A CSIRO radio telescope has detected the raw material for making the first stars in galaxies that formed when the Universe was just three billion years old — less than a quarter of its current age. This opens the way to studying how these early galaxies make their first stars. The telescope is CSIRO's Australia Telescope Compact Array telescope near Narrabri, NSW. "It one of very few telescopes in the world that can do such difficult work, because it is both extremely sensitive and can receive radio waves of the right wavelengths," says CSIRO astronomer Professor Ron ...

Further evidence of climate change shifting atmospheric circulation in the southern Australian-New Zealand region has been identified in a new study. The study, in the Nature journal Scientific Reports, demonstrates that mid-latitude high pressure zones (30oS-45oS) are being pushed further into the Southern Ocean by rising global temperatures associated with greenhouse warming. This is despite more frequent occurrences of strong El Niños in recent decades, which should have drawn the high pressure zones in the opposite direction toward the equator. "What we are seeing," ...

Our present understanding of thermodynamics is fundamentally incorrect if applied to small systems and needs to be modified, according to new research from University College London (UCL) and the University of Gdańsk. The work establishes new laws in the rapidly emerging field of quantum thermodynamics. The findings, published today in Nature Communications, have wide applications in small systems, from nanoscale engines and quantum technologies, to biological motors and systems found in the body. The laws of thermodynamics govern much of the world around us – ...

OTTAWA, Canada—June 26, 2013—Until now, there has been no research dedicated to the importance of Vitamin D supplementation in children with congenital heart disease (CHD). However, over the past few years, researchers at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) Research Institute and Cardiovascular Surgery Program teamed with the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group to understand the impact of cardiac surgery on the Vitamin D status of infants and children, to be printed next month in Anesthesiology. "The importance of Vitamin D levels and supplementation in ...

ANNAPOLIS, MD (June 26, 2013)—A new report on sea level rise recommends that the State of Maryland should plan for a rise in sea level of as much as 2 feet by 2050. Led by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, the report was prepared by a panel of scientific experts in response to Governor Martin O'Malley's Executive Order on Climate Change and "Coast Smart" Construction. The projections are based on an assessment of the latest climate change science and federal guidelines. "The State of Maryland is committed to taking the necessary actions to ...

Boston, MA, June 26, 2013 – Nausea is one of the most debilitating symptoms of migraine and affects 80 percent of migraine suffers in the United States. Leading headache physician, Dr. Zoltan Medgyessy of the Berolina Clinic in Lohne, Germany demonstrated in a trial that pressure to the P6 antiemetic point on the inner wrist with an acupressure wristband is an effective and quick therapy for relieving nausea of migraine sufferers. He will be presenting his findings to the U.S. for the first time at the International Headache Congress in Boston, MA on June 27 – 30, 2013. Migraine ...

Athens, Greece 26 June 2013. Two important studies were released at the Late Breaking Clinical Trials session II at EHRA EUROPACE 2013. The PREFER AF study2 found that Oral anticoagulation is now used in over 85% of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) eligible for therapy. And ISSUE (the International Study on Syncope of Uncertain Aetiology) determined that cardiac pacing is more effective in patients with presumed neurally mediated syncope (NMS) and asystolic episodes in which tilt table testing proves negative (TT-), than in patients in which the tilt table testing ...

The assessment of risk in patients who go on to die by suicide or commit homicide is often poor, a new study has found. A report by The University of Manchester's National Confidential Inquiry (NCI) into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness out today has raised concerns about the way that risk is assessed and led to criticism of the tick-box approach to clinical practice. Researchers looked at a sample of 81 cases where risk had been judged to be low, but seven days or less after the assessment the patient died by suicide or committed homicide, to retrospectively ...

The UK chemical industry requires 'an urgent and radical rethink' into how it produces chemicals if it is to play its part in meeting Government's stringent greenhouse gas emission reduction targets of 80% plus by 2050. That is one of the conclusions of a major new report issued today by the University of Manchester's Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. Entitled 'Can the UK afford (not) to produce chemicals in 2050?' the report was generated in collaboration with the North East Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC) following investigations into chemical sector greenhouse ...

Exaggeration, exaggeration, exaggeration: parties over-egg claims on education Both major political parties have overstated their claims and counter-claims on education, according to an independent review of Labour's record in office. The report, led by Professor Anthony Heath from The University of Manchester, says governments mostly fail to introduce policies which can be rigorously evaluated. The report, published this month in the Oxford Review of Economic Policy, praises Labour 's policy on further education and Education Maintenance Allowance. The Blair and ...

Down syndrome, more commonly known as "trisomy 21" is very often accompanied by pathologies found in the general population: Alzheimer's disease, leukemia, or cardiac deficiency. In a study conducted by Professor Stylianos Antonarakis' group from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Geneva (UNIGE), researchers have identified the genomic variations associated with trisomy 21, determining the risk of congenital heart disease in people with Down syndrome. The targeted and specific study of chromosome 21 revealed two genomic variations, which, in combination, are the ...

For the first time, researchers have restored significant bladder function through nerve regeneration in rats with the most severe spinal cord injuries (SCI). The breakthrough paired a traditional nerve bridge graft with a novel combination of scar degrading and growth factor treatments to grow new nerve cells from the thoracic level to the lower spinal cord region. Details of the discovery appear in the June 26 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. Neuroscientists from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and Cleveland Clinic built a regeneration bridge ...

We constantly grow new skin and slough off the old. Until now, scientists have never agreed on exactly how this works, but new research from the University of Sheffield may provide the answer. Engineers and biologists at the University of Sheffield have shown how a recent theory-- that skin has 'sleeping' stem cells which can be woken up when required-- best explains how our skin constantly regrows. The research-- conducted in collaboration with The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G), makers of Olay, and published in Nature Scientific Reports-- has implications for combating ...

Being in good physical shape at 18 years of age can be linked with a reduced risk of attempted suicide later in life. So says a study of over one million Swedish men conducted by researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. A new, extensive report from the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare on child and adolescent health shows that teenagers and young adults in Sweden have worse mental health than their age cohorts in other western countries. Another report that is part of a new social welfare study shows that the number of serious ...

The knees are the body part that is injured the most by dinghy sailors. The injuries are primarily due to overstrain and most often occur during physical training. This was shown in a study at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. "Studies have been made on the risk of injury for many sports, but not for dinghy sailing. With more knowledge, we can create recommendations that will prevent sailors from getting injured," says Lena Bøymo-Having, who conducted the study at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg. During the study, researchers followed ...

Having a job helps women with HIV manage their illnesses, according to researchers from Case Western Reserve University and the University of California at San Francisco. The routine of a work schedule, plus the job-related money and benefits, provides extra emotional support for these women, said Allison Webel, assistant professor of nursing at Case Western Reserve University's Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing and the study's lead author. Findings in the National Institutes of Health-supported study were published this month in Social Science & Medicine. The ...

Bullfinches learn from human teachers to sing melodies accurately, according to a new study by the late Nicolai Jürgen and researchers from the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany. Their analysis of human melody singing in bullfinches gives insights into the songbirds' brain processes. The work is published online in Springer's journal Animal Cognition. Music performance is considered to be one of the most complex and demanding cognitive challenges that the human mind can undertake. Melody singing requires precise timing of several organized actions as well as accurate ...

New research from the University of Guelph, published Tuesday in the journal Biodiversity and Conservation, says that allowing industrial extraction in a northern Ontario old-growth red pine forest – the largest remaining in the world – would significantly threaten biodiversity in Canada. The study says that Wolf Lake Forest Reserve is a "scientifically irreplaceable system." "Wolf Lake Forest deserves intensive study, monitoring and full protection from future development," said Guelph environmental sciences professor Madhur Anand, the study's lead author. Old-growth ...

Patients in moderate to severe pain in emergency rooms across the U.S. are less likely to receive opioid pain medications if they are black, Hispanic, poor, or have less education, compared to more affluent patients, according to a University of Rochester Medical Center study reported in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. The study took place against the backdrop of a national epidemic of narcotics abuse, combined with a need to satisfy patients' legitimate complaints of pain. Racial and ethnic disparities are already well-documented in the scientific literature, ...

Bethesda, MD (June 26, 2013) — More people are being affected by drug-induced liver injury (DILI) than ever before, according to a new study in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. This type of liver injury results from the use of certain prescription and over-the-counter medications, as well as dietary supplements, and is among the more challenging forms of liver disease due to its difficulty to predict, diagnose and manage. Investigators conducted a population-based study in Iceland uncovering 19.1 cases of drug-induced ...

Contrary to popular belief, crabgrass does not thrive in lawns, gardens and farm fields by simply crowding out other plants. A new study in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry has found that the much-despised weed actually produces its own herbicides that kill nearby plants. Chui-Hua Kong and colleagues point out that crabgrass is not only a headache for lawns and home gardens, but also a major cause of crop loss on farms. Scientists long suspected, but had a hard time proving, that the weed thrived by allelopathy. From the Greek "allelo-," meaning "other," ...

Distal radius fractures (often simply termed wrist or Colles' fractures) are the second most common fractures in the elderly. Beyond the immediate impact on the patient, wrist fractures in older adults often indicate underlying osteoporosis and high risk of subsequent fragility fractures. Despite their clinical significance, evidence-based practice and clinical research on wrist fractures are hampered by the lack of standardized methods of outcome measurement. A new publication* by the Distal Radius Working Group of the International Society for Fracture Repair (ISFR) ...

Scientists are reporting progress in the search for the first broad-spectrum drugs to combat human rhinoviruses (HRVs), which cause humanity's most common infectious diseases. Their study on these potential drugs for infections that include the common cold appears in the journal ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters. Angus MacLeod and colleagues note that although many HRV infections cause mild disease, they can lead to dangerous complications for millions of people with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Previous potential drugs for HRV either didn't work or ...

Energy conservation in a small number of households could go a long way to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, scientists are reporting. Their study, which measured differences in energy demands at the household level, appears in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology. Dominik Saner and colleagues point out that the energy people use to power their homes and to satisfy their mobility needs accounts for more than 70 percent of emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas involved in global climate change. To cope with that problem, policymakers and environmentalists ...

While the iPad® is being used for intraoperative procedure guidance, percutaneous procedure planning, and mobile interpretation of some imaging examinations, the majority of radiology residents are using it primarily as an educational tool, according to a study published online in the Journal of the American College of Radiology. "Some sectors of the medical community consider the iPad to be a revolutionary tool in health care delivery, with many use scenarios focused on medical imaging. The purpose of our study was to assess residents' use patterns and opinions of the ...