A new approach for generating large numbers of circulatory system cells, known as vascular endothelial cells (VECs), from human amniotic-fluid-derived cells (ACs) is reported in a study published by Cell Press October 18th in the journal Cell. The strategy, which shows promise in mice, opens the door to establishing a vast inventory of VECs for promoting organ regeneration and treating diverse vascular disorders. "Currently, there is no treatment available for a broad range of patients with vascular diseases, including patients who have suffered heart attack, stroke, ...

CHICAGO – In a study that included more than 300 Medicare-certified nursing homes, rates of hospitalization and death were substantially increased during outbreaks of norovirus gastroenteritis vs. non-outbreak periods, according to a study appearing in the October 24/31 issue of JAMA. The study is being published early online to coincide with its presentation at the ID (infectious disease) Week meeting. "In the United States, nursing homes annually provide care to approximately 3.3 million residents' and 22 percent of all deaths occur in these settings. Gastroenteritis ...

Histones are proteins needed to assemble DNA molecules into chromosomes. They have long represented a classic balancing act in biology; too few histone molecules result in DNA damage, while too many histones are toxic to the cell. New research at the University of Rochester is causing a fundamental shift in the concept of histone balance and the mechanism behind it. Previous studies of Drosophila embryos showed massive amounts of histones located on lipid droplets, the structures associated with fat storage. While it had been speculated that the lipid droplets provide ...

To transport substances from the site of their production to their destination, the body needs a sophisticated transport and sorting system. Various receptors in and on the cells recognize certain molecules, pack them and ensure that they are transported to the right place. One of these receptors is Sortilin. It is present in the cells of the nervous system, the liver, and the immune system. Studies by Stefanie Herda and Dr. Armin Rehm (Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, MDC, Berlin-Buch and Charité–Universitätsmedizin Berlin) and the immunologist Dr. Uta Höpken ...

Braunschweig/ Leipzig. An interdisciplinary team of 11 scientists from seven European countries and the USA have discussed the concept to utilize so called surplus land for the production of feedstock for bioenergy. They identified environmental, economic and social constraints but also options for efficient use of surplus land for bioenergy. The study provides a scientific background in support of a reassessment of land available for bioenergy feedstock production. Their findings were published in the open access journal BioRisk. Increasing demand for bioenergy feedstock ...

A newly released IOF report for World Osteoporosis Day, 'Capture the Fracture – A global campaign to break the fragility fracture cycle', clearly outlines the care gap which is leaving millions of fracture patients undiagnosed and without treatment for osteoporosis or assessment for falls risk. IOF CEO Judy Stenmark stated, "An adult who has experienced a first fragility fracture – often at the wrist or vertebrae – is at double the risk of having a fracture as compared to someone who hasn't fractured. Despite this red flag indicating osteoporosis and high risk of subsequent ...

WHAT: When tested in patients hospitalized with extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) unresponsive to previous treatment, linezolid, an antibiotic used to treat severe bacterial infections, proved largely effective when added to the patients' ongoing TB treatment regimen. Also, few patients developed resistance to the drug. These promising findings were tempered, however, by the fact that 82 percent of the patients who received linezolid experienced significant adverse events that may have been related to the drug. Findings from the study appear in the ...

PULLMAN, Wash. - A Washington State University researcher has found that engaging elementary school students in science for as little as 10 hours a year can lead to improved test scores in math and language arts. Samantha Gizerian, a clinical assistant professor in WSU's Department of Veterinary and Comparative Anatomy, Pharmacology and Physiology, saw improved test scores among fourth-grade students in South Los Angeles after students from the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science gave 10 one-hour presentations on science. "A lot of students say things like, ...

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY'S HAAS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS –The last few months leading up to an election can be a critical, political game changer. One right or one wrong move can quickly change a candidate's standing at the polls. New research suggests that judges who are elected, rather than appointed, respond to this political pressure by handing down more severe criminal sentences – as much as 10 percent longer –in the last three months before an election compared with the beginning of their terms. "We can't say if more severe sentencing is better for society or ...

Non-infected babies born to HIV positive mothers should be vaccinated early against measles, to avoid them acquiring the virus or passing it on to others. A study published in the November issue of Acta Paediatrica found that even if babies are born without HIV, their maternally derived protection against measles may be impaired by their mother's positive HIV status. "The eradication of measles is high on the agendas of the World Health Organization and other international agencies and it is important to define and target any new group of susceptible infants" says ...

Almost 500 international experts have worked together to develop a ranking system of the ten most important phytopathogenic fungi on a scientific and economic level. The rice blast fungus (Magnaporthe oryzae) sits at the top of the list. A survey conducted on 495 international researchers resulted in a list contaning the most important phytopathogenic fungi. Each researcher chose three that they thought to be most significant and the most voted then formed the list. Said list has been published in the journal Molecular Plant Pathology and each one of the species mentioned ...

Researchers at the University of Leeds have identified a crucial stage in the lifecycle of simple viruses like polio and the common cold that could open a new front in the war on viral disease. The team are the first to observe at a single-molecule level how the genetic material (genome) that forms the core of a single-strand RNA virus particle packs itself into its outer shell of proteins. Lead researcher Professor Peter Stockley said their results overturn accepted thinking about the process and could open a chink in the armour of a wide range of viruses. "If we can ...

UK scientists hope that lymphoma patients could benefit from a new drug that triggers the cancer-fighting properties of the body's own immune system, after highly promising early laboratory results. The University of Manchester researchers, who were funded by the charity Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, have shown that, when used in conjunction with radiotherapy, the new drug is potentially four times more likely to lead to long-term survival than radiotherapy alone. Relapse is a common fate for many lymphoma patients and new treatments are desperately needed. The new ...

A University of British Columbia and Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics (CMMT) study has revealed that childhood poverty, stress as an adult, and demographics such as age, sex and ethnicity, all leave an imprint on a person's genes. And, that this imprint could play a role in our immune response. The study was published last week in a special volume of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that looks at how experiences beginning before birth and in the years after can affect the course of a person's life. Known as epigenetics, or the study ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. ­—The Pulitzer Prize in Journalism is one of the world's most prestigious awards. Despite progress in the last few decades, gender disparities in the field of journalism have existed as long as the profession has. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has found that female Pulitzer Prize winners are more likely to have greater qualifications than their male counterparts in order to win the coveted award. In a study to be published in Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Yong Volz, an assistant professor of journalism studies in the MU School of ...

Parents need to be good role models to help their children make sensible financial decisions, according to Adam Hancock and his team, from East Carolina University in the US. Their work highlights that parents who argue about finances contribute to increasing credit card debt among their children during their student years. Their work is published online in Springer's Journal of Family and Economic Issues. Credit card debt among college students has been a growing concern for researchers and policymakers over the last decade. In addition, there is growing concern among ...

A sociologist of religion from the University of Copenhagen has interviewed 21 young patients diagnosed with a life-threatening cancer about their religious beliefs. She concludes that a cancer diagnosis will not make young people, who are not religious already, turn to religion. But it can confirm already existing beliefs. "My research shows that young cancer patients' views on existential issues show consistency before and after the diagnosis: Their faith and their religious practices remain the same. However, the beliefs they already had can be confirmed and strengthened ...

Combat-ready spikes which shoot from fingers sounds like the weaponry of a comic book hero, but a Japanese scientist has found exactly this in a rare breed of frog. The discovery, which is published in the Journal of Zoology, reveals how the Otton frog uses spikes which protrude from a false thumb for both combat and mating. The study, conducted by Dr Noriko Iwai from the University of Tokyo, focused on the Otton frog (Babina subaspera), whose habitat is the Amami islands of Southern Japan. Unlike most other frogs the Otton has an extra digit-like structure, a trait it ...

U.S. Forest Service and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) scientists have found that rising levels of ozone, a greenhouse gas, may amplify the impacts of higher temperatures and reduce streamflow from forests to rivers, streams, and other water bodies. Such effects could potentially reduce water supplies available to support forest ecosystems and people in the southeastern United States. Impacts of ozone, a global scale pollutant, on forests are not well understood at a large scale. This modeling study indicates that current and projected increases in ozone in the ...

New Rochelle, NY, October 18, 2012—Despite efforts to reduce disparities in breastfeeding, only 44% of African-American women report that they breastfeed compared with 66 and 68% of Hispanic and white women, respectively. According to UNICEF, there is a 14-fold difference in survival rates in the first 6 months, in developing countries, between children who have been breastfed exclusively and non-breastfed children. These disparities in breastfeeding and other key challenges and opportunities in the ongoing mission to encourage and support breastfeeding are discussed in ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (October 18, 2012) - An ongoing program is developing new tools for assessing health care quality from the most important viewpoint—that of the patient receiving care, according to a special supplement to Medical Care. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. The special issue presents a progress report on the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) surveys —an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) initiative to capture patients' perspectives on healthcare. The ...

1. Scientists have identified a mutation in a gene that causes patches of very thick skin to appear on the palms and soles of affected people. This skin disorder is related, albeit in a much milder form, to that of the Indonesian 'Tree Man', Dede Koswara . These thick rough skin patches on hands and feet steadily increase in number as a person ages and often coalesce to form larger lesions. In severe cases, these lesions can be painful and debilitating. 2. The team of scientists from A*STAR's Institute of Medical Biology (IMB), in collaboration with hospitals and research ...

Researchers at the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) and The Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) have collaborated on the development of a diagnostic tool that identifies the metastatic ability of breast cancer cells. The analysis is based on the characterization of the lipid component of the cells, which is indicative of malignancy. This has allowed the researchers to develop a classifier to discriminate cells capable of inducing metastasis. The results of the study have been published in the online version of the scientific journal PLoS ONE. The characterization ...

NEW YORK (Oct. 18, 2012) -- A research team at Weill Cornell Medical College has discovered a way to utilize diagnostic prenatal amniocentesis cells, reprogramming them into abundant and stable endothelial cells capable of regenerating damaged blood vessels and repairing injured organs. Their study, published online today in Cell, paints a picture of a future therapy where amniotic fluid collected from thousands of amniocentesis procedures yearly, during mid-pregnancy to examine fetal chromosomes, would be collected with the permission of women undergoing the test. These ...

Boulder, Colo., USA – Geology articles posted online ahead of print this month survey topography, minerals, faults and tectonics, alluvium, modeling, snowball Earth, fossils and extinction, and pyrite-filled worm burrows. One notable study provides a new eruption date for the Salton Buttes (Calif., USA) of 30,000 years later than that determined by earlier studies, coinciding with the appearance of the earliest known obsidian tools there. Highlights are provided below. GEOLOGY articles published ahead of print can be accessed online at http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/early/recent. ...