Enjoying Spanish participation, an international group of researchers have analysed the most recent history of the Alhama de Murcia fault. They discovered that it has experienced six major earthquakes above 7 on the Richter scale. According to the scientists, this provides "convincing evidence" that the maximum earthquake magnitudes in the area are higher than originally thought. Since 2001, researchers from the Universities of Barcelona, Leon, Complutense de Madrid (UCM), Coimbra (Portugal), Aahus (Denmark) and the National Autonomous University of Mexico have been working ...

This press release is available in German. Microbiologists and geochemists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, along with their colleagues from Vienna and Mainz, show that marine methane oxidation coupled to sulfate respiration can be performed by a single microorganism, a member of the ancient kingdom of the Archaea, and does not need to be carried out in collaboration with a bacterium, as previously thought. They published their discovery as an article in the renowned scientific journal Nature. Vast amounts of methane are stored under the ocean ...

It is often assumed that those on low incomes and with low levels of education are overly represented in the major increase in obesity of recent decades. A new thesis from the Lund University School of Economics and Management, Sweden, shows that obesity is increasing across all social groups and that we need to look at factors other than socioeconomic status to understand and solve one of the major public health concerns of the Western world. Åsa Ljungvall, a researcher in economics at the Lund University School of Economics and Management, has studied the increase ...

A new study has found Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) patients given a new type of 'smart drug' in addition to chemotherapy treatment are 22 per cent less likely to relapse and around 13 per cent less likely to die from their disease. The results are from a major phase III Cancer Research UK-funded trial led by Cardiff University. Of the 1,115 patients who took part in the trial, 68 per cent relapsed on the new treatment within three years, compared with 76 per cent of those who had the standard treatment. And 25 per cent were still alive after three years, compared with ...

Those individuals who work outdoors with resultant sun exposure are at increased risk for non-melanoma skin cancers, such as squamous cell carcinoma and basal cell carcinoma. Manigé Fartasch shows that the connection between occupational UV exposure and squamous cell carcinoma is now well-established in her review article in issue 43 of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2012; 109(43): 715−20). The results are less clear for basal cell carcinoma, another form of non-melanoma skin cancer. Skin cancers caused by UV light have not yet been considered ...

Delivery at any time before the 39th week of gestation increases the risk of postnatal problems and mortality. A team of authors headed by Christian F. Poets has analyzed mortality and morbidity data from epidemiological studies of infants born between two and six weeks preterm, comparing them with infants born at full term. They present their findings in issue 43 of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2012; 109(43): 721−6). As a rule, elective Cesarean sections are performed somewhat before full term, in order to prevent spontaneous delivery. However, ...

CHICAGO (November 12, 2012) – In the December issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, guidelines have been proposed by epidemiologists from Beaumont Health System to reduce the risk of infection from contaminated gels. The recommendations are based on the authors' own experiences with an outbreak traced to contaminated ultrasound transmission gel. In December 2011, researchers uncovered an unusual cluster of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in a cardiovascular surgery intensive care unit during routine ...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Last year a clinical trial of L-DOPA -- a mainstay of Parkinson's disease therapy -- was launched for Angelman syndrome, a rare intellectual disorder that shares similar motor symptoms such as tremors and difficulty with balance. The clinical trial is based on a 10-year-old case report showing benefit with the drug, but few studies since have explored the neurological justification for using L-DOPA to treat parkinsonian features in Angelman syndrome. New research from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, conducted in animal models ...

CHICAGO (November 12, 2012) – According to a new study published online today, most patients at risk for healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) agree that healthcare workers should be reminded to wash their hands, but little more than half would feel comfortable asking their physicians to wash. The study is published in the December issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. The study points to the need for patient empowerment to improve hand hygiene of healthcare workers. Researchers from ...

PHILADELPHIA — The simultaneous inhibition of two separate and seemingly unrelated pathways could potentially provide an effective treatment for women with triple-negative breast cancer, according to results of two studies published in the November issue of Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. Triple-negative breast cancers do not express three common targets of breast cancer treatments: the estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor and HER2/neu. As a result, women with triple-negative breast cancer have few treatment options. In ...

Rapid mutation has long been considered a key to viral adaptation to environmental change. But in the case of the coronavirus responsible for deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), collaborating researchers at the University of North Carolina and Vanderbilt University have found that accelerating the rate of mutations cripples the virus's ability to cause disease in animals. In addition, they say this finding may allow scientists to explore a new option for creating safer live vaccines. A collaborative study, published Nov. 11 in Nature Medicine, demonstrates ...

An international team of scientists working at the Plasma Technology research unit at Ghent University, Belgium, has determined for the first time the absolute density of active substances called radicals found in a state of matter known as plasma, in a study about to be published in EPJ D. These findings could have important implications for medicine—for example, for stimulating tissue regeneration, or to induce a targeted antiseptic effect in vivo without affecting neighbouring tissues. Qing Xiong and colleagues utilised laser fluorescence spectroscopy (LIF), a detection ...

DURHAM, N.C. – In the first broad genetic landscape mapped of a Burkitt lymphoma tumor, scientists at Duke Medicine and their collaborators identified 70 mutations, including several that had not previously been associated with cancer and a new one that was unique to the disease. Findings from the genetic sequencing of Burkitt lymphoma, an aggressive form of lymphoma, could be used to develop new drugs or aim existing therapies at mutations known to be susceptible. The researchers published their findings online Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012, in the journal Nature Genetics. "This ...

Philadelphia, November 12, 2012 – A new article being published early online in Annals of Internal Medicine describes the diagnosis and treatment protocol established in a Roanoke, Va. hospital to care for dozens of patients presenting with suspected fungal meningitis related to contaminated epidural spinal injections. This unprecedented surge of patients seeking care for a rare central nervous system (CNS) infection required physicians to react quickly with little data to guide treatment decisions. The authors suggest that the data collected from these cases may fill information ...

PITTSBURGH, Nov. 12, 2012 – A new study published online today in Nature Genetics reveals a genetic link between chronic pancreatitis and alcohol consumption. Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and more than 25 other health centers across the United States found a genetic variant on chromosome X near the claudin-2 gene (CLDN2) that predicts which men who are heavy drinkers are at high risk of developing chronic pancreatitis. This finding enables doctors to identify people with early signs of pancreatitis or an attack of acute pancreatitis ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Doctors who commit suicide appear to be under-treated for mental health problems, despite their seemingly good access to health care, a new University of Michigan study shows. Although more physicians than non-physicians in the study had known mental health problems prior to suicide, this didn't translate into a higher rate of antidepressant use, according to the study, which appears in General Hospital Psychiatry and provides a deeper look at why physicians may have a higher-than-average suicide rate. Major depression is a known risk factor for ...

AUGUSTA, Ga. – The precision and three-dimensional view provided by robots can enable essentially scar-free surgery for some women needing hysterectomies, physicians report. The case report in the Journal of Minimal Access Surgery is of a 46-year-old physically fit female with a history of excessive bleeding and benign growths on her uterus. Her surgery was performed through a two inch-long incision in the belly button, the thinnest part of the abdomen, using the robotic arms in a "chopstick" fashion, said Dr. John R. Lue, Chief of the Medical College of Georgia Section ...

Tel Aviv University researchers have uncovered a unique 11th century BCE sacred compound at the site of Tel Beth-Shemesh, an ancient village that resisted the aggressive expansion of neighboring Philistines. The newly discovered sacred complex is comprised of an elevated, massive circular stone structure and an intricately constructed building characterized by a row of three flat, large round stones. Co-directors of the dig Prof. Shlomo Bunimovitz and Dr. Zvi Lederman of TAU's Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology say that this temple complex is unparalleled, ...

Bethesda, MD – The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) is rallying the biomedical research community to advocate against devastating funding cuts facing the nation's research agencies unless Congress acts before the end of the year. Under sequestration, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) could lose $2.8 billion and would fund 25 percent (2,300) fewer grants. The National Science Foundation (NSF) could be cut by nearly $600 million. More than 5,800 emails have been sent to Congress in response to a FASEB e-action alert urging individuals ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A new study conducted by researchers at Hasbro Children's Hospital, the Center for Injury Research and Policy of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Fairfax (VA) County Public Schools, and Boston Children's Hospital has found that high school field hockey players competing in states with mandated protective eyewear have significantly lower rates of head, eye, and facial injuries when compared to players who compete in states without protective eyewear mandates. Each academic year, an estimated 63,000 girls participate in high ...

International researchers, including a team at McGill University, have discovered a new cause for thyroid hormone deficiency, or hypothyroidism. This common endocrine disorder is typically caused by problems of the thyroid gland, and more rarely, by defects in the brain or the pituitary gland (hypophysis). However, a new cause of the disease has been discovered from an unsuspected source and is reported in the journal Nature Genetics. The scientists, led by McGill Professor Daniel Bernard, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics in the Faculty of Medicine, identified ...

"Pennsylvania has opened up its doors to fracking in ways that many other states in the U.S. have not," said David Dausey, Ph.D., chair of the Mercyhurst University Public Health Department. "We don't know enough about the environmental and human health effects of fracking and, as a result, Pennsylvania has become the home of experimental fracking." Dausey discusses his concerns in this month's episode of The Dausey File: Public Health News Today. Hydraulic fracturing or fracking is a controversial method to extract natural gas or petroleum from subterranean shale ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (November 12, 2012) – For elderly patients receiving home healthcare after a hospital stay, "social environmental factors"—particularly care provided by a family member or other informal caregiver—have a significant impact on the risk of repeated hospital admissions, reports a study in the October-December issue of Advances in Nursing Science. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part ofWolters Kluwer Health. "Understanding how social environmental factors contribute to home healthcare patients being rehospitalized would be ...

LAGOS, Nigeria – Fifteen science academies of Africa issued a joint statement in Lagos, Nigeria, today calling on the African scientific community to intensify its study of the impact of climate change. Noting that Africa's contribution of scientific information to understanding climate change has been "meagre" to date, the statement calls for African researchers to step up their observation, modeling, and analyses of the effects of climate change on a regional scale, and to help plan interventions to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change on the continent. ...

Philadelphia, PA—Scientists have estimated that there are 1.7 million species of animals, plants and algae on earth, and new species continue to be discovered. Unfortunately, as new species are found, many are also disappearing, contributing to a net decrease in biodiversity. The more diversity there is in a population, the longer the ecosystem can sustain itself. Hence, biodiversity is key to ecosystem resilience. Disease, destruction of habitats, pollution, chemical and pesticide use, increased UV-B radiation, and even the presence of new species are some of the causes ...