MINNEAPOLIS/ST.PAUL (4/9/15) - Research published in the open access journal Microbiome offers new evidence for the success of fecal microbial transplantation (FMT) in treating severe Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), a growing problem worldwide that leads to thousands of fatalities every year. Research led by Michael Sadowsky, Alex Khoruts, and colleagues at the University of Minnesota in collaboration with the Rob Knight Lab at the University of Colorado, Boulder, reveals that healthy changes to a patient's microbiome are sustained for up to 21 weeks after transplant, ...

After decades in ornithological obscurity, one of the world's least-known birds is finally coming to light thanks to the persistence of a small group of researchers. Pablo Negret, Oscar Garzón, Pablo Stevenson, and Oscar Laverde-R. of the Universidad de los Andes have just published the results of their year-long study of the Black Tinamou (Tinamus osgoodi hershkovitzi) in The Auk: Ornithological Advances, including new ecological information as well as some of the first video and sound recordings of this elusive species. The Black Tinamou is a chicken-sized bird ...

A simple test of the number of fish living on a coral reef can be used as a roadmap to restore degraded reefs and fishers' livelihoods according to a global study published in the journal Nature. An international team of marine scientists surveyed more than 800 coral reefs worldwide to develop a diagnostic test of reef health. "By studying remote and marine protected areas, we were able to estimate how many fish would be on a coral reef without fishing, and how long it should take newly protected areas to recover," says study lead author, Dr Aaron MacNeil from the ...

WASHINGTON - Recognizing and giving thanks for the positive aspects of life can result in improved mental, and ultimately physical, health in patients with asymptomatic heart failure, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. "We found that more gratitude in these patients was associated with better mood, better sleep, less fatigue and lower levels of inflammatory biomarkers related to cardiac health," said lead author Paul J. Mills, PhD, professor of family medicine and public health at the University of California, San Diego. The study ...

A new device developed by UCLA engineers and doctors eventually help scientists study the development of disease, enable them to capture improved images of the inside of cells and lead to other improvements in medical and biological research. The researchers created a highly efficient automated tool that delivers nanoparticles, enzymes, antibodies, bacteria and other "large-sized" cargo into mammalian cells at the rate of 100,000 cells per minute -- significantly faster than current technology, which works at about one cell per minute. The research, published online ...

ANN ARBOR--Efforts to reduce the amount of phosphorus and other nutrients washing off farm fields and into Lake Erie shifted into overdrive after high levels of a bacterial toxin shut down the drinking water supply to more than 400,000 Toledo-area residents last August. Nutrient levels help determine when and where rapid cyanobacterial buildups occur, as well as the size of those blooms. But what factors control their toxicity? The Great Lakes are home to dozens of common cyanobacterial species, but only a few are toxic troublemakers. "We know what causes these blooms: ...

This news release is available in German. An international collaboration led by the research group of superheavy elements at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), Tokai, Japan has achieved the ionization potential measurement of lawrencium (element 103) with a novel-type technique at the JAEA tandem accelerator. Based on the empirically developed "actinide concept", and in agreement with theoretical calculations, in today's Periodic Table the series of actinide elements terminates with element 103, lawrencium (Lr). Now researchers have measured the first ionization ...

A drug that breaks up blood clots in the brains of stroke patients could be used more widely than at present without increased risk, a brain scan study suggests. It had previously been thought that giving the drug to people with signs of early damage in the brain caused by a stroke would increase the chances of them suffering a bleed on the brain - which can be fatal. The study is the first to show that early tissue damage seen in brain scans does not necessarily indicate an increased risk of bleeding. Patients with early tissue damage from strokes are less likely to ...

Since November 2014 nintedanib (trade name: Vargatef) has been approved in combination with docetaxel for the treatment of adults with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) of the glandular tissue (adenocarcinoma) who have already received chemotherapy. The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined in a dossier assessment whether this new drug offers an added benefit over the appropriate comparator therapy. According to the findings, there is an indication of a minor added benefit of nintedanib in combination with docetaxel in patients ...

It is cultural transmission - the ability to pass knowledge on from one individual to another even across generations - that makes us unique among animals. True, we also learn by observing what happens in the world around us, for example, by associating events that frequently occur together (or in a rapid sequence). However, human "communication" may constitute such a powerful instrument that it overrides "statistics", as observed in a study just published in PLOS One and conducted by Hanna Marno, researcher at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste. ...

TORONTO, April 9, 2015: Salt used for winter road maintenance in Canada could wipe out water flea populations that keep our lakes clear of algae and feed the fish, a recent York University study has revealed. "These water fleas are like little living lawnmowers in our lakes. They 'graze' the entire volume of lakes many times during the summer, passing what they've eaten up the food chain to fish," explains Professor Norman Yan, to stress the importance of the water flea's role in the ecosystem. The study, conducted at Yan's lab in the Department of Biology, Faculty of ...

KU Leuven researchers have zeroed in on what makes cancer cells in melanoma so aggressive. They also succeeded in taming the effect in cell cultures. Melanoma, a type of skin cancer, is notoriously quick to metastasize and responds poorly to existing cancer treatments. In their study, published in Nature Communications, the researchers report a significant step forward in the characterization and potential treatment of melanoma. Human DNA contains genetic information that makes our cells functional entities within a larger whole. The stream of information from DNA to ...

Collisions with birds are one of the most common hazards to aircraft, causing $700 million in damage annually in the U.S. A study published this week in The Condor: Ornithological Applications may have important implications for reducing bird strikes through the customization of aircraft and runway lights to birds' visual systems. Megan Doppler and Esteban Fernández-Juricic of Purdue University and Bradley Blackwell and Travis DeVault of the National Wildlife Research Center's Ohio Field Station conducted experiments involving captive cowbirds and remote-controlled ...

Cincinnati, OH, April 9, 2015 -- Melanoma is an aggressive form of skin cancer that has been increasing in incidence in adults over the past 40 years. Although pediatric melanoma is rare (5-6 children per million), most studies indicate that incidence has been increasing. In a new study scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics, researchers found that the incidence of pediatric melanoma in the United States actually has decreased from 2004-2010. Laura B. Campbell, MD, and colleagues from Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals (UH) Case ...

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers say that levels of radon in Pennsylvania homes - where 42 percent of readings surpass what the U.S. government considers safe - have been on the rise since 2004, around the time that the fracking industry began drilling natural gas wells in the state. The researchers, publishing online April 9 in Environmental Health Perspectives, also found that buildings located in the counties where natural gas is most actively being extracted out of Marcellus shale have in the past decade seen significantly higher readings ...

A leading gene candidate that has been the target of breast cancer drug development may not be as promising as initially thought, according to research published in open access journal Genome Medicine. Mutation in the gene PIK3CA is the second most prevalent gene mutation in breast cancer and is found in 20% of all breast cancers. This has led people to think these changes may be driving breast cancer. Yet these mutations are also known to be present in neoplastic lesions -pre-cancerous growths many of which are thought to be benign, that have not invaded the surrounding ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE: 8-APR-2015 19:00 ET (8-APR-2015 23:00 GMT) A test for a wide range of genetic risk factors could improve doctors' ability to work out which women are at increased risk of developing breast cancer, a major study of more than 65,000 women has shown. Improving the accuracy of risk analysis using genetic screening could guide breast cancer prevention in several ways - for instance by offering high-risk women increased monitoring, personalised advice and preventative therapies. The research, a collaboration of hundreds of research institutions led ...

A team of researchers from the University of Cambridge have unravelled one of the mysteries of electromagnetism, which could enable the design of antennas small enough to be integrated into an electronic chip. These ultra-small antennas - the so-called 'last frontier' of semiconductor design - would be a massive leap forward for wireless communications. In new results published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the researchers have proposed that electromagnetic waves are generated not only from the acceleration of electrons, but also from a phenomenon known as ...

New research from Sweden's Karolinska Institutet in collaboration with Oxford University, UK, shows that close relatives of men convicted of sexual offences commit similar offences themselves more frequently than comparison subjects. This is due to genetic factors rather than shared family environment. The study includes all men convicted of sex crime in Sweden during 37 years. "Importantly, this does not imply that sons or brothers of sex offenders inevitably become offenders too", says Niklas Langstrom, Professor of Psychiatric Epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet ...

The expansion of food banks across the United Kingdom is associated with cuts in spending on local services, welfare benefits and higher unemployment rates, conclude researchers in The BMJ this week. In collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Rachel Loopstra and David Stuckler at the Department of Sociology at Oxford University and colleagues say action is needed "on the root social and economic factors that trigger reliance on food banks." The number of local authorities with food banks operated by the Trussell Trust, a non-governmental ...

Accurately predicting the probability of a live birth after in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment is important for both those undergoing the treatment and their clinicians. Findings from a comparison study that analysed the accuracy of the two most widely-used prediction models are published today [08 April] in the journal PLOS ONE. Researchers at the universities of Bristol and Glasgow compared how well the Templeton method and IVFpredict -- two personalised prediction tools that help couples calculate their chance of a successful birth with IVF treatment - worked ...

MINNEAPOLIS - People who participate in arts and craft activities and who socialize in middle and old age may delay the development in very old age of the thinking and memory problems that often lead to dementia, according to a new study published in the April 8, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. People age 85 and older make up the fastest growing age group in the United States and worldwide. "As millions of older US adults are reaching the age where they may experience these memory and thinking problem ...

Passive smoking isn't only something that people have to cope with, but plants too. This is because some plants are actually able to take up nicotine from cigarette smoke, while others that grow in contaminated soil absorb it via the roots as well. This might explain why high concentrations of nicotine are often found in spices, herbal teas and medicinal plants, despite the fact that this alkaloid is no longer permitted in insecticides. These findings¹,² by Dirk Selmar and colleagues at the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, are published in Springer's ...

BOSTON - Patients hospitalized with advanced cirrhosis, a chronic and degenerative disease of the liver, are at increased risk of death. The tools currently used to assess that risk are limited in predicting which patients will need a liver transplant and which will be healthy enough to survive transplantation. A new study from the Liver Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) suggests that standard assessments that nurses already use to care for patients can be mined for data that significantly improve the ability to predict survival following transplantation ...

Accurately predicting the probability of a live birth after in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment is important for both those undergoing the treatment and their clinicians. Findings from a comparison study that analysed the accuracy of the two most widely-used prediction models are published today [08 April] in the journal PLOS ONE. Researchers at the universities of Bristol and Glasgow compared how well the Templeton method and IVFpredict -- two personalised prediction tools that help couples calculate their chance of a successful birth with IVF treatment - worked ...