The closer hospitals adhere to national guidelines for treating potential heart attack patients, the greater the decline in their mortality rates, according to a analysis of treatment patterns at 315 U.S. hospitals by Duke Clinical Research Institute researchers.
The analysis is among the first of its kind to definitively link hospital’s improvement in use of guideline-recommended treatments with concomitant reductions in hospital death rates. These findings should provid
A recent report on an unexpected sharp rise in atmospheric CO2 levels has raised the possibility of rapid global warming, but researchers at King’s College London warn that some UK businesses, government departments and voluntary sector organisations are better equipped than others to respond to an increased risk of flooding, storms and extreme temperatures.
According to the research, which was funded by ESRC, the key to an effective response to environmental crises lies i
A long-dry riverbed in northeastern Ohio is preventing a pool of chemical waste from infiltrating the Ohio River, geologists have found.
The finding may call into question the need to clean up similar chemical waste sites. It also indicates a previously unknown interaction between an underground aquifer and the nearby Ohio River. Beneath sand and gravel on the grounds of Barium and Chemical Inc. in Steubenville, OH, lies an aquifer that contains chemicals such as nitrate and bari
High in the mountains of Antarctica, Ohio State University geologists unearthed the fossil remains of a 180-million-year-old clam-like creature that was preserved in a very unusual way: by the ancient bacteria that devoured it.
And only yards away, they found the first fossil evidence of a completely different kind of bacteria that scientists were unsure even existed as fossils that long ago.
The first find answers one of the most fundamental questions in paleontology —
Gene exchange between different plant species is made possible by their parasites, according to an Indiana University Bloomington report in this week’s Nature.
IUB biologists’ discovery that genes can move from plant parasites to plant hosts complements a report by University of Michigan and Smithsonian Institution scientists in the July 30 issue of Science that showed the opposite — that genes can move from plant hosts to plant parasites. Taken together, the findings establis
As summer draws to a close in the southern hemisphere of Uranus, storm clouds are brewing in the upper atmosphere, northern hemisphere winds are gusting to 250 miles per hour, and the planet’s rings are getting brighter every day.
This weather report comes from researchers using the Keck II 10-meter telescope atop Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii, where recent observations are proving that Uranus is not the “boring and unchanging” planet people have assumed, according to Imke de
A study of a recently discovered microRNA gene reveals that its function is to regulate the secretion of insulin in the pancreas. The findings, which for the first time define a biological function for a mammalian microRNA gene, are published in the November 11 issue of Nature.
The discovery was made by a team of researchers from Rockefeller University, Lund University (Sweden), New York University, and Oxford University.
MicroRNA genes are a newly discovered large clas
If you frequently take over-the-counter pills or prescription medication to make your headaches go away, you might get relief—temporarily. But the frequent use of headache medications to make the pain of a headache disappear could trigger chronic daily headache (CDH), according to recent commentary appearing in Headache Currents. Numerous studies have highlighted similar conclusions about the overuse of medication, giving further weight to the expert opinions from Drs Fred Sheftell and Marcello Big
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders. Pharmaceutical and surgical therapies for PD are available and can alleviate the symptoms and complications. Unfortunately, despite these therapies, the disease relentlessly progresses. A new study in the journal Value in Health presents a detailed overview of the current decision-analytic models used to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of therapeutic options in Parkinson’s disease.
Lead author Uwe Sieb
Trials have raised questions on the current management and standard of care for advanced ovarian cancer (AOC). These controversies highlight implications for future clinical research and policy-making, as reviewed in an article published in the International Journal of Gynecological Cancer.
According to the paper, ovarian cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death in women though unfortunately, the disease is only diagnosed at advanced stages. This study, led
Answers to these two questions are given by two recent studies on tooth development and evolution. Scientists at the University of Helsinki have identified the gene responsible for tooth enamel formation, which also explains the sharp incisors of rodents. The second study adds to our knowledge on evolution: the differences between teeth in various species, which have been utilised in evolution research, can be altered through one signalling molecule that regulates development. The research find
A study published in Europe’s leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction[1] today (Thursday 11 November), should help allay fears that removing anonymity from sperm donors might lead to problems for the children or for their biological fathers.
In the world’s first study to examine the feelings and experiences of adolescents who had been conceived through ’open-identity’ sperm donors, US researchers found that all but one of the 29 young people
A recent report on an unexpected sharp rise in atmospheric CO2 levels has raised the possibility of rapid global warming, but researchers at King’s College London warn that some UK businesses, government departments and voluntary sector organisations are better equipped than others to respond to an increased risk of flooding, storms and extreme temperatures.
According to the research, which was funded by ESRC, the key to an effective response to environmental crises lies in socia
An international team led by an Edinburgh astronomer have discovered that by studying polarised light from black holes they can focus much more closely on what exactly is going on around them. The work is published this week in the monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on November 11th.
Studying black holes at the centre of galaxies is difficult. A huge amount of material is falling on to the centre in an active black hole system, and this falling material is thought
Putting on airs doesn’t cut it in the wasp world.
When wasps sporting the high-quality symbol of a blotchy face turned out to be wimps, they got harassed more than wasps whose abilities were honestly reflected by their faces, report researchers. It’s the first conclusive report that animals that don’t signal their qualities honestly receive social sanctions. Moreover, it’s the first report of such quality signals in insects. “It’s the most conclusive evid
Pluto’s status as our solar system’s ninth planet may be safe if a recently discovered Kuiper Belt Object is a typical “KBO” and not just an oddball.
Astronomers have new evidence that KBOs (Kuiper Belt Objects) are smaller than previously thought.
KBOs – icy cousins to asteroids and the source of some comets – are the leftover building blocks of the outer planets. Astronomers using the world’s most powerful telescopes have discovered about 1,000 of these objects orb
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