Earlier in May Dr. B. David Zinati, a Bakersfield dentist, joined the practice of Apollonia Dental Center. Zinati is a graduate of University of South California's School of Dentistry, and displays exceptional orthodontic knowledge as well as a yearning to help patients. Dr. Joseph Marvizi, a fellow Apollonia dentist, desired for Zinati to provide patients with top quality dental care as the practice's in-house orthodontist. The confidence boost that comes from a perfectly aligned smile is not the only reason for patients to see their orthodontist. Crooked teeth ...

Twenty years after the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, 17 ecologists are calling for renewed international efforts to curb the loss of Earth's biological diversity. The loss is compromising nature's ability to provide goods and services essential for human well-being, the scientists say. Over the past two decades, strong scientific evidence has emerged showing that decline of the world's biological diversity reduces the productivity and sustainability of ecosystems, according to an international team led by the University of Michigan's Bradley Cardinale. It also decreases ...

San Francisco -- In the modern global climate, higher levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere are associated with rising ocean temperatures. But the seas were not always so sensitive to this CO2 "forcing," according to a new report. Around 5 to 13 million years ago, oceans were warmer than they are today -- even though atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations were considerably lower. The unusual mismatch between sea temperatures and CO2 levels during this time period hints that the relationship between climate and carbon dioxide hasn't always been the same as ...

Standard performance measures used by health care systems and insurance companies to assess how well physicians are controlling their patients' blood pressure tell an incomplete and potentially misleading story, according to a study by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center (SFVAMC) and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). The study authors tested a more nuanced experimental measure, designed to better reflect the clinical judgments doctors make in caring for patients, against criteria commonly used in standard performance measures. They compared ...

In the first study to measure the temporary impact of highly skilled immigrants on native populations, University of Notre Dame EconomistAbigail Wozniak and Fairfield University's Thomas J. Murray — a former Notre Dame graduate student — found that when highly skilled immigrants move to a city or town, the U.S. natives in that area who are also highly skilled tend to move away. However, the study found that the same immigrant group's presence decreases the chances that low-skilled natives would leave. "High skill" refers to those having some post-secondary education or ...

Although employment rates are on the rise, many consumers are still wary to increase spending on luxury items. A recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle observes a large reduction of discretionary spending. A recent Consumer Insights Panel, conducted by Emphatica, Inc., reveals what types of purchases shoppers have cut back on the most. What the study found was that most people avoid making purchased in electronics, fine dining and furniture. It also revealed that people are not as willing to make cuts in their pharmaceutical, grocery and gas purchases. Terry Yon, ...

VIDEO: Seattle Children's Dr. Laura Richardson discusses her new study on long-term opioid use among adolescents and young adults. Click here for more information. SEATTLE: June 6, 2012 — Long-term use and abuse of opioid painkillers, such as OxyContin and Vicodin, has markedly increased in the United States in the last two decades. Of note, prescription opioids constitute 86.9 percent of prescription drug misuse among high school students. And last week in a two-day U.S. ...

Anyone involved in the housing market knows the recent housing crisis has cause massive hysteria among banks, realtors and home owners alike. While the figures suggested by a recent Newsday article suggest that the housing crisis is on its way out, there are still plenty of foreclosed homes available for purchase. Although the numbers are high, the competition is even higher and individual buyers often lose out in face of investment companies and house flippers. Responding to the tips found in the article, New York-based Absolute Capital Homes suggests that unlucky buyers ...

Tampa, Fla. (June 6, 2012) – Two studies appearing in the current issue of Cell Transplantation (21:2/3), now freely available on-line at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/, evaluate the transplantation potential and success of islet cells derived from pancreatic tissues, in addition to a clinical study that reports the occurrence of adverse events. Fresh islets are better than cultured islets A team of researchers from Baylor Research Institute, Texas and the University Graduate School of Medicine in Okayama, Japan has found that islet cells freshly retrieved ...

Below are highlights of new review articles appearing in the June 2012 issue of the JAAOS, as well as the full table of contents. Each news highlight, and listed title in the table of contents, includes a link to the abstract. Effects of Smoking on Bone and Joint Health During cigarette use, hazardous gases and chemicals that can cause genetic mutations and the development of cancer are released into the bloodstream. One of these chemicals, nicotine, also can cause and/or exacerbate many smoking-related diseases and harm a patient's bone and joint health prior to, during ...

In 2009, the H1N1 "swine flu" pandemic struck, infecting millions and killing more than 18,000 worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. Though less severe than initially feared, the pandemic highlighted the potential threat of deadly viruses emerging from animals into humans, and the importance of quick and effective public health intervention. In a globalized world, the probability of a severe pandemic striking are high, according to Lauren Ancel Meyers, an expert in infectious disease epidemiology at The University of Texas at Austin. A biologist by training, ...

A new app from the NRDC connects technology with fresh, organic produce. As explained The Huffington Post in a recent article, the iPhone app, titled "NRDC Eat Local" allows shoppers to find out what produce is in season and where they can buy it. The app is available for free download and uses location-based information to determine what you can get from area farmers and where you can find them. Jerry Cosgrove is an expert in local farming and is Associate Director of the Local Economies Project supported by the New World Foundation. He believes this new technological ...

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — A team of UC Davis investigators has found that a genetic mutation may play an important role in the development of prostate cancer. The mutation of the so-called p53 (or Tp53) gene was previously implicated in late disease progression, but until now has never been shown to act as an initiating factor. The findings may open new avenues for diagnosing and treating the disease. The study was published online in the journal Disease Models & Mechanisms and will appear in the November 2012 print edition in an article titled, "Initiation of prostate ...

Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment researchers have helped open a new door of possibility in the high-stakes effort to save the world's coral reefs. Working with an international team, the scientists – including Stanford Woods Institute Senior Fellows Jeff Koseff, Rob Dunbar and Steve Monismith – found a way to create future ocean conditions in a small lab-in-a-box in Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The water inside the device can mimic the composition of the future ocean as climate change continues to alter Earth. Inside the mini-lab, set in shallow water ...

Scientists at A*STAR's Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN) uncovered the origin of a group of skin-deep immune cells that act as the first line of defence against harmful germs and skin infections. SIgN scientists discovered that these sentry cells of the skin, called the Langerhans cells (LCs), originate from two distinct embryonic sites - the early yolk sac and the foetal liver. LCs are dendritic cells (DCs) found in the outermost layer of the skin. DCs are a critical component of the immune system because they are the only cells able to 'see' and 'alert' other responding ...

SALT LAKE CITY, June 6, 2012 – Talk about throwing yourself into a relationship too soon. A University of Utah study found that when a virgin male moth gets a whiff of female sex attractant, he's quicker to start shivering to warm up his flight muscles, and then takes off prematurely when he's still too cool for powerful flight. So his headlong rush to reach the female first may cost him the race. The study illustrates the tradeoff between being quick to start flying after a female versus adequately warming up the flight muscles before starting the chase. Until the ...

Evarcha culicivora jumping spiders, also known as vampire spiders, are picky eaters by any standards. Explaining that the arachnid's environment is swamped with insects, Ximena Nelson from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, says, 'You can see from the diet when you find them in the field that there is a high number of mosquitoes in what they eat'. And when Robert Jackson investigated their diet further, he found that the spiders were even more selective. The delicacy that E. culicivora prize above all others is female blood-fed Anopheles mosquitoes, which puzzled ...

In a critical step that may lead to more effective HIV treatments, Harvard scientists have found pre-existing mutations in a small number of HIV patients. These mutations can cause the virus to develop resistance to the drugs used to slow its progression. The finding is particularly important because, while researchers have long known HIV can develop resistance to some drugs, it was not understood whether the virus relied on pre-existing mutations to develop resistance, or if it waits for those mutations to occur. By shedding new light on how resistance evolves, the study, ...

SEATTLE – In exploring the genetics of mitochondria – the powerhouse of the cell – researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have stumbled upon a finding that challenges previously held beliefs about the role of mutations in cancer development. For the first time, researchers have found that the number of new mutations are significantly lower in cancers than in normal cells. "This is completely opposite of what we see in nuclear DNA, which has an increased overall mutation burden in cancer," said cancer geneticist Jason Bielas, Ph.D., whose findings are published ...

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—June 7, 2012—Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have for the first time transformed skin cells—with a single genetic factor—into cells that develop on their own into an interconnected, functional network of brain cells. The research offers new hope in the fight against many neurological conditions because scientists expect that such a transformation—or reprogramming—of cells may lead to better models for testing drugs for devastating neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease. This research comes at a time of renewed focus on Alzheimer's ...

For the first time, researchers have produced a coherent, laser-like, directed beam of light that simultaneously streams ultraviolet light, X-rays, and all wavelengths in between. One of the few light sources to successfully produce a coherent beam that includes X-rays, this new technology is the first to do so using a setup that fits on a laboratory table. An international team of researchers, led by engineers from the NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC) for EUV Science and Technology, reports their findings in the June 8, 2012, issue of Science. By focusing intense ...

A breakthrough in laser science was achieved in Vienna: In the labs of the Photonics Institute at the Vienna University of Technology, a new method of producing bright laser pulses at x-ray energies was developed. The radiation covers a broad energy spectrum and can therefore be used for a wide range of applications, from materials science to medicine. Up until now, similar kinds of radiation could only be produced in particle accelerators (synchrotrons), but now a laser laboratory can also achieve this. The new laser technology was presented in the current issue of the ...

CINCINNATI – Scientists have discovered a new function for a protein that protects cells during injury and could eventually translate into treatment for conditions ranging from cardiovascular disease to Alzheimer's. Researchers report online June 7 in the journal Cell that a type of protein called thrombospondin activates a protective pathway that prevents heart cell damage in mice undergoing simulated extreme hypertension, cardiac pressure overload and heart attack. "Our results suggest that medically this protein could be targeted as a way to help people with many ...

Easy-to-use, inexpensive tests to diagnose infectious diseases are urgently needed in resource-limited countries. A new report based on an American Academy of Microbiology colloquium, "Bringing the Lab to the Patient: Developing Point-of-Care Diagnostics for Resource Limited Settings," describes the challenges inherent in bringing new medical devices and technologies to the areas of the world where they are needed most. Point-of-care diagnostics (POCTs) bypass the need for sophisticated laboratory systems by leveraging new technologies to diagnose infectious diseases and ...

(PORTLAND, Ore.) —June 07, 2012—Eleven integrated health systems, with more than 16 million members, have combined de-identified data from their electronic health records to form the largest, most comprehensive private-sector diabetes registry in the nation. According to a new study published today in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Preventing Chronic Disease, the SUPREME-DM DataLink provides a unique and powerful resource to conduct population-based diabetes research and clinical trials. "The DataLink will allow us to compare more prevention and ...