MANHATTAN, Kansas -- Kansas State University scientists have released findings of a complex, two-year study of the genomic diversity of wheat that creates an important foundation for future improvements in wheat around the world. Their work has produced the first haplotype map of wheat that provides detailed description of genetic differences in a worldwide sample of wheat lines. In genetics, a haplotype map is a powerful tool for transferring sequence-level variation to multiple gene mapping projects. "All of these new, genomic-based strategies of breeding promise ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Recycling plastic works; additives to biodegrade plastic do not. A new study from Michigan State University shows that several additives that claim to break down polyethylene (i.e., plastic bags) and polyethylene terephthalate (i.e., soda bottles) simply don't work in common disposal situations such as landfills or composting. "Making improper or unsubstantiated claims can produce consumer backlash, fill the environment with unwanted polymer debris and expose companies to legal penalties," said Susan Selke, co-author of the study and MSU packaging ...

The March 2015 issue of Language, the flagship scholarly journal of the Linguistic Society of America, is now available online: https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/language/toc/lan.91.1.html Highlights of the March issue include a paper on the origins of Indo-European languages which has already been the subject of significant interest, as well as the inaugural article of Language's new online section for "Phonological Analysis". "Ancestry-constrained phylogenetic analysis supports the Indo-European steppe hypothesis", by Will Chang, Chundra Cathcart, David Hall and Andrew ...

A plant scientist from The Australian National University (ANU) has called for the United Nations to guarantee free and open access to plant DNA sequences to enable scientists to continue work to sustainably intensify world food production. Dr Norman Warthmann, a plant geneticist at the ANU Research School of Biology, has lodged a submission with the UN, which is currently considering issues to include in its 2015 Global Sustainable Development Report. Food security depends on an acceleration in plant breeding, which could be threatened by private companies restricting ...

The first blood test for osteoarthritis could soon be developed, thanks to research by the University of Warwick. The research findings could potentially lead to patients being tested for osteoarthritis and diagnosed several years before the onset of physical symptoms. Conducted by the University's Medical School, the research identified a biomarker linked to both rheumatoid and osteoarthritis. Whilst there are established tests for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the newly identified biomarker could lead to one which can diagnose both rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis ...

Sipuleucel-T (trade name Provenge) has been approved since September 2014 for men with metastatic prostate cancer who have few or no symptoms and do not yet require chemotherapy. In the dossier assessment conducted by the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) in January 2015, no added benefit could be derived for sipuleucel-T. In an addendum, the Institute now examined information subsequently submitted by the manufacturer in the commenting procedure: According to the findings, there is an indication of added benefit; however, the extent is ...

Adapting to climate change could have profound environmental repercussions, according to a new study from the University of East Anglia. Research in Nature Climate Change reveals that adaptation measures have the potential to generate further pressures and threats for both local and global ecosystems. Lead researcher Dr Carlo Fezzi, from UEA's School of Environmental Sciences, said: "Climate change is a just a little bit more complicated than we previously thought. We need to take into account not only the direct impact of climate change, but also how people will respond ...

Scientists should reduce antibiotic use in lab experiments - according to a researcher at the University of East Anglia. Microbiology, molecular biology and genetic research such as the Human Genome Project use antibiotics in experiments. But it all adds to the global problem of antibiotic resistance according to Dr Laura Bowater, from UEA's Norwich Medical School. A new article published today in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy highlights the problem. Dr Bowater said: "The discovery of antibiotics was heralded as a magic bullet for modern medicine. Using ...

This news release is available in French. In 1971 there were 139,000 Canadians aged 85 and over. By 2013 their numbers had risen to 702,000. The Oldest Old as they have become known today represent 2% of the total Canadian population. "They are a demographic reality which has to be taken into account in formulating public policy", according to Jacques Légaré, a demographer at the University of Montreal, who is presenting a report on this phenomenon this week to more than a hundred experts meeting at the Population Change and Lifecourse Strategic Knowledge ...

Suspending kids from school for using marijuana is likely to lead to more -- not less -- pot use among their classmates, a new study finds. Counseling was found to be a much more effective means of combating marijuana use. And while enforcement of anti-drug policies is a key factor in whether teens use marijuana, the way schools respond to policy violators matters greatly. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Washington and in Australia, compared drug policies at schools in Washington state and Victoria, Australia, to determine how they impacted ...

Deadly familial stomach and lobular breast cancers could be successfully treated at their earliest stages, or even prevented, by existing drugs that have been newly identified by cancer genetics researchers at New Zealand's University of Otago. The researchers, led by Professor Parry Guilford, show for the first time that the key genetic mutation underlying the devastating conditions also opens them to attack through drug therapies targeting other cellular mechanisms. There is currently no treatment for this kind of gastric cancer other than surgical removal of the ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- If every new car made in the United States had a built-in blood alcohol level tester that prevented impaired drivers from driving the vehicle, how many lives could be saved, injuries prevented, and injury-related dollars left unspent? Researchers at the University of Michigan Injury Center and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute studied the impact of installing these alcohol ignition interlock devices in all newly purchased vehicles over a 15-year period; their estimates of injury prevention and cost savings are significant. They ...

Research at the University of Adelaide's Waite campus has shed light on the action of the serious agricultural pest, cereal cyst nematode, which will help progress improved resistant varieties. Published in the journal New Phytologist, the researchers showed how the composition of the cell wall that surrounds the feeding sites of these tiny parasitic worms in the plant roots differs between resistant and susceptible varieties of barley. "A type of fibre that we usually associate with wholegrain and healthy foods ? beta-glucan ? accumulates in the cell walls surrounding ...

Experts are calling for a global review of guidelines used to diagnose sepsis, after a study found one in eight patients with infections severe enough to need admission to an Intensive Care Unit in Australia and New Zealand, did not meet current criteria. Researchers from Monash University and the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) reviewed data collected on over a million patients admitted to 172 Intensive Care Units (ICU). Covering a 14-year period, 109,663 patients with infection and organ failure were identified with possible sepsis. However, ...

The team demonstrated a quantum on/off switching time of about a millionth of a millionth of a second - the fastest-ever quantum switch to be achieved with silicon and over a thousand times faster than previous attempts. "Quantum computing exploits the fact that, according to quantum mechanics atoms can exist in two states at once, being both excited and unexcited at the same time. This is known as a superposition state, and is most famously illustrated by Schrödinger's quantum cat which is simultaneously dead and alive" said Dr. Ellis Bowyer, one of the Surrey ...

New big data methodology can analyse over 1 billion pieces of data The methodology can potentially isolate the areas of the brain involved with other cognitive problems, including Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, ADHD and schizophrenia. The functional differences between autistic and non-autistic brains have been isolated for the first time, following the development of a new methodology for analysing MRI scans. Developed by researchers at the University of Warwick, the methodology, called Brain-Wide Association Analysis (BWAS), is the first capable of creating panoramic ...

A cancer drug could be made 50 times more effective by a chemical found in stinging nettles and ants, new research finds. Researchers at the University of Warwick found that when the chemical, Sodium Formate, is used in combination with a metal-based cancer treatment it can greatly increase its ability to shut down cancer cells. Developed by Warwick's Department of Chemistry, the drug, a compound of the metal ruthenium called JS07, is capable of exploiting a cancer cell's natural weaknesses and disrupts its energy generation mechanism. Laboratory tests on ovarian ...

In a world first, researchers have found that a naturally occurring chemical attracts pregnant malaria-transmitting mosquitoes - a discovery which could boost malaria control efforts. The chemical, cedrol, found in mosquito breeding sites near Africa's Lake Victoria, could be used in traps that would 'attract and kill' the female mosquito, preventing reproduction before she lays hundreds of eggs. A child dies every minute from malaria, according to World Health Organization estimates. In Africa, malaria parasites carried by the female Anopheles gambiae mosquito are ...

Trauma is responsible for more global deaths annually than HIV, malaria and tuberculosis combined. Yet healthcare systems in many countries are missing out on life-saving treatments learnt on the battlefield, according to a review by King's College London and published today in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. Medical advancements made by the military in times of conflict, are increasingly seen in the hospitals of high income countries but are being missed in poorer countries, where trauma is the leading cause of death in young people. Many innovations by ...

Highlights Compared with uninfected (HIV-/HCV-) kidney transplant recipients, mono-infected HIV+ (HIV+/HCV-) recipients had similar 5-year and 10-year kidney survival rates, while HIV+ recipients co-infected with HCV (HIV+/HCV+) had worse kidney survival rates. Patient survival among mono-infected HIV+ recipients was similar to uninfected recipients but was significantly lower for co-infected recipients. Over the last decade there has been a 10-fold increase in the number of kidney transplants performed in HIV+ patients. Washington, DC (March 19, 2015) -- HIV+ ...

PHILADELPHIA - Greening vacant lots may be associated with biologic reductions in stress, according to a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Residents who walked near newly greened vacant lots had significantly lower heart rates compared to walking near a blighted, or neglected, vacant lot. "Our goal was to scientifically explore the connection between city environments and stress," said the study's lead author, Eugenia C. South, MD, MHSP, a physician in the department of Emergency Medicine at Penn. "We used heart rate as ...

In a paper published online today (Thursday, March 19), scientists report that the incidence of diagnosed autism was twice as high for assisted reproductive technology (ART) as non-ART births among the nearly 6 million children in their study, born in California from 1997 through 2007. However, much of the association between ART and autism was explained by age and education of the mother as well as adverse perinatal outcomes, especially multiple births. After accounting for these factors, the study showed an elevated risk only for mothers ages 20-34. Notably, the study ...

Half a century ago, a concentrated global effort nearly wiped a disfiguring tropical disease from the face of the earth. Now, says Case Western Reserve's James W. Kazura, MD, it's time to complete the work. In a perspective column in the Feb.19 New England Journal of Medicine, Kazura responded to a research article that demonstrated positive results from a single oral dose of azithromycin to 83.8 percent (13,302) of 16,092 residents of Lihir Island, Papua New Guinea. "We have the medical knowledge to achieve global eradication, and new evidence establishes proof of ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Incessant mountain rain, snow and melting glaciers in a comparatively small region of land that hugs the southern Alaska coast and empties fresh water into the Gulf of Alaska would create the sixth largest coastal river in the world if it emerged as a single stream, a recent study shows. Since it's broken into literally thousands of small drainages pouring off mountains that rise quickly from sea level over a short distance, the totality of this runoff has received less attention, scientists say. But research that's more precise than ever before is making ...

Both patients and physicians may benefit from a "work flow" system developed at military medical facilities and tested at a Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center clinic, according to results of an efficiency study. The study evaluates a work flow method developed by the U.S. Air Force; Johns Hopkins researchers Shereef Elnahal, M.D., M.B.A. and Joseph Herman, M.D.; and consulting firm ProcessProxy Corporation. Called the Military Acuity Model, the method examines tasks performed by physicians and nurses and identifies jobs that can be safely assigned to support staff. For ...