Scientists are reporting for the first time that previously unrecognized substances released by algae blooms have the potential to act as endocrine disruptors, which can interfere with the normal activity of reproductive hormones. The effect is not caused by microcystin toxins, long recognized as potentially harmful to humans and aquatic animals, but as yet unidentified substances. As a result, the scientists are calling for a revision of environmental monitoring programs to watch for these new substances. The findings appear in ACS's journal Environmental Science & Technology. Theodore ...

A long, urgent search for proteins in the blood of pregnant women that could be used in early diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy (EP) has resulted in discovery of biomarkers that seem to be specific enough to begin testing in clinical trials, scientists are reporting in a new study in ACS's Journal of Proteome Research. David Speicher and colleagues explain that ectopic pregnancy happens when an embryo does not attach normally inside the mother's uterus, but instead attaches and begins growing elsewhere. Most occur inside one of the Fallopian tubes, which link the ovaries ...

Scientists in Hungary are reporting that the potential health effects of last October's Red Mud Disaster, one of the worst environmental accidents in Europe, may be less dangerous than previously feared. Their study, reported in ACS's journal Environmental Science & Technology, concludes that the dust from the mud may be no more harmful than particles of ordinary urban air pollution. Mihály Pósfai and colleagues point out that a burst dam at a factory that processes aluminum ore last October inundated areas near Ajka in northern Hungary with more than 700,000 cubic yards ...

A Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) study has identified a new role for an important enzyme in preparing lung tissue for the development of metastases. Published in the early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the report describes how focal adhesion kinase (FAK) is involved in producing areas of vascular leakiness in lung tissue – known to be part of the premetastatic process – and increases expression of a molecule that attracts cancer cells to potential metastatic sites. "Blood from all tissues of the body travels to the lungs for oxygenation, ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – A new study from the University of Illinois concludes that very high biomass prices would be needed in order to meet the ambitious goal of replacing 30 percent of petroleum consumption in the U.S. with biofuels by 2030. A team of researchers led by Madhu Khanna, a professor of agricultural and consumer economics at Illinois, shows that between 600 and 900 million metric tons of biomass could be produced in 2030 at a price of $140 per metric ton (in 2007 dollars) while still meeting demand for food with current assumptions about yields, production costs ...

Poised at the starting gate are palm oil, sugar cane, corn cobs, and switch grass. On your mark, get set... This is not a race among fruits and vegetables, but instead a real-life contest to decide which biofuel raw materials and technologies make it to the gas pump. That quest to develop a sustainable supply of affordable biofuels and bring them to the market is the topic of the cover story in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), ACS's weekly newsmagazine. C&EN Senior Correspondent Stephen Ritter notes that scientists have largely met the technical ...

TORONTO, Ont., February 16, 2011 — One in five homeless people with tuberculosis die within a year of their diagnosis, according to a study led by St. Michael's Hospital's Dr. Kamran Khan. And that number remains unchanged over the last decade despite recommendations calling for greater improvements in prevention and control of tuberculosis in homeless shelters. A provincial coroner's inquest into the death of Joseph Teigesser, a homeless man who died of tuberculosis in Toronto in 2001, made 13 formal recommendations. These included provincial funding for a centralized ...

On 7 February 2011, the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) published the results of a search update for evidence-based clinical practice guidelines on coronary heart disease (CHD). The aim of the report is to identify those recommendations from current guidelines of high methodological quality that may be relevant for the planned revision of the corresponding disease management programme (DMP). According to the results of the report, there is no compelling need for revision of any part of the DMP. However, IQWiG identified various aspects ...

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Great works and praiseworthy behavior may bring respect and admiration, but these won't help us to escape blame when we do something wrong, says a new study by researchers at the University of Maryland and Harvard University. To do that, the researchers say, one needs to be a victim not a hero! In the study, participants responded to a number of scenarios that mirrored real-life moral transgressions, from stealing money to harming someone. Results revealed that, no matter how many previous good deeds someone had done, they received just as much blame ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — College students who consider dropping out are particularly sensitive to a handful of critical events including depression and loss of financial aid, according to a study led by Michigan State University scholars. Surprisingly, however, other events such as a death in the family and students' failure to get their intended major did not have a significant influence on their intention to drop out, said Tim Pleskac, MSU assistant professor of psychology and lead researcher on the project. By identifying which risks prompt students to consider quitting, ...

Unlike Pinocchio, liars do not usually give telltale signs that they are being dishonest. In lieu of a growing nose, is there a way to distinguish people who are telling the truth from those who aren't? A new report in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, discusses some of the common misconceptions about those proficient in the art of deception, reviews the shortcomings of commonly used lie-detection techniques, and presents new empirically supported methods for telling liars from truth-tellers with greater ...

Northwestern University scientists have discovered a new mechanism in the core gears of the circadian clock. They found the loss of a certain gene, dubbed "twenty-four," messes up the rhythm of the common fruit fly's sleep-wake cycle, making it harder for the flies to awaken. The circadian clock drives, among other things, when an organism wakes up and when it sleeps. While the Northwestern study was done using the fly Drosophila melanogaster, the findings have implications for humans. The research will be published Feb. 17 in the journal Nature. "The function of ...

Up to two-thirds of Earth's permafrost likely will disappear by 2200 as a result of warming temperatures, unleashing vast quantities of carbon into the atmosphere, says a new study by the University of Colorado Boulder's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. The carbon resides in permanently frozen ground that is beginning to thaw in high latitudes from warming temperatures, which will impact not only the climate but also international strategies to reduce fossil fuel emissions, said CU-Boulder's Kevin Schaefer, lead study author. "If we want ...

VIDEO: Nobody enjoys colonoscopies, including mice. University of Missouri researchers are excited about the potential of using genetic biomarkers to predict colon cancer caused by inflammation. A new method developed at... Click here for more information. COLUMBIA, Mo. – Nobody enjoys colonoscopies, including mice. University of Missouri researchers are excited about the potential of using genetic biomarkers to predict colon cancer caused by inflammation. A new method developed ...

WASHINGTON—February 16, 2011—Despite the unpredictable economy, nearly three-quarters (73%) of New Jersey residents think spending money on research to improve health globally is important to jobs and incomes in the state, according to a new statewide poll commissioned by Research!America. The poll data will be released today at a meeting in Washington, DC, of prominent global health research and development (R&D) experts and New Jersey business, academia and nonprofit leaders. This is part of a six-state effort by Research!America. According to the poll, most of the ...

The California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), the nation's largest state health survey and a primary source of information on California's diverse population, released its latest data today on more than 100 topics affecting the health and well-being of the state's residents. The random–digit-dial telephone survey, conducted every two years by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, gathers essential information from tens of thousands of California households on a wide variety of topics, from health insurance and public program participation to diabetes, obesity ...

Infrared satellite data from NASA is showing some strong thunderstorms over west-central Madagascar today as Tropical Storm Bingiza continues to hug the western coast of the island nation. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image of Tropical Storm Bingiza today, Feb. 16 at 10:17 UTC (5:17 a.m. EST). The image revealed some strong convection over the west-central coast where thunderstorm cloudtops were high and dropping moderate to heavy rainfall. Infrared data can provide temperature information ...

NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image today of tropical cyclones affecting Australia in the western and northern areas of the country. Newly formed Tropical Storm Carlos is bringing heavy rains and gusty winds to Darwin and the Northern Territory, while Tropical Storm Dianne is bringing rains and winds to Western Australia. NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Australia today, Feb. 16 at 05:17 UTC (12:17 a.m. EST/ 2:47 p.m. Australia/Darwin local time. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument captured an infrared image of both tropical storms and found ...

ESA's Herschel space observatory has discovered a population of dust-enshrouded galaxies that do not need as much dark matter as previously thought to collect gas and burst into star formation. The galaxies are far away and each boasts some 300 billion times the mass of the Sun. The size challenges current theory that predicts a galaxy has to be more than ten times larger, 5000 billion solar masses, to be able form large numbers of stars. The new result is published today in a paper by Alexandre Amblard, University of California, Irvine, and colleagues. Most of the ...

A recent multicenter clinical trial of atorvastatin, a type of cholesterol-lowering drug, found that although the drug did not inhibit plasma HIV RNA levels, it did inhibit expression of cellular markers of immune activation and inflammation in patients with HIV infection. Since immune activation and inflammation are associated with progression of HIV infection, the implication is that the statin may inhibit disease progression and help in the infection's management. The findings are in a study, available online, published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases. The investigators, ...

As a child grows, a short stature is not usually cause for concern, but it is often the only sign of a condition called Turner syndrome. Prevalent in girls, Turner syndrome is a genetic defect that short-circuits normal growth and leads to cardiac and renal problems. It is not commonly detected until age 10 or older when a youngster's unusually short height raises suspicions. This lag before diagnosis of the condition can delay the start of growth hormone therapy, which can help in achieving normal or near-normal adult stature. Yale School of Medicine researchers are ...

A readily available, inexpensive drug therapy showed a significant benefit in treating premature infants with the worst and historically most difficult-to-treat cases of retinopathy of prematurity. The results of a multicenter clinical trial led by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) are published in the Feb. 17 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. Retinopathy of prematurity is a leading cause of childhood blindness worldwide. In the immature retina of babies born before 30 weeks' gestational age, the disease results ...

A rare bleeding disorder that can lead to life-threatening bleeding episodes is misdiagnosed in 15 per cent of cases according to findings from a new international research project led by a Queen's professor. "Correct diagnosis is critical because it determines the treatment decision," says Maha Othman, a professor in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology who led the three-year research project on the rare platelet type of von Willebrand disease (VWD). Patients with VWD are commonly treated with drugs that help control their condition. However, these drugs aggravate ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Rising carbon dioxide levels associated with global warming may affect interactions between plants and the insects that eat them, altering the course of plant evolution, research at the University of Michigan suggests. The research focused on the effects of elevated carbon dioxide on common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca. Milkweed is one of many plants that produce toxic or bitter chemical compounds to protect themselves from being eaten by insects. These chemical defenses are the result of a long history of interactions between the plants and insects ...

Children of working mothers are significantly more likely to experience health problems, including asthma and accidents, than children of mothers who don't work, according to new research from North Carolina State University. "I don't think anyone should make sweeping value judgments based on a mother's decision to work or not work," says Dr. Melinda Morrill, research assistant professor of economics at NC State and author of the study. "But, it is important that we are aware of the costs and benefits associated with a mother's decision to work." The study looked at ...