The swine flu outbreak of winter 2009-2010 was much more widespread than was previously realised, research suggests. Blood samples taken from Scottish adults in March last year at the end of the H1N1 flu season showed that almost half were carrying antibodies to the virus. Most of the 44 per cent who tested positive had contracted swine flu, although some had acquired immunity from a previous bout of flu, or had been vaccinated. The research, led by the University of Edinburgh, shows that many cases of swine flu went unreported. Only 100,000 people consulted their ...

It looks like a credit card…it slips into a wallet or purse…but it could mean the difference between life and death in a medical emergency. The MyCare Card stores personal medical data (e.g. information on existing medical conditions, allergies and medication being taken) and plugs into a laptop's USB port, enabling the data to be accessed in just a few moments. It is the first device of its type to have been trialled in the UK. This working prototype has been developed by City University London and Coventry University, with funding from the Engineering and Physical ...

The study, published yesterday in the journal Ecology Letters, analyzed the species richness and the structure of their communities throughout the different regions of the European territory from the Ural Mountains to the Iberian Peninsula. The selection of this family of insects was motivated by their high dispersal ability and because their food sources (mainly cattle and sheep dung) are present throughout the continent. Research by the Spanish National Research Council reveals that the large impacts occurred during the last ice age maintain their effects on the current ...

When a person has a family history of cancer, their worry about developing the disease may lead to them refusing to have preventive tests. Advice from genetic counselling units reduces their anxiety but, until now, nobody knew how much. Now, a scientific team has validated the 'Escala de Preocupación por el Cáncer - EPC' (equivalent of the Cancer Worry Scale), the first of its kind in the Spanish language, in order to evaluate it. "Excessive concern about cancer can result in two kinds of behaviour. Some people undergo excessive and unnecessary diagnostic tests, while ...

The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina has submitted an ad-hoc statement on energy research to Prof. Annette Schavan, the German Federal Minister of Education and Research. Against the backdrop of the events in Fukushima, the statement contains twelve key declarations that mainly address research-policy issues connected to the restructuring of Germany's energy system. The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina compiled the statement, entitled "Energiepolitische und forschungspolitische Empfehlungen nach den Ereignissen in Fukushima" (Energy- and research-policy ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Researchers from Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, R.I., report that medical management may be preferred over surgery for children with orbital cellulitis, an acute infection of the tissues surrounding the eye. They have determined the criteria for surgical intervention should be dependent upon the size of a subperiosteal abscess (SPA). The research is published in the journal Ophthalmic Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery and is now available online in advance of print. Orbital cellulitis is most often the result of bacteria from a sinus infection, ...

As millions of acres of farmland in the U.S. Midwest and South recover from Mississippi River flooding, scientists report that river flooding can increase levels of potentially harmful flame retardants in farm soils. But the higher levels apparently do not find their way into the milk produced by cows that graze on these lands, according to a study in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology. Iain Lake and colleagues note that the flame retardants, called PBDEs, are found in a variety of household products including furniture upholstery, textiles, cars, plastics, ...

Antioxidants are popular anti-aging ingredients in skin creams, and now scientists are reporting a new source of these healthful substances — leaf buds of poplar trees. Their study appears in the ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Xavier Vitrac and colleagues note that there's a long history of using poplar buds to treat various health problems, such as colds, sinusitis, sunburn and arthritis. A substance found in beehives that is made from poplar buds (called propolis) also appears to have similar disease-fighting benefits. Propolis' effects seem to be ...

Medical scientists now have "clear" evidence that the damaged cartilage tissue in osteoarthritis and other painful joint disorders can be encouraged to regrow and regenerate, and are developing tissue engineering technology that could help millions of patients with those disorders. That's the conclusion of a new analysis of almost 100 scientific studies on the topic, published in ACS's journal Molecular Pharmaceutics. Tong Cao, Wei Seong Toh and colleagues point out that damage to so-called articular cartilage — the smooth, white, rubbery tissue that covers and cushions ...

Despite years of scientific studies, reports, lawsuits, congressional inquiries, claims and counterclaims, the question of whether bisphenol A (BPA) poses health threats to people lacks a definitive answer, according to a package of articles on the controversial substance in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), ACS's weekly newsmagazine. In the articles, C&EN Senior Correspondent Stephen K. Ritter explains that BPA has been used in an array of consumer goods since the 1950s. Today it is a mainstay ingredient in hard plastics in some reusable drink ...

COLLEGE PARK, MD (June 8, 2011) -- When the current financial crisis hit, the failure of traditional economic doctrines to provide any sort of early warning shocked not only financial experts worldwide, but also governments and the general public, and we all began to question the effectiveness and validity of those doctrines. A research team based in Israel decided to investigate what went awry, searching for order in an apparently random system. They report their findings in the American Institute of Physics' journal AIP Advances. The novelty of their study is the ...

Dick Patrick Studios releases new "Shop, Prep, Cook, Taste" Promo Book. Dick Patrick Studios has teamed up with designer Garrett Owen to create a new promo piece entitled "Shop, Prep, Cook, Taste." The goal of the brochure is to showcase Patrick's holistic approach to shooting food photography by breaking down the food industry into its four component parts and illustrating them with photography. Each dish in the piece has a unique story all its own, and Patrick uses his skills with the camera to bring every step in the food preparation process ...

More and more pathogens are becoming immune to antibiotics. Some bacteria can no longer be combated. The World Health Organization WHO is warning about resistance to drugs which were once so potent. The WHO's director-general Margaret Chan has pointed out that if measures are not taken quickly, it may soon not be possible to treat many frequently occurring infections. Figures released by the WHO show that in 2010 nearly half-a-million people were infected with a strain of tuberculosis which is resistant to many antibiotics – one third of those infected died. The Organization ...

An article in the current issue of Technology & Innovation, Proceedings of the National Academy of Inventors ™ reports on the bright future and enormous need for stem cell therapeutics that may offer hope for those suffering from debilitating and deadly diseases. www.cognizantcommunication.com Stem cell transplantation may offer therapy through "simple cell replacement" procedures to restructure damaged organs, tissues and cells, or provide methods for "reawakening" biological cues to regenerate cells. "The future for stem cell applications is indeed promising, ...

The plane takes off from Munich in bright weather, temperature 10 degrees Celsius, and lands in Anchorage, Alaska, in driving snow, temperature minus 15. Parked on the airfield overnight, the aircraft takes off the next morning at a freezing minus 25 degrees, heading for Dubai, where the weather is a sunny 32 degrees. The temperature on the outside of the fuselage is over 80 degrees. The rapid changes in temperature pose a challenge for the technical systems and materials. How can it be ensured that the onboard equipment will function in all circumstances? Scientists at ...

Researchers identify gender disparities in the appropriate use of nuclear stress tests More women than men are unnecessarily referred for nuclear stress tests Majority of inappropriate studies ordered by primary care physicians PROVIDENCE, R.I. – New research from cardiologists at Rhode Island and The Miriam hospitals suggests a possible gender disparity in how patients are referred for nuclear stress tests, an imaging technique that measures blood flow to the heart muscle both at rest and during periods of stress, such as exercise. According to the study, published ...

June 8, 2011 – Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston have found a marker called ABCB5 that both tags a small proportion of cells within colorectal cancers and fuels resistance in those cells to standard treatments. The results indicate that eliminating ABCB5-expressing cells is crucial for successful colorectal cancer treatment, while adding to the growing body of evidence for a theory of cancer growth called the cancer stem cell hypothesis. An international team led by Brian J. Wilson, PhD, Tobias Schatton, PhD, and Markus Frank, MD, of the Transplantation Research ...

A new study from biology researchers at Baylor University and the University of Maryland-Baltimore has found that there are consistent and widespread declines in stream biodiversity at lower levels of urban development more damaging than what was previously believed. The study found that aquatic life actually shows significant loss of biodiversity with less than two percent of developed land in a watershed. This is much less that what a decade-old analysis widely cited by environmental policymakers suggests that it takes up to 15 percent of solid surfaces like roads ...

STANFORD, Calif. — New research has shown that children's risk for learning and behavior problems and obesity rises in correlation to their level of trauma exposure, says the psychiatrist at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital who oversaw the study. The findings could encourage physicians to consider diagnosing post-traumatic stress disorder rather than attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, which has similar symptoms to PTSD but very different treatment. The study examined children living in a violent, low-income neighborhood ...

Almost universally, red means stop. Red means danger. Red means hot. And analyzing the results in the 2004 Olympics, researchers have found that red also means dominance. Athletes wearing red prevailed more often than those wearing blue, especially in hand-to-hand sports like wrestling. Why? Is it random? Is it cultural? Or does it have evolutionary roots? A new study of male rhesus macaques strongly suggests it's evolution. "The similarity of our results with those in humans suggests that avoiding red or acting submissively in its presence may stem from an inherited ...

Researchers from NOAA have discovered a potent and highly-debilitating toxin in the endangered Hawaiian monk seal, a first-of-its-kind chemical finding that is now prompting investigations of other marine mammals in the state. The toxin, ciguatoxin, is produced by marine algae common on coral reefs, and accumulates in fish species that are consumed by humans. Ciguatera, the human disease caused by ciguatoxin, affects thousands of people every year worldwide and comes in the form of acute gastrointestinal and neurological illness with symptoms resembling chronic fatigue ...

Researchers from the University of Sheffield have discovered valuable insight into how people develop B-cell lymphoma, one of the most common cancers in the UK. The team, from the University's Institute for Cancer Studies and funded by Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Yorkshire Cancer Research, found that a mechanism different to that previously thought to be the cause of lymphoma may be responsible for the development of the disease. Lymphoma is a type of cancer that affects the blood, originating in ...

Taiwanese investigators have found that there can be a significantly higher risk of multiple sclerosis (MS) occurring in the year following a shingles, or herpes zoster, attack. The findings, which support a long-held view on how MS may develop, are published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases and now available online (http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/06/07/infdis.jir239.abstract). MS is an autoimmune disease that affects the brain and spinal cord, leading to inflammation and nerve damage as the body's immune cells attack the nervous system. Possible ...

PORTLAND, Ore. — Women who receive a contraceptive known as an intrauterine device or IUD immediately following a first trimester abortion experience few complications and are less likely to have an unintended pregnancy than those who delay getting an IUD by several weeks, according to a new study at Oregon Health & Science University. The findings are published in the June 9 New England Journal of Medicine. Research has shown that IUDs are safe, highly effective, long-term reversible contraceptives that don't require active use once they've been inserted. IUDs are ...

Suffering from parental abuse as a child increases a person's chances of having poor sleep quality in old age, according to a research article in the current issue of the Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological and Social Sciences (Volume 66B, Number 3). An analysis of data from 877 adults age 60 years and above found that early parental emotional abuse was associated with a higher number of sleep complaints in old age. It was specifically emotional abuse — rather than physical abuse or emotional neglect — that was tied to trouble in getting a good night's sleep. "A ...