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Science12 Aug 2014

Scared of crime? Good.

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- In the past half-century, fear of crime in the United States has fueled "white flight" from big cities, become known as a quality of life issue and prompted scholars and law enforcement experts to address ways of reducing this fear. But a study by a Michigan State University criminologist challenges this longstanding theory by arguing that a healthy fear of crime is, in fact, a good thing. The study, published online in the journal Justice Quarterly, suggests adolescents who are more fearful of crime are less apt to become victims and offenders ...

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Medicine12 Aug 2014

ADHD, substance abuse and conduct disorder develop from the same neurocognitive deficits

This news release is available in French. Researchers at the University of Montreal and CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre have traced the origins of ADHD, substance abuse and conduct disorder, and found that they develop from the same neurocognitive deficits, which in turn explains why they often occur together. "Psychopathology exists on multiple continua of brain function. Some of these dimensions contribute to a multitude of problems, others contribute to specific problems. Together, they explain patterns of comorbidity such as why ADHD and conduct problems co-occur ...

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Science12 Aug 2014

Loss of eastern hemlock affects peak flows after extreme storm events

The loss of eastern hemlock could affect water yield and storm flow from forest watersheds in the southern Appalachians, according to a new study by U.S. Forest Service scientists at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory (Coweeta) located in Otto, North Carolina. The article was just published online in the journal Ecohydrology. "Eastern hemlock trees have died throughout much of their range due to the hemlock woolly adelgid, an exotic invasive insect," said Steven Brantley, a post-doctoral researcher at Coweeta and lead author of the paper. "Though this insect has decimated ...

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Technology12 Aug 2014

Graphene-based planar micro-supercapacitors for on-chip energy storage

The rapid development of miniaturized portable electronic devices, such as micro-electromechanical systems, microrobots and implantable medical devices, has stimulated intense demand for micro-scale power sources. Although miniaturized micro-batteries that store energy by redox reactions provide the most frequently used micro-power source for current portable electronics on chip, their limited lifetime (hundreds or thousands of cycles) and low power density rule out applications that require high power over a short timeframe. Micro-supercapacitors (MSCs) with a short ...

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Engineering12 Aug 2014

Researchers prove stability of wonder material silicene

An international team of researchers has taken a significant step towards understanding the fundamental properties of the two-dimensional material silicene by showing that it can remain stable in the presence of oxygen. In a study published today, 12 August, in IOP Publishing's journal 2D Materials, the researchers have shown that thick, multilayers of silicene can be isolated from its parent material silicon and remain intact when exposed to air for at least 24 hours. It is the first time that such a feat has been achieved and will allow scientists to further probe ...

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Science12 Aug 2014

Prognosis of pneumonia: value of respiratory rate often overlooked

Pneumonia – a severe lung infection – is the most common disease calling for hospital admission. More than one out of ten pneumonia patients die of the disease. Thus it is vital to accurately predict and closely monitor the clinical course. Here, measuring the respiratory rate – the number of breaths a person takes in a minute – provides valuable information. However, far too little use is still being made of this vital sign in clinical practice, as Richard Strauß and co-authors conclude in their recent study in Deutsches Ärzteblatt (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2014; 111: 503). The ...

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Medicine12 Aug 2014

Hijacking the brain's blood supply: tumor discovery could aid treatment

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Dangerous brain tumors hijack the brain's existing blood supply throughout their progression, by growing only within narrow potential spaces between and along the brain's thousands of small blood vessels, new research shows for the first time. The findings contradict the concept that brain tumors need to grow their own blood vessels to keep themselves growing – and help explain why drugs that aim to stop growth of the new blood vessels have failed in clinical trials to extend the lives of patients with the worst brain tumors. In fact, trying to ...

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Science12 Aug 2014

Lead released from African cookware contaminates food

San Francisco and Yaoundé – Lead levels in foods prepared in aluminum pots from Cameroon exceed U.S. guidelines for lead consumption according to a new study published this month. A typical serving contains almost 200 times more lead than California's Maximum Allowable Dose Level (MADL) of 0.5 micrograms per day. Researchers at Ashland University and Occupational Knowledge International tested 29 samples of aluminum cookware made in Cameroon and found almost all had considerable lead content. This cookware is common throughout Africa and Asia and is made from recycled ...

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Medicine12 Aug 2014

Changes in motor function in the unaffected hand of stroke patients should not be ignored

With effective rehabilitation, stroke patients can partially regain their motor control and continue their activities of daily living. Motor function changes in the unaffected hand of stroke patients with hemiplegia. However, these changes are often ignored by clinicians owing to the extent of motor disability of the affected hand. Research group at Shanghai University of Sport, China led by Prof. Zhusheng Yu based on finger tapping frequency and Lind-mark hand function score have found that the motor function of unaffected hands in stroke patients was poorer than that ...

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Medicine12 Aug 2014

Neuroprotective effect of tongxinluo: a PET imaging study in small animals

Tongxinluo has been widely used in China for the treatment of acute stroke and for neuroprotection. Research group at Encephalopathy Center, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China intragastrically administered Tongxinluo superfine powder suspension or its vehicle to rats for 5 successive days before middle cerebral artery occlusion. There are many advantages of using small animal PET for drug research. First, the results of the study in vitro cannot be directly applied to human studies, while small animal PET imaging methods and results can ...

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Science12 Aug 2014

ASU-Mayo researchers use calcium isotope analysis to predict myeloma progression

TEMPE, Ariz. – A team of researchers from Arizona State University and Mayo Clinic is showing how a staple of Earth science research can be used in biomedical settings to predict the course of disease. The researchers tested a new approach to detecting bone loss in cancer patients by using calcium isotope analysis to predict whether myeloma patients are at risk for developing bone lesions, a hallmark of the disease. They believe they have a promising technique that could be used to chart the progression of multiple myeloma, a lethal disease that eventually impacts ...

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Energy12 Aug 2014

Neutrino detectors could help curb nuclear weapons activity

Physicists at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland and even in the fictional world of CBS' "The Big Bang Theory" look to subatomic particles called neutrinos to answer the big questions about the universe. Now, a group of scientists led by a physics professor with the College of Science at Virginia Tech are asking whether the neutrino could provide the world with clues about nuclear proliferation in Iran and other political hotspots. Neutrinos are produced by the decay of radioactive elements, and nuclear reactors produce large amounts of neutrinos that cannot ...

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Medicine12 Aug 2014

Focal blood-brain-barrier disruption with high-frequency pulsed electric fields

A team of researchers from the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences have developed a new way of using electricity to open the blood-brain-barrier (BBB). The Vascular Enabled Integrated Nanosecond pulse (VEIN pulse) procedure consists of inserting minimally invasive needle electrodes into the diseased tissue and applying multiple bursts of nanosecond pulses with alternating polarity. It is thought that the bursts disrupt tight junction proteins responsible for maintaining the integrity of the BBB without causing damage to the ...

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Medicine12 Aug 2014

A highly sensitive microsphere-based assay for early detection of Type I diabetes

A team of researchers from the Center for Engineering in Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital have developed a novel fluorescence-based assay for sensitive detection of antibodies within microliter volume serum samples. This new assay is at least 50 times more sensitive than the traditional radioimmunoassay (RIA), which is the gold standard currently used in the clinic. This new technology is particularly attractive for immunological assays as it allows: 1) use of very small volumes of sample reagents (5 ¦ÌL), and 2) use of traditional analytical systems such ...

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Science12 Aug 2014

Biomarker could reveal why some develop post-traumatic stress disorder

(NEW YORK – August 11) Blood expression levels of genes targeted by the stress hormones called glucocorticoids could be a physical measure, or biomarker, of risk for developing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), according to a study conducted in rats by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published August 11 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). That also makes the steroid hormones' receptor, the glucocorticoid receptor, a potential target for new drugs. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is triggered by a terrifying ...

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Technology12 Aug 2014

Robotic-assisted imaging: from trans-Atlantic evaluation to help in daily practice

While in Germany, Partho P. Sengupta, MD, of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai used a computer to perform a robot-assisted trans-Atlantic ultrasound examination on a person in Boston. In another study Kurt Boman, MD, of Umeå University in Sweden in collaboration with Mount Sinai, showed how a cardiologist's video e-consultation, coupled with a remote robot-assisted echocardiogram test, dramatically reduces the waiting time for a diagnosis faced by heart failure patients who live in a rural communities far from the hospital from nearly four months to less than one ...

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Science12 Aug 2014

The Maldives and the whale shark: The world's biggest fish adds value to paradise

They are the largest fish in the world but the impact of this majestic and charismatic animal on the economy of the island nation of the Maldives was largely unknown. A new study by scientists of the Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme (MWSRP) reveals that a small group of whale sharks in a single Maldivian Atoll accounts for nearly 3% of the global shark ecotourism and nearly half that of the Maldives'. "The Republic of Maldives hosts one of few known year round aggregation sites for whale sharks", said James Hancock co-author and a director of MWSRP. "We have seen ...

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Science12 Aug 2014

Is empathy in humans and apes actually different?

Whether or not humans are the only empathic beings is still under debate. In a new study, researchers directly compared the 'yawn contagion' effect between humans and bonobos (our closest evolutionary cousins). By doing so they were able to directly compare the empathic abilities of ourselves with another species, and found that a close relationship between individuals is more important to their empathic response than the fact that individuals might be from the same species. The ability to experience others' emotions is hard to quantify in any species, and, as a result, ...

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Science12 Aug 2014

Sniffing out billions in US currency smuggled across the border to Mexico

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 12, 2014 — Criminals are smuggling an estimated $30 billion in U.S. currency into Mexico each year from the United States, but help could be on the way for border guards, researchers will report here today. The answer to the problem: a portable device that identifies specific vapors given off by U.S. paper money. They will present the new research at the 248th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society. The meeting features nearly 12,000 reports on new advances in science and other ...

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Science12 Aug 2014

Could hemp nanosheets topple graphene for making the ideal supercapacitor?

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 12, 2014 — As hemp makes a comeback in the U.S. after a decades-long ban on its cultivation, scientists are reporting that fibers from the plant can pack as much energy and power as graphene, long-touted as the model material for supercapacitors. They're presenting their research, which a Canadian start-up company is working on scaling up, at the 248th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society. The meeting features nearly 12,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics and ...

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Energy12 Aug 2014

Stinky gases emanating from landfills could transform into clean energy

SAN FRANCISCO — A new technique that transforms stinky, air-polluting landfill gas could produce the sweet smell of success as it leads to development of a fuel cell generating clean electricity for homes, offices and hospitals, researchers say. The advance would convert methane gas into hydrogen, an efficient, clean form of energy. The researcher's report is part of the 248th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society. The meeting, attended by thousands of scientists, features nearly 12,000 reports on new advances ...

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Environment12 Aug 2014

Climate change, predators, and the trickle down effects on ecosystems

Predators play important roles in maintaining diverse and stable ecosystems. Climate change can push species to move in order to stay in their climatic comfort zones, potentially altering where species live and how they interact, which could fundamentally transform current ecosystems. A symposium focusing on climate's effects on predators—causing cascading effects on whole ecosystems -- will take place on Tuesday, August 12th during the Ecological Society of America's 99th Annual Meeting, held this year in Sacramento, California. There will be "winners" and "losers" ...

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Science11 Aug 2014

Blacks, women face greater burden from CVD risk factors

The impact of major cardiovascular risk factors combined is greater in women than men and in blacks than whites. While the gender gap may be narrowing, differences by race may be increasing, according to new research in the American Heart Association journal Circulation. "We've been targeting traditional risk factors in public health campaigns for many years," said Susan Cheng, M.D., M.P.H., study lead author and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Mass. "We wanted to take a look at how well we've been doing over time at keeping ...

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Medicine11 Aug 2014

Bone drugs may not protect osteoporotic women from breast cancer

Osteoporosis drugs known as bisphosphonates may not protect women from breast cancer as had been thought, according to a new study led by researchers at UC San Francisco (UCSF). The drugs' protective effect was widely assumed after several observational studies showed that women who took them were less likely to get breast cancer. But when researchers assessed the effect of two of the most widely used osteoporosis drugs – sold under the brand names, Fosamax and Reclast – in two large randomized clinical trials, neither drug protected women with osteoporosis from getting ...

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Medicine11 Aug 2014

Novel study maps infant brain growth in first 3 months of life using MRI technology

A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the University of Hawaii demonstrates a new approach to measuring early brain development of infants, resulting in more accurate whole brain growth charts and providing the first estimates for growth trajectories of subcortical areas during the first three months after birth. Assessing the size, asymmetry and rate of growth of different brain regions could be key in detecting and treating the earliest signs of neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism or perinatal ...

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