STANFORD, Calif. — Patients who participated in a smoking-cessation program during hospitalization for mental illness were able to quit smoking and were less likely to be hospitalized again for their psychiatric conditions, according to a new study led by a Stanford University School of Medicine scientist. The findings counter a longstanding assumption, held by many mental-health experts, that smoking serves as a useful tool in treating some psychiatric patients. Smoking among such patients has been embedded in the culture for decades, with cigarettes used as part of ...

Obesity is a lot more deadly than previously thought. Across recent decades, obesity accounted for 18 percent of deaths among Black and White Americans between the ages of 40 and 85, according to a study funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This finding challenges the prevailing wisdom among scientists, which puts that portion at around 5%. "Obesity has dramatically worse health consequences than some recent reports have led us to believe," says first author Ryan Masters, PhD, who conducted the research as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar ...

Rochester, MN, August 15, 2013 – Nearly 400 million cups of coffee are consumed every day in America. Drinking large amounts of coffee may be bad for under-55s, according to a new study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. A study of more than 40,000 individuals found a statistically significant 21% increased mortality in those drinking more than 28 cups of coffee a week and death from all causes, with a greater than 50% increased mortality risk in both men and women younger than 55 years of age. Investigators warn that younger people in particular may need to avoid heavy ...

The essence of male beauty is down to the way males use their genes rather than what genes they have, according to a new study into the sexual attractiveness of turkeys. Geneticists have long puzzled over why individuals of the same sex show a greater or lesser degree of sexual attractiveness. In other words - why are some people better looking than others when they're genetically similar? In a new study, published today in the journal PLoS Genetics, scientists turned to male wild turkeys to solve the problem. They found that among turkeys that are brothers (and therefore ...

Limited availability of fossil fuels stimulates the search for different energy resources. The use of biofuels is one of the alternatives. Sugars derived from the grain of agricultural crops can be used to produce biofuel but these crops occupy fertile soils needed for food and feed production. Fast growing plants such as poplar, eucalyptus, or various grass residues such as corn stover and sugarcane bagasse do not compete and can be a sustainable source for biofuel. An international collaboration of plant scientists from VIB and Ghent University (Belgium), the University ...

As part of the largest international research effort ever made to combat tuberculosis, a team of Johns Hopkins and Brazilian experts has found that preventive antibiotic therapy for people with HIV lowers this group's chances of developing TB or dying. Specifically, they found in men and women already infected with HIV that taking isoniazid reduced deaths and new cases of active TB disease by 31 percent, while new cases of TB alone decline by 13 percent. The research team's findings, to be published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases online Aug. 16, stem from ...

A new study has calculated the average cost per case of TB in the EU. The findings suggest the economic burden of TB far outweighs the costs of investing in more effective vaccines. The research, published online today (16 August 2013), in the European Respiratory Journal, is the first study to estimate the costs of the disease in recent years. Researchers used a systematic review of literature and institutional websites for the 27 EU member states to summarise economic data on the treatment cost of TB cases in 2011. The researchers separated the countries into ...

New research shows that a Mediterranean-style diet and diets low in available carbohydrates can offer protection against type 2 diabetes. The study is published in Diabetologia, the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), and is by Dr Carlo La Vecchia, Mario Negri Institute of Pharmacological Research, Milan, Italy, and colleagues. The authors studied patients from Greece who are part of the ongoing European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and nutrition (EPIC), led by Dr. Antonia Trichopoulou, from the University of Athens. From a ...

Boston, MA – Current methods to treat acute coronary syndrome conditions, such as heart attack, include artery-clearing procedures (e.g., percutaneous coronary intervention or coronary artery bypass grafting) with medications, or medications alone for those that do not undergo procedures. In a new report from the TRILOGY ACS trial from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI), in patients without artery-clearing procedures, those who had an angiography (a type of x-ray to view the inside of blood vessels) followed by prasugrel (Effient) ...

Monitoring slow earthquakes may provide a basis for reliable prediction in areas where slow quakes trigger normal earthquakes, according to Penn State geoscientists. "We currently don't have any way to remotely monitor when land faults are about to move," said Chris Marone, professor of geophysics. "This has the potential to change the game for earthquake monitoring and prediction, because if it is right and you can make the right predictions, it could be big." Marone and Bryan Kaproth-Gerecht, recent Ph.D. graduate, looked at the mechanisms behind slow earthquakes ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass-- MIT researchers have developed a lightweight structure whose tiny blocks can be snapped together much like the bricks of a child's construction toy. The new material, the researchers say, could revolutionize the assembly of airplanes, spacecraft, and even larger structures, such as dikes and levees. The new approach to construction is described in a paper appearing this week in the journal Science, co-authored by postdoc Kenneth Cheung and Neil Gershenfeld, director of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms. Gershenfeld likens the structure — which is made ...

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Voyager 1 appears to have at long last left our solar system and entered interstellar space, says a University of Maryland-led team of researchers. Carrying Earthly greetings on a gold plated phonograph record and still-operational scientific instruments – including the Low Energy Charged Particle detector designed, built and overseen, in part, by UMD's Space Physics Group – NASA's Voyager 1 has traveled farther from Earth than any other human-made object. And now, these researchers say, it has begun the first exploration of our galaxy beyond the ...

SAN ANTONIO (Aug. 15, 2013) — Although muscle cells did not reduce in size or number in mice lacking a protective antioxidant protein, they were weaker than normal muscle cells, researchers from the Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio found. The scientists, who are faculty in the university's School of Medicine, are studying how oxidative stress in cells impacts sarcopenia — a loss of muscle mass and strength that occurs in all humans as they age. Protein knocked out selectively The antioxidant ...

(Boston) – According to a new study from the Slone Epidemiology Center (SEC) at Boston University, African-American women who reported more frequent experiences of racism had a greater likelihood of adult-onset asthma compared to women who reported less frequent experiences. The study, which currently appears on-line in the journal Chest, was led by Patricia Coogan, DSc, senior epidemiologist at SEC and research professor of epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health. This study followed 38,142 African-American women, all of whom are participants in ...

A natural form of sugar could offer a new, noninvasive way to precisely image tumors and potentially see whether cancer medication is effective, by means of a new imaging technology developed at UC San Francisco in collaboration with GE Healthcare. The technology uses a compound called pyruvate, which is created when glucose breaks down in the body and which normally supplies energy to cells. In cancer, however, pyruvate is more frequently converted to a different compound, known as lactate. Previous animal studies showed that scientists could track the levels of pyruvate ...

The human body is a complicated system of blood vessels, nerves, organs, tissue and cells each with a specific job to do. When all are working together, it's a symphony of form and function as each instrument plays its intended roles. Biologist Rejji Kuruvilla and her fellow researchers uncovered what happens when one instrument is not playing its part. Kuruvilla along with graduate students Philip Borden and Jessica Houtz, both from the Biology Department at Johns Hopkins University's Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, and Dr. Steven Leach from the McKusick-Nathans ...

(SALT LAKE CITY)—If terrorists targeted the United States with an anthrax attack, health care providers and policy makers would need key information – such as knowing the likelihood of an individual becoming infected, how many cases to expect and in what pattern, and how long to give antibiotics – to protect people from the deadly bacteria. Those questions gained urgency when anthrax-laced letters killed five people and infected 17 others in the wake of the terror attacks of September 2001. Now, using information from prior animal studies and data from a deadly anthrax ...

The ability to control nanoscale imperfections in superconducting wires results in materials with unparalleled and customized performance, according to a new study from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Applications for superconducting wires, which carry electricity without resistance when cooled to a critical temperature, include underground transmission cables, transformers and large-scale motors and generators. But these applications require wires to operate under different temperature and magnetic field regimes. A team led by ORNL's Amit ...

NORTH GRAFTON, Mass. (August 15, 2013) – New research from Tufts University scientists shows that feral cats that undergo a vasectomy or hysterectomy could reduce a feral colony's numbers more effectively than the traditional approach of neutering. This may be because vasectomized cats retain reproductive hormones, in addition to not being able to reproduce, and therefore protect their turf from sexually intact competitors. The findings, derived from a computer-based model and published in the August 15 issue of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, ...

A trio of fires continues to plague Northern California. In this MODIS image from the Terra satellite, all three fires can be detected. The Corral Complex fire was started by lightning on August 10, 2013. It is located in the Trinity Alps Wilderness and is burning within the 1999 Megram Fire area. The fire is now approximately 2,500 acres. Growth potential for this fire is high and the terrain the fire is located in is extreme. The Orleans Complex fire started on July 29th, 2013 and the cause of the fire is still under investigation. The fire was moderated by good ...

MISSOULA – Findings from a large-scale ice drilling study on the Greenland ice sheet by a team of University of Montana and University of Wyoming researchers may revise the models used to predict how ice sheets move. The work was published in Science on Aug. 15 in a paper titled "Basal Drainage System Response to Increasing Surface Melt on the Greenland Ice Sheet." The bed of the Greenland ice sheet, hidden beneath hundreds to thousands of meters of ice, is one of the most isolated locations on earth – making it difficult for scientists to understand just how the second ...

James Bond had his reasons for ordering his martinis "shaken, not stirred." Similarly, drug manufacturers need to make sure the molecules in a new drug are arranged in an exact manner, lest there be dire consequences. Specifically, they need to be wary of enantiomers, mirror-image molecules composed of the same atoms, but arranged differently. "One mirror image could be therapeutic while another could be poisonous," said Dr. Mark R. Biscoe, assistant professor of chemistry at The City College of New York. The classic case is thalidomide, a drug marketed in the 1950s and ...

Infrared data from NASA's Aqua satellite showed strong thunderstorms had developed in the eastern Atlantic low pressure system that grew into Tropical Storm Erin. NASA's TRMM satellite noticed a "hot tower" in the storm's center, and research has shown tropical cyclones that have them will intensify as this storm did. The low pressure area called System 93L in the far eastern Atlantic Ocean consolidated and organized during the overnight hours of Aug. 14 and 15 and became Tropical Depression 5L. During the early morning hours of Aug. 15 the depression strengthened further ...

NASA satellite data revealed that the day after Typhoon Utor made landfall in southern China, its circulation still appeared intact despite weakening over land. Typhoon Utor's eye made landfall around 0730 UTC/3:30 a.m. EDT on Aug. 14. On Aug. 15, Utor was still dropping rain over southern China. NASA's Terra satellite passed over China at 03:25 UTC on Aug. 15 (11:25 p.m. EDT) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument captured a visible image of Utor. The MODIS image showed Utor still had a circulation, despite weakening to a low pressure ...

The DNA in human cells is translated into a multitude of proteins required for a cell to function. When, where and how proteins are expressed is determined by regulatory DNA sequences and a group of proteins, known as transcription factors, that bind to these DNA sequences. Each cell type can be distinguished based on its transcription factors, and a cell can in certain cases be directly converted from one type to another, simply by changing the expression of one or more transcription factors. It is critical that the pattern of transcription factor binding in the genome ...