A moderate case of obstructive sleep apnea can significantly increase a person's risk for sudden cardiac death, an often fatal condition where the heart stops beating and must be immediately treated with CPR or an automated external defibrillator, according to the largest study of its kind published online today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Sleep apnea is diagnosed when a person stops breathing for 10 seconds or longer at least five times per hour during sleep. Symptoms can include loud snoring, choking or gasping during sleep, and morning drowsiness. ...

Younger mothers are at a higher risk of preterm birth while older mothers are more likely to have a caesarean section, suggests a new study published today (12 June) in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The study, conducted over a 12-year period (2000-2011) in Ireland, examined the delivery outcomes of 36,916 first-time mothers at varying maternal ages. The pregnant women were subdivided into five age groups, 3.3% at 17 years or younger (17-), 7.2% at 18-19 years, 77.9% at 20-34 years, 9.9% at 35-39 years and 1.7% at 40 years or older (40+). ...

Scheduled exercise, regular meals and the periodic warming and cooling of joints could be used to relieve the symptoms of osteoarthritis according to scientists at The University of Manchester. Their research may also help explain why older people are more prone to developing this common joint disorder. The team in the Faculty of Life Sciences has established for the first time that cartilage cells have a functioning body clock that switches on and off genes controlling tissue function. The rhythm of the cartilage clock perhaps goes some way to explain why osteoarthritis ...

The findings came from X-ray experiments by a team from The University of Manchester, working with colleagues at the US Department of Energy's (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The scientists were able to find chemical traces of the original 'dinobird' and dilute traces of plumage pigments in the 150 million-year-old fossil. "This is a big leap forward in our understanding of the evolution of plumage and also the preservation of feathers," said Dr Phil Manning, a palaeontologist at The University of Manchester and lead author of the report in the June 13 issue ...

A team of Johns Hopkins researchers working with animals has developed a vaccine that prevents the virulent TB bacterium from invading the brain and causing the highly lethal condition TB meningitis, a disease that disproportionately occurs in TB-infected children and in adults with compromised immune system. A report on the federally funded research is published online June 11 in the journal PLOS ONE. TB brain infections often cause serious brain damage and death even when recognized and treated promptly, researchers say. This is so because many drugs currently used ...

VIDEO: University of Chicago researchers found that people's concept of what perfect pitch is can be changed, a discovery that underscores the malleability of the brain. Click here for more information. People who think they have perfect pitch may not be as in tune as they think, according to a new University of Chicago study in which people failed to notice a gradual change in pitch while listening to music. When tested afterward, people with perfect, or absolute pitch, thought ...

Using star-shaped block co-polymer structures as tiny reaction vessels, researchers have developed an improved technique for producing nanocrystals with consistent sizes, compositions and architectures – including metallic, ferroelectric, magnetic, semiconductor and luminescent nanocrystals. The technique relies on the length of polymer molecules and the ratio of two solvents to control the size and uniformity of colloidal nanocrystals. The technique could facilitate the use of nanoparticles for optical, electrical, optoelectronic, magnetic, catalysis and other applications ...

HAMILTON, ON (June 11, 2013) -- One in six women arriving at orthopedic fracture clinics have been victims of physical, emotional, or sexual violence at the hands of an intimate partner within the past year, and one in 50 arrive as a direct result of intimate partner violence (IPV), according to the largest multinational study of its kind to date, led by McMaster University researchers. The report has been published on Online First by The Lancet. "The unexpectedly high rate of IPV in orthopedics suggests that injury clinics are the ideal location for identification ...

LA JOLLA — It's common wisdom that one rotten apple in a barrel spoils all the other apples, and that an apple ripens a green banana if they are put together in a paper bag. Ways to ripen, or spoil, fruit have been known for thousands of years—as the Bible can attest—but now the genes underlying these phenomena of nature have been revealed. In the online journal eLIFE, a large international group of scientists, led by investigators at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, have traced the thousands of genes in a plant that are activated once ethylene, a gas that ...

Small electrodes placed on or inside the brain allow patients to interact with computers or control robotic limbs simply by thinking about how to execute those actions. This technology could improve communication and daily life for a person who is paralyzed or has lost the ability to speak from a stroke or neurodegenerative disease. Now, University of Washington researchers have demonstrated that when humans use this technology – called a brain-computer interface – the brain behaves much like it does when completing simple motor skills such as kicking a ball, typing or ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The huge value of vaccinating more children and young adults for influenza is being seriously underestimated, experts say in a new report, while conventional wisdom and historic vaccine programs have concentrated on the elderly and those at higher risk of death and serious complications. A computer modeling analysis was just published in the journal Vaccine, in work supported by the National Institutes of Health. The study suggests that children in school and young adults at work do the vast majority of flu transmission. Programs that effectively increase ...

The Fourmile fire located 20 miles northeast of Morenci, Arizona is basically a grass fire. Currently it is over 5000 acres in size and is not contained at all. Because of the hot, dry conditions, the potential for growth of this fire is high. Officials are estimating that containment of this fire will be on or about June 15, 2013. Silver Fire in New Mexico was started on June 7 by a lightning strike about 7 miles southwest of Kingston, NM. Currently this fire is 6,700 acres in size and its potential for growth is high. Firefighters are challenged by extremely rough terrain, ...

SAN ANTONIO (June 11, 2013) — A protein secreted by the chlamydia bug has a very unusual structure, according to scientists in the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio. The discovery of the protein's shape could lead to novel strategies for diagnosing and treating chlamydia, a sexually transmitted disease that infects an estimated 2.8 million people in the U.S. each year. The protein, Pgp3, is secreted by Chlamydia trachomatis, the bacterium that causes chlamydia. Pgp3's shape is very distinguishable — sort of like an Eiffel ...

PITTSBURGH—Humans began contributing to environmental lead pollution as early as 8,000 years ago, according to a University of Pittsburgh research report. The Pitt research team detected the oldest-discovered remains of human-derived lead pollution in the world in the northernmost region of Michigan, suggesting metal pollution from mining and other human activities appeared far earlier in North America than in Europe, Asia, and South America. Their findings are highlighted on the cover of the latest issue of Environmental Science & Technology. "Humanity's environmental ...

Tropical Storm Andrea formed on the late afternoon of June 5th, 2013 from a trough of low pressure that had persisted for several days over the southeast Gulf of Mexico. This trough extended out over the Gulf from the Yucatan Peninsula and provided the focus for the development of showers and thunderstorms in the region, eventually leading to the formation of Tropical Storm Andrea. With its suite of passive microwave and active radar sensors, the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite is ideally suited to measure rainfall from space. TRMM is a joint mission ...

DURHAM, N.H. –- Space scientists from the University of New Hampshire (UNH) and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) report that data gathered by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) show lighter materials like plastics provide effective shielding against the radiation hazards faced by astronauts during extended space travel. The finding could help reduce health risks to humans on future missions into deep space. Aluminum has always been the primary material in spacecraft construction, but it provides relatively little protection against high-energy cosmic rays ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — When Web surfers sign up for a new online service or download a Web application for their smartphone or tablet, the service typically requires them to click a seemingly innocuous box and accept the company's terms of service and privacy policy. But agreeing to terms without reading them beforehand can adversely affect a user's legal rights, says a new paper by a University of Illinois expert in technology and legal issues. Law professor Jay P. Kesan says the current "non-negotiable approach" to user privacy is in need of serious revision, especially ...

LA JOLLA, CA – June 11, 2013 – Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have identified key triggers of an important cancer-blocking mechanism in cells. Termed "oncogene-induced senescence," this mechanism can block most cancer types, and is commonly experienced when incipient skin cancers turn instead into slow-growing moles. Tumors that achieve malignancy often do so by defeating or circumventing this growth barrier—which is why scientists have been eager to find out precisely how it works. "We have known about some of the molecular signals that mediate ...

Mandatory influenza (flu) vaccination, as a condition of employment, does not lead to excessive voluntary termination, according to a four-year analysis of vaccination rates at Loyola University Health System in Chicago. "First do no harm is our mandate as health care workers," said Jorge Parada, MD, MPH, FACP, FIDSA, study author and professor of medicine at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. "We have a fiduciary responsibility to perform hand hygiene and adhere to contact precautions, and flu vaccines should be considered in the same vein – meaning ...

ANN ARBOR—The newly discovered bacterium that causes gum disease delivers a one-two punch by also triggering normally protective proteins in the mouth to actually destroy more bone, a University of Michigan study found. Scientists and oral health care providers have known for decades that bacteria are responsible for periodontitis, or gum disease. Until now, however, they hadn't identified the bacterium. "Identifying the mechanism that is responsible for periodontitis is a major discovery," said Yizu Jiao, a postdoctoral fellow at the U-M Health System, and lead author ...

In the first prospective study of its kind, Seaver Autism Center researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai provide new evidence of the severity of intellectual, motor, and speech impairments in a subtype of autism called Phelan-McDermid Syndrome (PMS). The data are published online in the June 11 issue of the journal Molecular Autism. Mutation or deletion of a gene known as SHANK3 is one of the more common single-gene causes of autism spectrum disorders and is critical to the development of PMS, a severe type of autism. To date, clinicians have relied ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Hours spent at the video gaming console not only train a player's hands to work the buttons on the controller, they probably also train the brain to make better and faster use of visual input, according to Duke University researchers. "Gamers see the world differently," said Greg Appelbaum, an assistant professor of psychiatry in the Duke School of Medicine. "They are able to extract more information from a visual scene." It can be difficult to find non-gamers among college students these days, but from among a pool of subjects participating in a much ...

Bethesda, MD - The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) has submitted comments in response to the National Science Board's (NSB) Task Force on Administrative Burdens Request for Information (RFI) on reducing investigators administrative workload for federally funded research. The NSB will use the information collected from the RFI to develop recommendations to reduce administrative workload for researchers and institutions. In its response (http://bit.ly/117IDix), FASEB identified three major themes of administrative burden and made six broad ...

VIDEO: Landsat satellites have captured hundreds of images of the region surrounding El Paso, Texas. On May 30, 2013, Landsat 8 began adding to the program's extensive image archive. Click here for more information. Landsat has seen a lot in its day. In one spot of desert, where the Rio Grande marks the border between the United States and Mexico, the satellite program captured hundreds of images of fields turning green with the season, new developments expanding from El Paso, ...

CHICAGO -– Fever-induced childhood seizures, known as febrile seizures, can be terrifying for parents to witness. The full-body convulsions, which mostly affect children six months to five years old, can last from mere seconds up to more than 40 minutes. Currently, children are not treated with daily anticonvulsant medication to prevent these seizures even when they recur repeatedly because toxic side effects of existing treatments outweigh potential benefits. While scientists know these seizures typically occur when a fever is above 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees ...