The Institute of Medicine (IOM) recently released a study, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. The report calls for new and expanded roles for nurses in a redesigned health care system. It recommends improving education for all nurses and allowing nurses to practice to the full extent of their license and ability. It advocates overhauling state scope of practice acts and suggests that advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) -- certified registered nurse anesthetists, certified nurse-midwives, clinical nurse specialists, and certified nurse practitioners ...

Boston – November 1, 2010 – The Autism Consortium, an innovative Boston area collaboration of researchers, clinicians, funders and families dedicated to catalyzing research and enhancing clinical care for autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), announced that it will begin a new initiative on Translational Medicine and Autism Therapeutics. The new focus was introduced at the Consortium's fifth annual symposium held October 26th, 2010, at Harvard Medical School in Boston. "As scientists are starting to connect genetics to brain function and behavior, we believe it is time ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Money may not grow on trees, but energy could grow in grass. Researchers at the University of Illinois have completed the first extensive geographic yield and economic analysis of potential bioenergy grass crops in the Midwestern United States. Demand for biofuels is increasing as Americans seek to expand renewable energy sources and mitigate the effects of fluctuating energy prices. Corn ethanol is the main biofuel on the market, but demand for ethanol competes with corn's availability as a food, and rising ethanol consumption could lead to higher food ...

BOSTON (3:00 p.m. ET, November 1, 2010) — A class of compounds that interferes with cell signaling pathways may provide a new approach to cancer treatment, according to a study published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Early Edition. The compounds, called PITs (non-phosphoinositide PIP3 inhibitors), limited tumor growth in mice by inducing cell death. "PITs cause cells to self-destruct by interfering with the signaling pathways that regulate cell survival. As compounds that promote cell death, PITs show promise in halting ...

Anger is an interesting emotion for psychologists. On the one hand, it's negative, but then it also has some of the features of positive emotions. For a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, researchers find that associating an object with anger actually makes people want the object—a kind of motivation that's normally associated with positive emotions. People usually think of anger as a negative emotion. You're not supposed to get angry. But anger also has some positive features. For example, it activates ...

Excess nitrogen from agricultural and urban lands is contaminating groundwater, streams, lakes and estuaries, where it causes harmful algal blooms and contributes to fish kills. Cost-effective approaches to removing this nitrogen from croplands and urban stormwater runoff before it reaches sensitive water bodies have been elusive. But simple and inexpensive technologies are on the horizon. A recent scientific workshop on denitrification brought together ecologists, engineers and policy experts to find answers. Denitrification is a biological process carried out by ...

Researchers at New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences have developed a novel algebraic model of DNA "hybridization," a process central to most biotechnology devices that monitor changes in cell's gene expression or characterize a cell's genome. Their work, which is described in the journal Physical Review E, provides an additional tool for understanding how biological systems function and could enhance methods and designs of technologies used in cancer and genetics research. Biology researchers seek to measure cell activity, but the task is a ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The rate at which lead poisoning has struck young Rhode Island children depends heavily on where they live, according to a Brown University-led geographic analysis of comprehensive health department data from across Rhode Island between 1993 and 2005. By mapping cases of lead poisoning, researchers have been able to help target cleanup resources to do the most good. During that 12-year period, some census blocks in the state had no cases of poisoning in the study group of 204,746 children, but in the hardest hit census blocks of Providence, ...

COLD SPRING HARBOR, N.Y. (Mon., Nov. 1, 2010) -- Imaging has rapidly become a defining tool of the current era in biological research. But finding the right method and optimizing it for data collection can be a daunting process, even for an established imaging laboratory. Cold Spring Harbor Protocols is one of the world's leading sources for detailed technical instruction for implementation of imaging methods (http://cshprotocols.cshlp.org/cgi/collection/imaging_microscopy_general), and the November issue (http://cshprotocols.cshlp.org/TOCs/toc11_10.dtl) features articles ...

PITTSBURGH, Nov. 1 – Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) prevent colon cancer by triggering diseased stem cells to self-destruct, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Their findings, reported in the early online version of this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could lead to new strategies to protect people at high risk for the disease. Doctors have long known that NSAIDs, such as aspirin, can lower the risk of colon cancer, but it's not been ...

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – An international team of scientists led by Rutgers University astrophysicists have discovered 10 new massive galaxy clusters from a large, uniform survey of the southern sky. The survey was conducted using a breakthrough technique that detects "shadows" of galaxy clusters on the cosmic microwave background radiation, a relic of the "big bang" that gave birth to the universe. In a paper published in the Nov. 10 issue of Astrophysical Journal, the Rutgers scientists and collaborators at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (PUC) describe their ...

Inappropriate growth and survival signaling, which leads to the aberrant growth of cancer cells, is a driving force behind tumors. Much of current cancer research focuses on the kinase enzymes whose mutations are responsible for such disregulated signaling, and many successful molecularly targeted anti-cancer therapeutics are directed at inhibiting kinase activity. Now, UCLA researchers from the Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging, the Institute for Molecular Medicine, the California NanoSystems Institute, the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and the department ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – New research suggests that the addition of ultraviolet light to the brushing and suction of a vacuum cleaner can almost double the removal of potentially infectious microorganisms from a carpet's surface when compared to vacuuming alone. Researchers say the findings suggest that incorporating the germicidal properties of UV light into vacuuming might have promise in reducing allergens and pathogens from carpets, as well. "What this tells us is there is a commercial vacuum with UV technology that's effective at reducing surface microbes. This has promise ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Researchers at the University at Buffalo have developed a novel technology using quantum dots that is expected to have major implications for research and treatment of tuberculosis, as well as other inflammatory lung diseases. A paper appearing online in Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine as an article-in-press describes specific delivery of a chemotherapeutic drug to specific cells in the lung, particularly the alveolar white cell, without causing acute inflammation. Quantum dots are tiny semiconductor particles generally no larger ...

Washington, November 1, 2010 – Elderly women are at high risk for inappropriate urinary catheter utilization in emergency departments, according to a new study in the November issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC). The study was conducted at St John Hospital and Medical Center, a 769-bed tertiary care teaching hospital in Detroit, Mich. The authors examined 532 instances in which urinary catheters were placed in emergency room patients over a 12-week ...

Along with energy conservation and storm-water reduction, scientists may soon be adding crime-fighting to the list of benefits that urban trees provide. Researchers with the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest (PNW) and Southern Research Stations have published a new study that suggests that certain types of city trees may help lower property and violent crime rates. Their study—which is posted online in advance of its appearance in a forthcoming printed issue of the journal Environment and Behavior—is the first to examine the effects of trees and other factors on crime ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. – It may seem difficult to change stereotypical thinking. Perceptions can be very important in forming an individual's attitudes. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have found that people conditioned to think in opposition to racial stereotypes are more receptive to people from minority groups starring in commercial advertising. Saleem Alhabash, a doctoral candidate in the University of Missouri School of Journalism. "This research shows that when people are trained to think in a non-stereotypical way, they will pay more attention to ads with ...

GMOs, or Genetically Modified Organisms, may raise concerns of genes escaping from crops and having unknown effects on natural, wild species. But what is the real risk that traits associated with GMOs will actually migrate to and persist in their wild relatives? Interest in plant ecology, crop production and weed management led John Lindquist and his colleagues from the University of Nebraska and USDA-ARS to investigate how gene flow from a cultivated crop to a weedy relative would influence the ecological fitness of a cropwild hybrid offspring. They published their findings ...

WASHINGTON —People aren't very accurate at predicting how good or bad they'll feel after an event -- such as watching their team lose the big game or getting a flat-screen TV. But afterwards, they "misremember" what they predicted, revising their prognostications after the fact to match how they actually feel, according to new research. These findings appear in the November issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, published by the American Psychological Association. Although the process of predicting emotions seems imprecise from start to finish, misremembering ...

To a hungry fish on the prowl, the split-second neural processing required to see, track, and gobble up a darting flash of prey is a matter of survival. To scientists, it's a window into how our brain coordinates the eye motions that enable us to hit a baseball, sidestep an errant skateboarder, and otherwise make our way in a world full of danger and opportunity. This process is now better understood, thanks to a team of scientists that imaged the activity of individual neurons in a part of a zebrafish's brain called the optic tectum. The optic tectum receives signals ...

When Stephen Barrager was diagnosed in 2007 with acute multiple myeloma, a form of bone marrow cancer, he endured the same anxiety that troubles all those who receive an upsetting diagnosis. The way he went about dealing with his disease and its treatment, however, was different. Barrager drew upon his engineering and management science background to help him make difficult decisions. Now he is sharing his insights with hospitals and doctors in his native Bay Area and with colleagues at a conference coming to Austin on Nov. 7, 2010. The annual meeting of the Institute ...

Orange, Calif., Nov 1, 2010 — A UC Irvine oncologist's work with a targeted therapy is showing great promise in patients with a deadly form of lung cancer. The results were published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine. The multicenter study is testing whether the drug crizotinib effectively slows, stops or reverses growth in advanced non-small cell lung cancer tumors by targeting a genetic mutation that causes uncontrolled tumor growth. Study participants all tested positive for a mutation in the anaplastic lymphoma kinase gene. According to the findings, ...

It is one thing to learn a new piece of information, such as a new phone number or a new word, but quite another to get your brain to file it away so it is available when you need it. A new study published in the Journal of Neuroscience by researchers at the University of York and Harvard Medical School suggests that sleep may help to do both. The scientists found that sleep helps people to remember a newly learned word and incorporate new vocabulary into their "mental lexicon". During the study, which was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, researchers ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain could expand the number of stroke patients eligible for a potentially life-saving treatment, according to a new study, published online and in the December issue of the journal Radiology. Some patients who suffer an acute ischemic stroke — in which a blood clot or other obstruction blocks blood flow in the brain — can be treated with a drug called tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, that dissolves the clot and restores blood flow. However, the clot-busting drug can only be administered within four and a ...

New York, NY, November 2, 2010—An initiative by the U. S. technology company Pitney Bowes to make medications of proven value less expensive for their employees succeeded in stabilizing employees' adherence to their treatment regimens, according to a Commonwealth Fund-supported study published in this month's Health Affairs. The study, led by Niteesh K. Choudhry at Brigham and Women's Hospital, found that adherence to cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, which had been on the decline, immediately stabilized after Pitney Bowes eliminated copayments for the drugs for all ...