Drugs that work in the liver to reduce fatty triglyceride levels and improve insulin resistance, are also effective at inhibiting the formation of cholesterol-laden plaques that cause atherosclerosis in artery walls, according to researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine.
In studies with mice published in the Dec. 1, 2004 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the researchers found that drugs that activate two types of proteins call
Cutting edge research at the University of Ulster into how to make complex computers and communications systems manage themselves could power the next generation of US space probes, it was revealed today.
Roy Sterritt, from the University’s Computer Science Research Institute, was today addressing NASA scientists in Washington about his research.
Mr Sterritt said that current computing networks are now so complex and difficult to manage that by 2010, 220 million people
University of Pittsburgh study focuses on genes regulating the inflammatory response
Specific variants in genes that encode proteins regulating inflammation may hold a key to explaining a host of disease processes known to cause increased risk of illness and death among African Americans, according to a study from the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH). The study, “Differential Distribution of Allelic Variants in Cytokine Genes Among African Amer
Vaccination with the anthrax capsule, a naturally occurring component of the bacterium that causes the disease, protected mice from lethal anthrax infection, according to scientists at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). In addition, the capsule enhanced the effects of protective antigen (PA), the protective component of the current licensed human vaccine. The work was recently published in the journal VACCINE.
According to senior author
As millions of holidaymakers will testify, the Mediterranean is uniquely clear – and blue – unlike the cloudy grey of many coastal waters. But how many of its grateful bathers realise that the Med is so crystal clear because it’s the ocean equivalent of the Sahara desert?
A Leeds-led team of international scientists studying the fragile marine ecosystem of the Eastern Mediterranean has found that the reason the waters are so transparent is an acute shortage of phosphates – vital el
As the UK prepares to celebrate Einstein Year in 2005, a physicist from Bristol University is looking for stories that can be used to tell taxi drivers what physics is all about. Sir Michael Berry, whose own father was a London cabbie, thought of the idea after failing to give a taxi driver a clear explanation of what it is that physicists actually do. Berry realized that physicists need a stock of good and convincing stories that show how physics affects people’s lives. Looking back, he now
Corrugated cardboard is an excellent packaging material that is widely used for transporting, storing and protecting goods. Through the new process developed by EUREKA project E! 1929 FACTORY FOLDHEX, corrugated cardboard can be transformed into a new honeycomb core that offers reduced weight, uses less raw material and achieves better crash absorption and higher compression resistance than double flute corrugated cardboard.
Honeycomb cores are already used in a variety of appl
Very Large Telescope Takes Snapshots of Two Grand-Design Spiral Galaxies Images of beautiful galaxies, and in particular of spiral brethren of our own Milky Way, leaves no-one unmoved. It is difficult indeed to resist the charm of these impressive grand structures. Astronomers at Paranal Observatory used the versatile VIMOS instrument on the Very Large Telescope to photograph two magnificent examples of such “island universes”, both of which are seen in a southern constellation wit
Ordinary tap or bottled water could help people suffering from low blood pressure who faint while standing, claim researchers from Imperial College London and St Mary’s Hospital.
According to research published in the latest issue of Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, drinking two glasses of water can raise blood pressure, potentially providing a solution for patients with low blood pressure while standing, caused by autonomic failure. Autonomic failure is where par
In laboratory studies at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, researchers have successfully treated the most common malignant abdominal tumor of childhood: neuroblastoma tumors. Researchers successfully treated the tumor in mouse models by administering a treatment based on a weakened version of the herpes simplex virus.
The study appears in the current online issue of Pediatric Blood and Cancer, the journal of the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncolo
Panoramic dental x-rays can be used to help identify postmenopausal women with low skeletal bone mineral density (BMD), meaning that screening for spinal osteoporosis could begin in the dentist’s office a new study shows.
The study included 316 postmenopausal women who had no symptoms of osteoporosis. The women were divided into two groups: 159 had no history of hysterectomy, oophorectomy or estrogen use, the remaining 157 had one or more of these histories. All had panor
Also helps some patients avoid hysterectomy
MRI-guided ultrasound therapy is an effective way to treat women with uterine fibroids, improving their quality of life and avoiding hysterectomy, a new study shows. The study reviewed the use of MRI and the ExAblate 2000, a device that was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
About 25% of women have uterine fibroids with a substantial proportion of these experiencing symptoms, said Dr. Wladyslaw Gedroyc of St
The significance of a detected colon polyp matches closely with the confidence score of an interpreting radiologist using virtual colonoscopy. This suggests that virtual colonoscopy may help determine if polyp removal is truly needed, thereby avoiding overuse of invasive conventional colonoscopy, according to a new study in the December 2004 issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.
Virtual colonoscopy is a relatively noninvasive examination that uses a CT scan to evaluate the colo
The polyphenols present in green tea help prevent the spread of prostate cancer by targeting molecular pathways that shut down the proliferation and spread of tumor cells, as well as inhibiting the growth of tumor nurturing blood vessels, according to research published in the December 1 issue of Cancer Research.
A team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis., and Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, documented the role of green tea polyphenols (
Study shows capacity exists to screen population within one year
More than 41 million Americans who are candidates for colorectal cancer screening have not been screened for this second-leading cancer killer, the first time the unscreened population has been quantified. According to a study published today in the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) journal Gastroenterology, sufficient capacity exists to screen the unscreened population within one year using fecal occult b
Biologist says public’s scientific illiteracy has frightening repercussions
The rising popularity of shark cartilage extract as an anti-cancer treatment is a triumph of marketing and pseudoscience over reason, with a tragic fallout for both sharks and humans, according to a Johns Hopkins biologist writing in the Dec. 1 issue of Cancer Research. “Since shark cartilage has been promoted as a cancer cure, not only has there has been a measurable decline in shark populations,
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