Voles are pedestrians, too, and need just as much help crossing the road as the big animals, says new research from the University of Alberta.
“There has been a mindset that bigger is better–driven by research on large mammals and especially bears,” said Dr. Colleen Cassady St. Clair, from the Department of Biological Sciences. “This research shows that small affordable culverts, which can be placed with high frequencies while building roads, are very effective conduits for small mammals.
Essential for normal central nervous system function, dopamine signaling mediates physiological functions as diverse as movement and lactation. The dopamine transporter (DAT) is involved in terminating dopamine signaling by removing the dopamine chemical messenger molecules from nerve synapses and returning them into the releasing neurons (a process called reuptake). DAT can also bind amphetamine, cocaine, and other psychostimulants, which inhibit dopamine reuptake, and, in the case of amphetamine, a
Wolbachia have a thing against males. A member of one of the most diverse groups of bacteria, called Proteobacteria, this parasitic “endosymbiont” lives inside the reproductive cells of a wide variety of the nearly one million species of arthropods, including insects, spiders, and crustaceans.
Wolbachia’s effects range from beneficial to pathological, but if the host is male, the infection often turns out badly. The reason is the Wolbachia are transmitted through females, and to increase th
A cell responds to pollutants – such as dioxin – via intricate and complex biochemical pathways beginning with the interaction of the pollutant molecule with a cell surface receptor. Christopher Bradfield and colleagues used yeast as a model system to elucidate the steps involved in the pathway that regulates vertebrate cell response to dioxin, the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) signal transduction pathway. To assess the molecules and pathways involved in the AHR pathway, the research group studied
As more and more industries use complex technologies, their designers see the need to adopt systems that continue to function even if a component fails – an adoption that promises to be made considerably easier by the work of AMATISTA.
The IST project AMATISTA resulted in the development of what are possibly the first automatic fault tolerance (FT) insertion and simulation tools for the computer-aided design (CAD) of integrated circuits, or microchips. Now, some of the project partners are
A NASA-funded study found some climate models might be overestimating the amount of water vapor entering the atmosphere as the Earth warms. Since water vapor is the most important heat-trapping greenhouse gas in our atmosphere, some climate forecasts may be overestimating future temperature increases.
In response to human emissions of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, the Earth warms, more water evaporates from the ocean, and the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere increases. Since
Ancient Egyptians believed in properly equipping a body for the afterlife, and not just through mummification. A new study reveals that King Tutankhamun eased his arduous journey with a stash of red wine.
Spanish scientists have developed the first technique that can determine the color of wine used in ancient jars. They analyzed residues from a jar found in the tomb of King Tut and found that it contained wine made with red grapes.
This is the only extensive chemical analysis tha
Penn researchers successfully transplant cells that lead to new hair follicles
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have isolated stem cells responsible for hair follicle growth. The findings, published in the April issue of Nature Biotechnology, may serve as the foundation for new hair loss and skin grafting treatments.
Hair grows from cells located at the base of the hair follicle. Hair follicles continuously cycle through growth, rest, and re-gr
This automatic system for transport, developed under the auspices of the European Assap-one project, is a solution that enables a port container terminal to expand by means of a specific rail link to an internal or peripheral terminal (inland container terminal).
The system consists of a fleet of automatic vehicles for which IKERLAN has developed traffic system controllers that resolve the automation of the transport of containers between the two terminals in real time, thus reducing the num
The key aspect of the project is the obtaining of metal hydrides with the capacity to “store” the hydrogen used in automotive vehicle fuel batteries.
Under the auspices of the Strategic Plan for Materials and Energy being carried out by INASMET, the Armenian Institute of Chemistry & Physics of the National Academy of Sciences has signed a joint working agreement on order to make progress in one of the future energy sources such as fuel cells based on using hydrogen.
This al
Recently completed trials in Italy demonstrated the potential success of interactive multimedia advertising on mobiles devices showing high advert recall and strong user acceptance.
Conducted under the aegis of IST project, IMAP, 1600 mobile phone subscribers to the network of Telecom Italia Mobile, partners in the project, freely joined the trial of pilot advertising campaigns to evaluate interactive mobile advertisements. Similar trials have also been carried out by the project in Germany
Dental caries, the disease that causes tooth decay, is infectious, and the mutans streptococci bacteria have long been identified as the primary disease-causing agents. Thanks to numerous scientific advances, tooth decay is not as rampant as it once was, but it is still five times more common in children than asthma and seven times more common than hay fever. And about 25% of the population (in the United States) carries about 80% of the disease burden. So dental caries is still a serious problem, es
The mouse immune system develops antibodies capable of single-handedly neutralizing the SARS virus, researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) report in the April 1 issue of the Journal of Virology, available online March 12. NIAID is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
This discovery affirms that researchers developing vaccines that trigger antibodies to the SARS virus are heading in the right direction. Vaccines can stimulate the immune s
A new experiment by chemists from Stanford University and the University of Edinburgh has finally proven what beer lovers have long suspected: When beer is poured into a glass, the bubbles sometimes go down instead of up.
“Bubbles are lighter than beer, so they’re supposed to rise upward,” said Richard N. Zare, the Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor in Natural Sciences at Stanford. ’’But countless drinkers have claimed that the bubbles actually go down the side of the glass. C
Tennessee could become a model for the nation when it comes to protecting the public from chemical, biological or radiological releases.
Already, sensors that are part of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s SensorNet are deployed in Nashville, Knoxville and Oak Ridge, and in other parts of the nation. Additional sensors are planned for Memphis, Chattanooga and Sullivan County in Upper East Tennessee. ORNL project managers envision more being added in the next few years, eventually spanning
A new set of guidelines for lowering blood pressure has been published by the British Hypertension Society (BHS) today. Their main recommendation is that most people with hypertension should be on two blood pressure lowering drugs rather than one.
The guidelines which are aimed at UK doctors, are published in summary form in the BMJ today (12 March), and represent best practice in treating UK patients for hypertension.
People with a blood pressure higher than 140/90 (mm Hg) are cl
Feedback
