Hospitals across England reduced the rate of serious bloodstream infections in intensive care units (ICUs) during a two-year programme, research has shown. More than 200 ICUs in England participated in the National Patient Safety Agency's Matching Michigan programme, which aimed to bring down infections linked to central venous catheters to the rate seen in a landmark programme in the US state of Michigan. Reducing the number of infections by more than 60%, the English ICUs were able to equal the low rates seen in the US. "This is a very impressive result," said Professor ...

A promising new treatment for breast cancer being developed at Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center and the VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine (VIMM) has been shown in cell culture and in animal models to selectively kill cancer stem cells at the original tumor site and in distant metastases with no toxic effects on healthy cells, including normal stem cells. Cancer stem cells are critical to a cancer's ability to recur following conventional chemotherapies and radiation therapy because they can quickly multiply and establish new tumors that are often ...

Babies born to mothers who suffer from a rare metabolic complication during pregnancy are programmed to be overweight, according to a study published today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The study is the first to look at the long term effects on babies born to mothers with intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP), also called obstetric cholestasis, a rare complication of pregnancy characterised by the build-up of bile acids in the bloodstream. The findings add to the strong evidence that the environment that babies are exposed to in the womb is a major ...

VIDEO: One in 10 female German or British tourists holidaying in southern Europe suffers sexual harassment. Click here for more information. The European Institute of Studies on Prevention (Irefrea) surveyed more than 6,000 people in various airports in Mediterranean countries during summer 2009 to find out the levels of harassment and sex against one's will that had occurred. According to the experts, one in ten female English or German tourists has fallen victim to these ...

Wild bird populations are generally thought to benefit from being given additional food in winter but our understanding of the effects of such food provision is incomplete. The results of a new study, carried out by researchers at the University of Exeter and the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), has found that feeding wild blue tits in winter resulted in less successful breeding during the following spring. The research, just published in Scientific Reports, revealed that woodland blue tits that were provided with fat balls as a supplementary food during the winter ...

PHILADELPHIA (June 24, 2013)— The brain's pleasure response to tasting food can be measured through the eyes using a common, low-cost ophthalmological tool, according to a study just published in the journal Obesity. If validated, this method could be useful for research and clinical applications in food addiction and obesity prevention. Dr. Jennifer Nasser, an associate professor in the department of Nutrition Sciences in Drexel University's College of Nursing and Health Professions, led the study testing the use of electroretinography (ERG) to indicate increases in the ...

More than half of the countries who signed the WHO 2005 Framework Convention on Tobacco Control have not formed plans to help tobacco users quit. The World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) is a treaty developed to tackle the global tobacco epidemic that is killing 5 million people each year. It came into force in 2005 and is legally binding in 175 countries. The FCTC requires each country to develop plans to help tobacco users in their population to stop -- plans that should be based on strong scientific evidence for what works. Two ...

TORONTO, Ontario (June 24, 2013) – A new method of maturing human heart cells that simulates the natural growth environment of heart cells while applying electrical pulses to mimic the heart rate of fetal humans has led researchers at the University of Toronto to an electrifying step forward for cardiac research. The discovery, announced this week in the scientific journal Nature Methods, offers cardiac researchers a fast and reliable method of creating mature human cardiac patches in a range of sizes. "You cannot obtain human cardiomyocytes (heart cells) from human ...

To fuel phases of fast and aggressive growth, tumors need higher-than-normal amounts of energy and the molecular building blocks needed to build new cellular components. Cancer cells therefore consume a lot of sugar (glucose A number of tumors are also able to catabolize the amino acid glutamine, an important building block of proteins. A key enzyme in amino acid decomposition is isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH). Several years ago, scientists discovered mutations in the gene coding for IDH in numerous types of brain cancer. Very malignant brain tumors called primary glioblastomas ...

This news release is available in Spanish. MOOCs are linked to the appearance of digital culture in all the areas of our lives, from the way we listen to music to the way we take photos, read the newspaper or watch movies. "Before, you had to have a radio, and a camera, go to the newsstand to buy the newspaper or go to the cinema, but now there are applications that enable us to do everything digitally," said the coordinator of the eMadrid network, Carlos Delgado Kloos, during the opening of this conference, dedicated to the transformational effect that the technology ...

Two new Baylor University studies show that Israeli Jewish adults who attend synagogue regularly, pray often, and consider themselves religious are significantly healthier and happier than their non-religious counterparts. They also report greater satisfaction with life. "These findings nicely reinforce the inherited Jewish folk wisdom that going to shul (synagogue) is 'good for you,'" said Baylor University researcher Jeff Levin, Ph.D. Levin holds a distinguished chair at Baylor University, where he is University Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health and Director ...

How do fish swim? It is a simple question, but there is no simple answer. Researchers at Northwestern University have revealed some of the mechanical properties that allow fish to perform their complex movements. Their findings, published on June 13 in the journal PLOS Computational Biology, could provide insights in evolutionary biology and lead to an understanding of the neural control of movement and development of bio-inspired underwater vehicles. "If we could play God and create an undulatory swimmer, how stiff should its body be? At what wave frequency should ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Teens and young adults are making use of social networking sites and mobile technology to express suicidal thoughts and intentions as well as to reach out for help, two studies suggest. An analysis of about one month of public posts on MySpace revealed 64 comments in which adolescents expressed a wish to die. Researchers conducted a follow-up survey of young adults and found that text messages were the second-most common way for respondents to seek help when they felt depressed. Talking to a friend or family member ranked first. These young adults also ...

An exotic tree species that changed from prized possession to forest management nightmare serves as a lesson in the unpredictability of non-native species mixing with human interactions, according to researchers. "There are other invasive tree species in Pennsylvania, but the Ailanthus, by far, has been here longer and does more damage than any other invasive tree," said Matthew Kasson, who received his doctorate in plant pathology and environmental microbiology from Penn State. "It's the number one cause of native regeneration failure in clearcuts in Pennsylvania." Kasson, ...

This news release is available in French. Parentage-based tagging (PBT) is an emerging genetic-based fish tagging method that involves genotyping hatchery broodstock. PBT is a passive non-invasive approach to stock identification because the parents, not the offspring, are genetically sampled at spawning, thereby "tagging" the offspring. This method provides the same information as traditional physical tags but also allows for collection of more detailed information that previously was impossible or impractical to gather using traditional tagging methods. According ...

Finally some good news for parents who smoke: you may now be able to get help quitting from an unlikely source, your child's doctor. A study in the journal Pediatrics, which has been posted online, shows that it is feasible for pediatric practices to incorporate into their normal routine efforts to inform patients' parents about services available to help them quit smoking. A research team led by MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHfC) physicians describes how practices implementing a program through which parents who smoke receive assistance in quitting reached nearly ...

EUGENE, Ore. -- (June 24, 2013) -- University of Oregon chemists have developed a selective probe that detects hydrogen sulfide (H2S) levels as low as 190 nanomolar (10 parts per billion) in biological samples. They say the technique could serve as a new tool for basic biological research and as an enhanced detection system for H2S in suspected bacterially contaminated water sources. Hydrogen sulfide, a colorless gas, has long been known for its dangerous toxicity -- and its telltale smell of rotten eggs -- in the environment, but in the last decade the gas has been found ...

NEW YORK — A new study from researchers at leading business schools reveals that expansive physical settings (e.g. having a big desk to stretch out while doing work or a large driver's seat in an automobile) can cause individuals to feel more powerful, and in turn these feelings of power can elicit more dishonest behavior such as stealing, cheating, and even traffic violations. "In everyday working and living environments, our body postures are incidentally expanded and contracted by our surroundings — by the seats in our cars, the furniture in and around workspaces, ...

Scientists from Australia and the United States bring new insights to our understanding of the three-dimensional structure of the genome, one of the biggest challenges currently facing the fields of genomics and genetics. Their findings are published in Nature Genetics, online today. Roughly 3 metres of DNA is tightly folded into the nucleus of every cell in our body. This folding allows some genes to be 'expressed', or activated, while excluding others. Dr Tim Mercer and Professor John Mattick from Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Professor John Stamatoyannopoulos ...

Japanese researchers have developed a new sugar and water-based solution that turns tissues transparent in just three days, without disrupting the shape and chemical nature of the samples. Combined with fluorescence microscopy, this technique enabled them to obtain detailed images of a mouse brain at an unprecedented resolution. The team from the RIKEN Center for Developmental biology reports their finding today in Nature Neuroscience. Over the past few years, teams in the USA and Japan have reported a number of techniques to make biological samples transparent, that ...

Boston, MA – A new discovery about how cells move inside the body may provide scientists with crucial information about disease mechanisms such as the spread of cancer or the constriction of airways caused by asthma. Led by researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), investigators found that epithelial cells—the type that form a barrier between the inside and the outside of the body, such as skin cells—move in a group, propelled by forces both from within and from nearby cells—to fill any unfilled spaces ...

In the largest study of migraines, researchers have found 5 genetic regions that for the first time have been linked to the onset of migraine. This study opens new doors to understanding the cause and biological triggers that underlie migraine attacks. The team identified 12 genetic regions associated with migraine susceptibility. Eight of these regions were found in or near genes known to play a role in controlling brain circuitries and two of the regions were associated with genes that are responsible for maintaining healthy brain tissue. The regulation of these pathways ...

Research suggests that it is Andy Murray's ability to manage his goals, as well as his skill, determination and motivation that makes him such a successful athlete. Murray dropped out of the French Open after a back injury this year, missing out on his goal of playing in four grand slam finals in a row. But this decision has allowed him to recuperate in time for Wimbledon this month. According to new research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), athletes who recognise early when a goal is unattainable and switch their focus to other objectives are ...

In the past year a group of synthetic proteins called CRISPR-Cas RNA-guided nucleases (RGNs) have generated great excitement in the scientific community as gene-editing tools. Exploiting a method that some bacteria use to combat viruses and other pathogens, CRISPR-Cas RGNs can cut through DNA strands at specific sites, allowing the insertion of new genetic material. However, a team of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers has found a significant limitation to the use of CRISPR-Cas RGNs, production of unwanted DNA mutations at sites other than the desired target. ...

SAN DIEGO – (June 23, 2013) A major study from researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology provides new revelations about the intricate pathways involved in turning on T cells, the body's most important disease-fighting cells, and was published today in the prestigious scientific journal Nature. The La Jolla Institute team is the first to prove that a certain type of protein, called septins, play a critical role in activating a calcium channel on the surface of the T cell. The channel is the portal through which calcium enters T cells from the ...