Body

Drinking a little alcohol every day may be part of a healthy lifestyle, according to Imre Janszky, a professor of social medicine at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). He says alcohol does more good than harm for your heart when consumed in moderation.

And, Janszky says, it doesn't matter much whether you drink wine, liquor or beer.

"It's primarily the alcohol that leads to more good cholesterol, among other things. But alcohol can also cause higher blood pressure. So it's best to drink moderate amounts relatively often," he says.

The research of two Montana State University microbiologists into how bacteria fend off attacks from viruses is included in a new paper published in the scientific journal Nature.

Blake Wiedenheft, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology in the College of Agriculture and College of Letters and Science, and graduate student Paul B.G. van Erp joined researchers from Cornell and Johns Hopkins universities to co-author the paper, "Structural basis for promiscuous PAM recognition in type I-E Cascade from E. coli," published online Feb. 10, 2016.

A James Cook University study has called for a change in the way we manage bycatch - to better monitor the unintentional catching of sea turtles by commercial fishers.

JCU's Kimberly Riskas led a project that examined more than 10 years of records on turtle bycatch.

"Turtle habitat often spans multiple management jurisdictions. But most fisheries management agencies will monitor bycatch within a single fishery or a single year, without adding records together to determine how many turtles are being caught in total," she said.

The majority of disease-causing bacteria in the body are rendered harmless by the protective effects of the immune system. Those that manage to escape the immune system can be killed by antibiotics, but bacteria are becoming more and more resistant to more and more antibiotics. Meet Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus, a bacterial predator that is an efficient killer of Gram-negative bacteria, such as the prevalent E. coli bacterium. It is present in soil and, just like E. coli, it can also be found in the human gut, where a complex ecosystem of bacterial inhabitants exists.

Nagoya, Japan - A novel cesium-transporting bacterial pump developed by researchers at the NITech could be beneficial in radioactivity decontamination efforts. These findings were recently reported in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.

TUCSON, Ariz. - Heidi M. Mansour, PhD, assistant professor in the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy, is working to develop advanced dry powder inhalers to treat and prevent pulmonary diseases.

A new analysis looks at how rates of reproduction and survival of 26 shrub species with fire-dependent life cycles in the Cape Floristic Region in South Africa respond to environmental variation.

The study incorporates multiple environmental drivers--notably climate and fire--at large spatial scales for a significant number of species and populations. The findings provide important insights on how interactions among these drivers shape the population dynamics of plants.

New research suggests that multi-year droughts will significantly alter the structure, composition, and dynamics of second-growth tropical forests, which have re-grown after cessation of agricultural activity or a major disturbance such as fire. These second-growth forests represent the prevalent tropical forest cover today.

Investigators combined 14 years of data on annual tree growth and survival with local climate records in the Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica to evaluate tree responses to inter-annual differences in temperature and dry-season water stress.

By developing a new model, researchers have provided the first detailed mortality estimates for male African lions. A comparison of two populations, including the one of Cecil, exposed the signature that human impact leaves on male lion mortality.

The model can be used to project future population size and structure for population management measures for a variety of species that may be facing local extinction.

Researchers have developed plant, a software framework, to investigate how plant species differing in traits may be able to coexist with one another.

The core rules in plant concern the short-term physiological functioning of an individual plant and how this is influenced by its traits, size, and light environment. plant provides a transparent platform for investigating how physiological rules and functional trade-offs interact with competition and disturbances to influence vegetation structure and diversity.

A new analysis indicates that higher body weight and taller stature during adolescence increase the risk of developing Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (NHL), a type of cancer of the lymphatic system. The findings are published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

A study at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) finds that patients benefit from a one-on-one education session provided by a physical therapist and access to a custom web portal prior to knee or hip replacement surgery. The patients indicated they were more satisfied with their pre-surgery education and felt better prepared to leave the hospital after joint replacement, compared to those who did not participate in the session or have access to the website.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., February 18, 2016--Head and neck cancer patients who receive induction chemotherapy (IC; chemotherapy administered prior to radiation therapy) rather than the standard treatment of concurrent chemoradiation (CRT) do not benefit from increased survival rates and are less likely to receive a full course of radiation, according to research presented at the 2016 Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium.

The renowned 'Animas', two marble heads considered one of the most important works of baroque sculptor, painter and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini's youth, are not a representation of a Christian soul's personification enjoying the pleasures of the Heaven or tormented by the punishment received in Hell (as believed until now), but they really are mythologically themed sculptures: a nymph and a satyr, respectively.

MADISON, Wis. -- It was shortly after the end of World War II when John Curtis, inspired by his service as a civilian researcher aiding war efforts in Haiti, dedicated his energies to studying the ecology of Wisconsin's plants. The late botany professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison was particularly enamored of prairies.

Between 1947 and 1956, Curtis and his colleagues and students conducted their prairie relic study, surveying more than 200 undisturbed prairie remnants in Wisconsin -- walking each in its entirety while keeping lists of every plant species they found.