Use of exome sequencing improved the ability to identify the underlying gene mutations in patients with biochemically defined defects affecting multiple mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes (enzymes that are involved in basic energy production), according to a study in the July 2 issue of JAMA. Defects of the mitochondrial respiratory chain have emerged as the most common cause of childhood and adult neurometabolic disease, with an estimated prevalence of l in 5,000 live births. Clinically these disorders can present at any time of life, are often seen in association ...

Breast cancer screening costs for Medicare patients skyrocketed between 2001 and 2009, but the increase did not lead to earlier detection of new breast cancer cases, according to a study published by Yale School of Medicine researchers in the July 1 Journal of the National Cancer Institute. While the number of screening mammograms performed among Medicare patients remained stable during the same time period, the study focused on the adoption of newer imaging technologies in the Medicare population, such as digital mammography. Brigid Killelea, M.D., assistant professor ...

Adults stop anti-rejection drugs after stem-cell transplant reverses sickle cell disease NIH trial success suggests a new treatment option for older, sicker patients Half of patients in a trial have safely stopped immunosuppressant medication following a modified blood stem-cell transplant for severe sickle cell disease, according to a study in the July 1 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The trial was conducted at the National Institutes of Health's Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, by researchers from NIH's National Institute of Diabetes ...

Today, doctors who really want to see if a wound is healing have to do a biopsy or some other invasive technique that, besides injuring an already injured patient, can really only offer information about a small area. But a technology called hyperspectral imaging offers doctors a noninvasive, painless way to discriminate between healthy and diseased tissue and reveal how well damaged tissue is healing over a wide area. The catch? A lack of calibration standards is impeding its use. After a successful non-human trial, researchers at the National Institute of Standards ...

The light-warping structures known as metamaterials have a new trick in their ever-expanding repertoire. Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have built a silver, glass and chromium nanostructure that can all but stop visible light cold in one direction while giving it a pass in the other.* The device could someday play a role in optical information processing and in novel biosensing devices. In recent years, scientists have designed nanostructured materials that allow microwave or infrared light to propagate in only one direction. ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. – We're often told that worrying can be harmful to one's health. But University at Buffalo researchers say that when it comes to preventing skin cancer, a little fear is good for you. In a study published in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine, the UB researchers found that fear and worry about skin cancer had a bigger influence on people's use of sunscreen than information about the statistical likelihood of developing the disease. "Most health behavior studies don't account for the more visceral, emotional reactions that lead people to do risky behaviors, ...

The net-zero energy test house at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in suburban Washington, D.C., not only absorbed winter's best shot, it came out on top, reaching its one-year anniversary on July 1 with enough surplus energy to power an electric car for about 1,440 miles.* Watch the YouTube video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJZrOhPk4kg Despite five months of below-average temperatures and twice the normal amount of snowfall, NIST's Net-Zero Energy Residential Test Facility (NZERTF) ended its one-year test run with 491 kilowatt hours ...

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified a new biomarker that predicts whether glioblastoma – the most common form of primary brain cancer – will respond to chemotherapy. The findings are published in the July print issue of Oncotarget. "Every patient diagnosed with glioblastoma is treated with a chemotherapy called temozolomide. About 15 percent of these patients derive long-lasting benefit," said Clark C. Chen, MD, PhD, vice-chairman of Academic Affairs, Division of Neurosurgery, UC San Diego School of Medicine and the ...

VIDEO: Experiments by Heidi Appel and Rex Cocroft at the University of Missouri mark the first time scientists have shown that a plant responds to an ecologically relevant sound in its... Click here for more information. COLUMBIA, Mo. – Previous studies have suggested that plant growth can be influenced by sound and that plants respond to wind and touch. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri, in a collaboration that brings together audio and chemical analysis, have ...

WASHINGTON D.C., June 30, 2014 – When beams with trillions of particles go zipping around at near light speed, there's bound to be some chaos. Limiting that chaos in particle colliders is crucial for the groundbreaking results such experiments are designed to deliver. In a special focus issue of the journal Chaos, from AIP Publishing, a physicist at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) details an important method of detecting and correcting unwanted chaotic behavior in particle colliders. The method is helping accelerator physicists design high-performing, ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Among the sciences, biology consistently attracts the greatest numbers of women to graduate school and academic careers. About half of all biology graduate students are women, and 40 percent of biology postdocs are female. However, those numbers drop dramatically among faculty members: Nationwide, only 36 percent of assistant professors and 18 percent of full professors are women. A new study reveals a possible explanation for this discrepancy: In the labs of the highest-achieving male biology professors — winners of the Nobel Prize, the National Medal ...

NEW YORK—Jill Abramson was recently ousted from her position as the executive editor of The New York Times for being, among other things, too "pushy." But did Abramson—who has also been described by the media as "polarizing" and "brusque"—know during the course of her tenure that others viewed her as being overly assertive? A new study from the Columbia Business School suggests that there's a great chance she didn't. "Finding the middle ground between being pushy and being a pushover is a basic challenge in social life and the workplace. We've now found that the challenge ...

However, central surface waters of the oceans may not be the final destination of plastic debris since, as indicated by the study performed by the Malaspina Expedition, large amounts of microplastics could be passing to the marine food chain and the ocean floor. Results of the study, led by the University of Cadiz (Spain), have been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Andrés Cózar, researcher from the University of Cadiz, explains: "Ocean currents carry plastic objects which split into smaller and smaller fragments due to solar ...

Some of the increase in asthma risk toward the end of the 20th century could be attributed to the increase in body mass index (BMI) in mid-childhood, according to new research published in this week's PLOS Medicine. The study, led by Raquel Granell from the University of Bristol, UK, and colleagues, provides genetic evidence that higher fat mass and lean mass increase the risk of asthma in mid-childhood. The incidence of asthma, a chronic condition caused by inflammation of the airways, has been rising steadily over the past few decades, and it is estimated that 200� ...

Caesarean section is associated with a slightly increased rate of subsequent stillbirth and ectopic pregnancy, according to a large study of women living in Demark, published in this week in PLOS Medicine. Given the global increase in Caesarean rates, the results of the study, which was conducted by Louise Kenny and colleagues from University College Cork, Ireland and Aarhus University, Denmark, are of interest to pregnant women, their partners, and healthcare providers. The researchers obtained data for 832,996 women from Danish national registers regarding their first ...

Use of catheter ablation is not only beneficial for treating atrial flutter but also can significantly reduce hospital visits – both inpatient and emergency – and lower the risk for atrial fibrillation, according to research by UC San Francisco. The study is in the July issue of PLOS ONE and available online. "We've seen firsthand in our clinical experience that atrial flutter is difficult to control with drugs, even more than atrial fibrillation," said senior author Gregory Marcus, MD, director of clinical research in the UCSF Division of Cardiology. "Based on our ...

July 1, 2014 – Genome Research publishes six articles online and in print today describing recent advancements from the modENCODE Project. Initially launched in 2007, the goal of the modENCODE Project is to comprehensively characterize functional genomic elements in two model organisms, the fly Drosophila melanogaster, and the worm Caenorhabditis elegans. Comparative analyses in these well-established systems are expected to guide efforts to further our understanding of human biology. The articles published in this issue present new genomic advances shedding light upon ...

VIDEO: Melbourne researchers are homing in on a new target for malaria treatment, after developing a compound that blocks the action of a key 'gatekeeper' enzyme essential for malaria parasite survival. The... Click here for more information. Melbourne researchers are homing in on a new target for malaria treatment, after developing a compound that blocks the action of a key 'gatekeeper' enzyme essential for malaria parasite survival. The compound, called WEHI-916, is ...

Li Haijun and fellow researchers at Minzu University of China, in Beijing, conducted a series of geometric morphometric analyses of the contours of the side face and variations in the Tu and Zang (Tibetan) ethnic minorities from Qinghai Province, in northwestern China. Their study, entitled "Morphometric analysis of the Chinese facial profile: Contours of the side face and variations in the Tu and Zang ethnic minorities", was published (in Chinese) in the Chinese Science Bulletin, 2014, Vol 59(16). The team of researchers used advanced digital cameras and image processing ...

Pushing closer to understanding the mechanisms behind the mysterious glow of light produced naturally by certain animals, scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have deciphered the structural components related to fluorescence brightness in a primitive sea creature. In a study published in Scientific Reports, an open-access journal of the Nature Publishing Group, Dimitri Deheyn and his colleagues at Scripps Oceanography, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have conducted the most detailed examination ...

Research to curb global warming caused by rising levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, usually involves three areas: Developing alternative energy sources, capturing and storing greenhouse gases, and repurposing excess greenhouse gases. Drawing on two of these approaches, researchers in the laboratory of Andrew Bocarsly, a Princeton professor of chemistry, collaborated with start-up company Liquid Light Inc. of Monmouth Junction, N.J. to devise an efficient method for harnessing sunlight to convert carbon dioxide into a potential alternative fuel ...

Poor physical health and financial health are driven by the same underlying psychological factors, finds a new study out of the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. Researchers Lamar Pierce, PhD, associate professor of strategy at Olin and PhD-candidate Timothy Gubler found that the decision to contribute to a 401(k) retirement plan predicted whether or not an individual will act to correct poor physical health indicators revealed during an employer-sponsored health examination. "We find that existing retirement contribution patterns and future ...

Imagine feeling a slimy jellyfish, a prickly cactus or map directions on your iPad mini Retina display, because that's where tactile technology is headed. But you'll need more than just an index finger to feel your way around. New research at UC Berkeley has found that people are better and faster at navigating tactile technology when using both hands and several fingers. Moreover, blind people in the study outmaneuvered their sighted counterparts – especially when using both hands and several fingers – possibly because they've developed superior cognitive strategies ...

If we had a road map to what parental involvement in schools should be, what would it look like? Would it be a straight line, or a complicated maze of cross streets going in every direction? University of Washington researchers studied The Road Map Project, a collaborative effort to dramatically improve student achievement in seven school districts in South Seattle and South King County. In their report after a yearlong study of the initiative, they found that students were most successful when schools and communities found creative and culturally responsive ways of engaging ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – Every living cell's surface has a protein-embedded membrane that's covered in polysaccharide chains – a literal sugar coating. A new study by a Cornell University researcher found this coating is especially thick and pronounced on cancer cells and is a crucial determinant of the cell's survival. Consisting of long, sugar-decorated molecules called glycoproteins, the coating causes physical changes in the cell membrane that make the cell better able to thrive – leading to a more lethal cancer. Matthew Paszek, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular ...