Boston (April 18, 2013) – Natural lubricants play an important role in health, including a well-known effect to help prevent osteoarthritis in knee and ankle joints. However, much is still unknown about their role and function in other areas of the body. Researchers for the first time have discovered that the surface of the eye produces "lubricin," the same substance that protects the joints, and have explained its role in this sensory organ. These findings provide new hope for the millions suffering from dry eye disease and complications from contact lens wear and refractive ...

Frankfurt/Main, Germany, April 18, 2013. The circum-Antarctic Southern Ocean is an important region for global marine food webs and carbon cycling because of sea-ice formation and its unique plankton ecosystem. The origin of its ecosystems can be traced back to the emergence of the Antarctic ice sheets approximately 33.6 million years ago. This discovery was made by an international team including scientists from the Goethe University and the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre in Frankfurt, Germany. Their study, published today in Science, shows that the development ...

BOSTON (April 18, 2013) – Dry eye disease (DED) is a common condition that causes discomfort, visual disturbance and potentially damaging ocular surface inflammation that greatly impacts a person's quality of life. An estimated nine million people in the United State alone suffer from significant DED; millions more may have milder forms or experience discomfort when exposed to low humidity or contact lens use. DED, the most common reason people visit ophthalmologists, is estimated to cost $55 billion in annual direct and indirect costs to society in the nation alone. In ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Throughout decades of research on solar cells, one formula has been considered an absolute limit to the efficiency of such devices in converting sunlight into electricity: Called the Shockley-Queisser efficiency limit, it posits that the ultimate conversion efficiency can never exceed 34 percent for a single optimized semiconductor junction. Now, researchers at MIT have shown that there is a way to blow past that limit as easily as today's jet fighters zoom through the sound barrier — which was also once seen as an ultimate limit. Their work appears ...

A research team from NPL and the University of Edinburgh have invented a new way to zip and unzip DNA strands using electrochemistry. The DNA double helix has been one of the most recognisable structures in science ever since it was first described by Watson and Crick almost 60 years ago (paper published in Nature in 25 April 1953). The binding and unbinding mechanism of DNA strands is vital to natural biological processes and to the polymerase chain reactions used in biotechnology to copy DNA for sequencing and cloning. The improved understanding of this process, and ...

Sales of chicken products in China plummeted recently during an outbreak of a deadly new strain of bird flu. From bird flu to mad cow disease, numerous food scares have made global headlines in recent years. A technique developed by University of Missouri Professor of Engineering Shubhra Gangopadhyay's group may make food contamination testing more rapid and accurate. The detection test also could accelerate warnings after bioterrorism attacks. "Quickly stopping the spread of toxins saves lives, whether those toxins are from natural processes or enemy attacks," said lead ...

Health disparities between white and black adults in the South are not connected to a lack of exercise but more likely related to other factors such as access to health care, socioeconomic status and perhaps genetics, according to a Vanderbilt study published in the journal PLOS ONE. In fact, more than 80,000 residents enrolled in the long-term Southern Community Cohort Study (SCCS) spent an equal amount of time — about nine hours or 60 percent of their waking day — in sedentary behaviors regardless of race. "Our conclusion is that physical activity is not a significant ...

LONDON, ON – For women diagnosed with a form of breast cancer known as estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer, tamoxifen is an essential drug used in the treatment and prevention of recurring breast cancer. Currently, tamoxifen is used in a one-size-fits-all approach where the same dose is prescribed for every patient. New research at Lawson Health Research Institute has found that in addition to patient-specific genetic factors, lack of exposure to vitamin D during the long winter months affects the body's ability to metabolize the drug. The findings, which ...

Cracking the DNA code for a complex region of the human genome has helped 14 North American scientists, including five at Simon Fraser University, chart new territory in immunity research. They have discovered that a good number of our antibody genes, how well they operate and, potentially, what they fight off, actually vary from person to person. That means even though drugs, treatments and vaccinations are designed to treat whole populations our response to them could be individualistic. After completely sequencing the immensely repetitive DNA in the human genome's ...

Using observations gathered by NASA's Kepler Mission, the team, led by William Borucki of the NASA Ames Research Center, found five planets orbiting a Sun-like star called Kepler-62. Four of these planets are so-called super-Earths, larger than our own planet, but smaller than even the smallest ice giant planet in our Solar System. These new super-Earths have radii of 1.3, 1.4, 1.6, and 1.9 times that of Earth. In addition, one of the five was a roughly Mars-sized planet, half the size of Earth. Kepler-62 is one of about 170,000 stars observed by the Kepler Space Telescope, ...

Concrete objects — such as toys, tiles and blocks — that students can touch and move around, called manipulatives, have been used to teach basic math skills since the 1980s. Use of manipulatives is based on the long-held belief that young children's thinking is strictly concrete in nature, so concrete objects are assumed to help them learn math concepts. However, new research from the University of Notre Dame suggests that not all manipulatives are equal. The types of manipulatives may make a difference in how effectively a child learns basic counting and other basic math ...

Smoking tobacco through a hookah is a pastime gaining popularity among the college crowd, but many of them mistakenly believe that using the fragrant water pipe is less harmful than smoking cigarettes. In a new study at UC San Francisco, researchers measuring chemicals in the blood and urine concluded that hookah smoke contains a different – but still harmful – mix of toxins. The findings are published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. Peyton Jacob III, PhD, a UCSF research chemist, and Neal ...

A team of geoscientists from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) using newly available remote-sensing technology has achieved unprecedented detail in quantifying subtle, long-period changes in the water levels of shallow lakes and ponds in hard-to-reach Arctic wetlands. Analysis comparing time-lapsed, high-resolution satellite imagery of the Ahnewetut Wetlands in Kobuk Valley National Park, Alaska, revealed an accelerated loss of surface water in shallow thaw lakes and ponds over a recent 27-year period compared to the preceding 27-year timespan. Those periods generally ...

URBANA – Although advances in agronomy, breeding, and biotechnology have dramatically increased corn grain yields, soil test values indicate that producers may not be supplying optimal nutrient levels. Moreover, many current nutrient recommendations, developed decades ago using outdated agronomic management practices and lower-yielding, non-transgenic hybrids, may need adjusting. Researchers with the University of Illinois Crop Physiology Laboratory have been re-evaluating nutrient uptake and partitioning in modern corn hybrids. "Current fertilization practices may ...

A new study with college roommates shows that a particular style of thinking that makes people vulnerable to depression can actually "rub off" on others, increasing their symptoms of depression six months later. The research, from psychological scientists Gerald Haeffel and Jennifer Hames of the University of Notre Dame, is published in Clinical Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Studies show that people who respond negatively to stressful life events, interpreting the events as the result of factors they can't change and ...

'Keep it simple' is a good rule of thumb when designing biocontrol programs to combat weeds and invasive plants, according to a meta-analysis of studies by UBC biodiversity experts. Biocontrol programs use an invasive plant's natural enemies (insects and pathogens) to reduce its population. Most biocontrol programs combine many different enemies – typically about three different species, but sometimes as many as 25 – with the hope that at least one will prove effective. But more isn't necessarily better. Some combinations of enemy species can actually end up competing ...

A new report on the potential effects of climate change on NOAA's Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary uses existing observations and science-based expectations to identify how climate change could affect habitats, plants and animals within the sanctuary and adjacent coastal areas. It also outlines new management recommendations for the sanctuary, and sanctuary officials called it the first step toward addressing them. They also said the report issued by the sanctuary, Climate Change and the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary: Interpreting Potential Futures, ...

A study just published in the Journal of Marine Biology sheds new light on the relatively rare but occasionally recorded presence of white sharks in waters surrounding the Hawaiian Islands, and suggests a new method to help distinguish between white sharks and close relatives, such as mako sharks. The paper, titled "Occurrence of White Sharks in Hawaiian Waters", was written by Kevin Weng of the University of Hawai'i – Manoa's School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) and Randy Honebrink of the Hawai'i DLNR Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR). According ...

Numerous epidemiologic studies have shown that a diet high in salt is associated with an increased risk of gastric cancer. Now Timothy L. Cover and colleagues of Vanderbilt University show that high dietary salt combined with infection by the ulcer-causing bacterium Helicobacter pylori greatly increases the risk of cancer. The study was published ahead of print in the journal Infection and Immunity. In the study, the researchers infected Mongolian gerbils with H. pylori. One set of gerbils received a regular diet; the other, a high salt diet. At the end of the experiment ...

Fairfax, Va., April 18, 2013 – The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has issued a new white paper, "Assuring Safety and Quality in Image Guided Delivery of Radiation Therapy," that recommends best practices to improve the safety and effectiveness of image guided radiation therapy (IGRT), according to the manuscript published as an article in press online in Practical Radiation Oncology (PRO), the official clinical practice journal of ASTRO. The executive summary and supplemental material are available online immediately as open-access articles (http://www.practicalradonc.org) ...

Boulder, Colo., USA – Geology postings on 4 and 16 April 2013 cover volcanoes, lithospheric phenomena, convergence between north and south China, a kill mechanism for a mass extinction, fossil soils, active faults, explosivity, marine sulfate levels, base metal ore deposits, garnets and diamonds, polar reversals, earthquakes, and archeology. Each article is highlighted below. Architecture of the subcontinental mantle beneath central Spain (the Calatrava volcanic field); A challenge to the widely accepted notion about how surface-derived fluids can penetrate to deep levels ...

The most common cause of lower respiratory tract infections in infants and young children, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), can be transferred during pregnancy to an unborn baby, according to Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital research published online this week in the journal PLOS ONE. In animal models, the study shows that RSV is able to spread across the placenta from the respiratory tract of the mother to the fetus, and is present in the lungs after birth, throughout development and into adulthood. RSV is considered the primary cause of infant pneumonia and has ...

Adding "chemical shift" techniques to MRI can help differentiate clear cell renal cell carcinoma from other types of renal cell cancer, a new study shows. That differentiation can help physicians better determine treatment for these patients. The study, conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, included 156 patients with proven renal cell cancer. Clear cell renal carcinoma contains microscopic areas of fat, which is not seen on conventional imaging, said Dr. Azadeh Elmi, lead author of the study. "Chemical shift MRI enables us to quantify even small amounts ...

2D plus 3D breast imaging increases cancer detection rates by 11%, and could be particularly useful in detecting cancer in women with dense breasts, a new study suggests. Researchers at Yale University Smilow Cancer Hospital in New Haven, CT, reviewed the screening mammograms of 14,684 patients. Forty-two cancers were found in 8,769 patients who had only 2D imaging (a cancer detection rate of 4.8 per 1,000), said Dr. Jaime Geisel, a lead author of the study. Thirty-two cancers were found in the group that had 2D plus 3D (tomosynthesis) imaging, for a cancer detection ...

One view 3D breast screening (tomosynthesis) means less radiation dose and about five seconds less compression, but a study from Yale University, New Haven, CT, found that obtaining both views is necessary to help ensure that a cancer won't be missed. There are practices in Europe that have reported performing only a single view, specifically the mediolateral oblique (MLO) view, said Dr. Noa Beck, the lead author of the study. Two views are standard in the U.S. for 3D breast screening; "we wanted to see if one view would be sufficient," she said. Seven breast imagers ...