After decades of public safety campaigns focused on drinking and driving, it may be time to focus on the seventh leading cause of injury-related death, according to Bureau of Occupational Health and Injury Prevention at New York State Department of Health and Columbia University scholars looking at New York State.
In the blockbuster "Jurassic World", actor Chris Pratt joins forces with a pack of swift and lethal velociraptors. "Velociraptor belongs to a group of predatory dinosaurs called the deinonychosaurs, or simply the 'raptors'," says University of Alberta paleontologist Scott Persons. "Raptors are characterized by particularly nasty feet. Their big toes each bore an enlarged and wickedly hooked talon, which makes raptors well suited for Hollywood fight scenes."
Persons and University of Alberta alumnus Lida Xing are part of the research team that has just documented a rich fossil footprint site in central China, which contains the tracks of several kinds of dinosaurs, including raptors. From these tracks, the team has gained new insights into raptor locomotion.
Stem cells are especially sensitive to oxygen radicals and antioxidants shows new research from the group of Anu Wartiovaara in the Molecular Neurology Research Program of University of Helsinki.
Mitochondria are cellular power plants that use oxygen to produce energy. As a by-product they produce reactive oxygen. Excessive oxygen radicals may cause damage to cells but they are needed in small quantities as important cellular signaling molecules. One of their main functions is to control function of stem cells. Antioxidants are widely used to block the damage caused by reactive oxygen. To enhance their effect some new antioxidants are targeted to accumulate into mitochondria.
A new study in Addiction finds that in England, children's exposure to second-hand smoke has declined by approximately 80% since 1998.
Also, an emerging social norm in England has led to the adoption of smoke-free homes not only when parents are non-smokers but also when they smoke. The proportion of children living in a home reported to be smoke-free increased from 63% in 1998 to 87.3% in 2012.
Randomized controlled trials must be simplified to sustain innovation in cardiovascular diseases, which are still the biggest killer in Europe, according to the Cardiovascular Round Table (CRT), an independent forum established by the European Society of Cardiology and comprised of cardiologists and representatives of the pharmaceutical, device and equipment industries.
The paper outlines barriers to investing in cardiovascular research and the authors recommend new ways to conduct clinical research to make investment more attractive and bring drugs to market sooner.
Woodlice are able to calm their excited neighbors according to findings made by Pierre Broly and Jean-Louis Deneubourg of the Free Brussels University (Belgium).
Woodlice, familiar to the amateur gardeners, are easily observable living in groups sheltered under stones or barks. Research published in PLOS Computational Biology shows how a 'contagion' between the different behavioral states of woodlice may govern the stability of their groups.
Regions all over the globe are suffering from severe drought, which threatens crop production worldwide. This is especially worrisome given the need to increase, not just maintain, crop yields to feed the increasing global population.
Over the course of evolution, plants have developed mechanisms to adapt to periods of inadequate water, and as any gardener can tell you, some species are better able to handle drought than others. Accordingly, scientists have invested much effort to understand how plants respond to drought stress and what can be done to increase the drought tolerance of economically important plants.
A team of researchers from Brazil and Canada has found a South American example of interactions between a group of flies and the mushrooms they feed on as larvae. Though this group of flies has more than 1,100 species known from South and Central America, this is the first report of a species from the family being reared from, and associated with, a host fungus from the South America.
Even with the large amount of recent research on South American biodiversity, there are still large areas of study that remain unexplored. The natural history and diversity of the mushroom eating fauna (i.e., fungivores) in the region falls into this category.
In the developed world, companies want to make food as delicious as possible and consumers want to buy what tastes good. To compensate for nutritionist concerns about sugar, artificial sweeteners began to be used.
But then there was speculation that since artificial sweeteners don't contain the calories or energy that evolution has trained the brain to expect from sweet-tasting foods, they don't fool the brain into satisfying hunger.
The increasing use of video games is often blamed for children's lack of interest in physical activity and for obesity, but a study in the Games for Health Journal suggests that active video games may actually be a source of moderate or intense physical activity in children five to eight years old. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends that children participate in at least 60 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity each day.
Some brain tumors are notoriously difficult to treat. Whether surgically removed, zapped by radiation or infiltrated by chemotherapy drugs, they find a way to return.
The ability of many brain tumors to regenerate can be traced to cancer stem cells that evade treatment and spur the growth of new tumor cells.
But some brain tumor stem cells may have an Achilles' heel, scientists have found. The cancer stem cells' remarkable abilities have to be maintained, and researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a key player in that maintenance process. When the process is disrupted, they found, so is the spread of cancer.
Adults who are following the DASH-style eating pattern to lower their blood pressure can expand their protein options to include lean, unprocessed pork, according to research from Purdue University.
'This study supports that the DASH diet can include lean, unprocessed red meats in the appropriate serving sizes,' said Wayne Campbell, a professor of nutrition science.
The study compared lean, unprocessed pork with chicken and fish as the predominant protein source in a DASH-style diet.
This study applies only to cuts of unprocessed lean pork, such as tenderloin and fresh, uncured ham trimmed of visible fat. Each serving size was three ounces. These findings should not be extrapolated to other pork products with higher fat and salt content, Campbell said.
A comprehensive study of a major California estuary has documented the links between nutrient runoff from coastal land use, the health of the estuary as a nursery for young fish, and the abundance of fish in an offshore commercial fishery. The study focused on Elkhorn Slough and Monterey Bay on California's central coast.
