Bethesda, Md. (September 22, 2010) – Taking chromium picolinate may help lessen inflammation associated with diabetic nephropathy (kidney disease), say researchers at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. In a study comparing diabetic mice treated with chromium picolinate with those that received placebo, the researchers found that mice who received the supplement had lower levels of albuminuria (protein in the urine), an indication of kidney disease. The Study To arrive at their conclusions, the researchers compared three groups of mice, one lean, healthy group ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– Sometimes, treasures can be found in your own backyard –– especially if you know what to look for. This is what happened to Jeff Goddard, project scientist with the Marine Science Institute at UC Santa Barbara. Goddard was working in the tide pools at Carpinteria Reef, in Carpinteria State Park, Calif., when he found a new species of nudibranch –– a group of sea slugs noted for their bright colors and delicate forms. Recognizing it as new, Goddard carefully documented the living specimen before preserving it and sending it off to Terrence M. ...

By following the "nose" of fruit flies, Yale scientists are on the trail of new insect repellents that may reduce the spread of infectious disease and damage to agricultural crops. That's because they've learned for the first time how a group of genes used to differentiate smells is turned on and off, opening new possibilities for insect control. Just as in new drug development, researchers can target these or similar genes in other insects to create substances that make crops and people "invisible" to insect antennae. Without the ability to smell correctly, the insects ...

The GOES-13 satellite may be stationed in orbit over the eastern U.S., but it has a wide field of view from the eastern Atlantic to the eastern Pacific, and today it captured three tropical cyclones in one image. At 1445 UTC (10:45 a.m. EDT) today, Sept. 22, the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite called GOES-13 captured Tropical Storm Lisa in the far eastern Atlantic, a developing tropical low in the south-central Caribbean Sea, and Tropical Storm Georgette in the eastern Pacific Ocean, making landfall in Baja California. The GOES series of satellites ...

Hurricane Igor may have transitioned into a post-tropical hurricane late yesterday, but when he approached Newfoundland, Canada and merged with an area of low pressure it resulted in heavy rainfall throughout the region. NASA satellites captured Igor's northern march toward the Labrador Sea yesterday. NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites captured visible and infrared images of Hurricane Igor yesterday as he brought heavy rainfall into northeastern Canada. A visible image of Hurricane Igor over Newfoundland, Canada was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ...

TORONTO, ON – Aviation history was made when the University of Toronto's human-powered aircraft with flapping wings became the first of its kind to fly continuously. The "Snowbird" performed its record-breaking flight on August 2 at the Great Lakes Gliding Club in Tottenham, Ont., witnessed by the vice-president (Canada) of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), the world-governing body for air sports and aeronautical world records. The official record claim was filed this month, and the FAI is expected to confirm the ornithopter's world record at its meeting ...

Better treatments and prevention for typhoid fever may emerge from a laboratory model that has just been developed for the disease. The model is based on transplanting human immune stem cells from umbilical cord blood into mice that are susceptible to infections. The transplanted cells live alongside the mouse's own immune system. Although mice are normally resistant to the dangerous strain of Salmonella that causes typhoid fever, the bacteria are able to reproduce in the mice that have received transplanted human cells. Because typhoid fever affects only humans, ...

Los Angeles, CA (September 22, 2010) Adopting the evidence-based procedures of School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) helped 21 elementary schools reduce student suspensions, office discipline referrals and improve student academic achievement, according to a study published in the July 2010 issue of the Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions. SWPBIS is a rapidly expanding approach to improving educational environments that is estimated to be used in more than 9,000 schools nation-wide Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for the Prevention ...

Adjustments, applications and other tools allow users to configure preferences and use services such as iGoogle and Yahoo to control and customize the news they consume online. These tools can make online experiences more efficient and productive, but they do not ensure that users will be consistently pleased with their selections, according to Penn State researchers. "There is a major push toward customization in the marketplace because designers assume that more customization is better, but our research shows that only some users prefer customization," said S. Shyam ...

People who leave strict religious groups are more likely to say their health is worse than members who remain in the group, according to a Penn State researcher. The percentage of people who left a strict religious group and reported they were in excellent health was about half that of people who stayed in the group, said Christopher Scheitle, senior research assistant, in sociology. "Previous research showed some association between belonging to a religious group and positive health outcomes," Scheitle said. "We became interested in what would happen to your health ...

September 21, 2010 – Chicago – The prevalence of periodontal disease in the United States may be significantly higher than originally estimated. Research published in the Journal of Dental Research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Periodontology (AAP) suggests that the prevalence of periodontal disease may have been underestimated by as much as 50 percent. The implication is that more American adults may suffer from moderate to severe gum disease than previously thought. In a National Health and Nutrition Examination ...

Doctors frequently misuse antibiotics when treating patients hospitalized with respiratory tract infections (RTIs), according to a study to be published in the November issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. The study, which tracked patients in two Pennsylvania hospitals, found that doctors often use antibiotics to treat patients whose infections are known to be caused by viruses. The findings are alarming because antibiotics are not effective against viruses, and antibiotic overuse has been linked to the development of resistant bacterial strains. "[T]hese ...

BATON ROUGE, LA—The ancient fig tree, first imported to the United States during the 16th century, thrives in areas of California and the South Atlantic and Gulf Coast areas of the U.S. One of the most popular trees grown in Southern backyards, fig is favored for its versatile fruit and low-maintenance production. Charles E. Johnson, Ed O'Rourke, and James E. Boudreaux, from the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center in Baton Rouge, introduced a new fig they named "Champagne" in a recent issue of HortScience. According to the report, the new fig performed well ...

Ever wonder why it's such an effort to forget about work while on vacation or to silence that annoying song that's playing over and over in your head? Mathematicians at Case Western Reserve University may have part of the answer. They've found that just as thinking burns energy, stopping a thought burns energy - like stopping a truck on a downhill slope. "Maybe this explains why it is so tiring to relax and think about nothing," said Daniela Calvetti, professor of mathematics, and one of the authors of a new brain study. Their work is published in an advanced online ...

Snowmelt in the Colorado River basin is occurring earlier, reducing runoff and the amount of crucial water available downstream. A new study shows this is due to increased dust caused by human activities in the region during the past 150 years. The study, led by a NASA scientist and funded by the agency and the National Science Foundation, showed peak spring runoff now comes three weeks earlier than before the region was settled and soils were disturbed. Annual runoff is lower by more than five percent on average compared to pre-settlement levels. The findings have ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – More than 35 years after Oregon began one of the nation's most ambitious land use planning programs, a new study suggests it's still difficult to demonstrate that it has accomplished one of its primary goals – protecting agricultural lands and a thriving forest, farm and ranching industry. There's some evidence that the laws have provided a "measurable degree of protection," scientists say in the report. However, there are also impacts that were little anticipated or considered four decades ago, such as the growth of "hobby farms" in which farming or ...

Snowmelt in the Colorado River basin is occurring earlier, reducing runoff and the amount of crucial water available downstream. A new study shows this is due to increased dust caused by human activities in the region during the past 150 years. The study, led by a NASA and UCLA scientist and funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF), showed peak spring runoff now comes three weeks earlier than before the region was settled and soils were disturbed. Annual runoff is lower by more than 5 percent on average, compared with pre-settlement levels. The findings ...

Washington, DC – Findings from an animal study suggest that obese women can reduce their increased risk of endometrial disease if they take vitamin D supplements, say researchers at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. The scientists report in Cancer Prevention Research published online today that 25 percent of obese mice fed a vitamin D supplemented diet developed endometrial cancer, while 67 percent of obese mice not treated with the vitamin developed cancer. They also report that vitamin D offered no protective effects for normal weight mice; whether ...

Fluorescent microscopy makes use of molecules, such as green fluorescent protein (GFP), that emit colored light when illuminated with light of a specific wavelength. Molecules like GFP can be used to label proteins of interest and can reveal information about the relationships of molecules within cells. Fluorescence polarization, also known as anisotropy, is specific parameter of fluorescence that can provide additional information about the properties of individual molecules. Fluorescence anisotropy has been used to study isolated molecules. Now, a recent study describes ...

Tendons are the body's marionette strings, connecting bones to muscles that raise an eyebrow or propel us into a full run. That is, until an unusually forceful or awkward pull on the strings leaves us with a sprain, strain or tear. Surgeons attempt to repair over 300,000 of these injuries every year, and doctors visits for sore tendons run into the millions. Using a combination of nanoscience and biomedical and civil engineering to explore tendon structure from atoms on up, researchers have unraveled part of the mystery behind why we have problems with our tendons. A ...

A Dutch-German medical research team led by Harald Schmidt from Maastricht University, Netherlands, and Christoph Kleinschnitz, University of Würzburg, Germany, has discovered that an enzyme is responsible for the death of nerve cells after a stroke. The enzyme NOX4 produces hydrogen peroxide, a caustic molecule also used in bleaching agents. Inhibition of NOX4 by an experimental new drug in mice with stroke dramatically reduces brain damage and preserves brain functions, even when given hours after the stroke. These findings will be published next week in the online, open ...

CRP is commonly used as a serum marker for inflammation or infection, but the genetic effects of CRP variants on acute-phase serum CRP concentrations in patients with rheumatoid arthritis may be large enough to have a clinically relevant impact on the assessment of inflammatory disease activity, which in turn may influence therapeutic decision making. Furthermore, failure to take into account the potential for genetic effects may result in the inappropriate reassurance or under-treatment of patients simply because they carry low-CRP associated genetic variants. These are ...

Community Health Workers can safely and effectively provide integrated management of pneumonia and malaria to communities by dispensing amoxicillin to children with non-severe pneumonia and artemether-lumefantrine to children with malaria (after using rapid diagnostic tests). Furthermore, these activities result in a significant increase in the proportion of appropriately-timed antibiotic treatment for non-severe pneumonia and in a significant decrease in inappropriate use of antimalarials. These are the results from a study by Kojo Yeboah-Antwi from the Boston School ...

There are now 75 clinical trials and 11 systematic reviews of trials published every day, with no signs this pace is slowing. How will we ever cope?, ask Hilda Bastian, Paul Glasziou, and Sir Iain Chalmers in this week's PLoS Medicine, who also decry the continued poor quality of many of these studies. Analysing the history and growth of reviews of evidence, the authors recommend that we must now reduce unnecessary trials and prioritise truly systematic review of the literature, so that the needs of patients, clinicians, and policymakers are met. "Streamlining and innovation ...

Regional efforts towards an AIDS vaccine must be strengthened and harmonized, says a new article in this week's PLoS Medicine Magazine. Yiming Shao from the National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention in Beijing, China and colleagues from a range of Asian and international agencies announce the formation of AVAN—the AIDS Vaccine for Asia Network—that aims to strengthen its regional efforts in finding an AIDS vaccine. The authors say that AVAN has been set up to help facilitate the development of a regional AIDS vaccine strategy that will: accelerate research ...