IDAHO FALLS -- Minuscule traces of cells can be detected in a mineral likely present on Mars, a new study shows. The results, obtained using a technique developed at the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory, could help mission scientists choose Martian surface samples with the most promise for yielding signs of life.
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Reston, VA (October 28, 2008) -- A study(1) published in the November issue of a scientific journal, Toxicological Sciences, which is published by Oxford Journals on behalf of the Society of Toxicology, describes the kidney toxicity of melamine and cyanuric acid based on research that was done to characterize the toxicity of the compounds that contaminated pet food in North America in 2007.
Plastic tubing taped to a handheld egg-beater could save lives in developing countries, the Royal Society of Chemistry's journal Lab on a Chip reports.
Whitesides' egg-beater centrifuge needs no special training, maintenance or electricity.
(Photo Credit: Malancha Gupta)
The low-cost centrifuge replacement can separate plasma from blood in minutes, which is used in tests to detect lethal infectious diseases responsible for half of all deaths in developing countries.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Adding a food additive to damaged polymers can help restore them to full strength, say scientists at the University of Illinois who cooked up the novel, self-healing system.
The repair process, in which solvent-filled microcapsules embedded in an epoxy matrix rupture when a crack forms, is a major improvement over the original self-healing process first described in February 2001.
- REALIZE is the first phase III study to evaluate a specifically targeted antiviral therapy for hepatitis C (STAT-C) across a full range of HCV-patients who failed prior treatment to current standard of care, including null responders -
Westchester, Ill. –A study in the October 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine shows that unrelated to obesity, people with severe SDBs consume a more unhealthy diet, which may be a factor contributing to greater cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. These findings were most evident among women.
Stuart Quan, MD, division of sleep medicine at Harvard Medical School, said, "We found that persons who had severe obstructive sleep apnea ate a diet that was unhealthy with increased intake of cholesterol, fat and saturated fatty acids."
London, U.K., 15 October 2008 – Pneumococcal disease, one of the world's leading causes of death and serious illness (1), must be recognised as an urgent global health issue together with HIV, malaria and TB, say the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Pneumococcal Disease Prevention in the Developing World in a report launching at the House of Lords today. Between 700,000 and one million children under the age of five die each year from pneumococcal disease, equivalent to malaria and more than AIDS and tuberculosis (2,3).
Scientists have found a more effective treatment for a common childhood eye muscle coordination problem called convergence insufficiency (CI). For words on a page to appear in focus a child's eyes must turn inward, or converge. In CI, the eyes do not converge easily, and as a result, additional muscular effort must be used to make the eyes turn in.
This is the first study into the old Frisian culture of honour and, moreover, via a text genre that has received little attention to date: the compensation tariffs. Old Frisian compensation tariffs, which can best be compared to bodily injury lists, are lists of wounds to the human body and summaries of insults and material damage with the associated monetary compensation. A punch: 4 pence. Two ears struck off: 12 marks. With this system, the Frisians could end or prevent blood feuds by financially compensating injuries or insults that could be a cause of a vendetta.
High-dose vitamin B supplementation for patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer disease did not slow the rate of cognitive decline, according to a study in the October 15 issue of JAMA.
The discovery of the earliest known cases of human tuberculosis (TB) in bones found submerged off the coast of Israel shows that the disease is 3000 years older than previously thought. Direct examination of this ancient DNA confirms the latest theory that bovine TB evolved later than human TB.
The new research, led by scientists from UCL (University College London) and Tel-Aviv University and published today in PLoS One, sheds light on how the TB bacterium has evolved over the millennia and increases our understanding of how it may change in the future.
If the heart becomes diseased during its embryonic/fetal development, it can regenerate itself to such an extent that it is fully functional by birth, provided some of the heart cells remain healthy. Dr. Jörg-Detlef Drenckhahn of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch made this discovery together with colleagues from Australia. They were able to demonstrate in female mice that the healthy cells of the heart divide more frequently and thus displace the damaged tissue. "Hopefully, our results will lead to new therapies in the future," Dr. Drenckhahn said.
Luc Roumen has developed a new therapy for the prevention of heart failure. The idea is to administer a drug that blocks the enzyme responsible for the production of aldosterone, namely cytochrome P450 11B2. The related enzyme 11B1 is involved in the production of other important hormones. Roumen searched for a highly selective drug that would only block 11B2, but not 11B1, to ensure a minimum of side effects when the drug is administered.
Computer simulation
How species are formed and how species remain separate are crucial questions in evolutionary biology. The offspring of crosses between different animal species are often infertile or die when still in the womb. A mule, for example, cannot reproduce. A sheep-goat hybrid, the result of a cross between a sheep and a goat, is usually stillborn. Such hybrids can also be dysfunctional, for example, because the sounds they make are a mixture of sounds from both parent species.
The effectiveness of Proposition 36, a ballot measure approved by California voters in 2000 that offers treatment instead of incarceration for nonviolent drug offenders is being undermined by inadequate funding, participants dropping out of treatment, and increased arrests for drug and property crimes.