Researchers at the University of California, San Diego have developed a novel method of disguising nanoparticles as red blood cells, which will enable them to evade the body's immune system and deliver cancer-fighting drugs straight to a tumor. Their research will be published next week in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The method involves collecting the membrane from a red blood cell and wrapping it like a powerful camouflaging cloak around a biodegradable polymer nanoparticle stuffed with a cocktail of small molecule ...

A surprising finding in a study comparing hepatitis C virus (HCV) with hepatitis A virus (HAV) infections in chimpanzees by a team that includes scientists from the Texas Biomedical Research Institute sheds new light on the nature of the body's immune response to these viruses. Understanding how hepatitis C becomes chronic is very important because some 200 million people worldwide and 3.2 million people in the U.S. are chronically infected with HCV and are at risk for progression to cirrhosis and liver cancer. Hepatitis C associated liver disease is the most common ...

LOS ANGELES—(June 20, 2011)—Doctors warned of a potential public health epidemic in a recent report on patients in Los Angeles and New York who developed serious skin reactions after smoking or snorting cocaine believed to be contaminated with a veterinary medication drug dealers are using to dilute, or "cut," up to 70% of the cocaine in the U.S. The report, published online in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, said six patients developed purple-colored patches of necrotic skin on their ears, nose, cheeks and other parts of their body and, in some instances, ...

Solartex Sun Gear, Inc., a leader in sun protective clothing in the United States, is introducing its newest line that provides the maximum (50+) SPF/UPF in sun protection. Designed in Australia, these colorful rash shirts, swimsuits and hats come in a full range of sizes from 0 to 8xl, offering something for everyone from the newborn to the plus-sized adult. Since its founding in 1998, Solartex has specialized in locating, importing, manufacturing, and retailing sun protective UV clothing to U.S. and international consumers. It is now designing and manufacturing private ...

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, June 20, 2011 -- After more than 100 years following its pathologic description, the cause of Alzheimer's disease (AD) remains unknown. To test the validity of present and future proposals related to the probable cause of AD, three postulates, or necessary conditions, are recommended by Jack de la Torre, MD, PhD, Adjunct Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas, Austin, in an article published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. "Knowing what causes AD is critically important because it would allow more effective therapy to specifically ...

Scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have discovered that a gene linked to dyslexia has a surprising biological function: it controls cilia, the antenna-like projections that cells use to communicate. Dyslexia is largely hereditary and linked to a number of genes, the functions of which are, however, largely unknown. This present study from Karolinska Institutet and Helsinki University now shows that one of these genes, DCDC2, is involved in regulating the signalling of cilia in brain neurons. "Our discovery presents us with a possible new neurobiological ...

New research from the University of Warwick and the IZA Institute in Bonn shows that 10% of middle-aged Europeans took antidepressants in 2010. The researchers looked in detail at the lives of a randomly selected sample of nearly 30,000 Europeans. The study covered 27 countries. Andrew Oswald, an economics professor at the University of Warwick, and co-author of the study, described the results as concerning, he said: "Antidepressants are a relatively new kind of commodity. We are only starting to get proper data on who takes them. But as we live in the richest and safest ...

Although sex and infidelity are now only a keyboard away, at the end of the day, there is no substitute for physical, face-to-face contact in our sexual relationships. That's according to a new study by Diane Kholos Wysocki, from the University of Nebraska at Kearney, and Cheryl Childers, from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. They investigated the behaviors of infidelity on the internet and sexting - sending sexually explicit text messages and photographs via email or cell phone. Their findings are published online in Springer's journal, Sexuality & Culture. The ...

Financial services firms rely on the Financial Information eXchange (FIX) protocol to drive the real-time electronic exchange of securities transactions. However, the special message format and rigid nature of the FIX protocol mean it often interoperates poorly with non-FIX applications. The combination of the WSO2 Enterprise Service Bus (WSO2 ESB) and FIX protocol support provides a powerful solution for seamlessly integrating FIX applications and the heterogeneous systems supporting a financial firm's operations. IT architects and developers can learn how to optimize ...

University of Cincinnati analysis of hospital supply chains – how hospitals stock nursing stations with the hundreds of medicines, materials and even office supplies needed – holds promise in helping to make supply and re-supply efforts leaner and more cost effective. The research, to be presented June 22 at the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science Healthcare Conference in Montreal, has implications for affecting the significant costs associated with hospital supplies. On average, supplies and inventory account for 30 to 40 percent of an average hospital's ...

Magnetic storage media such as hard drives have revolutionized the handling of information: We are used to dealing with huge quantities of magnetically stored data while relying on highly sensitive electronic components. And hope to further increase data capacities through ever smaller components. Together with experts from Grenoble and Strasbourg, researchers of KIT's Institute of Nanotechnology (INT) have developed a nano-component based on a mechanism observed in nature. What if the very tininess of a component prevented one from designing the necessary tools for its ...

Our changing climate usually appears to be a very modern problem, yet new research from Greenland published in Boreas, suggests that the AD 1350 collapse of a centuries old colony established by Viking settlers may have been caused by declining temperatures and a rise in sea-ice. The authors suggest the collapse of the Greenland Norse presents a historical example of a society which failed to adapt to climate change. The research, led by Dr Sofia Ribeiro from the University of Copenhagen, currently at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, focused on Disko Bay ...

Dr. Kevin Sands, DDS, a Los Angeles dentist, knows exactly how patients can struggle with the appearance of their smile. The evolving world of cosmetic dentistry is giving patients with discolored, damaged and structurally imperfect teeth a new lease on their smile. Dr. Sands is now improving patient smiles by porcelain veneers to correct years of staining and abuse and to provide an attractive and confident smile. Every person is born with white teeth, but that is where the similarities cease. Elements such a heredity, infrequent dental care and oral hygiene can quickly ...

In the United States, the blood-alcohol limit may be 0.08 percent, but no amount of alcohol seems to be safe for driving, according to a University of California, San Diego sociologist. A study led by David Phillips and published in the journal Addiction finds that blood-alcohol levels well below the U.S. legal limit are associated with incapacitating injury and death. Phillips, with coauthor Kimberly M. Brewer, also of UC San Diego, examined official data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). This dataset includes information on all persons in the U.S. ...

This release is available in Spanish. In spite of the fact that the railway industry has two centuries of experience behind it, in order to continue improving the research being done on the safety, profitability and efficiency of railroads, it will be necessary to develop and strengthen the relationship between universities and companies in the sector. This is one of the main conclusions that have come out of an international forum on the subject that was recently held at Carlos III University of Madrid. The forum, the First European Forum on Railway Running Gears, ...

A new microspectrometer architecture that uses compact disc-shaped resonators could address the challenges of integrated lab-on-chip sensing systems that now require a large off-chip spectrometer to achieve high resolution. Spectrometers have conventionally been expensive and bulky bench-top instruments used to detect and identify the molecules inside a sample by shining light on it and measuring different wavelengths of the emitted or absorbed light. Previous efforts toward miniaturizing spectrometers have reduced their size and cost, but these reductions have typically ...

Technetium, an Orlando-based advertising and branding agency, today announces the launch of its redesigned website, www.technetium.com. The new design allows for easier navigation, provides enhanced functionality, and encourages site visitors to explore the services offered by the firm through informative content, client work samples, news feeds and more. "Today, a large part of the agency search process is conducted online prior to or even in lieu of an official request for proposal," said Joe Forget, president and CEO. He continued, "Technetium's Internet ...

A recent find by a University of Cincinnati archeologist suggests an ancient Mycenaean city was well protected from outside threats. That research, by UC's Gisela Walberg, professor of classics, will be presented at the annual workshop of the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Center in Nicosia, Cyprus, on June 25, 2011. Since 2001, Walberg has worked in modern Cyprus to uncover the ancient city of Bamboula, a Bronze Age city that was an important trading center for the Middle East, Egypt and Greece. Bamboula, a harbor town that flourished between the 13th through ...

Patients who received poorly co-ordinated care or were unable to afford basic medical costs were much more likely to report medication, treatment or care errors, according to an international study published in the July issue of IJCP, the International Journal of Clinical Practice. Researchers from the USA and Australia used data from the Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey to identify the key risk factors behind the errors reported by patients from Canada, USA, the Netherlands, UK, Germany, Australia and New Zealand. Eleven per cent of the 11,910 people ...

New research from the University of Leicester demonstrates that general practitioners (GPs) are struggling to correctly identify people in the early stages of dementia resulting in both missed cases (false negatives) and misidentifications (false positives). Researchers from the University of Leicester in the UK and National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, London, UK and the Department of General Practice, Dusseldorf, Germany examined 30 previous studies involving 15,277 people seen in primary care for cognitive disorders, including 7109 assessed for dementia. ...

(Boston) – Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found that among HIV-infected adults with alcohol problems, measuring their carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) biomarker was a poor and inaccurate method for detecting unhealthy drinking. These findings currently appear on-line in AIDS Care. Unhealthy alcohol use is common in HIV-infected persons. It can interfere with HIV medication adherence, may lower CD4 cell count and can cause hepatic injury. Furthermore, HIV co-infection with viral hepatitis is common and both HIV and viral hepatitis ...

PINC Yard Hound is now the first and only real-time yard management system (YMS) that has successfully integrated to SAP Extended Warehouse Management. For SAP customers, the integration of these two award winning applications gives them new and unprecedented supply chain visibility allowing them to see actual and up to the minute locations and status of shipments, inventory and trailer assets. - Delivering proven results to customers, Yard Hound integration with SAP Enterprise allows users to chart, view, analyze and model supply chain data retrieved directly from ...

A new study from Cambridge University has for the first time found that autism diagnoses are more common in an IT-rich region. The Medical Research Council (MRC) funded study, published today in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, has important implications for service provision in different regions and for the 'hyper-systemizing' theory of autism. Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre (ARC) at the University of Cambridge, led the study (which was conducted in the Netherlands) with Dr Rosa Hoekstra, a Dutch autism researcher ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Black patients having a heart attack wait longer at hospitals than white patients to get advanced procedures that will restore blood flow to their hearts, according to a University of Michigan Health System study. The differences in care may be explained by hospital quality, rather than the race of individual patients. Black patients were much more likely to go to slow hospitals than were whites, and as a result waited six hours longer to get life-saving procedures. Most elderly black patients received care in a small number of hospitals that take ...

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have identified abnormal brain structures in the frontal lobe of cocaine users' brains which are linked to their compulsive cocaine-using behaviour. Their findings were published today, 21 June, in the journal Brain. Led by Dr Karen Ersche, the Cambridge researchers scanned the brains of 120 people, half of whom had a dependence on cocaine. They found that the cocaine users had widespread loss of grey matter that was directly related to the duration of their cocaine abuse (i.e. the longer they had been using cocaine, the greater ...