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To improve bicycle safety, crash reports need to capture more data

2015-04-02
Boston, MA - Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health researchers are calling upon police in all states to improve their reporting of crashes involving vehicles and bicycles, according to a new study being published Thursday, April 2, 2015. Currently, details on crashes are handwritten by police on paper and there are few bicycle-relevant codes. The researchers are calling for police to use electronic tablets that would include more options to gather bicycle-specific data, such as drawings of the scene and additional codes that could indicate, for example, if the bicyclist ...

USC Norris study finds herpesvirus activates RIG-I receptor to evade body's immune system

2015-04-02
LOS ANGELES -- Using herpesvirus, molecular immunologists from the University of Southern California (USC) Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center have discovered a cellular process that activates a critical immune defense against pathogens, which could have implications for developing drugs to bolster one's immunity to infection. Some herpesvirus infections lead to cancer. Led by Pinghui Feng, Ph.D., associate professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, the team found that herpesvirus proteins activate retinoic acid-induced gene ...

Being born in lean times is bad news for baboons

Being born in lean times is bad news for baboons
2015-04-02
DURHAM, N.C. -- The saying "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" may not hold up to scientific scrutiny. Baboons born in times of famine are more vulnerable to food shortages later in life, finds a new study. The findings are important because they help explain why people who are malnourished in early childhood often experience poor health as adults. After the plains of southern Kenya experienced a severe drought in 2009 that took a terrible toll on wildlife, researchers at Duke and Princeton Universities looked at how 50 wild baboons coped with the drought, and ...

Optics, nanotechnology combined to create low-cost sensor for gases

2015-04-02
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Engineers have combined innovative optical technology with nanocomposite thin-films to create a new type of sensor that is inexpensive, fast, highly sensitive and able to detect and analyze a wide range of gases. The technology might find applications in everything from environmental monitoring to airport security or testing blood alcohol levels. The sensor is particularly suited to detecting carbon dioxide, and may be useful in industrial applications or systems designed to store carbon dioxide underground, as one approach to greenhouse gas reduction. Oregon ...

Cigarette smoke makes superbugs more aggressive

2015-04-02
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), an antibiotic-resistant superbug, can cause life-threatening skin, bloodstream and surgical site infections or pneumonia. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine now report that cigarette smoke may make matters worse. The study, published March 30 by Infection and Immunity, shows that MRSA bacteria exposed to cigarette smoke become even more resistant to killing by the immune system. "We already know that smoking cigarettes harms human respiratory and immune cells, and now we've shown ...

Small RNA plays big role suppressing cancer

2015-04-02
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) -- The micro RNA miR-22 has long been known for its ability to suppress cancer. However, questions remain about how it achieves this feat. For example, which molecules are regulating miR-22, and which are miR22 targets? Researchers at UC Davis have unraveled some of these relationships, identifying several interactions that directly impact liver and colon cancer. The work provides new insights into how miR-22 operates and could potentially lead to new cancer therapies. The study was published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. "There are quite ...

The science of stress (video)

The science of stress (video)
2015-04-02
WASHINGTON, April 2, 2015 -- It's supposed to help keep our bodies healthy in stressful situations. But the constant stress of our everyday lives means we're getting overexposed to cortisol. Raychelle Burks, Ph.D., explains why too much cortisol is bad for you in the latest episode of the Reactions series Get To Know A Molecule. Check it out here: https://youtu.be/fPnDaRYXHs4. INFORMATION: Subscribe to the series at http://bit.ly/ACSReactions, and follow us on Twitter @ACSreactions to be the first to see our latest videos. The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit ...

Virginia Tech, Ecuadoran scientists study rare 'Pinocchio Lizard' in effort to save it

Virginia Tech, Ecuadoran scientists study rare Pinocchio Lizard in effort to save it
2015-04-02
For more than 50 years, scientists thought that the horned anole lizard -- sometimes called the "Pinocchio Lizard" for its long, protruding nose -- was extinct. But it turns out this is a tall tale. Scientists re-discovered the lizard in 2005, living elusively at the tops of tall trees in the cloud forests of Ecuador -- the only place in the world that it is known to exist. A team led by a Virginia Tech scientist recently uncovered new information about the role that the lizard's long nose plays. Only the males have long noses, and they appear to be used in social ...

Placenta reflects arsenic exposure in pregnant women and fetuses, Dartmouth study shows

2015-04-02
HANOVER, N.H. - The placenta can be used to reliably measure arsenic exposure in pregnant women and how much of the toxic metal is transferred to their fetuses, a Dartmouth College study shows. The study, the largest ever analysis of household drinking water arsenic and the mother-to-fetus connection, appears in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology. A PDF is available on request. Recent studies have used the placenta to identify early effects of exposure to lead, mercury, cadmium and other metals. Previous studies also have shown that arsenic ...

NYU researchers dramatically improve ART adherence for minority PHLA

2015-04-02
Up to 60% of persons living with HIV (PLHA) in the U.S. are neither taking antiretroviral therapy (ART) nor well engaged in HIV primary care, with racial/ethnic minorities more likely to experience barriers to engagement along this HIV continuum of care than their White counterparts. In fact, only 30% of persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) in the United States have achieved "viral suppression," the ultimate goal of HIV treatment. Indeed, PLHA poorly engaged in HIV primary care and/or who are not on ART are at elevated risk for a host of poor outcomes, including more frequent ...

Raising retirement age would widen benefit disparities for disadvantaged

2015-04-02
The age to receive full Social Security benefits should be closer to 70, according to a report published in the journal Daedalus. "We're living longer and healthier than ever before, but the statutory age of retirement for receiving Social Security benefits doesn't reflect that," says lead author S. Jay Olshansky, professor of epidemiology in the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health. When Social Security was enacted in 1935, the age of full retirement was set at 65. Back then, a 25-year-old had a 62.4 percent chance of living to retirement age, and ...

Older people at higher risk of emergency cancer diagnosis

2015-04-02
People over 60 are at higher risk of being diagnosed with lung or bowel cancer as an emergency in hospital than younger people, according to a Cancer Research UK-supported report *, published today by BMJ Open (Thursday). The researchers also found that women and less affluent people are at higher risk of an emergency lung cancer diagnosis. While being unmarried, divorced or widowed was associated with having bowel cancer diagnosed as an emergency. The Cancer Research UK review looked at over 20 studies featuring more than 687,000 lung or bowel cancer cases, of which ...

MA health reform did not lower preventable hospitalizations or reduce racial disparities

2015-04-02
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - In the first three years after Massachusetts implemented its 2006 health care reform, which reduced the number of uninsured people in the state by roughly half, the rate of preventable hospitalizations did not decline compared with states with similar populations that did not expand health insurance coverage. Nor did the reform reduce racial and ethnic disparities in the rate of such hospitalizations. Those are some of the chief findings of a new study by researchers at Harvard Medical School and the Boston University School of Medicine, published today ...

Low T not just in males: Testosterone, atherosclerosis and obesity may be linked in females

2015-04-02
While testosterone replacement therapies may be controversial in males, new research in The FASEB Journal may extend this controversy to females too. That's because research involving mice, appearing in the April 2015 issue, suggests that there is an association between low levels of androgens (which includes testosterone), and atherosclerosis and obesity in females. "We hope that our study will contribute to intensified research efforts on the definition of androgen deficiency in women (e.g. which levels of androgens in the blood should be considered too low?), the ...

Pathway known to suppress tumors may also reduce burden of neurodegenerative diseases

2015-04-02
A molecular pathway known to suppress tumors appears to also be a major player in clearing cells of damaged proteins implicated in neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS and certain types of dementia, new research in roundworms and human cells suggests. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers, publishing April 2 in the journal PLOS Biology, say their findings shed new light on how a cell's protein quality control mechanism works - and how this system could be harnessed one day to combat diseases caused by a buildup of proteins in cells. To function ...

Astronomers watch unfolding saga of massive star formation

2015-04-02
A pair of images of a young star, made 18 years apart, has revealed a dramatic difference that is providing astronomers with a unique, "real-time" look at how massive stars develop in the earliest stages of their formation. The astronomers used the National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) to study a massive young star called W75N(B)-VLA 2, some 4200 light-years from Earth. They compared an image made in 2014 with an earlier VLA image from 1996. "The comparison is remarkable," said Carlos Carrasco-Gonzalez of the Center of Radioastronomy and ...

HIV spreads like internet malware and should be treated earlier

2015-04-02
A new model for HIV progression finds that it spreads in a similar way to some computer worms and predicts that early treatment is key to staving off AIDS. HIV specialists and network security experts at UCL noticed that the spread of HIV through the body using two methods - via the bloodstream and directly between cells - was similar to how some computer worms spread through both the internet and local networks respectively to infect as many computers as possible. They worked together to create a model for this 'hybrid spreading', which accurately predicted patients' ...

Age-discrimination during cell division maintains the 'stem' in stem cells

2015-04-02
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (April 2, 2015) - A team of Whitehead Institute scientists has discovered that during division, stem cells distinguish between old and young mitochondria and allocate them disproportionately between daughter cells. As a result, the daughter cell destined to remain a stem cell receives predominantly young mitochondria, while the cell meant to differentiate into another cell type carries with it a higher compliment of the aged organelles. This asymmetric apportioning of cellular contents may represent a mechanism through which stem cells prevent the accumulation ...

DNA can't explain all inherited biological traits, research shows

2015-04-02
Characteristics passed between generations are not decided solely by DNA, but can be brought about by other material in cells, new research shows. Scientists studied proteins found in cells, known as histones, which are not part of the genetic code, but act as spools around which DNA is wound. Histones are known to control whether or not genes are switched on. Researchers found that naturally occurring changes to these proteins, which affect how they control genes, can be sustained from one generation to the next and so influence which traits are passed on. The finding ...

Through the grapevine: Molecular mechanisms behind Pinot berry color variation

2015-04-02
Variations in the color of grapevine berries within the Pinot family result from naturally-occurring genetic mutations that selectively shut down the genes responsible for the synthesis of red pigments, called anthocyanins. This has led to the emergence of Pinot blanc and Pinot gris from Pinot noir. Frédérique Pelsy and her colleagues, from the "Grapevine Health and Wine Quality" research unit at INRA Colmar, France, published these findings in PLOS Genetics on 2 April 2015. The vine stocks used in viticulture are obtained by grafting; therefore, for any given ...

Element of surprise helps babies learn

2015-04-02
Infants have innate knowledge about the world and when their expectations are defied, they learn best, researchers at Johns Hopkins University found. In a paper to be published April 3 in the journal Science, cognitive psychologists Aimee E. Stahl and Lisa Feigenson demonstrate for the first time that babies learn new things by leveraging the core information they are born with. When something surprises a baby, like an object not behaving the way a baby expects it to, the baby not only focuses on that object, but ultimately learns more about it than from a similar yet ...

A new breakthrough in thermoelectric materials

A new breakthrough in thermoelectric materials
2015-04-02
French physicist Jean Charles Athanase Peltier discovered a key concept necessary for thermoelectric (TE) temperature control in 1834. His findings were so significant, TE devices are now commonly referred to Peltier devices. Since his work, there have been steady advancements in materials and design. Despite the technological sophistication Peltier devices, they are still less energy efficient than traditional compressor/evaporation cooling. In the 1960's, Peltier devices were primarily made from Bismuth-Telluride (Bi2Te3) or Antimony-Telluride (Sb2Te3) alloys and ...

New study finds a natural oil dispersion mechanism for deep-ocean blowout

New study finds a natural oil dispersion mechanism for deep-ocean blowout
2015-04-02
MIAMI - A first-of-its-kind study observed how oil droplets are formed and measured their size under high pressure. They further simulated how the atomized oil spewing from the Macondo well reached the ocean's surface during the Deepwater Horizon accident. The findings from the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and University of Western Australia research team suggest that the physical properties in deep water create a natural dispersion mechanism for oil droplets that generates a similar effect to the application of chemical ...

Adolescent drinking affects adult behavior through long-lasting changes in genes

2015-04-02
Binge-drinking during adolescence may perturb brain development at a critical time and leave lasting effects on genes and behavior that persist into adulthood. The findings, by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine using an animal model, are reported online in the journal Neurobiology of Disease. "This may be the mechanism through which adolescent binge-drinking increases the risk for psychiatric disorders, including alcoholism, in adulthood," says lead author Subhash Pandey, professor of psychiatry and director of neuroscience alcoholism ...

WebTIPS helps make surgery less scary for children -- and their parents

2015-04-02
Irvine, Calif. -- A newly developed website provides parents and children with individualized information and support -- based on factors like coping style and levels of worry and fear -- to help lower anxiety before outpatient surgery in children, according to a pair of articles in the April issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia. The papers report on the development of the "Web-based Tailored Intervention Preparation for Surgery" (WebTIPS) project, which provides information and strategies to help children and parents prepare for surgery and anesthesia. A preliminary evaluation ...
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