Obese patients who have undergone bariatric surgery to shed weight should take the supplements prescribed to them to protect their eyes. Taking in too little Vitamin A, in particular, could in some cases actually cause night blindness, dry eyes, corneal ulcers, and in extreme cases total blindness. This advice comes from Rui Azevedo Guerreiro and Rui Ribeiro of the Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Central in Portugal, who reviewed what little research there currently is on the occurrence of eye conditions following bariatric surgery. The review is published in Springer's journal ...

The latest research from the University of Adelaide challenges current thinking on whether many people with tooth loss really need dentures. The findings have major implications for public dental health resources and costs for patients. Studies conducted by the University's Australian Research Center for Population Oral Health in the School of Dentistry have found that people with tooth loss do not have their quality of life interfered with provided they still have a certain number and type of teeth left. In dentistry terms, these patients are considered to have "shortened ...

Today, ray-finned fish, which belong to the bony fish, are by far the most biodiverse fish group in both salt- and freshwater. Their spectacular variety of forms ranges from eels, tuna, flounders and angler fish all the way to seahorses. With around 1,100 species, the second most biodiverse group is the cartilaginous fish, which are almost exclusively marine and include sharks, rays and chimaeras. Exactly why bony fish managed to prevail in different habitats is the subject of debate: Do they have a better body plan, which is suited to more ecological niches than that of ...

A study from the University of Exeter has found that male flies die earlier than their female counterparts when forced to evolve with the pressures of mate competition and juvenile survival. The results could help researchers understand the mechanisms involved in ageing. The research, published in the journal Functional Ecology, used populations of the fly Drosophila simulans that had evolved under different selection regimes. The study shows that mate competition (sexual selection), along with survival (natural selection), is tougher on male ageing than it is on females ...

Washington, DC, December 1, 2014 - Little is known about the often fatal virus known as Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), but researchers have identified gaps in infection control as a major culprit in all eleven published cases involving healthcare-associated transmission of the virus. The full findings of the review can be found in the December issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC). Researchers from the Hellenic Center for ...

Research by the University of Liverpool has identified, for the first time, how global warming is related to the amount of carbon emitted. A team of researchers from the Universities of Liverpool, Southampton and Bristol have derived the first theoretical equation to demonstrate that global warming is a direct result of the build-up of carbon emissions since the late 1800s when man-made carbon emissions began. The results are in accord with previous data from climate models. The theoretical equation revealed the complex relationship between carbon dioxide levels ...

WASHINGTON, DC - December 1, 2014 -- Microbial succession in a sterilized restroom begins with bacteria from the gut and the vagina, and is followed shortly by microbes from the skin. Restrooms are dominated by a stable community structure of skin and outdoor associated bacteria, with few pathogenic bacteria making them similar to other built environments such as your home. The research is published ahead of print in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. In the study, the investigators characterized the structure, function, and abundance of the microbial community, ...

In the wake of recent airline crashes, major news networks have aired concerns about pilots' ability to accurately fly "by hand" when the airplane's cockpit automation systems fail. Although many of these concerns have centered on manual skills such as operating the airplane's controls, new human factors/ergonomics research suggests that pilots' thinking skills, such as navigating, remaining aware of the status of the flight, and diagnosing troublesome situations, are most vulnerable in today's automated cockpits. In a new study published in Human Factors, researchers studied ...

New research published in the December 2014 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, shows that a component found in in the plant, Glycyrrhiza uralensis, may inhibit the development of metabolic disorders by stopping the activation of NLRP3, a protein involved in the disease process. Specifically, the researchers identified isoliquiritigenin as having the ability to attenuate high-fat, diet-induced obesity, type 2 diabetes and hepatic steatosis in mice. "Identification of small compounds that inhibit the NLRP3 inflammasome is required to design effective therapeutics," ...

Scientists have taken an important step toward a new class of antibiotics aimed at stopping lung infections. They found that a protein found in large airways, called "SPLUNC1," binds to lipids critical to defending against bacterial and viral infections, as well as keeping lung tissue flexible and hydrated. This discovery moves SPLUNC1 closer toward becoming a viable therapy and was reported in the December 2014 issue of The FASEB Journal. "By shedding light on the mechanisms and interactions between various elements of pulmonary surfactant, our findings represent significant ...

This news release is available in German. Traumatic events leave their mark. People exposed to a traumatic experience early in life are more likely to be affected by illnesses such as borderline personality disorder or depression. However such experience can also have positive effects in certain circumstances. Thus, moderate stress in childhood may help a person develop strategies to better cope with stress in adulthood. Further, it has long been recognised by psychologists and psychiatrists that the negative effects of trauma experienced by parents can be seen in ...

New research involving rats, and published in the December 2014 issue of The FASEB Journal, suggests that if you were born at a low birth weight, supplemental co-enzyme Q (CoQ) may lower your risk for heart disease. This enzyme, which is naturally made in the body, is required to ensure the proper functioning of cell mitochondria and also protects cells from oxidative damage. Feeding low birth weight rat offspring extra CoQ prevented the age-associated damage that causes heart disease. Additionally, the reports shows that CoQ is reduced in white blood cells from low birth ...

Tropical Storm Hagupit was just a low pressure area on Nov. 30, but warm waters and good atmospheric conditions allowed the storm to develop rapidly. By Dec. 1 the low pressure area strengthened into a tropical storm when NASA's Terra satellite passed overhead. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Radiometer known as the MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Terra satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Storm Hagupit in the western Pacific Ocean on Dec. 1 at 00:05 UTC (7:05 p.m. EST, Nov. 30). The picture showed a concentration of strong thunderstorms around the ...

If we believe a negative trait we possess is linked to a related positive characteristic, we will be more productive in that domain, New York University researchers have found. Their study, which appears in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, establishes a novel "silver lining theory": negative attributes can produce positive results. "People know that a weakness can be also be a strength, but these results show that if we actually believe it, we can use these beliefs to our advantage," says Alexandra Wesnousky, an NYU doctoral candidate and the study's lead ...

This news release is available in German. Jülich, 27 November 2014 - The resolution of scanning tunnelling microscopes can be improved dramatically by attaching small molecules or atoms to their tip. The resulting images were the first to show the geometric structure of molecules and have generated a lot of interest among scientists over the last few years. Scientists from Forschungszentrum Jülich and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Prague have now used computer simulations to gain deeper insights into the physics of these new imaging techniques. ...

This news release is available in German. Genome engineering with the RNA-guided CRISPR-Cas9 system in animals and plants is changing biology. It is easier to use and more efficient than other genetic engineering tools, thus it is already being applied in laboratories all over the world just a few years after its discovery. This rapid adoption and the history of the system are the core topics of a review published in the renowned journal Science. The review was written by the discoverers of the system Prof. Emmanuelle Charpentier, who works at the Helmholtz Centre ...

Teenage boys are perhaps more known for playing computer games but girls are better at making them, a University of Sussex study has found. Researchers in the University's Informatics department asked pupils at a secondary school to design and program their own computer game using a new visual programming language that shows pupils the computer programs they have written in plain English. Dr Kate Howland and Dr Judith Good found that the girls in the classroom wrote more complex programs in their games than the boys and also learnt more about coding compared to the ...

"We have not seen an ice free period in the Arctic Ocean for 2,6 million years. However, we may see it in our lifetime." says marine geologist Jochen Knies. In an international collaborative project, Knies has studied the historic emergence of the ice in the Arctic Ocean. The results are published in Nature Communications. The extent of sea ice cover in Arctic was much less than it is today between four and five million years ago. The maximum winter extent did not reaching its current location until around 2.6 million years ago. This new knowledge can now be used to ...

This news release is available in German. FRANKFURT The chances of patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive leukaemia (Ph+) being cured has greatly increased in recent years. Nevertheless, a high percentage of patients have developed resistance to available medication. But now, haematologists from Frankfurt, working with a Russian pharmaceutical company, have developed a new active substance that effectively combats the most aggressive forms of Philadelphia chromosome-positive leukaemia, both in vitro and in vivo. They have reported this in the current edition ...

Tropical Depression 21W crossed the Philippines and moved into the South China Sea where warm waters helped strengthen the storm into Tropical Storm Sinlaku. NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the storm and captured an image that showed it appeared elongated. Despite the strengthening of Tropical Depression 21W into a tropical storm on Nov. 28, it appeared elongated from southwest to northeast on visible imagery taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument that flies aboard Aqua. The MODIS image also showed that the strongest thunderstorms ...

NASA's Terra satellite passed over Tropical Cyclone 02S after it formed in the Southern Indian Ocean on Nov. 28. An image from Terra showed that the new tropical storm is close to Mauritius and Reunion Islands. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite captured a visible image of newborn Tropical Cyclone 02S northeast of the islands of Mauritius and Reunion. The MODIS image showed that thunderstorms were mostly west of the low-level center of circulation and bands of thunderstorms were wrapping into the center. ...

This news release is available in German. Humans don't like being alone, and their genes are no different. Together we are stronger, and the two versions of a gene - one from each parent - need each other. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin have analysed the genetic makeup of several hundred people and decoded the genetic information on the two sets of chromosomes separately. In this relatively small group alone they found millions of different gene forms. The results also show that genetic mutations do not occur randomly in the ...

Two physicists from the University of Warwick have taken to the kitchen to explain the complexity surrounding what they say is one of the last big mysteries in polymer physics. As a way of demonstrating the complicated shapes that ring-shaped polymers can adopt, the researchers have created a brand new type of ring-shaped pasta, dubbed "anelloni" (anello being the Italian word for "ring"), which they've exclusively unveiled in this month's Physics World. With just 2 eggs and 200 g of plain flour, Davide Michieletto and Matthew S Turner have created large loops of pasta ...

Peter Friedl, M.D., Ph.D., professor of genitourinary medical oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, has received one of Italy's top scientific awards for his work in imaging and cancer growth, metastasis and therapy response. Friedl was named a recipient of the 13th annual City of Florence Prize in Molecular Sciences. Previous recipients include such scientific luminaries as AIDS research pioneer Robert C. Gallo. M.D., human genome sequencing expert J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., and Nobel laureates Robert Hubert, Ph.D. and Ada Yonath, Ph.D. Friedl received ...

Replenishing the supply of a molecule that normally activates cannabinoid receptors in the brain could relieve mood and anxiety disorders and enable some people to quit using marijuana, a Vanderbilt University study suggests. Cannabinoid receptors are normally activated by compounds in the brain called endocannabinoids, the most abundant of which is 2-AG. They also are "turned on" by the active ingredient in marijuana. Sachin Patel, M.D., Ph.D., and his colleagues developed a genetically modified mouse with impaired ability to produce 2-AG in the brain. The mice exhibited ...