Efforts to cope with a global water crisis that already has left almost 800 million people without access to drinkable water -- and could engulf many more in the years ahead -- are the topic of the cover story in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News. C&EN is the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society. Alex Scott, C&EN's senior editor for Europe, points out that most companies involved in water treatment technologies focus on providing services in wealthy industrialized nations. But today's most critical ...

Regular marijuana use in adolescence, but not adulthood, may permanently impair brain function and cognition, and may increase the risk of developing serious psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, according to a recent study from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Researchers hope that the study, published in Neuropsychopharmacology — a publication of the journal Nature – will help to shed light on the potential long-term effects of marijuana use, particularly as lawmakers in Maryland and elsewhere contemplate legalizing the drug. "Over the past 20 ...

Surgery is often the first step in treating kidney cancer, and new data from the University of Rochester Medical Center, which contradicts earlier research, questions whether removal of only the tumor (partial nephrectomy) is better than removing the entire kidney (radical nephrectomy). The decided trend for the past decade has been toward a partial resection in the case of smaller cancers. It was based on several earlier studies suggesting that it's better to save as much kidney tissue as possible, and thus preserve kidney function and reduce the likelihood of kidney ...

The fourth tropical depression of the Atlantic Ocean hurricane season was born west of the Cape Verde Islands in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean on July 24. NOAA's GOES-13 satellite provides continuous views of the Atlantic Ocean basin and captured an image of the newborn storm. At 5 a.m. EDT on July 24, the National Hurricane Center announced the birth of Tropical Depression 4 or TD4. At that time TD4 had maximum sustained winds near 35 mph (55 kph). It was centered about 310 miles (500 km) west-southwest of the Cape Verde Islands, near 13.9 north and 28.1 west. TD4 was moving ...

BROOKLYN, N.Y.—Just months after setting a record for detecting the smallest single virus in solution, researchers at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) have announced a new breakthrough: They used a nano-enhanced version of their patented microcavity biosensor to detect a single cancer marker protein, which is one-sixth the size of the smallest virus, and even smaller molecules below the mass of all known markers. This achievement shatters the previous record, setting a new benchmark for the most sensitive limit of detection, and may significantly ...

PHILADELPHIA (July 24, 2013) – Despite major advances in the pharmaceutical treatment of disease, many children reject medicines due to an aversion to bitter taste. As such, bitterness presents a key obstacle to the acceptance and effectiveness of beneficial drugs by children worldwide. A new review, published online ahead of print in Clinical Therapeutics, addresses this critical problem by highlighting recent advances in the scientific understanding of bitter taste, with special attention to the sensory world of children. Written by an interdisciplinary team of leading ...

Less than five percent of promising basic science discoveries that claim clinical relevance lead to approved drugs within a decade, partly because of flawed pre-clinical animal research. A number of recent initiatives seek to improve the quality of such studies, and an article published this week in PLOS Medicine identifies key experimental procedures believed to increase clinical generalizability. The authors, led by Jonathan Kimmelman of McGill University in Montréal, did a systematic literature search and identified 26 guidelines with 55 different procedures that groups ...

The main barriers to the access, delivery, and use of interventions that help to prevent malaria in pregnant women are relatively consistent across sub-Saharan African countries and may provide a helpful checklist to identify the factors influencing uptake of these important interventions, according to a study published in this week's PLOS Medicine. The analysis by Jenny Hill and colleagues from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the UK, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and PATH in Seattle, USA, also found that there were more barriers to ...

Frontiers in Pharmacology Why are menthol cigarettes more addictive? Smokers of menthol cigarettes crave cigarettes more frequently, find it more difficult to quit smoking, and are more likely to become addicted. The traditional explanation for the effect of menthol is that it masks the harsh taste of tobacco and thus entices people to smoke more. But Nadine Kabbani from George Mason University in the USA here review recent scientific findings and proposes an novel explanation: menthol may directly promote nicotine craving because it binds to a particular type of ...

In an analysis of 5-year survival rates among black and white women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1991 and 2005, black women continued to have a lower rate of survival, with most of the difference related to factors including poorer health of black patients at diagnosis and more advanced disease, rather than treatment differences, according to a study in the July 24/31 issue of JAMA. "For 20 years health care investigators in the United States have been keenly aware of racial disparities in survival among women with breast cancer. Numerous reports have not only ...

An investigation into the source of a fatal case of raccoon rabies virus exposure indicates the individual received the virus via a kidney transplant 18 months earlier, findings suggesting that rabies transmitted by this route may have a long incubation period, and that although solid organ transplant transmission of infectious encephalitis is rare, further education to increase awareness is needed, according to a study in the July 24/31 issue of JAMA. The rabies virus causes a fatal encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) and can be transmitted through tissue or organ ...

In a survey of about 2,500 U. S. physicians on their perceived role in addressing health care costs, they reported having some responsibility to address health care costs in their practice and expressed general agreement with quality initiatives that may also reduce cost, but expressed less enthusiasm for cost containment involving changes in payment models, according to a study in the July 24/31 issue of JAMA. "The increasing cost of U.S. health care strains the economy. Because physicians' decisions play a key role in overall health care spending and quality, several ...

An analysis of data from three studies that involved a total of more than 240,000 participants found that a self-reported history of kidney stones was associated with a statistically significant increased risk of coronary heart disease among women but no significant association was evident for men, according to a study in the July 24/31 issue of JAMA. "Nephrolithiasis [kidney stones] is a common condition, with the prevalence varying by age and sex. A recent estimate from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a representative sample of the U.S. population, ...

"The incidence of type l diabetes (T1D), one of the most prevalent chronic diseases in children, has increased worldwide," write Valma Harjutsalo, Ph.D., of the Diabetes Prevention Unit, Helsinki, Finland, and colleagues, who conducted a study to examine the incidence rates of T1D between 2006 and 2011 in Finnish children younger than 15 years as well as the 32-year trend (1980-2011). As reported in a Research Letter, all children with newly diagnosed T1D were ascertained using several nationwide registers. Age-standardized and age-specific annual incidence rates for ...

STANFORD, Calif. — Students who had their genome tested as part of a groundbreaking medical school course on personalized medicine improved their knowledge of the class materials by an average of 31 percent compared with those who didn't undergo the testing, according to a study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. While the sample size was small — 23 students sent their saliva to a commercial genetics testing company; eight did not — the results may encourage educators to consider this approach in the future, the authors said. "These results ...

Disability is commonly defined as "difficulty or dependency in carrying out activities essential to independent living". With the number of disabled people expected to increase in coming years, researchers feel there is a need to define preventive strategies and slow this progression. Previous research has shown that unhealthy behaviours (such as physical inactivity, poor diet, smoking) have an adverse effect on health. For instance, the risk of obesity, diabetes, cancer, poor cognitive function, stroke, sudden cardiac death and mortality increases with the number of ...

NEW YORK, July 23, 2013 – The rate of inappropriate cancer scans for low-risk prostate cancer patients in Sweden plummeted in the decade following a joint campaign to curtail such tests by Swedish County Councils and the National Prostate Cancer Register (NPCR) of Sweden, a professional association of Swedish urologists. The results, published today online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, suggest that curtailing unneeded medical tests, an urgent healthcare policy goal in the United States highlighted in the Choosing Wisely Campaign, among other initiatives, ...

The final biological events in the life of a worm are described today, revealing how death spreads like a wave from cell to cell until the whole organism is dead. When individual cells die, it triggers a chemical chain reaction that leads to the breakdown of cell components and a build-up of molecular debris. The molecular mechanisms of this are reasonably well understood at a cellular level but we know much less about how death spreads throughout an organism at the end of its life. In worms, the spread of death can be seen easily under a microscope as a wave of blue ...

The prolonged heat wave that has bathed the UK in sunshine over the past month has given the country an unexpected taste of summer that has seemed to be missing in recent years. However, a new study published today, 24 July, in IOP Publishing's Environmental Research Letters, has provided warnings that will chime with those accustomed to more typical British weather. According to the study, winter flooding in the UK is set to get more severe and more frequent under the influence of climate change as a result of a change in the characteristics of atmospheric rivers ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — A new study of attitudes about health care costs reveals that an overwhelming majority of U.S. physicians feel a responsibility to address costs, but prioritize their obligations to patients' best interests over cost concerns. Results of the random survey of 2,500 U.S. physicians are published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). "Physicians feel stuck in a difficult position," says lead author Jon Tilburt, M.D., Mayo Clinic's Biomedical Ethics Program and Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery. "Despite their sense ...

A simple, low-cost and eco-friendly method of creating nitrogen-doped graphene nanoplatelets (NGnPs), which could be used in dye-sensitized solar cells and fuel cells, is published in Scientific Reports today. The work, carried out at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) in South Korea, could be a step towards replacing conventional platinum (Pt)-based catalysts for energy conversion. The search for economically viable alternatives to fossil fuels has attracted attention among energy communities because of increasing energy prices and climate change. ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Athletes seeking a healthy performance weight should eat high fiber, low-fat food balanced with their training regimen in order to maintain muscle while still burning fat, according to a report by an Oregon State University researcher. The United States now has a record number of overweight athletes, a population many think of as untouched by the obesity crisis. Nationally, more than 45 percent of high school linebackers are obese, and the number of overweight students entering college level-sports is increasing. In a peer-reviewed literature review ...

DALLAS – July 23, 2013 – A multidisciplinary team at UT Southwestern Medical Center has found that measuring the oxygenation of tumors can be a valuable tool in guiding radiation therapy, opening the door for personalized therapies that keep tumors in check with oxygen enhancement. In research examining tissue oxygenation levels and predicting radiation response, UT Southwestern scientists led by Dr. Ralph Mason reported in the June 27 online issue of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine that countering hypoxic and aggressive tumors with an "oxygen challenge" – inhaling oxygen ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Valley networks branching across the Martian surface leave little doubt that water once flowed on the Red Planet. But where that ancient water came from — whether it bubbled up from underground or fell as rain or snow — is still debated by scientists. A new study by researchers at Brown University puts a new check mark in the precipitation column. The study finds that water-carved valleys at four different locations on Mars appear to have been caused by runoff from orographic precipitation — snow or rain that falls when moist prevailing ...

Scientists at Chicago's Field Museum and international collaborators have described a new species of Hero Shrew – the mammal with the most bizarre lower spine on Earth. The interlocking vertebrae of the Hero Shrew render the spine four to five times more robust relative to body mass, a condition not found in any other mammal. The spine has been an enigma to evolutionary biologists, with no known adaptive significance. This new species of Hero Shrew, named Scutisorex thori, possesses features that may represent intermediate character states between the only other known ...