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Science7 Dec 2012

New study sheds light on how Salmonella spreads in the body

Findings of Cambridge scientists, published today in the journal PLoS Pathogens, show a new mechanism used by bacteria to spread in the body with the potential to identify targets to prevent the dissemination of the infection process. Salmonella enterica is a major threat to public health, causing systemic diseases (typhoid and paratyphoid fever), gastroenteritis and non-typhoidal septicaemia (NTS) in humans and in many animal species worldwide. In the natural infection, salmonellae are typically acquired from the environment by oral ingestion of contaminated water ...

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Medicine7 Dec 2012

Neuroscientists prove ultrasound can be tweaked to stimulate different sensations

A century after the world's first ultrasonic detection device – invented in response to the sinking of the Titanic – Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute scientists have provided the first neurophysiological evidence for something that researchers have long suspected: ultrasound applied to the periphery, such as the fingertips, can stimulate different sensory pathways leading to the brain. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. The discovery carries implications for diagnosing and treating neuropathy, which affects millions of people around the world. "Ideally, ...

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Science7 Dec 2012

Researchers craft tool to minimize threat of endocrine disruptors in new chemicals

Researchers from North Carolina State University, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and a host of other institutions have developed a safety testing system to help chemists design inherently safer chemicals and processes. The innovative "TiPED" testing system (Tiered Protocol for Endocrine Disruption) stems from a cross-disciplinary collaboration among scientists, and can be applied at different phases of the chemical design process. The goal of the system is to help steer companies away from inadvertently creating harmful products, and thus avoid ...

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Medicine7 Dec 2012

Autistic adults report significant shortcomings in their health care

PORTLAND, Ore. — Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) have found that adults with autism, who represent about 1 percent of the adult population in the United States, report significantly worse health care experiences than their non-autistic counterparts. "Like other adults, adults on the autism spectrum need to use health care services to prevent and treat illness. As a primary care provider, I know that our health care system is not always set up to offer high-quality care to adults on the spectrum; however, I was saddened to see how large the disparities ...

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Science7 Dec 2012

Unlocking the genetic mysteries behind stillbirth

Galveston, Texas — Stillbirth is a tragedy that occurs in one of every 160 births in the United States. Compounding the sadness for many families, the standard medical test used to examine fetal chromosomes often can't pin down what caused their baby to die in utero. In most cases, the cause of the stillbirth is not immediately known. The traditional way to determine what happened is to examine the baby's chromosomes using a technique called karyotyping. This method leaves much to be desired because, in many cases, it fails to provide any result at all. Today, some 25 to ...

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Technology7 Dec 2012

Different genes behind same adaptation to thin air

Highlanders in Tibet and Ethiopia share a biological adaptation that enables them to thrive in the low oxygen of high altitudes, but the ability to pass on the trait appears to be linked to different genes in the two groups, research from a Case Western Reserve University scientist and colleagues shows. The adaptation is the ability to maintain a relatively low (for high altitudes) level of hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying protein in red blood cells. Members of ethnic populations - such as most Americans - who historically live at low altitudes naturally respond to the ...

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Science7 Dec 2012

Deception can be perfected

EVANSTON, Ill. --- With a little practice, one could learn to tell a lie that may be indistinguishable from the truth. New Northwestern University research shows that lying is more malleable than previously thought, and with a certain amount of training and instruction, the art of deception can be perfected. People generally take longer and make more mistakes when telling lies than telling the truth, because they are holding two conflicting answers in mind and suppressing the honest response, previous research has shown. Consequently, researchers in the present study ...

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Science7 Dec 2012

Gladstone scientists discover novel mechanism by which calorie restriction influences longevity

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—December 6, 2012—Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have identified a novel mechanism by which a type of low-carb, low-calorie diet—called a "ketogenic diet"—could delay the effects of aging. This fundamental discovery reveals how such a diet could slow the aging process and may one day allow scientists to better treat or prevent age-related diseases, including heart disease, Alzheimer's disease and many forms of cancer. As the aging population continues to grow, age-related illnesses have become increasingly common. Already in the United States, ...

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Medicine7 Dec 2012

Attitudes predict ability to follow post-treatment advice

SAN ANTONIO, TX (December 6, 2012)—Women are more likely to follow experts' advice on how to reduce their risk of an important side effect of breast cancer surgery—like lymphedema—if they feel confident in their abilities and know how to manage stress, according to new research from Fox Chase Cancer Center to be presented at the 2012 CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium on Saturday, December 8, 2012. These findings suggest that clinicians must do more than just inform women of the ways they should change their behavior, says Suzanne M. Miller, PhD, Professor ...

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Science7 Dec 2012

Seeing in color at the nanoscale

If nanoscience were television, we'd be in the 1950s. Although scientists can make and manipulate nanoscale objects with increasingly awesome control, they are limited to black-and-white imagery for examining those objects. Information about nanoscale chemistry and interactions with light—the atomic-microscopy equivalent to color—is tantalizingly out of reach to all but the most persistent researchers. But that may all change with the introduction of a new microscopy tool from researchers at the Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley ...

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Social Science7 Dec 2012

Notre Dame research reveals migrating Great Lakes salmon carry contaminants upstream

Be careful what you eat, says University of Notre Dame stream ecologist Gary Lamberti. If you're catching and eating fish from a Lake Michigan tributary with a strong salmon run, the stream fish — brook trout, brown trout, panfish — may be contaminated by pollutants carried in by the salmon. Research by Lamberti, professor and chair of biology, and his laboratory has revealed that salmon, as they travel upstream to spawn and die, carry industrial pollutants into Great Lakes streams and tributaries. The research was recently published in the journal Environmental Science ...

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Science7 Dec 2012

Silver nanocubes make super light absorbers

DURHAM, N.C. -- Microscopic metallic cubes could unleash the enormous potential of metamaterials to absorb light, leading to more efficient and cost-effective large-area absorbers for sensors or solar cells, Duke University researchers have found. Metamaterials are man-made materials that have properties often absent in natural materials. They are constructed to provide exquisite control over the properties of waves, such as light. Creating these materials for visible light is still a technological challenge that has traditionally been achieved by lithography, in which ...

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Space7 Dec 2012

NASA compiles Typhoon Bopha's Philippines Rainfall totals from space

NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, or TRMM satellite can estimate rainfall rates from its orbit in space, and its data is also used to compile estimated rainfall totals. NASA just released an image showing those rainfall totals over the Philippines, where severe flooding killed several hundred people. Bopha is now a tropical storm in the South China Sea. High winds, flooding and landslides from heavy rains with Typhoon Bopha have caused close to 300 deaths in the southern Philippines. The TRMM satellite's primary mission is the measurement of rainfall in the ...

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Medicine7 Dec 2012

UC Davis study shows that treadmill testing can predict heart disease in women

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Although there is a widespread belief among physicians that the exercise treadmill test (ETT) is not reliable in evaluating the heart health of women, UC Davis researchers have found that the test can accurately predict coronary artery disease in women over the age of 65. They also found that two specific electrocardiogram (EKG) indicators of heart stress during an ETT further enhanced its predictive power. Published in the December issue of The American Journal of Cardiology, the study can help guide cardiologists in making the treadmill test ...

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Medicine7 Dec 2012

TGen-US Oncology data guides treatment of metastatic triple-negative breast cancer patients

PHOENIX, Ariz. — Dec. 6, 2012 — Genomic sequencing has revealed therapeutic drug targets for difficult-to-treat, metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), according to an unprecedented study by the Translational Genomic Research Institute (TGen) and US Oncology Research. The study is published by the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics and is currently available online. By sequencing, or spelling out, the billions of letters contained in the genomes of 14 tumors from ethnically diverse metastatic TNBC patients, TGen and US Oncology Research investigators found ...

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Medicine7 Dec 2012

General thoracic surgeons emerge as leading providers of complex, noncardiac thoracic surgery

While thoracic surgeons are traditionally known as the experts who perform heart surgeries, a UC Davis study has found that general thoracic surgeons, especially those at academic health centers, perform the vast majority of complex noncardiac operations, including surgeries of the esophagus and lungs. The authors said their results, published in the October issue of The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, support the designation of general thoracic surgery as a distinct specialty, which will benefit patients when selecting surgeons for specific procedures. "In years past, ...

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Space7 Dec 2012

Apollo's lunar dust data being restored

Forty years after the last Apollo spacecraft launched, the science from those missions continues to shape our view of the moon. In one of the latest developments, readings from the Apollo 14 and 15 dust detectors have been restored by scientists with the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "This is the first look at the fully calibrated, digital dust data from the Apollo 14 and 15 missions," said David Williams, a Goddard scientist and data specialist at NSSDC, NASA's permanent archive for space science mission ...

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Science7 Dec 2012

December 2012 Story Tips

DISASTER RESPONSE – Limiting access . . . Ensuring that only people who have legitimate business are allowed to enter areas hit by floods, hurricanes or other disasters is a big challenge, but Credentialing 2.0 offers a software solution. "Obviously, first responders, utility crews, tree cutters, disaster relief workers and members of the media have reasons to be on the scene, but there's no efficient way to control access," said Oak Ridge National Laboratory's David Resseguie, who leads the Credentialing 2.0 development team. The ORNL system helps officials to control ...

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Medicine7 Dec 2012

Combining two genome analysis approaches supports immune system contribution to autism

Researchers using novel approaches and methodologies of identifying genes that contribute to the development of autism have found evidence that disturbances in several immune-system-related pathways contribute to development of autism spectrum disorders. The report published December 4 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE powerfully supports a role for the immune function in autism by integrating analysis of autism-associated DNA sequence variations with that of markers identified in studies of families affected by autism. "Others have talked about immune function contributions ...

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Environment7 Dec 2012

Tiny structure gives big boost to solar power

Princeton researchers have found a simple and economic way to nearly triple the efficiency of organic solar cells, the cheap and flexible plastic devices that many scientists believe could be the future of solar power. The researchers, led by electrical engineer Stephen Chou, were able to increase the efficiency 175 percent by using a nanostructured "sandwich" of metal and plastic that collects and traps light. Chou said the technology also should increase the efficiency of conventional inorganic solar collectors, such as standard silicon solar panels, although he cautioned ...

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Science7 Dec 2012

Valuable tool for predicting pain genes in people

Scientists in Australia and Austria have described a "network map" of genes involved in pain perception, with remarkable similarity from fruit flies to people. The work should help identify new analgesic drugs. Dr Greg Neely from the Garvan institute of Medical Research in Sydney and Professor Josef Penninger from the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna had previously screened the 14,000 genes in the fly genome and identified 580 genes identified with heat perception. In the current study, using a database from the US National Centre for Biotechnology Information, ...

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Science7 Dec 2012

Severe acute kidney injuries rise rapidly nationwide

Severe acute kidney injuries are becoming more common in the United States, rising 10 percent per year and doubling over the last decade, according to a retrospective study at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). The study, to be published online this week in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, analyzed information from a national database that monitors all causes of hospitalizations and used this data to estimate the total number of acute kidney injuries in the United States that were severe enough to require a patient to be placed on dialysis. ...

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Medicine7 Dec 2012

Fasting may benefit patients with epilepsy, Johns Hopkins Children's Center study suggests

Children with persistent and drug-resistant seizures treated with the high-fat, low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet may get an added therapeutic benefit from periodic fasting, according to a small Johns Hopkins Children's Center study. The results, published online Dec. 3 in the journal Epilepsy Research, suggest the ketogenic diet and fasting can work in tandem to reduce seizures but appear do so through different mechanisms -- a finding that challenges the longstanding assumption that the two share a common mechanism. "Our findings suggest that fasting does not merely ...

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Science7 Dec 2012

Paradox of aging: The older we get, the better we feel?

Presently, there are about 40 million Americans over the age of 65, with the fastest-growing segment of the population over 80 years old. Traditionally, aging has been viewed as a period of progressive decline in physical, cognitive and psychosocial functioning, and aging is viewed by many as the "number one public health problem" facing Americans today. But this negative view of aging contrasts with results of a comprehensive study of 1,006 older adults in San Diego by researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Stanford University. ...

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Medicine7 Dec 2012

New IDSA guidelines aim to reduce death, disability, and cost of prosthetic joint infections

[EMBARGOED FOR DEC. 7, 2012, ARLINGTON, Va.] – Of the one million people each year who get hips and knees replaced, as many as 20,000 will get an infection in the new joint, a number that is expected to skyrocket in the next 20 years. Multispecialty physician teams need to work together to reduce disability, death and costs associated with the ever-growing number of these prosthetic joint infections, note the first guidelines on the topic being released by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). "There are very few things that improve quality of life as much ...

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