Body | Page 3698 | Science Codex

Animals have personalities, too

An individual's personality can have a big effect on their life. Some people are outgoing and gregarious while others find novel situations stressful which can be detrimental to their health and wellbeing. Increasingly, scientists are discovering that animals are no different.

A new study led by Dr Kathryn Arnold, of the Environment Department at the University of York has added important experimental evidence showing that animal personalities are reflected in their oxidative stress profiles. The research is published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Women at higher risk than men of kidney damage after heart imaging test

DETROIT – Women are at higher risk than men of developing kidney damage after undergoing a coronary angiogram, according to a Henry Ford Hospital study.

Researchers found that women are 60 percent more likely than men to develop radiocontrast-induced nephropathy (RCIN), an adverse side effect that causes kidney dysfunction within 24 to 72 hours after patients are administered an iodine contrast dye during the common heart imaging test.

IPF lung disease numbers are rising quickly to become a significant cause of mortality in UK

The number of cases of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) has continued to rise significantly in the first decade of the 21st century and could lead to more deaths than ovarian cancer, lymphoma, leukaemia, or kidney cancer, reveals research published ahead of print in the Thorax journal.

IPF is the most common of the pneumonias that happen without an apparent cause and previous studies have shown that incidence and deaths from the disease are rising in the UK and the USA.

Heart attacks are more serious if they occur at certain times of the day

People who have a heart attack are likely to be more seriously affected if the attack happens in the morning, reveals research published ahead of print in Heart journal.

Heart attacks that occur between 6am and noon are more likely to leave a 20% larger area of dead tissue (infarct) caused by the attack, which is more serious for the person affected, than at any other time of the day.

Get a whiff of this: Low-cost sensor can diagnose bacterial infections

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Bacterial infections really stink. And that could be the key to a fast diagnosis.

Researchers have demonstrated a quick, simple method to identify infectious bacteria by smell using a low-cost array of printed pigments as a chemical sensor. Led by University of Illinois chemistry professor Ken Suslick, the team published its results in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

The doctor will see all of you now? Group doctor visits may be feasible for Parkinson's disease

ST. PAUL, Minn. –Group appointments where doctors see several people for a longer time may be feasible for Parkinson's disease, according to a new study published in the April 27, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN).

Sweet chemistry: Carbohydrate adhesion gives stainless steel implants beneficial new functions

A new chemical bonding process can add new functions to stainless steel and make it a more useful material for implanted biomedical devices. Developed by an interdisciplinary team at the University of Alberta and Canada's National Institute for Nanotechnology, this new process was developed to address some of the problems associated with the introduction of stainless steel into the human body.

Rare Pennsylvania fungus is named for Philadelphia botanist

PHILADELPHIA— A Philadelphia botanist who has studied rare plants for 50 years, but has never attained the honor of having a plant named for him is finally getting his due, but with a barely visible organism so rare it may never be seen again.

Scorpion venom -- bad for bugs, good for pesticides

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Fables have long cast scorpions as bad-natured killers of hapless turtles that naively agree to ferry them across rivers. Michigan State University scientists, however, see them in a different light.

Ke Dong, MSU insect toxicologist and neurobiologist, studied the effects of scorpion venom with the hopes of finding new ways to protect plants from bugs. The results, which are published in the current issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, have revealed new ways in which the venom works.

Bariatric surgery better than dieting for glucose control

Durham, N.C., and New York, N.Y.. – Researchers at Duke University Medical Center and St. Luke's and Roosevelt Hospital Center, Columbia University, have uncovered a new clue for why bariatric surgery is more effective than dietary remedies alone at controlling glucose levels.

This discovery, and facts gleaned from their previous studies, provide even more evidence that branched-chain amino acids are biomarkers that deserve careful scrutiny in the development and treatment of diabetes.

New technique extends cancer-fighting cells' potency in melanoma patients

BOSTON--Like brainy bookworms unprepared for the rough and tumble of post-graduation life, white blood cells trained by scientists to attack tumors tend to fade away quickly when injected into cancer patients. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists, however, have developed a technique that can cause such cells to survive in patients' bloodstreams for well over a year, in some cases, without the need of other, highly toxic treatments, a new study shows.

NIH researchers create comprehensive collection of approved drugs to identify new therapies

Researchers have begun screening the first definitive collection of thousands of approved drugs for clinical use against rare and neglected diseases. They are hunting for additional uses of the drugs hoping to find off-label therapies, for some of the 6,000 rare diseases that afflict 25 million Americans. The effort is coordinated by the National Institutes of Health's Chemical Genomics Center (NCGC).

ASTRO publishes evidence-based guideline for thoracic radiotherapy

The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has developed a guideline for the use of external beam radiation therapy, endobronchial brachytherapy and concurrent chemotherapy to palliate thoracic symptoms caused by advanced lung cancer. The guideline will be published in Practical Radiation Oncology, an official journal of ASTRO.

Discovery could change the way doctors treat patients with cancer and autoimmune diseases

Edmonton – Researchers in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta have made an important discovery that provides a new understanding of how our immune system "learns" not to attack our own body, and this could affect the way doctors treat patients with autoimmune diseases and cancer.

MIT: Advances in DNA 'origami'

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- While the primary job of DNA in cells is to carry genetic information from one generation to the next, some scientists also see the highly stable and programmable molecule as an ideal building material for nanoscale structures that could be used to deliver drugs, act as biosensors, perform artificial photosynthesis and more.