Body

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Health care providers and human service agencies often manage postpartum depression with formal mental health treatments and antidepressant therapies, but for new, low-income mothers of color these interventions often provide little relief from the mood disorder that sometimes follows childbirth, according to a new study led by a University at Buffalo researcher.

A new University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus study finds that hormones in breast milk may impact the development of healthy bacteria in infants' guts, potentially protecting them from intestinal inflammation, obesity and other diseases later in life.

The study, published Monday in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, examines the role of human milk hormones in the development of infants' microbiome, a bacterial ecosystem in the digestive system that contributes to multiple facets of health.

An Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation scientist has discovered that certain sugars produced by the body play an important role in the development of colitis and, ultimately, colon cancer. The new finding could potentially lead to therapies for ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease and colon cancer.

At OMRF, Lijun Xia, M.D., Ph.D., has spent two decades studying O-glycans, a form of sugar that the body produces and that comprises nearly 80 percent of a thick mucous layer inside the colon and the gastrointestinal tract.

A pair of Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation scientists have discovered that an enzyme previously thought only to be beneficial could, in fact, pose significant danger to developing embryos. The new research could have implications not only for prenatal development but also for treating lymphedema and liver damage resulting from acetaminophen overdose.

Montreal, May 4th 2016 -- A new study led by a team from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) and Cystic Fibrosis Canada reinforces the benefits of newborn screening for cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. Despite the fact that newborn screening has been implemented across North America and in several European countries as a way to improve overall survival rate and health outcomes of people living with CF, it is still not available in Quebec.

Mitochondria are key integrators of cellular calcium (Ca2+) signaling and energy metabolism. Early studies demonstrated that isolated mitochondria could buffer huge amounts of Ca2+ via a highly selective channel called the "uniporter". Uptake of Ca2+ via the uniporter is known to activate the citric acid cycle, while its overload leads to cell death. Although the uniporter has been studied extensively for over 50 years and its molecular identity remained elusive until in 2011, computational genomics studies discovered its molecular components.

Coral reefs and hard-shelled sea creatures such as oysters and mussels are constantly being threatened, not only by the detrimental effects of stressors such as climate change and habitat loss, but also by microorganisms.

Researchers from Arizona State University have discovered how a particular type of cyanobacteria, a photosynthetic microbe, is able to bore into and live within solid carbonates, the main mineral that makes up coral skeletons and seashells -- hastening their erosion and causing trouble for shellfish farmers.

In a study prompted in part by suggestions from people with mental illness, Johns Hopkins researchers found that a history of Candida yeast infections was more common in a group of men with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder than in those without these disorders, and that women with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder who tested positive for Candida performed worse on a standard memory test than women with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder who had no evidence of past infection.

Not much is known about the genetics of Eurasian history before the introduction of farming. One of the major questions is how climatic fluctuations influenced the population history of Eurasia and to what extent changes in material cultures correspond to movements of people.

Chemical separation processes in industry are typically quite costly, and current techniques often use thermal separation processes such as distillation and evaporation which now account for 10 to 15 percent of the world's annual energy use. The use of synthetic polymer membranes for the separation of gases and chemicals provides a more efficient, non-thermal solution which has the potential to reduce energy consumption significantly, as well as reducing pollution and cutting carbon dioxide emissions.

New research has showed substantial differences in the way human heart cells respond to e-cigarette smoke and conventional cigarette smoke.

Researchers from the Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit (MRC IEU) at the University of Bristol investigated how the same type of cells as those found in the arteries of the heart, known as human coronary artery endothelial cells (HCAEC), responded when they were exposed to both e-cigarette aerosol and conventional cigarette smoke.

Their results were published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

Researchers have found that a variety of conditions are more common in women before and after sexual assault.

Compared with women without a known assault experience, those who experienced sexual assault were more likely to have diseases of the circulatory and respiratory systems, epilepsy, and liver disease, both before and after the assault. They were also more likely to develop cervical cancer after the assault.

For many fans around the world May 4th is Star Wars Day, playing on the popular phrase 'May the Force Be With You' uttered by many characters in the films including Luke Skywalker's mentor, Yoda.

However, despite his esteemed position as a Jedi Master in the Star Wars universe, Yoda may have struggled to pull off some of his trickier Force-related feats due to lack of energy, according to students from the University of Leicester.

Colorectal cancer may rise in women who have their ovaries removed, according to new research.

The development of colorectal cancer is influenced by hormonal factors, and removal of the ovaries alters a woman's sex hormone levels. Among 195,973 Swedish women who had undergone ovary removal between 1965 and 2011, there was a 30% increase in the rate of colorectal cancer compared with the general population. After accounting for various factors, women who had both ovaries removed had a 2.3-times higher risk of rectal cancer than those who had only one ovary removed.

Long-eared bats are assisted in flight by their ears and body, according to a study by researchers at Lund University in Sweden. The recent findings improve researchers' understanding of the bats' flying technique and could be significant for the future development of drones, among other things.

Contrary to what researchers previously assumed, Christoffer Johansson Westheim and his colleagues at Lund University show that long-eared bats are helped in flight by their large ears.