DENVER, March 25, 2015 -- The sweet taste and smell of antifreeze tempts children and animals to drink the poisonous substance, resulting in thousands of accidental poisonings in the United States every year. But today researchers will describe a new, nontoxic product based on a common food additive that could address this health issue and help the environment at the same time. The presentation will take place here at the 249th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society. The meeting features nearly 11,000 ...

DENVER, March 25, 2015 -- Water-borne algal blooms from farm fertilizer runoff can destroy aquatic life and clog rivers and lakes, but scientists will report today that they are working on a way to clean up these environmental scourges and turn them into useful products. The algae could serve as a feedstock for biofuels, and the feedstock leftovers could be recycled back into farm soil nutrients. A multi-pronged nutrient bio-remediation system is the goal of a team of scientists who will present their research at the 249th National Meeting & Exposition of the American ...

New research presented today at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) identifies nicotine dependence, obesity, alcohol abuse and depressive disorders as risk factors for low back pain, a common condition causing disability, missed work, high medical costs and diminished life quality. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) 2012 National Health Survey, nearly one-third of U.S. adults reported that they had suffered from low back pain during the previous three months. For many adults, low back pain ...

A new study presented today at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) found that 53 percent of the parents/caregivers of youth baseball pitchers are unaware of safe pitching practices designed to prevent overuse injuries--common tears or damage, most often to the elbow (ulnar collateral ligament) or shoulder--which can cause pain, lost play time and, if not treated appropriately, arthritis, deformity and disability. Between 2 and 8 percent of youth pitchers will suffer an overuse injury from throwing too hard, too often, too young, ...

Asked to name one way people have changed the environment, many people would probably say "global warming." But that's really just the start of it. People burn fossil fuels, but they also mine and manufacture. It's who we are: Homo fabricus: man the maker. And as a side effect of our ingenuity and craft we have taken many metals originally buried safely in Earth's depths and strewn them about the surface. Does it matter? Yehuda Ben-Shahar and Eirik Søvik, biologists at Washington University in St. Louis, together with colleagues from Andrew Barron's lab at Macquarie ...

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (25 MARCH 2015)--Amidst fears that global warming could zap a vital source of protein that has sustained humans for centuries, bean breeders with the CGIAR global agriculture research partnership announced today the discovery of 30 new types, or lines as plant breeders refer to them, of "heat-beater" beans that could keep production from crashing in large swaths of bean-dependent Latin America and Africa. "This discovery could be a big boon for bean production because we are facing a dire situation where, by 2050, global warming could reduce areas ...

A survey of almost 400,000 British residents has highlighted significant differences in personalities between regions. Amongst its finding, it shows Scots to be amongst the friendliest and most co-operative residents, Londoners the most open and Welsh people the least emotionally stable. Researchers from the University of Cambridge used the data to analyse a sample of just under 400,000 people from England, Wales or Scotland (Northern Ireland was excluded as sample sizes were too small), around two-thirds of whom were female. The results of their study are published today ...

Air pollution is linked to a higher risk of stroke, particularly in developing countries, finds a study published in The BMJ today. In a second article, new research also shows that air pollution is associated with anxiety. Stroke is a leading cause of death and kills around 5 million people each year worldwide. Common risk factors include obesity, smoking and high blood pressure. But the effect of the environment, such as, air pollution is uncertain because evidence is lacking. In a systematic review and meta analysis, a team of researchers from Edinburgh University ...

The sale of human breast milk on the internet poses serious risks to infant health and needs urgent regulation, argue experts in The BMJ today. The nutritional benefits of breast milk for babies are widely documented, but many new mothers find it difficult or are unable to breastfeed. In addition to social pressure, this pushes some mothers to purchase human breast milk on the internet - a market that has been growing rapidly. Despite appearing as healthy and beneficial products, many new mothers and even some healthcare workers are not aware that this market is "dangerous" ...

More research is needed to identify how athletes sustain brain injury from American football, and also to develop strategies to protect them, write experts in The BMJ today. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive neurodegenerative syndrome that can affect athletes. It is thought to result from concussion and brain injury following repeated blows to the head. But the topic of brain damage in football is controversial. The National Football League, for example, does not acknowledge any association between football and brain injury. CTE symptoms include ...

The Department of Health's interim evaluation of an alcohol industry pledge to remove one billion alcohol units from the market is flawed, argue researchers in The BMJ this week. Dr John Holmes and colleagues at the University of Sheffield's Alcohol Research Group say key assumptions within the analysis are "simplistic" and call for the report to be withdrawn and revised targets set. In 2012, the UK government announced an industry pledge to remove a billion units of alcohol from the market by December 2015, as part of the Public Health Responsibility Deal, the government's ...

Scientists from the University of Michigan have grown the first 3D mini lungs from stem cells. The study, published in eLife, compliments other developments in the field such as growing mainly 2D structures and building lung tissue from the scaffold of donated organs. The advantage of growing 3D structures is that their organisation bears greater similarity to the human lung. The scientists succeeded in growing structures resembling both the large proximal airways and the small distal airways Lead author Dr Jason Spence says: "We expected different cells types to ...

(Boston) - The marketing, prescribing and selling of testosterone and growth hormone as panaceas for aging-associated problems is disease mongering. So assert Thomas Perls, MD, MPH, FACP, a geriatrician at Boston Medical Center and professor of Geriatrics and Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine; and David Handelsman, MB BS, FRACP, PhD, professor of Reproductive Endocrinology and Andrology, director of the ANZAC Research Institute, University of Sydney and Andrology Department, Concord Hospital. Their editorial is published in this month's Journal of the American ...

WASHINGTON -- When we look at a known word, our brain sees it like a picture, not a group of letters needing to be processed. That's the finding from a Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, which shows the brain learns words quickly by tuning neurons to respond to a complete word, not parts of it. Neurons respond differently to real words, such as turf, than to nonsense words, such as turt, showing that a small area of the brain is "holistically tuned" to recognize complete words, says the study's senior author, Maximilian ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Researchers at Mayo Clinic have shown that it is possible to detect endometrial cancer using tumor DNA picked up by ordinary tampons. The new approach specifically examines DNA samples from vaginal secretions for the presence of chemical "off" switches -- known as methylation -- that can disable genes that normally keep cancer in check. The finding is a critical step toward a convenient and effective screening test for endometrial cancer, which is the most common gynecologic malignancy in the United States. The results are published in the journal ...

At any given moment, our sun emits a range of light waves far more expansive than what our eyes alone can see: from visible light to extreme ultraviolet to soft and hard X-rays. Different wavelengths can have different effects at Earth and, what's more, when observed and analyzed correctly, those wavelengths can provide scientists with information about events on the sun. In 2012 and 2013, a detector was launched on a sounding rocket for a 15 minute trip to look at a range of sunlight previously not well-observed: soft X-rays. Each wavelength of light from the sun inherently ...

Using data from orbiting observatories, including NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, and ground-based facilities, an international team of astronomers has discovered an outburst from a star thought to be in the earliest phase of its development. The eruption, scientists say, reveals a sudden accumulation of gas and dust by an exceptionally young protostar known as HOPS 383. Stars form within collapsing fragments of cold gas clouds. As the cloud contracts under its own gravity, its central region becomes denser and hotter. By the end of this process, the collapsing fragment ...

Over the last 30 years, short sight, or myopia, has become a global health problem. The most dramatic rise has been in Singapore, Taiwan, China's cities and elsewhere in East Asia. Rates can be as high as 80-90 per cent among children leaving secondary schools in the region. As many as a fifth of them have severe myopia and so are at high risk of eye problems in later life. In Western countries rates are increasing; although not as rapidly as in East Asia. The Myopia Mystery The cause of myopia, and the means to prevent it, are unclear despite more than 150 years of ...

Bethesda, MD (March 24, 2015) -- A new guideline from the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) changes clinical practice by recommending longer surveillance periods for patients with asymptomatic pancreatic cysts and new criteria that limits surgery to those who will receive the most benefit. It is estimated that more than 15 percent of patients who visit a doctor's office or hospital outpatient department will receive an MRI or other type of scan,2 and of those, about 15 percent will have incidental pancreatic cysts. Once detected, these cysts trigger anxiety ...

Washington, DC (March 24, 2015) - As congenital heart disease (CHD) treatment advances, children with these conditions are living into adulthood, and over time, they may need additional treatment. A new expert consensus paper released today by the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI), American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS), American College of Cardiology (ACC), and The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) provides guidance on transcatheter pulmonic valve replacement, or tPVR, for children and adults who were previously treated for CHD. Pulmonary ...

DETROIT - Major League Baseball pitchers who underwent a second Tommy John surgery saw their performance decline and their career shortened, according to researchers at Henry Ford Hospital. In a retrospective, case-controlled study, researchers analyzed performance and longevity data of 33 pitchers who had a second surgery following the original elbow reconstruction between 1996 and 2012 and compared them with pitchers of similar age who had no prior Tommy John surgery. Key findings for pitchers after a second surgery: 65 percent returned to pitching at MLB level. On ...

This news release is available in French. Socio-economic inequalities between First Nations communities, and also between these communities and the non-Aboriginal population of Canada, determine the nature, the intensity and the direction of First Nations migration flows. Pursuing educational careers, finding work, and seeking better health and living conditions are the main reasons for First Nations migration. These are the findings of research by Marilyn Amorevieta-Gentil, Robert Bourbeau and Norbert Robitaille, of the University of Montreal, which were presented ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- For people infected with the human papilloma virus (HPV), the likelihood of clearing the infection and avoiding HPV-related cancer may depend less on the body's disease-fighting arsenal than has been generally assumed. A new study finds that the body's ability to defeat the virus may be largely due to unpredictable division patterns in HPV-infected stem cells, rather than the strength of the person's immune response. If the mathematical model behind the findings holds up, it could point to ways of tweaking the way infected cells divide in order to make ...

It's no surprise that some of the most celebrated leaders in the business world also happen to be self-promoting narcissists. New research from Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management finds those strong characteristics are not such a bad thing--as long as those leaders temper their narcissism with a little humility now and then. "Just by practicing and displaying elements of humility, one can help disarm, counterbalance, or buffer the more toxic aspects of narcissism," said Bradley Owens, assistant professor of business ethics at BYU. "The outcome ...

Great leaders are often good communicators. In the process of communication, the relationship between leaders and their followers develops spontaneously according to new research from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig and the State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research in Beijing. When a member becomes the group leader, the leader's brain activity in the left temporo-parietal junction, known as representing others' mental states, begins to synchronize with that in the ...