WASHINGTON, Sept. 19, 2013—Today, computerized smart systems can deliver drugs intravenously in exact volumes to hospital patients. However, these systems cannot recognize which medications are in the tubing nor can they determine the concentration of the drug in the tubing. This lack of precise information can lead to medication errors with serious consequences. Now, a new optical device developed by a team of electrical and computer engineering students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) can identify the contents of the fluid in an intravenous ...

MINNEAPOLIS (September 19, 2013) –Algae-derived biofuel can reduce life cycle CO2 emissions by 50 to 70 percent compared to petroleum fuels, and is approaching a similar Energy Return on Investment (EROI) as conventional petroleum according to a new peer-reviewed paper published in Bioresource Technology. The study, which is the first to analyze real-world data from an existing algae-to-energy demonstration scale farm, shows that the environmental and energy benefits of algae biofuel are at least on par, and likely better, than first generation biofuels. "This study affirms ...

(Millbrook, N.Y.) Triclosan – a synthetic antibacterial widely used in personal care products – is fueling the development of resistant bacteria in streams and rivers. So reports a new paper in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, which is the first to document triclosan resistance in a natural environment. Invented for surgeons in the 1960s, triclosan slows or stops the growth of bacteria, fungi, and mildew. Currently, around half of liquid soaps contain the chemical, as well as toothpastes, deodorants, cosmetics, liquid cleansers, and detergents. Triclosan ...

A team of scientists from Canada and Australia has discovered that a decline in shark populations is detrimental to coral reefs. "Where shark numbers are reduced due to commercial fishing, there is also a decrease in the herbivorous fishes which play a key role in promoting reef health," said Jonathan Ruppert, a recent University of Toronto PhD graduate. Ruppert was part of a team engaged in long-term monitoring of reefs off Australia's northwest coast. Team leader Mark Meekan, of the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), said that the results might, at first ...

TORONTO, ON - When it comes to sticking to an exercise plan, we're all looking for solutions to ensure that new healthy habits transform into long-term lifestyle changes. PhD candidate Marc Mitchell has published findings in the September online issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine suggesting that receiving coupons and vouchers for as little as five dollars can help people stick to new fitness regimes. Under the guidance of Professors Jack Goodman and Guy Faulkner, Mitchell has completed a systematic review of research into the efficacy of financial ...

Bethesda, Md. (Sept. 19, 2013)—Preeclampsia (PE) is a high blood pressure disorder that occurs during pregnancy and which can cause illness or death for the fetus and mother-to-be. There is currently no cure except to deliver the fetus, perhaps prematurely, or remove the placenta, a key organ that binds the pair. Women who smoke during pregnancy have been found to have as much as a 33 percent lower rate of preeclampsia for reasons that are unclear. A new study using an animal model to mimic key effects of PE in humans, and led by Graeme Smith of Queen's University, Canada, ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Mayo Clinic researchers have shown that a specific protein pair may be a successful prognostic biomarker for identifying smoking-related lung cancers. The protein — ASCL1 — is associated with increased expression of the RET oncogene, a particular cancer-causing gene called RET. The findings appear in the online issue of the journal Oncogene. "This is exciting because we've found what we believe to be a 'drugable target' here," says George Vasmatzis, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic molecular medicine researcher and senior author on the study. "It's a clear biomarker ...

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over a developing low pressure area in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico and captured infrared data on what is now the latest destination for NASA's Hurricane and Severe Storms Sentinel mission. On Sept. 19, NASA's HS3 mission sent an unmanned Global Hawk aircraft to investigate and gather data from low pressure System 95L, located in the Bay of Campeche. On Sept. 19 at 07:35 UTC/3:35 a.m. EDT, NASA's Aqua satellite passed over System 95L and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument or AIRS instrument that flies aboard it captured infrared ...

A common songbird may have acquired genes from fellow migrating birds in order to travel greater distances, according to a University of British Columbia study published this week in the journal Evolution. While most birds either migrate or remain resident in one region, the Audubon's warbler, with habitat ranging from the Pacific Northwest to Mexico, exhibits different behaviours in different locations. The northern populations breed and migrate south for the winter, while southern populations have a tendency to stay put all year long. Evolutionary biologists have ...

Toxic metals from the only open pit mine in an estuary system in the United States are widespread in nearby sediment, water and fish and may be affecting marine and coastal animals that feed on them beyond the mine site, a new Dartmouth study finds. Mining contamination's effects on human health and aquatic and terrestrial wildlife is well documented in the United States, but the Dartmouth study is one of the first to look at the impacts of an open pit mine on an estuarine environment and the coastal marine food web. The results, which appear in the journal Archives ...

Higher calorie diets produce twice the rate of weight gain compared to the lower calorie diets that currently are recommended for adolescents hospitalized with anorexia nervosa, according to a study by researchers at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. The findings will be published in the November issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health along with an accompanying editorial and two supporting studies, challenging the current conservative approach to feeding adolescents with anorexia nervosa during hospitalization for malnutrition. “These findings are crucial ...

September 20, 2013, Shenzhen, China – An international team led by South Korea's Personal Genomics Institute and BGI unraveled the first whole genome of a 9-year-old male Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), and compared it with the genomes of other big cats including the white Bengal tiger, lions, and snow leopards. The genomic data from this study provides an invaluable resource for the future studies of big cats and their whole family's conservation. The latest study was published online in Nature Communications. Despite big cats' reputation for ferocity, these majestic ...

A new, non-invasive imaging technique, magnetic resonance elastography (MRE), can now help physicians accurately detect fibrosis (scarring) in children with chronic liver disease – a growing problem due in part to increasing obesity rates. A new study shows that MRE detects such chronic diseases as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which is increasingly common in children and teens, affecting an estimated 13 percent of adolescents. NAFLD can lead to progressive liver disease and liver failure. Obesity is a major risk factor. "Because many pediatrics patients ...

Why don't trees "bleed" to death when they are injured? Researchers from Virginia Tech, the Georg-August University of Gottingen, Germany, and the Jackson Laboratory of Bar Harbor, Maine, have discovered how "check valves" in wood cells control sap flow and protect trees when they are injured. The study, featured on the cover of the September issue of the American Journal of Botany, used a special microscope to reveal how nanostructures help contain damage within microscopic cavities called bordered pits in wood-fiber cells. The pits allow sap to circulate through adjacent ...

Researchers expect the climate to become warmer in the future and predict that climate change will have a significant impact on the Arctic. How will a warming Arctic affect the polar bears? The East Greenlandic population of polar bears resides in an area, where the Arctic sea ice is expected to disappear very late. However, the decline in the ice sheet here occurs at a rate of almost 1% per year, one of the highest rates measured in the entire Arctic region. How does this affect the prey of the polar bears - and, in turn, the polar bears' intake of contaminants? An international ...

Bethesda, Md. (Sept. 20, 2013)—Asthma is a serious public health problem. An estimated 300 million people worldwide suffer from this sometimes deadly lung disease, a number expected to increase to 400 million by 2025. One well-established risk factor for asthma is having a mother who smoked during her pregnancy. However, researchers recently discovered that smoking can have a lasting legacy. When animal mothers are exposed to nicotine during pregnancy—a proxy for smoking—their grandchildren were also at an increased risk of asthma, even though they were never exposed to ...

In a landmark discovery, the final piece in the puzzle of understanding how the brain circuitry vital to normal fertility in humans and other mammals operates has been put together by researchers at New Zealand's University of Otago. Their new findings, which appear in the leading international journal Nature Communications, will be critical to enabling the design of novel therapies for infertile couples as well as new forms of contraception. The research team, led by Otago neuroscientist Professor Allan Herbison, have discovered the key cellular location of signalling ...

OAKLAND, Calif., Sept. 20, 2013 — Digoxin, a drug commonly used to treat heart conditions, was associated with a 72 percent higher rate of death among adults with newly diagnosed systolic heart failure, according to a Kaiser Permanente study that appears in the current online issue of Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. Digoxin is a drug derived from digitalis, a plant that has been used for more than 200 years to treat heart failure. "These findings suggest that the use of digoxin should be reevaluated for the treatment of systolic heart failure in contemporary ...

LA JOLLA, CA -- Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) discovered that an antibody that binds and neutralizes HIV likely also targets the body's own "self" proteins. This finding could complicate the development of HIV vaccines designed to elicit this protective antibody, called 4E10, and others like it, as doing so might be dangerous or inefficient. "We developed two new mouse models that allow us to visualize the fate of the rare B cells that can see HIV and we thought could be stimulated by vaccines to produce neutralizing antibodies -- the type of antibodies ...

High-intensity exercise is shown to be protective against coronary heart disease (CHD) and is well known as a popular and time-saving approach to getting fit. But what about people who already have heart disease? Previously, these patients were told to exercise, but only at a moderate intensity to protect their hearts. More recently, however, researchers have found that high-intensity exercise is very beneficial for these patients. But how intense should these sessions actually be? A new study from the K. G. Jebsen -- Center of Exercise in Medicine at the Norwegian University ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- When we're born, our brains aren't very organized. Every brain cell talks to lots of other nearby cells, sending and receiving signals across connections called synapses. But as we grow and learn, things get a bit more stable. The brain pathways that will serve us our whole lives start to organize, and less-active, inefficient synapses shut down. But why and how does this happen? And what happens when it doesn't go normally? New research from the University of Michigan Medical School may help explain. In a new paper in Nature Neuroscience, a ...

Today, the genomes of more than 250 fungi have been sequenced. Among the basal filamentous ascomycetes – a group of ascomycetes that includes e.g. truffles and morels – only one representative has been analysed so far: the truffle Tuber melanosporum. "With 125 million base pairs, the truffle genome is unusually big, yet it is coding for relatively few genes, namely some 7,500," says Minou Nowrousian from the Department of General and Molecular Botany. "Until now, it was not clear whether this is typical of basal filamentous ascomycetes or whether it is caused by the truffle's ...

In the course of life, aging processes, environmental influences and lifestyle factors such as smoking or diet induce biochemical alterations to the DNA. Frequently, these lead to DNA methylation, a process in which methyl groups are added to particular DNA segments, without changing the DNA sequence. Such processes can influence gene function and are known as epigenetics. Scientists of the Institute of Genetic Epidemiology (IGE) and the Research Unit Molecular Epidemiology (AME) at Helmholtz Zentrum München are seeking to determine what association exists between these ...

A prominent tuft of spiny hair on the back, a white tail tip and three pairs of teats represent the unique set of characteristics describing a new genus of rat which has been discovered in the Moluccan province of Indonesia. This region had a profound influence on the British Naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace who independently developed the theory of evolution alongside Charles Darwin. The international team of zoologists was led by the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense in Indonesia and the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate at the University of Copenhagen. One ...

The digestive systems of all animals contain a large number of different bacteria. Humans are no exception and our intestines provide warmth, shelter and food to a vast range of unicellular organisms, many of which are either beneficial to their hosts or at least cause no ill effects other than consuming some of the food we ingest. However, several species have been associated with disease. Among them is Helicobacter pylori, which may play a part in causing chronic gastritis and gastric ulcers. An ancient colonizer recently discovered Helicobacter pylori was only discovered ...