooding, landslides, tornados and mudslides.
Is Alberto's early-season appearance an indicator of another active Atlantic hurricane season? Not necessarily, according to predictions by researchers at the University of Arizona.
Melanomas are one of the most aggressive types of tumors in humans. Despite remarkable success with new forms of treatment such as immunotherapies, there are still many melanoma patients who cannot be cured or who later suffer a recurrence of the disease following successful treatment. An in-depth understanding of the tumor's biology is thus essential for developing novel therapeutic approaches. The main question is which changes in a benign cell cause it to progress into a malignant tumor.
Formation and spread of melanoma also regulated epigenetically
Important steps in the development of an artificial ovary have been successfully completed by one of the world's leading groups in fertility preservation. Researchers from the Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, Denmark, report today that they have for the first time isolated and grown human follicles to a point of "biofunctionality" on a bioengineered ovarian scaffold made of "decellularised" ovarian tissue. The early-stage follicles were isolated from patients having ovarian tissue frozen for fertility preservation ahead of other medical treatments likely to compromise ovarian function.
New research links outdoor air pollution -- even at levels deemed safe -- to an increased risk of diabetes globally, according to a study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Veterans Affairs (VA) St. Louis Health Care System.
The findings raise the possibility that reducing pollution may lead to a drop in diabetes cases in heavily polluted countries such as India and less polluted ones such as the United States.
The regional climate modeling community is actively engaged in the development of regional earth system models (RESMs), applicable in different regional contexts. In a paper published in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters, Prof.
Autophagy, meaning "self-eating" in Greek, is a general metabolic mechanism adopted by nearly all the eukaryotic species, from the single cell yeast to humans. It is a process that cells degrade unnecessary components for materials recycling and energy generation to survive against stress or maintain homeostasis.
Adolescent drinking is associated with changes in the metabolite profile, a new study from the University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital shows. Some of these changes were found to correlate with reduced brain grey matter volume, especially in young women who are heavy drinkers. The findings shed new light on the biological implications of adolescent drinking, and could contribute to the development of new treatments.
At Tal Chhapar, a wildlife sanctuary in the heart of the Thar desert, a strange drama is staged twice every year. In the blistering heat of summer from March to April and the post-monsoon months of September and October, up to a hundred blackbuck males stake out territories on the flat land to entice females to mate with them in a unique assemblage called a lek.
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 29, 2018 -- As silicon-based semiconductors reach their performance limits, gallium nitride (GaN) is becoming the next go-to material to advance light-emitting diode (LED) technologies, high-frequency transistors and photovoltaic devices. Holding GaN back, however, is its high numbers of defects.