WASHINGTON, September 4, 2013 — In the Middle East and North Africa, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes are causing a massive amount of premature death and disability. People in Latin America and the Caribbean are living longer on the whole, yet they face increasing threats from chronic diseases. Mortality has declined in many South Asian countries, yet the number of deaths by non-communicable diseases and self-harm has skyrocketed since 1990. These are some of the findings released by the World Bank Group and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) in ...

PHILADELPHIA — A new, highly sensitive method to detect genetic variations that initiate colon cancer could be readily used for noninvasive colon cancer screening, according to a study published in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. "Tumor cells are released into stool from the surface of precancers and early-stage colon cancers, but detecting a cancer-initiating genetic mutation among a large quantity of normal DNA from a patient's stool is like looking for a needle in a haystack," said Bettina Scholtka, Ph.D., assistant ...

With a growing incidence of cardiovascular disease in Asia, lifestyle modification such as weight loss and routine exercise plays an important role in early primary cardiovascular disease prevention. While it is widely known that patients with cardiovascular conditions will benefit from participating in a structured cardiac rehabilitation programme, particularly in a convenient and affordable community-based setting, there is no published data that showed the effectiveness of such a programme in the Asian population to date. With the idea of health promotion in mind, ...

A Swedish archaeological expedition from the University of Gothenburg has excavated a previously unknown part of the Bronze Age city Hala Sultan Tekke (around 1600-1100 BC). The finds include a facility for extraction of copper and production of bronze objects, evidence of production of luxurious textiles, as well as ceramics and other objects imported from all over the Mediterranean but also from central Europe. 'One of our conclusions is that the Bronze Age culture in Hala Sultan Tekke played a central role in the Eastern Mediterranean. Cyprus served as an important ...

Recent research, by Dr Selvaraj Velayutham published in a forthcoming issue of The Economic and Labour Relations Review, published by SAGE, details the exploitation of Indian immigrant workers in Australia on 457 visas. Whilst the exploitation was often by fellow-countrymen, it is the 457 visa system that makes this exploitation possible. Unless temporary immigrants accept the poor conditions offered, they face deportation. In effect they have been tricked into coming to Australia by false promises, and have often had to borrow heavily to pay dishonest recruitment agents. ...

That old "best friend" can get a bit tiresome, all that rolling over, shaking paws, long walks and eating every crumb of food off the floor. But, what if there were a way to command your dog with a remote control, or even via your smart phone...or even without hands? Jeff Miller and David Bevly of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, at Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, have devised just such a system and describe details in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Modelling, Identification and Control. The device based on a control suite with a microprocessor, ...

Research by the University of Liverpool has found that the same brain activity is used for language production and making complex tools, supporting the theory that they evolved at the same time. Researchers from the University tested the brain activity of 10 expert stone tool makers (flint knappers) as they undertook a stone tool-making task and a standard language test. They measured the brain blood flow activity of the participants as they performed both tasks using functional Transcranial Doppler Ultrasound (fTCD), commonly used in clinical settings to test patients' ...

A common belief is that our modern, stimulation-filled environment encourages individualistic behavior (or anti-social behavior, depending on one's point of view), while simpler surroundings give rise to a more developed community life. New research at the Weizmann Institute shows that this assumption – at least for mice – is based in reality: Mice that have been raised in a stimulus-rich environment have less complexity in their social interactions than those growing up in more Spartan conditions. The findings were based on two innovative developments: The first is an ...

A postdoctoral fellow from Wits University has discovered the oldest known land-living animal from Gondwana in a remote part of the Eastern Cape. Dr Robert Gess, from the Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits, discovered the 350 million year old fossilised scorpion from rocks of the Devonian Witteberg Group near Grahamstown. This unique specimen, which is a new species, has been called Gondwanascorpio emzantsiensis. His discovery has been published in the peer reviewed journal African Invertebrate on Wednesday, 28 August 2013. Explaining his discovery, Gess said that ...

Researchers from The University of Manchester and Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Trust have identified proteins in the blood that could be used to predict whether a woman in her first pregnancy is at increased risk of developing pre-eclampsia. Pre-eclampsia is a complication of pregnancy where the mother develops high blood pressure and protein is present in the urine. In some cases, this can develop into a serious condition for both mother and baby and the only cure is delivery of the baby, often prematurely. Women who have had pre-eclampsia previously ...

Lisdexamfetamine dimesylate (trade name: Elvanse) has been approved in Germany since March 2013 as part of a comprehensive treatment programme for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children aged 6 years and over when response to previous treatment with the drug methylphenidate was inadequate. No added benefit of the drug versus the appropriate comparator therapy could be established in the assessment of the drug manufacturer's dossier according to the Act on the Reform of the Market for Medicinal Products (AMNOG). The manufacturer did not present any relevant ...

The largest study of its kind has shown the most effective test for the diagnosis of Clostridium difficile (C-Diff), a bacterial infection which causes 15,000-20,000 deaths a year in hospitals in the United States. C-Diff affects the digestive system, and is most common in hospital patients treated with antibiotics for other infections. The multi-centre study, carried out by UK researchers at the University of Leeds, in partnership with colleagues from the University of Oxford, University College London and St George's, University of London, tested more than 12,000 ...

The EU e-infrastructure coordination pro-iBiosphere project is preparing the ground for the pursuit of biological research in the digital age. In its "Draft policy for Open Access to data and information" scientists and lawyers recommend that hurdles posed by copyright and database protection should be removed by establishing exceptions for research in a new binding, Europe-wide regulation. This report opens a consultation process that will last until December 2013. Input is welcomed on pro-iBiosphere's Google+ , LinkedIn or Facebook. At present, national provisions ...

"Well, I suppose I'd better start finding names for things…" was the first thing said by the ill-fated sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus Linnaeus, 1758) in Douglas Adam's Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Such is the richness of life that, unlike that whale, mankind is still naming things. Without commonly accepted names there would be no way to communicate research about life and it is the profession of taxonomists to put names on organisms and describe the different forms of life on Earth. The EU e-Infrastructure coordination project "pro-iBiosphere", targeting the ...

The traditional audience for books and scientific papers in which scientists report their findings has been the human reader. Now we can enhance publications by attaching to them many different kinds of digital objects (such as the sounds made by birds, maps that show where they occur, or images and videos) or by adding computer-readable sections and terms that allow computers to extract information for re-use. We refer to these enriched and marked-up documents as 'enhanced'. While the technology is available, only a tiny proportion of scientific publications are enhanced. ...

The Rim Fire in and around Yosemite National Park, which began on August 17, 2013 is now the fourth largest fire in California's history. According to Inciweb.org for Sept. 02, 2013: "The Rim Fire grew approximately 8,310 acres, to a total size of 231,088 acres. Burnout operations on the northern and southern portions of the fire continued with success through the night. Southwest transport winds returned smoke to the communities northeast of the fire, including Reno, Carson City, Markleeville, Minden, and the Lake Tahoe Basin, and returned clearer skies to the Yosemite ...

PHILADELPHIA -- People in East Asian countries seem to strike the best balance between liking action and inaction, whereas someone from the Mediterranean area of the world are far less likely to have achieved the same balance. This balance between action and inaction is best displayed in Asia, where Labor Day is not observed until May. A two-year-long study involving over 4,000 volunteer participants (age 19 to 30) from 19 countries and looked at the degree to which a culture holds attitudes toward rest and activity. It was led by Dolores Albarracín, Ph.D., the Martin ...

On August 28th the LEGATO project team held a successful workshop on rice ecosystem services and ecological engineering at the 6th Annual International Conference of the Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP) in Bali, Indonesia. The session titled "Rice Ecosystem Services" illustrated the conference motto "Making Ecosystem Services Count!" by presenting the interlinkage of different dimensions of ecosystem service research in LEGATO and collaborating projects, from water management and pollution, via the role of bio-indicator species, in particular of dragonflies (to signalise ...

Enhanced luminal breast tumor response to antiestrogen therapy Breast cancer can be divided into 4 major subtypes using molecular and genetic information from the tumors. Each subtype is associated with different prognosis and should be taken into consideration when making treatment decisions. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Rebecca Cook and colleagues at Vanderbilt University, found that expression of an oncogene, ERBB3, was enhanced in luminal breast cancers compared to other breast cancer subtypes. Addition of the ERBB3 protein to cultured ...

Breast cancer can be divided into 4 major subtypes using molecular and genetic information from the tumors. Each subtype is associated with different prognosis and should be taken into consideration when making treatment decisions. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Rebecca Cook and colleagues at Vanderbilt University, found that expression of an oncogene, ERBB3, was enhanced in luminal breast cancers compared to other breast cancer subtypes. Addition of the ERBB3 protein to cultured luminal breast cancer cells increased the growth of the cells; ...

Ischemic stroke is characterized by an interruption of the blood supply to the brain, which can lead to brain damage and even death. Excess amounts of the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate are released during stroke events and further exacerbate brain cell death. Currently, there are no effective strategies for combatting the effects ischemic stroke. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation , José Sánchez-Prieto and colleagues at the Universidad Complutense demonstrate that peritoneal dialysis is an effective treatment for reducing glutamate levels ...

Research has shown that giving obese rodents a recently identified circulating protein called fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) helps improve their metabolism. Now investigators reporting in the Cell Press journal Cell Metabolism reveal that a variant of FGF21 has similar effects in obese people with type 2 diabetes. "Our findings suggest that FGF21 has the ability to favorably affect body weight and to partially normalize abnormal lipid levels in patients with diabetes. These are substantial issues and unmet medical needs for patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes," ...

An antihistamine discovered in the 1950s to treat itching may also prevent seizures in an intractable form of childhood epilepsy, according to researchers at UC San Francisco who tested it in zebrafish bred to mimic the disease. The researchers said their unexpected discovery offers a glimmer of hope for families of children with Dravet Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that manifests in early childhood with disabling, lifelong consequences. These include dozens, if not hundreds, of daily seizures, as well as profound cognitive and social deficits. “It is very ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (http://www.ucr.edu) — A team of University of California, Riverside researchers have developed a novel transparent skull implant that literally provides a "window to the brain", which they hope will eventually open new treatment options for patients with life-threatening neurological disorders, such as brain cancer and traumatic brain injury. The team's implant is made of the same ceramic material currently used in hip implants and dental crowns, yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ). However, the key difference is that their material has been processed ...

Among scientists, the role of proteins called sirtuins in enhancing longevity has been hotly debated, driven by contradictory results from many different scientists. But new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis may settle the dispute. Reporting Sept. 3 in Cell Metabolism, Shin-ichiro Imai, MD, PhD, and his colleagues have identified the mechanism by which a specific sirtuin protein called Sirt1 operates in the brain to bring about a significant delay in aging and an increase in longevity. Both have been associated with a low-calorie diet. The ...