Tech
Health has always been affected by climate and weather, but is increasingly clear that the change in climate is a significant threat to human health. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 24% of global deaths are linked to environmental factors [1]. Climate change and pollution can lead to undernutrition, mental disorders, and noncommunicable diseases including chronic kidney disease and acute kidney injury [2].
SGLT2 inhibitors (gliflozins) were developed as oral antidiabetics. They enhance urinary glucose excretion by inhibiting SGLT-2 (sodium-dependent glucose co-transporter-2) in the renal tubuli. The discovery of kidney benefits beyond the lowering of blood sugar has been made by Professor Christoph Wanner from Germany: The EMPA-REG OUTCOME study [2] initially showed that the rate of cardiovascular events in type 2 diabetic pa-tients is significantly reduced if the SGLT2 inhibitor empagliflozin is administered.
A traditional Vietnamese meat snack could hold the key to developing a safe and natural food preservative, addressing the twin global problems of food waste and food-borne illnesses.
Key Points
Bacteria-killing compound discovered in Nem Chua, a fermented pork snack
Toxic to bacteria but safe for humans, it's a natural alternative to artificial food preservatives
New study reveals ideal growth conditions to potentially make the bacteria-killer at industrial scales
The friendship paradox is the observation that the degrees of the neighbors of a node within any network will, on average, be greater than the degree of the node itself. In other words: your friends probably have more friends than you do.
While the standard framing of the friendship paradox is essentially about averages, significant variations occur too.
In the Journal of Complex Networks, Santa Fe Institute and University of Michigan researchers George Cantwell, Alec Kirkley, and Mark Newman address this by developing the mathematical theory of the friendship paradox.
Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) is a rare form of kidney inflammation (glomerulonephritis) in which the glomeruli become increasingly scarred (sclerotic), leading to progressive loss of kidney function. Dysregulation of the immune system plays a role in pathogenesis, which is why immunosuppressive therapy with glucocorticoids can be successful, alongside supportive therapy (especially blocking of the renin-angiotensin system with ACE inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers). Many patients nevertheless require dialysis in the course of the disease.
A team led by UC Riverside engineers has developed a catalyst to remove a dangerous chemical from water on Earth that could also make Martian soil safer for agriculture and help produce oxygen for human Mars explorers.
Water is weird - and yet so important. In fact, it is one of the most unusual molecules on Earth. It boils at a temperature it shouldn't. It expands and floats when it is in the solid-state. Its surface tension is higher than it should be. Now, new research published in the journal Nature has added one other equally strange property to water's list of oddities. The implications of this new revelation could have a remarkable impact on all water-related processes from water purification to drug manufacturing.
A research group from Kobe University has demonstrated that the heat generated by the impact of a small astronomical body could enable aqueous alteration (*1) and organic solid formation to occur on the surface of an asteroid. They achieved this by first conducting high-velocity impact cratering experiments using an asteroid-like target material and measuring the post-impact heat distribution around the resulting crater. From these results, they then established a rule-of-thumb for maximum temperature and the duration of the heating, and developed a heat conduction model from this.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- A new study of monsoon rainfall on the Indian subcontinent over the past million years provides vital clues about how the monsoons will respond to future climate change.
In a large, international retrospective study, men at high risk for death from prostate cancer had a significant reduction in all-cause mortality if treated with radiation shortly after surgery.
The cost of offsetting corporate carbon emissions needs to increase ten-fold to drive meaningful climate action, says a landmark report by Trove Research and UCL.
Current prices of carbon offsets are unsustainably low and need to increase significantly to encourage greater investment in new projects that remove carbon from the atmosphere.
If prices stay low companies could be accused of greenwashing their emissions, as real emissions reduction and carbon removals are more costly than today's prices.
A new study shows that substantial amounts of carbon dioxide were released during the last millennium because of crop cultivation on peatlands in the Northern Hemisphere.
Only about half of the carbon released through the conversion of peat to croplands was compensated by continuous carbon absorption in natural northern peatlands.
Peatlands are a type of wetland which store more organic carbon than any other type of land ecosystem in the world.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - New research suggests that African American families living in public housing are a "hidden population" when it comes to national suicide prevention efforts.
The study showed 11% of Black teens and young adults living in a mid-Atlantic public housing development reported that in the previous 12 months, they had made a plan to die by suicide.
How plants cope with stress factors has already been broadly researched. Yet what happens when a plant is confronted with two stressors simultaneously? A research team working with Simon Haberstroh and Prof. Dr. Christiane Werner of the Chair of Ecosystem Physiology at the Institute of Forest Sciences and Natural Resources (UNR) of the University of Freiburg is investigating this.