University of Tokyo researchers discovered an increase in a helium isotope during a ten-year period before the 2014 Mount Ontake eruption in central Japan. The finding suggests that this helium isotope anomaly is related to activation of the volcano's magma system and could be a valuable marker for long-term risk mitigation concerning volcanic eruption. Small quantities of the isotope helium-3 are present in the mantle, while helium-4 is produced in the crust and mantle by radioactive decay. A higher ratio of helium-3 to helium-4 therefore indicates that a sample of helium ...

Seven million women a year in the developing world are treated in healthcare facilities for complications following unsafe abortion, finds a study published today (19 August) in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology (BJOG). Every day, approximately 800 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. Unsafe abortion accounts for 8 - 15% of maternal deaths and remains one of the leading causes of maternal mortality worldwide.[1] However, these figures do not take into account the number of women who are surviving but need hospital ...

New research from the University of East Anglia could one day help build computers from DNA. Scientists have found a way to 'switch' the structure of DNA using copper salts and EDTA (Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) - an agent commonly found in shampoo and other household products. It was previously known that the structure of a piece of DNA could be changed using acid, which causes it to fold up into what is known as an 'i-motif'. But new research published today in the journal Chemical Communications reveals that the structure can be switched a second time into ...

A nine-gene molecular prognostic index (MPI) for patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was able to provide accurate survival stratification and could potentially inform the use of adjuvant therapy in patients struggling with the disease, according to a study published August 18 in the JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for roughly 85% of all lung cancers, additionally; lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death through out the world. While gene expression profiles have been shown to ...

Alexandria, VA - The American Geosciences Institute's Center for Geoscience and Society is pleased to release two reports concerning geosciences education in the United States. The reports were developed in response to the need for comprehensive monitoring of the U.S. educational system in terms of the instruction of geoscience content and participation in geoscience-related learning experiences. The reports are based on data pertaining to science education collected from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The "Report on the Status of K-5 Geosciences Education ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Scientists at The Ohio State University have developed a nearly complete human brain in a dish that equals the brain maturity of a five-week-old fetus. The brain organoid, engineered from adult human skin cells, is the most complete human brain model yet developed, said Rene Anand, professor of biological chemistry and pharmacology at Ohio State. The lab-grown brain, about the size of a pencil eraser, has an identifiable structure and contains 99 percent of the genes present in the human fetal brain. Such a system will enable ethical and more rapid ...

Baltimore, August 18, 2015--Contact precautions are recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for all patients known to be infected with or carrying multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE). Yet, the use of contact precautions--which require a patient to be isolated in a single hospital room and health care providers to wear a gown and gloves when caring for patients--is widely debated in the medical community. To help inform best practices, a ...

This news release is available in French. The atmosphere is so unstable that a butterfly flapping its wings can, famously, change the course of weather patterns. The celebrated "butterfly effect" also means that the reliability of weather forecasts drops sharply beyond 10 days. Beyond this, there are strong fluctuations in temperature, with increases tending to be followed by decreases, and vice-versa. The same pattern holds true over months, years and decades. "This natural tendency to return to a basic state is an expression of the atmosphere's memory that is so ...

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (August 18, 2015) - The Krüppel-like factor and specificity protein (KLF/SP) genes are found across many species, ranging from single cell organisms to humans. This gene family has been conserved during evolution, because it plays a vital role in regulating the expression of other genes. Understanding the evolutionary history of the KLF/SP gene family may shed light on major events in animal evolution and perhaps help discern some of the molecular mechanisms associated with certain human diseases, including many cancers. By closely examining the ...

Washington, DC - August 18, 2015 - Group B streptococcus, a mostly benign inhabitant of healthy adults, is one of the world's leading causes of neonatal sepsis and meningitis. A team of French investigators has now shown that such cases might occur when the microbe mutates within the infant following transmission from the mother. The research appeared August 17 in the Journal of Bacteriology, a publication of the American Society for Microbiology. In the study, the investigators compared for the first time samples of group B streptococcus (GBS) from pairs of infected ...

Censorship is one of the greatest threats to open communication on the Internet. Information may be censored by a user's country of residence or the information's desired destination. But recent studies show that censorship by countries through which the data travels along its route is also a danger. Now, computer scientists at the University of Maryland have developed a method for providing concrete proof to Internet users that their information did not cross through certain geographic areas. The new system offers advantages over existing systems: it is immediately deployable ...

Transmitted genes, rather than growth limitations caused by actual differences in maternal height, are the key means by which a mother's height influences her baby's birth weight and length, according to a new study published this week in PLOS Medicine. The report from Ge Zhang and Louis Muglia of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the March of Dimes Prematurity Research Center Ohio Collaborative and colleagues does, however, suggest that maternal height can directly mediate duration of gestation. Compared to tall mothers, short mothers tend to deliver ...

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., Aug. 18, 2015 - Shorter mothers have shorter pregnancies, smaller babies, and higher risk for a preterm birth. New research has found that a mother's height directly influences her risk for preterm birth. Investigators at the March of Dimes Prematurity Research Center Ohio Collaborative looked at 3,485 Nordic women and their babies, and found that maternal height, which is determined by genetic factors, helped shape the fetal environment, influencing the length of pregnancy and frequency of prematurity. In contrast, birth length and birth weight ...

University of Adelaide researchers have discovered a high-fat diet may impair important receptors located in the stomach that signal fullness. Published today* in the journal PLOS ONE, researchers from the University's Centre for Nutrition and Gastrointestinal Diseases (based at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute) investigated the association between hot chilli pepper receptors (TRPV1) in the stomach and the feeling of fullness, in laboratory studies. "The stomach stretches when it is full, which activates nerves in the stomach to tell the ...

New species evolve whenever a lineage splits off into several. Because of this, the kinship between species is often described in terms of a 'tree of life', where every branch constitutes a species. Now, researchers at Uppsala University have found that evolution is more complex than this model would have it, and that the tree is actually more akin to a bush. Less than a year ago, a consortium of some hundred researchers reported that the relationship between all major bird clades had been mapped out by analysing the complete genome of around 50 bird species. This included ...

August 18, 2015 - For children with aggressive brain cancers called high-grade gliomas (HGG), the chances of survival are improved when surgery is successful in eliminating all visible cancer, reports a study in the September issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer. In addition to showing better survival with gross total resection (GTR) for children with HGG, the results suggest that this survival benefit is greater in girls compared to boys with HGG. The study provides "compelling evidence ...

Women's contraceptive choices are more often driven by current relationships and sexual activity than by long-term pregnancy intentions, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers. Cynthia H. Chuang, associate professor of medicine and public health sciences and Carol S. Weisman, Distinguished Professor of Public Health Sciences and Obstetrics and Gynecology and colleagues surveyed nearly 1,000 women in Pennsylvania, all with private health insurance covering prescription contraception, on their contraception use -- including prescription and over-the-counter ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- New methods for analyzing personal health and lifestyle data captured through wearable devices or smartphone apps can help identify college students at risk of catching the flu, say researchers at Duke University and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. With help from a mobile app that monitors who students interact with and when, epidemiologist Allison Aiello of UNC and statistician Katherine Heller of Duke have developed a model that enables them to predict the spread of influenza from one person to the next over time. Unlike most infection ...

Imagine staying dry underwater for months. Now Northwestern University engineers have examined a wide variety of surfaces that can do just that -- and, better yet, they know why. The research team is the first to identify the ideal "roughness" needed in the texture of a surface to keep it dry for a long period of time when submerged in water. The valleys in the surface roughness typically need to be less than one micron in width, the researchers found. That's really small -- less than one millionth of a meter -- but these nanoscopic valleys have macroscopic impact. Understanding ...

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) -- In a discovery that is likely to rewrite immunology text books, researchers at UC Davis have found that early exposure to inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin 2, can "paralyze" CD4 T cells, immune components that help orchestrate the body's response to pathogens and other invaders. This mechanism may act as a firewall, shutting down the immune response before it gets out of hand. However, from a clinical standpoint, this discovery could lead to more effective cancer immunotherapies, better drugs for autoimmune conditions and new ways to ...

Scientists are planning for a future in which superbugs gain the upper hand against our current arsenal of antibiotics. One emerging class of drug candidates, called AMLPs (antimicrobial lipopeptides), shows promise, and an August 18 study in the Biophysical Journal explains why: they selectively kill bacterial cells, while sparing mammalian host cells, by clumping together into microscopic balls that stick to the bacterial membrane--a complex structure that will be slower to mutate and thus resist drugs. "The pressing need for novel antibiotics against resistant strains ...

SAN FRANCISCO--Early data coming in from a massive, four-year deployment of seismometers onshore and offshore in the Pacific Northwest are giving scientists a clearer picture of the Cascadia subduction zone, a region with a past and potential future of devastating "megathrust" earthquakes. The preliminary results from the Cascadia Initiative include a report of previously undetected, small earthquakes offshore, and seismic imaging that reveals new offshore structures at the subduction zone. The reports, published as a focus section in the September-October 2015 issue ...

Research indicates that the use of condoms may cause some men to experience erection difficulties. However, in a study of 479 heterosexual men who used condoms and were 18 to 24 years old, those who reported condom-associated erection problems were also more likely to experience more generalized erection difficulties. Investigators also found that more than one-third of participants had never been taught how to use a condom correctly. Clinicians should assess whether men using condoms experience condom-associated erection problems and where appropriate, make referrals ...

Liver diseases affect hundreds of millions of people and cause significant illness and death. A new study indicates that liver scarring (or fibrosis), which can ultimately lead to liver failure, is fairly common. It was present in 5.6% of adults in the Rotterdam Study, a population-based study among individuals in a suburb of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, who were ?45 years old. It was especially prevalent in individuals with diabetes or steatosis, the latter of which occurs when fat cells infiltrate the liver. "In the context of an aging population and an increasing prevalence ...

New research indicates that use of oral contraceptives may provide benefits for women with inflammatory arthritis. Among 273 women with early inflammatory arthritis, women who had used oral contraceptives in the past and those who were currently using them reported fewer problems related to how well they can function, their mood, and how active their disease is. The findings are published in Arthritis Care & Research. INFORMATION: ...