In an advance toward solving a 50-year-old mystery, scientists are reporting new evidence on how the fluoride in drinking water, toothpastes, mouth rinses and other oral-care products prevents tooth decay. Their report appears in the ACS journal Langumir. Karin Jacobs and colleagues explain that despite a half-century of scientific research, controversy still exists over exactly how fluoride compounds reduce the risk of tooth decay. That research established long ago that fluoride helps to harden the enamel coating that protects teeth from the acid produced by decay-causing ...

Horse meat as time-honored European cuisine, its detection when mixed into meatballs and other food and the angst over consumption of chevaline in the United States, is food for a thoughtful installment of the popular Newscripts column in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News. C&EN is the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society. Alexander H. Tullo, C&EN senior editor, uses the story to look behind the headlines earlier in 2013 reporting discovery of horse meat in meatballs and other beef burger products ...

Long after a hangover, a night of bad decisions might take a bigger toll on the body than previously understood. Described in the current issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, a study at the University of Missouri has revealed a unique connection between binge drinking and the risk for developing alcoholic liver disease and a variety of other health problems. "In our research, we found that binge drinking has a profound effect on the liver in various modes of alcohol exposure," said Shivendra Shukla, PhD, Margaret Proctor Mulligan Professor at the University ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (May 1, 2013) – Ninety-eight percent of women undergoing breast augmentation surgery say the results met or exceeded their expectations, according to a prospective outcome study published in the May issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). Women also report improvements in self-esteem and quality of life after breast augmentation, according to the study by ASPS Member Surgeon Dr. Eric Swanson, a plastic surgeon in private practice in Leawood, Kan. The study adds high-quality ...

New Haven, Conn.— That human land use destroys natural ecosystems is an oft-cited assumption in conservation, but ecologists have discovered that instead, traditional ranching techniques in the African savanna enhance the local abundance of wild, native animals. These results offer a new perspective on the roles humans play in natural systems, and inform ongoing discussions about land management and biodiversity conservation. For thousands of years, pastoralists in East African savannas have penned their cattle overnight in brush-walled corrals, called bomas. Bomas remain ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (May 1, 2013) – Half of U.S. plastic surgeons are using Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms in their professional practice, according to a survey in the May issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). "Social media platforms represent a dynamic and powerful tool to educate, engage, market to and directly communicate with patients and professional colleagues," writes ASPS Member Surgeon Dr. Reza Jarrahy and colleagues of University of California, Los Angeles. ...

San Diego, CA, USA, May 1, 2013 – The following data will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Urology Association (AUA) in San Diego, CA: Androgen deprivation therapy by a gonadotropin releasing hormone antagonist, degarelix, lowers the risk of cardiovascular events or death when compared to luteinising hormone-releasing agonists (Abstract 781) Date: Monday, May 6, 2013; 8:00-10:00 AM Session/Type: Prostate Cancer: Advanced (II); Moderated Poster Location: San Diego Convention Center, Room 7 Authors: Peter Albertsen; Bertrand Tombal; Thomas Wiegel; ...

A recent study involving the University of Southampton has investigated public perception of how waste disposal sites affect residents living nearby. Public opinion of waste management facilities can influence where sites are located and how waste management services are delivered. Obtaining the support of communities around municipal solid waste (MSW) facilities is an important part of the successful operation of these services. One common complaint from local communities concerns unpleasant smells emitted from waste disposal facilities, such as from landfill sites. To ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Researchers who unearthed the fossil specimen of an ape skeleton in Spain in 2002 assigned it a new genus and species, Pierolapithecus catalaunicus. They estimated that the ape lived about 11.9 million years ago, arguing that it could be the last common ancestor of modern great apes: chimpanzees, orangutans, bonobos, gorillas and humans. Now, a University of Missouri integrative anatomy expert says the shape of the specimen's pelvis indicates that it lived near the beginning of the great ape evolution, after the lesser apes had started to develop separately ...

PITTSBURGH—Amphibian populations living close to agricultural fields have become more resistant to a common insecticide and are actually resistant to multiple common insecticides, according to two recent studies conducted at the University of Pittsburgh. In a study published today in Evolutionary Applications, the Pitt researchers demonstrate, for the first time, that tadpoles from populations close to farm fields are more resistant to chlorpyrifos—one of the most commonly applied insecticides in the world, often sold as "Dursban" or "Lorsban." In addition, a related ...

RNA, once considered a bit player in the grand scheme by which genes encode protein, is increasingly seen to have a major role in human genetics. In a study presented in the April 25 issue of the journal Cell, researchers from The Wistar Institute discovered how the RNA-editing protein, ADAR1, also combines with the protein called Dicer to create microRNA (miRNA) and small interfering (siRNA). These varieties of RNA, in turn, play a crucial role in gene regulation--silencing or "switching off" the production of specific proteins. Upward of 60 percent of mammalian genes ...

New Rochelle, NY, May 1, 2013—More than 800 million people worldwide use the social networking site Facebook, and 93% of college students have an active Facebook account, according to a recent estimate. As both students and faculty on college campuses increasingly use Facebook as a means of communication, the sharing of personal information, likes and dislikes, or religious and political beliefs, for example, may affect what students think of professors and expect from their classes. This phenomenon is explored in a study published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social ...

(Philadelphia, PA) – HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is notorious for hiding within certain types of cells, where it reproduces at a slowed rate and eventually gives rise to chronic inflammation, despite drug therapy. But researchers at Temple University School of Medicine's Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Center for Substance Abuse Research (CSAR) recently discovered that synthetic anti-inflammatory substances distantly related to the active ingredient of marijuana may be able to take the punch out of HIV while inside one of its major hideouts – immune ...

The tail of a seahorse can be compressed to about half its size before permanent damage occurs, engineers at the University of California, San Diego, have found. The tail's exceptional flexibility is due to its structure, made up of bony, armored plates, which slide past each other. Researchers are hoping to use a similar structure to create a flexible robotic arm equipped with muscles made out of polymer, which could be used in medical devices, underwater exploration and unmanned bomb detection and detonation. Researchers, led by UC San Diego materials science professors ...

A small survey of U.S. obstetrics and gynecology residents finds that fewer than one in five receives formal training in menopause medicine, and that seven in 10 would like to receive it. The Johns Hopkins-led study, described in today's online version of the journal Menopause, discovered that some American ob/gyn residency programs fail to offer trainees any formal curriculum or clinical experience focused primarily on women's pre- and post-menopausal health. "Although our survey reached only a fraction of the approximately 5,000 ob/gyn residents in the United States, ...

Research in the wake of Colony Collapse Disorder, a mysterious malady afflicting (primarily commercial) honey bees, suggests that pests, pathogens and pesticides all play a role. New research indicates that the honey bee diet influences the bees' ability to withstand at least some of these assaults. Some components of the nectar and pollen grains bees collect to manufacture food to support the hive increase the expression of detoxification genes that help keep honey bees healthy. The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. University ...

Why do rose petals have rounded ends while their leaves are more pointed? In a study to be published in open access journal PLOS Biology, John Innes Centre and University of East Anglia scientists reveal that the shape of petals and leaves is controlled by a hidden map located within growing buds. The map features arrows that direct the growth of each cell in the bud. In a leaf, the pattern of arrows converges towards the tip of the bud leading to a pointy shape, while in a petal the pattern of arrows fans out leading to a more rounded shape. The arrows correspond ...

Chevy Chase, MD––Gastric bypass surgery alters the hormones and amino acids produced during digestion, hinting at the mechanisms through which the surgery eliminates symptoms of type 2 diabetes, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). The study simulated pre-operative digestion and compare how the same patient metabolizes nutrients following surgery. In four patients who had catheters inserted into the bypassed portion of the stomach as part of their post-operative care, researchers ...

Chevy Chase, MD––When teenage girls are exposed to secondhand smoke at home, they tend to have lower levels of the "good" form of cholesterol that reduces heart disease risk, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). High-density lipoproteins (HDL) pick up excess cholesterol in the blood stream and take it to the liver where it can be broken down. Unlike low-density lipoproteins that can create a waxy build-up that blocks blood vessels, HDL cholesterol can play a key role in combatting ...

Chevy Chase, MD––Children who did not receive enough iodine in the womb performed worse on literacy tests as 9-year-olds than their peers, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). Iodine is absorbed from food and plays a key role in brain development. Even mild deficiency during pregnancy can harm the baby's neurological development. "Our research found children may continue to experience the effects of insufficient iodine for years after birth," said the study's lead author, ...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Researchers at Mayo Clinic's campus in Florida have discovered a protein that is overly active in every human sample of kidney cancer they examined. They also found that an experimental drug designed to block the protein's activity significantly reduced tumor growth in animals when used alone. Combining it with another drug already used to treat the cancer improved the effectiveness of both. The findings, reported in the April 30 online issue of Clinical Cancer Research, offer a much-needed potential new direction for the treatment of clear cell ...

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) significantly improves muscle function – down to the muscle fibre level – in postmenopausal women, a new study published today [1 May] in The Journal of Physiology shows. Some studies published over the last decade have led to negative publicity around HRT, a treatment used to relieve symptoms of menopause, resulting in many women being reluctant to use it. However this new study offers a positive outcome from the treatment. Previous studies, monitoring walking speed and jumping height, have suggested that HRT reduces the impacts of ...

The authors stress that these findings should be interpreted with caution as some studies did not adjust for other potential confounding factors. They call for further investigations into the long term health effects of breast implants. Cosmetic breast implants have become increasingly popular, but some studies have suggested that implants can make it more difficult to detect breast cancer at an early stage because they create shadows on mammograms that can obscure some breast tissue. A team of researchers based in Canada wanted to find out whether the stage at which ...

Subfertile women who conceive through assisted reproduction are more likely to experience a greater traumatic impact following early pregnancy loss compared with women who conceive naturally, suggests a new study published today (1 May) in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Miscarriage is the most common complication of pregnancy affecting 20% of all clinically recognised pregnancies. This study, conducted at Queen Mary Hospital, The University of Hong Kong, aimed to identify the psychological impact following a first trimester miscarriage ...

CHICAGO --- A small group of elusive neurons in the brain's cortex play a big role in ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), a swift and fatal neurodegenerative disease that paralyzes its victims. But the neurons have always been difficult to study because there are so few of them and they look so similar to other neurons in the cortex. In a new preclinical study, a Northwestern Medicine® scientist has isolated the motor neurons in the brain that die in ALS and, for the first time, dressed them in a green fluorescent jacket. Now they're impossible to miss and easy to ...