E-cigarettes are a potential smoking cessation aid and they may also be able to lower the risk of nicotine dependency in high-risk groups. The available scientific evidence, however, remains insufficient. This is the conclusion reached by Dennis Nowak et al. from Munich in this issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2014; 111: 349–55). The authors performed a systematic literature search for data on e-cigarettes' mechanism of action, their emissions, how they are seen by groups of potential users, their efficacy in smoking cessation, and their addiction ...

A group of New Zealand health policy researchers from the University of Otago's Dunedin and Christchurch campuses has called on the leading medical journal BMJ to be much more even handed in scrutinizing the transparency of what it publishes. Professor Robin Gauld, the Director of the Centre for Health Systems, has co-written a letter that has appeared in the BMJ on 31 May, expressing concern about a journal editorial reviewing a report into the performance of the Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) prepared by the King's Fund in England. The report, released in ...

Scientists at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC) and the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas (CNIO) have succeeded in reproducing, in human cells, the chromosomal translocations that cause two types of cancer: acute myeloid leukemia and Ewing's sarcoma. The findings, published today in Nature Communications, open the way to the development of new therapeutic targets for the treatment of these cancers. The study was led by Juan Carlos Ramírez and Raúl Torres, of the CNIC Viral Vectors Unit, and Sandra Rodríguez-Perales, of the Molecular ...

Australia's koalas cope with extreme heat by resting against cooler tree trunks, new research has revealed. Thermal imaging uncovered the koalas' cool plan, confirming that they choose to hug trees that can be more than 5°C cooler than the air during hot weather. Researchers observed the behaviour of 30 koalas during hot weather at French Island, Victoria. Co-author Andrew Krockenberger from James Cook University in Cairns, in far north-east Australia, says heat wave events can hit koala populations hard. "We know that about a quarter of the koalas in one population ...

The nation's sewer system is a topic most people would prefer to avoid, but its aging infrastructure is wearing out, and broken pipes leaking raw sewage into streets and living rooms are forcing the issue. To better predict which pipes need to be fixed, scientists report in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology that certain conditions in the pipes can clue utilities in to which ones need repair — before it's too late. Mark T. Hernandez and colleagues note that the maintenance of U.S. wastewater collection systems costs an estimated $4.5 billion every year, ...

Research Triangle Park (RTP) might not have the international renown that Silicon Valley has developed, but the North Carolina region has become a tech powerhouse in its own right – in crop science. A recent growth spurt promises intense new research with the potential to transform how — and how well — the world is fed, says an article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly news magazine of the American Chemical Society. Melody M. Bomgardner, a senior editor at C&EN, notes that the park, which is nestled between the higher education triad Raleigh, Durham and ...

LOS ANGELES — Soda consumers may be getting a much higher dose of the harmful sugar fructose than they have been led to believe, according to a new study by the Childhood Obesity Research Center (CORC) at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC), part of Keck Medicine of USC. In the study, published online June 3, 2014 in the journal Nutrition, Keck School of Medicine researchers analyzed the chemical composition of 34 popular beverages, finding that beverages and juices made with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, ...

Multiple sclerosis manifests itself in many different ways and different courses. A recent effort to fine-tune descriptions – or phenotypes -- of MS was undertaken by an international team of leaders in MS research and clinical care. The results of this effort by the International Advisory Committee on Clinical Trials in MS, including recommendations for more research, has just been published (Neurology 2014;83:1). The volunteer Committee is jointly supported by the National MS Society and the European Committee for Treatment and Research in MS (ECTRIMS). "Having better ...

DARIEN, IL – A new study suggests that light treatment tailored to increase circadian stimulation during the day may improve sleep, depression and agitation in people with Alzheimer's disease and related dementia. Results show that exposure to the tailored light treatment during daytime hours for four weeks significantly increased sleep quality, efficiency and total sleep duration. It also significantly reduced scores for depression and agitation. "It is a simple, inexpensive, non-pharmacological treatment to improve sleep and behavior in Alzheimer's disease and dementia ...

Was it mankind or climate change that caused the extinction of a considerable number of large mammals about the time of the last Ice Age? Researchers at Aarhus University, Denmark, have carried out the first global analysis of the extinction of the large animals, and the conclusion is clear – humans are to blame. "Our results strongly underline the fact that human expansion throughout the world has meant an enormous loss of large animals," says Postdoctoral Fellow Søren Faurby, Aarhus University. Was it due to climate change? For almost 50 years, scientists have been ...

Each fall, millions of monarch butterflies make a spectacular journey from the eastern parts of North America to reach their overwintering grounds in Mexico. Researchers have long known that not all butterflies successfully reach their destination. Now scientists from the University of Georgia, in Athens, provide some crucial answers on what it takes for Monarchs to complete the trip. It turns out - it's all in the wings! In the article "Variation in wing characteristics of monarch butterflies during migration" published earlier this month in Animal Migration, Dara A. ...

SPHERE passed its acceptance tests in Europe in December 2013 and was then shipped to Paranal. The delicate reassembly was completed in May 2014 and the instrument is now mounted on VLT Unit Telescope 3. SPHERE is the latest of the second generation of instruments for the VLT (the first three were X-shooter, KMOS and MUSE). SPHERE combines several advanced techniques to give the highest contrast ever reached for direct planetary imaging — far beyond what could be achieved with NACO, which took the first ever direct image of an exoplanet. To reach its impressive performance ...

PULLMAN, Wash.—Researchers at Washington State University have used a super-cold cloud of atoms that behaves like a single atom to see a phenomenon predicted 60 years ago and witnessed only once since. The phenomenon takes place in the seemingly otherworldly realm of quantum physics and opens a new experimental path to potentially powerful quantum computing. Working out of a lab in WSU's Webster Hall, physicist Peter Engels and his colleagues cooled about one million atoms of rubidium to 100 billionths of a degree above absolute zero. There was no colder place in the ...

Cybercrime comes in all forms these days. One recent headline told of the creepware or silent computer snooping that resulted in the arrest of some 90 people in 19 countries. Miss Teen USA was among the victims. Her computer had been turned into a camera and used to spy on her in her own bedroom. On the commercial front, Target suffered the largest retail hack in U.S. history during the Christmas shopping season of 2013, and now the Fortune 500 company's outlook is bleak with steep drops in profits. New research to be announced at the June 2014 ACM Symposium on Information, ...

A species of bee from Europe that has stronger resistance to parasite infections than native bumblebees has spread across the UK, according to new research at Royal Holloway, University of London. The study, published today (Wednesday 4th June 2014) in the Journal of Animal Ecology, shows that tree bumblebees have rapidly spread despite them carrying high levels of an infection that normally prevents queen bees from producing colonies. The species arrived in the UK from continental Europe 13 years ago and has successfully spread at an average rate of nearly 4,500 square ...

In the United States the debate around gun ownership often focuses on teenagers; however, research shows that elderly Americans are the most likely to own a gun and that presents both medical and legal problems for physicians and carers. Writing in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, Dr. Ellen Pinholt explores these issues and proposes a series of 'red flag' questions which caregivers must ask. While there is no upper age limit on owning a firearm, Americans aged over 65 have the highest prevalence of dementia, depression and suicide. Federal law prohibits ...

Women who have short intervals between pregnancies of less than 18 months are more likely to see a decrease in the length of subsequent pregnancies, finds a new study published today (4 June) in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The US study, using birth records from the Ohio Department of Health, looked at 454,716 live births from women with two or more pregnancies over a six year period. The researchers looked at the influence of inadequate birth spacing on the duration of the subsequent pregnancy. The study defined short interpregnancy ...

HUNTSVILLE, TX (6/4/14) -- Researchers at Sam Houston State University have found a genetic characteristic that interacts with childhood adversity to predict higher rates of crime in an incarcerated sample. The study is the first in a series that will examine contributions of genetic and environmental variations to criminal behavior. Published in Psychiatric Genetics, this study examines the role of monoamine oxidase A (MAOA), which has been linked to aggression, violence, and various types of childhood adversity in prior research. The study found MAOA genotype interacted ...

Scientists at the University of East Anglia have found two new chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and one new hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) in the atmosphere. The research, published today in the journal Atmosphere, comes after another four man-made gases were discovered by the same team in March. Scientists made the discovery by comparing today's air samples with air collected between 1978 and 2012 in unpolluted Tasmania, and samples taken during aircraft flights. Measurements show that all but one of the new gases have been released into the atmosphere in recent years. ...

An international team of scientists, led by astronomers at Queen Mary University of London, report of two new planets orbiting Kapteyn's star, one of the oldest stars found near the Sun. One of the newly-discovered planets could be ripe for life as it orbits at the right distance to the star to allow liquid water on its surface. Discovered at the end of the 19th century and named after the Dutch astronomer who discovered it (Jacobus Kapteyn), Kapteyn's star is the second fastest moving star in the sky and belongs to the galactic halo, an extended cloud of stars orbiting ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Exposure to iron pipes and steel rebar, such as the materials found in most hatcheries, affects the navigation ability of young steelhead trout by altering the important magnetic "map sense" they need for migration, according to new research from Oregon State University. The exposure to iron and steel distorts the magnetic field around the fish, affecting their ability to navigate, said Nathan Putman, who led the study while working as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, part of OSU's College of Agricultural Sciences. Just ...

Washington, D.C.— An international team of astronomers, including five Carnegie scientists, reports the discovery of two new planets orbiting a very old star that is near to our own Sun. One of these planets orbits the star at the right distance to allow liquid water to exist on its surface, a key ingredient to support life. Their work is published by Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Kapteyn's Star, named after the Dutch astronomer, Jacobus Kapteyn, who discovered it at the end of the 19th century, is the second fastest-moving star in the sky and belongs ...

Deep sea fishes remove and store more than one million tonnes of CO2 from UK and Irish surface waters every year, according to a new study led by the University of Southampton. This natural carbon capture and storage scheme could store carbon equivalent to £10 million per year in carbon credits. Fish living in deep waters on the continental slope around the UK play an important role carrying carbon from the surface to the seafloor. It is assumed that deep water fishes all depend on particles that fall from the surface for their energy. These bottom-living deep water ...

New research, published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal, shows that rates of adverse outcomes, including premature death and violent crime, in people with schizophrenia are increasing, compared to the general population. The results come from a unique study, led by Dr Seena Fazel, at Oxford University, UK, which analyses long-term adverse outcomes – including conviction for a violent crime (such as homicide or bodily harm) premature death (before the age of 56), and death by suicide – between 1972 and 2009 in nearly 25,000 people in Sweden diagnosed with schizophrenia ...

A 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) is effective in reducing the number of new cases of likely-bacterial community-acquired pneumonia in infants in Latin America, according to a study published in this week's PLOS Medicine. Xavier Sáez-Llorens and colleagues from Department of Infectious Diseases, Panama found that the 10-valent PCV reduced the number of new cases of likely-bacterial community-acquired pneumonia in infants by 22% (95% CI: 7.7, 34.2) compared to those who received the control vaccine in the per-protocol cohort at the pre-planned interim analysis ...