DENVER (June 24, 2014) - A University of Colorado Denver study examining collisions between bicycles and motorists, shows bicyclist safety significantly increases when there are more bikes on the road, a finding that could be attributed to a "safety in numbers effect." The study focused on Boulder, Colorado, which has one of the highest rates of bicycling in the country at about 12 percent of the population. That makes it one of the few U.S. cities with enough bicycling to achieve the safety benefits already documented by researchers in Europe, said study co-author ...

The findings are part of a review into the global HIV epidemic published in The Lancet, co-authored by Monash University Professor Sharon Lewin. The review shows that because of advancements in treatment, people with the virus are living longer. Overall, new infections have decreased from 3.3 million in 2002 to 2.3 million in 2012. Global AIDS-related deaths peaked at 2.3 million in 2005, decreasing to 1.6 million by 2012. Professor Lewin, Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases at the University, said in the past decade there had been huge advancements in ways ...

Findings from a new study (i) published in Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Diseases show that the fatty acids in nuts have the potential to help reduce the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) in people with type 2 diabetes. Researchers from the University of Toronto and St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, Canada, found that incorporating about two ounces of tree nuts (almonds, Brazils, cashews, hazelnuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios, macadamias and walnuts) and peanuts into the diet of people with diabetes, was inversely associated with CHD risk factors and 10-year ...

Smartphones are everywhere, and they may be smarter than you think. Our cell phones actually reflect the personal microbial world of their owners, with potential implications for their use as bacterial and environmental sensors, according to new research. New research focused on the personal microbiome – the collection of microorganisms on items regularly worn or carried by a person - demonstrates the significant microbiological connection we share with our phones. To test our biological connection with phones, University of Oregon researchers sequenced microbes from ...

Forgotten passwords are a serious problem for both IT managers and users. The root of the problem is a trade-off between memorability and security: simple passwords are easy to remember but easy to crack; complex passwords are hard to crack but hard to remember. A newly proposed alternative based on the psychology of face recognition was announced today. Dubbed 'Facelock', it could put an end to forgotten passwords, and protect users from prying eyes. Decades of psychological research has revealed a fundamental difference in the recognition of familiar and unfamiliar ...

Stem cells have the unique ability to become any type of cell in the body. Given this, the possibility that they can be cultured and engineered in the laboratory makes them an attractive option for regenerative medicine. However, some conditions that are commonly used for culturing human stem cells have the potential to introduce contaminants, thus rendering the cells unusable for clinical use. These conditions cannot be avoided, however, as they help maintain the pluripotency of the stem cells. In a study published in Scientific Reports, a group from the RIKEN Center ...

Genes that increase the risk of developing schizophrenia may also increase the likelihood of using cannabis, according to a new study led by King's College London, published today in Molecular Psychiatry. Previous studies have identified a link between cannabis use and schizophrenia, but it has remained unclear whether this association is due to cannabis directly increasing the risk of the disorder. The new results suggest that part of this association is due to common genes, but do not rule out a causal relationship between cannabis use and schizophrenia risk. The ...

Computer analysis of photographs could help doctors diagnose which condition a child with a rare genetic disorder has, say Oxford University researchers. The researchers, funded in part by the Medical Research Council (MRC), have come up with a computer programme that recognises facial features in photographs; looks for similarities with facial structures for various conditions, such as Down's syndrome, Angelman syndrome, or Progeria; and returns possible matches ranked by likelihood. Using the latest in computer vision and machine learning, the algorithm increasingly ...

Supermarkets in the UK could be hindering efforts to reduce harmful drinking by not fully passing tax increases onto the price of the cheapest beers and spirits, according to health and business researchers. A pioneering study, led by the University of Sheffield's School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) with business experts from the University of East Anglia and Loughborough University and funded by the Medical Research Council, discovered retailers appear to respond to increases in alcohol taxes by 'under-shifting' their cheaper products (raising prices below ...

New research published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes) shows that calcium and vitamin D supplementation improves the metabolic profile of pregnant women with gestational diabetes. The research is by Dr Ahmad Esmaillzadeh, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran, and colleagues. Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), a pregnancy complication, is characterised by carbohydrate intolerance and metabolic disorders. Approximately 7% of all pregnancies in the United States are affected by GDM, but the prevalence ...

The rate of hospitalisation for the most serious type of heart attack, ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), more than quadrupled in China between 2001 and 2011, according to new research published in The Lancet. The study, funded by the Chinese government, evaluates medical records, care processes, and outcomes for 13,815 hospital admissions for STEMI in 162 hospitals across China. It shows that in 2001, there were an estimated 3•7 hospital admissions for STEMI per 100,000 population, but in 2011 this rate had more than quadrupled to 15•8 hospital admissions ...

Writing about the weird soft-bodied fossils found in the Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rockies, paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould noted that of 25 initial body plans exhibited by the fossils, all but four were quickly eliminated. If we rewound the tape, he asked, and cast the dice once more, would the same four body plans be selected? He thought it unlikely. We can't repeat the Burgess Shale experiment, but Washington University in St. Louis biologist Ken Olsen, PhD, says there are other ways to ask whether evolution is repeatable. One is to look at related species that ...

An invading species of shrew first discovered in Ireland in the pellets of barn owls and kestrels in 2007 is spreading across the landscape at a rate of more than five kilometres a year, according to findings published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE. University College Dublin scientists who conducted the study say that the invading species, the greater white-toothed shrew (Crocidura russula) is capable of colonizing the entire island by 2050. This, they say, is leading to the disappearance of the pygmy shrew (Sorex minutus) from Ireland, one of the world's smallest ...

Bottom Line: Cardiac resynchronization therapy plus defibrillator implantation (CRT-D) sometimes helps women with heart failure more than men, although women are less likely to receive CRT-D than men. Author: Robbert Zusterzeel, M.D., and colleagues at the Center for Devices and Radiological Health at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, Md. Background: Women are underrepresented in CRT trials for heart failure, making up only about 20 percent of participants. In selected heart failure patients CRT, or biventricular pacing, is used to help improve ...

Bottom Line: Higher scores that gauged education (years of school completed) and occupation (based on attributes, complexities of a job), as well as higher levels of mid/late-life cognitive activity (e.g., reading books, participating in social activities and doing computer activities at least three times per week) were linked to better cognition in older patients. Author: Prashanthi Vemuri, Ph.D., of the Mayo Clinic and Foundation, Rochester, Minn., and colleagues. Background: Previous research has linked intellectual enrichment with possible protection against ...

Bottom Line: A web-based program for teen drivers appears to improve driving performance and quality supervised practice time before teens are licensed. Author: Jessica H. Mirman, Ph.D., of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and colleagues. Background: During the learner phase of driver education, most states have requirements for supervisors and practice content. However, parent supervisors can vary in their interest, ability and approach to driving supervision. Inexperience is a contributing factor in car crashes involving novice drivers. How the Study ...

Biologists have long wondered if mammals share the elegant system used by insects, bacteria and other invertebrates to defend against viral infection. Two back-to-back studies in the journal Science last year said the answer is yes, but a study just published in Cell Reports by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai found the opposite. In the Mount Sinai study, the results found that the defense system used by invertebrates — RNA interferences or RNAi — is not used by mammals as some had argued. RNAi are small molecules that attach to molecular scissors ...

WASHINGTON — Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) screening for emergency patients at an institution with a large number of ethnic minority, underinsured and uninsured people reveals few are HIV positive, but of those who are, nearly one-quarter are in the acute phase and more than one-quarter have infections that have already advanced to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The results of the study were reported online yesterday in Annals of Emergency Medicine ("Identification of Acute HIV Infection Using Fourth Generation Testing in an Opt-Out Emergency Department ...

Researchers believe they have learned how mutations in the gene that causes Huntington's disease kill brain cells, a finding that could open new opportunities for treating the fatal disorder. Scientists first linked the gene to the inherited disease more than 20 years ago. Huntington's disease affects five to seven people out of every 100,000. Symptoms, which typically begin in middle age, include involuntary jerking movements, disrupted coordination and cognitive problems such as dementia. Drugs cannot slow or stop the progressive decline caused by the disorder, which ...

(NEW YORK – June 23) A specific preparation of cocoa-extract called Lavado may reduce damage to nerve pathways seen in Alzheimer's disease patients' brains long before they develop symptoms, according to a study conducted at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published June 20 in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease (JAD). Specifically, the study results, using mice genetically engineered to mimic Alzheimer's disease, suggest that Lavado cocoa extract prevents the protein β-amyloid- (Aβ) from gradually forming sticky clumps in the brain, which ...

A team of genome scientists has identified a "hit-and-run" mechanism that allows regulatory proteins in the nucleus to adopt a "Tom Sawyer" behavior when it comes to the work of initiating gene activation. Their research, which appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, focuses on transcription factors—proteins that orchestrate the flow of genetic information from DNA to messenger RNA (mRNA). Their results show how transcription factors (TFs) activate mRNA synthesis of a gene, and leave the scene – in a model termed "hit-and-run" transcription. "Much ...

One of the most basic rules for playing the game "Twenty Questions" is that all of the questions must be definitively answered by either "yes" or "no." The exchange of information allows the players to correctly guess the item in question. Fungal researchers have been using a variation of Twenty Questions to determine if wood-decaying fungi fall under one of two general classes. If a fungus can break down all the components – cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin – of plant cell walls it is considered a white rot fungus. If a fungus can only break down cellulose and hemicellulose ...

VIDEO: When confined in a water droplet, B. subtilis bacteria collectively and spontaneously form a swirling vortex, with some bacteria moving in one direction and others moving the opposite way. Researchers... Click here for more information. PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — When a bunch of B. subtilis bacteria are confined within a droplet of water, a very strange thing happens. The chaotic motion of all those individual swimmers spontaneously organizes into a swirling ...

Wheat fields are often tilled immediately after the crop is harvested, removing the light-coloured stubble and crop residues from the soil surface and bringing dark bare earth to the top. Post-harvest tilling is a widely practised and common management technique in Europe. However, ploughed fields can have a negative effect on the local climate during a heat wave. This effect was addressed in a recent study conducted by researchers at ETH Zurich led by Edouard Davin, senior lecturer at the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, and Sonia Seneviratne, professor of ...

WHAT: An experimental vaccine designed to spur production of antibodies against a key malaria parasite protein, AMA1, was developed more than decade ago by scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. It showed promise in test-tube and animal experiments and in early-stage clinical trials, but returned disappointing results in recent human trials conducted in malaria-endemic countries. Now, the NIAID scientists have improved on their original vaccine with a new candidate that delivers AMA1 ...