ITHACA, N.Y. — Using an advanced 3-D time-lapse imaging system, a group of physicists and plant biologists from Cornell University and the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research have discovered how certain plant roots exhibit powerful mechanical abilities while navigating their environment. The research, published in this week's online Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could eventually assist in breeding crop plants optimized for growth in areas where climate change or over farming has led to difficult soil conditions (study: http://bit.ly/OaG2A5). The ...

DURHAM, N.C. – Hospitals and health systems faced with ongoing shortages of key drugs for cancer and other diseases should develop firm rationing policies based on transparency and fairness, researchers at Duke University Medical Center report. In a Special Article published online Monday, Sept. 24, 2012 in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the Duke team outlined a policy adopted at Duke Medical Center that established clear-cut rules for apportioning scarce drugs using a hierarchy of clinical need and effectiveness. Built on similar models that govern some organ donations, ...

CHICAGO – A study of Medicare data suggests there was wide variation in antibiotic prescribing for older patients based on geography and the season in which the prescriptions for the medication were written, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication. The overuse of antibiotics is common and can lead to unnecessary spending on prescription medicine, as well as increase the risk for adverse effects and antimicrobial resistance, according to the study background. "Findings on variation in antibiotic prescribing ...

CHICAGO – Compared with rest and sedentary video game play, active video gaming with dancing and boxing were associated with increased heart rate, oxygen uptake and energy expenditure in a study of 18 school children in England, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, a JAMA Network publication. Low levels of physical activity have been linked to obesity. Active video game playing compared with traditional sedentary video game playing encourages more movement and could help children increase their physical activity ...

CHICAGO – A medical record review study of 97 patients with the fatal, degenerative brain disorder sporadic Jakob-Creutzfeldt disease (sCJD) suggests that a correct diagnosis of the disease was often delayed by a variety of misdiagnoses, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Neurology, a JAMA Network publication. The disease is often misdiagnosed because of a variability of early symptoms and signs, a variability in disease duration and a lack of recognition of the condition in the medical community. Often, sCJD is mistaken for other neurodegenerative ...

Improved patient education and ongoing psychological support will help people cope with the psychological distress of having an implanted defibrillator, according to a scientific statement from the American Heart Association. The statement, published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, is a comprehensive review of the psychosocial and quality of life for people who receive an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) to restore normal heart rhythm and prevent sudden cardiac death. It includes recommendations for improved patient care and identifies ...

Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in men and early treatment is usually very successful. However, like other cancers, obesity increases the risk of aggressive prostate disease. New research, published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine, finds that the fat surrounding the prostate of overweight or obese men with prostate cancer provides a favorable environment to promote cancer growth. Fat is a generally underrated organ. Not only is it an energy store but it secretes a wide range of growth factors, cytokines and hormones, including leptin ...

PULLMAN, Wash.—A Washington State University researcher has found new evidence that the plastic additive BPA can disrupt women's reproductive systems, causing chromosome damage, miscarriages and birth defects. Writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, WSU geneticist Patricia Hunt and colleagues at WSU and the University of California, Davis, report seeing reproductive abnormalities in rhesus monkeys with BPA levels similar to those of humans. By using an animal with the most human-like reproductive system, the research bolsters earlier work ...

Life in extreme environments – hot acids and heavy metals, for example – can apparently make very similar organisms deal with stress in very different ways, according to new research from North Carolina State University. One single-celled organism from a hot spring near Mount Vesuvius in Italy fights uranium toxicity directly – by eating the heavy metal and acquiring energy from it. Another single-celled organism that lives on a "smoldering heap" near an abandoned uranium mine in Germany overcomes uranium toxicity indirectly – essentially shutting down its cellular ...

Bladder cancer patients whose tumors express high levels of the protein CD24 have worse prognoses than patients with lower CD24. A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that CD24 expression may depend on androgens – and that anti-androgen therapies like those currently used to treat prostate cancer may benefit bladder cancer patients. "This is a major finding – bladder cancer development and spread to other organs depends significantly on CD24, which in turn depends on androgens like testosterone. ...

Cold Spring Harbor, NY – A team of neuroscientists and chemists from the U.S. and China today publish research suggesting that a class of currently used anti-cancer drugs as well as several previously untested synthetic compounds show effectiveness in reversing memory loss in two animal models of Alzheimer's' disease. CSHL Professor Yi Zhong, Ph.D., who led the research conducted in fruit flies and mice, says he and his colleagues were surprised with their results, which, he stressed, used two independent experimental approaches "the results of which clearly converged." ...

This press release is available in German and French. In recent years, the demand for supposedly environmentally friendly biofuels has increased significantly worldwide; on the one hand, this has resulted in the increased cultivation of so-called energy plants and, on the other hand, innovative production methods for the second generation of biofuels have been developed. Parallel to this, ecobalance experts have refined and developed methods for environmental assessment. Since biofuels stem predominantly from agricultural products, the, in part, controversial discussion ...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Men who undergo surgical removal of prostate cancer can experience significant levels of anxiety one year after surgery, and higher levels of anxiety appear to be linked to poor sexual satisfaction and depression, say researchers at Mayo Clinic's campus in Florida. Their recent study, published in the online edition of Psycho-Oncology, suggests that men who experience high levels of "cancer-specific anxiety" following surgery for prostate cancer could likely benefit from counseling designed to address their worries and improve their quality of life. "The ...

TEMPE, Ariz. – The idea that drinking red wine may provide health benefits – or possibly even extend your life — is an appealing thought for many people. Now, there may be added attraction. Researchers have found that when given resveratrol, a compound found in red wine, bees consume less food. Previous scientific studies on resveratrol show that it lengthens the lifespan of diverse organisms ranging from unicellular yeast, to fruit flies and mice. Since bees are social animals like humans, a team of scientists from Arizona State University, the Norwegian University ...

Berkeley — When it comes to germ-busting power, the eyes have it, according to a discovery by University of California, Berkeley, researchers that could lead to new, inexpensive antimicrobial drugs. A team of UC Berkeley vision scientists has found that small fragments of keratin protein in the eye play a key role in warding off pathogens. The researchers also put synthetic versions of these keratin fragments to the test against an array of nasty pathogens. These synthetic molecules effectively zapped bacteria that can lead to flesh-eating disease and strep throat (Streptococcus ...

VIDEO: The researchers explored the likelihood that our solar system exchanged solid matter with its closest planetary-system neighbor during the first hundreds of millions of years it existed. At that time,... Click here for more information. Microorganisms that crashed to Earth embedded in the fragments of distant planets might have been the sprouts of life on this one, according to new research from Princeton University, the University of Arizona and the Centro de Astrobiología ...

A novel genetic study led by the University of Colorado Boulder has helped to clarify the native diversity and distribution of cutthroat trout in Colorado, including the past and present haunts of the federally endangered greenback cutthroat trout. The study, led by CU-Boulder postdoctoral researcher Jessica Metcalf, was based largely on DNA samples taken from cutthroat trout specimens preserved in ethanol in several U.S. museums around the country that were collected from around the state as far back as 150 years ago. The new study, in which Metcalf and her colleagues ...

CLEVELAND, Ohio (September 21, 2012)—Women treated for breast cancer after menopause with aromatase inhibitors have very high levels of sexual difficulties, including low interest, insufficient lubrication, and pain with intercourse. It is an important and underestimated problem, say the authors of a study published online in Menopause, the journal of the North American Menopause Society. The researchers from Örebro University and Uppsala University in Sweden are the first to look at the impact of this type of breast cancer treatment on specific aspects of sexuality in ...

Astronomers have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to find evidence our Milky Way Galaxy is embedded in an enormous halo of hot gas that extends for hundreds of thousands of light years. The estimated mass of the halo is comparable to the mass of all the stars in the galaxy. If the size and mass of this gas halo is confirmed, it also could be an explanation for what is known as the "missing baryon" problem for the galaxy. Baryons are particles, such as protons and neutrons, that make up more than 99.9 percent of the mass of atoms found in the cosmos. Measurements ...

Think of the poor hamster on the treadmill. Steadily picking up speed and caught up by the momentum, unable to stop until it is overwhelmed and sent tumbling, crashing out of control inside the spinning wheel. That's the analogy John Yackel, head of the Department of Geography, makes when he considers the annual summer ice melt in the Arctic, which he's been closely monitoring for the past 15 years, documenting the ice cover as it has steadily shrunk in the wake of Arctic and global warming. Last week marked the unofficial peak, or the end of the summer ice melt, ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- MIT researchers have built a wearable sensor system that automatically creates a digital map of the environment through which the wearer is moving. The prototype system, described in a paper slated for the Intelligent Robots and Systems conference in Portugal next month, is envisioned as a tool to help emergency responders coordinate disaster response. In experiments conducted on the MIT campus, a graduate student wearing the sensor system wandered the halls, and the sensors wirelessly relayed data to a laptop in a distant conference room. Observers in ...

Imagine a clock that will keep perfect time forever, even after the heat-death of the universe. This is the "wow" factor behind a device known as a "space-time crystal," a four-dimensional crystal that has periodic structure in time as well as space. However, there are also practical and important scientific reasons for constructing a space-time crystal. With such a 4D crystal, scientists would have a new and more effective means by which to study how complex physical properties and behaviors emerge from the collective interactions of large numbers of individual particles, ...

Infectious bacteria received a taste of their own medicine from University of Missouri researchers who used viruses to infect and kill colonies of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, common disease-causing bacteria. The viruses, known as bacteriophages, could be used to efficiently sanitize water treatment facilities and may aid in the fight against deadly antibiotic-resistant bacteria. "Our experiment was the first to use bacteriophages in conjunction with chlorine to destroy biofilms, which are layers of bacteria growing on a solid surface," said Zhiqiang Hu, associate professor ...

BOSTON, MA (September 24, 2012) – Results of the first-ever clinical drug trial for children with Progeria, a rare, fatal "rapid-aging" disease, demonstrate the efficacy of a farnesyltransferase inhibitor (FTI), a drug originally developed to treat cancer. The clinical trial results, completed only six years after scientists identified the cause of Progeria, included significant improvements in weight gain, bone structure and, most importantly, the cardiovascular system, according to The Progeria Research Foundation (PRF) and Boston Children's Hospital. The study results ...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A Florida State University chemist's work could lead to big improvements in our ability to detect and eliminate specific toxins in our environment. Featured on the cover of the prestigious Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), Sourav Saha's specialized work to strip electrons from the toxic chemical known as fluoride is producing a variety of unique results. "I started out with the very basic premise of trying to find new ways to detect toxic fluoride in solutions," said Saha, an assistant professor of chemistry at Florida State. "As ...