Satellite pictures of Saharan dust clouds have been in the news all summer, but to Shankar Chellam, they have just raised more questions. How much impact did the Saharan dust have on Houston's air? Is it more toxic than our home-grown dust? Chellam, a professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Houston's Cullen College of Engineering, is searching for answers to those and other questions. Clouds of African dust often migrate across the Atlantic Ocean during summer months, affecting Houston's air quality from mid-June through ...

Putnam Valley, NY. (Aug 22 2013) – Multipotent fetal dermal cells (MFDCs) may be an ideal source for cell therapy for repairing damaged tissues and organs. Their performance is superior to that of adult dermal cells, said a research team in Italy that developed a cell isolation technique for MFDCs and subsequently published a study that appears as an early e-publication for the journal Cell Transplantation, and is now freely available on-line at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/pre-prints/ct1022chinnici. "When compared to adult dermal cells, fetal cells display ...

AUSTIN, Texas — In the wake of tragedies such as the Sandy Hook school shooting, the Boston Marathon bombing and the devastating explosion in the Texas town of West, people are often left asking, "Why did this happen?" According to new research from The University of Texas at Austin, the best way to make sense of tragedy is to turn away from detailed reports in the news and social media and adopt a more simplified understanding of the event. The study, published online in Social Psychological and Personality Science, shows that in the wake of a negative event, people ...

Findings from a University of Alberta researcher shed new light on what may be stopping people from recycling more. Jennifer Argo, a marketing professor in the U of A's Alberta School of Business, says that people are psychologically hard-wired to believe that products that are damaged or that aren't whole—such as small or ripped paper or dented cans—are useless, and this leads users to trash them rather than recycle them. To circumvent overcrowding landfills and environmental problems, Argo says consumers and manufacturers can take steps to override the urge to toss ...

PHILADELPHIA (August 21, 2013) -- New research from the Monell Center reveals that bubbles are not necessary to experience the unique 'bite' of carbonated beverages. Bubbles do, however, enhance carbonation's bite through the light feel of the bubbles picked up by our sense of touch. The refreshing bite of carbonation is an integral part of beverages consumed around the globe. Carbonated beverages are produced when carbon dioxide is dissolved in a liquid, typically under high pressure. This can happen naturally in certain spring waters or in fermented beverages like ...

Plant residues in cooking pots reveal the use of spices in prehistoric cuisine in northern Europe, according to research published August 21 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Hayley Saul and colleagues from the University of York. Blackened deposits inside the pottery shards studied contained residues of microscopic plant silica bodies, called phytoliths, which resemble those found in modern-day garlic mustard seeds, a peppery mustard-flavored spice. Garlic mustard has little nutritional value, and the shards also contained residues of fats from a range of marine ...

Smokers with more severe nicotine dependence are more likely to gain weight when they try to quit, according to research published August 21 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Koji Hasegawa and colleagues from Kyoto Medical Center, Japan. Even with nicotine replacement therapy, individuals can gain substantial amounts of weight when they quit smoking. Here, researchers studied weight gain patterns in individuals who successfully abstained from smoking after nicotine replacement therapy at a clinic. They found that higher scores on the Fagerström Test for Nicotine ...

Native Brazilian fruits grown in arid climates and poor soil have similar antioxidant activity to conventionally grown Red Delicious apples, according to research published August 21 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Sandra Fernandes Arruda from the University of Brazil and colleagues from other institutions. Twelve fruit species grown on the Cerrado, a savanna with acidic soils, were compared to conventional Red Delicious apples purchased at local markets; the researchers found that several of these native species had higher proportions of bioactive compounds and ...

In the summer of 2010, the eastern Panamanian province of Darien experienced a phenomenon that had never been seen before in Latin America: a human outbreak of eastern equine encephalitis. The mosquito-borne virus that causes the disease is found all over the Americas, and infects horses throughout its range. Human infections are diagnosed every year in North America and are taken quite seriously; they carry a 50 percent chance of mortality, and can result in lifelong neurological damage. But 2010 marked a dramatic change in the way the virus behaved in Latin America. "Until ...

Vedolizumab, a new intravenous antibody medication, has shown positive results for treating both Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, according to researchers at the University of California San Diego, School of Medicine. The findings, published in two papers, will appear in the August 22 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). William Sandborn, MD, principal investigator of the Crohn's disease study, said the results offer new hope to the more than one million Americans who suffer from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and do not respond to treatment. ...

Scientists have successfully treated the deadly Ebola virus in infected animals following onset of disease symptoms, according to a report published online today in Science Translational Medicine. The results show promise for developing therapies against the virus, which causes hemorrhagic fever with human case fatality rates as high as 90 percent. According to first author James Pettitt of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), the research team previously demonstrated that the treatment—known as MB-003—protected 100 percent of non-human ...

There are many causes of ageing, a process that is determined by an accumulation of various kinds of cell damage that impair the function of bodily organs. Of particular importance to ageing, however, seems to be the damage that occurs in the cell's power plant – the mitochondrion. "The mitochondrion contains its own DNA, which changes more than the DNA in the nucleus, and this has a significant impact on the ageing process," says Nils-Göran Larsson, professor at Karolinska Institutet and principal investigator at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Aging, and leader ...

Boston, Mass., Aug. 21, 2013—The pain of invasive skin infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and possibly other serious, painful infections, appear to be induced by the invading bacteria themselves, and not by the body's immune response as previously thought, report scientists at Boston Children's Hospital. What's more, their research demonstrates that once the pain neurons "sense" the bacteria, they suppress the immune system, potentially helping the bacteria become more virulent. The study, conducted in a mouse model and published online ...

PHILADELPHIA — Poor oral health, including gum disease and dental problems, was found to be associated with oral human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, which causes about 40 percent to 80 percent of oropharyngeal cancers, according to a study published in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. "Poor oral health is a new independent risk factor for oral HPV infection and, to our knowledge, this is the first study to examine this association," said Thanh Cong Bui, Dr.P.H., postdoctoral research fellow in the School of Public ...

Half of all UK seven year olds are sedentary for six to seven hours every day, and only half clock up the recommended daily minimum of moderate to vigorous physical activity, indicates research published in the online journal BMJ Open. Girls, children of Indian ethnic origin, and those living in Northern Ireland are the least physically active of all seven year olds, the findings show. The authors base their findings on a representative population sample of almost 7000 UK primary school children who were all part of the Millennium Cohort Study. This is tracking the ...

The flu jab seems to almost halve the risk of heart attacks in middle aged people with narrowed arteries, finds research published in the journal Heart. Those aged 50 to 64 are not currently routinely included in national flu vaccination programmes in either the UK or Australia. But the findings prompt the Australian authors to suggest that further exploration of extending the schedule may be warranted. The researchers wanted to find out if flu is an unrecognised, but clinically important, contributing factor to increased heart attack risk. Published evidence suggests ...

CINCINNATI—New research from the University of Cincinnati (UC) suggests that the healthy weight and glucose control women achieve through weight-loss surgery don't necessarily translate into health benefits for their future children. An animal study featured in the Aug. 21, 2013, edition of the journal Science Translational Medicine suggests that treatment with vertical sleeve gastrectomy (VSG) weight loss surgery of a female rat prior to conception has no positive impact on—and could even impact negatively—the metabolic health of her offspring. The study was led by ...

It is well known to scientists that the three common phases of water – ice, liquid and vapor – can exist stably together only at a particular temperature and pressure, called the triple point. Also well known is that the solid form of many materials can have numerous phases, but it is difficult to pinpoint the temperature and pressure for the points at which three solid phases can coexist stably. Scientists now have made the first-ever accurate determination of a solid-state triple point in a substance called vanadium dioxide, which is known for switching rapidly ...

An international team of scientists have demonstrated that a simple, low-cost intervention holds the potential to eradicate a debilitating tropical disease that threatens nearly 1.4 billion people in more than six dozen countries. The researchers, including Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine professor James Kazura, MD, found that insecticide-treated bed nets reduce transmission of lymphatic filariasis to undetectable levels – even in the absence of additional medication. Their study appears in the August 22 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. The ...

VIDEO: An international clinical trial led by Dr. Brian Feagan of Western University in London, Canada has found that the investigational antibody vedolizumab is an effective treatment for those suffering from... Click here for more information. An international clinical trial led by Dr. Brian Feagan of Western University in London, Canada, has found that the investigational antibody vedolizumab is an effective treatment for those suffering from ulcerative colitis (UC) and ...

A study involving more than 8,000 participants has shown that people with a family history of diabetes see their risk of prediabetes increase by 26%. The research is published in Diabetologia, the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, and is by Dr Andreas Fritsche and colleagues from the German Center for Diabetes Research*. Prediabetes is a condition most often described as the 'state between normal blood sugar control and full diabetes', and indeed prediabetes progresses to full blown diabetes in up to 20% of individuals affected per year. ...

Scientists have discovered that important 'good' bacteria arrive in babies' digestive systems from their mother's gut via breast milk. Although this does confirm that when it comes to early establishment of gut and immune health, 'breast is best', a greater understanding of how babies acquire a population of good bacteria can also help to develop formula milk that more closely mimics nature. The study, published today (22 August) in Environmental Microbiology, which is a journal of the Society for Applied Microbiology (SfAM), was led by Professor Christophe Lacroix ...

Rosemont, Ill. – The full impact of knee replacement surgery on both patients' lives and on society includes significant overall cost savings, according to a new study published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS). Researchers found that for the average patient undergoing knee replacement surgery, the expense of surgery is offset by indirect savings of nearly $40,000. This translates to an average lifetime societal benefit of $10,000-$30,000. Most of the societal savings come from the patient's ability to maintain employment and increase earnings over a longer ...

BOSTON -- Two oral targeted drugs approved for metastatic kidney cancer worked equally well, but one proved superior in tolerability, according to results of a large international clinical trial led by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Pazopanib (Votrient) and sunitinib (Sutent), both recently approved as first-line treatments for advanced renal cell cancer, had similar benefits in delaying progression of the disease, but the safety profile and many measures of quality of life favored pazopanib, suggesting a potential shift in standard of care in metastatic ...

As we age, our cells change and become damaged. Now, researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Aging have shown that aging is determined not only by the accumulation of changes during our lifetime but also by the genes we acquire from our mothers. The results of the study are published in the journal Nature. There are many causes of aging that are determined by an accumulation of various kinds of changes that impair the function of bodily organs. Of particular importance in aging, however, seems to be the changes that occur in the ...