By using a new series of measurements of radiocarbon dates on seasonally laminated sediments from Lake Suigetsu in Japan, a more precise calibration of radiocarbon dating will be possible. In combination with an accurate count of the seasonal layered deposits in the lake, the study resulted in an unprecedented precision of the known 14C method with which it is now possible to date older objects of climate research and archeology more precisely than previously achievable. This is the result published by an international team of geoscientists led by Prof. Christopher Bronk ...

A European team of scientists have built the first atlas of white-matter microstructure in the human brain. The project's final results have the potential to change the face of neuroscience and medicine over the coming decade. The work relied on groundbreaking MRI technology and was funded by the EU's future and emerging technologies program with a grant of 2.4 million Euros. The participants of the project, called CONNECT, were drawn from leading research centers in countries across Europe including Israel, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Denmark, Switzerland and Italy. The ...

The number of children admitted to hospital in England for acute throat infections increased by 76 per cent between 1999 and 2010, according to new research published today in Archives of Disease in Childhood. Acute throat infection (ATI), which includes acute tonsillitis and acute pharyngitis, is one of the most common reasons for consulting a GP. The majority of ATIs are self-limiting and can be managed at home or by the GP, but a small proportion may require hospital admission. This study investigated admission rates for children up to age 17 with ATI alongside ...

VIDEO: The video shows the assembly of a metallic three-dimensional cage, as the nanopatterned film is bent along precisely defined folding lines due to the compressive stress induced by an ion... Click here for more information. The fabrication of many objects, machines, and devices around us rely on the controlled deformation of metals by industrial processes such as bending, shearing, and stamping. Is this technology transferrable to nanoscale? Can we build similarly ...

Athens, Ga. – A national recession doesn't just affect Americans' wallets. It also impacts their travel to national parks, a new University of Georgia study has found. Recent visitation statistics released by the U.S. Department of Interior already noted the significant decrease in national park visitation—dropping nearly 10 million since 1998 to 278 million visitors—but this is the first study to link the drop to a bad economy. The findings could help park managers plan ahead for revenue shortfall and a decrease in visitation, particularly as the economic forecast remains ...

Montreal, October 19, 2012 – Einstein said that we can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking used when we created them. Wise words, except few people heed them when it comes to sustainable solutions for our ailing planet. Despite decades of scientific research into everything from air pollution to species extinction, individuals are slow to act because their passions are not being ignited. For Paul Shrivastava, the Director of the David O'Brien Centre for Sustainable Enterprise at Concordia University's John Molson School of Business (JMSB), combining science ...

This press release is available in Spanish. Aflatoxins are highly toxic carcinogens produced by several species of Aspergillus fungi. But not all Aspergillus produce aflatoxin. Some, in fact, are considered beneficial. One such strain, dubbed K49, is now being recruited to battle these harmful Aspergillus relatives, preventing them from contaminating host crops like corn with the carcinogen. In collaboration with University of Bologna (UB) scientists in Italy, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists Hamed Abbas and Bob Zablotowicz (retired) have devised a new ...

NEW YORK (October 18, 2012)—Scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the American Museum of Natural History, City University of New York, and other organizations have published the first range-wide genetic analysis of the bowhead whale using hundreds of samples from both modern populations and archaeological sites used by indigenous Arctic hunters thousands of years ago. In addition to using DNA samples collected from whales over the past 20 years, the team collected genetic samples from ancient specimens —extracted from old vessels, toys, and housing material ...

Biologists have teamed up with mechanical engineers from the University of Texas at Dallas in cell research that provides information that may one day be used to engineer organs. The research, published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, sheds light into the mechanics of cell, tissue and organ formation. The research revealed basic mechanisms about how a group of bacterial cells can form large three-dimensional structures. "If you want to create an organism, the geometry of how a group of cells self-organizes is crucial," said Dr. Hongbing ...

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Increased concentrations of the pregnancy hormones estradiol and progesterone were associated with an increased risk for hormone receptor-negative breast cancer diagnosed before age 50, according to the results of a nested case-control study presented at the 11th Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, held here Oct. 16-19, 2012. Annekatrin Lukanova, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, Germany, and colleagues examined the effects of hormonal exposure during early ...

ANAHEIM, Calif. —When smoking co-workers in the same team are placed on a cessation program, providing financial incentives to the team collectively in return for success of the smokers in the cessation program helped the smokers to quit smoking and remain abstinent for 12 months, according to data presented at the 11th Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, held here Oct. 16-19, 2012. Sang Haak Lee, M.D., Ph.D., pulmonologist and professor of medicine at St. Paul's Hospital and the Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine, ...

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Blood hormone tests predicted a woman's risk for developing postmenopausal breast cancer for up to 20 years, according to data from the Nurses' Health Study presented at the 11th Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, held here Oct. 16-19, 2012. "We found that a single hormone level was associated with breast cancer risk for at least 16 to 20 years among postmenopausal women not using postmenopausal hormones," said Xuehong Zhang, M.D., an epidemiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital and an instructor in medicine ...

ANAHEIM, Calif. — An oral green tea extract, Polyphenon E, appears to inhibit vascular endothelial growth factor and hepatocyte growth factor, both of which promote tumor cell growth, migration and invasion. Researchers made this discovery during a secondary analysis of a phase Ib randomized, placebo-controlled study of Polyphenon E in a group of 40 women with hormone receptor-negative breast cancer. Katherine D. Crew, M.D., assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, N.Y., presented the data at the 11th Annual AACR ...

San Diego, CA (October 18, 2012) – Research being presented at IDWeek 2012™ shows that a specific spectrum of ultraviolet light killed certain drug-resistant bacteria on the door handles, bedside tables and other surfaces of hospital rooms, suggesting a possible future weapon in the battle to reduce hospital-associated infections. Researchers at Duke University Medical Center and the University of North Carolina Hospital System used short-wave ultraviolet radiation (UV-C) to nearly eliminate Acinetobacter, Clostridium difficile or vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) ...

San Diego, CA (October 18, 2012) – A study involving one of the nation's largest networks of pediatric practices was able to nearly halve the inappropriate use of antibiotics through quarterly monitoring and feedback of the physicians' prescribing patterns. The research, which is being presented at IDWeek, is one of the first to look at an antimicrobial stewardship intervention in the outpatient setting. Although efforts to cut the overuse of antibiotics have made headway in hospitals, the majority of prescriptions are written by community-based clinicians—often for pediatric ...

Highlights A drug that activates the liver x receptor blocks expression of an inflammatory molecule involved in diabetic nephropathy, the leading cause of kidney failure. The drug improves kidney health and function in diabetic mice. Such a drug might help protect the health of diabetic patients' kidneys. About 20%-30% of patients with diabetes develop evidence of diabetic nephropathy. Washington, DC (October 18, 2012) — Researchers have discovered a new therapeutic target for diabetic nephropathy, the leading cause of kidney failure. The findings, appearing ...

Highlights Kidney failure patients have less sugar coating along the insides of their blood vessels, and they have high levels of the coating's constituents in the blood, consistent with increased shedding. Damage to this sugar coating may be responsible for kidney failure patients' increased risks of heart problems. Heart disease is the number one killer of individuals with kidney disease. Washington, DC (October 18, 2012) — Individuals with kidney failure often develop heart problems, but it's not clear why. A study appearing in an upcoming issue of the ...

Highlights From suspensions of single kidney cells, researchers have constructed "organoids" that can carry out kidney functions when implanted into a living animal. The advance marks a considerable step toward the goal of engineering kidney tissues suitable for transplantation. Tissue engineering of kidneys could help alleviate the shortage of kidneys for transplantation. Washington, DC (October 18, 2012) — With a worldwide shortage of kidneys for patients who need kidney transplants, researchers are diligently working to find ways to engineer new kidney ...

A new series of radiocarbon measurements from Japan's Lake Suigetsu will give scientists a more accurate benchmark for dating materials, especially for older objects, according to a research team that included Oxford University's Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit. The research team extracted cores of beautifully preserved layers of sediment, containing organic material (such as tree leaf and twig fossils), from the bottom of the Japanese lake where they had lain undisturbed for tens of thousands of years. As an article in the journal Science explains, the findings are hugely ...

A new series of radiocarbon measurements from Japan's Lake Suigetsu should help make radiocarbon dating more precise and accurate, especially for older objects, researchers report. The work could be used to refine estimates of the ages of organic material by hundreds of years. Archaeologists, for example, may be able to further specify the timing of the extinction of Neandertals or the spread of modern humans into Europe. And, climate scientists may better understand the chains of events that led to the advance and retreat of the ice sheets during the last glacial period. The ...

Up to 21% of herds clearing restrictions for bovine Tuberculosis (bTB) in Great Britain may be harbouring infection, according to a study published in PLOS Computational Biology this week. A cross-disciplinary group of experts in the Disease Dynamics Unit, University of Cambridge and the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency has used mathematical models to provide the first empirical estimates of the efficiency of cattle-based controls for bovine tuberculosis (bTB). These models were developed to help policy-makers understand and control bTB as part of a project ...

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – An team of Rutgers University scientists led by Richard H. Ebright and Eddy Arnold has determined the three-dimensional structure of the transcription initiation complex, the key intermediate in the process by which cells read out genetic information in DNA. In a paper to be published in Science and released online today at Science Express, the Rutgers scientists show how the "molecular machine" responsible for transcription initiation – a protein complex that consists of the enzyme RNA polymerase and the initiation factor sigma – recognizes a specific ...

An international research group led by scientists from the University of Bristol and the Universities of Glasgow (UK) and Sun Yat-sen and Fudan in China, have demonstrated integrated arrays of emitters of so call 'optical vortex beams' onto a silicon chip. The work is featured on the cover of the latest issue of Science magazine, published tomorrow [19 October 2012]. Contradicting traditional conception, light in such beams does not propagate in straight rays. Instead, its energy travels in a spiral fashion in a hollow conical beam shape. The beams therefore look very ...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- A team of researchers from the University of Florida department of chemistry has developed a new technique for growing new materials from nanorods. Materials with enhanced properties engineered from nanostructures have the potential to revolutionize the marketplace in everything from data processing to human medicine. However, attempts to assemble nanoscale objects into sophisticated structures have been largely unsuccessful. The UF study represents a major breakthrough in the field, showing how thermodynamic forces can be used to manipulate growth ...

A hospital stroke team used auto industry "lean" manufacturing principles to accelerate treatment times, according to new research in the American Heart Association's journal Stroke. In a prospective observational study, the average time between patients arriving at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Mo., and receiving the clot-busting agent tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), decreased 21 minutes using process improvement techniques adapted from auto manufacturing. Data from more than 200 patients was included in the study analysis, ranging over 3 years. The shorter ...