Marginalized residents of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside are dying at more than eight times the national average, and treatable conditions are the greatest risk factors for mortality, researchers at the University of British Columbia have found. In research outlined in the British Medical Journal Open, investigators recruited 371 study participants aged 23 to 72 from single room occupancy hotels and the Downtown Community Court. Over the course of nearly four years, 31 participants died--a mortality rate 8.29 times the average for Canadians of the same age and sex. For ...

Scientists believe that about 4 billion years ago, during a period called the Late Heavy Bombardment, the moon took a severe beating, as an army of asteroids pelted its surface, carving out craters and opening deep fissures in its crust. Such sustained impacts increased the moon's porosity, opening up a network of large seams beneath the lunar surface. Now scientists at MIT and elsewhere have identified regions on the far side of the moon, called the lunar highlands, that may have been so heavily bombarded -- particularly by small asteroids -- that the impacts completely ...

Researchers from Northwestern University and Yale University have developed a user-friendly technology to help scientists understand how proteins work and fix them when they are broken. Such knowledge could pave the way for new drugs for a myriad of diseases, including cancer. The human body has a nifty way of turning its proteins on and off to alter their function and activity in cells: phosphorylation, the reversible attachment of phosphate groups to proteins. These "decorations" on proteins provide an enormous variety of function and are essential to all forms of life. ...

Alexandria, VA - In a study covered by EARTH Magazine, geoscientists identified fossils that are helping close the 15-million-year period in the fossil record known as Romer's Gap - the time from when fish showed early evidence of arms and legs until we definitively see four-legged land animals. Scientists have been wondering for decades whether Romer's Gap exists because tetrapod fossils from that time were not preserved, or because their fossils simply have not been discovered yet. These new fossils are starting to close the gap and change the way scientists interpret ...

IVF cycles using embryos that have been frozen and thawed are just as successful as fresh embryos according to a new UNSW report. The Assisted Reproductive Technology in Australia and New Zealand 2013 report, by UNSW's National Perinatal Epidemiology and Statistics Unit (NPESU), shows in the five years to 2013, fresh embryo IVF cycles that resulted in a baby remained stable at around 23%. However, there has been a more than 25% increase in the birth rate for frozen embryo transfers in the last five years, rising from 18% to 23%. The report also found a growing number ...

Patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (sinus infection) and obstructive sleep apnea report a poor quality of life, which is substantially improved following endoscopic sinus surgery, according to a study published online by JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery. A growing body of literature has highlighted the important links between quality of life (QOL), sleep, and chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), such that disease severity has been correlated with worse QOL and patients with worse QOL have poor sleep. It is possible that CRS propagates sleep dysfunction through many ...

This news release is available in German. The goal of brain simulations using supercomputers is to understand the processes in our brain. This is a mammoth task: the activity of an estimated 100 billion nerve cells - also known as neurons - must be represented . It is also a task that has historically been impossible because even the most powerful computers in the world can only simulate one percent of the nerve cells due to memory constraints. For this reason, scientists have turned to downscaled models. However, this downscaling is problematic, as shown by a recent ...

Japan has experienced large rainfall that caused flooding and large evacuations as a result of two weather systems. NASA's GPM Core satellite measured rainfall as NASA's RapidScat saw Etau and Typhoon Kilo on either side of Japan. Over the past week Japan has experienced extreme rainfall that resulted in flooding, landslides and many injuries. A nearly stationary front that was already moving over Japan caused much of the rain but Tropical Storm Etau also interacted with the front and magnified the scale of the deluge. Heavy rainfall led to the evacuation of over one ...

NEW YORK, NY (September 10, 2015)--Researchers have discovered why long-term use of L-DOPA (levodopa), the most effective treatment for Parkinson's disease, commonly leads to a movement problem called dyskinesia, a side effect that can be as debilitating as Parkinson's disease itself. Using a new method for manipulating neurons in a mouse model of Parkinson's, a Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) research team found that dyskinesia arises when striatonigral neurons become less responsive to GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter. This suggests that it may be possible ...

Alexandria, VA - The American Geosciences Institute's (AGI) is pleased to announce the release of a community consensus statement on access and inclusion of geoscientists with disabilities. This statement was inspired by the 2014 AGI Leadership Forum, which brought together the Executive Directors and Presidents of AGI's Member Societies to discuss the issue of access and inclusion of persons with disabilities in the geosciences. The meeting was facilitated by the Executive Director of the International Association for Geoscience Diversity (IAGD) Christopher Atchison, ...

NASA's RapidScat instrument analyzed the sustained surface winds of Tropical Storm Henri on Sept. 8 as the storm was intensifying. When the International Space Station flew over Tropical Depression 8 in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean on September 8 at 1p.m. EDT, NASA's RapidScat instrument aboard captured data on the storm's surface winds. RapidScat showed that there were tropical-storm-force winds north and east of the center near 27 meters per second (60.4 mph/97.2 kph). However, sustained winds on the west and southwestern quadrants were near 12 meters per second (26.8 ...

September 10, 2015 (Washington) - There are substantial differences among Americans when it comes to knowledge and understanding of science topics, especially by educational levels as well as by gender, age, race and ethnicity, according to a new Pew Research Center report. The representative survey of more than 3,200 U.S. adults finds that, on the 12 multiple-choice questions asked, Americans gave more correct than incorrect answers. The median was eight correct answers out of 12 (mean 7.9). Some 27% answered eight or nine questions correctly, while another 26% answered ...

DOWNERS GROVE, Ill.-- September 10, 2015--Having patients lie on their left side while the right side of their colon is being examined can result in more polyps being found, thus increasing the effectiveness of colonoscopy for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening, according to a study in the September issue of GIE: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE). CRC is one of the most common cancers in the US and other western countries. Studies have shown that deaths from CRC are reduced ...

Two recently published studies in the journals Age and the British Journal of Nutrition (BJN) demonstrate that consuming cocoa flavanols improves cardiovascular function and lessens the burden on the heart that comes with the ageing and stiffening of arteries. The studies also provide novel data to indicate that intake of cocoa flavanols reduces the risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD). As we age, our blood vessels become less flexible and less able to expand to let blood flow and circulate normally, and the risk of hypertension also increases. Arterial stiffness ...

This news release is available in German. Protein labeling with synthetic fluorescent probes is a key technology in chemical biology and biomedical research. The target proximity achieved by small-molecule probes is essential to exploit the full potential of super-resolution fluorescence microscopy. Single-molecule localization techniques provide high spatial resolution by reporting on the position of the fluorophore and thus only indirectly on the target molecule itself. Large labels, such as antibodies, can misleadingly position a fluorophore tens of nanometers away ...

An international research team, which includes NYU anthropologists Scott Williams and Myra Laird, has discovered a new species of a human relative. Homo naledi, uncovered in a cave outside of Johannesburg, South Africa, sheds light on the diversity of our genus and possibly its origin. "This discovery is unprecedented in the sheer number of hominins collected from such a small area in the virtual absence of other animal remains," says Williams, an assistant professor in NYU's Department of Anthropology. "That makes this site unique. Moreover, the announcement describes ...

Bethesda, MD (Sept. 10, 2015) -- Detection of small fragments of tumor DNA, known as circulating tumor DNA, in a patient's pre-surgery serum samples predicts early recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma and may guide treatment, according to a study1 published in Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the basic and translational science journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. Hepatocellular carcinoma -- the most common type of liver cancer -- is the third leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. "We uncovered that circulating tumor DNA ...

The steps involved in evaluating and diagnosing patients with epilepsy are complicated. In a new and extensive literature review of available information, experts provide insights on the valuable role of genetic testing in the diagnosis and care of pediatric epilepsy. Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder that affects up to 1.5% of the world's population and is more commonly diagnosed in children than adults. Most cases of epilepsy have been considered "idiopathic" or of unknown cause, but recent advances in genetic testing are providing insights on the potential ...

In a modern, multicore chip, every core -- or processor -- has its own small memory cache, where it stores frequently used data. But the chip also has a larger, shared cache, which all the cores can access. If one core tries to update data in the shared cache, other cores working on the same data need to know. So the shared cache keeps a directory of which cores have copies of which data. That directory takes up a significant chunk of memory: In a 64-core chip, it might be 12 percent of the shared cache. And that percentage will only increase with the core count. Envisioned ...

MADISON, Wis. -- Working in a cave complex deep beneath South Africa's Malmani dolomites, an international team of scientists has brought to light an unprecedented trove of hominin fossils -- more than 1,500 well-preserved bones and teeth -- representing the largest, most complete set of such remains found to date in Africa. The discovery of the fossils, cached in a barely accessible chamber in a subterranean labyrinth not far from Johannesburg, adds a new branch to the human family tree, a creature dubbed Homo naledi. The remains, scientists believe, could only have ...

Bethesda, MD (Sept. 10, 2015) --All colorectal cancer patients should undergo tumor testing to see if they carry Lynch syndrome, the most common inherited cause of colorectal cancer, according to a new guideline1 published in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. "Approximately 50,000 Americans are expected to die from colorectal cancer this year, and hereditary syndromes account for a small, but important fraction of those diagnoses," said Joel H. Rubenstein, MD, AGAF, lead author of the guideline, research scientist ...

A new study of more than 500 Black and Latino college students has confirmed that many encounter obstacles after enrolling in college without adequate financial resources. "Students were surveyed in the fall, winter and spring of freshman year," said Micere Keels, associate professor in comparative human development at the University of Chicago, who led the study. "At each time-point, approximately 35 percent reported having difficulty paying their bills, being upset that they did not have enough money and being concerned that they would not be able to afford to complete ...

Amsterdam, September 10, 2015 - Surgery to remove the breasts of women at increased risk of developing breast cancer may not be necessary in the future, according to research published in EBioMedicine. Two new studies looking at the effect the menstrual cycle has on the development of breast and ovarian cancer reveal alternative prevention strategies that may render surgery unnecessary. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide and ovarian cancer is the deadliest gynaecological cancer. Women who have inherited mutations in genes called BRCA1 and BRCA2 ...

The discovery of a new species of human relative was announced today, 10 September 2015, by the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University), the National Geographic Society and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF). Besides shedding light on the origins and diversity of our genus, the new species, Homo naledi, appears to have intentionally deposited bodies of its dead in a remote cave chamber, a behaviour previously thought limited to humans. Consisting of more than 1 550 numbered fossil elements, ...

An accident waiting to happen: that's what an intoxicated driver is whose attention is further distracted by anything from a text message to dashboard controls. Such distractions are just too much to handle safely, even for people who drive while still within the legal alcohol limits, say Nicholas van Dyke and Mark Fillmore of the University of Kentucky in the US. Their study provides some of the first evidence on the degree to which distractions influence the ability of intoxicated drivers to safely control their vehicles. The findings are published in Springer's journal ...