Amsterdam, NL, August 31, 2015 -- Every week in the U.S. an average of 645 people lose their lives to firearm violence and 1,565 more are treated in an emergency department for a firearm-related injury. Most of these events do not make headlines, but they account for about 7% of the premature deaths before age 65 in the U.S. In a special issue of Preventive Medicine, preventive medicine and health policy experts address a wide range of critical topics related to firearm violence, from the interaction of alcohol abuse with gun violence, effects of changes to gun laws in ...

Alzheimer's disease is associated with the appearance of characteristic neurotoxic protein aggregates in various regions in the brain. Chemical analysis of these insoluble deposits reveals that they are made up of a family of short protein fragments, referred to as beta-amyloid peptides, which are derived from a precursor protein called APP by the sequential action of two enzymes. An international team of researchers led by Christian Haass (Professor of Metabolic Biochemistry at LMU and Speaker for the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Munich) and Dr. Michael ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- About 20 percent of colorectal cancer patients have cancers that have spread (metastasized) beyond the colon at the time of their diagnosis. The liver is the most common site for these metastases. The approach to treating primary tumors within the colon and metastatic tumors in the liver continues to evolve; however, it typically involves chemotherapy plus surgical removal (resection) of both types of tumors. However, experts continue to debate whether surgical resection of primary tumors and metastatic tumors should be performed at the same time (synchronously) ...

LAWRENCE -- Renewable wind energy is experiencing a boom, with more wind turbines popping up across landscapes in the U.S. and abroad. Indeed, wind energy accounted for 3.3 percent of electricity generation in the United States in 2011, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Globally, that number was 2.9 percent for the same year. But as wind turbines proliferate, researchers at the University of Kansas are looking at how these forests of turbines affect the wind itself. What happens to the wind when a larger number of wind turbines removes more and ...

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Hurricane Ignacio and viewed the storm in infrared light, providing valuable temperature data. Aqua saw a weaker Ignacio moving parallel to the Hawaiian Islands. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument aboard Aqua gathers infrared data that shows temperatures. That AIRS data was made into a false-colored infrared image from August 30 at 22:47 UTC (6:47 p.m. EDT) and showed high, cold, strong thunderstorms surrounded the center of Hurricane Ignacio. AIRS imagery also showed a thick band of thunderstorms spiraling into the ...

Researchers link babies' performance on cognitive tasks to later learning progress Study underscores importance of talking to your baby well before they can talk back Findings may eventually contribute to reducing "vocabulary gap" EVANSTON, Ill. --- At 12 months old, your infant's ability to group objects according to the names associated with them -- as opposed to their appearance alone -- offers a glimpse into how his or her vocabulary will develop by the time they are 18 months, Northwestern University researchers have found. The research, by Brock Ferguson, ...

This news release is available in Spanish. Marine energy has a great future potential according to the experts, but there is still a long way to go before it can be used on a large scale. Despite the problem of intermittency, wave energy has an advantage over wind energy, for example: it is easier to predict optimum swell than some suitable gusts of wind. That is why knowing how much energy the waves will be bringing within a few hours is as important as having available efficient prototypes to make use of wave power. If this information is known, the energy produced ...

PITTSBURGH, Aug. 31, 2015 -- People with hostile personality traits who watch more television than their peers may be at a greater risk for injury, potentially because they are more susceptible to the influence of television on violence and risk-taking behaviors, a University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health analysis discovered. The research, published online in the International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion, suggests that a reduction in television viewing and content rating systems geared not just to age, but also personality traits, ...

Life on an island isn't always easy. To make the most of the little there is to eat on many Greek islands, the digestive system of Balkan green lizards has evolved considerably compared to family members on the mainland. Surprisingly, many of these insect-eating lizards even have special valves that help to digest plants. These are some of the findings¹ from a study led by Konstantinos Sagonas of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Greece, published in Springer's journal The Science of Nature². Reptiles can adjust their digestive system and ...

PITTSBURGH, Aug. 31, 2015 -- The more hours young adults spend watching television each day, the greater the likelihood that they'll have a higher body mass index and bigger waist circumference, a 15-year analysis by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health revealed. The association did not hold in later years, indicating that young adulthood is an important time to intervene and promote less television viewing, according to the research published online in the journal SAGE Open. "We were quite surprised to find that television viewing was associated ...

ROCHESTER Minn. -- A team of Mayo Clinic Cancer Center scientists has been awarded a Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant in multiple myeloma from the National Cancer Institute. The Mayo Clinic Cancer Center is one of only three cancer centers to receive a SPORE grant for multiple myeloma cancer research. MULTIMEDIA ALERT: Video and audio are available for download on the Mayo Clinic News Network. "With project leaders from Mayo campuses in Arizona, Rochester and Florida, our SPORE team will study the genetic basis for myeloma, develop novel viral ...

Satellite data from NOAA's GOES-East satellite was made into an animation that showed the demise of former Tropical Storm Erika as it neared eastern Cuba early on August 29. At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, NASA/NOAA's GOES Project compiled three days' worth of imagery from NOAA's GOES-East satellite that showed the movement and changes in former Tropical Storm Erika from August 27 to August 29. The animation showed Erika move through the Leeward Islands and into the Eastern Caribbean Sea, as its center passed just south of Puerto Rico, then ...

London, UK - 30 Aug 2015: Recruitment of leukocytes is a hallmark of stent thrombosis, according to results from the PRESTIGE study presented today at ESC Congress1 and published in European Heart Journal.2 The findings suggest that immune cell mediated thrombotic processes may be a realistic target for novel therapies to prevent stent thrombosis. "Stent thrombosis (ST) is a life-threatening complication of percutaneous coronary intervention and recent large scale clinical registries reported an incidence of up to 0.4-0.6% per year," said principal investigator Professor ...

How did the ankylosaur get its tail club? According to research from North Carolina State University and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences that traces the evolution of the ankylosaur's distinctive tail, the handle arrived first on the scene, and the knot at the end of the tail followed. The typical ankylosaur had a wide armored body and a flexible tail. But one group of ankylosaurs - ankylosaurids - also had a tail club that could have served as a useful weapon. These "weaponized" ankylosaurids lived about 66 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period. ...

LONDON (Aug. 31, 2015) -- Cardiologists failed to identify more than half of basic and about 35 percent of advanced pre-recorded murmurs, but skills improved after a 90 minute training session, according to research presented today at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2015. Recent breakthroughs in the transcatheter treatment of aortic and mitral valve disorders provide new therapies for patients, but physicians must be able to detect valve problems in a timely manner for patients to see the full benefit of these advances, said Michael Barrett, MD, the lead ...

London, UK - 31 Aug 2015: A gene associated with sudden cardiac death in the general population has been identified using implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) monitoring in research presented for the first time at ESC Congress today.1 The research included patients from the DISCOVERY trial and Oregon-SUDS and discovered that a polymorphism in the GNAS gene predicted ventricular tachyarrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. "This is the first time a gene has been identified using ICD monitoring and then confirmed to be associated with sudden cardiac death in the general ...

LONDON, UK - 30 August, 2015: In patients with type 2 diabetes and acute coronary syndrome, the glucose-lowering medication lixisenatide did not increase or decrease the rate of cardiovascular (CV) events compared to placebo, according to results of the Evaluation of Lixisenatide in Acute Coronary Syndrome (ELIXA) trial. The study, presented today at ESC Congress 2015, "demonstrates the cardiovascular safety of lixisenatide", reported Eldrin F. Lewis, MD, MPH, a member of the ELIXA trial's executive committee, a physician in the Cardiovascular Medicine Division at Brigham ...

LONDON, UK - 30 August, 2015: Patients with type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease can safely take the antihyperglycemic drug sitagliptin without an increased risk of cardiovascular complications - even if they have a history of heart failure - a new analysis of the TECOS (Trial Evaluating Cardiovascular Outcomes with Sitagliptin) study shows. The findings, presented today at ESC Congress 2015, "provide reassurance to patients and prescribers about the cardiovascular safety of sitagliptin" - a dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor sitagliptin - according to Paul ...

London, UK - 31 Aug 2015: Depressed patients have more frequent chest pain even in the absence of coronary artery disease, according to results from the Emory Cardiovascular Biobank presented at ESC Congress today by Dr Salim Hayek, a cardiologist at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, US.1 The findings suggest that pain and depression may share a common neurochemical pathway. "Depression is a common and well recognised risk factor for the development of heart disease," said Dr Hayek. "Patients with known heart disease and depression tend to experience ...

London, UK - 31 Aug 2015: Retrieval of larger thrombi during intra arterial treatment (IAT) is associated with improved neurological recovery after acute ischaemic stroke, according to a sub study of the MR CLEAN trial presented at ESC Congress today by Dr Anouchska Autar, PhD candidate at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.1 "Acute ischaemic strokes occur when a blood clot, also called a thrombus, embolises to the brain where it restricts the flow of blood," said Dr Autar. "MR CLEAN was the first trial to show the benefit of IAT to remove blood ...

India's bread basket, the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP), have been classified as a "hot spot" for air pollution. A recent study from the University of Eastern highlights the current status of ozone research in the IGP region, which is agriculturally important and densely populated. To study adverse effects of ozone, field experiments were conducted with local crop cultivars of mustard (Brassica campestris L.) and rice (Oryza sativa L.), and various growth, physiological (gas-exchange), biochemical and yield parameters were studied throughout the growing season. Ethylenediurea ...

Many volcanoes are located in densely settled areas. Every time one of these becomes active, large populations are put at risk. Hence, one of the primary goals of the current generation of volcanologists is to develop tools that can accurately predict when volcanoes will erupt. In the case of an impending eruption, these tools are of key importance to those charged with making decisions about what action to take and when. "However, the tools available for predicting eruptions are still in their infancy. We can't always successfully predict an eruption as we lack an understanding ...

Bile duct cancer is rare and is usually detected too late. Often only extensive liver surgery can help or, in rare cases, liver transplantation. But which patients will benefit from surgery and which will not, because their risk of cancer recurrence is too high? With the oncogene MACC1 as a biomarker, physicians for the first time have a tool to decide which treatment option is best for patients with Klatskin carcinoma, one type of bile duct cancer. If MACC1 expression is low, the patients have a good chance that surgery will prolong survival. By contrast, if the gene is ...

London, UK - 30 Aug 2015: Patients with atrial fibrillation who receive antithrombotic management according to ESC guidelines have better outcomes than those who do not, according to one year follow up results from the ESC's EORP-AF Pilot General Registry presented today at ESC Congress 20151 and published online in Europace. 2 "This is the first study to show better outcomes using the 2012 ESC guidelines on atrial fibrillation," said principal investigator Professor Gregory YH Lip, from the University of Birmingham, UK and Aalborg University, Denmark.3 "This is novel ...

London, UK - 31 Aug 2015: Respiratory infection is associated with a four-fold increased risk of in-hospital cardiovascular mortality after acute myocardial infarction (AMI), according to research presented at ESC Congress today by Dr Catarina Quina-Rodrigues, a cardiologist at Hospital de Braga in Portugal.1 The findings highlight the importance of diagnostic alertness for respiratory infections in AMI patients so that therapeutic measures can be promptly taken. "Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in Europe and around the world," said Dr Quina-Rodrigues. ...