STANFORD, Calif. — More than two dozen widely cited studies linking genes or other "biomarkers" to specific diseases vastly overstate the association, according to new research from an expert in scientific study design at the Stanford University School of Medicine. As a result, clinicians may be making decisions for their patients based on inaccurate conclusions not supported by other, larger studies. The widely cited studies include one linking the BRCA1 mutation with colon cancer, another that links levels of C-reactive protein in the blood with cardiovascular disease ...

The creation of a new quasiparticle called the "hybrid plasmon polariton" may throw open the doors to integrated photonic circuits and optical computing for the 21st century. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have demonstrated the first true nanoscale waveguides for next generation on-chip optical communication systems. "We have directly demonstrated the nanoscale waveguiding of light at visible and near infrared frequencies in a metal-insulator-semiconductor device featuring low loss and broadband ...

Two years ago, a widely publicized scientific report plucked an old mouse virus out of obscurity and held it up as a possible cause of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. According to a new study published today by a group of researchers in California, Wisconsin and Illinois, that report was wrong. The mouse virus is not the culprit in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, said University of California, San Francisco Professor Jay A. Levy, MD, the senior author on the study, published this week by the journal Science. "There is no evidence of this mouse virus in human blood," said Levy, ...

A cell phone-sized, wireless near-infrared device is as reliable as the current "gold standard" invasive tests in determining bladder disease, according to a study by researchers at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver Coastal Health and the Child & Family Research Institute (CFRI). The new physiologic information gathered through near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) could also advance treatment that tackles the root causes of urinary incontinence, says the research team. Published in the current issue of the International Journal of Spectroscopy, the study is ...

Although known for over a century, cryptosporidiosis was believed to be an extremely rare condition and it only gained attention with the discovery that it can affect humans, especially immune-compromised individuals. It is caused by a single-cell parasite, one of a family known as cryptosporidia. Some cryptosporidia also infect reptiles, where after a sometimes lengthy incubation period they cause gastrointestinal problems even in otherwise healthy individuals. The condition is usually persistent and is presently impossible to cure. It is therefore important to minimize ...

A prior fracture at least doubles a patient's future fracture risk – yet numerous studies from across the world have found that healthcare systems fail to respond to the first fracture to prevent future fractures. Professor Cyrus Cooper, chair of the Committee of Scientific Advisors of the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) and director of the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton in the UK stated, "Studies from the UK, USA and Australia have reported that 45% or more of today's hip fracture patients have a prior fracture history. Healthcare ...

Decorative white silk crosses are an ingenious tactic used by orb-weaving spiders to protect their webs from damage, a new study from the University of Melbourne has revealed. The team, led by Dr Andre Walter and Professor Mark Elgar from the University of Melbourne's Department of Zoology, found that orb-weaving spiders respond to severe damage to their webs by building bigger silk crosses, but if the damage is mild they don't bother adding extra decoration. Professor Mark Elgar said web damage is costly for spiders as a lot of nutritional resources are required to ...

A large number of illnesses stem from misfolded proteins, molecules composed of amino acids. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now studied protein misfolding using a special spectroscopic technique. Misfolding, as they report in Nature, is more frequent if the sequence of the amino acids in the neighboring protein domains is very similar. Proteins are the main molecular machines in our bodies. They perform a wide range of functions, from digesting and processing nutrients, converting energy and aiding cell structure to transmitting signals in cells and the ...

The strength of sun cream recently recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to stave off sunburn is far too low and "not in the interests of public health," warns the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin (DTB). NICE should rethink its advice, and soon, it says. NICE recommends sunscreens with a sun protection factor, or SPF, of 15 as sufficient to prevent sunburn and the subsequent potential risk of skin cancer. But DTB says that this is based on standard test conditions in which manufacturers apply 2 mg/cm2 of product to the skin. "In ...

Permanent hair dye gives the most serious adverse effects, yet there are also many reactions to facial and body moisturisers. This comes from the first report from the National Register of Adverse Effects from Cosmetic Products published by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. "The Register gives us a better overview of the products that cause adverse effects, the type of adverse effect and who experiences them. Then we can make an assessment and even warn against the use of certain products," says researcher Berit Granum at the Division of Environmental Medicine ...

Toronto – Not allowed to advertise your booze or smokes on a billboard? That's okay. Research shows online advertising works especially well in places with government ad bans. "If you want to regulate the offline world, you have to remember that people have access online too and you have to think about how that online world is going to mitigate the effects of your regulation," says Avi Goldfarb, a marketing professor at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management who co-wrote a study on the topic with Catherine Tucker of MIT's Sloan School of Management. The ...

Boston, Mass. – Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston and Google.org have found web-based search data to be a viable source of information for early detection and monitoring of outbreaks of dengue, an emerging mosquito-borne virus found in tropical areas of the world. Because search data allows the capture of disease-related queries in near real time, it could help public health officials in the more than 100 countries affected by dengue respond more quickly to nascent epidemics. A team from the Children's Hospital Informatics Program (CHIP), led by John Brownstein, ...

A European research team, with Spanish participation, has described two new beetle species measuring two millimetres in length. The coleoptera (beetles) were found in streams in the Pyrenees and Pre-Pyrenees mountains (from Gipuzkoa to Girona) and in the Sierra de la Demanda mountains (Burgos). Experts had previously thought that they belonged to another European species. "These species, which have a restricted range, had been confused with another European species with a more extensive distribution (Hydraena saga) and so their independent evolutionary history was unknown", ...

MadCap Software, Inc. (http://www.madcapsoftware.com), the leader in multi-channel content authoring and a showcase company for Microsoft Visual Studio and Microsoft XPS, today announced that revenues for Q1 2011 have grown 41% over Q1 2010, continuing the profitability that the company has enjoyed since launching its flagship product Flare in 2006. In the wake of strong growth, MadCap has increased its cash and accounts receivable by 30% over the same period ending 2010. At the same time, MadCap continues to invest in resources by expanding headcount by 21% over the previous ...

Research from North Carolina State University shows that so-called biodegradable products are likely doing more harm than good in landfills, because they are releasing a powerful greenhouse gas as they break down. "Biodegradable materials, such as disposable cups and utensils, are broken down in landfills by microorganisms that then produce methane," says Dr. Morton Barlaz, co-author of a paper describing the research and professor and head of NC State's Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering. "Methane can be a valuable energy source when captured, ...

Bethesda, MD—Severe deficiency of the vitamins and minerals required for life is relatively uncommon in developed nations, but modest deficiency is very common and often not taken seriously. A new research published online in the FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), however, may change this thinking as it examines moderate selenium and vitamin K deficiency to show how damage accumulates over time as a result of vitamin and mineral loss, leading to age-related diseases. "Understanding how best to define and measure optimum nutrition will make the application of new technologies ...

TORONTO, Ont., May 31—Female prisoners who did not participate in a drug treatment program after their release were 10 times more likely to return to prison within one year than other prisoners, a new study has found. More than one-third of those women were sent back to prison within six months, according to the national study led by Flora Matheson, a medical sociologist at St. Michael's Hospital. The findings, published in the June issue of the American Journal of Public Health, underline the importance of post-release treatment programs for prisoners with substance ...

What would it take to make a manned mission to Mars a reality? A team of aeronautical and textile engineering students from North Carolina State University believe part of the solution may lie in advanced textile materials. The students joined forces to tackle life-support challenges that the aerospace industry has been grappling with for decades. "One of the big issues, in terms of a manned mission to Mars, is creating living quarters that would protect astronauts from the elements – from radiation to meteorites," says textile engineering student Brent Carter. "Currently, ...

In the online version of the New England Journal of Medicine, physicians and scientists in Heidelberg, Montreal, and Paris reported on the successful treatment of three young children who were suffering from a severe hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) after an infection with enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC). The infections occurred in 2010. EHEC are the bacteria that cause the current wave of infections that have already claimed ten lives in Germany. The number of suspected and confirmed cases of EHEC has now reached 700. Eculizumab has been approved in Germany ...

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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – May 31, 2011 – The gold standard long-term glucose monitoring test for patients with diabetes proved to be of limited value in dialysis patients, according to a new study at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. The study appears online in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology and is scheduled for the July print issue. Blood sugar monitoring is a vital part of diabetes management. Patients and physicians rely on the hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) test to measure an individual's average blood sugar level over the prior three months. ...

Bethesda, MD—If you are one of the millions of people around the world who struggle with dry eye disease, good news is on the way. A new research discovery published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology (https://www.jleukbio.org) offers hope for new drugs that treat the cellular cause of the disease rather than its symptoms. That's because the research is the first to identify natural killer (NK) cells, a type of cell that provides innate immunity to the eyes, as promoting the inflammation that plays a critical role in the development of dry eye disease. "Dry eye disease ...

Analysis of data from two long-term studies of the impact of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) on the development of psychiatric disorders in young adults confirms that ADHD alone significantly increases the risk of cigarette smoking and substance abuse in both boys and girls. The report from a team of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators will appear in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and has been released online. "Our study, which is one of the largest set of longitudinal studies of this issue to date, ...

Delineation of the origin of the retrovirus known as XMRV from the genomes of laboratory mice indicates that the virus is unlikely to be responsible for either prostate cancer or chronic fatigue syndrome in humans, as has been widely published. The virus arose because of genetic recombination of two mouse viruses. Subsequent infection of lab experiments with XMRV formed the basis of the original association. Reporting in Science, Vinay Pathak, Ph.D., and his research team from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, in collaboration ...

A survey of nearly 4,000 Americans finds that obese women reported significantly worse health than obese men. Blacks who were overweight also reported better health than blacks in the normal or obese weight categories. Respondents were divided into three categories: normal, overweight, or obese, according to their height and weight. The survey results are published online in the June issue of Springer's journal Quality of Life Research and they come from a study funded by the National Institute on Aging. During the survey, researchers conducted comprehensive telephone ...