BOSTON – Email has become one of the most widespread forms of communication, with its streamlined interactions benefiting both businesses and individuals. With the advent of secure patient web portals and the faith that online access has the potential to improve care, the medical industry is slowly catching up. And while it may take time before it's known what impact email exchanges might have on patients and their care, a new study from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) offers some early insights into the effects on doctors, suggesting that reimbursement ...

Super Typhoon Vongfong continued on its trek north through the Philippine Sea while slightly weakening on Oct. 10. NASA's TRMM and Aqua satellites provided forecasters with cloud extent, rainfall rates and distribution and more. Vongfong was a super typhoon with wind maximum sustained winds of 145 knots (167 mph) when the TRMM satellite flew over on October 8, 2014 at 2328 UTC 7:28 p.m. EDT). TRMM's Microwave Imager showed that Vongfong was producing rainfall over a large area and heavy rainfall in the eye wall (the powerful thunderstorms around the open eye) and in multiple ...

DURHAM, N.C. –- No single "one-size-fits-all" model can explain how biodiversity hotspots come to be, finds a study of more than 700 species of reptiles and amphibians on the African island of Madagascar. By analyzing the geographic distribution of Madagascar's lizards, snakes, frogs and tortoises, an international team of researchers has found that each group responded differently to environmental fluctuations on the island over time. The results are important because they suggest that climate change and land use in Madagascar will have varying effects on different ...

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Cyclone Hudhud on Oct. 10 as it reached hurricane-force. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite read temperatures of thunderstorm cloudtops that make up Tropical Cyclone Hudhud when it passed overhead on Oct. 9 at 19:53 UTC (3:53 p.m. EDT). The data showed the coldest cloud top temperatures were in thunderstorms circling a developing eye. Cloud top temperatures were as cold as -63F/-53C, which have the potential for dropping heavy rainfall. Hudhud's maximum sustained winds ...

Small cues that display a user's transaction history may help a website feel almost as interactive as chatting with an online customer service agent, paving the way for more cost-effective websites, according to researchers. "One of the challenges with online interactivity is trying to imbue the site with a sense of contingency -- the back-and-forth feel of a real conversation," said S. Shyam Sundar, Distinguished Professor of Communications and co-director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory. "What we found is that providing some information about a user's interaction ...

A new study led by a Canadian marine zoologist reviews the world list of specialist driftwood talitrids, which so far comprises a total of 7 representatives, including two newly described species. These tiny animals with peculiar habits all live in and feed on decomposing marine driftwood. Dispersed across distant oceanic islands they use floating driftwood to hitch a ride to their destination. The study was published in the open access journal Zoosystematics and Evolution. Tourists are familiar with talitrids as sandhoppers, found in burrows on sand beaches, or shorehoppers, ...

New clinical research from UC San Francisco shows that 341 HIV-infected men who reported using stimulants such as methamphetamine or cocaine derived life-saving benefits from being on antiretroviral therapy that were comparable to those of HIV-infected men who do not use stimulants. That said, those who reported using stimulants at more than half of at least two study visits did have modestly increased chances of progressing to AIDS or dying after starting antiretroviral therapy compared to non-users. The data was collected between 1996 and 2012. "Patients with HIV ...

PHILADELPHIA –The pneumococcal vaccine recommended for young children not only prevents illness and death, but also has dramatically reduced severe antibiotic-resistant infections, suggests nationwide research being presented at IDWeek 2014™. Pneumococcal infection – which can cause everything from ear infections to pneumonia and meningitis – is the most common vaccine-preventable bacterial cause of death. The 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13), first available in 2010 (replacing 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, PCV7), reduced the ...

PHILADELPHIA – Old-school face-to-face social networking is a more effective way to identify people with HIV than the traditional referral method, suggests research being presented at IDWeek 2014™. The study shows that social networking strategies (SNS) – enlisting people in high-risk groups to recruit their peers to get tested – is more efficient and targeted than traditional testing and referral programs, resulting in 2-1/2 times more positive test results. As many as 20 percent of HIV-positive people are unaware of being infected with the virus, ...

The experiments were carried out on endofullerenes, molecules of C60 into which smaller molecules of Hydrogen (H2) had been inserted. The results, published in Physical Review Letters, represent the first known example of a quantum selection rule found in a molecule. Similar techniques were also used by the same team to uncover an exciting new symmetry-breaking interaction of water molecules with C60 cages, published last month in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. The use of fullerenes such as C60 to trap smaller molecules, using cutting-edge molecular surgery techniques, ...

This news release is available in German. The distance between the Earth and the Sun has no influence on the decay rate of radioactive chlorine. You could ask: "And why should it anyway?", because it is well known that the decay of radionuclides is as reliable as a Swiss clock. Recently, US-American scientists, however, attracted attention when they postulated that the decay rate depends on the flow of solar neutrinos and, thus, also on the distance from the Earth to the Sun. Their assumption was based, among other things, on older measurement data of the Physikalisch-Technische ...

WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 10, 2014 - Mineral coatings on sand particles actually encourage microbial activity in the rapid sand filters that are used to treat groundwater for drinking, according to a paper published ahead of print in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. These findings resoundingly refute, for the first time, the conventional wisdom that the mineral deposits interfere with microbial colonization of the sand particles. "We find an overwhelmingly positive effect of mineral deposits on microbial activity and density," says corresponding author Barth ...

A study on the global burden of venous thromboembolism—when a dangerous clot forms in a blood vessel—found that annual incidences range from 0.75 to 2.69 per 1,000 individuals in the population. The incidence increased to between 2 and 7 per 1,000 among those 70 years of age or more. "Venous thromboembolism in hospitalized patients was responsible for more years lost due to ill-health than hospital-acquired pneumonia, catheter-related blood stream infections, and side effects from drugs," said Dr. Gary Raskob, co-author of the Journal of Thrombosis & Haemostasis ...

Philadelphia, PA, October 9, 2014 – Researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute have identified a set of RNA molecules that are detectable in tissue samples and urine of prostate cancer patients but not in normal healthy individuals. The study sets the stage for the development of more sensitive and specific noninvasive tests for prostate cancer than those currently available, which could result in fewer unnecessary prostate biopsies with less treatment-related morbidity, according to a new study in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics. According to ...

Stanford engineers have invented a wireless pressure sensor that has already been used to measure brain pressure in lab mice with brain injuries. The underlying technology has such broad potential that it could one day be used to create skin-like materials that can sense pressure, leading to prosthetic devices with the electronic equivalent of a sense of touch. A nine-member research team led by Chemical Engineering Professor Zhenan Bao detailed two medical applications of this technology in Nature Communications. In one simple demonstration they used this wireless ...

Researchers from the University of Melbourne have established how two diseases that present in similar ways are in fact quite different. Progressive Supranuclear palsy and Parkinson's Disease have overlapping symptoms but remain difficult to distinguish. However, a first ever paper on the topic published in the Journal of Neuropsychology (British Psychological Society publication) now suggests that people with PSP experience more severe and extensive cognitive impairments than those with PD early on. The study indicates that patients with PSP experience more severe ...

The initial benefits of an outpatient antimicrobial stewardship intervention designed to reduce the rate of inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions were lost after discontinuation of audit and feedback to clinicians, according to a study published in JAMA. The study is being released early online to coincide with the IDWeek 2014 meeting. Antibiotics are the most frequently prescribed medications for children; most are prescribed for outpatient acute respiratory tract infections. Because antibiotic prescribing is often inappropriate, Jeffrey S. Gerber, M.D., Ph.D., of ...

The so-called Signal Transducers and Activators of Transcription, or STATs, are key components of many different signalling pathways. Not surprisingly, then, when something goes wrong with their regulation the consequences can be severe and many types of cancer are known to be associated with increased activities of one or more STAT protein. STAT3 is a frequent culprit and is often found to be activated in tumour cells. Considerable efforts are going into developing inhibitors of STAT3 for use in cancer therapy but it is unclear whether these will turn out to be suitable ...

New research out of Queen's University could give insight into what terrorists are thinking. Professor David Skillicorn (School of Computing) analyzed language used in two jihadist magazines to gain intelligence about terrorist strategy. He examined the language used in Inspire, an online magazine reportedly published by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which aims to increase the availability of their message, and the Islamic State News published by ISIS. Inspire has attracted attention because of its goal of attracting lone-wolf attacks in Western countries. "The payoff ...

The immunosuppressive drug fingolimod (trade name: Gilenya) was approved for an expanded therapeutic indication in May 2014: It is now also available for adults with highly active relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) who had received other pretreatment than interferon beta (IFN-β). In an early benefit assessment pursuant to the Act on the Reform of the Market for Medicinal Products (AMNOG), the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined whether the drug offers an added benefit over the appropriate comparator therapy in this ...

A previously unknown mechanism through which the brain produces new nerve cells after a stroke has been discovered at Lund University and Karolinska Institute in Sweden. The findings have been published in the journal SCIENCE. A stroke is caused by a blood clot blocking a blood vessel in the brain, which leads to an interruption of blood flow and therefore a shortage of oxygen. Many nerve cells die, resulting in motor, sensory and cognitive problems. The researchers have shown that following an induced stroke in mice, support cells, so-called astrocytes, start to form ...

A novel technique which reduces image degradation caused by respiratory motion during a PET scan was developed in a recent study at the University of Eastern Finland. PET scanning is routinely used to detect cancer and heart conditions. The new technique presented in the PhD thesis of Tuomas Koivumäki, MSc (Tech.), is based on bioimpedance measurement and it allows for image reconstruction at a specific phase of the patient's breathing pattern. This, in turn, makes it possible to reduce image degradation caused by motion. In the future, the newly developed technique ...

New Orleans, LA – A special study using data from LSU Health New Orleans School of Public Health's Louisiana Tumor Registry has found that colorectal cancer incidence rates in the Louisiana Acadian parishes are among the highest in the United States. This study appears to be the first to identify a high rate of cancer in a large, regional, US founder population, raising the possibility of a genetic predisposition. Alternatively, an unidentified, robust environmental risk factor may be present. The paper is published online in Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology, ...

A small, "empty" space teeming with activity: a synapse is a complex structure where the neural (electrical) signal from the presynaptic neuron, as it travels towards its target –a muscle, a gland or another neuron – turns into a chemical signal capable of crossing the synaptic space before becoming electrical again once on the other side. A synapse is a "dynamic" space not only because of the endless work that goes on there, but also for its ability to change its action over time (synaptic plasticity) as a result of either normal physiological processes (e.g., ...

The sanitation intervention delivered under the terms of the Government of India's Total Sanitation Campaign—the world's largest sanitation initiative—provided almost 25 000 individuals in rural India with access to a latrine. However, it did not reduce exposure to faecal pathogens or decrease the occurrence of diarrhoea, parasitic worm infections, or child malnutrition. "The programme is effective in building latrines, but not all households participate"*, explains lead author Professor Thomas Clasen from Emory University, Atlanta, USA and the London School ...