(Boston) – Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), in collaboration with colleagues at Lahey Clinic and from Denmark and Germany, have found that 5a-reductase inhibitors (5a-RIs), while improving urinary symptoms in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and possible hair loss prevention, produces significant adverse effects in some individuals including loss of libido, erectile dysfunction (ED), ejaculatory dysfunction and potential depression. These findings, which currently appear on-line in Journal of Sexual Medicine, suggest that extreme ...

New research suggests eating vegetables gives you a healthy tan. The study, led by Dr Ian Stephen at The University of Nottingham, showed that eating a healthy diet rich in fruit and vegetables gives you a more healthy golden glow than the sun. The research, which showed that instead of heading for the sun the best way to look good is to munch on carrots and tomatoes, has been published in the journal Evolution and Human Behaviour. Dr Ian Stephen, from the School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus, led the research as part of his PhD at the University ...

Montreal, January 10, 2011 – A research team from the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and McGill University has demonstrated that private rooms in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) play a key role in reducing hospital infections like C-difficile. The study, published today in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine, also suggests that length of stay would be shorter and this could lead to cost savings to the healthcare system. Infection control in hospitals is a worldwide health concern that can have a serious impact on patient morbidity, mortality and the cost of ...

Many futurists envision a world in which polymer membranes with molecular-sized channels are used to capture carbon, produce solar-based fuels, or desalinating sea water, among many other functions. This will require methods by which such membranes can be readily fabricated in bulk quantities. A technique representing a significant first step down that road has now been successfully demonstrated. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley have developed a solution-based ...

Cancer researchers at The Peggy and Charles Stephenson Oklahoma Cancer Center have found a way to stop early stage pancreatic cancer in research models – a result that has far-reaching implications in chemoprevention for high-risk patients. The research already has sparked a clinical trial in California, and the FDA-approved drug, Gefitinib, should be in clinical trials at OU's cancer center and others nationwide in about a year. The research appears in the latest issue of Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. C.V. Rao, ...

The results of a study recently published in the journal Biology Letters indicate that giant pandas need old-growth forests as much as bamboo forests. This work, which was completed through the collaborative efforts of scientists from the Chinese Academy of Science, San Diego Zoo Global, China West Normal University, China Wildlife Conservation Association and the Sichuan Forestry Department, could assist conservationists in creating strategic plans that help conserve this critically endangered bear species. "In this study we show that pandas are associated with old-growth ...

A worldwide research consortium that includes the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center has proven that a new drug is more effective and easier to use than current medicines in the prevention of blood clots following hip replacement surgery. The results reveal a better way to prevent the formation of blood clots in the deep veins of the legs – a condition known as deep vein thrombosis (DVT). The blood clots become life-threatening pulmonary embolisms (PE) when they break free and travel to the lungs. Gary Raskob, Ph.D., an internationally recognized DVT expert ...

Montreal, 11 January 2011—What is the future for North America's environment? Much of the answer is up to us. A new report examines the major forces and underlying trends likely to shape the environment of North America in 2030 and outlines nine areas where decisions today will affect our environmental future in varying degrees. In fact, while the pressures on North America's environment will continue to increase over the next 20 years, the report emphasizes that it would be a mistake to assume that our choices today can't influence environmental quality down the road. North ...

Analysis by a UCLA-led team of scientists has confirmed the discovery of the oldest complete wine production facility ever found, including grape seeds, withered grape vines, remains of pressed grapes, a rudimentary wine press, a clay vat apparently used for fermentation, wine-soaked potsherds, and even a cup and drinking bowl. The facility, which dates back to roughly 4100 B.C. — 1,000 years before the earliest comparable find — was unearthed by a team of archaeologists from Armenia, the United States and Ireland in the same mysterious Armenian cave complex where an ...

Adding to the national debate on the state of dental research in U.S. dental schools, an article released today titled "Total NIH Support to U.S. Dental Schools, 2005-2009", published in the International and American Associations for Dental Research's Journal of Dental Research, authors J.A. Lipton and D.F. Kinane conclude that the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) has played a diminishing role in funding research at U.S. dental schools between 2005 and 2009. Utilizing the online NIH RePORT, comprehensive award data were obtained for U.S. ...

Employees who have to maintain a neutral disposition while they are on the clock tend to spend more energy to meet that requirement; therefore, they have less energy to devote to work tasks, according to new research from Rice University, the University of Toronto and Purdue University. The researchers found that workers who must avoid appearing either overly positive or negative -- such as journalists, health care professionals, social workers, lawyers and law enforcement officers -- suppress expressions of emotion more than workers in other service-oriented professions, ...

Researchers at North Carolina State University have created the first coils of silicon nanowire on a substrate that can be stretched to more than double their original length, moving us closer to incorporating stretchable electronic devices into clothing, implantable health-monitoring devices, and a host of other applications. "In order to create stretchable electronics, you need to put electronics on a stretchable substrate, but electronic materials themselves tend to be rigid and fragile," says Dr. Yong Zhu, one of the researchers who created the new nanowire coils ...

University of British Columbia researchers are part of European Space Agency's Plank satellite mission that is revealing thousands of "exotic" astronomical objects, including extremely cold dust clouds, galaxies with powerful nuclei, and giant clusters of galaxies. The international collaboration of scientists from 15 countries is presenting more than 25 scientific papers today in Paris, France, on the first results from the Planck mission. Launched in 2009, the Planck satellite is probing the entire sky at microwave wavelengths from 0.35 millimetre to one centimetre. ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University researchers have found a genetic mutation that allows a plant to better endure drought without losing biomass, a discovery that could reduce the amount of water required for growing plants and help plants survive and thrive in adverse conditions. Plants can naturally control the opening and closing of stomata, pores that take in carbon dioxide and release water. During drought conditions, a plant might close its stomata to conserve water. By doing so, however, the plant also reduces the amount of carbon dioxide it can take in, ...

In this winter of heavy snows--with more on the way this week--nature's bull's-eye might be Oswego, N.Y., and the nearby Tug Hill Plateau. There the proximity of the Great Lakes whips wind and snow into high gear. Old Man Winter then blows across New York state, burying cities and towns in snowdrifts several feet high. This season, however, something is standing in his way. The Doppler-on-Wheels (DOW), a data-collecting radar dish, is waiting. This month and next, scientists inside the DOW are tracking snowstorms in and around Oswego to learn what drives lake-effect ...

The growing popularity of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems across the United States has made it more important to maximize their power input. That's why UC San Diego environmental engineering professor Jan Kleissl is working on technologies and methods that will better predict how much power we can actually harness from the sun. In a paper recently published in the journal Renewable Energy (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09601481), "Optimum fixed orientations and benefits of tracking for capturing solar radiation in the continental United States," Kleissl ...

New York, Jan. 11, 2011 -- While scientists believe that climate change and related extreme weather events such as drought and flooding will likely affect the earth's flora and fauna, just how much is not known. A new study by researchers Walter Jetz from Yale University and Dustin Rubenstein from Columbia University however shows an important link between the natural variation in climate conditions and complex behaviors among birds. The study, which appears in print in Current Biology on Jan. 11, 2011, has implications for understanding how organisms may respond behaviorally ...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A study by researchers at Mayo Clinic's campus in Florida and Washington University School of Medicine adds a new twist to the body of evidence suggesting human obesity is due in part to genetic factors. While studying hormone receptors in laboratory mice, neuroscientists identified a new molecular player responsible for the regulation of appetite and metabolism. In the Jan. 11 online issue of PLoS Biology, the authors report that mice engineered not to express the lipoprotein receptor LRP1, in the brain's hypothalamus, began to eat uncontrollably, ...

The opening of buds on Douglas-fir trees each spring is the result of a complex interplay between cold and warm temperatures during the winter, scientists with the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station have found. Their research—which is featured in the December issue of Science Findings, a monthly publication of the station—led to the development of a novel model to help managers predict budburst under different scenarios of future climate. "We take it for granted that buds will open each spring, but, in spite of a lot of research on winter dormancy ...

San Diego, CA, January 11, 2011 – Launched on December 2, 2010, Healthy People 2020 is an ambitious, science-based, 10-year agenda for improving the health of all Americans. A key component, Education for Health, is an educational roadmap to achieve the Healthy People 2020 goals. Formulated by the Healthy People Curriculum Task Force, this set of new and revised educational objectives provides a vehicle for promoting the discussion and progress that will be needed to achieve an integrated, seamless approach to education for health for the American public as well as for ...

ITHACA, N.Y. — Scientists have identified the genes related to leaf angle in corn (maize) – a key trait for planting crops closer together, which has led to an eight-fold increase in yield since the early 1900s. (Nature Genetics, Jan. 9, 2011.) The study, led by researchers from Cornell and the U.S. Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) at Cornell and North Carolina State University, is the first to relate genetic variation across the entire maize genome to traits in a genomewide association study. The researchers have so far located 1.6 ...

Newly released findings of a multinational survey conducted on behalf of the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) show clear disparities between patients' and doctors' perceptions of osteoporosis and its management. The 13-country survey of 844 postmenopausal patients over 55 years of age and 837 doctors investigated gaps between patient and doctor understanding of the emotional and physical impact of osteoporosis; identified barriers to patient adherence; and sought to understand the ways in which osteoporotic patients can better share and obtain information about ...

Researchers from Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) have broken one of the major roadblocks on the path to growing transplantable tissue in the lab: They've found a way to grow the blood vessels and capillaries needed to keep tissues alive. The new research is available online and due to appear in the January issue of the journal Acta Biomaterialia. "The inability to grow blood-vessel networks -- or vasculature -- in lab-grown tissues is the leading problem in regenerative medicine today," said lead co-author Jennifer West, department chair and the ...

A simple technique to make a common virus-killing material significantly more effective is a breakthrough from the Rice University labs of Andrew Barron and Qilin Li. Rather than trying to turn the process into profit, the researchers have put it into the public domain. They hope wide adoption will save time, money and perhaps even lives. The Rice professors and their team reported in Environmental Science and Technology, an American Chemical Society journal, that adding silicone to titanium dioxide, a common disinfectant, dramatically increases its ability to degrade ...

MapsofIndia, a Compare Infobase website and a industry leader in thematic mapping solutions, announced the launch of its fully-featured online India Quiz Game in the Android market, marking its continued commitment and expansion into the burgeoning mobile platform. MapsofIndia's first of its kind game is developed to reside on Android based computing platforms. The online India Quiz Game offers the large fraternity of mobile and internet users, an unmatched opportunity to tease their brains and pit their wits against thousands of their peers and win exciting prizes. ...