ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Video ratings data of surgeons' operating skills successfully predicted whether patients would suffer complications after they leave the operating room, according to a University of Michigan Health System study. The study assessed the relationship between the technical skill of 20 bariatric surgeons and post-surgery complications in 10,343 patients undergoing common, but complex laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery. High skill surgeons, as rated by their peers, had significantly fewer post-surgery complications such as bleeding or infections, according ...

Some breast cancer drugs can penetrate the blood-brain barrier (BBB), but they have not been very effective against brain metastases, whereas other, more effective anti-breast cancer drugs cannot penetrate the BBB at all. In a study published October 9 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, researchers used a new approach to selectively permeabilize the BBB at sites of brain metastases, even those 200 times smaller than currently detectable in the clinic. To facilitate drug delivery to brain metastases, John Connell of the CRUK/MRC Gray Institute for Radiation ...

LA JOLLA, CA—October 9, 2013—Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have identified a set of compounds that may be used to treat multiple sclerosis (MS) in a new way. Unlike existing MS therapies that suppress the immune system, the compounds boost a population of progenitor cells that can in turn repair MS-damaged nerve fibers. One of the newly identified compounds, a Parkinson's disease drug called benztropine, was highly effective in treating a standard model of MS in mice, both alone and in combination with existing MS therapies. "We're excited about ...

Ecological and societal disruptions by modern climate change are critically determined by the time frame over which climates shift. Camilo Mora and colleagues in the College of Social Sciences' Department of Geography at the University of Hawaii, Manoa have developed one such time frame. The study, entitled "The projected timing of climate departure from recent variability," will be published in the October 10 issue of Nature and provides an index of the year when the mean climate of any given location on Earth will shift continuously outside the most extreme records experienced ...

Researchers have come one step closer to understanding unstable atomic nuclei. A team of researchers from RIKEN, the University of Tokyo and other institutions in Japan and Italy has provided evidence for a new nuclear magic number in the unstable, radioactive calcium isotope 54Ca. In a study published today in the journal Nature, they show that 54Ca is the first known nucleus with 34 neutrons (N) where N = 34 is a magic number. The protons and neutrons inside the atomic nucleus exhibit shell structures in a manner similar to electrons in an atom. For naturally stable ...

A new method of imaging cells is allowing scientists to see tiny structures inside the 'control centre' of the cell for the first time. The microscopic technique, developed by researchers at Queen Mary University of London, represents a major advance for cell biologists as it will allow them to investigate structures deep inside the cell, such as viruses, bacteria and parts of the nucleus in depth. Recent advances in optical physics have made it possible to use fluorescent microscopy to study complex structures smaller than 200 nanometres (nm) – around 500 times smaller ...

New technology has enabled scientists to prove that most people with type 1 diabetes have active beta cells, the specialised insulin-making cells found in the pancreas. Type 1 diabetes occurs when the body's immune system destroys the cells making insulin, the substance that enables glucose in the blood to gain access to the body's cells. It was previously thought that all of these cells were lost within a few years of developing the condition. However, new research led by the University of Exeter Medical School, which has been funded by Diabetes UK and published in ...

A group of physicists from Canada have been growing their own icicles in a lab in the hope of solving a mystery that has, up until now, continued to puzzle scientists. The presence of characteristic ripples along the surface of icicles, which remarkably have the same wavelength no matter how big the icicle or where in the world it grows, have led to several studies examining exactly how the ripples form. In a new study published today, 10 October, in the Institute of Physics and German Physical Society's New Journal of Physics, the researchers, from the University ...

The global wheat industry sometimes loses as much as $1 billion a year because prolonged rainfall and high humidity contribute to grains germinating before they are fully mature. The result is both a lower yield of wheat and grains of inferior quality. This phenomenon, known as pre-harvest sprouting or PHS, has such important economic repercussions for farmers around the world that scientists have been working on finding a solution to the problem for at least a couple of decades. Their focus has been on genetic factors, and on the interaction between genotypes and the environment ...

(Cincinnati, OH) - Today, a new study from P&G Beauty, the makers of SecretTM deodorants, and lead investigator Pamela Dalton, PhD. MPH, member of the Monell Chemical Senses Center, confirms for the first time that the smell of stress sweat does, in fact, significantly alter how women are perceived by both males and females. Results of the study, published on October 9, 2013 in PLOS ONE, indicate that the odor from stress-related sweat specifically impacts social judgments of one's confidence, trustworthiness and competence. The ability of human body odor to communicate ...

VIDEO: These are movies of three icicles grown under identical conditions of ambient temperature, water supply rate, and nozzle temperature. (1) was made with distilled water only; (2) was made with... Click here for more information. TORONTO, ON – Though it's barely the beginning of autumn, scientists at the University of Toronto are one step closer to explaining why winter's icicles form with Michelin Man-like ripples on their elongated shapes. Experimental physicist ...

Four decades of nutrition research funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may be invalid because the method used to collect the data was seriously flawed, according to a new study by the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina. The study, led by Arnold School exercise scientist and epidemiologist Edward Archer, has demonstrated significant limitations in the measurement protocols used in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). The findings, published in PLOS ONE (The Public Library of Science), ...

Using mice, lab-grown cells and clues from a related disorder, Johns Hopkins researchers have greatly increased understanding of the causes of systemic sclerosis, showing that a critical culprit is a defect in the way certain cells communicate with their structural scaffolding. They say the new insights point the way toward potentially developing drugs for the disease, which affects approximately 100,000 people in the United States. "Until now we've had little insight and no effective treatment strategies for systemic sclerosis, and many patients die within a year of ...

October 9, 2013 - There is no such thing as objectivity when it comes to your friends: According to a new study, people evaluate their friends' behavior more positively than do strangers, regardless of actual performance on a series of tasks. Researchers say that we should then think twice before allowing people who know each other to be in positions to judge each other – from job interviews to legal settings. "In judging people we already know, we are more or less unable to ignore our previously established images of those people," says Daniel Leising of Technische ...

Alexandria, VA – An important question asked of recent graduates with geoscience majors is why they chose to major in the earth sciences. Recent analysis of over 400 responses from the National Geoscience Student Exit Survey from 71 geoscience departments identified several common answers among the respondents. Of those surveyed, many declared a geoscience major during their formative undergraduate years for a variety of reasons: enjoyment working in the outdoors, a lifelong interest in the subject and desire for career opportunities are among some of the most common. For ...

Fairfax, Va., October 9, 2013—Standard and reduced high-dose volume radiation therapy for muscle-invasive bladder cancer provide comparable tumor control and decreased late toxicity when compared to surgery, according to a study published in the October 1, 2013 print edition of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology ● Biology ● Physics, the official scientific journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). The research is part of the United Kingdom's BC2001 clinical trial, one of the largest randomized trials conducted involving radiation ...

Researchers know that feeding some patients intravenously can save their lives – but also can cause liver damage. Now scientists at the University of Colorado and Children's Hospital Colorado have figured out the likely culprit, one of the ingredients in intravenous food, behind the liver problems. The discovery, published Oct. 9 in Science Translational Medicine, could point the way to better treatments for patients who are medically vulnerable and, often, very young. "We still have more to learn about the optimal mix of lipids for intravenous nutrition," said Ron ...

Terahertz (THz) radiation — radiation in the wavelength range of 30 to 300 microns — is gaining attention due to its applications in security screening, medical and industrial imaging, agricultural inspection, astronomical research, and other areas. Traditional methods of generating terahertz radiation, however, usually involve large and expensive instruments, some of which also require cryogenic cooling. A compact terahertz source — similar to the laser diode found in a DVD player —operating at room temperature with high power has been a dream device in the terahertz community ...

HOUSTON – (Oct. 9, 2013) – Carbyne will be the strongest of a new class of microscopic materials if and when anyone can make it in bulk. If they do, they'll find carbyne nanorods or nanoropes have a host of remarkable and useful properties, as described in a new paper by Rice University theoretical physicist Boris Yakobson and his group. The paper appears this week in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano. Carbyne is a chain of carbon atoms held together by either double or alternating single and triple atomic bonds. That makes it a true one-dimensional material, ...

New Rochelle, NY, October 9, 2013—A national survey has found that uterine fibroids have a disproportionate impact on African American women, causing more severe symptoms, interfering with their daily life, and causing them to miss work. These new findings are reported in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Women's Health website at http://www.liebertpub.com/jwh. African American women have a 3-fold higher incidence of uterine fibroids and tend to have them at an ...

A new meta-analysis published today in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine (2013;19(10):1-12)1 found the Transcendental Meditation® technique (TM) has a large effect on reducing trait anxiety for people with high anxiety. Trait anxiety is a measure of how anxious a person usually is, as opposed to state anxiety, which refers to how anxious we are at the moment. A meta-analysis is an objective means to draw conclusions from all the research in a field. This meta-analysis covered 16 randomized-controlled trials, the gold standard in medical research, and ...

More than 90 percent of the public supports organ donation, yet less than half the population registers as donors, surveys show. What if registration was better promoted to those who had previously turned it down? And at the place almost everyone makes that decision, the DMV? Research at 40 Department of Motor Vehicles facilities in Illinois shows such efforts can make a difference. An article about the work was published in the September/October issue of the journal Clinical Transplantation. University of Illinois professor Brian Quick and his research colleagues implemented ...

Nyon, Switzerland (October 10, 2013) – According to a new report published today by the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF), women may expect to live longer but their quality of life will be seriously jeopardized if action to protect their bone health is not taken. Postmenopausal women are the most vulnerable to osteoporosis and fractures. Worldwide, an estimated 200 million women are affected by osteoporosis and around one in three women aged over 50 will suffer from a fracture due to the disease. With an increasingly ageing population huge demands will be put ...

Vast areas on the Northern Hemisphere are covered by tundra. Here, dwarf shrubs, sedges, mosses etc. thrive on top of permafrost in areas where only the uppermost soil layer thaws during the short Arctic summer. New studies show that the tundra may become a source of CO2 in the future. Researcher Magnus Lund from Aarhus University explains: "The soil below the tundra contains very large quantities of carbon – more than twice as much as is present in the planet's entire atmosphere. Therefore, we would like to know if the carbon will stay put – or if it will be released ...

To most people, restoration of Florida's Everglades means recovering and protecting the wetlands of south Florida, including Everglades National Park. But what many don't realize is how intimately the fortunes of the southern Everglades are tied to central Florida's Lake Okeechobee and lands even further north. "The Everglades at the southern tip of Florida—the remains of what was once a vast ecosystem—is interconnected with a large hydrologic system that really begins in Orlando with the northern Everglades," says Patrick Bohlen, a professor of biology at University ...