When Typhoon Haiyan slammed into the Philippines in 2013, thousands of people were killed, in part because they didn't know it was coming or didn't know how to protect themselves. Could an increased use of social media, particularly on the part of the nation's government, have made a difference? While that question remains open, it is clear that social media should play a larger role in emergency preparedness, says Bruno Takahashi, a Michigan State University assistant professor of journalism who studies the issue. Using the Philippines' typhoon as a case study, Takahashi ...

Although the Universe may seem spacious most galaxies are clumped together in groups or clusters and a neighbour is never far away. But this galaxy, known as NGC 6503, has found itself in a lonely position, shown here at the edge of a strangely empty patch of space called the Local Void. This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a very rich set of colours, adding to the detail seen in previous images. NGC 6503 is only some 18 million light-years away from us in the constellation of Draco (The Dragon), making it one of the closest neighbours from our Local Group. ...

The stuffy noses and sinus pressure of head colds are uncomfortable, but for most people, they go away within days. For those with chronic sinusitis, however, those symptoms and others drag on for weeks. Now scientists are onto a potential new therapy that could address one of the underlying factors associated with the condition. They describe their work in the ACS journal Molecular Pharmaceutics. In the body, nitric oxide (NO) plays a critical role in immunity. Researchers have found that this simple molecule is an important antimicrobial agent that helps prevent sinus ...

To some scientists studying climate change, boreal peatlands are considered a potential ticking time bomb. With huge stores of carbon in peat, the fear is that rising global temperatures could cause the release of massive amounts of CO2 from the peatlands into the atmosphere--essentially creating a greenhouse gas feedback loop. A new study by researchers at the University of South Carolina and University of California Los Angeles challenges that notion, and demonstrates that the effect of temperature increases on peat storage could be minor. Funded by the National ...

This news release is available in German. Human teeth have to serve for a lifetime, despite being subjected to huge forces. But the high failure resistance of dentin in teeth is not fully understood. An interdisciplinary team led by scientists of Charite Universitaetsmedizin Berlin has now analyzed the complex structure of dentin. At the synchrotron sources BESSY II at HZB, Berlin, Germany, and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility ESRF, Grenoble, France, they could reveal that the mineral particles are precompressed. The internal stress works against crack ...

Chicago, June 10, 2015 - Patients diagnosed with an advanced form of metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) may benefit from surgical resection (removal of all or part of the lung) in combination with chemotherapy and radiation therapy, according to an article in the June 2015 issue of The Annals of Thoracic Surgery. Key points Patients diagnosed with stage IIIB NSCLC may benefit from multimodality treatment that combines surgical resection in combination with chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Surgery should be added to the treatment regimen only for carefully ...

Dangerous heart rhythms called arrhythmias, often caused by undiagnosed heart conditions, can cause sudden cardiac arrests that take the lives of seemingly healthy young men and women including sports people. A healthy, functioning heart has a regular electrical impulse that causes the heart to beat and pump blood around the body. If this impulse is interrupted or becomes irregular, it causes an abnormal heartbeat, called an arrhythmia. Arrhythmias can be a long-term condition, treated with medication or surgery or they can occur unexpectedly, suddenly stopping the heart ...

Europe's most homophobic countries may be paving the way for a rise in HIV cases among gay and bisexual men, according to new research published in the journal AIDS. An international team of researchers from Europe and the US looked at HIV-related service use, need and behaviours among 175,000 gay or bisexual men living in 38 European countries with differing levels of national homophobia. They found that men in homophobic countries had fewer sexual partners and were less likely to be diagnosed with HIV. However, they also found those men knew less about HIV, were less ...

This news release is available in German. Insects are the most diverse animal group on earth. Many of them feed on plants, and they are constantly challenged by the diverse direct and indirect defenses of their food plants as well as an imbalanced nutrient composition. In response, the insects are continuously evolving different behavioral, morphological and biochemical adaptations to overcome the plant defenses. Additionally, some species rely on symbiotic microbes to deal with the plants' nutritional challenges. Scientists of the Max Planck Research Group ...

Rome, Italy, 10 June 2015: The results of the tREACH trial presented today at the European League Against Rheumatism Annual Congress (EULAR 2015) Press Conference showed that initial therapy with combination DMARDs significantly improves measures of disease activity and functional ability in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA). These findings suggest that an initial treatment regimen of methotrexate, sulfasalazine and hydroxychloroquine could provide significant patient benefits over monotherapy (methotrexate alone). "Many trials have shown that early and intensive ...

Rome, Italy, 10 June 2015: The results of a study presented today at the European League Against Rheumatism Annual Congress (EULAR 2015) Press Conference showed that ultrasound diagnosis of tenosynovitis (inflammation of the tendon sheath) was superior to clinical symptoms and signs in the prediction of early Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). This is the first study to show that ultrasound-defined tenosynovitis is a strong predictor of early RA. By identifying the need for treatment before the onset of symptoms and signs, this procedure has the potential to improve clinical outcomes. ...

Washington D.C., June 10, 2015 - A recent study published in the July 2015 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry demonstrates that early intervention, beginning between 18 and 30 months of age improves outcomes for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at age 6. Early intensive behavioral intervention is recognized an as efficacious approach for improving outcomes for young children with ASD. However, most studies of comprehensive, intensive intervention only report immediate outcomes at the end of intervention and the ...

Rome, Italy, 10 June 2015: The results of a study presented today at the European League Against Rheumatism Annual Congress (EULAR 2015) Press Conference showed that patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) taking conventional DMARD therapy who have moderate disease activity have a similar risk of joint failure that requires surgery as those with high disease activity. In some countries, additional treatment with a biological DMARD is based on a disease activity cut-off that excludes RA patients with moderate disease activity. These findings suggest it is not just ...

Men benefit from one-time screening for abdominal aortic aneurysms via ultrasound. Studies provide proof that their risk of dying is reduced, the abdominal aorta ruptures less often, and emergency surgery can be avoided more often. Far fewer data are available for women and they show no relevant differences between the groups investigated. This is the result of the final report published on 28 May 2015 by the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG). Rupture is often fatal, even if emergency surgery is performed An abdominal aortic aneurysm ...

Petrel fledglings leave the nest after dark, but these marine birds' maiden flights towards the sea are hampered by city lights. Many collide or fall to the ground where they are in danger of being run over and vulnerable to predators. Now, a study has evaluated the impact of light pollution on three species of petrels on the Balearic Islands, including the Balearic shearwater, the most threatened sea bird in Europe, and concludes that between 30 and 47% of colonies are exposed to high levels of light pollution. This is not a new phenomenon. The dangers that fledglings ...

"Let's synchronize our watches." It's the classic line before a group goes out on a mission. We are all familiar with the concept of synchronized clocks - less known, but equally important, is that wireless devices need to be synchronized too. However, instead of requiring a precision of minutes, wireless devices have to make their clocks match within very small fractions of a second. This so-called "clock synchronization" is needed for a large range of purposes - from increasing cellphone coverage, to increasing data speed rates, to enabling precision localization in ...

Britain, Queensland, Israel, Poland - 2015 has been a year of electoral polling failure and it could have major implications on election outcomes, say QUT economics researchers. The recent definitive Conservative win in the recent British elections, when polling had produced the near universal prediction of a 'hung parliament', mirrors Labor's surprise win in Queensland where the election outcome was unrelated to the poll prediction, says Professor Lionel Page from QUT's Queensland Behavioural Economics Group (QuBE). "The magnitude of the failure to predict these elections' ...

This news release is available in Spanish. Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) is an infectious disease that affects the immune system of cattle, causing immunodeficiency and in some cases triggering the development of leukemia or solid tumors in the form of lymphomas. This illness causes significant losses in productivity and even premature death of animals mostly in dairy farms. It also raises sanitary barriers for commerce of livestock and derived goods. As such, it has become a very prevalent veterinary issue, notably in Uruguay, which needs urgent solving. BLV is a virus ...

Coral colonies are more genetically diverse than it has been assumed to date. This is the conclusion drawn by biologists at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, who have conducted comprehensive studies into the genetic variability in individual colonies of different reef-forming coral species. "However, this doesn't mean we should expect that this variability can compensate for corals dying worldwide due to climate change," says Maximilian Schweinsberg from the Department of Animal Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity, headed by Prof Dr Ralph Tollrian. In collaboration with colleagues, ...

A systematic review publishing today in the journal Human Reproduction Update has found that women who suffer from polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) could manage some of the symptoms by combining a change in lifestyle with taking the drug metformin. PCOS is associated with a range of features including irregular cycles, infertility, obesity, diabetes, and depression. Researchers at Monash University in Australia compared the effects of change in lifestyle alone or with placebo, to lifestyle plus metformin. They found that lifestyle changes combined with taking metformin ...

A previously unknown link between the immune system and the death of motor neurons in Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, has been discovered by scientists at the CHUM Research Centre and the University of Montreal. The finding paves the way to a whole new approach for finding a drug that can cure or at least slow the progression of such neurodegenerative diseases as ALS, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases. The study, published today in Nature Communications, shows that the immune system in the animal model C. elegans, ...

New York, June 10 -- A new paper in the British Medical Journal by Jan Blustein, M.D., Ph.D., of New York University's Wagner School and a professor of Medicine and Population Health at NYU School of Medicine and Jianmeng Liu, M.D., Ph.D., of Peking University examines the evidence as to whether newborns delivered by Cesarean section are more likely to develop chronic diseases later in life. While the jury is still out and research is ongoing, recent studies underscore the need for health care providers to discuss with expectant parents the risk of babies born through cesarean ...

Companies are spending increasing amounts on cybersecurity tools, but aren't convinced their data is truly secure and many chief information security officers believe that attackers are gaining on their defenses, according to a new RAND Corporation study. Charting the future of cybersecurity is difficult because so much is shrouded in secrecy, no one is entirely certain of all the methods malicious hackers use to infiltrate systems and businesses do not want to disclose their safety measures, according to the report. While worldwide spending on cybersecurity is close ...

CLEVELAND, June 10 -- The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is increasing for the treatment of menopausal symptoms but often without the guidance of a clinician. That's according to a new study reported online today in Menopause, the journal of the North American Menopause Society (NAMS). As a result, the authors suggest that healthcare providers -- in particular family medicine practitioners -- need to be more aware of the various CAM therapies and take a more active role in guiding patients through their options to more safely and effectively coordinate ...

Almost one in every 150 babies born in the UK is stillborn or dies soon after birth. A research team led from the University of Leicester has identified large differences across the UK in the numbers and rates of babies who die, even after taking account of known factors that influence the rate of death such as poverty, mother's age and ethnicity. A new report by MBRRACE-UK*, a team of academics, clinicians and charity representatives (commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership** as part of the Maternal, Newborn and Infant Clinical Outcome Review Programme), ...