CORAL GABLES, Fla. (June 23, 2015) - Many of us are familiar with bell-shaped curves that describe the distributions of school grades and total annual rainfall, among many other quantities. This ubiquitous distribution results when many points for individual non-correlated quantities are added to produce an outcome. Interestingly, a very differently-shaped, highly skewed pattern, often called a power law distribution, is also ubiquitous. This skewed distribution is often considered a signature of complex systems, but its origin has never been adequately explained. A ...

Some strains of multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDRTB) may have a lower fitness (be less capable of spreading) than drug-susceptible tuberculosis bacteria, according to a study published this week in PLOS Medicine. The study, conducted by Louis Grandjean of Imperial College London, and colleagues, compared new tuberculosis cases among household contacts of tuberculosis patients in South Lima and Callao, Peru to determine the relative fitness of MDRTB versus drug-susceptible tuberculosis. The study followed 1,055 household contacts of 213 individuals with MDRTB infection ...

Just because more men pursue careers in science and engineering does not mean they are actually better at math than women are. The difference is that men think they are much better at math than they really are. Women, on the other hand, tend to accurately estimate their arithmetic prowess, says Shane Bench of Washington State University in the U.S., leader of a study in Springer's journal Sex Roles. There is a sizeable gap between the number of men and women who choose to study and follow careers in the so-called STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics ...

This news release is available in French. Montreal, 23 June, 2015 -- The United States Department of Defense (DOD) is widely reported to be the single largest consumer of petroleum in the world, spending billions of dollars on fuel every year. While the DOD provides Congress with yearly budget estimates, ongoing conflicts in the Middle East along with a volatile crude oil market have resulted in wide discrepancies between budgeted and actual fuel costs. New research from Concordia University in Montreal shows that while this perpetual overspending could have serious ...

(NEW YORK - June 23, 2015) An annual exam using a key imaging technology could spare patients with lung nodules from unnecessary tests and surgery, while identifying the cases where the nodules are likely to become cancerous, according to a new study by researchers at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) and published online today in journal Radiology. The study authors found the imaging technology, called low-dose computed tomography (LDCT), to be a safe and effective screening tool to monitor those with nonsolid lung nodules, which in some cases are precursors ...

With the implementation of an on-site attending-level physician supervising the overnight medical residents, the Penn State Hershey Medical Center has not seen any significant impact on important clinical outcomes, according to medical researchers. "Over the past 10 to 15 years, academic hospitals have utilized hospitalists during the day," said Jed Gonzalo, associate dean for health systems education and assistant professor of medicine and public health sciences, Penn State College of Medicine. "Ours is the first study to look at the impact of an overnight academic hospitalist ...

Generic medications used frequently in the management of heart disease patients also have the potential to bolster the immune systems of patients with Ebola virus and some other life-threatening illnesses, researchers report this week in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology. Unlike other medications in development for Ebola, which attack the virus, statins and angiotensin receptor blockers typically used for heart disease work on the host response, or a person's biological reaction to the virus, said lead study author David ...

URBANA, Ill. -- When grain and other commodity prices experienced explosive episodes between 2004 and 2013, the finger pointed toward index traders as the cause. University of Illinois researchers identified and date-stamped both upward and downward price bubbles for grain during that time period. They found that not only were index traders not to blame but that the bubbles didn't last nearly as long as many thought they did. "To an economist, a bubble is a period when the price is either above or below its true economic fundamental value, which is determined by the ...

This news release is available in French. Montreal, 23 June, 2015 -- The United States Department of Defense (DOD) is widely reported to be the single largest consumer of petroleum in the world, spending billions of dollars on fuel every year. While the DOD provides Congress with yearly budget estimates, ongoing conflicts in the Middle East along with a volatile crude oil market have resulted in wide discrepancies between budgeted and actual fuel costs. New research from Concordia University in Montreal shows that while this perpetual overspending could have serious ...

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a new approach for forming 3D shapes from flat, 2D sheets of graphene, paving the way for future integrated systems of graphene-MEMS hybrid devices and flexible electronics. "To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to demonstrate graphene integration to a variety of different microstructured geometries, including pyramids, pillars, domes, inverted pyramids, and the 3D integration of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs)/graphene hybrid structures," explained SungWoo Nam, an assistant professor ...

Consciousness -- the internal dialogue that seems to govern one's thoughts and actions -- is far less powerful than people believe, serving as a passive conduit rather than an active force that exerts control, according to a new theory proposed by an SF State researcher. Associate Professor of Psychology Ezequiel Morsella's "Passive Frame Theory" suggests that the conscious mind is like an interpreter helping speakers of different languages communicate. "The interpreter presents the information but is not the one making any arguments or acting upon the knowledge that ...

Scientists are expecting that this year's Chesapeake Bay hypoxic low-oxygen zone, also called the "dead zone," will be approximately 1.37 cubic miles - about the volume of 2.3 million Olympic-size swimming pools. While still large, this is 10 percent lower than the long-term average as measured since 1950. The anoxic portion of the zone, which contains no oxygen at all, is predicted to be 0.27 cubic miles in early summer, growing to 0.28 cubic miles by late summer. Low river flow and low nutrient loading from the Susquehanna River this spring account for the smaller ...

Milan, Italy - 23 June 2015: The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) has recommended uninterrupted anticoagulation with vitamin K antagonists during ablation and device implantation in a position paper presented today1 at EHRA EUROPACE - CARDIOSTIM 2015 and published in EP Europace.2 'Antithrombotic management in patients undergoing electrophysiology procedures' was produced by the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA), a registered branch of the ESC, and is endorsed by the ESC Working Group on Thrombosis, the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) in the US and the Asia Pacific ...

This news release is available in French. The presence of multiple BIXI stations within 1 km has contributed to an average increase of 2.7% in sales price of houses nearby We know that an extra bedroom, and a metro station nearby will make your house more valuable. Now it turns out that a bike-sharing station nearby will do the same. Researchers at McGill studied house sales in central Montreal before and after the Bixi bike sharing system was launched in Montreal in 2009. They found that a typical home in the central Montreal area they studied had about 12 Bixi stations ...

Washington, D.C. - June 23, 2015 - Researchers have identified a new class of antifungals to treat the more than 300 million people worldwide who develop serious fungal infections. The research is described in the current issue of mBio, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology. "Fungal infections are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide and current antifungal drugs have drawbacks. These new drugs may pave the way for the development of a new class of antifungals," said principal investigator Maurizio Del Poeta, MD, a ...

Every time you've seen a plane take off or land at a hub airport, you've seen the world growing more connected, according to a new model developed by researchers at MIT. In a study published in the journal Transportation Research Part E, the MIT team outlines a model that determines the degree to which regions around the world are connected via air transportation. The researchers, at MIT's Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment (LAE), analyzed flight schedules between 1990 and 2012 from more than 1,100 airlines connecting over 4,600 airports around the world. ...

The early diagnosis of certain types of cancer, as well as nervous system diseases such as multiple sclerosis and neuromyelitis optica, may soon be facilitated by the use of a nanometric sensor capable of identifying biomarkers of these pathological conditions. The nanobiosensor was developed at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), Sorocaba, in partnership with the São Paulo Federal Institute of Education, Science & Technology (IFSP), Itapetininga, São Paulo State, Brazil. It was originally designed to detect herbicides, heavy metals and other ...

Irvine, Calif., June 23 -- By identifying in spinal fluid how the characteristic mutant proteins of Huntington's disease spread from cell to cell, UC Irvine scientists and colleagues have created a new method to quickly and accurately track the presence and proliferation of these neuron-damaging compounds -- a discovery that may accelerate the development of new drugs to treat this incurable disease. The researchers added that the cell-to-cell "seeding" property of these mutant proteins seems to be a critical part of the disease's progression. Their findings also advance ...

A rigorous analysis of more than 20,000 medical records concludes that erectile dysfunction drugs, such as Viagra, are not a cause of melanoma, an often deadly form of skin cancer, despite the higher risk for the disease among users of these drugs. A detailed report on the research findings is to be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association online June 23. The analysis, led by researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center and its Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center, of medical records for some 20,235 mostly white men suggests instead that the likely ...

DURHAM, N.C. - Heart attack patients age 65 and older who have reduced heart function might still benefit from implanted defibrillators, according to a Duke Medicine study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. But fewer than 1 in 10 eligible patients actually get a defibrillator within a year of their heart attacks, the study found. Advanced age, transitions in care between the hospital and an outpatient clinic, and a mandatory waiting period to get a defibrillator after a heart attack were the most likely factors for low rates of use, according ...

Among Medicare patients who experienced a heart attack from 2007 to 2010, fewer than 1 in 10 eligible patients with low ejection fraction (a measure of how well the left ventricle of the heart pumps blood with each beat) received an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) within 1 year after the heart attack, even though ICD implantation was associated with a lower risk of death at 2 years after implantation, according to a study in the June 23/30 issue of JAMA. More than 350,000 people experience sudden cardiac death in the United States annually. Clinical trials ...

Among men in Sweden, use of erectile dysfunctions drugs with phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors was associated with a modest but significant increased risk of malignant melanoma, although the pattern of association raises questions about whether this association is causal, according to a study in the June 23/30 issue of JAMA. Phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5; an enzyme), the target of oral erectile dysfunction (ED) drugs, is part of a pathway that has been implicated in the development of malignant melanoma. This has raised questions whether PDE5 inhibitors used to treat ...

Among extremely preterm infants, early screening for the vascular disorder patent ductus arteriosus before day 3 of life was associated with a lower risk of in-hospital death and pulmonary hemorrhage, but not with differences in other severe complications, according to a study in the June 23/30 issue of JAMA. The ductus arteriosus is a blood vessel in a fetus that bypasses pulmonary circulation by connecting the pulmonary artery directly to the ascending aorta. It usually closes within 72 hours of birth in most normal-term infants. However, failure to close is common ...

In an analysis of the findings of nearly 80 randomized trials that included about 6,500 participants, there was moderate-quality evidence to support the use of cannabinoids (chemical compounds that are the active principles in cannabis or marijuana) for the treatment of chronic pain and lower-quality evidence suggesting that cannabinoids were associated with improvements in nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy, sleep disorders, and Tourette syndrome, according to a study in the June 23/30 issue of JAMA. Medical cannabis refers to the use of cannabis or cannabinoids ...

An analysis of edible medical marijuana products from 3 major metropolitan areas found that many had lower amounts of key substances than labeled, which may not produce the desired medical benefit, while others contained significantly more of a certain substance than labeled, placing patients at risk of experiencing adverse effects, according to a study in the June 23/30 issue of JAMA. As the use of cannabis (marijuana) for medical purposes has expanded, a variety of edible products for oral consumption has been developed. An estimated 16 percent to 26 percent of patients ...