New York, NY – Using portable ultrasound as a first-line imaging study in kids with suspected appendicitis helps reduce emergency room length of stay and reduces the need for CT scans, according to a team of Mount Sinai researchers. Bedside ultrasound, often referred to as point-of-care ultrasonography, has a specificity of about 94%, meaning that it misses few cases, , the Mt. Sinai researchers add. Results from the study are published online February 10 in the peer-reviewed journal Academic Emergency Medicine. "From an institutional perspective, this is the most common ...

Fairfax, Va., February 10, 2014 – The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) and the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) are pleased to announce the publication of the consensus guideline on margins for breast-conserving surgery with whole-breast irradiation in stages I and II invasive breast cancer. The guideline document represents an intensive collaboration among experts in the radiation oncology and surgical oncology fields, led by Meena S. Moran, MD, associate professor of the Department of Therapeutic Radiology at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn., ...

As climate change unfolds over the next century, plants and animals will need to adapt or shift locations to follow their ideal climate. A new study provides an innovative global map of where species are likely to succeed or fail in keeping up with a changing climate. The findings appear in the science journal Nature. As part of a UC Santa Barbara National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) working group, 18 international researchers analyzed 50 years of sea surface and land temperature data (1960-2009). They also projected temperature changes under ...

ROSEMONT, Ill.─Pediatric obesity is currently an epidemic, with the prevalence having quadruped over the last 25 years. Children diagnosed with obesity can be at risk for various long-term health issues and may be putting their musculoskeletal system at risk. According to new research in the February issue of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS), obese children who sustain a supracondylar humeral (above the elbow) fracture can be expected to have more complex fractures and experience more postoperative complications than children of a normal weight. "These ...

The largest mass extinction in the history of animal life occurred some 252 million years ago, wiping out more than 96 percent of marine species and 70 percent of life on land — including the largest insects known to have inhabited the Earth. Multiple theories have aimed to explain the cause of what's now known as the end-Permian extinction, including an asteroid impact, massive volcanic eruptions, or a cataclysmic cascade of environmental events. But pinpointing the cause of the extinction requires better measurements of how long the extinction period lasted. Now researchers ...

The pollutants measured in the sediments of Guánica Bay, Puerto Rico, in a new NOAA study were among the highest concentrations of PCBs, chlordane, chromium and nickel ever measured in the history of NOAA's National Status & Trends, a nationwide contaminant monitoring program that began in 1986. Researchers from the National Ocean Service's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) studied the reef's ecology to help establish baseline conditions that coastal managers can use to measure changes resulting from new efforts to manage pollution. Among the items studied ...

BOSTON (Feb. 10, 2014) — Researchers from Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Harvard Medical School, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have designed a prototype system-on-chip (SoC) that could make possible a fully implanted cochlear implant. They will present their findings on Feb. 11at the IEEE International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco. A cochlear implant is a device that electronically stimulates the auditory nerve to restore hearing in people with profound hearing loss. Conventional cochlear implants are made up of an external unit with ...

Some towering thunderstorms were spotted in Tropical Cyclone Fobane as NASA's TRMM satellite passed over the Southern Indian Ocean on February 10. Fobane was formerly Tropical Cyclone 14S and when it strengthened into a tropical storm it was renamed. NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency manages the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite known as TRMM. TRMM has the capability to measure rainfall rates from space and data that can be used to determine the heights of thunderstorms that make up a storm. When TRMM passed over Tropical Cyclone Fobane on February ...

The spread of obesity and type-2 diabetes could become epidemic in low-income countries, as more individuals are able to own higher priced items such as TVs, computers and cars. The findings of an international study, led by Simon Fraser University health sciences professor Scott Lear, are published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Lear headed an international research team that analyzed data on more than 150,000 adults from 17 countries, ranging from high and middle income to low-income nations. Researchers, who questioned participants about ownership ...

Studying a cycle of protein interactions needed to make fat, Johns Hopkins researchers say they have discovered a biological switch that regulates a protein that causes fatty liver disease in mice. Their findings, they report, may help develop drugs to decrease excessive fat production and its associated conditions in people, including fatty liver disease and diabetes. A summary of the research appeared online on Jan. 29 in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. "We've learned how the body finely tunes levels of a protein called SCAP that is required to turn on fat production ...

The brain contains a defense system that prevents at least two unrelated viruses—and possibly many more—from invading the brain at large. The research is published online ahead of print in the Journal of Virology. "Our work points to the remarkable ability of the immune system, even within the brain, to protect us against opportunistic viruses," says Anthony van den Pol of Yale University, an author on the study. The research explains a long-standing mystery. The olfactory mucosa in the nose can serve as a conduit for a number of viruses to enter the brain including ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic researchers have shed light on a new mechanism by which prostate cancer develops in men. Central to development of nearly all prostate cancer cases are malfunctions in the androgen receptor — the cellular component that binds to male hormones. The research team has shown that SPOP, a protein that is most frequently mutated in human prostate cancers, is a key regulator of androgen receptor activity that prevents uncontrolled growth of cells in the prostate and thus helps prevent cancer. The findings appear in the journal Cell Reports. "By ...

Martian experts have known since 2011 that mysterious, possibly water-related streaks appear and disappear on the planet's surface. Georgia Institute of Technology Ph.D. candidate Lujendra Ojha discovered them while an undergraduate at the University of Arizona. These features were given the descriptive name of recurring slope lineae (RSL) because of their shape, annual reappearance and occurrence generally on steep slopes such as crater walls. Ojha has been taking a closer look at this phenomenon, searching for minerals that RSL might leave in their wake, to try to understand ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio—High hopes may help move a rubber tree plant (as the old song goes), but the real secret to the ant's legendary strength may lie in its tiny neck joint. In the Journal of Biomechanics, researchers report that the neck joint of a common American field ant can withstand pressures up to 5,000 times the ant's weight. "Ants are impressive mechanical systems—astounding, really," said Carlos Castro, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at The Ohio State University. "Before we started, we made a somewhat conservative estimate that they ...

VIDEO: The development of colony biofilms by Pseudomonas aeruginosa is affected by redox-active compounds called phenazines. A phenazine-null mutant forms a hyperwrinkled colony with prominent spokes, while wild-type colonies are more... Click here for more information. New York, NY—February 10, 2014—In a study published today in Nature Communications, a research team led by Ken Shepard, professor of electrical engineering and biomedical engineering at Columbia Engineering, ...

AUDIO: May May Leung, Ph.D., R.D., discusses how a recent pilot study in Brooklyn, N.Y., with minority students found that exposure to manga comics (Japanese comic art) promoting fruit intake significantly... Click here for more information. PHILADELPHIA, PA, February 10, 2014 – A recent pilot study in Brooklyn, New York, with minority students found that exposure to Manga comics (Japanese comic art) promoting fruit intake significantly improved healthy snack selection. As ...

PHILADELPHIA (February 10, 2014) – Policymakers and advocates discussing health disparities in the United States would be wise to consider the political affiliation of their audience, suggests a new study published in the Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives (2014). "Understanding Public Resistance to Messages about Health Disparities" was written by Sarah E. Gollust, University of Minnesota School of Public Health; and Joseph N. Cappella, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. The study examines how political ...

PHOENIX, Ariz. — Feb. 10, 2014 — The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) has uncovered possible genetic origins of breast cancer that spreads to the brain, according to a first-of-its-kind study published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE. The compendium of genetic targets uncovered by TGen now can be used to identify potential new methods of diagnosis and new drug therapies for the estimated 45,000 patients in the U.S. each year whose cancer spreads from the breast to the brain. The 3-year study is significant since these patients currently have few treatments ...

Boston, MA – Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and Carnegie Mellon University have introduced a unique micro-robotic technique to assemble the components of complex materials, the foundation of tissue engineering and 3D printing. Described in the Jan. 28, 2014, issue of Nature Communications, the research was conducted by Savas Tasoglu, PhD, MS, research fellow in the BWH Division of Renal Medicine, and Utkan Demirci, PhD, MS, associate professor of Medicine in the Division of Biomedical Engineering, part of the BWH Department of Medicine, in collaboration ...

Tamoxifen, a drug currently used to treat breast cancer, also kills a fungus that causes a deadly brain infection in immunocompromised patients. The findings, which could lead to new treatments for a disease that kills more HIV/AIDS patients than tuberculosis, appear in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM.) "This work sets the stage for additional animal studies to see if tamoxifen can be used as a drug in people and will allow us to design new drugs related to tamoxifen that are better antifungals," says Damian Krysan ...

Communities across the United States experienced an unprecedented decline in crime in the 1990s. But for counties where Wal-Mart built stores, the decline wasn't nearly as dramatic. "The crime decline was stunted in counties where Wal-Mart expanded in the 1990s," says Scott Wolfe, assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of South Carolina and lead author of a new study. "If the corporation built a new store, there were 17 additional property crimes and 2 additional violent crimes for every 10,000 persons in a county." The study, titled ...

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) has a previously unrecognized tactic to outwit antiviral responses and sustain a long-term infection. It also turns out that some people are genetically equipped with a strong countermeasure to the virus' attempt to weaken the attack on it. The details of these findings suggest potential targets for treating HCV, according to a research team led by Dr. Ram Savan, assistant professor of immunology at the University of Washington. The study was published in Nature Immunology. HCV infects more than 150 million of the world's people. The ...

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) will be showcasing its latest R&D expertise in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology at the Singapore Airshow, one of the most important aerospace and defence exhibitions in the world, held from 11 to 16 February. Visitors to the Singapore Airshow will be able to see 12 drones, programmed by NTU scientists and researchers, flying in formation within inches of each other and executing complex indoor aerial manoeuvres. In addition to the formation air-show by 12 quad-rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles complete with strobe lights ...

A team led by astronomers at The Australian National University has discovered the oldest known star in the Universe, which formed shortly after the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago. The discovery has allowed astronomers for the first time to study the chemistry of the first stars, giving scientists a clearer idea of what the Universe was like in its infancy. "This is the first time that we've been able to unambiguously say that we've found the chemical fingerprint of a first star," said lead researcher, Dr Stefan Keller of the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics. "This ...

An international team of scientists has produced global maps showing how fast and in which direction local climates have shifted. In research published today in the journal Nature, CSIRO and an international team of scientists revealed global maps showing how fast and in which direction local climates are shifting. This new study points to a simpler way of looking at climatic changes and their likely effects on biodiversity. As climate change unfolds over the next century, plants and animals will need to adapt or shift locations to track their ideal climate. "The ...