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Medicine28 Mar 2014

Research clarifies health costs of air pollution from agriculture

Ammonia pollution from agricultural sources poses larger health costs than previously estimated, according to NASA-funded research. Harvard University researchers Fabien Paulot and Daniel Jacob used computer models including a NASA model of chemical reactions in the atmosphere to better represent how ammonia interacts in the atmosphere to form harmful particulate matter. The improved simulation helped the scientists narrow in on the estimated health costs from air pollution associated with food produced for export – a growing sector of agriculture and a source of trade ...

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Medicine28 Mar 2014

NIST issues final Joplin tornado report, begins effort to improve standards and codes

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released the final report on its technical investigation into the impacts of the May 22, 2011, tornado that struck Joplin, Mo. The final report is strengthened by clarifications and supplemental text suggested by organizations and individuals from across the nation in response to the request for comments on the draft Joplin report, released Nov. 21, 2013. The revisions did not alter the investigation team's major findings or its 16 recommendations, highlighted by NIST's call for nationally accepted standards ...

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Medicine28 Mar 2014

Whether they reduce fat or not, obesity programs lower kids' blood pressure

BUFFALO, N.Y. – One of the serious health consequences of obesity is elevated blood pressure (BP), a particular problem in children because research has found that high BP in children usually follows them into adulthood, carrying with it a wide range of possible negative consequences. Even modest elevations in the BP of adolescents, according to recent research, can pose cardiovascular problems later in life. A systematic review and meta-analysis of published studies of the effect of child obesity intervention programs on blood pressure has found that whether such programs ...

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Medicine28 Mar 2014

Stigmas, once evolutionarily sound, are now bad health strategies

Stigmatization may have once served to protect early humans from infectious diseases, but that strategy may do more harm than good for modern humans, according to Penn State researchers. "The things that made stigmas a more functional strategy thousands of years ago rarely exist," said Rachel Smith, associate professor of communication arts and sciences and human development and family studies. "Now, it won't promote positive health behavior and, in many cases, it could actually make the situation worse." Stigmatizing and ostracizing members stricken with infectious ...

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Environment28 Mar 2014

Fabricating nanostructures with silk could make clean rooms green rooms

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS. -- Tufts University engineers have demonstrated that it is possible to generate nanostructures from silk in an environmentally friendly process that uses water as a developing agent and standard fabrication techniques. This approach provides a green alternative to the toxic materials commonly used in nanofabrication while delivering fabrication quality comparable to conventional synthetic polymers. Nanofabrication is at the heart of manufacture of semi-conductors and other electronic and photonic devices. The paper describing this work, "All ...

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Medicine28 Mar 2014

Safety and immunogenicity of 2 doses of the HPV-16/18 AS04 adjuvanted vaccine Cervarix

A recent study in the journal Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, showed that two doses of the HPV-16/18 AS04-adjuvanted vaccine Cervarix (GlaxoSmithKline) are non-inferior to three-doses in the current schedule. Since high coverage and compliance rates can be difficult to achieve with the current three-dose HPV vaccineregimen, several studies have looked at the possibility of reducing the number of doses. Proof-of-principle that a two-dose schedule can provide sufficient protection against cervical cancer came initially from a study performed in Costa Rica in 2011. ...

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Science28 Mar 2014

Repeated hUCB injections may improve prognosis of children with deadly inherited disorder

Putnam Valley, NY. (Mar. 28 2014) – New insight has been gained into treating an inherited disorder that creates serious neurological and behavioral disabilities in children and usually leads to death in the teen years. In a recent study into the effects of human umbilical cord blood mononuclear cells (hUCB MNCs) when they are injected to counter the symptoms and progression of Sanfilippo syndrome type III B (MPS III B), researchers found that repeated injections into laboratory mice modeled with the disorder had clear benefits for the mice receiving multiple injections ...

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Technology28 Mar 2014

Rainbow-catching waveguide could revolutionize energy technologies

BUFFALO, N.Y. – More efficient photovoltaic cells. Improved radar and stealth technology. A new way to recycle waste heat generated by machines into energy. All may be possible due to breakthrough photonics research at the University at Buffalo. The work, published March 28 in the journal Scientific Reports, explores the use of a nanoscale microchip component called a "multilayered waveguide taper array" that improves the chip's ability to trap and absorb light. Unlike current chips, the waveguide tapers (the thimble-shaped structures above) slow and ultimately absorb ...

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Medicine28 Mar 2014

Gene may predict if further cancer treatments are needed

DALLAS – March 28, 2014 – UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers are developing a new predictive tool that could help patients with breast cancer and certain lung cancers decide whether follow-up treatments are likely to help. Dr. Jerry Shay, Vice Chairman and Professor of Cell Biology at UT Southwestern, led a three-year study on the effects of irradiation in a lung cancer-susceptible mouse model. When his team looked at gene expression changes in the mice, then applied them to humans with early stage cancer, the results revealed a breakdown of which patients have ...

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Medicine28 Mar 2014

Erectile dysfunction can be reversed without medication

Men suffering from sexual dysfunction can be successful at reversing their problem, by focusing on lifestyle factors and not just relying on medication, according to research at the University of Adelaide. In a new paper published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, researchers highlight the incidence of erectile dysfunction and lack of sexual desire among Australian men aged 35-80 years. Over a five-year period, 31% of the 810 men involved in the study developed some form of erectile dysfunction. "Sexual relations are not only an important part of people's wellbeing. ...

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Medicine28 Mar 2014

NUS researchers developed world's first fluorescent sensor to detect date rape drug

A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has developed the world's first fluorescent sensor to identify the presence of a drug known as GHB that is commonly used to spike beverages. When the sensor is mixed with a sample of a beverage containing GHB, the mixture changes colour in less than 30 seconds, making detection of the drug fast and easy. This simple mix-and-see discovery, led by Professor Chang Young-Tae of the Department of Chemistry at the NUS Faculty of Science, is a novel scientific breakthrough that contributes towards prevention ...

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Environment28 Mar 2014

More male fish 'feminized' by pollution on the Basque coast

The UPV/EHU's Cell Biology in Environmental Toxicology group has conducted research using thick-lipped grey mullet and has analysed specimens in six zones: Arriluze and Gernika in 2007 and 2008, and since then, Santurtzi, Plentzia, Ondarroa, Deba and Pasaia. The acquisition of feminine features by male fish has been detected, to a greater or lesser extent, in all the estuaries, not only in the characteristics of the gonads of the specimens analysed but also in various molecular markers. According to Miren P. Cajaraville, director of the research group, the results show ...

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Science28 Mar 2014

Fingerprint of dissolved glycine in the Terahertz range explained

Chemists at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have, for the first time, completely analysed the fingerprint region of the Terahertz spectrum of a biologically relevant molecule in water, in this case, an amino acid. By combining spectroscopy and molecular-dynamics simulations, they rendered the motion of the most basic amino acid, glycine, visible in an aqueous solution. Their results have disproved the long-standing theory that frequencies in the Terahertz range provide no information regarding the amino acid's motion. The team led by Prof Dr Martina Havenith-Newen and ...

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Social Science28 Mar 2014

Aspartic acid in the hippocampus: A biomarker for postoperative cognitive dysfunction

Postoperative cognitive dysfunction is the deterioration of cognitive performance after anesthesia and surgery, and manifests as impairments in short-term memory, concentration, language comprehension, and social integration skills. Previous studies have shown that the occurrence of postoperative cognitive dysfunction is affected by many factors, including advanced age, low educational level, pre-existing cognitive impairment, alcohol abuse, and severity of coexisting illness. However, the real cause for postoperative cognitive dysfunction is still unclear. Metabolite changes ...

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Science28 Mar 2014

Ancient African cattle first domesticated in Middle East, MU study reveals

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Geneticist and anthropologists previously suspected that ancient Africans domesticated cattle native to the African continent nearly 10,000 years ago. Now, a team of University of Missouri researchers has completed the genetic history of 134 cattle breeds from around the world. In the process of completing this history, they found that ancient domesticated African cattle originated in the "Fertile Crescent," a region that covered modern day Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Israel. Lead researcher Jared Decker, an assistant professor of animal science in the MU ...

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Medicine28 Mar 2014

Religion, spirituality influence health in different but complementary ways

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Religion and spirituality have distinct but complementary influences on health, new research from Oregon State University indicates. "Religion helps regulate behavior and health habits, while spirituality regulates your emotions, how you feel," said Carolyn Aldwin, a gerontology professor in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences at OSU. Aldwin and colleagues have been working to understand and distinguish the beneficial connections between health, religion and spirituality. The result is a new theoretical model that defines two distinct pathways. ...

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Medicine28 Mar 2014

Brain scans link concern for justice with reason, not emotion

People who care about justice are swayed more by reason than emotion, according to new brain scan research from the University of Chicago Department of Psychology and Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience. Psychologists have found that some individuals react more strongly than others to situations that invoke a sense of justice—for example, seeing a person being treated unfairly or mercifully. The new study used brain scans to analyze the thought processes of people with high "justice sensitivity." "We were interested to examine how individual differences about ...

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Medicine28 Mar 2014

Researchers identify good bacteria that protects against HIV

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston by growing vaginal skin cells outside the body and studying the way they interact with "good and bad" bacteria, think they may be able to better identify the good bacteria that protect women from HIV infection and other sexually transmitted infections. The health of the human vagina depends on a symbiotic/mutually beneficial relationship with "good" bacteria that live on its surface feeding on products produced by vaginal skin cells. These good bacteria, in turn, create a physical and chemical barrier ...

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Science28 Mar 2014

Underweight people at as high risk of dying as obese people, new study finds

TORONTO, March 28, 2014—Being underweight puts people at highest risk of dying, just as obesity does, new research has found. The connection between being underweight and the higher risk of dying is true for both adults and fetuses. This is so even when factors such as smoking, alcohol use or lung disease are considered, or adults with a chronic or terminal illness are excluded, the study found. The study, led by Dr. Joel Ray, a physician-researcher at St. Michael's Hospital and the hospital's Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, was published today in the Journal of Epidemiology ...

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Medicine28 Mar 2014

Married people less likely to have cardiovascular problems

Analysis of surveys of more than 3.5 million American men and women, administered at some 20,000 health centers across the country — believed to be the largest analysis of its kind ever performed — found that married people, regardless of age, sex, or even cardiovascular risk factors, had significantly less chances of having any kind of cardiovascular disease than those who were single, divorced or widowed. Among the study's key findings, to be presented March 29 in Washington, DC, at the annual scientific sessions of the American College of Cardiology: Being married ...

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Science28 Mar 2014

Optimal duration of percutaneous microballoon compression for trigeminal nerve injury

Percutaneous microballoon compression of the trigeminal ganglion is a brand new operative technique for the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia. However, it is unclear how the procedure mediates pain relief, and there are no standardized criteria, such as compression pressure, compression time or balloon shape, for the procedure. In particular, the links between compression duration and postoperative complications and pain recurrence are still under debate. An extended duration of compression would cause irreversible injury and drastic demyelination, and paresthesia and numbness ...

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Science28 Mar 2014

Concerning number of kids have elevated cholesterol

WASHINGTON (March 28, 2014) — Roughly one out of three kids screened for high cholesterol between the ages of 9 and 11 has borderline or high cholesterol, potentially placing them at greater risk for future cardiovascular disease, according to research to be presented at the American College of Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session. In one of the largest studies of outpatient pediatric clinic visits to date, researchers examined the medical records of 12,712 children who had screening for cholesterol levels as part of a routine physical exam within the Texas Children's ...

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Medicine28 Mar 2014

Number of babies mom has may play role in future cardiovascular health

WASHINGTON (March 28, 2014) — Women who give birth to four or more children are much more likely to have evidence of plaque in their heart or thickening of their arteries – early signs of cardiovascular disease – compared with those having fewer pregnancies, according to research to be presented at the American College of Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session. While earlier studies have shown an association between several aspects of pregnancy – physiological changes, complications, number of pregnancies – and future heart disease risk, many questions remain about ...

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Medicine28 Mar 2014

Eating fruits and vegetables linked to healthier arteries later in life

WASHINGTON (March 28, 2014) — Women who ate a diet high in fresh fruits and vegetables as young adults were much less likely to have plaque build-up in their arteries 20 years later compared with those who consumed lower amounts of these foods, according to research to be presented at the American College of Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session. This new finding reinforces the importance of developing healthy eating habits early in life. Previous studies have found that middle-aged adults whose diet consists of a high proportion of fruits and vegetables are less ...

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Medicine28 Mar 2014

TV linked to poor snacking habits, cardiovascular risk in middle schoolers

WASHINGTON (March 28, 2014) — Middle school kids who park themselves in front of the TV for two hours or more each day are more likely to consume junk food and have risk factors for cardiovascular disease, even compared to those who spend an equal amount of time on the computer or playing video games, according to research to be presented at the American College of Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session. "While too much of both types of screen time encourages sedentary behavior, our study suggests high TV time in particular is associated with poorer food choices ...

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