MAYWOOD, Il. – A nuclear bomb or nuclear reactor accident can produce a deadly combination of radiation exposure and injuries such as burns and trauma. Now the first study of its kind in 50 years is providing new insights into this phenomenon, called combined radiation injury (CRI). Researchers at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine have shown how CRI causes the intestines to leak bacteria into surrounding tissue. The study also showed that radiation and burns have a synergistic effect that make them far more deadly when they act in combination. The ...

A new study has found that "waviness" in forests of vertically-aligned carbon nanotubes dramatically reduces their stiffness, answering a long-standing question surrounding the tiny structures. Instead of being a detriment, the waviness may make the nanotube arrays more compliant and therefore useful as thermal interface material for conducting heat away from future high-powered integrated circuits. Measurements of nanotube stiffness, which is influenced by a property known as modulus, had suggested that forests of vertically-aligned nanotubes should have a much higher ...

U.S. Forest Service and partner scientists are keeping a watchful eye on forest health. As fall colors replace the lush greenness of spring and summer, researchers recognize telltale signs of change in healthy forests. A new publication highlights specific examples where researchers have used ForWarn, a state-of-the-art forest change recognition and tracking system, to detect disturbances and track forest recovery. ForWarn uses NASA satellite imagery to develop real-time maps that assist forest managers in the continental United States. Since 2010, ForWarn has detected ...

Hemin and sickle cell disease-associated acute chest syndrome development Acute chest syndrome (ACS) is a complication of sickle cell disease that is characterized by sudden pain and difficulty breathing. Sickle cell disease can also cause red blood cells to suddenly breakdown and release their contents, which may trigger the onset of ACS. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Solomon Fiifi Ofori-Acquah and colleagues at Emory University asked if hemin, a product released by red blood cells during lysis, triggers ACS in a mouse model of sickle cell ...

Acute chest syndrome (ACS) is a complication of sickle cell disease that is characterized by sudden pain and difficulty breathing. Sickle cell disease can also cause red blood cells to suddenly breakdown and release their contents, which may trigger the onset of ACS. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Solomon Fiifi Ofori-Acquah and colleagues at Emory University asked if hemin, a product released by red blood cells during lysis, triggers ACS in a mouse model of sickle cell disease. They found that hemin injection caused labored breathing, acute lung ...

Type 2 diabetes is a chronic condition that is characterized by resistance to or insufficient production of insulin, a hormone that controls sugar movement into cells. In certain tissues, insulin resistance has been associated with dysfunction of mitochondria, which supply most of the cell's chemical energy. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, C. Ronald Kahn and colleagues at Harvard Medical School evaluated mitochondrial involvement in insulin resistance. They found that heat shock protein 60 (HSP60), which is involved in mitochondrial protein import ...

A new study finds that papers with data shared in public gene expression archives received increased numbers of citations for at least five years. The large size of the study allowed the researchers to exclude confounding factors that have plagued prior studies of the effect and to spot a trend of increasing dataset reuse over time. The findings will be important in persuading scientists that they can benefit directly from publicly sharing their data. The study, which adds to growing evidence for an open data citation benefit across different scientific fields, is entitled ...

ATLANTA -- Breast cancer incidence rates increased slightly among African American women from 2006 to 2010, bringing those rates closer to the historically higher rates among white women, according to a new analysis by American Cancer Society researchers. The explanation behind the rise is unclear. The finding is published in Breast Cancer Statistics, 2013 published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. The report and its consumer version, Breast Cancer Facts & Figures 2013-2014, are published biennially and provide ...

A review of dozens of studies on the use of statin medications to prevent heart attacks shows that the commonly prescribed drugs pose no threat to short-term memory, and that they may even protect against dementia when taken for more than one year. The Johns Hopkins researchers who conducted the systematic review say the results should offer more clarity and reassurance to patients and the doctors who prescribe the statin medications. The question of whether statins can cause cognition problems has become a hot topic among cardiologists and their patients following changes ...

Use of existing, well-established hypertension drugs could improve the outcome of cancer chemotherapy by opening up collapsed blood vessels in solid tumors. In their report in the online journal Nature Communications, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators describe how the angiotensin inhibitor losartan improved the delivery of chemotherapy drugs and oxygen throughout tumors by increasing blood flow in mouse models of breast and pancreatic cancer. A clinical trial based on the findings of this study is now underway. "Angiotensin inhibitors are safe blood ...

Melting sea ice in the Arctic may be leading, indirectly, to fewer caribou calf births and higher calf mortality in Greenland, according to scientists at Penn State University. Eric Post, a Penn State University professor of biology, and Jeffrey Kerby, a Penn State graduate student, have linked the melting of Arctic sea ice with changes in the timing of plant growth on land, which in turn is associated with lower production of calves by caribou in the area. The results of the study will be published in the journal Nature Communications on 1 October 2013. Five photos of ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Despite continued reports of economic growth in Africa, much of the continent remains wracked by poverty, with roughly one in five citizens saying they frequently lack food, clean water and medical care, according to the largest survey of African citizens. This suggests the growth is not trickling down to the poorest citizens or that actual growth rates are inflated, said Carolyn Logan, assistant professor of political science at Michigan State University and deputy director of the survey, called the Afrobarometer. "The survey results show there ...

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico, October 1, 2013 – Oats may deserve the well-earned status of "super grain", according to research presented at the American Association of Cereal Chemists International annual meeting, being held this week in Albuquerque, NM. World-renowned grain researchers presented compelling data to support the important role that oats can play in improving diet quality and supporting human health. As a part of the Quaker Oats Center of Excellence's aim to elevate the relevance and benefits of oats through science, agriculture and innovation, YiFang Chu, ...

Vandetanib (trade name: Caprelsa) has been approved in Germany since February 2012 for the treatment of adult patients who have a particular form of aggressive thyroid cancer. On the inclusion of additional study data subsequently provided by the drug manufacturer in the commenting procedure, the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) came to a different conclusion in an addendum: According to the findings, there is a hint of a minor added benefit in people aged under 65 years, but a hint of greater harm (lesser benefit) in older patients in ...

Jerusalem, Oct. 1, 2013 -- A new study by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University reveals that eating a good breakfast can have a positive impact on women with problems of infertility. In recent years, nutritional research has found that our weight is affected not only by the level of calorie intake, but also by the question of when to consume large amounts of calories. Now, research, conducted by Prof. Oren Froy, director of the Nutrigenomics and Functional Foods Research Center at the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food ...

How women perceive their bodies during pregnancy and how that impacts on their weight gain has been the subject of a new study by University of Adelaide researchers. Researchers in the University's Robinson Institute and the School of Psychology have studied more than 400 South Australian women to better understand the links between body image and excessive weight gain during pregnancy. The results, published in the journal Women and Birth, show that more than 70% of pregnant women who are overweight or obese under-estimate their weight. Those who under-estimate their ...

University of Adelaide researchers have made advances in the understanding of one of the world's most common medical conditions, gastric reflux, and how patients experience pain from it. Gastric reflux affects as many as one in five people in Western countries and is on the increase in Asia. Diet and lifestyle, as well as genetic and hormonal issues, are commonly considered to be major causes of gastric reflux. In laboratory studies, researchers have identified the nerve pathways in the spinal cord that transmit pain signals associated with gastric reflux to the brain. "This ...

The study, involving emergency ambulance services and teams at seven hospitals across Spain, shows categorically that this simple, low-cost strategy could easily be extended throughout the world, providing significant clinical benefit. This would change current practice for treating heart-attack patients, who currently receive no medication before undergoing angioplasty surgery, the recommended procedure for removing the arterial blockage that caused the infarction. Borja Ibáñez—joint leading investigator on the study with Valentín Fuster—explains that clinical research ...

Arnhem, 30 September 2013- A balance between the activation of the inflammatory macrophages and suppression of the anti-inflammatory macrophages in the kidney may play a pivotal role in kidney stone formation. These macrophage-derived mediators may have potential as biomarkers to reflect the urinary stone risk, according to a new study from Japan, which was recently presented at the recent 2nd Meeting of the EAU Section of Urolithiasis and received Clinical Research Award. Compared to that of control subjects, the urine from individuals with a history of kidney stone formation ...

Efforts to limit the reach of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA), the legislation that banned discrimination in voting, could negatively impact black political representation, according to a new study from researchers at Rice University, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Ohio University. "Are We There Yet? The Voting Rights Act and Black Representation on City Councils, 1981-2006" is one of the first studies to take a "big picture" look at a large sample of city councils over time to see where African-Americans are making gains, where they are adding or losing ...

A pilot study has shown large variations between European countries in patient survival after surgery for oesophageal and gastric cancers. The 2013 European Cancer Congress (ECC2013) [1] will hear today (Tuesday) that the reasons for these differences are not clear and cannot be explained simply in terms of the volume of patients treated at each hospital. Numerous previous studies have shown that hospitals that see and treat the highest numbers of patients for a variety of diseases and conditions ranging from cancer to cardiology tend to have greater expertise, resulting ...

Don't rely on one source of information about your preschoolers' inattention or hyperactivity. Rather, consider how your child behaves at home as well as information from his or her teacher and a clinician. This advice comes from Sarah O'Neill, of The City College of New York, based on research she conducted at Queens College (CUNY), in an article published in Springer's Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. The study examines how well parent, teacher, and clinician ratings of preschoolers' behavior are able to predict severity and diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity ...

To understand the world's biological diversity, the information included in scientific collections is essential. For this reason, many projects have been focused on computerizing the data from these collections and making them openly available to researchers on biodiversity and conservation. The MGC Herbarium of the University of Malaga (Spain) includes 76000 sheets of vascular plants or cormophyta, 73156 of which have been computerized. The data sheets are accessible through the GBIF data portal in the web page http://data.gbif.org/datasets/resource/8105/. The basic ...

A mutant of an immune cell protein called ADAP (adhesion and degranulation-promoting adaptor protein) is able to block infection by HIV-1 (human immunodeficiency virus 1), new University of Cambridge research reveals. The researchers, who were funded by the Wellcome Trust, believe that their discovery will lead to new ways of combatting HIV. Professor Chris Rudd from the Department of Pathology, who led the research, said: "One exciting aspect about this new target for HIV intervention is that we should be able to fight HIV without compromising the immune system's ability ...

New research has revealed that individuals with the highest metabolic rates within populations should be the least pre-occupied with keeping track of changes in their environments that could lead them to sources of food. Individuals with slower or average metabolisms however should be constantly monitoring their opportunities for higher gain when they are looking for food. The study shows that variation in metabolic rates between individuals can explain dramatic differences in information use when it comes to food. The researchers, from the University of Exeter and the ...