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New study shows that gases work with particles to promote cloud formation

2013-02-05
New York, NY—January 30, 2013—Researchers at Columbia Engineering and Georgia Institute of Technology have published a study in the online Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) showing—for the first time—that certain volatile organic gases can promote cloud formation in a way never considered before by atmospheric scientists. The study will be published the week of February 4, 2013. "This is the first time gases have been shown to affect cloud formation in this way," says V. Faye McNeill, Associate Professor in Chemical Engineering at ...

Hoodoos -- key to earthquakes?

2013-02-05
Please cite the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA) as the source of this information. In the absence of long-term instrumental data, fragile rock formations, called hoodoos, may be key to understanding seismic hazard risk. In this study, researchers consider two hoodoos in Red Rock Canyon region to put limits on expected intensity of ground motion from earthquakes along the Garlock fault. Hoodoos can be found in desert regions and are highly susceptible to erosion that makes their age uncertain. Despite that uncertainty, existing unfractured hoodoos, ...

Osaka Basin map: Identifies high-rise buildings at risk from quakes

2013-02-05
Please cite the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA) as the source of this information. The Osaka Basin, Japan is home to many high-rise buildings that sit atop its thick soft sediments, vulnerable to long-period strong ground motions that last minutes. A new map created by Japanese researchers is intended to guide engineers and city planners in new construction and identifies existing buildings with the potential of resonance vibration. The Osaka Basin in western Japan is surrounded by short mountain ranges, affected by large (M 8+) interplate earthquakes ...

Grooming helps insects keep their senses sharpened

Grooming helps insects keep their senses sharpened
2013-02-05
Like a self-absorbed teenager, insects spend a lot of time grooming. In a study that delves into the mechanisms behind this common function, North Carolina State University researchers show that insect grooming – specifically, antennal cleaning – removes both environmental pollutants and chemicals produced by the insects themselves. The findings, published online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that grooming helps insects maintain acute olfactory senses that are responsible for a host of functions, including finding food, ...

Antibody hinders growth of Gleevec-resistant gastrointestinal tumors in lab tests

2013-02-05
STANFORD, Calif. - An antibody that binds to a molecule on the surface of a rare but deadly tumor of the gastrointestinal tract inhibits the growth of the cancer cells in mice, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The effect remains even when the cancer cells have become resistant to other treatments, and the findings may one day provide a glimmer of hope for people with the cancer, known as gastrointestinal stromal tumor, or GIST. The scientists hope to move into human clinical trials of the antibody within two years. The antibody's ...

USC scientists design mouse with more human-like immune response

2013-02-05
LOS ANGELES — Medical scientists at the University of Southern California (USC) have bred a first-of-its-kind mouse model that possesses an immune response system more like a human's. The discovery makes way for quicker and more cost-effective development of next-generation drugs to treat human diseases like cancer, diabetes and tuberculosis. Medical researchers have long used mice and rats to help formulate new drugs and vaccines, in part because their genetic and biological characteristics closely parallel human physiology. But mice are not humans, and many experimental ...

Cells predict onset of graft-versus-host disease in men receiving BMTs from female donors

2013-02-05
STANFORD, Calif. — Stanford University School of Medicine investigators have identified a clutch of cells that — if seen in a male patient's blood after receiving a brand-new immune system in the form of a bone-marrow transplant from a female donor — herald the onset of chronic graft-versus-host disease, or cGVHD. In this devastating syndrome, the patient's tissues come under a vicious and enduring assault by the transplanted cells. "The overwhelming majority of patients who have these cells in their blood either have or will develop cGVHD within one to three months," ...

3D printing breakthrough with human embryonic stem cells

2013-02-05
A team of researchers from Scotland has used a novel 3D printing technique to arrange human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) for the very first time. It is hoped that this breakthrough, which has been published today, 5 February, in the journal Biofabrication, will allow three-dimensional tissues and structures to be created using hESCs, which could, amongst other things, speed up and improve the process of drug testing. In the field of biofabrication, great advances have been made in recent years towards fabricating three-dimensional tissues and organs by combining artificial ...

'Default' options influence patient choices in advance care directives, Penn study shows

2013-02-05
PHILADELPHIA – Advance care directives allow patients to provide instructions about their preferences for the care they would like to receive if they develop an illness or a life-threatening injury and lose the capacity to make decisions for themselves. While many people may assume that patients have strong preferences for the type and aggressiveness of care they wish to receive near life's end, a new study by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania suggests that for many patients, preferences for end-of-life care are constructed ...

Experimental therapy crosses blood-brain barrier to treat neurological disease

2013-02-05
CINCINNATI – Researchers have overcome a major challenge to treating brain diseases by engineering an experimental molecular therapy that crosses the blood-brain barrier to reverse neurological lysosomal storage disease in mice. Posted online in PNAS Early Edition on Feb. 4, the study was led by scientists at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. "This study provides a non-invasive procedure that targets the blood-brain barrier and delivers large-molecule therapeutic agents to treat neurological lysosomal storage disorders," said Dao Pan, PhD, principal investigator ...

Body language can predict outcomes for recovering alcoholics

2013-02-05
To predict whether a problem drinker will hit the bottle again, ignore what they say and watch their body language for displays of shame, a University of British Columbia study finds. The study, which explored drinking and health outcomes in newly sober recovering alcoholics, is the first to show that physical manifestations of shame – from slumped shoulders to narrow chests – can directly predict a relapse in people who struggle with substances. "Our study finds that how much shame people display can strongly predict not only whether they will go on to relapse, but ...

20 hours of TV a week almost halves sperm count

2013-02-05
Healthy young men who watch TV for more than 20 hours a week have almost half the sperm count of men who watch very little TV, indicates a study published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Conversely, men who do 15 or more hours of moderate to vigorous exercise every week have sperm counts that are 73% higher than those who exercise little, the findings show. Semen quality seems to have deteriorated over the past few decades, although it's not clear why, say the authors. To find out if an increasingly sedentary lifestyle might be a contributory ...

The last Neanderthals of southern Iberia did not coexist with modern humans

The last Neanderthals of southern Iberia did not coexist with modern humans
2013-02-05
The theory that the last Neanderthals –Homo neanderthalensis– persisted in southern Iberia at the same time that modern humans –Homo sapiens– advanced in the northern part of the peninsula, has been widely accepted by the scientific community during the last twenty years. An international study, in which researchers of the Spanish National Distance Education University (UNED) participate, questions this hypothesis. "It is improbable that the last Neanderthals of central and southern Iberia would have persisted until such a late date, approximately 30,000 years ago, as ...

Mutations in ASXL3 cause problems similar to Bohring-Opitz syndrome

2013-02-05
Mutations which affect the gene ASXL3 cause a novel syndrome similar to Bohring-Opitz syndrome, finds a study published in BioMed Central's open access journal Genome Medicine. This molecular definition distinguishes these children from those with Bohring-Opitz, and other similar syndromes, and highlights a technique able to help define rare diseases. When Dr Ropers from the Max-Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin found a child with non-specific symptoms, including small size at birth, difficulties with movement and feeding, severe intellectual disability, ...

Researchers pioneer treatment for viral infection common in children

2013-02-05
Researchers at Imperial College London have discovered a new way in which a very common childhood disease could be treated. In the first year of life, 65 per cent of babies get infected by Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). This causes bronchiolitis, and is thought to kill nearly 200,000 children every year worldwide. In 1966 and 1967, vaccines were tested for RSV. These had disastrous effects on the immune response, leading to a worsening of the disease and, in many cases, death. Scientists have so far not been able to fully explain this effect, which continues to ...

Could the humble sea urchin hold the key to carbon capture?

2013-02-05
A chance discovery that sea urchins use Nickel ions to harness carbon dioxide from the sea to grow their exoskeleton could be the key to capturing tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere. Experts at Newcastle University, UK, have discovered that in the presence of a Nickel catalyst, CO2 can be converted rapidly and cheaply into the harmless, solid mineral, calcium or magnesium carbonate. This discovery, which is published today in the academic journal Catalysis Science & Technology, has the potential to revolutionise the way we capture and store carbon enabling us to significantly ...

Study examines potential transmission of AD, Parkinson's disease protein in cadaver hGH

2013-02-05
A group of recipients of cadaver-derived human growth hormone (c-hGH) does not appear to be at increased risk for Alzheimer and Parkinson disease despite their likely exposure to neurodegenerative disease (ND)-associated proteins and elevated risk of infectious prion protein-related disease, according to a report published Online First by JAMA Neurology, a JAMA Network publication. David J. Irwin, M.D., of the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, and colleagues looked for evidence for human-to-human transmission of Alzheimer disease (AD), ...

Study suggests glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists related to adolescent weight loss

2013-02-05
Preliminary evidence from a clinical trial suggests that treatment with glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists was associated with reduced body mass index and body weight in adolescents with severe obesity, according to a report published Online First by JAMA Pediatrics, a JAMA Network publication. GLP-1 receptor agonist therapy, approved for adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus, reduces body weight by enhancing satiety and suppressing appetite, even in patients without diabetes, according to the study background. Aaron S. Kelly, Ph.D., of the University ...

Around 1 in 10 young mentally ill teens drinks, smokes, and uses cannabis

2013-02-05
[Frequent alcohol, nicotine, or cannabis use is common in young persons presenting for mental healthcare: a cross sectional study doi 10.1136/bmjopen-2012-002229] Around one in 10 young teens with mental health issues also drinks alcohol, smokes cigarettes, and uses cannabis on a weekly basis, indicates Australian research published in the online only fully journal BMJ Open. The prevalence of this pattern of substance use increased with age, the study found, prompting the authors to raise concerns that these behaviours are likely to worsen both mental and physical ...

Sunlight may help ward off rheumatoid arthritis in women

2013-02-05
[Exposure to ultraviolet-B and risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis among women in the Nurses' Health Study Online First doi 10.1136/annrheumdis-2012-202302] Regular exposure to sunlight—specifically ultraviolet B (UVB)—may reduce the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, indicates a large long term study published online in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. But the effect of UVB exposure was only evident among older women, possibly because younger women are more aware of the hazards of sunlight and so cover up with sun block, suggest the authors. They ...

High supplemental calcium intake may increase risk of cardiovascular disease death in men

2013-02-05
A high intake of supplemental calcium appears to be associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) death in men but not in women in a study of more 388,000 participants between the ages of 50 and 71 years, according to a report published Online First by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication. Calcium supplementation has become widely used, especially among the elderly population, because of its proposed bone health benefits. However, beyond calcium's established role in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis, its health effect on nonskeletal ...

Penn study confirms no transmission of Alzheimer's proteins between humans

2013-02-05
PHILADELPHIA - Mounting evidence demonstrates that the pathological proteins linked to the onset and progression of neurodegenerative disorders are capable of spreading from cell-to-cell within the brains of affected individuals and thereby "spread" disease from one interconnected brain region to another. A new study found no evidence to support concerns that these abnormal disease proteins are "infectious" or transmitted from animals to humans or from one person to another. The study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, ...

Scientists turn toxic by-product into biofuel booster

2013-02-05
UPTON, NY-Scientists studying an enzyme that naturally produces alkanes -- long carbon-chain molecules that could be a direct replacement for the hydrocarbons in gasoline -- have figured out why the natural reaction typically stops after three to five cycles. Armed with that knowledge, they've devised a strategy to keep the reaction going. The biochemical details -- worked out at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of February 4, 2013 -- renew interest in using the enzyme ...

Paired genes in stem cells shed new light on gene organization and regulation

2013-02-05
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (February 4, 2013) – Whitehead Institute researchers have determined that DNA transcription, the process that produces messenger RNA (mRNA) templates used in protein production, also runs in the opposite direction along the DNA to create corresponding long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs). Moreover, the mRNAs and lncRNAs are transcribed coordinately as stem cells differentiate into other cell types. This surprising finding could redefine our understanding of gene organization and its regulation. "It's a surprise to me that genes come in pairs," says Whitehead ...

TV viewing, exercise habits may significantly affect sperm count

2013-02-05
Boston, MA — Men's sperm quality may be significantly affected by their levels of physical activity, according to a new study led by researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). They found that healthy young men who were sedentary, as measured by hours of TV viewing, had lower sperm counts than those who were the most physically active. "We know very little about how lifestyle may impact semen quality and male fertility in general so identifying two potentially modifiable factors that appear to have such a big impact on sperm counts is truly exciting," said ...
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