A daily dose of aspirin is an inexpensive, proven strategy for reducing the likelihood of heart disease among those most at risk for such disorders, yet a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine shows that aspirin therapy is being used by fewer than one-third of the U.S. outpatients who would benefit from it.
Instead, the research found, many doctors are opting to prescribe the more expensive, heavily marketed statin drugs, which are no more effective than aspir
A revolutionary diagnostic technique that sees under the skin sounds rooted in the realms of science fiction. But an invention akin to the Star Trek small handheld body scanner that shines light into the skin to detect early signs of heart disease and stroke could be on the market in less than two years.
The painless test takes no more than five minutes to detect Peripheral Vascular Disease (PVD), a condition that affects over 90 million people worldwide. What starts off as blo
The University of Leicester has launched a new Computer Science with Management degree course, in response to comments from employers.
The course covers in depth the skills, the practice and technological foundations of software systems development, with a focus on business applications. This is combined with courses aimed at developing an understanding of Management techniques and theories, in particular as they apply to IT.
Rajeev Raman, Professor and Head of Computer
Leukaemia is characterised by an uncontrolled growth of abnormal blood cells in the bone marrow (BM). Escape of the cancerous cells to other organs is linked with worst disease prognosis and less susceptibility to therapy, and, as consequence, to understand the mechanism(s) behind such migration is crucial. And now, in an advance online publication of the journal “Blood”, a group of researchers has found that FLT-1 – a molecule implicated in blood vessel growth – is necessary for the escape of t
Scientists at the John Innes Centre (JIC) [1] in Norwich, UK, report today a breakthrough in understanding how crop plants use daylength to ensure they flower at the right time of year. In an article published in the international journal Science, they describe a gene that controls how barley reacts to the length of the day and thus controls when it flowers.
Most plants flower at a particular time of the year and researchers have known for a long time that plants use cues from their
A University of Navarre research team, made up of Irene Esparza, José María Fernández, Carolina Santamaría, María Isabel Calvo and José Mª García-Mina, have studied the influence of a number of metals in giving wine its colour. The work concluded that a slight change in these elements substantially modifies certain aspects of the quality of the ferments.
Scientists know that colour is one of the main parameters that enable the excellence of the product to be measured, providin
Nanotubes are the poster children of the nanotechnology revolution. These tiny carbon tubes – less than 1/50,000 the diameter of a human hair – possess novel properties that have researchers excitedly exploring dozens of potential applications ranging from transistors to space elevators.
Nanotubes also produce light with a number of interesting properties, which have led researchers to propose various optical applications. One of the most promising is to use the tiny tubes as
Provides new strategy for designing better treatments
Mayo Clinic researchers, working with colleagues at the University of Minnesota and University of Pittsburgh, are the first to describe a new role for a specialized cell of the immune system in children suffering from a rare muscle-damaging disease known as juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM). The specialized cells, called dendritic cells, have never before been found inside muscle tissue of JDM patients — a discovery that sugg
Duke University Medical Center researchers have found that patients with six specific variants of genes involved in the body’s immune response are significantly more likely to suffer damage of heart tissue after cardiac surgery.
These findings are important because current analytical methods cannot reliably predict who will be likely to suffer from myocardial infarction (MI), or heart tissue death after cardiac surgery. It is estimated that between 7 and 15 percent of patien
A Stanford University research team has designed the first microscope sensitive enough to track the real-time motion of a single protein down to the level of its individual atoms. Writing in the Nov. 13 online issue of the journal Nature, the Stanford researchers explain how the new instrument allowed them to settle long-standing scientific debates about the way genes are copied from DNA–a biochemical process that’s essential to life.
In a second paper published in the No
A research team headed by Dr. Scott Bultman (University of North Carolina) has identified an essential role for the mammalian SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex in red blood cell formation. The authors generated a partial loss-of-function mutations in the ATPase domain of the SWI/SNF catalytic subunit, Brg1, effectively uncoupling its ATPase and chromatin remodeling activities.
Brg1-mutant mice die at mid-gestation due to defective erythropoiesis. Commenting on the relevance to human dis
Although the high-fat, calorie-restricted ketogenic diet (KD) has long been used to prevent childhood epileptic seizures that are unresponsive to drugs, physicians have not really understood exactly why the diet works. New studies by a research team at Emory University School of Medicine show that the diet alters genes involved in energy metabolism in the brain, which in turn helps stabilize the function of neurons exposed to the challenges of epileptic seizures. This knowledge could help scienti
Preclinical findings presented at Society for Neuroscience meeting
An experimental treatment that spares disability from acute stroke may be delivered much later than the current three-hour treatment standard – a potential advance needed to benefit more stroke victims.
Researchers at the University of South Florida found that human umbilical cord blood cells administered to rats two days following a stroke greatly curbed the brain’s inflammatory response, reduc
Tool is more objective, accurate in identifying children affected by
A simple test that measures eye movement may help to identify children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and ultimately lead to improved treatment for the condition, say Queen’s University researchers.
At present there are no objective diagnostic tools that can be used to distinguish between children with FASD – which affects approximately one per cent of children in Canada – and those w
Foot ulcerations are one of the most serious complications of diabetes, resulting in more than 80,000 lower-leg amputations each year in the U.S. alone. A new study led by researchers at the Joslin-Beth Israel Deaconess Foot Center and Microcirculation Laboratory finds that early changes in the oxygenation of the skin could help foretell the development of ulcerations and enable doctors to treat patients at an earlier stage, before the onset of serious complications.
Reported in th
Exercise is a lot like spinach … everybody knows it’s good for you; yet many people still avoid it, forgoing its potential health benefits.
But researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who study the effects of exercise on aging point to new findings that may inspire people to get up, get out and get moving on a regular basis. The research team, led by kinesiology professor Edward McAuley, found that previously sedentary seniors who incorporated exercise into t
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