The seasonal flu vaccine is associated with a 19% reduction in the rate of first heart attack and early vaccination in the fall further increases the benefits, found a study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj091891.pdf. As heart attacks increase significantly in winter when pneumonia and flu are prevalent, it has been suggested there may be a link between respiratory infections and heart attacks. The study, by researchers from the United Kingdom, looked at 78 706 patients aged 40 years or ...

A large waistline and high triglyceride levels in pregnant women could be an early screening tool for gestational diabetes, according to a study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj100378.pdf. Gestational diabetes is a significant public health concern, with potential negative effects on women and their babies, yet tests to diagnose are costly, time-consuming and unpleasant for pregnant women. As well, results are not available until relatively late in pregnancy, at about six months. Previous ...

NKX3.1, a protein that suppresses the development of prostate tumors, promotes the growth of a different type of tumor in the blood, according to an article published online on September 20 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (www.jem.org). Paul-Henri Romeo and colleagues find that TAL1, a protein abundantly expressed in approximately 40% of patients with T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL), drives expression of NKX3.1. Eliminating NKX3.1 halted the growth of TAL1-expressing T-ALL cells in culture and after injection into mice. It's not yet clear how ...

A team of researchers, led by Scott Oakes, at the University of California, San Francisco, has identified a way to prevent symptom onset, weight loss, and paralysis and extend survival in a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS; also known as Lou Gehrig's disease), providing a new avenue of research for the development of therapeutics for ALS and other motor neuron diseases. ALS and other motor neuron diseases are neurological disorders that selectively affect nerve cells that control voluntary muscle activities such as speaking, walking, breathing, swallowing, ...

EDITOR'S PICK: Preserving nerve cells in motor neuron disease A team of researchers, led by Scott Oakes, at the University of California, San Francisco, has identified a way to prevent symptom onset, weight loss, and paralysis and extend survival in a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS; also known as Lou Gehrig's disease), providing a new avenue of research for the development of therapeutics for ALS and other motor neuron diseases. ALS and other motor neuron diseases are neurological disorders that selectively affect nerve cells that control voluntary ...

The widespread use of true random number generators (TRNGs) has taken a step closer following the creation of the most lightweight designs to date by researchers at Queen's University Belfast's Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (ECIT). Members of the Institute's cryptography research team have produced a series of circuits that are up to 50 per cent smaller than anything else currently available. Optimised for digital circuits, FPGA and ASIC, they push efficiency to the limit by using just one logic gate, one look-up table and four transistors ...

A protein linked to Parkinson's disease may cause neurodegeneration by inhibiting autophagy—the process in which cells digest some of their contents—according to a study in the September 20 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology (www.jcb.org). Autophagy serves to clear a variety of toxic waste from cells, including misfolded proteins and defective mitochondria. These two types of cellular trash accumulate in neurons from Parkinson's patients, suggesting that autophagy could be impaired in these cells. A commonly amassed protein in Parkinson's disease is alpha-synuclein, ...

SEATTLE – Super-sized electromagnetic coils are helping explain how aquatic life might be affected by renewable energy devices being considered for placement along America's coastal waters and in the nation's rivers. Scientists with the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are examining whether a variety of fish and invertebrates change their behavior during and after exposure to an electromagnetic field similar to those produced by marine and hydrokinetic power devices that capture energy from ocean waves, tides, currents and rivers. Research began ...

Caring for children can be a tough job, particularly if you are a female cichlid fish. Native to the crater lakes of Nicaragua, cichlid fish look after their young by defending them against would-be predators. While male and female cichlid fish generally share parental responsibilities, research shows that this is not always the case. Conducted by an international team of researchers that included two biologists from Monash University, and published in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, new research has shown that male cichlid fish have a propensity ...

Patterned feathers, previously thought to be used only for camouflage in birds, can play an important role in attracting a mate and fending off rivals, a University of Melbourne study reveals. Ms Thanh-Lan Gluckman, co-author of the paper and Masters of Philosophy student from the Department of Zoology at the University of Melbourne, Australia, said this finding brought a new perspective to research in animal communication and evolution. "The implication of this study is that feathers don't need to be bright and showy to be used in sexual signalling and hence this changes ...

A protein called PU.1 is essential for the development of dendritic cells, the sentinels of the immune system, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researchers in Melbourne, Australia, have shown. Dendritic cells (DC) are immune cells that present proteins from foreign invaders, such as viruses, to the killer T cells of the immune system, allowing a full immune response to be mounted against the invaders. Researchers from the Immunology division have been studying dendritic cells and how different molecules regulate their development. Dr Li Wu said one of the molecules ...

We are all scientists now, thanks to SETI@home, Galaxy Zoo, The Great Sunflower Project, Folding@home and counltess other projects that allow individuals to take part in scientific research directly or indirectly. In the case of SETI@home and Folding@home one shares one's computer CPU with the researchers, whereas Galaxy Zoo is more about active involvement with the classification of stellar objects in images of the night sky, for instance. Now, writing in the International Journal of Organisational Design and Engineering, US researchers have mapped out an approach to ...

They challenge the mountain ranges of the Alps, the Andes and the Himalayas in size yet surprisingly little is known about seamounts, the vast mountains hidden under the world's oceans. Now in a special issue of Marine Ecology scientists uncover the mystery of life on these submerged mountain ranges and reveal why these under studied ecosystems are under threat. The bathymetry of our oceans is now resolved at a scale and detail unimaginable by early pioneers and recent estimates suggest that, globally, there may be up to 100,000 seamounts, yet despite best efforts less ...

Treating hospital patients with thigh-length surgical stockings, rather than knee-high socks, can reduce life threatening blood clots, a new study suggests. Researchers found that knee-high stockings, which are similar to flight socks, do little in stroke patients to prevent deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a life threatening form of blood clot that can travel up into the heart and lungs, . The CLOTS (Clots in Legs Or sTockings after Stroke) study from the University of Edinburgh highlights that the clot rate in stroke patients was higher among those fitted with the shorter ...

The forest in the Amazon Basin produces its own rain. During the wet season, aerosol particles, which serve to condensate clouds and precipitation here, mainly consist of organic material. These aerosols are released by the rainforest itself. This has been demonstrated by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, who are now able to draw conclusions about the mechanisms of this ecosystem: the high content of organic material indicates that the Amazon Basin acts as a largely self-contained biogeochemical reactor during the rainy season. The results ...

»Goal, goal, goal!« fans in the stadium are absolutely ecstatic, the uproar is enormous. So it's hardly surprising that the security personnel fail to spot a brawl going on between a few spectators. Separating jubilant fans from scuffling hooligans is virtually impossible in such a situation. Special surveillance cameras that immediately spot anything untoward and identify anything out of the ordinary could provide a solution. Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT in Sankt Augustin have now developed such a device as part of the ...

More and more car manufacturers are equipping their vehicles with image sensors – e.g. to register the presence of pedestrians or vehicles in the blind spot or to detect obstacles when parking. The sensors must be able to function in extremely high temperatures and in blazing sunlight. If they are installed behind the rear view mirror or on the instrument panel, for example, they can get very hot. The Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems IMS in Duisburg has developed a CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) image sensor for an industrial ...

Healthy reefs with more corals and fish generate predictably greater levels of noise, according to researchers working in Panama. This has important implications for understanding the behaviour of young fish, and provides an exciting new approach for monitoring environmental health by listening to reefs. Contrary to Jacques Cousteau's 'Silent World', coral reefs are surprisingly noisy places, with fish and invertebrates producing clicks and grunts which combine to produce cacophonies of noise. Each reef is subtly different depending on the size and composition of the ...

The rocks of Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta—the highest coastal mountain on Earth—tell a fascinating tale: The mountain collides and then separates from former super-continents. Volcanoes are born and die. The mountain travels from Peru to northern Colombia and finally rotates in a clockwise direction to open up an entirely new geological basin. Smithsonian scientists were part of a four-year project to study Santa Marta's geological evolution. Their findings are published in the October 2010 special issue of the Journal of South American Earth Sciences. The study ...

Is the US health system comprehensively meeting the needs of returning veterans? With the recent attention to mental illness in returning soldiers, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in particular, little research has focused on the medical care needs of those returning from Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to Dr. Susan Frayne, from the VA Palo Alto Health Care System and Stanford University, and colleagues. Their research highlights that veterans suffering from PTSD also suffer more medical illnesses than do those with no mental health ...

TORONTO, Ont., Sept. 20, 2010 – A drug commonly prescribed for people with high cholesterol may also be effective in treating prostate cancer, according to new research by Dr. Xiao-Yan Wen at St. Michael's Hospital. Rosuvastatin—a statin drug sold as Crestor—suppressed the growth of transplanted human prostate cancer cells in mice. "Our data provided solid pre-clinical evidence and a strong rationale for clinical trials of statins in the treatment of prostate cancer," said Wen, whose research appears in the September issue of European Urology, the journal of the European ...

The United States could achieve significant health care savings if it achieved widespread adoption of electronic health records (EHRs), but insufficient privacy protections are hindering public acceptance of the EHR concept, according to a new paper from researchers from North Carolina State University. The paper outlines steps that could be taken to boost privacy and promote the use of EHRs. "Electronic health records could reduce costs in the U.S. by an estimated $80 to 100 billion each year," says Dr. David Baumer, head of the business management department at NC State ...

Children who have a high risk of developing type 2 diabetes might be identified earlier by way of tell-tale genetic indicators known as biomarkers. Some of those new biomarkers might be pinpointed in research led by Nancy F. Butte and funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's National Institutes of Health. Butte is with the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Children's Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, where she is a professor of pediatrics. ARS is USDA's principal ...

Saranac Lake, N.Y. – Given the many pressing concerns of the day, fear of plague probably isn't what causes most Americans to lose sleep. But for those whose responsibility it is to combat bioterrorism, plague is among the highest priorities. Those charged with that mission include scientists like medical researcher Steve Smiley, whose lab at the Trudeau Institute is working to develop a vaccine that will protect the public against weaponized forms of plague. The Institute, which is dedicated to studying how the immune system responds to infectious diseases, is at the forefront ...

More than 80% of hospitalized patients suffer more severe pain than necessary. This is the conclusion of Christoph Maier (Bochum University Hospital, Bochum, Germany) and his coauthors in their interim report of the Pain-Free Hospital Project ("Schmerzfreies Krankenhaus"), which appears in the current issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2010; 107[36]: 607-14). The project, which was initiated in 2003, has the goal of improving pain management in hospitals across Germany. To study the quality of pain therapy, the authors evaluated anonymous ...