One of astronomy's big questions is why galaxies forming as recently as 1 billion years after the Big Bang contain so much dust. The leading hypothesis is that supernovae, stars that explode at the end of their lives, contain large amounts of metal-enriched material that, in turn, harbors key ingredients of dust, like silicon, iron and carbon.
A visual learning study by scientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston indicates that viewers can learn a great deal about objects in their field of vision even without paying attention. The findings will appear in the April 14 print issue of the journal Current Biology.
Contrary to common belief, attention may actually impair the ability of people to draw conclusions based on the visual images or stimuli they observe, reports Valentin Dragoi, Ph.D., the study's senior author and an assistant professor at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston.
Alexandria, Va. – On March 20, on behalf of the American Association for Dental Research, AADR Executive Director Christopher H. Fox, D.M.D., D.M.Sc., testified in support of oral health research and its inclusion in comparative effectiveness research before the National Academy of Sciences' (NAS) Committee on Comparative Effectiveness Research Priorities. AADR was the only group to testify for the inclusion of oral health research. Citing statistics about the disease burden and economic burden of dental diseases, Fox urged the Committee to include oral, dental and craniofacial diseases on the national priority list for comparative effectiveness research.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Showing sensitivity to weaknesses in the U.S. economy, plastic surgery was not spared from the recession's grasp. According to the newest national procedural statistics report from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), in 2008, doctors performed over 12 million cosmetic plastic surgery procedures – encompassing both surgical and minimally-invasive procedures. Surgical numbers dropped nine percent and minimally-invasive numbers rose five percent. Nearly 5 million reconstructive plastic surgery procedures were performed, slightly more than the previous year.
The following highlights summarize research papers that have been published in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL) and Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres (JGR-D).
In this release:
Coral reefs may start dissolving when atmospheric carbon dioxide doubles
Ocean proximity aggravates Houston's ozone pollution
Underground subatomic-particle measurements yield meteorological clues
Airborne acid may help soot turn into cloud seeds
Understanding sea temperature-atmospheric pressure links in North Atlantic
New tool differentiates man-made from natural nitrogen-oxide pollution
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Both plant and human diseases that can travel with the wind have the potential to spread far more rapidly than has been understood, according to a new study, in findings that pose serious concerns not only for some human diseases but also a new fungus that threatens global wheat production.
The research, done by scientists at Oregon State University and other institutions, concluded that invading diseases do not always progress in an orderly, constant rate. These historical studies of both plant and animal diseases show that some pathogens that can be carried through the air can actually accelerate as they move, and can become widespread problems much faster than had been thought possible.
TORONTO (March 25, 2009)- Patients with heart rhythm disorders can look forward to better and faster diagnosis and treatment thanks to the latest generation of electrophysiology equipment used this week for the first time in North America at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre.
"This state-of-the-art equipment allows us to better visualize electrical activity in the heart and localize the source of rhythm disturbance," says Dr. Eugene Downar, cardiologist in the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre. "The improved display helps us diagnose more accurately and treat patients faster."
DETROIT – People who have high blood pressure or heart disease should avoid consuming energy drinks, according to a Henry Ford Hospital study to be published online Wednesday in the Annals of Pharmacotherapy.
Researchers found that healthy adults who drank two cans a day of a popular energy drink experienced an increase in their blood pressure and heart rate. No significant changes in EKG measurements were reported.
The increases in blood pressure and heart rate were insignificant for healthy adults, but could prove harmful to people with a heart-related condition, says James Kalus, Pharm.D., senior manager of Patient Care Services at Henry Ford Hospital and lead author of the study.
Despite the large body of literature on transient receptor potential (TRP) channels—ion channels that are directly involved in vision, taste, hearing, touch, olfaction, and other senses—very little is known about their biophysics and protein structure, or the mechanisms that control their gating processes.
Researchers at the Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana have discovered that the HIV-1 protease inhibitors (PIs), such as nelfinavir included in highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) regimen for the treatment of HIV-1 patients, induce deleterious effects on insulin secretion mediated through the oxidative stress pathway.
At a time of heightened concern about conflicts of interest posed by relationships between academic medical researchers and commercial firms, a new study finds that a significant number of academic institutions do not have clear policies covering the industrial relationships of members of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs), committees charged with ensuring that clinical studies uphold patient rights and follow ethical guidelines. In the April issue of Academic Medicine, researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Institute for Health Policy report that many IRBs do not require members to disclose industrial relationships and that procedures for defining, reporting and handling conflicts vary widely among institutions.
Experts from Queen's University Belfast have developed new agents to fight MRSA and other hospital-acquired infections that are resistant to antibiotics. The fluids are a class of ionic liquids that not only kill colonies of these dangerous microbes, they also prevent their growth.
The development of these new antimicrobial agents was carried out by a team of eight researchers from the Queen's University Ionic Liquid Laboratories (QUILL) Research Centre. The team was led by Brendan Gilmore, Lecturer in Pharmaceutics at the School of Pharmacy, and Martyn Earle, Assistant Director of QUILL. The discovery is published in the scientific journal Green Chemistry.
Washington, DC – The safety of early applications of synthetic biology may be adequately addressed by the existing regulatory framework for biotechnology, especially in contained laboratories and manufacturing facilities. But further advances in this emerging field are likely to create significant challenges for U.S. government oversight, according to a new report authored by Michael Rodemeyer of the University of Virginia. Synthetic biology promises major advances in areas such as biofuels, specialty chemicals, and agriculture and drug products.
