As a result of research performed by scientists at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of a drug to treat the deleterious effects of radiation exposure following a nuclear incident. The drug, Neupogen®, is the first ever approved for the treatment of acute radiation injury. The research was done by Thomas J. MacVittie, PhD, professor, and Ann M. Farese, MA, MS, assistant professor, both in the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM) Department of Radiation Oncology's Division ...

MANHATTAN , Kansas -- A recent study with Kansas State University researchers details vaccine development for two new strains of avian influenza that can be transmitted from poultry to humans. The strains have led to the culling of millions of commercial chickens and turkeys as well as the death of hundreds of people. The new vaccine development method is expected to help researchers make vaccines for emerging strains of avian influenza more quickly. This could reduce the number and intensity of large-scale outbreaks at poultry farms as well as curb human transmission. It ...

New research by scientists at the University of Maryland School of Medicine has found that esophageal cancer patients treated with proton therapy experienced significantly less toxic side effects than patients treated with older radiation therapies. Working with colleagues at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Dallas, Texas, Michael Chuong, MD, an assistant professor of radiation oncology at the school, compared two kinds of X-ray radiation with proton therapy, an innovative, precise approach that targets tumors while minimizing ...

May 22, 2015 - Boston, MA - Few professions in the world benefit from the sharing of information as much as meteorology. Nearly all countries around the world realize the value of sharing meteorological data across their borders. This information collaboration is vital to scientific understanding of the atmosphere and the oceans, as well as essential for accurate forecasts and timely warnings of hurricanes, typhoons, and other severe weather. But what about when one country maintains an active embargo with another country? That question was answered last year, when ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- It looks like a Slinky suspended in motion. Yet this photonics advancement -- called a metamaterial hyperlens -- doesn't climb down stairs. Instead, it improves our ability to see tiny objects. Described in a research paper published today by the journal Nature Communications, the hyperlens may someday help detect some of the most lethal forms of cancer. It could also lead to advancements in nanoelectronic manufacturing and boost scientists' ability to examine single molecules -- a development with implications in physics, chemistry, biology and other ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Disaster investigators and emergency personnel may find themselves better able to assess and respond to terrorist attacks and industrial accidents with the aid of a new computational tool that determines the energy from explosions near the Earth's surface. As a first test of the new approach, its developers have analyzed a deadly explosion which reportedly killed dozens of regime soldiers in the Syrian civil war. Computing the energy yield of an explosion just below, at, or above the ground poses difficult challenges, while deep-underground blasts ...

New York, NY -- May 22, 2015 -- Working with researchers at Zhejiang University in China, Changxi Zheng, assistant professor of computer science at Columbia Engineering, has developed a technique that enables hydrographic printing, a widely used industrial method for transferring color inks on a thin film to the surface of manufactured 3D objects, to color these surfaces with the most precise alignment ever attained. Using a new computational method they developed to simulate the printing process, Zheng and his team have designed a model that predicts color film distortion ...

(NEW YORK - May 22) - By comparing flu viruses to the virus that causes measles, researchers fine-tuned a tool that may enable faster vaccine design, according to a study led by Mount Sinai researchers and published online this week in the journal Cell Reports. The study results revolve around viruses, which are designed perfectly by evolution to invade human cells, inject viral genes and use human genetic machinery to make copies of them. In an endless back and forth, human immune cells have evolved to recognize and attack viral surface proteins, and viruses to constantly ...

(PARIS, FRANCE) Technique, talk, and talent were three buzzwords at the 2015 EuroPCR congress. As in years past, the conference featured a mix of breaking news, live case demonstrations, oral and poster sessions, debates, and tips-and-tricks tutorials. New study data have been increasingly showcased at EuroPCR and this year's meeting featured over 70 new abstract sessions throughout the four-day meeting, across five interventional tracks. One of the focus topics at this year's meeting was a spate of recent trials showing a benefit for mechanical thrombectomy in acute ...

URBANA, Ill. - The widespread evolution of herbicide-resistant weeds is costing farmers, especially through decreases in productivity and profitability. Although researchers and industry personnel have made recommendations to slow this evolution, an understanding of the patterns and causes of the resistance has been limited. Diversifying the herbicide mechanisms of action (MOAs) has been recommended to stop the spread of herbicide-resistant weeds. MOAs refer to the biochemical interaction that affects or disrupts the target site in the weed. Two common methods of diversifying ...

The first definitive summary of the best and safest blood pressure lowering treatments for kidney disease and diabetes patients has been compiled by New Zealand doctor and researcher Associate Professor Suetonia Palmer. The international relevance of her work for doctors, patients and those who decide which drugs to fund has been demonstrated by the prestigious Lancet medical journal publishing an article on her study in its latest edition. The University of Otago, Christchurch, researcher together with a global team used innovative statistical analysis to compare hundreds ...

Berkeley -- Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed algorithms that enable robots to learn motor tasks through trial and error using a process that more closely approximates the way humans learn, marking a major milestone in the field of artificial intelligence. They demonstrated their technique, a type of reinforcement learning, by having a robot complete various tasks -- putting a clothes hanger on a rack, assembling a toy plane, screwing a cap on a water bottle, and more -- without pre-programmed details about its surroundings. "What ...

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 22, 2015 -- Play a flute in Carnegie Hall, and the tone will resonate and fill the space. Play that same flute in the Grand Canyon, and the sound waves will crash against the rock walls, folding back in on each other in sonic chaos. The disparity in acoustics is clear - to the modern listener, the instrument belongs in an auditorium. "Distinct echoes would be totally unforgivable in today's performance spaces," says Steven J. Waller, an archaeo-acoustician who has studied prehistoric rock art and the acoustics of ancient performance spaces. "But, ...

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 22, 2015 -- The room is loud with chatter. Glasses clink. Soft music, perhaps light jazz or strings, fills the air. Amidst all of these background sounds, it can be difficult to understand what an adjacent person is saying. A depressed individual, brought to this cocktail party by a well-meaning friend, can slide further into himself, his inability to hear and communicate compounding his sense of isolation. "A lot of research has suggested that these people with elevated depression symptoms have a bias towards negative perception of information ...

Why do good people do bad things? It's a question that has been pondered for centuries, and new research published by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology may offer some insights about when people succumb to versus resist ethical temptations. "People often think that bad people do bad things and good people do good things, and that unethical behavior just comes down to character," says lead research author Oliver Sheldon, PhD. "But most people behave dishonestly sometimes, and frequently, this may have more to do with the situation and how people ...

Parasitic worms can pose a serious threat to the Dungeness crab, a commercially important fishery species found along the west coast of North America. The worms are thought to have caused or contributed to the crash of the crab fishery of central California during the last half century. New research shows that infected crabs can rid themselves of parasites by moving into the less salty water of estuaries. Low salinity kills the worms creating a parasite refuge for the crabs. The large Dungeness crab (Metacarcinus magister) is an important source of income for fishermen ...

Ecologists from the University of York, together with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), have developed a new method to better identify where poachers operate in protected areas. Published in Conservation Biology, the analysis provides spatial maps of illegal activities within Queen Elizabeth National Park, one of Uganda's most important protected areas for elephant conservation. Analysing 12 years of ranger-collected data, different types of threats were monitored and recorded, including the commercial hunting of large ...

The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) has assessed documents subsequently submitted by the drug manufacturer in the commenting procedure on the dossier assessment of the fixed-dose drug combination of ledipasvir and sofosbuvir (trade name: Harvoni). According to the findings, a hint of a non-quantifiable added benefit for a further patient group can be derived from this additional information. This patient group consists of treatment-naive or pretreated patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection of genotype 1 who are also infected ...

A larger brain brings better cognitive performance. And so it seems only logical that a larger brain would offer a higher survival potential. In the course of evolution, large brains should therefore win out over smaller ones. Previous tests of this hypothesis had relied on comparison studies looking at the intelligence and survival potential of species with large brains versus species with smaller brains. And species with larger brains do appear to have an advantage. But such studies are unable to show a causal relationship. Alexander Kotrschal, Sarah Zala, Séverine ...

Increasing public knowledge and understanding about energy issues is vital if improved energy-saving behaviours are to be encouraged among individuals and organisations, a study suggests. A survey conducted at Plymouth University indicated widespread misconceptions about energy which researchers said may be reducing the effectiveness of energy-saving behaviours. It also showed varying levels of motivation and engagement with energy issues, with respondents saying they were uncertain about their capacity to influence business and government on matters of environmental ...

An association between resting heart rate and diabetes suggests that heart rate measures could identify individuals with a higher future risk of diabetes, according to an international team of researchers. In a four-year study of 73,357 Chinese adults, researchers observed that faster heart rates were positively associated with an increased risk of developing diabetes. Researchers also found that faster heart rates were associated with impaired fasting glucose levels and a conversion from impaired fasting glucose levels to diabetes among the same population. "In this ...

In a special issue, The Anatomical Record ventures into the world of human mummified remains. In 26 articles, the anatomy of mummies is exquisitely detailed through cutting edge examination, while they are put in historical, archeological, and cultural context. Investigators even take on the thorny issue of ethics as it applies to human remains in general and to the specific case of mummy research. The eyes and tools of the 21st century meet the world of the past and allow one to think of mummies as more than just museum displays shrouded in mystery and fascination. ...

A new article publishing online today in the Quarterly Journal of Medicine has reported the first case showing an association between exposure to head injuries in rugby union players and an increased risk in neurodegenerative disease. Until now, the association between head injuries and neurodegenerative disease, specifically chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), has predominantly been made with boxers. However Dr Michael Farrell and colleagues have presented the first comprehensive case report of CTE in a former amateur rugby union player, who died six years after ...

Sophia Antipolis, 22 May 2015: Urgent diagnosis and treatment in acute heart failure has been emphasised for the first time in joint recommendations published today in European Heart Journal.1 The consensus paper is the result of a novel collaboration between the Heart Failure Association (HFA) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), the European Society for Emergency Medicine and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine in the USA. Professor Alexandre Mebazaa, lead author and HFA board member, said: "This is the first guidance to insist that acute heart failure ...

Blood pressure lowering drugs do not improve life expectancy among adults with diabetes and kidney disease, a new study of the global evidence published today in The Lancet reveals. However, the study, which brings together 157 studies involving more than 43,000 adults with diabetes, shows that angiotensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin-receptor blocker (ARB) treatments, alone or in combination, are the most effective drug regimen for preventing end-stage kidney disease -- an important finding given that diabetes is now the leading cause of people ...