Blocking a key molecule protects breast implants, permanent catheters, pacemakers, artificial joints, glucose sensors for diabetics, and other biomaterials from rejection and damage by the body, according to a study published this month in The American Journal of Pathology.
The more complicated the function of the implant, the more likely it is to be rendered non-functional due to damage induced by the body, said the lead author, Themis Kyriakides, assistant professor of pathol
National survey shows patients want treatments to control broader range of symptoms giving them a second chance at life
A panel of experts says doctors treating patients with schizophrenia should be targeting symptoms beyond hallucinations and delusions, and focus in on the common, but often overlooked, symptoms of depression and anxiety, as well as the inability to think clearly. Patients agree, ranking these symptoms as major concerns in a recent national survey. As a result, the
Perhaps George Washington wouldn’t have chopped down his father’s cherry tree if he knew what chemists now know. They have identified a group of naturally occurring chemicals abundant in cherries that could help lower blood sugar levels in people with diabetes. In early laboratory studies using animal pancreatic cells, the chemicals, called anthocyanins, increased insulin production by 50 percent, according to a peer-reviewed study scheduled to appear in the Jan. 5 issue of the America
Using advanced remote-sensing techniques from a U-2 surveillance plane and field studies, scientists from the Carnegie Institution Department of Global Ecology have for the first time determined large-scale interactions between ecosystems and the climate during the process of desertification. The study, to be published in the January 2005 issue of Global Change Biology, is a milestone both for the new methods employed and for understanding what is happening as agricultural and grazing lands chang
University of Nevada study finds plants assimilate mercury from air
Mercury gets around. A naturally occurring contaminant, mercury is found in water and soil but scientists are not exactly sure how mercury makes its way through the environment. Concerns over increasing levels of mercury contamination have sparked fish consumption advisories in certain areas.
Knowing how mercury ends up in these locations, however, is an area of concern for environmental scientists
How the First Identified Epigenetic Disease Turns on the Genes That Produce its Symptoms
Sometime between the age of 6 and 18 months, after a period of seemingly normal development, girls affected with Rett Syndrome lose interest in play; they gradually become withdrawn and anxious, develop autistic-like behaviors, and acquire specific symptoms like repetitive teeth-grinding and hand-wringing. This devastating neurological disease affects one in 15,000 female children.
The DNA molecule–nature’s premier data storage material–may hold the key for the information technology industry as it faces demands for more compact data processing and storage circuitry. A team led by Richard Kiehl, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Minnesota, has used DNA’s ability to assemble itself into predetermined patterns to construct a synthetic DNA scaffolding with regular, closely spaced docking sites that can direct the assembly of circuits for processing
The discovery of a new compound by Michigan State University researchers could lead to improved chemotherapy treatments for different types of cancers – potentially with fewer side effects.
The discovery of the compound – known as SP-4-84 – was made by an MSU team led by Jetze Tepe, an assistant professor of chemistry, and is detailed in the December issue of the journal Chemistry & Biology. The researchers believe that the compound, when used in conjunction with chemotherapy
Animals are in constant competition over procreative resources. The interests of the individual and the population are not necessarily one and the same; aggressive insects may fare well in the mating competition, but eventually the proliferation of aggressive genes will weaken the procreative efficiency of the species.
Species differ, however, in how co-operative or selfish they are. Hanna Kokko, Professor of Animal Ecology, at the University of Helsinki, says that, for example,
A study by a team of researchers at the University of Southampton has revealed that Western style acupuncture can be effective in treating chronic neck pain. Moreover, its beneficial effects may be as much to do with the non-specific but powerful effects of the treatment process as the specific effect of the needles. The results of the study are set out in a paper that appears in the Annals of Internal Medicine on 21 December 2004.
Chronic neck pain presents a substantial problem
A child’s level of anxiety prior to surgery is predictive of whether they will experience post-surgical delirium and maladaptive behavioral changes, including anxiety, nighttime crying, and bedwetting, according to a Yale study published in the journal Anesthesia & Analgesia.
“This finding is of importance to the clinician, who can now better predict the development of adverse postoperative phenomena in children based on the child’s preoperative anxiety,” said Zeev K
Perhaps Ukrainian Viktor Yushchenko should try olestra to get rid of dioxin. It’s worked before. A new study shows how diet affects chlorinated hydrocarbons trapped in body fat and how olestra raises their excretion rate up to 30-fold.
Perhaps Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko should try an “Olestra diet” to rid his body of dioxin. It wouldn’t be the first time that the “fake fat” product was used as an emergency agent to flush out dioxin, one of a group of
Aboard Cream, an experiment for the study of cosmic rays
A stratospheric balloon of Nasa was launched yesterday, December 16 at 1.28 a.m. Italian time from the Antarctica’s McMurdo base. The balloon raised Cream (Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass) experiment up to 40 kilometres of height. In the experiment, coordinated by Eun Suk Seo of Maryland University, participate American universities (Maryland, Chicago, Penn State, Ohio), South Korea universities (Ewa, KyungPook) and an Itali
The risk of tuberculosis infection doubles within one year of HIV infection, according to a study published in the Jan. 15 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online. Scientists previously assumed that there was no increase in tuberculosis risk within the first few years of HIV infection. Pam Sonnenberg of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and colleagues were therefore surprised by the results of their research on the two infections, which they conducted in
Virginia Tech researchers are working on technologies that could create a new industry from a problem in the state’s cotton-growing region.
“Our goal is to add a value to the cotton crop by using the residue from the cotton to make a valuable product,” said Foster A. Agblevor, professor of biological systems engineering in Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
About 100,000 acres of cotton are grown in the Virginia counties of Southampton, I
For nearly 75 years, transition-state theory has guided chemists in how they view the way chemical reactions proceed. Recent research by Emory University chemists is challenging the long-held theory, showing that in some cases chemical reactions can proceed via a path that completely bypasses the “transition state.”
“Our understanding of chemical reactions rests on the notion of the transition state. If we think of reactions as occurring on an energy landscape, the transition stat
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