It can be difficult for someone outside of a specialist field to identify subject experts and the ever increasing amount of available data can be bewildering. New research, published in BioMed Central's open access journal, Journal of Biomedical Semantics, describes a method of social network analysis, similar to finding friends on Facebook, able to sift through scientific literature and news articles to identify opinion leaders and media experts. Pharmaceutical companies and public health programs rely on opinion leaders to clarify and condense research into a format ...

New York, NY (March 14, 2012) — Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) scientists have developed a way to recreate an individual's immune system in a mouse. The "personalized immune mouse" offers researchers an unprecedented tool for individualized analysis of abnormalities that contribute to type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases, starting at the onset of disease. The findings were published today in the online edition of Science Translational Medicine. The mouse model could also have clinical applications, such as predicting how a particular patient might ...

CLEVELAND -- A catheter procedure that closes a hole in patients' hearts was no more effective than medical therapy in preventing recurrent strokes, according to a new study published in the March 15 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. In the CLOSURE I trial, clinical researchers compared a catheter procedure plus medical therapy with medications alone to prevent new strokes or transient ischemic attacks (TIAs) in patients between 18 and 60 years old with an unexplained ("cryptogenic") stroke or TIA and a patent foremen ovale (PFO) – a hole between the heart's ...

VIDEO: Using two-photon imaging, the researchers were able to see dendritic cells, shown in green, in the intestine of a living mouse. Click here for more information. With every meal, immune cells in the intestine stand like sentries at a citadel, turning away harmful bacteria but allowing vitamins and nutrients to pass. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified the cells that chaperone food antigens, or proteins, in the ...

Of the $25 billion federal settlement funds for mortgage foreclosure abuses, Wisconsin will receive $140 million. The settlement money is being paid by J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo & Co, Citigroup and Ally (formerly GMAC), and is intended to help homeowners having difficulty making their mortgage payments and individuals who were the victims of improper foreclosures. According to Assistant Attorney General Holly Pomraning in a recent TheNorthwestern.com article, Wisconsin's share of the settlement will be divided and distributed as follows: - ...

Foodborne disease outbreaks caused by imported food appeared to rise in 2009 and 2010, and nearly half of the outbreaks implicated foods imported from areas which previously had not been associated with outbreaks, according to research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, presented today at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta. "It's too early to say if the recent numbers represent a trend, but CDC officials are analyzing information from 2011 and will continue to monitor for these outbreaks in the future," said Hannah ...

A team of researchers led by scientists at The Rockefeller University has identified a novel mechanism by which influenza interferes with antiviral host response. The finding, reported in this week's issue of the journal Nature, shows that the immunosuppressive NS1 protein of the influenza A virus hijacks key regulators of antiviral gene function by mimicking a core component of gene regulating machinery. The results they describe have major implications for our understanding of the biology of seasonal influenza virus and its pathogenesis. This research also suggests a ...

There was a lot of excitement a few years ago following the discovery of the DNA origami technique. The approach could be used to build nanoparticles of a given shape and size. However, real applications, such as nano-tweezers, remained out of reach. An international team of researchers led by Professor Tim Liedl of the Ludwig-Maximillians-Universitaet Muenchen and Professor Friedrich Simmel of the Technische Universitaet Muenchen have now succeeded in building nanoparticles using optically active DNA building blocks that can be used to modify light in very specific ways. Coupling ...

STANFORD, Calif. -- A week ago, you started a new prescription medication for acne. Today, you feel dizzy and short of breath and have difficulty concentrating. Your symptoms are not listed in the package insert as possible side effects of the drug, but why else would you be feeling so odd? Unfortunately, there's no easy answer. Clinical trials are designed to show that a drug is safe and effective. But even the largest trials can't identify irksome or even dangerous side effects experienced by only a tiny proportion of those people taking the drug. They also aren't designed ...

Menlo Park, Calif. — Researchers from Stanford University and the U.S. Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have created the first-ever system of "designer electrons" – exotic variants of ordinary electrons with tunable properties that may ultimately lead to new types of materials and devices. "The behavior of electrons in materials is at the heart of essentially all of today's technologies," said Hari Manoharan, associate professor of physics at Stanford and a member of SLAC's Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, who led the research. ...

Families throughout the nation continue to struggle financially. In fact, the prospect of economic stability continues to look so grim professionals have coined this period of time the Great Recession. Many depend on unemployment benefits to make ends meet during these difficult times, but what happens when they run out? Now, more and more people are looking to Social Security Disability benefits when their unemployment ends. Whether people were disabled before their unemployment began or became disabled while receiving unemployment, Social Security Disability offers ...

In preclinical studies, researchers at SRI International and Astraea Therapeutics have recently evaluated the role of a new drug receptor target that shows promise for the treatment of drug addiction. This potential new drug target belongs to a class of receptors called the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs). One subtype of nAChRs, called alpha4beta2 is a well-known target for nicotine's addictive effects and the therapeutic effect of the smoking cessation drug varenicline. SRI researchers are now studying another, lesser-known subtype, called alpha3beta4 nAChR, ...

Dehydration is one of the most common forms of nursing home neglect. The risk of dehydration is particularly acute in patients who suffer from health problems that render them incapable of properly communicating their needs. Nursing home dehydration can happen for a number of different reasons. Some patients aren't physically able to drink from a glass, either because they have difficulty swallowing or because they are unable to sit upright. In other cases, patients with cognitive or emotional difficulties may refuse certain beverages. In the worst cases the neglect ...

WASHINGTON—March 14, 2012—More than half of likely voters doubt that the United States will be the No. 1 world leader in science, technology and health care by the year 2020, according to a new national public opinion poll commissioned by Research!America. The findings reveal deep concerns among Americans about the country's ability to maintain its world-class status in innovation, research and development before the next decade. "A lackluster investment in science and innovation is driving fears among Americans about our world dominance in the years ahead," said Research!America ...

Researchers at the RIKEN Omics Science Center (OSC) have successfully developed and demonstrated a new experimental technique for producing cells with specific functions through the artificial reconstruction of transcriptional regulatory networks. As an alternative to induced pluripotent stem cells, the technique promises to enable faster and more efficient production of functional cells for use in cancer therapy and a variety of other areas. Starting with the first-ever production of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) in 2006, cell reprogramming - the genetic ...

LA JOLLA, Calif., March 14, 2012 – In a healthy immune system, invading pathogens trigger a cascade of alerts and responses to fight off the infection. Sensors called toll-like receptors, or TLRs, act as one of the first lines of defense. Two of these sensors, known as TLR7 and TLR9, specifically recognize and respond to microbial RNA and DNA, respectively. But what determines how these TLRs get where they need to be and sound the alarm for pathogen infection? To answer this question, a team led by Sumit Chanda, Ph.D. and colleagues at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute ...

Recent breakthroughs in Chikungunya research spearheaded by scientists at A*STAR's Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN) have made great strides in the battle against the infectious disease. Working in close collaborations with Singapore clinician-scientists and international researchers , Dr Lisa Ng, Principal Investigator of the Chikungunya research group at SIgN, led the team to discover a direct biomarker which serves as an early and accurate prognosis of patients who have a higher risk of the more severe form of Chikungunya fever (CHIKF). This means that doctors can ...

What if a man has been named the father of a child, but has to pay child support because he missed court or was misled into signing a paternity statement without a DNA test? Although the Texas Family Code covers a wide range of legal issues from divorce, child custody and spousal support to modifications of custody and visitation because of parental relocation, one Texas paternity provision was recently changed regarding the need to correct paternity mistakes with DNA testing. Prior to the passage of Texas Senate Bill 785, a man could only request a paternity test prior ...

The United Nations (UN) global carbon market requires substantial reform because it too often fails to support the projects and people it is meant to help, according to new research from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The research findings are released as the UN, which has designated 2012 the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All, begins a policy dialogue about its Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), under which companies are allocated tradable credits if they pay others to cut their carbon emissions. The CDM is designed to help finance ...

A scale developed to measure the potential harm caused by invasive placebos in local anaesthesia research has been successfully tested by a group of 43 independent clinicians, according to research published in the April issue of Anaesthesia. The consultant anaesthetists were asked to assess the risk of harm posed by control group interventions described in ten published clinical anaesthesia studies using the Serious Harm and Morbidity (SHAM) scale. There was substantial agreement between the 22 consultants who were given clinical examples to illustrate the scale ...

An exclusive right to produced work is cemented within the Constitution. When works of art, works of authorship or screenplays are produced, the creators have the right to protect their works. These protections are provided by the federal Copyright Act, which has a broad reach, including both small, individual works and colossal, multimillion-dollar movie productions. Just as the range of protected work varies, so do the resources available to bring lawsuits claiming copyright infringement. Those attempting to file suits for relatively small claims are often dissuaded ...

The stomachs of wild honey bees are full of healthy lactic acid bacteria that can fight bacterial infections in both bees and humans. A collaboration between researchers at three universities in Sweden – Lund University, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Karolinska Institutet – has produced findings that could be a step towards solving the problems of both bee deaths and antibiotic resistance. The researchers have now published their results in the scientific journal PLoS ONE and the legendary science photographer Professor Lennart Nilsson from Karolinska ...

Developing nations experiencing economic and social growth might also see growing waistlines among their poorest citizens, according to a new study from Rice University and the University of Colorado. The researchers found that while growth of developing countries may improve conditions such as malnutrition and infectious disease, it may increase obesity among people with lower socio-economic status. "It's a troubling finding," said Rice sociology professor Justin Denney, who co-authored the study with University of Colorado sociology professors Fred Pampel and Patrick ...

DURHAM, N.H. – Researchers from the University of New Hampshire have found that many African farmers inaccurately perceive changes in climate and rainfall when compared with scientific data, highlighting the need for better climate information to assist them to improve farming practices. "Quantifying local people's perceptions to climate change, and their assessments of which changes matter, is fundamental to addressing the dual challenge of land conservation and poverty alleviation in densely populated tropical regions," said Joel Hartter, assistant professor of geography ...

Fecal transplantation through colonoscopy is an effective treatment for recurrent Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), according to a new study in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. Additionally, the mortality rate in this study does not appear to be greater than in some previously reported series, suggesting that fecal transplantation itself seems to be a rather safe procedure. CDI is a common cause of both community- and hospital-acquired diarrhea, usually occurring after exposure to antibiotics. "Our results suggest ...