Employees who take long spells of sick leave more than once in three years are at a higher risk of death than their colleagues who take no such absence, particularly if their absence is due to circulatory or psychiatric problems or for surgery, concludes a study on bmj.com today.
Body
A team of researchers from the United States and the Netherlands has identified mutations in three genes that are associated with high levels of uric acid in the blood, which is a risk factor for gout. The team developed a genetic risk score composed of the number of uric acid-increasing mutations that each person carries (0 to 6), which was associated with up to a 40-fold increased risk for developing gout when comparing persons at lowest and highest risk. The findings are published in the October 4 issue of The Lancet.
NEW YORK (Oct. 02, 2008) -- To ease the pain of recovery following prostate cancer surgery, physician-scientists have developed an innovative and patient-friendly approach that eliminates the use of a penile urinary catheter. The new patentable technique, used in conjunction with robotic prostatectomy -- the surgical removal of the prostate -- eliminates the pain and discomfort associated with the standard catheter.
Many receptor models used in drug design may not be useful after all
Even cells commute. To get from their birthplace to their work site, they sequentially attach to and detach from an elaborate track of exceptionally strong proteins known as the extracellular matrix. Now, in research to appear in the October 3 issue of Cell, scientists at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Rockefeller University show that a molecule, called ACF7, helps regulate and power this movement from the inside - findings that could have implications for understanding how cancer cells metastasize.
A new study shows that the DNA of so-called "good bacteria" that normally live in the intestines may help defend the body against infection.
The findings, available Oct. 2 online in the journal Immunity, are reported by Yasmine Belkaid, Ph.D., and her colleagues in the Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.
Humans living in communities often rely on friends to help get what they need and, according to researchers in the lab of Cameron Currie at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, many microbes, plants and animals benefit from 'friendly' associations too.
The Currie team's study, which was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and published in the Oct. 3, 2008, issue of the journal Science, describes the complex relationship between a beetle, two types of tree fungus and a bacterium that aids in their struggle to survive and thrive.
CHAPEL HILL – A fresh discovery about the way water behaves inside carbon nanotubes could have implications in fields ranging from the function of ultra-tiny high-tech devices to scientists' understanding of biological processes, according to researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The findings, published in the Oct. 3, 2008, issue of the journal Science, relate to a property of so-called "nano-confined" water – specifically, whether hollow carbon nanotubes take in the liquid easily or reluctantly, depending on their temperature.
Personal beliefs about inconclusive DNA testing for hereditary breast cancer are associated with cancer-related worry, and such beliefs are an especially strong predictor of whether women had been able to leave the period of DNA-testing behind, reports a study in the October issue of Genetics in Medicine, official journal of the American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG). The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
BOSTON, Mass. (Oct. 2, 2008)—Researchers from Harvard Medical School and the University of Madison-Wisconsin have discovered how beetles and bacteria form a symbiotic and mutualistic relationship—one that ultimately results in the destruction of pine forests. In addition, they've identified the specific molecule that drives this whole phenomenon.
The context of this discovery can easily be imagined as a story arc that includes some of the most unlikely characters and props.
Setting: The interior of a pine tree.
New Haven, Conn. — Yale researchers have harnessed the power of 21st century computing to confirm an idea first proposed in 1916 — that plants with rapid reproductive cycles evolve faster. Their findings appear in the October 3rd edition of Science.
A bacteria cell's 'crisis command centre' has been observed for thefirst time swinging into action to protect the cell from external stressand danger, according to new research out today (3 October) in Science.
The research team behind today's study says that finding out exactly howbacteria respond and adapt to stresses and dangers is important becauseit will further their understanding of the basic survival mechanisms ofsome of the most resilient, hardy organisms on Earth.
COLLEGE STATION, Oct. 2, 2008 The Atlantic bluefin tuna is the largest and most sought-after of all tunas, weighing as much as 1,400 pounds and capable of fetching as much as $50,000 or more in Asian markets where its meat is a prized commodity, one big reason why its numbers have declined precipitously since the 1970s. New research findings reported in Science have critical implications for how bluefin tuna are managed on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
LA JOLLA, CA — The Salk Institute for Biological Studies and Burnham Institute for Medical Research today announced 295 host cell factors that are involved in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. The study, published in the Oct. 3 issue of Cell, could lead to the development of a new class of HIV therapeutics aimed at disrupting the human-HIV interactions that lead to viral infection.
RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Aluminum toxicity, a global agricultural problem, halts root growth in plants, severely limiting agricultural productivity for more than half of the world's arable land.
For many years, scientists have puzzled over how toxic levels of aluminum damage the growing root. The popular understanding is that aluminum binds to several targets in the root system, blocking cell division, damaging DNA, and ultimately interrupting plant growth.