While research tends to become very specialized and entire communities of scientists can work on specific topics with only a little overlap between them, physicist Dr Nicolas Brunner and mathematician Professor Noah Linden worked together to uncover a deep and unexpected connection between their two fields of expertise: game theory and quantum physics. Dr Brunner said: "Once in a while, connections are established between topics which seem, on the face of it, to have nothing in common. Such new links have potential to trigger significant progress and open entirely new ...

The bacterium Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is commonly found in nature and frequently colonizes the skin and the upper respiratory tract of humans. A healthy immune system can fight the microorganism but once the immune system is weakened the pathogen can spread and lead to life-threatening diseases of the lungs, the heart and other organs. Moreover, S. aureus produces toxins in foods and can cause serious food poisoning. Its effects are not confined to humans: in cattle, S. aureus frequently causes inflammation of the udders, so the bacterium is also of great interest ...

During pregnancy, women are normally advised to take high amounts of multivitamin supplements. In particular, folate is recommended to reduce the risk of neural tube defects in newborns. The problem is that, although vitamins are critical in fetal development, high vitamin doses during pregnancy may cause undesired effects on the offspring later in life (in rats, an obesogenic phenotype is typically observed). A study in the July issue of the journal Epigenetics suggests that feeding the pups a similar high-folate diet can prevent the obesogenic phenotype of mature offspring ...

Published today in the journal Science, Professor Frank Caruso from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at The University of Melbourne and his team have developed a new strategy to coat microscopic materials, leading to a new-generation particle system with engineered properties. This is expected to underpin advances in the delivery of therapeutics in the areas of cancer, vaccines, cardiovascular disease and neural health. The capsules can be engineered to degrade under different conditions, providing opportunities for the timed release of substances ...

TORONTO, ON – Males and females face different challenges in accessing treatment for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), according to a new study from researchers at the University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Uganda Ministry of Health and Imperial College London. The study, published by PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases on July 11, explores the role of gender in access to treatment in the Uganda National Neglected Tropical Disease Control Program. NTDs are a group of parasitic, viral and bacterial diseases that affect at least a billion people worldwide. ...

Far more people are willing to donate their eyes to research than actually are registered to donate, according to a study led by a Michigan State University student. While demand for tissue remains high, the number of human eyes donated for research declined 28 percent between 1997 and 2004, said Andrew Williams, a third-year MSU College of Human Medicine student who led the study in the journal Current Eye Research. "A lot of people aren't aware they can donate their eyes to research," Williams said. "They don't really know how to get the process started. It comes ...

A study by researchers at Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) is the first to demonstrate that patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) lose the emotional content/colour of their memories. These findings explain why FTD patients may not vividly remember an emotionally charged event like a wedding or funeral. The research team discovered that a region of the brain, called the orbitofrontal cortex, plays a key role in linking emotion and memories. "This step forward in the mapping of the brain will improve how we diagnose different types of dementia," says the ...

CHICAGO --- In the first step toward animal-to-human transplants of insulin-producing cells for people with type 1 diabetes, Northwestern Medicine® scientists have successfully transplanted islets, the cells that produce insulin, from one species to another. And the islets survived without immunosuppressive drugs. Northwestern scientists developed a new method that prevented rejection of the islets, a huge problem in transplants between species, called xenotransplantation. "This is the first time that an interspecies transplant of islet cells has been achieved for an ...

Have you ever noticed the way water flows around boulders in a fast-moving river, creating areas of stillness and intense motion? What if those forces of fluid flow could be controlled at the smallest levels? In May 2013, researchers from UCLA, Iowa State and Princeton reported results in Nature Communications about a new way of sculpting tailor-made fluid flows by placing tiny pillars in microfluidic channels. By altering the speed of the fluid, and stacking many pillars, with different widths, placements and orientations, in the fluid's path, they showed that it is ...

Children who suffer from arthritis could one day receive more targeted treatment thanks to potential markers for the severity of the disorder discovered by researchers at the University of Adelaide and Women's and Children's Hospital. The early results of a world-first study looking at 115 children with juvenile arthritis have shown that changes in the levels of particular molecules known as prostanoids - which are formed from essential fatty acids - in the blood of these patients may predict the course of arthritis more accurately, and help provide more individualized ...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Millions of children worldwide live on the streets. A review and analysis of 50 studies on substance abuse by street children in 22 resource-constrained countries has found lifetime substance use to be both common and high, posing serious threats to their health as well as for their chances for reintegration into society. "The most important conclusion to draw from this large number of studies is not only is substance abuse by street children highly prevalent in low-income countries; it is largely ignored," said Paula Braitstein, Ph.D., associate research ...

Among kidney disease patients receiving pre-dialysis care in a universal healthcare system, black patients experienced a faster progression to kidney failure than whites. The faster decline in kidney function among black compared with white patients was predominantly present in patients with diabetes and in patients with more advanced kidney dysfunction. Findings may help explain why blacks are more prone to develop kidney failure than whites. Washington, DC (July 11, 2013) — Among patients with kidney disease who received specialized pre-dialysis care in a universal ...

A novel drug called Bendavia can help prevent acute kidney injury in animal models and is currently being studied in clinical trials for kidney disease. Bendavia acts by protecting a unique compound called cardiolipin, which is only found in mitochondria and is essential for keeping cells alive and functioning. Acute kidney injury has more than doubled since 2000, causing nearly 39,000 deaths in 2009. Washington, DC (July 11, 2013) — New research reveals the mechanism by which an experimental drug can protect the kidneys from sudden damage, called acute kidney injury ...

A new study reveals that the representation of complex features in the brain may begin earlier—and play out in a more cumulative manner—than previously thought. The finding represents a new view of how the brain creates internal representations of the visual world. "We are excited to see if this novel view will dominate the wider consensus" said senior author Dr. Miyashita, who is also Professor of Physiology at the University of Tokyo's School of Medicine, "and also about the potential impact of our new computational principle on a wide range of views on human cognitive ...

An analysis of earthquakes in the area around the Salton Sea Geothermal Field in southern California has found a strong correlation between seismic activity and operations for production of geothermal power, which involve pumping water into and out of an underground reservoir. "We show that the earthquake rate in the Salton Sea tracks a combination of the volume of fluid removed from the ground for power generation and the volume of wastewater injected," said Emily Brodsky, a geophysicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and lead author of the study, published ...

VIDEO: Dr. Paul Frenette has found that nerves play a critical role in both the development and spread of prostate tumors. The paper was published online July 12, 2013, in Science.... Click here for more information. July 11, 2013 — (Bronx, NY) —Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found that nerves play a critical role in both the development and spread of prostate tumors. Their findings, using both a mouse model and human prostate ...

The AIDS virus can be used to treat two severe hereditary diseases. After an Italian scientist's "stroke of genius" in 1996, and after years of promising results in the laboratory, double official recognition by one of the most important international scientific journals has now arrived. And six children from all over the world, after three years of treatment, are well and show significant benefits. The announcement was made in two studies published today in Science* by researchers at the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy (TIGET) in Milan, led by Luigi Naldini, ...

Irvine, Calif. — Giving the phrase "Mother knows best" a whole new meaning, UC Irvine researchers have identified unique genes in female butterflies that enable them to select the best host plant for their larvae – and avoid deadly ones. Biologist Adriana Briscoe and colleagues found that females of the Heliconius species express gustatory, or taste, receptor genes when choosing a host on which to lay their eggs. Many plants defend themselves by producing toxic chemicals, so it's vital to their larvae's survival that the butterflies pick the right kind. Heliconius females ...

Large earthquakes from distant parts of the globe are setting off tremors around waste-fluid injection wells in the central United States, says a new study. Furthermore, such triggering of minor quakes by distant events could be precursors to larger events at sites where pressure from waste injection has pushed faults close to failure, say researchers. Among the sites covered: a set of injection wells near Prague, Okla., where the study says a huge earthquake in Chile on Feb. 27, 2010 triggered a mid-size quake less than a day later, followed by months of smaller tremors. ...

Over two million deaths occur each year as a direct result of human-caused outdoor air pollution, a new study has found. In addition, while it has been suggested that a changing climate can exacerbate the effects of air pollution and increase death rates, the study shows that this has a minimal effect and only accounts for a small proportion of current deaths related to air pollution. The study, which has been published today, 12 July, in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters, estimates that around 470,000 people die each year because of human-caused ...

Selective grazing by slugs may prevent key grassland species from taking hold and hampers efforts to restore our hay meadows, new research has shown. Work by scientists at Newcastle University, UK, has looked at the impact slugs have on grassland biodiversity and how this might inform future restoration work. Although renowned for their ability to chew through a gardener's prize petunias or strawberry patch, still relatively little is known about the effect these munching molluscs have on large scale grassland conservation projects. But for the first time this latest ...

HOUSTON -- Two Houston researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital were part of an international team that developed a new gene therapy approach to treatment of Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome, a fatal inherited form of immunodeficiency. The new research, led by researchers at the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy in Milan, Italy was published in Science Express. The disorder that weakens the body's immune system is caused by a mutation in a gene that encodes the protein WASP. The most often used therapy is a bone marrow or stem ...

There are clear risk factors for postpartum psychosis that all women should be asked about antenatally to ensure early recognition and prompt treatment of the condition, says a new review published today (12 July) in The Obstetrician & Gynaecologist (TOG). Postpartum psychosis is a severe mental illness with a dramatic onset shortly after childbirth, affecting approximately 1-2 in 1000 deliveries. However, the review notes that the true incidence may be higher. Common symptoms include; mania, severe depression, delusions and hallucinations, confusion, bewilderment ...

Millions of people in low-income countries still depend on public computer and Internet access venues despite the global proliferation of mobile phones and home computers. However, interest in providing such public access has waned in recent years, especially among development agencies, as new technologies become available. But a five-year, eight-country study recently concluded by the Technology & Social Change Group at the University of Washington Information School has found that community access to computer and Internet technology remains a crucial resource for connecting ...

Bethesda, MD – The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) applauds the Senate Appropriations Committee for approving a fiscal year (FY) 2014 Labor, Health and Human Services (LHHS)Appropriations bill that provides $30.95 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). "The Senate funding level for NIH replaces the funding lost due to sequestration and is a critical step in the right direction," said FASEB President Margaret K. Offermann, MD, PhD. "We especially appreciate the leadership of Chairman Tom Harkin and Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski ...