Organic matter is important for soil health and crop productivity. While an indicator of soil quality, a lot of organic matter is in extremely stable forms, and the nutrients in such forms are difficult for plants to use. The active, labile fraction, however, is a modest but important part of the organic matter. "The labile fraction is small – usually less than 20 or even 10 percent, depending on how you define it," explains Steve Culman, lead author of a study published online Feb. 8 in Agronomy Journal. "But it is where a lot of the action happens. It's where soil nutrients ...

In a study to be presented on February 14 between 8 a.m., and 10 a.m. PST, at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in San Francisco, researchers will report findings that suggest that planned birthing of twins at 32-38 weeks by cesarean section does not decrease perinatal or neonatal death compared to planned vaginal birth. This randomized study The Twin Birth Study: a multicenter RCT of planned cesarean section and planned vaginal birth for twin pregnancies 320 to 386/7 weeks, should help women understand that a planned vaginal ...

In a study to be presented on February 14 between 1:15 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. PST, at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in San Francisco, researchers will report that variation in a gene involved in inflammation is associated with developmental problems after preterm birth in females, but not males. This randomized study, Sex-specific genetic susceptibility to adverse neurodevelopmental outcome after early preterm birth, may improve understanding of how developmental problems occur after preterm birth and may help identify ...

In a study to be presented on February 14 between 1:15 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. PST, at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in San Francisco, researchers will report that the practice of using an arbitrary Estimated Fetal Weight (EFW) less than the 10th centile may not be an efficient practice for defining true Intrauterine Growth Restriction (IUGR). The study was conducted by the Perinatal Ireland Research Consortium, a nationwide collaborative research network comprising of the seven largest academic obstetric centers in Ireland. ...

In a study to be presented on February 14 between 1:15 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. PST, at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in San Francisco, California, researchers will present data showing changes in elective delivery policy have been successful in reducing elective deliveries prior to 39 weeks. Due to the troubling trend of elective delivery and induction, significant attention has been paid to the neonatal benefits of reducing elective deliveries before 39 weeks, both on the national and institutional level. Elective delivery ...

In a study to be presented on February 14 between 1:15 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. PST, at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in San Francisco, California, researchers will present findings showing perinatal outcomes of frozen/thawed embryo replacement (FER) have better outcomes compared to fresh in vitro fertilization (IVF), but worse outcomes compared to the non-IVF general population. The study collected data from all IVF treatments in Denmark, Norway and Sweden from 1984 – 2007, then cross-linked with the Nordic Medical Birth ...

`In a study to be presented on February 14 between 1:15 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. PST, at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in San Francisco, California, researchers will present data showing the effectiveness of preemptive treatment for hyperemesis gravidarum and severe morning sickness. Hyperemesis gravidarum is a severe form of morning sickness which effects one in 50 pregnant women. HG is marked by persistent nausea and vomiting, and can begin early in the first trimester, continuing well into the second, third or even up ...

In a study to be presented on February 14 between 1:15 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. PST, at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in San Francisco, California, researchers will present data showing racial and ethnic disparities exist for adverse obstetric outcomes. In his study Dr. William Grobman of Northwestern University, presenting for the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, studied 115,502 women over a three year period to see if adverse obstetric outcomes and provisions in obstetric ...

In a study to be presented on February 15 between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. PST, at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in San Francisco, California, researchers from Tufts Medical Center will present findings showing the effects of maternal obesity on a fetus, specifically in the development of the brain. The study, conducted at the Mother Infant Research Institute (MIRI) at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, Mass., looked at the fetal development of 16 pregnant women, eight obese and eight lean, to see what effects maternal obesity ...

In a study to be presented on February 15 between 8 a.m., and 10 a.m. PST, at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in San Francisco, researchers will report findings that women with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and cardiac symptoms have a 31 percent incidence of cardiac dysfunction. The use of echocardiograms should be considered in the clinical management of these women. OSA is characterized by abnormal pauses in breathing or instances of abnormally low breathing, during sleep. These pauses can last from at least ten seconds ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Newly published results from a randomized controlled clinical trial in the Pacific U.S. territory of American Samoa add clear evidence for the emerging idea that community health workers can meaningfully improve type 2 diabetes care in medically underserved communities. In the U.S. territory, 21.5 percent of adults have type 2 diabetes. Meanwhile, 58 percent of families are below the U.S. poverty level. The research team, led by public health researchers from Brown and The Miriam Hospital, wanted to test whether four trained local ...

In a study to be presented on February 15 between 1:15 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. PST, at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in San Francisco, researchers will report findings that suggest that consistent physical activity and healthier lifestyle changes beginning in a woman's first trimester can prevent excessive weight gain in obese pregnant women (with a Body Mass Index greater than 30), helping to avoid preterm delivery, hypertension and gestational diabetes. This randomized study, entitled Occurrence of pregnancy complications ...

In a study to be presented on February 16 between 8 a.m., and 10 a.m. PST, at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in San Francisco, researchers will report findings that suggest shifting from a traditional model of obstetrical care to a laborist model improves pregnancy outcomes. The "laborist" concept has been around for nearly a decade. In this model, obstetricians provide 24-hour a day on-site staffing of labor units. While it has been assumed that laborists improve obstetric care, there had been no studies done to test ...

In a study to be presented on February 16 between 8 a.m., and 10 a.m. PST, at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in San Francisco, researchers will report findings that suggest around-the-clock labor and delivery coverage decreased the odds of cesarean delivery. The objective of the study was to determine if the implementation of "laborists" to provide around-the-clock coverage of labor and delivery would produce better outcomes. The study compared outcomes in hospitals with around-the-clock coverage versus hospitals whose ...

In a study to be presented on February 16 between 8 a.m., and 10 a.m. PST, at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in San Francisco, researchers will report findings that suggest comprehensive maternal hemorrhage protocols reduce utilization of blood products and improve patient safety. A study performed at Dignity Health, the fifth largest health care system in the United States with 31 obstetrical units, showed that the implementation of a standardized comprehensive maternal hemorrhage (CHP) protocol directed towards prevention ...

In a study to be presented on February 16 between 8 a.m., and 10 a.m. PST, at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in San Francisco, researchers will report findings that suggest women whose babies are small-for-gestational-age (SGA) in their first pregnancy have a strongly increased risk for SGA in a second pregnancy. The aim of this study was to assess and describe in detail the incidence of SGA infants and the SGA recurrence rate in general. Additionally, it sought to assess the incidence and recurrence rate of SGA in women ...

New research from the University of Adelaide will rewrite the textbooks on how an ovary is formed, as well as providing new insights into women's health and fertility. The study, now published in the journal PLOS ONE, also names a new type of cell that plays a key role in the development of ovaries and ovarian follicles, which are responsible for the production of eggs in women. The discovery is expected to prompt further studies around the world to better understand how ovaries and ovarian follicles develop in female fetuses. This could be critical to treating or ...

The new study published in Cancer Discovery, the flagship journal of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR), involving three Spanish and six American research centres, presents significant results in treating cancer patients with nanoparticles containing ribonucleic acid interference (RNAi) molecules. This marks the first time that the therapeutic effect of RNAi has been demonstrated in humans. Barcelona, 11 February 2013. A study led by Dr Josep Tabernero, the Director of Clinical Research at the Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) and Head of the ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- MIT engineers have created genetic circuits in bacterial cells that not only perform logic functions, but also remember the results, which are encoded in the cell's DNA and passed on for dozens of generations. The circuits, described in the Feb. 10 online edition of Nature Biotechnology, could be used as long-term environmental sensors, efficient controls for biomanufacturing, or to program stem cells to differentiate into other cell types. "Almost all of the previous work in synthetic biology that we're aware of has either focused on logic components ...

This press release is available in Spanish. Learning more about the behavior of bed bugs is one approach being used by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists to identify compounds to help control these pests. The resurgence of bed bugs over the last decade has caused problems in major U.S. cities where they infest homes, apartments, hotels, shelters and even places of work. The small, blood-feeding insects are not known to transmit diseases, but they can cause severe reactions in people who are allergic to them. Bed bugs usually go unnoticed until their numbers ...

By combining low temperatures and NMR spectroscopy, the scientists visualized seven intermediate forms of the CylR2 protein while cooling it down from 25°C to -16°C. Their results show that the most instable intermediate form plays a key role in protein folding. The scientists' findings may contribute to a better understanding of how proteins adopt their structure and misfold during illness. Whether Alzheimer's, Parkinson's or Huntington's Chorea – all three diseases have one thing in common. They are caused by misfolded proteins that form insoluble clumps in the brains ...

The following highlights summarize research papers that have been recently published in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), Journal of Geophysical Research-Earth Surface (JGR-F), and Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences (JGR-G). In this release: 1. Global climatology of explosive cyclones 2. For U.S. biomes, climate change will decrease vegetative productivity 3. Lightning detected from space can indicate thundercloud height 4. Storminess helps coastal marshes withstand sea level rise 5. How many lakes are there, and how big are they? 6. Characterizing ...

Matter wave interferometry has a long standing tradition at the University of Vienna, where the first quantum interference of large molecules has already been observed in 1999. Nowadays scientists are hunting down evidence for the quantum mechanical behavior of increasingly complex constituents of matter. This is done in experiments in which the flying of each particle seems to obtain information about distinct places in space, which are inaccessible according to classical physics. Synchronised laser flashes for quantum interferometry The quantum nanophysics team around ...

A relatively small number of alcohol brands dominate underage youth alcohol consumption, according to a new report from researchers at the Boston University School of Public Health and the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The report, published online by Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, is the first national study to identify the alcohol brands consumed by underage youth, and has important implications for alcohol research and policy. The top 25 brands accounted for nearly half of youth alcohol ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Like turning coal to diamond, adding pressure to an electrical material enhances its properties. Now, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign researchers have devised a method of making ferroelectric thin films with twice the strain, resulting in exceptional performance. Led by Lane Martin, a professor of materials science and engineering, the group published its results in the journal Advanced Materials. Ferroelectric materials, metal oxides with special polarization properties, are used in a number of advanced electronics applications. When electricity ...