Scientists are reporting significant changes in the distribution of coastal fish species in south-east Australia which they say are partly due to climate change. CSIRO's Climate Adaptation and Wealth from Oceans Flagships have identified 43 species, representing about 30 per cent of the inshore fish families occurring in the region, that exhibited shifts thought to be climate-related. These include warm temperate surf-zone species such as Silver Drummer and Rock Blackfish that are breeding and have become more abundant, and range increases in Snapper and Rock Flathead. ...

In the smooth, white, bunny-suited clean-room world of silicon wafers and solar cells, it turns out that a little roughness may go a long way, perhaps all the way to making solar power an affordable energy source, say Stanford engineers. Their research shows that light ricocheting around inside the polymer film of a solar cell behaves differently when the film is ultra thin. A film that's nanoscale-thin and has been roughed up a bit can absorb more than 10 times the energy predicted by conventional theory. The key to overcoming the theoretical limit lies in keeping ...

Australian and American scientists have found a way of shrinking tumours in certain cancers – a finding that provides hope for new treatments. The cancers in question are those caused by a new class of genes known as 'microRNAs', produced by parts of the genome that, until recently, were dismissed as 'junk DNA'. While much is still unknown about microRNAs, it is clear that they can interfere with how our genes are 'read'. The current finding identifies one particular microRNA (microRNA 380) that appears to disable the king of tumour suppressors, the P53 gene. So important ...

Boston, MA – The 2010 Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO of the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF), the largest meeting of ear, nose, and throat doctors in the world, will convene September 26-29, 2010, in Boston, MA. Featuring more than 305 scientific research sessions, 594 posters, and several hundred instruction course hours for attendees, the annual meeting is a unique opportunity for journalists from around the world to cover breaking science and medical news. Reporters will have access to the latest research and clinical advances ...

PACU PTH Facilitates Safe Outpatient Total Thyroidectomy Presenters: William Pechter, MS; David Steward, MD; Jeffrey Houlton, MD; Naresh Panda, MS, FRCSEd Time: 8: 32 am Location: 254 Boston, MA – A study was performed reviewing thyroidectomies from March 2008 to November 2009, to determine if a serum parathyroid hormone (PTH)-based discharge algorithm can be used to safely facilitate outpatient total thyroidectomy. In a presentation at the 2010 AAO-HNSF Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO in Boston, researchers revealed that 180 patients (mean age 48.9, 83.3% female) underwent ...

28 September 2010 | GENEVA / NAIROBI / WASHINGTON D.C – Significant progress has been made in several low- and middle-income countries in increasing access to HIV/AIDS services, according to a new report released today. The report Towards Universal Access by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) is the fourth annual report for tracking progress made in achieving the 2010 target of providing universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care. The report assessed ...

The GOES-13 satellite has been keeping an eye on Tropical Storm Lisa and watched her birth, graduation to depression then tropical storm and back to depression. Now, Lisa has grown back to tropical storm status, but it may be short-lived. At 11 a.m. EDT on Friday, Sept. 24, Tropical Storm Lisa had maximum sustained winds near 50 mph and she may strengthen and weaken over the weekend, but by Sunday colder waters will zap her energy source and she is forecast to be a depression. Meanwhile, on Sept. 24, she was still frolicking in the eastern Atlantic, about 320 miles ...

Montreal, September 26th, 2010 at 1:00 PM – An international study led by scientists at Université de Montréal and University of Oxford, has identified a gene associated with common migraines. Their findings show that a mutation in the KCNK18 gene inhibits the function of a protein called TRESK. TRESK normally plays a key role in nerve cell communication. Published today in Nature Medicine, this study may have implications for people who suffer from recurrent headaches, which include more than six million Canadians. Previously, genes for migraine have been found only ...

A team led by engineers and physicists at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia, have developed one of the key building blocks needed to make a quantum computer using silicon: a "single electron reader". Their work was published today in Nature. Quantum computers promise exponential increases in processing speed over today's computers through their use of the "spin", or magnetic orientation, of individual electrons to represent data in their calculations. In order to employ electron spin, the quantum computer needs both a way of changing the ...

Boston, MA – The 2010 Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO of the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF), the largest meeting of ear, nose, and throat doctors in the world, will convene September 26-29, 2010, in Boston, MA. Featuring more than 305 scientific research sessions, 594 posters, and several hundred instruction course hours for attendees, the annual meeting is a unique opportunity for journalists from around the world to cover breaking science and medical news. Reporters will have access to the latest research and clinical advances ...

Inner Ear Stem-Cell Transplantation in Cochlear Cultures Presenters: Dylan K. Chan, MD, PhD; Saku Sinkkonen, MD, PhD; Alan G. Cheng, MD; Stefan Heller, PhD Time: 9:46 am Location: Room 209 Boston, MA – Researchers have developed an in vitro system to investigate hair-cell regeneration techniques and evaluate the ability of transplanted inner-ear stem-cell spheres to integrate into the organ of Corti and differentiate into mature hair cells. In a presentation at the 2010 AAO-HNSF Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO in Boston, researchers revealed that co-culture between inner-ear ...

Intestinal worms sidestep the immune system by inducing the development of suppressive T cells, according to a study published on September 27th in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (www.jem.org). Immune T cells are essential for the clearance of invading microbes, including intestinal worms, but turning off immune responses is essential for avoiding collateral tissue destruction. This job falls in part to a population of suppressive T cells called regulatory T (T reg) cells. A team of researchers, led by Rick Maizels at the University of Edinburgh, show that gut-invading ...

Acupuncture does not appear to aid in stroke recovery, according to a new study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj091113.pdf Acupuncture is often used to supplement traditional stroke rehabilitation, although its effectiveness is uncertain. It is necessary to have evidence of effectiveness from rigorous randomized clinical trials to recommend routine therapeutic use. This study, perhaps the most comprehensive to date as it includes trials published in English language and Asian journals, was ...

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Learning mindfulness meditation may help people who have multiple sclerosis (MS) with the fatigue, depression and other life challenges that commonly accompany the disease, according to a study published in the September 28, 2010, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. In the study, people who took an eight-week class in mindfulness meditation training reduced their fatigue and depression and improved overall quality of life compared to people with MS who received only usual medical care. The positive effects ...

One approach to an HIV vaccine is to teach the immune system to recognize certain protein structures on the viral surface and produce antibodies that bind to those structures and neutralize HIV. A strategy for designing such a vaccine involves identifying the key viral surface structures, snipping them off and developing a method to present these fragments to the immune system. When some parts of the surface of HIV are removed, however, they change shape such that antibodies no longer recognize and bind to them. A research team led by investigators at the Vaccine Research ...

Aging disrupts the balance between bone formation and bone destruction, resulting in osteoporosis, which is characterized by reduced bone mass and increased risk of fracture. Recent data have suggested that this imbalance is a result of a decrease in formation of bone forming osteoblast cells from mesenchymal cells upon aging. Instead, these cells form more fat cells. Insight into this age-related switch in cell type generation has now been provided by a team of researchers, led by Hiroshi Takayanagi, at Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan, working in mice. The data ...

EDITOR'S PICK: Controlling bone formation to prevent osteoporosis Aging disrupts the balance between bone formation and bone destruction, resulting in osteoporosis, which is characterized by reduced bone mass and increased risk of fracture. Recent data have suggested that this imbalance is a result of a decrease in formation of bone forming osteoblast cells from mesenchymal cells upon aging. Instead, these cells form more fat cells. Insight into this age-related switch in cell type generation has now been provided by a team of researchers, led by Hiroshi Takayanagi, at ...

RICHMOND, Va. (Sept. 27, 2010) – Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and VCU Massey Cancer Center researchers have shown that the impotence drug Viagra, in combination with doxorubicin, a powerful anti-cancer drug, enhances its anti-tumor efficacy in prostate cancer while alleviating the damage to the heart at the same time. For more than four decades the chemotherapeutic agent doxorubicin has been used to treat a number of human cancers, including that of the prostate. Despite doxorubicin's clinical efficacy for cancer treatment, its use is associated ...

Researchers have shown that LIM kinase (LIMK), an important regulator of actin cytoskeleton dynamics, plays a key role in cancer metastasis. The study appears online on September 27 in The Journal of Cell Biology www.jcb.org. Cancer metastasis is a multi-stage process that starts with the invasion of tumor cells into their surrounding tissue. The ability of metastatic cells to invade requires reorganization of the actin-myosin cytoskeleton, which is controlled by a sophisticated network of signals sent between a number of cellular components. LIMK has been shown previously ...

STANFORD, Calif. - Add pine-bark extract to the list of dietary supplements that don't live up to their promises of improved health. A new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine shows that pine-bark extract had no effect in lowering blood pressure or reducing other risk factors for heart disease. Senior author Randall Stafford, MD, PhD, said the findings are part of a growing body of evidence that antioxidant supplements don't improve heart function. "While there's a good biological basis to presume that antioxidant supplements might have a beneficial ...

In about 40 percent of research participants undergoing medical imaging, radiologists may detect a tumor or infection unrelated to the study but that may be meaningful to the individual's health, according to a report in the September 27 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "An incidental finding in human subjects research is defined in a major consensus project as an observation 'concerning an individual research participant that has potential clinical importance and is discovered in the course of conducting research, but is beyond ...

An intensive lifestyle intervention appears to help individuals with type 2 diabetes lose weight and keep it off, along with improving fitness, control of blood glucose levels and risk factors for cardiovascular disease, according to a report in the September 27 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Improving blood glucose control and cardiovascular risk factors in patients with type 2 diabetes is critical in preventing long-term complications of the disease, according to background information in the article. Emphasis has been placed ...

While both black patients and white patients appear to benefit from end of life discussions with their physician, black patients are less likely to experience end-of-life care that accurately reflects their preferences, according to a report in the September 27 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "Although black patients are also more likely than white patients to desire life-prolonging measures, receipt of life-prolonging care at the end of life is associated with greater distress and with poorer quality of life," the authors write ...

Home-based exercises followed by voluntary home training seem to be associated with long-term effects on balance and gait (manner of walking), and may help protect high-risk, elderly women from hip fractures, according to a report in the September 27 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "Falls are responsible for at least 90 percent of all hip fractures," the authors write as background in the article. "Hip fractures place the greatest demands on resources and have the greatest effect on patients because they are associated with high ...

Use of pine bark extract, at a dose of 200 milligrams per day, appears safe but did not improve risk factors for heart disease, according to a report in the September 27 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "Although traditional strategies such as prescription medications, dietary changes and physical activity have proven benefits for reducing cardiovascular disease risk, a substantial population seeks alternative therapies, including various dietary supplements, to lower cardiovascular disease risk," the authors write as background ...