SASKATOON -- When Francis Crick and James Watson discovered the double helical structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in 1953, it began a genetic revolution to map, study, and sequence the building blocks of living organisms. DNA encodes the genetic material passed on from generation to generation. For the information encoded in the DNA to be made into the proteins and enzymes necessary for life, ribonucleic acid (RNA), single-stranded genetic material found in the ribosomes of cells, serve as intermediary. Although usually single-stranded, some RNA sequences were ...

Each year, millions of people in the United States get a tuberculosis skin test to see if they have the infection that still affects one third of the world's population. But the standard diagnostic test is difficult to give, because a hypodermic needle must be inserted at a precise angle and depth in the arm to successfully check for tuberculosis. Now, a team led by University of Washington engineers has created a patch with tiny, biodegradable needles that can penetrate the skin and precisely deliver a tuberculosis test. The researchers published their results online ...

This news release is available in French. The nature of the teenage brain makes users of cannabis amongst this population particularly at risk of developing addictive behaviors and suffering other long-term negative effects, according to researchers at the University of Montreal and New York's Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "Of the illicit drugs, cannabis is most used by teenagers since it is perceived by many to be of little harm. This perception has led to a growing number of states approving its legalization and increased accessibility. Most of the debates ...

HIV-infected people who carry a gene for a specific protein face a 20-fold greater risk of contracting cryptococcal disease, according to a study published in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology. Cryptococcus neoformans is the most common cause of fungal meningitis among HIV-infected individuals. While the disease is a risk for everyone with HIV who has a very low level of CD4+ T cells, researchers have discovered that those with the gene for the protein FCGR3A 158V have an immune cell receptor that binds tightly to antibody-bound ...

August 27, 2013 Nyon, Switzerland An influential report published in the journal 'Osteoporosis International', recommends 13 best practice standards in the implementation of coordinator-based fracture liaison services (FLS). The report, 'Capture the Fracture: A Best Practice Framework and Global Campaign to Break the Fragility Fracture Cycle' (1), has been been shaped by input from leaders of established Fracture Liaison Services throughout the world and endorsed by the International Osteoporosis Foundation. Coordinator-based FLS centre around a coordinator, often ...

Divorce is associated with an increased risk of future depressive episodes but only for those who already have a history of depression, according to a new study published in Clinical Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. "Stressful life events like divorce are associated with significant risk for prolonged emotional distress, including clinically-significant depression," notes psychological scientist and lead researcher David Sbarra of the University of Arizona. "At the same time, we know from considerable research that the experience ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (August 27, 2013) - Techniques developed by astronomers seeking a clear view of objects in space are coming closer to home, as eye care professionals apply the concept of wavefront optics to understanding—and correcting—subtle visual abnormalities of the human eye, according to a special article in the September issue of Optometry and Vision Science, official journal of the American Academy of Optometry. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. Wavefront optics is beginning to transform the way optometrists ...

Girls report more math anxiety on general survey measures but are not actually more anxious during math classes and exams, according to new research forthcoming in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Existing research suggests that females are more anxious when it comes to mathematics than their male peers, despite similar levels of achievement. But education researchers Thomas Götz and Madeleine Bieg of the University of Konstanz and the Thurgau University of Teacher Education and colleagues identified a critical limitation ...

The Rim Fire began in California on August 17, 2013. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. This fire is treacherous and has tripled in size in the last few days to now over 106,000 acres. The fire had been 5% contained, but the fire jumped fire lines and is currently only 2% contained. According to the San Jose Mercury News, "There appeared to be no stopping the massive Rim Fire as it exploded further into Yosemite National Park heading into the weekend. The fire nearly doubled in size overnight into Friday and stood at about 106,000 acres, or 165 square ...

People who leave hospital against their doctors' orders are more likely to be readmitted to hospital or die, according to a new study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). "Leaving the hospital against medical advice was associated with increased risks of readmission to hospital and death that persisted for at least 6 months," writes Dr. Allan Garland, Faculty of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, with coauthors. "Potential mechanisms for these associations directly related to the patients' acute illness include more severe illness or incomplete treatment ...

COLLEGE PARK, Md – Human activities are changing the basic chemistry of many rivers in the Eastern U.S. in ways that have potentially major consequences for urban water supplies and aquatic ecosystems, a University of Maryland-led study has found. In the first survey of its kind, a research team looked at long-term records of alkalinity trends in 97 rivers from Florida to New Hampshire. Over time spans of 25 to 60 years, two-thirds of the rivers had become significantly more alkaline. Increased alkalinity complicates drinking water and wastewater treatment, encourages ...

When shopping for a big ticket item, such as a television, there is a checklist of things you should always do: 1. Read reviews 2. Compare prices 3. Wear high heels If you're uncomfortable with No. 3, you have other options. You can ride up and down the escalator, play a few games using the Wii Fit, or just go shopping immediately following your yoga class. A new BYU study finds that consumers experiencing a heightened sense of balance are more likely to weigh the options and go with a product that falls in the middle of the high-end, low-end scale. "If you're ...

Amsterdam, NL, August 23, 2013 – Cognitive deficits following ischemic stroke are common and debilitating, even in the relatively few patients who are treated expeditiously so that clots are removed or dissolved rapidly and cerebral blood flow restored. A new study in Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience demonstrates that intracerebral injection of bone-marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BSCs) reduces cognitive deficits produced by temporary occlusion of cerebral blood vessels in a rat model of stroke, suggesting that BSCs may offer a new approach for reducing post-stroke ...

Amsterdam, NL, 26 August 2013 – Findings from postmortem studies of the brains of Huntington's Disease (HD) patients suggest that transcriptional dysregulation may be an early step in the pathogenesis of HD before symptoms appear. Other studies report transcriptional alterations in the brains of some mouse models of HD. A new study has found transcriptional changes in mouse striatum which correlate with progressive motor and psychiatric deficits and, most importantly, reports for the first time, that an antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) may be used therapeutically to both ...

Basel Physicists in collaboration with Dutch researchers have demonstrated a new method for polarizing nuclear spins in extremely small samples. By Monitoring and controlling spin fluctuations, the method may provide a route for enhancing the resolution of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on the nanometer-scale, allowing researchers to make 3D images of smaller objects than ever before. The results have been published in the journal Nature Physics. Many of the elements that make up the matter around us, such as hydrogen or phosphorus, contain a magnetic nucleus at the ...

A study of over 1600 children, which followed the children from infancy to four years old, found the cumulative incidence of stuttering by four years old was 11 per cent, more than twice what has previously been reported. However, the study refutes the long held view that suggests developmental stuttering is associated with a range of poorer outcomes in the preschool period. Interestingly, the study found the reverse was true, with stuttering associated with better language development, non-verbal skills with no identifiable effect on the child's mental health or temperament ...

The Rim Fire in northeastern California continues to burn on the Stanislaus National Forest, Yosemite National Park, and the Bureau of Land Management and State responsibility land. This fire began on August 17, 2013 and its cause is still currently under investigation. Over 224 square miles have been affected as of Sunday, August 25. It is still only 7 percent contained. Inaccessible terrain, strong winds, and dry conditions all present at this fire make for very difficult fire fighting. The ability for this fire to create havoc spreads far and wide, beyond even the ...

The molecule interleukin-7 (IL-7) is an important immune messenger protein which ensures that a sufficient number of T cells are present in our body for immune defence. Researchers from ETH Zurich have now demonstrated that IL-7 has another important function: it enhances the drainage function of lymphatic vessels, which collect fluid that has leaked out of blood vessels into the body tissue and return it to the bloodstream. In the future, this finding could become useful for lymphedema patients, whose lymphatic drainage system does not work properly, resulting in fluid ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (August 26, 2013) - From freshman through senior year, college football players achieve significant increases in strength and size, reports a study in the September issue of The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, official research journal of the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. But even with modern training regimens, these athletes show limited changes in speed and power, according to the study by Bert H. Jacobson, EdD, FACSM, ...

Tropical Depression Pewa dissipated in the northwestern Pacific Ocean early on Aug. 26, 2013. NASA satellite data on the previous day showed that rainfall had greatly diminished in the depression. On Aug. 25, Tropical Depression Pewa's circulation had expanded and the storm weakened. Forecasters at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center expected Pewa would dissipate over the next day. Earlier thoughts were that Pewa might hang together and become an extra-tropical storm, but it appears that the life is leaving the storm. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center's official, final ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Financial innovation is supposed to reduce risk -- in theory, at least. Yes, new financial instruments based on the housing market helped cause the financial crisis of 2008. But in the abstract, those same instruments have the potential to spread risk more evenly throughout the marketplace by making it possible to trade debt more extensively, rather than having it concentrated in a relatively few hands. Now a paper published by MIT economist Alp Simsek makes the case that even in theory, financial innovation does not lower portfolio risk. Instead, it ...

During the week of Aug. 18, the low pressure area designated as System 95E was lingering in the western Caribbean Sea and moved into the southwestern Gulf of Mexico, where it exploded into Tropical Storm Fernand late on Aug. 25. On Aug. 26, NASA's TRMM satellite saw towering thunderstorms in Fernand were still raging over mainland Mexico, dropping heavy rainfall. On Sunday, Aug. 25 at 5:00 p.m. EDT, System 95E organized quickly into a tropical depression six, and by 7:00 p.m. EDT, the depression strengthened into Tropical Storm Fernand. Fernand was centered in the Bay ...

New Rochelle, NY, August 26, 2013—Concussions are a common sports injury that can have long-term neurological consequences if not properly diagnosed and treated. Several new or updated guidelines for managing sports concussions were released earlier this year, and their key areas of consensus, including recommendations for return to play, are presented in an article in Journal of Neurotrauma, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Neurotrauma website at http://www.liebertpub.com/neu. Therese A. ...

VIDEO: Khurshid R. Ghani, M.D., of Henry Ford's Vattikuti Urology Institute and lead author of the study, explains why the charges for emergency department visits for kidney stones rose to$5 billion... Click here for more information. DETROIT -- The risk of women developing kidney stones is rising, as is the number of cases being seen in U.S. emergency departments, while the rate of hospitalization for the disorder has remained stable. Those are among the findings of a ...

It is a lengthy process before a contaminant is identified as such and its harmful effects are highlighted with a worldwide ban. This is acknowledged by Norbert Heeb, chemist in Empa's Analytical Chemistry Lab. He was involved in uncovering the exact structures of HBCD (hexabromocyclododecane). On closer inspection, the substance turned out to be a whole group of compounds. Together with researchers from ETH Zurich, Eawag and the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), he published several studies that show how HBCD is structured, which forms tend to accumulate in ...