#The discerning fruit fly: Linking brain-cell activity and behavior in smell recognitionbehind the common expression you can't compare apples to oranges lies a fundamental question of neuroscience:
The deposition of hygroscopic salts is capable of decreasing the drought tolerance of trees co-author Shyam Pariyar says.
Using an electron microscope the scientists observed the salts becoming deliquescent and moving into the stomata of the needles.
The deliquescent salts form very thin liquid connections between the surface and interior of the needle and water is removed from the needles by these wick-like structures.
Simultaneously the deliquescent salts make wax appear degraded. This newly described mechanism was considered not in earlier explanations of Central European forest decline states Dr. Burkhardt.
some that contained only native grasses and herbs others that had plants and an herbivore grasshopper and some others that had plants and herbivores along with a carnivore spider species--all three tiers of the food chain.
The grasshoppers also shifted towards eating more herbs instead of grass under fearful scenarios. At the same time the grasses stored more carbon in their roots in a response to being disturbed at low levels
and postnatal diet may interact to modulate inflammatory mechanisms in fat deposits. Both obese groups had hyperinsulinemia
In a symbiotic relationship L. gongylophorous provides food for the leaf-cutter ant Atta cephalotes by developing fruiting bodies rich in fats amino acids and other nutrients.
To fuel production of these fruiting bodies the fungus needs sugar which comes in the form of long cellulose molecules packed inside the leaf clippings the ants deliver.
To get at the sugars the fungus produces enzymes that break the cellulose apart into glucose subunits.
Accessing and deconstructing cellulose is also the goal of GLBRC researchers who want to ferment the stored sugars to ethanol and other advanced biofuels.
In the new experiments the Rice lab mixed graphene nanoribbons and tin oxide particles about 10 nanometers wide in a slurry with a cellulose gum binder and a bit of water spread it on a current collector
The EBI is working on how to get the sugars out of plants and how to turn those to alcohols.
Mice that were fed cocoa with a high-fat diet experienced less obesity-related inflammation than mice fed the same high-fat diet without the supplement said Joshua Lambert associate professor of food science.
and diabetes in the mice that were fed the cocoa supplement were much lower than the mice that were fed the high-fat diet without the cocoa powder
and almost identical to the ones found that were fed a low-fat diet in the control group.
The cocoa powder supplement also reduced the levels of liver triglycerides in mice by a little more than 32 percent according to Lambert who worked with Yeyi Gu graduate student in food science and Shan Yu a graduate student in physiology.
Lambert said that another theory is that excess fat in the diet interferes with the body's ability to keep a bacterial component called endotoxin from entering the bloodstream through gaps between cells in the digestive system--gut barrier function
Cocoa although commonly consumed in chocolate actually has low-calorie content low-fat content and high-fiber content.
Most obesity researchers tend to steer clear of chocolate because it is high in fat high in sugar
and low in sugar. We looked at cocoa because it contains a lot of polyphenolic compounds so it is analogous to things like green tea and wine
and mustard ethylene functions as a key hormone in all plants he adds. The researchers looked at
To answer that question researchers from the USDA Agricultural research service compared nutrient and sediment loss from no-till conventional tillage and reduced-input rotation watersheds in a study published online today in Soil science Society of America Journal.
In the current study researchers provided most of the nutrients to crops in the reduced-input watersheds by planting red clover and spreading manure instead of fertilizers.
and create policies to improve food security and feed more people he added. Basso part of MSU's Global Water Initiative and his team of researchers developed the System Approach for Land-use Sustainability model.
Herbal additives to the wine were identified also including rosemary basil and/or thyme which are native to central Italy where the wine was made likely.
In the case of Celtic Europe grape wine displaced a hybrid drink of honey wheat/barley and native wild fruits (e g. lingonberry and apple) and herbs (such as bog myrtle yarrow and heather.
New studies spearheaded by the University of Utah show that human ancestors expanded their menu 3. 5 million years ago adding tropical grasses and sedges to an apelike diet and setting the stage for our modern diet
of grains grasses and meat and dairy from grazing animals. In four new studies of carbon isotopes in fossilized tooth enamel from scores of human ancestors and baboons in Africa from 4 million to 10000 years ago a team of two dozen researchers found a surprise
when human ancestors began getting much of their grass by eating grass-eating insects or meat from grazing animals.
Direct evidence of human ancestors scavenging meat doesn't appear until 2. 5 million years ago and definitive evidence of hunting dates to only about 500000 years ago.
Why Our Ancestor's Diets Matterthe earliest human ancestor to consume substantial amounts of grassy foods from dry more open savannas may signal a major and ecological and adaptive divergence from the last common ancestor we shared with African great apes
He notes that changes in diet have been linked to both larger brain size and the advent of upright walking in human ancestors roughly 4 million years ago.
If diet has anything to do with the evolution of larger brain size and intelligence then we are considering a diet that is very different than we were thinking about 15 years ago
when it was believed human ancestors ate mostly leaves and fruits Cerling says. How the Studies Were performed:
Cerling also wrote a study about baboon diets. Sponheimer wrote a fourth study summarizing the other three.
The method of determining ancient creatures'diets from carbon isotope data is less than 20 years old
cool-season grasses and grains such as timothy alfalfa wheat oats barley and rice; soybeans; non-grassy herbs and forbs.
C4 plants are warm-season or tropical grasses and sedges and their seeds leaves or storage organs like roots and tubers.
Well-known sedges include water chestnut papyrus and sawgrass. C4 plants are common in African savannas and deserts.
C4 grasses include Bermuda grass and sorghum. C4 grains include corn and millet. CAM plants include tropical succulent plants such as cactus salt bush and agave.
which largely comes from corn sorghum and meat animals fed on C4 grasses and grains Cerling says.
The highest human C3 diets today are found in Northern europe where only C3 cool-season grasses grow so meat animals there graze them not C4 tropical grasses.
The highest C4 diets likely are in Central america because of the heavily corn-based diet. If early humans ate grass-eating insects
or large grazing animals like zebras wildebeest and buffalo it also would appear they ate C4 grasses.
Small mammals such as hyrax rabbits and rodents would have added C3 and C4 signals to the teeth of human ancestors.
A Dietary History of Human Ancestors and Relativeshumans: The Only Surviving Primates with a C4 Grass Dietcerling's second new study shows that
Later Theropithecus oswaldi ate a 75 percent grass diet by 2 million years ago and a 100 percent grass diet by 1 million years ago.
and very flat forests laying eggs in sandy streambeds. Scientists only found this species in forest areas
#Female moths use olfactory signals to choose the best egg-laying sitesfunctional calcium imaging in the antennal lobes of a female Manduca sexta moth:
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology Jena Germany discovered that the ability of Manduca sexta moths to recognize changes in the profile of volatile compounds released by plants being attacked by Manduca caterpillars allows them to lay their eggs on plants that are less likely
Attracting the enemies of the herbivoresthe hawkmoth Manduca sexta lays its eggs on various plants including tobacco and Sacred Datura plants (Datura wrightii.
Once the eggs have hatched into caterpillars they start eating the leaves of their host plant
In an effort to defend itself the host plant releases green-leaf volatiles to attract various species of Geocoris predatory bugs that eat insect eggs and tiny larvae.
This alerts the moths to the fact that Geocoris bugs are likely to predate eggs
and caterpillars on the plant and as a consequence the moths lay their eggs on unattacked plants.
Hereby they minimize the risk of newly laid eggs being eaten by the predators. Another positive effect is that the competition for resources with larvae that already feed on a plant is reduced.
An artificial application of (Z)- 3-or (E)- 2-hexenol (E)- 2-hexanal or 1-hexanol to potato plants lead to a disoriented behavior observed in egg-laying potato beetles.
But the adulteration reduces the overall quality of the chocolate so cacao growers are keen to improve the quality of cacao beans exported from Ecuador.
and the chocolate made from them. Although the genome sequence of the Criollo cacao variety was reported two years ago it's genetically quite distinct
and cacao beans harvested from the plants'pods are used to produce chocolate as well as in the confectionary and cosmetic industries.
Brands with flavours such as vanilla or chocolate attract children and put them at increased risk of experimenting with cigarettes
or with cereal rather than milk used in dairy products such as cheese yogurt and ice cream. The dairy industry has set a goal of 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.
and stages of milk production from the fertilizer used to grow the animal's feed to waste disposal of packaging after consumer use.
The researchers identified many areas where the industry can reduce impact within feed and milk production processing and distribution retail and the supply chain.
They focused on farms where processes for feed production handling of enteric methane and manure management varied greatly
#Ultrasound#Making Waves for Enhancing Biofuel Productionall chefs know that you have to break some eggs to make an omelet
and his colleagues Melissa Montalbo-Lomboy and Priyanka Chand has shown that pretreating a wide variety of feedstocks (including switch grass corn stover
and allow the freed sugars to be dissolved for further processing into biofuel. Grewell and his colleagues found that pretreating
instead with ultrasound makes lignin removal so efficient that sugar dissolution occurs in minutes rather than the hours needed with traditional mixing systems.
wheat maize rice barley rye millet sorghum soybean sunflower potato cassava sugarcane sugar beet oil palm rapeseed (canola) and groundnut (peanut.
#Nordic diet lowers cholesterol, study findsa healthy Nordic diet lowers cholesterol levels and therefore the risk of cardiovascular disease a pan-Nordic study where Lund University participated has found.
The rest of the group ate butter instead of rapeseed oil less berries and vegetables and had no rules on red meat or white bread intake.
The researchers now want to focus on the diet's ability to maintain weight loss in a new study according to Lieselotte Cloetens who points out that the problem with most diets is maintaining the results.
#Changing gut bacteria through diet affects brain functionucla researchers now have the first evidence that bacteria ingested in food can affect brain function in humans.
or microbiota in the gut can affect the brain carries significant implications for future research that could point the way toward dietary
and products of the gut flora--in particular that people with high-vegetable fiber-based diets have a different composition of their microbiota
whether repeated courses of antibiotics can affect the brain as some have speculated. Antibiotics are used extensively in neonatal intensive care units
Firmer fat means longer-lasting pork. But researchers from the University of Illinois found that including saturated fats in DDGS diets makes no difference in fat quality.
The researchers formulated six corn-soybean meal diets to test the effects of saturated fat additives on carcass fat quality in pigs.
Five of these diets contained DDGS. According to the researchers pork produced from pigs fed DDGS have reduced shelf life and increased susceptibility to oxidative damage.
Oxidative damage affects texture color juiciness and the overall flavor of pork products. Distillers dried grains contain unsaturated fatty acids
and those fatty acids are deposited into the fat of the animal said Hans-Henrik Stein study co-author
and Department of Animal Science professor at the University of Illinois. From a health standpoint that's a good thing but it can be a problem
when producing pork products like bacon. According to Stein high levels of unsaturated fats make pork belly fat too soft to slice for bacon.
To counteract this problem producers have included saturated fats such as corn germ beef tallow palm kernel oil and glycerol in diets containing DDGS
in order to make the fat firmer. For this study corn germ beef tallow palm kernel oil and glycerol were added each to a diet containing DDGS.
The researchers compared the performance of pigs fed each of these diets to the performance of pigs fed a diet containing DDGS with no saturated fats added
and a control diet containing corn-soybean meal but no DDGS. Firmness of fat was tested by measuring the distance of belly flop.
This was done by draping the belly of the carcasses over a metal rod with the skin facing down.
The researchers found that pigs fed the control diet containing no DDGS had greater belly flop distances than the pigs fed the other diets.
There was no difference among the pigs fed the five diets containing DDGS. This led researchers to conclude that adding saturated fats to diets containing DDGS has no effect on the fat quality of pigs.
Stein suggested that producers feeding high levels of DDGS reduce the amount fed in the last 3 to 4 weeks before harvest to avoid the softening of fat.
Early spring is typically tree season with common tree allergens including oak maple walnut pecan and hickory.
Common weed allergens include ragweed lamb's quarter pigweed English plantain and mugwort. This year the pollen count is proving to be high in Nashville according to Valet.
of which (60%)comes down to rice wheat maize millet and sorghum. The decline in the diversity of crops and animals is occurring in tandem with the need to sharply increase world food production
The researchers also described their diet on the basis of their droppings and characterised their roosts the structure of the vegetation on their hunting grounds and the presence of potential preys.
and access to a more nutritious diet Hinde said. Shorter lactation periods could mean shorter gaps between pregnancies and a higher rate of reproduction.
David Bishop Dominic Hare and Philip Doble University of Technology Sydney Australia. The work was funded by the U s. Environmental protection agency U s. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences U s. National Science Foundation Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Australian
Although the forests where the monkeys live are remote the species is hunted for bush meat
and hunts soft-bodied prey including earthworms and amphibian eggs in addition to snails and slugs. This harmless snake defends itself by mimicking the alternating dark and light rings of venomous coral snakes.
They are a lineage of scorpionflies characterized by their skinny bodies two pairs of narrow wings and long threadlike legs.
The fruits and vegetables we buy from the grocery today were passed down from generation to generation as favorable and nutritious for the human body.
#Whodunnit of Irish potato famine solvedan international team of scientists reveals that a unique strain of potato blight they call HERB-1 triggered The irish potato famine of the mid-nineteenth century.
and how human activity impacts the spread of plant disease. Phytophthora infestans changed the course of history. Even today The irish population has recovered still not to pre-famine levels.
We have discovered finally the identity of the exact strain that caused all this havoc says Hernã¡
and the US reconstructed the spread of the potato blight pathogen from dried plants. Although these were 170 to 120 years old they were found to have many intact pieces of DNA.
The researchers examined the historical spread of the funguslike oomycete Phytophthora infestans known as The irish potato famine pathogen.
The HERB-1 strain of Phytophthora infestans likely emerged in the early 1800s and continued its global conquest throughout the 19th century.
Only in the twentieth century after new potato varieties were introduced was replaced HERB-1 by another Phytophthora infestans strain US-1. The scientists found several connections with historic events.
The social upheaval during that time may have led to a spread of the pathogen from its center of origin in Toluca Valley Mexico.
Discovery of ancient diet shatters conventional ideas of how agriculture emergedarchaeologists have made a discovery in southern subtropical China
We have used a relatively new method known as ancient starch analysis to analyse ancient human diet.
This technique can tell us things about human diet in the past that no other method can.
ie. some seeds and tuberous plants such as freshwater chestnuts lotus root and the fern root the addition of starch from palms was unexpected totally and very exciting.
Many communities in the tropics today particularly in Borneo and Indonesia but also in eastern India still rely on flour derived from palms.
Sedentary groups that utilise palms for their starch today plant suckers nearby the village thus maintaining continuous supply.
When sunlight is absorbed by pigment molecules in a chloroplast an energized electron is generated that moves from molecule to molecule through a transport chain until ultimately it drives the conversion of carbon dioxide into carbohydrate sugars.
Only a third of college students consumes a diet that is consistent with national recommendations said Meg Small research associate in the Prevention Research center for the Promotion of Human Development.
Tomatoes potatoes aubergines peppers and wolfberries are all representatives of the family present on many tables across the world.
because they can find food in the form of pollen and nectar. A syrphid hovers over alyssum.
Tomatoes potatoes aubergines peppers and wolfberries are all representatives of the family present on many tables across the world.
because they can find food in the form of pollen and nectar. A syrphid hovers over alyssum.
Of these 20 positive samples 10 were isolated from chickens 3 from pigeons and 7 were from environmental samples.
what a foodstuff tastes like. In fact the tongue can recognize basic tastes like sweet sour salty bitter and umami (savory.
This compound gives the ripe fruit its characteristic caramel-like aroma. HDMF is also found in pineapples and tomatoes.
In the course of their research the scientists discovered that the catalytic reaction involved a hitherto unknown mechanism.
Unlike coffee or vanilla the biochemical processes that produce the strawberry aroma are very complex.
#Poultry drug increases levels of toxic arsenic in chicken meatchickens likely raised with arsenic-based drugs result in chicken meat that has higher levels of inorganic arsenic a known carcinogen according to a new study
versus other forms) in retail chicken meat and the first to compare those concentrations according to
The findings provide evidence that arsenical use in chickens poses public health risks and indicate that the Food
and known as roxarsone was readily available to poultry companies that wished to add it to their Feed in addition to inorganic arsenic the researchers were able to identify residual roxarsone in the meat they studied;
in the meat where roxarsone was detected levels of inorganic arsenic were four times higher than the levels in USDA Organic chicken (in
and improve the pigmentation of the meat. The drugs are approved also to treat and prevent parasites in poultry.
In 2010 industry representatives estimated that 88 percent of the roughly nine billion chickens raised for human consumption in the U s. received roxarsone.
Currently in the U s. there is no federal law prohibiting the sale or use of arsenic-based drugs in poultry feed.
In January Maryland became the first U s. state to ban the use of most arsenicals in chicken feed.
although the agency did for a brief time in 2011 suggest that concentrations should be well below 1 microgram per kilogram of meat.
The levels of inorganic arsenic discovered in the meat where roxarsone was found were two and three times greater than that level.
when roxarsone was present in raw meat cooking decreased the levels of roxarsone and increased the levels of inorganic arsenic.
and the findings raise serious concern about proposals to use cattle grazing to help control its spread in areas where native bunchgrasses still persist.
which minimizes the water and nutrients available to cheatgrass. Using data from 75 study sites researchers found that high levels of cattle grazing were associated with reduced bunchgrass cover with wider
and allergies and providing the perfect balance of nutrients to help infants grow into strong and healthy toddlers.
which contains high concentrations of nutrients and antibodies for the baby. During this period babies often lose weight
and the University at Buffalo will report its findings on May 12 in Nature. The study was directed by LANGEBIO Director and Professor Luis Herrera-Estrella and UB Professor of Biological sciences Victor Albert with contributions from scientists in the United states Mexico China Singapore Spain and Germany.
which for genes feeds into the machinery that makes proteins. But Herrera-Estrella Albert and their colleagues argue that organisms may not bulk up on genetic junk for reasons of benefit.
That is at three distinct times in the course of its evolution the bladderwort's genome doubled in size with offspring receiving two full copies of the species'entire genome.
The study was supported by CONACYT (Mexico) Howard Hughes Medical Institute the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences and the National Science Foundation.
The above story is provided based on materials by University at Buffalo. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
This strain known as H3n2 spread around the globe and eventually killed an estimated 1 million people.
#Earliest archaeological evidence of human ancestors hunting and scavenginga recent Baylor University research study has shed new light on the diet and food acquisition strategies of some the earliest human ancestors in Africa.
Considered in total this study provides important early archaeological evidence for meat eating hunting and scavenging behaviors-cornerstone adaptations that likely facilitated brain expansion in human evolution movement of hominins out of Africa and into Eurasia as well as important shifts in our social behavior anatomy and physiology
According to researchers hominins at KJS met their new energy requirements through an increased reliance on meat eating.
and hyenas were unable to break them open to access their nutrient-rich brains. Tool-wielding hominins at KJS on the other hand could access this tissue
but will also inflict climate feedbacks that will decrease the productivity of pasture and soybeans.
#Could eating peppers prevent Parkinsons? Dietary nicotine may hold protective keynew research reveals that Solanaceae--a flowering plant family with some species producing foods that are edible sources of nicotine--may provide a protective effect against Parkinson's disease.
and Child Neurology Society suggests that eating foods that contain even a small amount of nicotine such as peppers
Questionnaires were used to assess participants'lifetime diets and tobacco use which researchers defined as ever smoking more than 100 cigarettes
but as consumption of edible Solanaceae increased Parkinson's disease risk decreased with peppers displaying the strongest association.
Similar to the many studies that indicate tobacco use might reduce risk of Parkinson's our findings also suggest a protective effect from nicotine or perhaps a similar but less toxic chemical in peppers and tobacco.
#Coumarin in cinnamon and cinnamon-based products and risk of liver damagemany kinds of cinnamon cinnamon-flavored foods beverages and food supplements in the United states use a form of the spice that contains high levels of a natural
substance that may cause liver damage in some sensitive people scientists are reporting. Their study published in ACS'Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found similar results as those published in the European union.
Ikhlas Khan and colleagues explain that cinnamon which comes from the bark of certain trees is one of the most important flavoring agents used in foods and beverages.
True or Ceylon cinnamon is expensive so most breads sticky buns and other products in the United states use dried cassia bark or cassia cinnamon.
Ceylon cinnamon contains very little coumarin a naturally occurring substance that has been linked to liver damage in people sensitive to the substance.
However cassia cinnamon can contain larger amounts. Khan's team decided to check on the coumarin content of a wide variety of food products.
As found in this study coumarin was present sometimes in substantial amounts in cinnamon-based food supplements
and cinnamon-flavored foods they say. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by American Chemical Society.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
#Soy and tomato may be effective in preventing prostate cancertomatoes and soy foods may be more effective in preventing prostate cancer
From the time they were 4 to 18 weeks old the animals were fed one of four diets:(
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011