The nutrients excreted by fish in their "pee" may be critical to the health of coastal ecosystems. But knowing whether generalizations can be made about how to predict these nutrient levels in various ecosystems has vexed researchers - until now. In a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, North Carolina State University associate professor Craig Layman and colleagues show that ecologists can better predict the rates of how these chemical nutrients are transferred by fish if they know the various fish species living in an ecosystem, along ...

An international team of scientists, led by researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, have found genetic overlap between Alzheimer's disease (AD) and two significant cardiovascular disease risk factors: high levels of inflammatory C-reactive protein (CRP) and plasma lipids or fats. The findings, based upon genome-wide association studies involving hundreds of thousands of individuals, suggest the two cardiovascular phenotypes play a role in AD risk - and perhaps offer a new avenue for potentially delaying disease progression. The findings ...

A potentially game-changing breakthrough in artificial photosynthesis has been achieved with the development of a system that can capture carbon dioxide emissions before they are vented into the atmosphere and then, powered by solar energy, convert that carbon dioxide into valuable chemical products, including biodegradable plastics, pharmaceutical drugs and even liquid fuels. Scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley have created a hybrid system of semiconducting ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. - A national survey suggests that slightly more than half of the older adults in the United States are now taking a daily dose of aspirin, even though its use is not recommended by the Food and Drug Administration for most people who have not yet had a heart attack or stroke. The analysis was published today in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. It observed that aspirin use is continuing to surge, especially among adults who are using it for "primary prevention," meaning in order to prevent an initial cardiovascular event, and in some cases to ...

The psychological impact and private agony of infertility must be carefully considered by healthcare professionals, suggests a new review, published today (Friday 10 April) in The Obstetrician & Gynaecologist (TOG). The review identifies infertility as a complex state and life crisis and sets out the dangers of neglecting the emotional impact of involuntary childlessness and viewing it solely in biological or medical terms.1 The article provides an introduction to infertility counselling in the UK, within the context of fertility treatment. This includes an explanation ...

Analysis of the longer-term influence of menopausal hormone therapy on breast cancer incidence in two Women's Health Initiative (WHI) clinical trials suggests a pattern of changing influences over time on breast cancer, according to an article published online by JAMA Oncology. Use of menopausal hormone therapy decreased dramatically after reports of increased breast cancer risk with estrogen plus progestin from the WHI randomized clinical trial followed by the Million Women Study observational analysis. Following the initial WHI reports, decreases in both combined estrogen ...

Obesity was associated with an increased risk for prostate cancer in African American men and that risk grew by nearly four times as body-mass index (BMI) increased, according to an article published online by JAMA Oncology. African American men have the highest incidence of prostate cancer of any racial or ethnic group in the United States, as well as the highest rates of aggressive disease and prostate cancer death. These elevated risks likely arise from both social and biologic factors. The associations of obesity with prostate cancer risk are complex. Wendy E. Barrington, ...

Advice on preventing and treating venous thromboembolism (VTE) during pregnancy, birth and following delivery is outlined in two new revised guidelines published today (13 April) by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and launched at the RCOG World Congress in Brisbane, Australia. VTE refers to the formation of a clot within veins. This can occur anywhere in the venous system, but the predominant sites are in the vessels of the leg (giving rise to deep vein thrombosis (DVT)) and in the lungs (resulting in a pulmonary embolism (PE)). The Green-top ...

Two primatologists working in the forests of the Republic of Congo have returned from the field with a noteworthy prize: the first-ever photograph of the Bouvier's red colobus monkey, a rare primate not seen for more than half a century and suspected to be extinct by some, according to WCS (the Wildlife Conservation Society). The elusive primate was recently photographed by independent researchers Lieven Devreese and Gaël Elie Gnondo Gobolo within Ntokou-Pikounda National Park, a 4,572-square-kilometer (1,765-square-mile) protected area created on advice from WCS ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Discussing end-of-life wishes with loved ones can be difficult, but new research from the University of Missouri shows more individuals are engaging in advance care planning. Advance care planning includes discussing end-of-life care preferences, providing written end-of-life care instructions and appointing a durable power of attorney for health care. "Advance care planning increases the likelihood that the care one receives at the end of her life is congruent with what she wants," said lead author Nidhi Khosla, an assistant professor of health sciences ...

This news release is available in French. Many potentially efficient drugs have been created to treat neurological disorders, but they cannot be used in practice. Typically, for a condition such as epilepsy, it is essential to act at exactly the right time and place in the brain. For this reason, the team of researchers led by Christophe Bernard at Inserm Unit 1106, "Institute of Systems Neuroscience" (INS), with the help of scientists at the École des Mines de Saint-Étienne and Linköping University (Sweden) have developed an organic electronic micropump ...

Fairfax, Va., April 16, 2015--The "Radiation and the Modern Management of Lymphoma" issue (May 1, 2015) of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology * Biology * Physics (Red Journal), the official scientific journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), is focused on the integral role of radiation therapy in current lymphoma treatment. May 2015 marks 50 years since the first multidisciplinary lymphoma conference, "La Radiotherapie de la Maladie de Hodgkin," was held in Paris in 1965, which led to a more comprehensive understanding of the cancer's ...

Older adults who keep a clean and orderly home--because of the exercise it takes to get the job done--tend to feel emotionally and physically better after tackling house chores, according to new findings by a Case Western Reserve University school of nursing researcher. "House cleaning kept them up and moving," said Kathy D. Wright, PhD, RN, CNS, a postdoctoral KL2 Scholar at the university's Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing. "A clean environment is therapeutic." Wright and a research team set out to test a theory called House's Conceptual Framework for Understanding ...

CHICAGO (April 16, 2015): People with limited education and low income have higher odds of death within 30 days after undergoing an operation for lung cancer than those who are more educated and financially better off, according to new research published as an article in press on the website of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons in advance of print publication later this year. "In order to get uniform superior outcomes for our patients, we need to identify the patients who are at risk for worse outcomes," said study co-author Felix G. Fernandez, MD, FACS, ...

A concentrated extract of maple syrup makes disease-causing bacteria more susceptible to antibiotics, according to laboratory experiments by researchers at McGill University. The findings, which will be published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, suggest that combining maple syrup extract with common antibiotics could increase the microbes' susceptibility, leading to lower antibiotic usage. Overuse of antibiotics fuels the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria, which has become a major public-health concern worldwide. Prof. Nathalie Tufenkji's research ...

Neutrinos are a type of particle that pass through just about everything in their path from even the most distant regions of the universe. The Earth is constantly bombarded by billions of neutrinos, which zip right through the entire globe, houses, animals, people - everything. Only very rarely do they react with matter, but the giant IceCube experiment at the South Pole can detect when there is a collision between neutrinos and atoms in the ice using a network of detectors. New research results from the Niels Bohr Institute among others have measured the neutrinos at the ...

The GPM satellite showed the effects of wind shear and waning rainfall rates in Extra-tropical Cyclone Joalane as it was moving in a southeasterly direction through the Southern Indian Ocean. The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) core observatory satellite had a last look at the remnants of Tropical Cyclone Joalane on April 14, 2015 at 1135 UTC (4:35 p.m. local time/7:35 a.m. EDT/U.S.). GPM's Microwave Imager (GMI) instrument found very little rainfall around Joalane's center and light to moderate rainfall in bands on the outer edges of the rapidly weakening tropical ...

Eating healthy is sometimes a challenge on its own, so technology should ease that burden - not increase it - according to new research from the Georgia Institute of Technology and University of Washington. Researchers studied how mobile-based food journals integrate into everyday life and specific challenges when using food journaling technology. Their research suggests how future designs might make it easier and more effective. The research study uncovered three problem areas: barriers to reliable food entry, negative nudges in current food journal apps and challenges ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Pre-eclampsia is a disease that affects 5 to 8 percent of pregnancies in America. Complications from this disease can lead to emergency cesarean sections early in pregnancies to save the lives of the infants and mothers. Scientists believe pre-eclampsia is caused by a number of factors, including shallow placentas that are insufficiently associated with maternal blood vessels. Now, researchers from the University of Missouri, in an effort to grow placenta cells to better study the causes of pre-eclampsia, serendipitously discovered a previously unknown form ...

New research might bring a frown to even the most heavily botoxed faces, with scientists finding how some of the potent toxin used for cosmetic surgery escapes into the central nervous system. Researchers at The University of Queensland have shown how Botox - also known as Botulinum neurotoxin serotype A - is transported via our nerves back to the central nervous system. Botox - best known for its ability to smooth wrinkles - has been extremely useful for the treatment of over-active muscles and spasticity as it promotes local and long-term paralysis. UQ Queensland ...

WASHINGTON - Faced with requests to meet with potential doctoral students of easily identifiable gender, race or ethnicity, faculty in almost every academic discipline are significantly more responsive to white males than to women and minorities, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. And faculty in higher-paid disciplines, such as business, engineering/computer science and the life sciences, and those at private universities, show more of this bias than their counterparts in lower-paying disciplines and public universities, the study ...

Alexandria, VA--The massive 2011 Las Conchas Fire near Los Alamos, N.M., defied conventional fire science wisdom by racing downhill instead of uphill, and increasing intensity overnight. Now, EARTH Magazine brings you recent scientific analysis of the fire from a research team at Los Alamos National Lab. A team led by atmospheric scientist Young-Joon Kim determined that two unique atmospheric effects -- mountain waves and pyro-cumulus clouds -- interacted in an explosive way to fan the flames over New Mexico. Read more about the new research and how it compares to traditional ...

A breakthrough study performed in an international collaboration led by Professor Tosso Leeb from the University of Bern and Professor Hannes Lohi from the University of Helsinki together with the veterinary neurologists and neuropathologists at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in the University of Helsinki has identified a gene mutation that causes a novel type of neurodegenerative disease in dogs. The results of the study shed light into the function of neurons, provide a new gene for human neurodegenration, and may aid in developing better treatments for neurodegenerative ...

UK research collaboration develops a new bioinformatics pipeline that enables automated primer design for multiple genome species, significantly reducing turnaround time. With a rising global population leading to increased pressure on food resources, it is becoming ever more essential that crop breeding programmes work to enhance the security of global food sources. A key aspect of this is utilising breakthroughs in genomics research to guide the selection of the individuals to incorporate in breeding schemes. It is possible to relate the DNA of a species to its physical ...

The destruction of the Brazilian rainforest has slowed significantly. With around 5000 square kilometers annually, the loss is now about 80% lower than in 2004. Led by the Center for Development Research (ZEF) at the University of Bonn, an international team of researchers has evaluated the effectiveness of forest law enforcement in the Brazilian Amazon. In some federal states of the Brazilian Amazon region enforcement has been more effective than in others. The results are presented in the journal "PLOS ONE". Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest featured in international ...