| Women with severe, chronic health issues are screened for breast cancer less often Posted: 22 Aug 2014 09:46 AM PDT Women with severe disabilities and multiple chronic conditions are screened for breast cancer less often than women with no disabilities or no chronic conditions, a new study has found. Worldwide, breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer among women and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Deaths have significantly dropped due to advances in prevention and treatment.  |
| In our digital world, are young people losing the ability to read emotions? Posted: 22 Aug 2014 06:42 AM PDT Are young people losing the ability to read emotions in our digital world? Scientists report that sixth-graders who went five days without even glancing at a smartphone, television or other screen did substantially better at reading emotions than sixth-graders from the same school who, as usual, spent hours each day looking at their smartphones and other screens.  |
| Proteins: New class of materials discovered Posted: 22 Aug 2014 06:41 AM PDT Scientists have characterized a new class of materials called protein crystalline frameworks. Thanks to certain helper substances, in PCFs proteins are fixated in a way so as to align themselves symmetrically, forming highly stable crystals.  |
| Creating pomegranate drug to stem Alzheimer's, Parkinson's Posted: 22 Aug 2014 06:41 AM PDT Research will look to produce compound derivatives of punicalagin for a drug that would treat neuro-inflammation and slow down the progression of Alzheimer's disease, scientists report. The onset of Alzheimer's disease can be slowed and some of its symptoms curbed by a natural compound that is found in pomegranate. Also, the painful inflammation that accompanies illnesses such as rheumatoid arthritis and Parkinson's disease could be reduced, according to the findings of the two-year project.  |
| Epigenetic changes in children with Crohn's disease seen in study Posted: 22 Aug 2014 06:40 AM PDT A wide range of epigenetic changes -— alterations in DNA across the genome that may be related to key environmental exposures -— in children with Crohn's disease (CD), has been observed and reported in a new study. Crohn's disease is a painful, medically incurable illness that may attack anywhere along the digestive system. Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, which involves only the large intestine (colon), are the two main types of inflammatory bowel disease.  |
| Voyager map details Neptune's strange moon Triton Posted: 22 Aug 2014 06:35 AM PDT NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft gave humanity its first close-up look at Neptune and its moon Triton in the summer of 1989. Like an old film, Voyager's historic footage of Triton has been "restored" and used to construct the best-ever global color map of that strange moon. The map, produced by Paul Schenk, a scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, has also been used to make a movie recreating that historic Voyager encounter, which took place 25 years ago, on August 25, 1989.  |
| Playing hunger games: Are gamified health apps putting odds in your favor? Posted: 22 Aug 2014 05:42 AM PDT For many people, finding motivation to exercise is a challenge. Thankfully, there are Zombies chasing you. At least that's the approach of Zombies, Run! -- one of more than 31,000 health and fitness apps on the market today, and one of the growing number of apps that use games to increase physical activity. Gamification is currently the popular trend for mobile fitness apps, but whether or not it's the best way to exercise remains to be seen.  |
| Canola genome sequence reveals evolutionary 'love triangle' Posted: 22 Aug 2014 05:42 AM PDT Scientists recently published the genome of Brassica napus -- commonly known as canola -- in the journal Science. Their discovery paves the way for improved versions of the plant, which is used widely in farming and industry.  |
| Low birth weight linked to higher incidence of type 2 diabetes in African American women Posted: 22 Aug 2014 05:40 AM PDT African American women born at a low or very low birth weight may be at a higher risk for developing type 2 diabetes. The findings may explain in part the higher occurrence of type 2 diabetes in African American populations, which has a high prevalence of low birth weight.  |
| Fungus deadly to AIDS patients found to grow on trees Posted: 22 Aug 2014 05:40 AM PDT Researchers have pinpointed the environmental source of fungal infections that have been sickening HIV/AIDS patients in Southern California for decades. It literally grows on trees. The discovery is based on the science project of a 13-year-old girl, who spent the summer gathering soil and tree samples from areas around Los Angeles hardest hit by infections of the fungus named Cryptococcus gattii (CRIP-to-cock-us GAT-ee-eye).  |
| Coronary calcium predicts heart disease risk in patients with chronic kidney disease Posted: 22 Aug 2014 05:40 AM PDT Calcium build-up in the coronary artery walls was more useful for correctly predicting kidney disease patients' risk of heart disease than other measures of atherosclerosis, such as thickness of the carotid artery walls and narrowing of the arteries in the legs, a new study reports.  |
| Fossil arthropod went on the hunt for its prey Posted: 22 Aug 2014 05:40 AM PDT A new species of carnivorous crustacean has been identified, which roamed the seas 435 million years ago, grasping its prey with spiny limbs before devouring it.  |
| Plants: Calcium and reproduction go together like the birds and the bees Posted: 22 Aug 2014 05:40 AM PDT Everyone's heard of the birds and the bees. But that old expression leaves out the flowers that are being fertilized. The fertilization process for flowering plants is particularly complex and requires extensive communication between the male and female reproductive cells. New research reports discoveries in the chemical signaling process that guides flowering plant fertilization.  |
| Water splitter runs on an ordinary AAA battery Posted: 22 Aug 2014 05:40 AM PDT Although touted as zero-emissions vehicles, most fuel cell vehicle run on hydrogen made from natural gas. Now scientists have developed a low-cost, emissions-free device that uses an ordinary AAA battery to produce hydrogen by water electrolysis. Unlike other water splitters that use precious-metal catalysts, the electrodes in this device are made of inexpensive and abundant nickel and iron.  |
| Climate change could see dengue fever come to Europe Posted: 22 Aug 2014 05:39 AM PDT Dengue fever could make headway in popular European holiday destinations if climate change continues on its predicted trajectory, according to research. The study used current data from Mexico, where dengue fever is present, and information about EU countries to model the likelihood of the disease spreading in Europe. They found that coastal regions around the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas, the Po Valley and North East Italy were most at risk.  |
| Spectacular supernova's mysteries revealed Posted: 22 Aug 2014 05:39 AM PDT Astronomers are delving into the mystery of what caused a spectacular supernova in a galaxy 11 million light years away, seen earlier this year. The supernova, a giant explosion of a star and the closest one to the Earth in decades, was discovered earlier this year by chance. These phenomena are extremely important to study because they provide key information about our universe, including how it is expanding and how galaxies evolve.  |
| Striatum acts as hub for multisensory integration Posted: 22 Aug 2014 05:39 AM PDT A new study provides insight on how the brain processes external input such as touch, vision or sound from different sources and sides of the body, in order to select and generate adequate movements. The findings show that the striatum acts as a sensory 'hub' integrating various types of sensory information, with specialized functional roles for the different neuron types.  |
| Water quality in glass, plastic bottles: Better than expected in Spanish study Posted: 22 Aug 2014 05:39 AM PDT Bottled water sold in Spain is practically free of constituents given off by plastic packaging or glass bottle lids. They are only detected in some cases, albeit in quantities much lower than limits found harmful for health, an analysis of more than 130 types of mineral water reveals. Plastic materials used in food packaging are made up of small molecules or monomers which, together with their additives, can migrate into the product during packaging manufacturing, filling or storage.  |
| Breakthrough in imaging gold nanoparticles to atomic resolution by electron microscopy Posted: 22 Aug 2014 05:39 AM PDT Nanometer-scale gold particles are intensively investigated for application as catalysts, sensors, drug delivery devices, biological contrast agents and components in photonics and molecular electronics. Gaining knowledge of their atomic-scale structures, fundamental for understanding physical and chemical properties, has been challenging. Now, researchers at have demonstrated that high-resolution electron microscopy can be used to reveal a three-dimensional structure in which all gold atoms are observed.  |
| Genetics, lifestyle have a strong impact on biomarkers for inflammation, cancer Posted: 22 Aug 2014 05:39 AM PDT For the first time, results from a large-scale study of the significance of genetic, clinical and lifestyle factors for protein levels in the bloodstream have been shown. The results show that genetics and lifestyle are determining factors for protein levels, a discovery that greatly influences the possibilities for using more biomarkers to identify disease.  |
| Extracorporeal support can significantly increase number of organs for transplant Posted: 22 Aug 2014 05:37 AM PDT Using heart-lung support technology, one Transplant Center was able to increase the number of kidneys, livers and pancreases available for transplant by about 20 percent. As of Aug. 6, 2014, 123,191 people nationwide were waiting for a solid organ transplant in the United States. The Institute of Medicine has named donation after circulatory determination of death as the number one research priority to improve organ donation.  |
| Electronic alerts significantly reduce catheter-associated urinary tract infections Posted: 22 Aug 2014 05:36 AM PDT Targeted automated alerts in electronic health records significantly reduce urinary tract infections in hospital patients with urinary catheters. In addition, when the design of the alert was simplified, the rate of improvement dramatically increased.  |
| Shaping the future of nanocrystals: First direct observation of facet formation in nanocubes Posted: 21 Aug 2014 01:13 PM PDT Researchers have recorded the first direct observations of how facets form and develop on platinum nanocubes in solution, pointing the way towards more sophisticated and effective nanocrystal design and revealing that a nearly 150 year-old scientific law describing crystal growth breaks down at the nanoscale.  |
| From dandruff to deep sea vents, an ecologically hyper-diverse fungus Posted: 21 Aug 2014 11:14 AM PDT A ubiquitous skin fungus linked to dandruff, eczema and other itchy, flaky maladies in humans has now been tracked to even further global reaches -- including Hawaiian coral reefs and the extreme environments of arctic soils and deep sea vents. The study considers the diversity, ecology, and distribution of the fungi of the genus Malassezia in light of new insights gained from screening environmental sequencing datasets from around the world.  |
| Biologists reprogram skin cells to mimic rare disease Posted: 21 Aug 2014 09:47 AM PDT Stem cell biologists have reprogrammed skin cells from patients with a rare genetic disorder, called familial dysautonomia, into neural crest cells that mimic and display many biological features of the disease. The research expedites the creation of these precursor cells from any patient with a neural crest-related disorder, allowing scientists to study each patient's disorder at the cellular level.  |
