Retiring croplands and switching to no-till agriculture can contribute in a modest way to reducing the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but doubling fuel efficiencies of cars and light trucks would achieve much greater results, according to two Duke University ecologists.
In an analysis to be published the week of Oct. 25, 2004, in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Robert Jackson and William Schlesinger of Duke’s Nichola
Three University of Chicago geriatricians just published a study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine calling for creative and wide-reaching solutions to the problem of sub-optimal end-of-life care for patients with dementia. An estimated 500,000 people die every year in the United States suffering from Alzheimer’s or related diseases and many of them receive inadequate pain control, are subjected to ineffective and invasive therapies such as tube feedings, and do not receive the ben
Findings of a recent study published in Public Health Nursing suggest that if the main barriers preventing high-risk populations from having routine testing for HIV are addressed, the spread of AIDS could be slowed in the US.
The study, conducted at an urgent care center in Atlanta, GA, interviewed 143 high-risk patients to identify behavioral and psychosocial barriers associated with having repeat and routine aids testing. Women, who had been tested for HIV previously, wer
Common prostate cancer therapy disrupts brain’s hippocampal memory system
Oregon Health & Science University researchers studying how testosterone deprivation affects verbal memory found that men undergoing the prostate cancer therapy forget things faster than their healthy counterparts. Scientists in the OHSU School of Medicine’s departments of Behavioral Neuroscience and Medicine, and the OHSU Cancer Institute, in a study presented Sunday to the Society for Neuroscie
Retina specialists and ophthalmologists are encouraged by promising new scientific approaches that could have the potential to reduce the devastating effects of wet AMD for patients and offer the medical community a new paradigm of care, according to presentations made at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology in New Orleans.
Many experts consider AMD, the leading cause of blindness in Americans over age 50, as a growing public health epidemic. Diagno
Researchers and policy makers could be doing more to prevent children’s injuries on farms, says a new study from the University of Alberta.
Published this month in Pediatrics, the study says there is a lack of evidence to show which programs are effective in preventing injuries to children on farms. Each year, three to four children under 15 years of age die, and more than 75 are hospitalized, as a result of injuries occurring on Alberta farms and ranches. “Given the magnitud
A new Michael Jordan of toxins isn’t required to increase crop protection against bugs as long as the right genes are strategically placed to take their shots at destructive insects, researchers report.
Plants modified with protectant genes designed to kill resistant insects can extend the usefulness of currently used pest-control methods and delay the development of pesticide-resistant bugs, according to Purdue University scientists and their collaborators from the University
Knowledge could lead to new vaccines and treatments for UTI
Anyone who thinks scientists lead a glamorous, exciting life should talk to Jennifer Snyder, a graduate student at the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine. During July of 2003, while all her friends were out enjoying themselves, Snyder spent 10 days trying to get 40 laboratory mice to urinate into little plastic tubes. Snyder’s goal was to extract enough genetic material from mouse urine to determine which of th
Scientists in the department of Geology and Geophysics at Yale University have devised a method to precisely date the timing and temperature of a meteorite impact on Mars that led to ejection of a piece of the planet into space and its eventual impact on Earth.
Meteorites are the main source of mass exchange between planets and carry with them characteristic clues about the nature and history of the planets or planetesimals where they originated, the impacts that dislodged them, a
Researchers at Jefferson Medical College have found a new way to coax bone marrow stem cells into becoming dopamine-producing neurons. If the method proves reliable, the work may ultimately lead to new therapies for neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, which is marked by a loss of dopamine-making cells in the brain.
Developmental biologist Lorraine Iacovitti, Ph.D., associate director of the Farber Institute for Neurosciences at Thomas Jefferson Universit
UO study shows the distinction between perception and action streams is oversimplified
A trusted mental map of your surroundings turns out to be slightly misaligned, skewing your orientation. Your ability to control the direction in which you move is similarly compromised, although in a manner opposite the map’s offset. Taken together, the errors cancel one another, and you end up exactly where you want to be. Contrary to the proverb, two wrongs do make a right. This exception
Nearly 60 percent of American adults may have hypertension, or may be on the verge of suffering the condition, as measured by recently revised high blood pressure classifications.
The finding, reported in the Oct. 25 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, comes from nationally representative health data analyzed by two University of Illinois at Chicago researchers. Youfa Wang, an assistant professor of human nutrition and Qiong Joanna Wang, a biostatistician at UIC’s Schoo
U of T researchers work with human retinal cells
University of Toronto researchers have shown that human retinal stem cells transplanted into the eyes of mice and chicks can successfully regenerate. The research, published in the Oct. 19 issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, documents the development of transplanted human retinal stem cells into light-sensing photoreceptor cells and retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells, the cells which bounce light and ima
In studies with mice that develop the equivalent of Alzheimer’s disease that runs in families, Johns Hopkins researchers have shown that brain cells’ signals confuse the movement of implanted neuronal stem cells.
The observation reinforces the idea that disease can create “microenvironments” that affect the behavior of cells. These local environments might help recruit stem cell-based therapies in other conditions, say the researchers. The findings are to be presente
Iron-deficient cells in the brain are mixing up central nervous system signals to the legs and arms causing the irresistible urges to move and creepy-crawly sensations that characterize restless legs syndrome (RLS), a Penn State College of Medicine study reports.
“Our previous studies established a physical cause for RLS showing certain cells in the brain were iron deficient,” said James R. Connor, Ph.D., professor and vice chair for neurosurgery, Penn State College of Medicine,
Scientists at Scripps Research Institute use drug to stabilize blood vessels and block metastatic cancer cells from leaving the bloodstream
A team of scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has identified a potential treatment strategy against metastatic cancer cells that has never been tried before. Metastasis is a major problem with cancer because it allows tumor cells to spread to other parts of the body (See Supporting Material: Cancer and Metastasis). While solid tumor
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