WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Researchers have developed a system that concentrates foodborne salmonella and other pathogens faster than conventional methods by using hollow thread-like fibers that filter out the cells, representing a potential new tool for speedier detection. The machine, called a continuous cell concentration device, could make it possible to routinely analyze food or water samples to screen for pathogens within a single work shift at food processing plants. "This approach begins to address the critical need for the food industry for detecting food pathogens ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Congress should minimally modify – and not, as petroleum-related interests have increasingly lobbied for, repeal – the Renewable Fuel Standard, the most comprehensive renewable energy policy in the U.S., according to a new paper from two University of Illinois researchers. In the study, U. of I. law professor Jay P. Kesan and Timothy A. Slating, a regulatory associate with the Energy Biosciences Institute, argue that RFS mandates merely ought to be adjusted to reflect current and predicted biofuel commercialization realities. "The RFS is the first ...

WASHINGTON D.C. Oct. 11, 2013 -- Imagine if the "information superhighway" had HOV lanes so that data could be stored, processed and disseminated many times faster than possible with today's electronics. Researchers in the United States and China have teamed to develop such a speedway for future devices, an exotic type of electrical conductor called a topological insulator (TI). In a new paper in the journal AIP Advances, the international collaborators report that they grew two types of TI materials inside an ultra-high vacuum chamber on both smooth and rough surfaces ...

VIDEO: A precise model of the swimming patterns of the nematode C. elegans will lead to better drug screening and help researchers reverse engineer the worm's neural system. Click here for more information. WASHINGTON, D.C. Oct. 11, 2013 -- One might wonder why researchers would even care about the nuances of the one-millimeter long nematode worm, let alone take the time to study them. But the answer is simple: they can provide powerful insights into human health and disease. New ...

Los Angeles, CA (October 14, 2013) Public administrators draw on a number of different sources to inform their work including the news, blogs, podcasts, etc. But why aren't they drawing on scholarly research from published academics as a key resource and what can scholars themselves do about it? More than they might think, suggests new research. A new article published in State and Local Government Review (a SAGE Journal) outlines how to conduct and disseminate academic research that is relevant, collaborative, and accessible to local government practitioners. The ...

Research led by physician-scientists at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine has produced a breakthrough discovery in diagnosing retinitis pigmentosa, a blinding disease that affects about 1 in 4,000 people in the United States. Rong Wen, M.D., Ph.D., and Byron Lam, M.D., professors of ophthalmology at Bascom Palmer, in collaboration with biochemist Ziqiang Guan, Ph.D., a research associate professor at Duke University Medical School, discovered a key marker in blood and urine that can identify people who carry genetic mutations ...

DALLAS – Oct. 14, 2013 – A specific protein once thought to exist only in the brain may play a crucial role in a deadly form of thyroid cancer, as well as other cancers, and provide a fresh target for researchers seeking ways to stop its progression, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report today in Cancer Cell. The scientists found that over-activation of a certain protein in hormone-secreting cells helps fuel medullary thyroid cancer cells in mice as well as in human cells, making the protein a potentially good target for therapies to inhibit the growth of ...

Studies have long shown a difference in cognitive ability between high- and low-income children, but for the first time, scientists have found a difference between low-income children growing up in rural areas and those growing up in urban environments. Researchers at Dartmouth College have found that children growing up in rural poverty score significantly lower on visual working memory tests than their urban counterparts. However, children in urban poverty score slightly lower on tests of verbal working memory. Working memory is the ability to keep information in ...

Seattle, WA—Scientists at the University of Washington have used genetic engineering to identify a population of neurons that tell the brain to shut off appetite. Their study, "Genetic identification of a neural circuit that suppresses appetite," was published Oct. 13 in Nature. To identify these neurons, or cells that process and transmit information in the brain, researchers first considered what makes an animal lose its appetite. There are a number of natural reasons, including infection, nausea, pain or simply having eaten too much already. Nerves within the gut ...

Giving daily iron supplements to anemic primary-school–aged children can have cognitive and physical benefits, according to a study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). Globally, approximately 25% of school-aged children are anemic, with iron deficiency the cause of about half of all cases. Iron deficiency, which has been associated with impaired cognitive and physical development, is caused by a lack of dietary iron and, in developing countries, by parasites such as hookworm and schistosomiasis. In developed countries, newcomers, native people and ...

The use of crystal methamphetamine by street-involved youth is linked to an increased risk of injecting drugs, with crystal methamphetamine being the drug most commonly used at the time of first injection, found a study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). Amphetamine-type drugs, including crystal methamphetamine, are second only to cannabis in popularity. Injection rates of crystal methamphetamine have increased substantially among adult drug users in some Canadian centres such as Vancouver, BC. Overall use of crystal methamphetamine by street-involved ...

Sound preconditioning prevents ototoxic drug-induced hearing loss in mice The death of sensory hair cells in the ear results in irreversible hearing loss. Several classes of drugs, including aminoglycoside antibiotics and chemotherapy drugs are known to kill hair cells; however, in many cases the benefit of using the drug outweighs the potential for hearing loss. Previous research has shown that a class of proteins induced in response to cell stress, the heat shock proteins (HSPs), can protect against sensory hair cell death in response to ototoxic drugs. Despite understanding ...

The death of sensory hair cells in the ear results in irreversible hearing loss. Several classes of drugs, including aminoglycoside antibiotics and chemotherapy drugs are known to kill hair cells; however, in many cases the benefit of using the drug outweighs the potential for hearing loss. Previous research has shown that a class of proteins induced in response to cell stress, the heat shock proteins (HSPs), can protect against sensory hair cell death in response to ototoxic drugs. Despite understanding how HSPs protect the hair cells of the inner ear, there are no current ...

Bone is constantly being broken down and remodeled. Osteoporosis results when bone resorption outpaces bone regeneration. Production of reactive oxygen species, a form of oxidative stress, has been predicted to promote bone loss, but a source of reactive oxygen is unknown. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Katrin Schröder and colleagues at Goethe-University identify a relationship between NADPH oxidase 4 (NOX4), an enzyme that promotes reactive oxygen species formation, and bone resorption. In a mouse model of osteoporosis, genetic disruption or ...

VIDEO: This video shows Vorticella movements with nutrients and without nutrients. Click here for more information. Nearly every body of water, from a puddle or a pond to a vast ocean, contains microscopic organisms that live attached to rocks, plants, and animals. These so-called sessile suspension feeders are critical to aquatic ecosystems and play an important role in cleaning up environmental contaminants by consuming bacteria. A study published by Cell Press on October ...

Charlottesville, VA (October 15, 2013). An incentive program to reduce the number of unnecessary diagnostic laboratory tests performed in neurosurgical patients at UC San Francisco (UCSF) was highly successful. Resident trainees in neurosurgery identified five frequently scheduled laboratory tests that rarely yield information that would change patient care. A new set of guidelines was developed to determine when these tests should be performed. The result was a 47% reduction in the number of targeted tests, which was attended by cost savings of $1.7 million in one year. ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (October 15, 2013) -- Blood pressure is effectively lowered by mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) for patients with borderline high blood pressure or "prehypertension." This finding is reported in the October issue of Psychosomatic Medicine: Journal of Biobehavioral Medicine, the official journal of the American Psychosomatic Society. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. "Our results provide evidence that MBSR, when added to lifestyle modification advice, may be an appropriate complementary ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Mayo Clinic researchers have found a surprising occupational hazard for teachers: progressive speech and language disorders. The research, recently published in the American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease & Other Dementias, found that people with speech and language disorders are about 3.5 times more likely to be teachers than patients with Alzheimer's dementia. Speech and language disorders are typically characterized by people losing their ability to communicate -- they can't find words to use in sentences, or they'll speak around a word. They may ...

Scientists from the University of Sheffield have discovered ground breaking clues as to how the pioneering heart drug ticagrelor might reduce the risk of dying following a heart attack, in comparison to previous standard treatments. The new findings, published in Platelets, show that ticagrelor may reduce the risk of dying as a result of a lung infection after suffering a heart attack compared to patients treated with the drug clopidogrel. The analysis, which was led by researchers from the University of Sheffield and Uppsala University Sweden, is the latest to come ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. Oct. 15, 2013 -- Scientists studying the behavior of platinum particles immersed in hydrogen peroxide may have discovered a new way to propel microscopic machines. The new mechanism is described in The Journal of Chemical Physics, which is produced by AIP Publishing. Micro-sized machines operate under very different conditions than their macro-sized counterparts. The high surface-area-to-mass ratio of tiny motors means they require a constant driving force to keep them going. In the past, researchers have relied on asymmetric chemical reactions on the ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Researchers report that river otters in Central Illinois are being exposed to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and pesticides that were banned in the U.S. in the 1970s and '80s. Their analysis appears in the journal Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources collected 23 river otters between 2009 and 2011, after the animals were incidentally killed (hit by cars or accidentally caught in traps, for example). The agency passed the carcasses along to researchers at the Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS) for ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Scientists increasingly are uncovering answers for human behavior through genetic research. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has found that prosocial behavior, such as volunteering and helping others, is related to the same gene that predisposes individuals to anxiety disorders. Helping such individuals cope with their anxiety may increase their prosocial behavior, the researcher said. "Prosocial behavior is linked closely to strong social skills and is considered a marker of individuals' health and well-being," said Gustavo Carlo, Millsap Professor ...

A particular type of consumer enjoys stories with plots, characters, and imagery that allow them to get lost in the narrative, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "Stories have the power to change people's behavior," write authors Tom van Laer (ESCP Europe Business School), Ko de Ruyter (Maastricht University), Luca M. Visconti (ESCP Europe Business School), and Martin Wetzels (Maastricht University). "Contemporary examples include the persuasive power of Latin American telenovelas, which influence family planning choices and enrollment in adult ...

Anyone who has suffered through sleepless nights due to uncontrollable itching knows that not all itching is the same. New research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis explains why. Working in mice, the scientists have shown that chronic itching, which can occur in many medical conditions, from eczema and psoriasis to kidney failure and liver disease, is different from the fleeting urge to scratch a mosquito bite. That's because chronic itching appears to incorporate more than just the nerve cells, or neurons, that normally transmit itch signals. ...

Being married or having the support of neighbors to rely on does little to alleviate the symptoms of depression associated with economic hardship often experienced by poor mothers. With these findings, published in Springer's American Journal of Community Psychology, Sharon Kingston of Dickinson College in the US challenges the growing perception that marriage and other forms of interpersonal support can buffer the negative effects of poverty. In studying 1,957 mothers from 80 neighborhoods in Chicago, Kingston examined the combined effect of economic adversity and having ...