Scientists have identified 181 California dams that may need to increase water flows to protect native fish downstream. The screening tool developed by the Center for Watershed Sciences at the University of California, Davis, to select "high-priority" dams may be particularly useful during drought years amid competing demands for water. "It is unpopular in many circles to talk about providing more water for fish during this drought, but to the extent we care about not driving native fish to extinction, we need a strategy to keep our rivers flowing below dams," said lead ...

Future prevention and treatment strategies for vascular diseases may lie in the evaluation of early brain imaging tests long before heart attacks or strokes occur, according to a systematic review conducted by a team of cardiologists, neuroscientists, and psychiatrists from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published in the October issue of JACC Cardiovascular Imaging. For the review, Mount Sinai researchers examined all relevant brain imaging studies conducted over the last 33 years. They looked at studies that used every available brain imaging modality in ...

No-till farming, a key conservation agriculture strategy that avoids conventional plowing and otherwise disturbing the soil, may not bring a hoped-for boost in crop yields in much of the world, according to an extensive new meta-analysis by an international team led by the University of California, Davis. As the core principle of conservation agriculture, no-till has been promoted worldwide in an effort to sustainably meet global food demand. But after examining results from 610 peer-reviewed studies, the researchers found that no-till often leads to yield declines compared ...

University of Southampton scientists have designed a new experiment to test the foundations of quantum mechanics at the large scale. Standard quantum theory places no limit on particle size and current experiments use larger and larger particles, which exhibit wave-like behaviour. However, at these masses experiments begin to probe extensions to standard quantum mechanics, which describe the apparent quantum-to-classical transition. Now, Southampton researchers, with colleagues from the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany, have designed a new type of experiment ...

Vedolizumab (trade name Entyvio) has been approved since May 2014 for patients with moderately to severely active Crohn disease or ulcerative colitis. In an early benefit assessment pursuant to the Act on the Reform of the Market for Medicinal Products (AMNOG), the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined whether the drug offers an added benefit over the appropriate comparator therapy in these patient groups. According to the findings, such an added benefit is not proven because the dossier contained no suitable data for any of the two ...

On behalf of the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG), the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined whether specific methodological aspects have to be considered in the conduct, analysis and assessment of the certainty of results of studies on rare diseases. Within the framework of the same commission, the Institute also analysed the underlying studies for the approval of so-called orphan drugs, i.e. drugs for rare diseases, in Europe. The result: For a different approach than in more common diseases, there are neither scientific reasons ...

Multiple pathways exist to a low greenhouse gas future, all involving increased efficiency and a dramatic shift in energy supply away from fossil fuels. A new tool 'SWITCH' enables policymakers and planners to assess the economic and environmental implications of different energy scenarios. It is presented today at the congress Global Challenges: Achieving Sustainability, hosted by the University of Copenhagen. "SWITCH is a tool we can use to examine the different choices of technologies within the electrical power sector and their locations. It enables us to estimate ...

For teenagers, learning to establish a healthy degree of autonomy and closeness in relationships (rather than easily giving in to peer pressure) is an important task. A new longitudinal study has found one reason adolescents struggle with balancing autonomy and closeness in relationships: parents' psychological control. Teens whose parents exerted more psychological control over them when they were 13 had more problems establishing friendships and romantic relationships that balanced closeness and independence, both in adolescence and into early adulthood. The study, ...

The lives of adolescents at home and at school may seem quite separate, but recent research has highlighted important connections. Family conflict and problems at school tend to occur together on the same day and sometimes even spill over in both directions to the next day, with family conflict increasing the likelihood of problems at school and vice versa. Now a new study has found that conflicts at home spill over to school and school problems influence problems at home up to two days later, and that negative mood and psychological symptoms are important factors in the ...

While losses in family income predict increases in behavior problems for many children, attending high-quality early childhood education and care centers offers some protection against families' economic declines, according to a new study out of Norway. In Norway, publicly subsidized high-quality early childhood education and care is available to all children, from low-income to affluent, starting at age 1. The study found that children who don't take part in such programs have more early behavior problems when their families' income drops. The study was conducted by ...

Many different microbes can cause pneumonia, and treatment may be delayed or off target if doctors cannot tell which bug is the culprit. A novel approach—analyzing a patient's breath for key chemical compounds made by the infecting microbe—may help detect invasive aspergillosis, a fungal infection that is a leading cause of mortality in patients with compromised immune systems, according to a proof-of-concept study now online in Clinical Infectious Diseases. Currently difficult to diagnose, this type of fungal pneumonia often requires a lung biopsy for definitive ...

A rare form of a devastating disease which causes low blood sugar levels in babies and infants may now be recognised earlier thanks to a new test developed by researchers from The University of Manchester. Congenital hyperinsulinism starves a baby's brain of blood sugar and can lead to lifelong brain damage or permanent disability according to previous research carried out by the Manchester team. The condition occurs when specialised cells in the pancreas release too much insulin which causes frequent low sugar episodes - the clinical opposite of diabetes. Treatment ...

Researchers at Queen's University Belfast have discovered that music therapy reduces depression in children and adolescents with behavioural and emotional problems. In the largest ever study of its kind, the researchers in partnership with the Northern Ireland Music Therapy Trust, found that children who received music therapy had significantly improved self-esteem and significantly reduced depression compared with those who received treatment without music therapy. The study, which was funded by the Big Lottery fund, also found that those who received music therapy had ...

Scientists from the University of Southampton have revealed that feather shafts are made of a multi-layered fibrous composite material, much like carbon fibre, which allows the feather to bend and twist to cope with the stresses of flight. Since their appearance over 150 million years ago, feather shafts (rachises) have evolved to be some of the lightest, strongest and most fatigue resistant natural structures. However, relatively little work has been done on their morphology, especially from a mechanical perspective and never at the nanoscale. The study, which is ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Right out of the starting gate, Michigan's expansion of health coverage for the poor and near-poor holds lessons for other states that are still on the fence about expanding their own Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act, a new analysis shows. In an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, a team of University of Michigan Medical School researchers publish the first analysis of the initial results from the Healthy Michigan Plan, which launched this past April. In its first 100 days, the authors write, the plan enrolled 327,912 ...

Good news, bad news: The amount of trans fats we eat has declined over the last 30 years, but we're still consuming more than recommended. In a study reported in the Journal of the American Heart Association, researchers reviewed results from a series of six surveys as part of the Minnesota Heart Survey in 1980-2009. More than 12,000 adults 25-74 years old in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area revealed that: Trans fat intake dropped by about one-third in men (32 percent) and women (35 percent). Average intake of the omega-3 fatty acids (DHA and EPA) was steady, but ...

MINNEAPOLIS – Bariatric surgery may be a risk factor for a condition that causes severe headaches, according to a study published in the October 22, 2014, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. In the study, gastric bypass surgery and gastric banding surgery were associated with later developing a condition called spontaneous intracranial hypotension in a small percentage of people. Spontaneous intracranial hypotension is often caused by a leak of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) out of the spinal canal. The leak ...

No significant variation was found in hospital readmission rates after colorectal cancer surgery when the data was adjusted to account for patient characteristics, coexisting illnesses and operation types, which may prompt questions about the use of readmission rates as a measure of hospital quality. Hospital readmission after surgery can be common and it results in an increased cost of care. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has focused on reducing unplanned hospital readmissions and hospitals are penalized in reimbursement if there are excess readmissions ...

An online model for follow-up care of atopic dermatitis (eczema) that gave patients direct access to dermatologists resulted in equivalent clinical improvement compared to patients who received traditional in-person care writes author April W. Armstrong, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of Colorado, Denver, and colleagues. There are not enough dermatologists in the United States to meet the demand for services. Teledermatology is a chance to improve access to care. The authors conducted a one-year randomized controlled equivalency trial that included adults and children ...

Cognitive behavioral therapy with exposure therapy (CBT/exposure), where patients relive the experience of a death of a loved one, resulted in greater reductions in measures of prolonged grief disorder (PGD) than CBT alone. PGD involves persistent yearning for the deceased and the associated emotional pain, difficulty in accepting the death, a sense of meaninglessness, bitterness about the death and difficulty in engaging in new activities. To diagnose PGD, the symptoms need to last at least six months. PGD is distinct from depression because of a person's preoccupation ...

A few short years ago, the idea of a practical manufacturing process based on getting molecules to organize themselves in useful nanoscale shapes seemed ... well, cool, sure, but also a little fantastic. Now the day isn't far off when your cell phone may depend on it. Two recent papers emphasize the point by demonstrating complementary approaches to fine-tuning the key step: depositing thin films of a uniquely designed polymer on a template so that it self-assembles into neat, precise, even rows of alternating composition just 10 or so nanometers wide. The work by researchers ...

While studying the atmosphere on Saturn's moon Titan, scientists discovered intriguing zones of organic molecules unexpectedly shifted away from its north and south poles. These misaligned features seem to defy conventional thinking about Titan's windy atmosphere, which should quickly smear out such off-axis concentrations. "This is an unexpected and potentially groundbreaking discovery," said Martin Cordiner, an astrochemist working at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and the lead author of a study published online today in the Astrophysical ...

Researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, University of Kentucky, and University of Maryland found that for people 60 and older who do not have dementia, light alcohol consumption during late life is associated with higher episodic memory — the ability to recall memories of events. Moderate alcohol consumption was also linked with a larger volume in the hippocampus, a brain region critical for episodic memory. The relationship between light alcohol consumption and episodic memory goes away if hippocampal volume is factored in, providing ...

The sun erupted with another significant flare today, peaking at 10:28 a.m. EDT on Oct. 22, 2014. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured images of the event, which occurred in the lower half of the sun. This flare is classified as an X1.6 class flare. X-class flares denote the most extreme flares. This is the third substantial flare from the same region of the sun since Oct. 19. INFORMATION: To see how this event may affect Earth, please visit NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center at http://spaceweather.gov, the U.S. government's official source for space weather ...

Invasive seaweed shelters native crustacean On the tidal mudflats of Georgia and South Carolina, the red Japanese seaweed Gracilaria vermiculophylla is gaining a foothold where no native seaweeds live. Only debris and straggles of dead marsh grass used to break the expanse of mud at low tide. Crabs, shrimp, and small crustaceans mob the seaweed in abundance. What makes it so popular? Not its food value. On mudflats near Savannah, Ga., Wright and colleagues found that the tiny native crustacean Gammarus mucronatus (one of the 9,500 species of amphipod, which includes sand ...