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Medicine14 Jul 2015

Elective surgery is associated with lower risk of death than drugs for ulcerative colitis

PHILADELPHIA -Patients over 50 with ulcerative colitis (UC), a chronic disease of the colon, who undergo surgery to treat their condition live longer than those who are treated with medications, according to a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The results are published this week in Annals of Internal Medicine. "Ulcerative colitis is a chronic disease that most physicians opt to treat with medications, as opposed to surgery," said the study's lead author Meenakshi Bewtra, MD, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of Medicine and ...

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Medicine13 Jul 2015

Certain abnormal prenatal testing results and subsequent diagnosis of maternal cancer

In preliminary research, a small number of occult (hidden) malignancies were subsequently diagnosed among pregnant women whose noninvasive prenatal testing results showed chromosomal abnormalities but the fetal karyotype was subsequently shown to be normal, according to a study appearing in JAMA. The study is being released to coincide with its presentation at the 19th International Conference on Prenatal Diagnosis and Therapy in Washington, D.C. Understanding the relationship between aneuploidy detection (an abnormal number of chromosomes) on noninvasive prenatal testing ...

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Earth Science13 Jul 2015

First use of NanoSIMS ion probe measurements to understand volcanic cycles at Yellowstone

Boulder, Colo., USA - Super-eruptions are not the only type of eruption to be considered when evaluating hazards at volcanoes with protracted eruption histories, such as the Yellowstone (Wyoming), Long Valley (California), and Valles (New Mexico) calderas. There have been more than 23 effusive eruptions of rhyolite lava at Yellowstone since the last caldera-forming eruption ~640,000 years ago, all of similar or greater magnitude than the largest volcanic eruptions of the 20th century. This study by Christy B. Till and colleagues is innovative because it is the first ...

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Medicine13 Jul 2015

Gene fuels age-related obesity and diabetes

DURHAM, N.C. - Practically everyone gets fatter as they get older, but some people can blame their genes for the extra padding. Researchers have shown that two different mutations in a gene called ankyrin-B cause cells to suck up glucose faster than normal, fattening them up and eventually triggering the type of diabetes linked to obesity. The more severe of the two mutations, called R1788W, is carried by nearly one million Americans. The milder mutation, known as L1622I, is shared by seven percent of the African American population and is about as common as the trait ...

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Engineering13 Jul 2015

3-D printers poised to have major implications for food manufacturing

CHICAGO-- The use of 3D printers has the potential to revolutionize the way food is manufactured within the next 10 to 20 years, impacting everything from how military personnel get food on the battlefield to how long it takes to get a meal from the computer to your table, according to a July 12th symposium at IFT15: Where Science Feeds Innovation hosted by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) in Chicago. The price of 3D printers has been steadily declining, from more than $500,000 in the 1980s to less than $1,000 today for a personal-sized device, making them increasingly ...

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Science13 Jul 2015

Scientist works on taste, texture and color of lab-produced hamburger

CHICAGO-- Dr. Mark J. Post is confident his recipe for his $300,000 cultured hamburger will not only come down in price but someday make it to market, according to a July 12th presentation at IFT15: Where Science Feeds Innovation hosted by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) in Chicago. "It's realistic that we can do this," said Post, chair of the department of physiology and professor of vascular physiology and tissue engineering, Maastricht University, The Netherlands, who is refining what he already sees as a patty consistent in look, texture and color to a traditional ...

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Medicine13 Jul 2015

Algae, quinoa, legumes top list of alternatives protein choices

CHICAGO-- Algae is evolving as the next new alternative protein source consumers are anxious to bite into as an ingredient in crackers, snack bars, cereals and breads, according to a July 12th presentation at IFT15: Where Science Feeds Innovation hosted by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) in Chicago. Algae, quinoa and pulses are considered by some food technologists to be the best protein sources and strong alternatives to slow meat consumption, reduce food waste and help feed the world's growing population. Algae is a new vegan source of protein with a comparable ...

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Medicine13 Jul 2015

Lung simulation could improve respiratory treatment

ANN ARBOR - The first computer model that predicts the flow of liquid medication in human lungs is providing new insight into the treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome. University of Michigan researchers are using the new technology to uncover why a treatment that saves the lives of premature babies has been largely unsuccessful in adults. Acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS, is a life-threatening inflammation of the respiratory system that kills 74,000 adults each year in the United States alone. IIt's most common among patients with lung injury ...

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Medicine13 Jul 2015

Nutrients turn on key tumor signaling molecule, fueling resistance to cancer therapy, Ludwig Cancer Research study shows

July 13, 2015, New York -- Tumors can leverage glucose and another nutrient, acetate, to resist targeted therapies directed at specific cellular molecules, according to Ludwig Cancer Research scientists studying glioblastoma, a deadly brain cancer. The findings, published in the July 13 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrate that nutrients can strongly affect the signaling molecules that drive tumors. "This study shows that metabolic and nutritional factors might be quite important in cancer development and treatment," says Ludwig San Diego member ...

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Medicine13 Jul 2015

Is upward mobility bad for your health?

Self-control is beneficial for children's school achievement and mental health For low-income youth, self control, and the success it enables, takes a toll on the body Findings have implications for interventions aimed at improving social, racial disparities EVANSTON, Ill. --- Youth from low-income families who succeed academically and socially may actually pay a price -- with their health -- according to a new Northwestern University study. It has been well documented that children from low-income families typically complete less education, have worse health and ...

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Environment13 Jul 2015

Fossils indicate human activities have disturbed ecosystem resilience

CORVALLIS, Ore. - A collection of fossilized owl pellets in Utah suggests that when the Earth went through a period of rapid warming about 13,000 years ago, the small mammal community was stable and resilient, even as individual species changed along with the habitat and landscape. By contrast, human-caused changes to the environment since the late 1800s have caused an enormous drop in biomass and "energy flow" in this same community, researchers reported today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The dramatic decline in this energy flow - a measurement ...

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Medicine13 Jul 2015

Cancer discovery links experimental vaccine and biological treatment

MADISON, Wis. -- A new study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has linked two seemingly unrelated cancer treatments that are both now being tested in clinical trials. One treatment is a vaccine that targets a structure on the outside of cancer cells, while the other is an altered enzyme that breaks apart RNA and causes the cell to commit suicide. The study was published July 13 in the new journal of the American Chemical Society: ACS Central Science. The new understanding could help both approaches, says UW-Madison professor of biochemistry Ronald Raines, who ...

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Science13 Jul 2015

Nanoscale light-emitting device has big profile

MADISON, Wis. -- University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers have created a nanoscale device that can emit light as powerfully as an object 10,000 times its size. It's an advance that could have huge implications for everything from photography to solar power. In a paper published July 10 in the journal Physical Review Letters, Zongfu Yu, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, and his collaborators describe a nanoscale device that drastically surpasses previous technology in its ability to scatter light. They showed how a single nanoresonator can ...

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Science13 Jul 2015

An elusive molecule -- finally revealed

Scientists at the University of Arizona have discovered a mysterious molecule with a structure simple enough to make it into high school textbooks, yet so elusive that chemists have argued for more than a century over whether it even exists. And, like so many important discoveries in science, this one started out with a neglected flask sitting in a storage fridge, in this case in the lab of Andrei Sanov, a professor in the UA's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Sanov and two of his students report the first definitive observation and spectroscopic characterization ...

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Medicine13 Jul 2015

Cancers caught during screening colonoscopy are more survivable

DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. - July 13, 2015 -Patients whose colorectal cancer (CRC) is detected during a screening colonoscopy are likely to survive longer than those who wait until they have symptoms before having the test, according to a study in the July issue of GIE: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE). The study, "Survival in patients with colorectal cancer diagnosed by screening colonoscopy," looked at 312 patients in 10 gastroenterology practices in Germany, all aged 55 or ...

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Science13 Jul 2015

Losing half a night of sleep makes memories less accessible in stressful situations

It is known that sleep facilitates the formation of long-term memory in humans. In a new study, researchers from Uppsala University, Sweden, now show that sleep does not only help form long-term memory but also ensures access to it during times of cognitive stress. It is well known that during sleep newly learned information is transferred from short-term to long-term memory stores in humans. In the study that is now being published in the scientific journal SLEEP, sleep researchers Jonathan Cedernaes and Christian Benedict, sought to investigate the role of nocturnal ...

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Science13 Jul 2015

Study offers new method of identifying sweet corn hybrids for increased yield and profit

URBANA, Ill. - Corn hybrids with improved tolerance to crowding stress, grown at higher plant populations than their predecessors, have been a driver of rising field corn yields in recent decades. Large differences in crowding stress tolerance (CST) recently reported among popular sweet corn processing hybrids has growers and processors wondering if newly emerging hybrids also offer improved CST. Martin Williams, a University of Illinois crop scientist and ecologist with the USDA-Agricultural Research Service, said this question is fundamentally important in improving ...

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Science13 Jul 2015

UB researcher explores first-responders' role in end-of-life calls

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Paramedics and emergency medical technicians (EMTs) are trained to save lives. But they sometimes enter situations where a dying patient's end-of-life wishes contradict their professional code. What do they do when faced with someone who is imminently dying and whose pre-hospital order is "do not resuscitate"? Until recently, the dynamics of that environment were a mystery. "One way to gain perspective on these crises was to interview the paramedics and EMTs involved in them," says Deborah Waldrop, a professor in the University at Buffalo School of Social ...

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Science13 Jul 2015

Antioxidants help treat skin-picking disorder in mice, Stanford researcher says

Two antioxidant supplements are effective in treating skin-picking disorder in mice, according to a study led by a Stanford University School of Medicine researcher. The finding suggests that people with the potentially serious disorder might benefit from this therapy. An estimated 4 percent of the population -- or about 1 in 25 -- suffer from skin-picking disorder, in which repeated, compulsive picking or scratching of the skin can lead to severe disfigurement and life-threatening infection. Skin picking is also common among laboratory mice, which may develop potentially ...

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Earth Science13 Jul 2015

New GSA Today science investigates lithosphere of the Central Iranian plateau

Boulder, Colorado, USA - In the July issue of GSA Today, Franz Neubauer of the University of Salzburg and Fariba Kargaranbafghi of the University of Yazd describe thinning of the lithosphere that they associate with the formation of a metamorphic core complex in the Central Iranian plateau. The core complex is located within a continental rift and was exhumed at a rate of approx. 0.75 to 1.3 km per million years during the main phase of oceanic subduction of the Arabian plate beneath the Central Iranian block between ca. 30 and 49 million years ago. The authors indicate ...

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Social Science13 Jul 2015

Baby's first stool can alert doctors to future cognitive issues, new CWRU study finds

A newborn's first stool can signal the child may struggle with persistent cognitive problems, according to Case Western Reserve University Project Newborn researchers. In particular, high levels of fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE) found in the meconium (a newborn's first stool) from a mother's alcohol use during pregnancy can alert doctors that a child is at risk for problems with intelligence and reasoning. Left untreated, such problems persist into the teen years, the research team from the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences found. "We ...

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Science13 Jul 2015

Rice tests wireless data delivery over active TV channels

Rice University engineers have demonstrated the first system that allows wireless data transmissions over UHF channels during active TV broadcasts. If the technology were incorporated into next-generation TVs or smart remotes, it could significantly expand the reach of so-called "super Wi-Fi" networks in urban areas. "Due to the popularity of cable, satellite and Internet TV, the UHF spectrum is one of the most underutilized portions of the wireless spectrum in the United States," said lead researcher Edward Knightly. "That's a bitter irony because the demand for mobile ...

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Medicine13 Jul 2015

Lynchpin molecule for the spread of cancer found

(PHILADELPHIA) - Cancer is a disease of cell growth, but most tumors only become lethal once they metastasize or spread from their first location to sites throughout the body. For the first time, researchers at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia report a single molecule that appears to be the central regulator driving metastasis in prostate cancer. The study, published online July 13th in Cancer Cell, offers a target for the development of a drug that could prevent metastasis in prostate cancer, and possibly other cancers as well. "Finding a way to halt or prevent ...

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Science13 Jul 2015

Eating wild, foraged mushrooms can result in liver failure or death as misidentification is common

Foraging and eating wild mushrooms can result in liver failure and even death because mistaking toxic mushrooms for edible varieties is common, illustrates a case published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) "Distinguishing safe from harmful mushrooms is a challenge even for mycologists," writes Dr. Adina Weinerman, Division of General Internal Medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario, with coauthors. The case focuses on a previously healthy 52-year-old immigrant woman of Asian descent who had foraged for wild mushrooms in a local park ...

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Medicine13 Jul 2015

New drug combo could make cancer more sensitive to chemo

Combining chemotherapy with new drugs that target a protein that helps cancer cells to withstand chemotherapy could drastically improve treatment, according to research published in Cancer Cell. Researchers at the University of Manchester carefully studied a network of proteins that kick into action when cancer cells in the lab are treated with a class of chemotherapy drugs called taxanes*. These drugs are commonly used to treat several cancers - including breast, ovarian and prostate cancers. But not all cancers respond to them, and it's difficult to predict which patients ...

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