Body

Bacterial resistance to antimicrobial agents is a significant problem for both human and veterinary medicine, but little research has been done on the prevalence or mechanisms of resistance in horses and other companion animals, and how such resistance might impact human health.

Warming temperatures will take a heavy toll on agricultural productivity, according to climate scientists. How will society adjust? One possibility might be increased trade: If one country suffers a decline in, say, wheat production but can still grow as much rice as ever, then -- in theory -- it might grow more rice and trade for its usual amount of wheat instead.

Signaling molecules of the Wnt family are ubiquitous in biology. From cnidaria to man, they are responsible for forming the basic shape of all organisms. Without Wnt, our body would not have a top or bottom, front or rear. In addition, Wnt controls numerous other development processes in the body. Overly active Wnt signaling, on the other hand, promotes carcinogenesis.

You were once a hollow shell. To sculpt that hollow ball into an organism with layers of internal organs, muscle and skin, portions of that embryonic 'shell' folded inwards. The same happens to fruit fly embryos, and researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have now identified a particular group of cells which are crucial for the first such fold. They also showed for the first time that the shape in which cells are arranged determines the direction in which they contract.

"This is the first time an attempt has been made to estimate the proportion of nanoparticles stemming from sea traffic. The different types of nanoparticles have previously not been distinguished, but this new method makes it possible", says Adam Kristensson, researcher in Aerosol Technology at the Lund University Faculty of Engineering in Sweden.

"Previously, we thought that land-based pollution from northern European countries and emissions of natural particles from the surface of the sea accounted for a much larger proportion", he says.

As humans have begun to live longer it has become clear that the quality of our lives is equally as important as the duration. In the lab, a dramatic extension of lifespan isn't difficult to achieve. In previous experiments using several types of mutated Caenorhabditis elegans roundworms (C. elegans), researchers were able to significantly extend the worm's lifespan. The lengthened life that the worms experienced was not necessarily a good one, as many of the mutated varieties were less healthy than wild-type worms, especially during the segment of life that was extended beyond normal.

Pedestrian wheelchair users in the US are a third more likely to be killed in road traffic collisions than the general public, finds research published in the online journal BMJ Open.

And men's risk is five times higher than women's, the findings show.

Every year nearly 5000 pedestrians are killed and another 76,000 injured in road traffic collisions on public roads in the US.

But it is not known what the risk of death is among pedestrian wheelchair users, and whether this is higher than that of the general population who don't use wheelchairs.

The world is losing its battle with tuberculosis (TB), which is now the biggest infectious killer globally, causing 1.5 million deaths every year. Without a clear investment plan and a complete overhaul in how this disease is tackled, TB is unlikely to be eliminated until the end of the 22nd century, and the world will miss the recently announced Sustainable Development Goal to end TB by 2030.

Highlights

* After researchers transplanted kidney tissue generated from human induced pluripotent stem cells into a mouse kidney, the animal's blood vessels readily connected to the human tissue.

These are kidney tissues with green fluorescence generated from human iPS cells. Credit: Nishinakamura

COLUMBUS, Ohio -Women drinking and eating moderate amounts of caffeine during pregnancy should be reassured that they are not harming their child's intelligence, according to a study from The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital that was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology. The research, one of the first studies to focus on how in utero caffeine exposure affects a child's future intelligence (IQ) and behavior later in childhood, found caffeine did not lead to a reduced IQ or increased behavioral problems.

Getting in touch with nature in an urbanized world can be as simple as putting a bird feeder in your backyard. However, what are the potential consequences of this act? Bird-window collisions are one of the largest threats facing urban bird populations in Canada. A new study out of the University of Alberta engages citizen scientists to determine the effects of feeders on bird-window collisions.

When Melanie Martin was a graduate student at UC Santa Barbara doing fieldwork in Bolivia, she and her husband decided the time was right to start a family. Martin got pregnant almost immediately, and when she credited her success to the parasites she and her colleagues were studying, the researchers wondered if there was a kernel of truth to her assertion.

Exposure to e-cigarette advertisements may enhance curiosity and usage among young adults, according to a study published this week in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research.

Mammalian DNA, including the human genome, contains about 1 million SINEs (short interspersed nuclear elements), noncoding mobile genetic elements that make up about 10% of the total genome. SINEs are normally silent, though in some cases viral infection can promote their transcription into RNA.

Though the open ocean leaves few places for fish to hide from predators, some species have evolved a way to manipulate the light that fills it to camouflage themselves, a new study finds. The study's insights could pave the way to improvements in materials like polarization-sensitive satellites. Underwater, light vibrates in way that "polarizes" it.