Caffeine therapy for apnea of prematurity has no long-term harmful effects on sleep or control of breathing, according to a new study of 201 preterm children assessed at ages 5-12, the first study in humans to examine the long-term effects of neonatal caffeine treatment on sleep regulation and ventilatory control. "Animal studies have suggested that administration of neonatal caffeine to premature infants, while improving survival and other outcomes, may have long-term detrimental effects on sleep and control of breathing during sleep," said lead author Carole L. Marcus, ...

PHILADELPHIA — A population-based case-control study found no association between bra wearing and increased breast cancer risk among postmenopausal women, according to research published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. "There have been some concerns that one of the reasons why breast cancer may be more common in developed countries compared with developing countries is differences in bra-wearing patterns," said Lu Chen, MPH, a researcher in the Public Health Sciences Division at Fred Hutchinson ...

Materials made from nanoparticles hold promise for myriad applications, from improved solar energy production to perfect touch screens. The challenge in creating these wonder-materials is organizing the nanoparticles into orderly arrangements. Nanoparticles of magnetite, the most abundant magnetic material on earth, are found in living organisms from bacteria to birds. Nanocrystals of magnetite self-assemble into fine compass needles in the organism that help it to navigate. Collaborating with nanochemists led by Rafal Klajn at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, ...

BOSTON (Sept. 4, 2014) — Residential geography, time spent in the sun, and whether or not sunglasses are worn may help explain why some people develop exfoliation syndrome (XFS), an eye condition that is a leading cause of secondary open-angle glaucoma and can lead to an increased risk of cataract and cataract surgery complications, according to a study published on Sept. 4 in JAMA, Ophthalmology. Despite improvements in understanding the cause of this common yet life-altering condition, more work needs to be done. "The discovery that common genetic variants in the lysyl ...

Tropical Storm Dolly fizzled out quickly on September 3 after making landfall in eastern Mexico, and NASA's Aqua satellite saw some of the remnants moving into southern Texas. NASA's TRMM satellite analyzed the rainfall occurring in the storm as it was approaching landfall. NASA's Aqua satellite captured the remnants of Tropical Depression Dolly over northeastern Mexico on Sept. 3 at 19:40 UTC (3:40 p.m. EDT). The image, captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument showed the center of Dolly over northeastern Mexico with a band of thunderstorms ...

The Eastern Pacific's Hurricane Norbert resembled a pinwheel in an image from NASA's Terra satellite as bands of thunderstorms spiraled into the center. NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement or GPM mission has helped forecasters see that Norbert has lost some of its organization early on September 4. The MODIS instrument or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer aboard NASA's Terra satellite captured a visible picture of Tropical Storm Norbert on Sept. 4 at 2:15 p.m. EDT when it resembled a pinwheel. The western bands of Norbert were moving over Socorro Island, ...

Faced with climate change and diminishing opportunities to expand productive agricultural acreage, the world needs to invest in a global research agenda addressing farm and food systems, landscape and regional issues and institutional and policy matters if it is to meet the growing worldwide demand for food, fiber and fuel, suggests an international team of researchers. In a paper appearing online in the journal Agriculture and Food Security, the authors summarize the findings of the second international Climate Smart Agriculture conference held in March 2013 at UC Davis. "Climate-smart ...

The U.S. government is doing a better job of communicating on Twitter with people in sensitive areas like the Middle East and North Africa without the participation of media organizations, according to a study co-authored by a University of Georgia researcher. The study looked at the U.S. State Department's use of social media and identified key actors who drive its messages to audiences around the world. In particular, it examined the role played by news media and the government in bridging the State Department communication with people domestically and internationally. ...

DALLAS – Sept. 4, 2014 – Rare stem cells in testis that produce a biomarker protein called PAX7 help give rise to new sperm cells — and may hold a key to restoring fertility, research by scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center suggests. Researchers studying infertility in mouse models found that, unlike similar types of cells that develop into sperm, the stem cells that express PAX7 can survive treatment with toxic drugs and radiation. If the findings hold true in people, they eventually could lead to new strategies to restore or protect fertility in men undergoing ...

The taste of common sugar substitutes is often described as being much more intense than sugar, but participants in a recent study indicated that these non-nutritive sugar substitutes are no sweeter than the real thing, according to Penn State food scientists. In the study, participants compared the taste of non-nutritive sweeteners that are often used as low- or no-calorie sugar substitutes with those of nutritive sweeteners, such as sugar, maple syrup and agave nectar. The participants indicated they could perceive the non-nutritive sweeteners -- such as aspartame, ...

Move over, graphene. An atomically thin, two-dimensional, ultrasensitive semiconductor material for biosensing developed by researchers at UC Santa Barbara promises to push the boundaries of biosensing technology in many fields, from health care to environmental protection to forensic industries. Based on molybdenum disulfide or molybdenite (MoS2), the biosensor material — used commonly as a dry lubricant — surpasses graphene's already high sensitivity, offers better scalability and lends itself to high-volume manufacturing. Results of the researchers' study have been ...

Endoscopic biopsy of lymph nodes between the two lungs (mediastinum) is a sensitive and accurate technique that can replace mediastinal surgery for staging lung cancer in patients with potentially resectable tumours. Such were the conclusions of a prospective controlled trial conducted under Dr. Moishe Liberman, a researcher at the CHUM Research Centre (CRCHUM) and an Associate Professor at the Université de Montréal. Moreover, the study showed that it is not necessary to perform surgery to confirm negative results obtained through the endoscopic approach during the pre-operative ...

Researchers from the University of Leicester have for the first time provided experimental evidence for a genetic link between two major timing mechanisms, the circadian clock and the seasonal timer. New research from the Tauber laboratory at the University of Leicester, which will be published in the academic journal PLOS Genetics on 4 September, has corroborated previous observations that flies developed under short days become significantly more cold-resistant compared with flies raised in long-days, suggesting that this response can be used to study seasonal photoperiodic ...

PITTSBURGH—Yaoying Ma says that biology, by nature, has a yin and a yang—a push and a pull. Addiction, particularly relapse, she finds, is no exception. Ma is a research associate in the lab of Yan Dong, assistant professor of neuroscience in the University of Pittsburgh's Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. She is the lead author of a paper published online today in the journal Neuron that posits that it may be possible to ramp up an intrinsic anti-addiction response as a means to fight cocaine relapse and keep the wolves of relapse at bay. This paper ...

A new concept in metallic alloy design – called "high-entropy alloys" - has yielded a multiple-element material that not only tests out as one of the toughest on record, but, unlike most materials, the toughness as well as the strength and ductility of this alloy actually improves at cryogenic temperatures. This multi-element alloy was synthesized and tested through a collaboration of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley and Oak Ridge National Laboratories (Berkeley Lab and ORNL). "We examined CrMnFeCoNi, a high-entropy alloy that contains ...

Boulder, Colo. — Sept. 4, 2014 — NASA's Alice ultraviolet (UV) spectrograph aboard the European Space Agency's Rosetta comet orbiter has delivered its first scientific discoveries. Rosetta, in orbit around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, is the first spacecraft to study a comet up close. As Alice began mapping the comet's surface last month, it made the first far ultraviolet spectra of a cometary surface. From these data, the Alice team discovered that the comet is unusually dark at ultraviolet wavelengths and that the comet's surface — so far — shows no large water-ice ...

(MEMPHIS, Tenn. – September 4, 2014) A study led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists found the avian influenza A H3N8 virus that killed harbor seals along the New England coast can spread through respiratory droplets and poses a threat to humans. The research appears in the current issue of the scientific journal Nature Communications. The avian H3N8 virus was isolated by scientists investigating the 2011 deaths of more than 160 harbor seals. Researchers discovered the virus had naturally acquired mutations in a key protein that previous laboratory research ...

The increased visual realism of 3-D films is believed to offer viewers a more vivid and lifelike experience—more thrilling and intense than 2-D because it more closely approximates real life. However, psychology researchers at the University of Utah, among those who use film clips routinely in the lab to study patients' emotional conditions, have found that there is no significant difference between the two formats. The results were published recently in PLOS ONE. The study aimed to validate the effectiveness of 3-D film, a newer technology, as compared to 2-D film that ...

JUPITER, FL, September 4, 2014 - In a collaborative study, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology have developed a more effective method to determine how immune cells called T cells differentiate into specialized types of cells that help eradicate infected cells and assist other immune cells during infection. The new approach, published recently by the journal Immunity, could help accelerate laboratory research and the development of potential therapeutics, including vaccines. The ...

AMHERST, Mass. – A collaborative team of scientists including biochemist Peter Chien at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has reconstructed how bacteria tightly control their growth and division, a process known as the cell cycle, by specifically destroying key proteins through regulated protein degradation. Regulated protein degradation uses specific enzymes called energy dependent proteases to selective destroy certain targets. Because regulated protein degradation is critical for bacterial virulence and invasion, understanding how these proteases function should ...

Sometimes when people get upsetting news – such as a failing exam grade or a negative job review – they decide instantly to do better the next time. In other situations that are equally disappointing, the same people may feel inclined to just give up. How can similar setbacks produce such different reactions? It may come down to how much control we feel we have over what happened, according to new research from Rutgers University-Newark. The study, published in the journal Neuron, also finds that when these setbacks occur, the level of control we perceive may even determine ...

While healthy people have proteins in their blood called clotting factors that act quickly to plug wounds, hemophiliacs lack these proteins, making even minor bleeds difficult to stop. The main treatment option for people with severe hemophilia is to receive regular infusions of clotting factor. But 20 to 30 percent of people who get these infusions develop antibodies, called inhibitors, against the clotting factor. Once these inhibitors develop, it can be very difficult to treat or prevent future bleeding episodes. In a new study, researchers from the University of ...

New Orleans, LA – Research led by scientists in Dr. Song Hong's group at LSU Health New Orleans has identified a novel family of chemical mediators that rescue the reparative functions of macrophages (a main type of mature white blood cells) impaired by diabetes, restoring their ability to resolve inflammation and heal wounds. The research is in-press and is scheduled to be published in the October 23, 2014 issue of Chemistry & Biology, a Cell Press journal. The white blood cells, or leukocytes, of the immune system, help defend the body against infection or foreign ...

(Boston) – Results of a new study conducted in St. Petersburg, Russia, show that decreasing HIV transmission among Russian HIV-infected drinkers will require creative and innovative approaches. While new HIV infections globally have declined, HIV rates remain high in Russia. This is due in large part to injection drug use and spread via heterosexual sex transmission. Alcohol use also has been shown to be related to risky sexual behaviors and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Published online in Addiction, the study showed that a behavioral intervention did not ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In one year, India's ozone pollution damaged millions of tons of the country's major crops, causing losses of more than a billion dollars and destroying enough food to feed tens of millions of people living below the poverty line. These are findings /of a new study that looked at the agricultural effects in 2005 of high concentrations of ground-level ozone, a plant-damaging pollutant formed by emissions from vehicles, cooking stoves and other sources. Able to acquire accurate crop production data for 2005, the study's authors chose it as a year representative ...