Nanoengineers at the University of California, San Diego have developed a 3D-printed device inspired by the liver to remove dangerous toxins from the blood. The device, which is designed to be used outside the body -- much like dialysis – uses nanoparticles to trap pore-forming toxins that can damage cellular membranes and are a key factor in illnesses that result from animal bites and stings, and bacterial infections. Their findings were published May 8 in the journal Nature Communications. Nanoparticles have already been shown to be effective at neutralizing pore-forming ...

Over the past two decades or so, there has been increasing interest and development in measuring slow dynamics in disordered systems at the nanoscale, brought about in part from a demand for advancements in the food and consumer products industries. Some of the techniques that have been developed over recent years to study the dynamic properties of these materials include X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) and speckle visibility spectroscopy (SVS). Both of these techniques however suffer from some fundamental limitations ranging from the use of only specialized ...

Amsterdam, 9 May. Rates of obesity and overweight in both male and females are projected to increase in almost all countries of Europe by 2030, according to a statistical modelling study. However, the forecast rates vary throughout the 53 Euro-region countries, with projected male obesity levels ranging from 15% in the Netherlands and Belgium, to 47% in Ireland. The highest obesity prevalence in females was projected in Ireland (47%), and the lowest in Romania (10%). The study, from investigators which included the WHO Regional Office for Europe, was presented at the ...

In recent years the cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis) has colonized American continent. Invasive species are a worldwide problem and studies are devoted to assess the damage they cause to local species populations. Thus, the process of colonization of a new territory that has continental dimensions such as Brazil offers an excellent opportunity to examine how non-native species disperse, adapt and survive. A new study of the colonization patterns of the cattle egret in Brazil, published in the open access journal NeoBiota, offers a new take on the study of alien species. The ...

Coyotes are a major predator of white-tailed deer across the East, especially fawns born each spring, but wildlife managers nonetheless are able to stabilize and even grow deer herds, according to researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. Coyotes -- Canis latrans -- are a relatively recent arrival to eastern North America, appearing first in the region in noticeable numbers in the 1970s. They are a significant source of deer mortality and most often prey on whitetails in the earliest months of their lives. Coyotes have long inhabited the American West. With ...

HOUSTON – (May 9, 2014) – Texas Hispanics were more than twice as likely as whites to have enrolled in health insurance plans offered through the Affordable Care Act's Health Insurance Marketplace between September 2013 and March 2014, according to a report released today by Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy and the Episcopal Health Foundation. The report also found that Hispanic adults in Texas experience more difficulty in affording health services than white adults and are three times as likely to be uninsured. In addition, Hispanic respondents ...

Northeastern University researchers at the Marine Science Center have shown that the behavior of the "middle child" in the predator-prey food chain plays a strong role in determining how the reef as a whole will fare. The new research from the team was published online on Tuesday in the journal Ecology Letters. Northeastern ecologist David Kimbro, who claims to have watched a lot of TV growing up, particularly The Brady Bunch, compares the "middle child" behavior of oyster reefs to the show: "You could kind of get a flavor for how an episode was going to turn out based ...

Short height and long life have a direct connection in Japanese men, according to new research based on the Kuakini Honolulu Heart Program (HHP) and the Kuakini Honolulu-Asia Aging Study (HAAS). "We split people into two groups – those that were 5-foot-2 and shorter, and 5-4 and taller," said Dr. Bradley Willcox, one of the investigators for the study and a Professor in the University of Hawai`i (UH) John A. Burns School of Medicine's Department of Geriatric Medicine. "The folks that were 5-2 and shorter lived the longest. The range was seen all the way across from being ...

Boston, MA — Two widely used neonicotinoids—a class of insecticide—appear to significantly harm honey bee colonies over the winter, particularly during colder winters, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). The study replicated a 2012 finding from the same research group that found a link between low doses of imidacloprid and Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), in which bees abandon their hives over the winter and eventually die. The new study also found that low doses of a second neonicotinoid, clothianidin, had the same negative effect. Further, ...

A previous study showed that, 1 week after avulsion of the spinal nerve root, small motor neurons (< 500 μm2) negative for 27 kDa heat shock protein (HSP27) immunoreactivity died and only large (> 500 μm2) HSP27-positive motor neurons survived in the spinal cord ventral horn. This was followed by the enhancement of HSP27 expression in motor neurons observed after mild crush of the spinal nerve root. Dr. Lin Li and co-workers from Nanjing Medical University in China investigated whether preconditioning crush can increase the survival rate of motor neurons, which ...

Notch1 signaling can induce astrogliosis in glioma. However, it remains unknown whether Notch1 signaling is involved in the pathogenesis of epilepsy. A recent study by Xijin Liu and co-workers from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China observed overexpression of Notch1 in the brain tissue of temporal lobe epilepsy rats. After Notch1 regulation, it was relatively effective in reducing seizure frequency and reducing brain discharges, thereby resulting in the ease of seizures to a certain extent. Increased presence of Notch 1 and hairy and enhancer of split-1 ...

It is springtime and they are everywhere: Newly enamored couples walking through the city hand in hand, floating on cloud nine. Yet a few weeks later the initial rush of romance will have dissolved and the world will not appear as rosy anymore. Nevertheless, love and romance have long lasting effects. Psychologists of the German Universities of Jena and Kassel discovered that a romantic relationship can have a positive effect on personality development in young adults. Researchers report on this finding in the online edition of the renowned science magazine Journal of ...

Proteins are the workhorses of the cell and thus responsible for almost all biological functions including metabolism, signal transmission or the determination of the cell's shape. However, before they can fulfill their various tasks, the chain-like molecules must first adopt an intricate three-dimensional conformation. This process is called protein folding and is one of the most important processes in biology. In fact, in the event of improper folding, proteins are often no more able to carry out their duties, or even tend to clump together in aggregates. This in turn ...

Scientists have developed a new method for revealing how sea levels might rise around the world throughout the 21st century to address the controversial topic of whether the rate of sea level rise is currently increasing. The international team of researchers, led by the University of Southampton and including scientists from the National Oceanography Centre, the University of Western Australia, the University of South Florida, the Australian National University and the University of Seigen in Germany, analysed data from 10 long-term sea level monitoring stations located ...

The rind is the boundary layer between a cheese and its environment. It hosts a variety of microorganisms that comprise the microbiome: a symbiotic community whose members perform different tasks. Some break down proteins and fats on the rind, for example, creating volatile sulphur and ammonia compounds that are responsible for the intensive odour of some types of cheese. There are different curing methods for cheese. Some, like Limburger, Tilsiter and Appenzeller, need specific bacteria on their rinds. Others, like Camembert and Brie, develop their aroma with the assistance ...

Biomedical engineering researchers have developed an anti-cancer drug delivery method that essentially smuggles the drug into a cancer cell before triggering its release. The method can be likened to keeping a cancer-killing bomb and its detonator separate until they are inside a cancer cell, where they then combine to destroy the cell. "This is an efficient, fast-acting way of delivering drugs to cancer cells and triggering cell death," says Dr. Ran Mo, lead author of a paper on the work and a postdoctoral researcher in the joint biomedical engineering program at North ...

WASHINGTON—The Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC), the George Washington University (GW), and Attain, LLC, today released a research report conducted by Chmura Economics & Analytics highlighting the depth and breadth of big data experience, expertise and assets in Northern Virginia and the Potomac region. The report "Big Data and Analytics in Northern Virginia and the Potomac Region" concludes that the area—dubbed the nation's data capital—is a natural leader in the evolving field of big data and analytics. With a concentration of data analytics businesses and ...

A new study from the University of Houston Department of Health and Human Performance (HHP) finds childhood poverty reaches into the lives of white, Hispanic and African-American young adult women, contributing to their propensity to be overweight and obese. "We know that having a low socioeconomic status during childhood contributes to children being overweight or obese," said HHP's Daphne Hernandez, who also is an executive board member of the UH Texas Obesity Research Center. "We've found a connection between the long-term exposure to poverty during childhood and ...

Amsterdam, 9 May. A study of healthy senior men has found that "relatively intensive" endurance exercise confers benefits on the heart irrespective of the age at which they began training.(1) The benefits were evident and comparable in those who had started training before the age of 30 or after the age of 40. As a result, said the investigators, 40 is not too old to start endurance training. The study, which was performed in France, was reported today at the EuroPRevent congress 2014 in Amsterdam by David Matelot, from the Inserm 1099 unit in Rennes, France. The study ...

Despite its name, the Dead Sea does support life, and not just in the sense of helping visitors float in its waters. Algae, bacteria, and fungi make up the limited number of species that can tolerate the extremely salty environment at the lowest point on Earth. Some organisms thrive in salty environments by lying dormant when salt concentrations are very high. Other organisms need salt to grow. To learn which survival strategy the filamentous fungus Eurotium rubrum uses, a team of researchers led by Eviatar Nevo from the University of Haifa in Israel, Igor Grigoriev ...

WASHINGTON, DC and NEW YORK (May 9, 2014)— An estimated 1.1 million community health center patients are left without the benefits of health coverage simply because they live in one of 24 states that have opted out of the Medicaid expansion, a key part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), according to a new report. The research, by the Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative at Milken Institute School of Public Health (Milken Institute SPH) at the George Washington University also shows that the vast majority (71 percent) of the 1.1 million ...

An implantable device that reduces blood pressure by sending electrical signals to the brain has been created by a group of researchers in Germany. The device has successfully reduced the blood pressure in rats by 40 per cent without any major side effects, and could offer hope for a significant proportion of patients worldwide who do not respond to existing medical treatment for the condition. The first results have been published today, 9 May, in IOP Publishing's Journal of Neural Engineering. The device consists of 24 individual electrodes that are integrated into ...

New research published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes) indicates that brief bursts of intense exercise before meals (termed exercise 'snacking' by the study authors) helps control blood sugar in people with insulin resistance more effectively than one daily 30-minute session of moderate exercise. The research was conducted by exercise science and medicine researchers, including Monique Francois and Associate Professor James Cotter from the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. The study used a cross-over design, ...

From the age of 30 onwards, physical inactivity exerts a greater impact on a woman's lifetime risk of developing heart disease than the other well-known risk factors, suggests research published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. This includes overweight, the finding show, prompting the researchers to suggest that greater effort needs to be made to promote exercise. The researchers wanted to quantify the changing contribution made to a woman's likelihood of developing heart disease across her lifetime for each of the known top four risk factors in Australia: ...

Frequent arguments with partners, relatives, or neighbours may boost the risk of death from any cause in middle age, suggests research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. Men and those not in work seemed to be the most vulnerable, the findings indicate. The evidence suggests that supportive social networks and strong relationships are good for general health and wellbeing, but the authors wanted to find out if the stressors inherent in family relationships and friendships had any impact on the risk of death from any cause. They therefore ...