Over the past two decades governments around the world have been experimenting with a new strategy for managing waste. By making producers responsible for their products when they become wastes, policy makers seek to significantly increase the recycling—and recyclability—of computers, packaging, automobiles, and household hazardous wastes such as batteries, used oil motor, and leftover paint—and save money in the process. This strategy, known as extended producer responsibility (EPR), is the subject of a new special feature in Yale University's Journal of Industrial ...

CINCINNATI – An experimental procedure successfully tested in obese laboratory rats may provide a less-invasive alternative to bariatric weight-loss surgery, researchers report online in Endocrinology. Scientists at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center used a catheter to re-direct the flow of bile from the bile duct into the small intestine, producing the same metabolic and weight-loss benefits as bariatric surgeries such as gastric by-pass. They named the procedure bile diversion, or BD. "This may lead to novel ways to treat obesity related conditions," said ...

More and more cruise ships visit the fjords of Western Norway. But cruise tourists only spend a fraction of what other tourists spend. Over the past few years, the overall number of tourists to Western Norway has declined slightly. But one group of tourists is steadily rising: the cruise ship passenger. However, the cruise ship industry matters little to the tourism industry onshore. The average camping tourist leaves behind twice as much as the average cruise ship tourist. And this even when one excludes costs and taxes for camping, says Professor Svein Larsen of the ...

PITTSBURGH—Technology blogs have been abuzz that smartwatches may soon be on their way from companies such as Apple, Google, Samsung and Microsoft. But as capable as these ultra-small computers may be, how will users enter an address, a name, or a search term into them? One solution is an iterative zooming technique developed and tested by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. Called ZoomBoard, this text entry technique is based on the familiar QWERTY keyboard layout. Though the full keyboard is impossibly small on a watch-size display, simply tapping the screen ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- When it comes to deciding which light bulb to buy, a label touting the product's environmental benefit may actually discourage politically conservative shoppers. Dena Gromet and Howard Kunreuther at The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and Rick Larrick at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business conducted two studies to determine how political ideology affected a person's choice to buy energy-efficient products in the United States. The authors suggest that financial incentives or emphasizing energy independence may be better ways to get ...

AMHERST, Mass. – A team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is proposing a new investigative roadmap for the field of evolutionary developmental biology, or "evo devo," to better understand how innovation at the genetic level can lead to ecological adaptations over time. Evo devo seeks to understand the specific genetic mechanisms underlying evolutionary change. Seven UMass Amherst authors, all biologists but with diverse research programs including evolutionary genetics, developmental biology, biomechanics and behavioral ecology, describe the new ...

Rochester, MN, April 30, 2013 – There is worldwide concern in the biomedical research community that enrollment in clinical trials is lagging, putting clinical research and consequent benefits to society in jeopardy. Experts explore ways to embed patient voices and values in clinical research in the current issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Clinical trials of new drugs, devices, or procedures require the active participation of human volunteers. Mark A. Yarborough, PhD, of the Bioethics Program, University of California Davis, calls for greater transparency about the ...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., – April 30, 2013 – Many diseases – obesity, Type 2 diabetes, muscular dystrophy – are associated with fat accumulation in muscle. In essence, fat replacement causes the muscles to weaken and degenerate. Scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have discovered the biological mechanism involved in this process, which could point the way to potential therapies. The findings are published in the April 27 online edition of Stem Cells and Development. The Wake Forest Baptist researchers proved that pericytes, stem cells associated with blood vessels, ...

WASHINGTON -- When determining the potential effects pesticides could pose to endangered or threatened species, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), and Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) should use a common scientific approach, says a new report from the National Research Council. Specifically, the agencies should use a risk assessment approach that addresses problem formulation, exposure analysis, effects analysis, and risk characterization. Under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, before a pesticide ...

Toronto – The best investment portfolios are selected from the widest array of choices, right? Not so, says a new study authored by researchers at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and the Bank of Canada. It says that a shorter "menu" of options is often better than a longer one. That's because "menu-setters" who develop shorter lists have superior selection skills, on average. The conclusion goes against findings in other research suggesting that more choices lead to better outcomes. "Skilled menu-setters will put together a shorter menu because ...

Americans are over-diagnosed and over-treated for depression, according to a new study conducted at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study examines adults with clinician-identified depression and individuals who experienced major depressive episodes within a 12-month period. It found that when assessed for major depressive episodes using a structured interview, only 38.4 percent of adults with clinician-identified depression met the 12-month criteria for depression, despite the majority of participants being prescribed and using psychiatric medications. ...

Staring at a small patch of sky for more than 50 hours with the ultra-sensitive Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), astronomers have for the first time identified discrete sources that account for nearly all the radio waves coming from distant galaxies. They found that about 63 percent of the background radio emission comes from galaxies with gorging black holes at their cores and the remaining 37 percent comes from galaxies that are rapidly forming stars. "The sensitivity and resolution of the VLA, following its decade-long upgrade, made it possible to identify the ...

This press release is available in German. Even bacteria have a kind of "immune system" they use to defend themselves against unwanted intruders – in their case, viruses. Scientists at the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany, were now able to show that this defense system is much more diverse than previously thought and that it comes in multiple versions. Their goal is to use the various newly discovered versions of the CRISPR-Cas gene for the targeted manipulation of genetic information, particularly for medical purposes. The human ...

ANN ARBOR—Cancer cells are wily, well-traveled adversaries, constantly side-stepping treatments to stop their spread. But for the first time, scientists at the University of Michigan have decoded the molecular chatter that ramps certain cancer cells into overdrive and can cause tumors to metastasize throughout the body. Researchers have long known that tumors recruit healing cells, which is a major reason why cancer is so difficult to thwart. This is the first known study to explain the molecular behavior behind the series of changes that happen in the healing cells ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – April 30, 2013 – A new study reports that flexible endoscopic treatment of Zenker's diverticulum by using a diverticuloscope offers a treatment modality with a very low complication rate. Zenker's diverticulum is an abnormal pouch in the upper part of the esophagus that causes difficulty swallowing and is most commonly found in older patients. Clinical remission was achieved over a single session of treatment in the majority of the cases. This study also demonstrated the long-term efficacy of the technique. The study appears in the May issue of GIE: Gastrointestinal ...

Researchers from the University of California, San Diego Department of Pediatrics and Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego, a research affiliate of UC San Diego School of Medicine, have found a link between multivitamin use and alcohol consumption before pregnancy, uncovering a need for education about the importance of vitamin supplementation, particularly among women who drink alcohol during their childbearing years. The study was published online this month in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. Researchers examined data collected from the Centers For Disease ...

Smoking prevention in schools reduces the number of young people who will later become smokers, according to a new systematic review published in The Cochrane Library. For young people who have never smoked, these programmes appear to be effective at least one year after implementation. Smoking causes five million preventable deaths every year, a number predicted to rise to eight million by 2030. It is thought that around a quarter of young people may smoke by age 13-15. With a history spanning four decades, prevention programmes in schools try to tackle smoking at an ...

Giving prescribers access to education and advice or imposing restrictions on use can curb overuse or inappropriate use of antibiotics in hospitals, according to a new Cochrane systematic review. This is important because unnecessary use of these life-saving drugs is a key source of antibiotic resistance in bacteria. Some infections are no longer treatable due to bacterial resistance. Compared to infections caused by treatable bacteria, those caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria lead to more deaths, longer hospital stays and increased healthcare costs. Reducing inappropriate ...

Research into the complementary therapies evening primrose oil and borage oil shows little, if any, benefit for people with eczema compared with placebo, according to a new systematic review. The authors, who published their review in The Cochrane Library, conclude that further studies on the therapies would be difficult to justify. Atopic eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis, is an itchy skin condition with no known cure. Usually emerging in childhood, it affects about 10 to 20% of school age children, who may suffer with tight, red, painful skin, sleepless nights ...

This press release is available in French. Sperm cell release can be triggered by tightening the grip around the delivery organ, according to a team of nano and microsystems engineers and plant biologists at the University of Montreal and Concordia University. Concordia's nanobiotech team devised a microchip that enabled the University of Montreal biologists to observe what happened when pollen tubes – the sperm delivery tools used by plants – tried to negotiate a microscopic obstacle course. The pollen tubes were exposed to a series of narrow, elastic openings resulting ...

Many scientists have thought that dinosaur predecessors missed the race to fill habitats emptied when nine out of 10 species disappeared during the Earth's largest mass extinction, approximately 252 million years ago. The thinking was based on fossil records from sites in South Africa and southwest Russia. It turns out that scientists may have been looking for the starting line in the wrong places. Newly discovered fossils from 10 million years after the mass extinction reveal a lineage of animals thought to have led to dinosaurs taking hold in Tanzania and Zambia in ...

A new scientific statement from the American Heart Associations reminds physicians and people with congenital heart disease that regular physical activity is still important and should be promoted. Congenital heart disease (heart structural problems existing since birth) is estimated to affect more than 859,000 children and 850,000 adults in the United States. According to the statement: While some irregular heart beat conditions may require a restriction in physical activity, "for most, physical activity can be unlimited and should be strongly promoted." Most patients ...

VIDEO: This image shows droplets coalescing around particles before jumping off wing. Click here for more information. DURHAM, N.C. – As cicadas on the East Coast begin emerging from their 17-year slumber, a spritz of dew drops is all they need to keep their wings fresh and clean. Researchers at Duke University and James Cook University in Australia have shown that dew drops can be beneficial not only in cleaning cicada wings, but other water-repellant surfaces. On ...

Task Force Says Screen All Adults, Adolescents, and Pregnant Women for HIV New recommendations from the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) urge physicians to screen all adults and adolescents aged 15 - 65 for HIV. In addition, all pregnant women should receive screening, even those who are in labor but have not yet been screened. Rapid screening tests and conventional tests are considered equally accurate for screening. In 2005, the Task Force recommended that doctors offer HIV screening to all adults and adolescents at increased risk for infection ...

Baltimore, MD.—Mammalian females ovulate periodically over their reproductive lifetimes, placing significant demands on their ovaries for egg production. Whether mammals generate new eggs in adulthood using stem cells has been a source of scientific controversy. If true, these "germ-line stem cells" might allow novel treatments for infertility and other diseases. However, new research from Carnegie's Lei Lei and Allan Spradling demonstrates that adult mice do not use stem cells to produce new eggs. Their work is published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ...