"The South African government should develop a plan to make healthy foods such as fruit, vegetables, and whole grain cereals more available, affordable, and acceptable, and non-essential, high-calorie, nutrient-poor products, including soft drinks and some packaged foods and snacks, less available, more costly, and less appealing to the South African population," write international health experts in this week's PLoS Medicine. The authors, led by Ehimario Igumbor from the University of the Western Cape in Bellville argue that in South Africa, ''Big Food'' (large commercial ...

Under pressure from civil society organizations, the Brazilian government has introduced legislation to protect and improve its traditional food system, standing in contrast to the governments of many industrialized countries that have partly surrendered their prime duty to protect public health to transnational food companies, argue nutrition and public health experts writing in this week's PLoS Medicine. Carlos Monteiro and Geoffrey Cannon, from the Center for Epidemiological Studies in Health and Nutrition of the University of São Paulo, explain that, in Brazil, traditional ...

CHICAGO – In analysis that included more than 9 million Department of Defense nonactive and active duty personnel, the rates of both community-onset and hospital-onset methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteremia decreased from 2005 to 2010, while the proportion of community-onset skin and soft tissue infections due to MRSA has more recently declined, according to a study in the July 4 issue of JAMA. "The magnitude of invasive MRSA infections as well as the emergence of community-onset MRSA infections in the United States has been well documented," according ...

CHICAGO – Although some have suggested that patients receiving medication for immune-mediated diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or psoriasis may be at increased risk of herpes zoster (HZ; shingles) shortly after receipt of the vaccine, an analysis that included nearly 20,000 vaccinated Medicare beneficiaries finds that the live zoster vaccine is not associated with an increased risk of HZ shortly after vaccination in patients currently treated with biologics, and that it is associated with a significantly reduced longer-term risk of HZ in patients with an immune-mediated ...

A hospital-based surveillance study conducted by Ciara O'Reilly of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA and colleagues describes the risk factors for death amongst children who have been hospitalized with diarrhea in rural Kenya. Reporting in this week's PLoS Medicine, the authors found that infections with nontyphoidal Salmonella and with Shigella (but not with rotavirus) were associated with an increased risk of death. The authors state that: "This study can help inform policy makers on priority areas for interventions to reduce childhood ...

In this week's PLoS Medicine, David Osrin of the UCL Institute of Child Health, UK and colleagues report findings from a cluster-randomized trial conducted in Mumbai slums that aimed to evaluate whether facilitator-supported women's groups could improve perinatal outcomes. Their findings indicate that while it is possible to facilitate the discussion of perinatal health care by urban women's groups in the challenging conditions that exist in the slums of Mumbai, there was no measureable effect of community mobilization through the facilitation of women's groups on perinatal ...

In this week's PLoS Medicine, Kay-Tee Khaw of the University of Cambridge, UK and colleagues analyze data from a prospective cohort study and show associations between plasma concentrations of saturated phospholipid fatty acids and risk of coronary heart disease, and an inverse association between omega-6 polyunsaturated phospholipid fatty acids and risk of coronary heart disease. The authors comment: "Early guidelines to prevent [coronary heart disease] recommended reductions in saturated fat but little consistency as to what might be substituted: other fats, protein, ...

Dietary restriction can slow age-related diseases and extend the lifespan of all species tested to date. Understanding this phenomenon might help people live longer, preferably without having to drastically limit calories. Now, investigators reporting in the July 3 issue of the Cell Press journal Cell Metabolism have found that in flies, dietary restriction causes enhanced fat metabolism in the muscle and increased physical activity, both of which are critical for extending lifespan. The findings suggest that dietary restriction may cause changes in muscle that can lead ...

Istanbul, 3 July 2012: Women who drink five or more cups of coffee a day severely reduce their chance of success from IVF treatment. Indeed, Danish investigators who followed up almost 4000 IVF and ICSI patients described the adverse impact as "comparable to the detrimental effect of smoking". The study was presented today at the annual meeting of ESHRE by Dr Ulrik Schiøler Kesmodel from the Fertility Clinic of Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark. Results showed that the consumption of five or more cups of coffee a day reduced the clinical pregnancy rate by 50% and ...

Istanbul, 3 July 2012: Cigarette smoke reduces the production of a Fallopian tube gene known as "BAD", which helps explain the link between smoking and ectopic pregnancy. The finding, from scientists led by Drs Andrew Horne and Colin Duncan at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Reproductive Health in Edinburgh, UK, was described today at the annual meting of ESHRE (European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology) in Istanbul. Ectopic pregnancy - when the embryo implants outside the uterus and in the Fallopian tube - occurs in up to 2% of all pregnancies ...

Istanbul, 3 July 2012: Women with a higher intake of dietary saturated fats have fewer mature oocytes available for collection in IVF, according to results of a study from the Harvard School of Public Health funded by the US National Institutes of Health. The study investigated the effect of dietary fat (classified as total, saturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, omega 6, omega 3 and trans) on a range of preclinical and clinical outcomes in women having IVF. Results showed that the intake of saturated fat was inversely related to the number of mature oocytes retrieved, ...

Washington, D.C.— When evaluating the historic contributions made by different countries to the greenhouse gasses found in Earth's atmosphere, calculations generally go back no further than the year 1840. New research from Carnegie's Julia Pongratz and Ken Caldeira shows that carbon dioxide contributions from the pre-industrial era still have an impact on our climate today. Their work is published in Environmental Research Letters. The burning of fossil fuels that came with industrialization released massive amounts of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, which ...

Researchers in the biological sciences department in the Faculty of Science at the University of Calgary have revealed how white blood cells move to infection or inflammation in the body; findings which could help lead to developing drug therapies for immune system disorders. The research is published this month in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. It's long been known that two human proteins—L-selectin and calmodulin—are involved in moving white blood cells to the site of inflammation or infection in the body. L-selectin is embedded in the cellular membrane of the ...

A climate model accounting for the carbon dioxide (CO2) released into our atmosphere before the industrial revolution has been used to show the detrimental effect of carbon emissions on global temperature in the long-term. In a study published today, 4 July, in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters, researchers from the Carnegie Institution for Science have shown that pre-industrial emissions from land use changes are responsible for about nine per cent of the increase in today's global mean temperature since that era. "The relatively small amounts ...

Stem cells found in amniotic fluid can be transformed into a more versatile state similar to embryonic stem cells, according to a study published today in the journal Molecular Therapy. Scientists from Imperial College London and the UCL Institute of Child Health succeeded in reprogramming amniotic fluid cells without having to introduce extra genes. The findings raise the possibility that stem cells derived from donated amniotic fluid could be stored in banks and used for therapies and in research, providing a viable alternative to the limited embryonic stem cells currently ...

New, more effective vaccines are struggling to have an impact in the drive to eradicate polio in Afghanistan and Pakistan because not enough children are being vaccinated, according to a study published in the Lancet medical journal today. Sharp declines in vaccine uptake led to a rise in the number of new infections between 2006 and 2011, even though new vaccines introduced during this time have proven to be more effective against the main circulating strain of the virus. Poliovirus exists in three strains, with type 1 the most prevalent and type 2 unseen anywhere in ...

SANTA CRUZ, CA--The impact on bat populations of a deadly fungal disease known as white-nose syndrome may depend on how gregarious the bats are during hibernation. Species that hibernate in dense clusters even as their populations get smaller will continue to transmit the disease at a high rate, dooming them to continued decline, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz. One gregarious species has surprised researchers, however, by changing its social behavior. White-nose syndrome has decimated bat colonies throughout the ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Toxic chemicals wreak havoc on cells, damaging DNA and other critical molecules. A new study from researchers at MIT and the University at Albany reveals how a molecular emergency-response system shifts the cell into damage-control mode and helps it survive such attacks by rapidly producing proteins that counteract the harm. Peter Dedon, a professor of biological engineering at MIT, and colleagues had previously shown that cells treated with poisons such as arsenic alter their chemical modification of molecules known as transfer RNA (tRNA), which deliver ...

A drug candidate that is nearing clinical trials against a Latin American parasite is showing additional promise as a cure for hookworm, one of the most widespread and insidious parasites afflicting developing nations, according to a collaborative study at UCSF and Yale University. The drug candidate, known by the scientific name K11777, is under development at UCSF and is targeted to enter clinical trials in the next one to two years to treat Chagas disease, a potentially fatal parasitic disease common to Latin America. In the current study, researchers at the UCSF ...

University of Adelaide researchers have discovered that recent climate change is causing leaves of some Australian plants to narrow in size. The study, which is the first of its kind in the world, highlights that plant species are already responding to changes in climate. The results are published online today in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters. Researchers analysed leaves from herbarium specimens of Narrow-leaf Hopbush (Dodonaea viscosa subsp. angustissima) dating from the 1880s to the present. The study focused on specimens from South Australia's Flinders ...

University of Granada researchers have developed an artificial cerebellum (a biologically-inspired adaptive microcircuit) that controls a robotic arm with human-like precision. The cerebellum is the part of the human brain that controls the locomotor system and coordinates body movements. To date, although robot designers have achieved very precise movements, such movements are performed at very high speed, require strong forces and are power consuming. This approach cannot be applied to robots that interact with humans, as a malfunction might be potentially dangerous. To ...

A study conducted at the University of Granada hasdemonstrated that ibuprofen ­–a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID)­– has beneficial effects on bone repair after afracture or following bone surgery. In vitro tests demonstrated that –unlike other NSAIDs– when a therapeutic dose of ibuprofen is administered, it has no negative effects on the proliferation and synthesis of obsteoblast osteocalcin, a cell which is directly involved in the formation and regeneration of bones. Osteoblast cells are bone cells that synthesize the bone matrix. Consequently, osteoblasts ...

The Sustainable Consumption Institute research claims food which families now take for granted, such as meat and fresh vegetables, could become too expensive for many if global temperatures rise in line with the current trends and reach 4°C within the lifetime of many people. Even if families continue to take steps to lower their carbon emissions from energy use, global farming emissions will continue to rise because of our growing appetite for energy-intensive foods and a rising demand to meet just basic living standards across the world. Only by reducing consumption ...

All zoo animals – and sometimes also wild animals – occasionally need veterinary treatment and anaesthesia is clearly required in many cases. For most animals the procedures are well established but for a variety of reasons it has proven difficulty to anaesthetize hippopotamuses. The thick skin and the dense subcutaneous tissue make it difficult to introduce sufficient amounts of anaesthetics and opioid-based anaesthetics often cause breathing irregularities and occasionally even death. In addition, the level of anaesthesia is only rarely sufficient to enable surgery to ...

The ancient bones of newborns are very useful to recover the ancient DNA of the bacteria causing syphilis, the Treponema pallidum pallidum. This is the conclusion reached by a study led by Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), which was able to obtain the genetic material from the bacteria in more than one individual, in what is considered to be the oldest case known to date. Several previous intents had only achieved to yield this material in one occasion and from only one individual. Studying syphilis represents a challenge for researchers, in part because of the ...