Body | Page 3827 | Science Codex

Most stroke patients don't get clot-busting treatment in timely manner, study finds

Every minute counts after the onset of a stroke. The more time that elapses before a patient receives an intravenous drug to help break up the clot that is blocking a blood vessel in the brain, the slimmer the chances of a good outcome.

Less than one-third of acute stroke patients treated with the clot-busting drug, called intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), receive it within 60 minutes of their hospital arrival, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2011.

Study finds preterm birth clinic attendance leads to major reduction in infant disability

SAN FRANCISCO (February 11, 2011) — In a study to be presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's (SMFM) annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in San Francisco, researchers will present findings that show that when women at high risk for preterm birth participated in a preterm birth prevention clinic, more women delivered full term babies and there were fewer cases of infant morbidity.

Team hopes to cut years off development time of new antibiotics

HOUSTON, Feb. 11, 2011 – Eliminating tens of thousands of manual lab experiments, two University of Houston (UH) professors are working toward a method to cut the development time of new antibiotics. While current practices typically last for more than a decade, a computerized modeling system being developed at UH will speed up this process.

Left is mean but right is meaner, says new study of political discourse

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass.—While the tragic shooting in Arizona has spotlighted the vitriol that seems to pervade political commentary, objective research examining the scope of this disturbing phenomenon has been lacking. In the first published study of its kind, social scientists at Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences have found that outrage talk is endemic among commentators of all political stripes, but measurably worse on the political right, and is more prevalent than it was even during the turmoil of the war in Viet Nam and the Watergate scandal.

WSU study finds younger stroke victims benefit from earlier MRIs, ambulance rides to ER

Detroit - While the American Stroke Association reports that stroke is the third leading cause of death and one of the top causes of disability in the United States, young adults showing signs of suffering a stroke are sometimes misdiagnosed in hospital emergency rooms, preventing them from receiving early effective treatment that can prevent serious damage.

Invasive plants can create positive ecological change

A team of scientists has discovered that human-introduced, invasive species of plants can have positive ecological effects. Tomás Carlo, an assistant professor of biology at Penn State University, and Jason Gleditsch, a graduate student in the Department of Biology, have studied how invasive fruiting plants affect ecosystems and how those effects, contrary to prevailing ideas, sometimes can be beneficial to an ecological community.

Study finds preterm birth clinic attendence leads to major reduction in infant disability

SAN FRANCISCO (February 11, 2011) — In a study to be presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's (SMFM) annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in San Francisco, researchers will present findings that show that when women at high risk for preterm birth participated in a preterm birth prevention clinic, more women delivered full term babies and there were fewer cases of infant morbidity.

Study finds even with fetal lung maturity, babies delivered prior to 39 weeks are at risk

SAN FRANCISCO (February 11, 2011) — In a study to be presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's (SMFM) annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in San Francisco, researchers will present findings that show that despite fetal pulmonary maturity, babies delivered at between 36 to 38 weeks, still have a significantly increased risk of neonatal morbidities.

Microarray analysis can identify unsuspected incest

HOUSTON -- (Feb. 11, 2011) – Researchers using DNA microarrays to diagnose developmental disabilities or congenital anomalies in children may unexpectedly identify that some have been conceived through incest. This raises social and legal issues that institutions and the scientific community must address, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine (www.bcm.edu) in a report that appears in the current issue of the journal Lancet (http://www.thelancet.com/).

Heat therapy could be new treatment for parasitic skin disease

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Scientists are hoping that heat therapy could eventually replace a complex drug regimen as the first-line treatment of a parasitic skin infection common in tropical and subtropical regions of the world.

The researchers successfully treated the skin infection with heat therapy in two patients whose immune systems were deficient, which lowered their bodies' ability to respond to medication. Both patients have remained free of the parasitic disease, called cutaneous leishmaniasis, for more than a year since receiving the heat treatment.

Experts urge even greater caution in use of X-rays during pregnancy and infancy

Clinicians should be careful about using x-rays on pregnant women and infants because of the potential for a slight increase in the risk of children developing cancer, concludes a new study published on bmj.com today.

The study is consistent with what doctors have long suspected, and why women of childbearing age are always asked about the possibility of pregnancy before being x- rayed.

Most stroke patients not getting clot-busting treatment in timely manner

Less than one-third of acute stroke patients treated with intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) receive the clot-busting drug within 60 minutes of their hospital arrival, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2011. The research is simultaneously published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

A new way to attack pathogens

Scientists have discovered a new way to attack dangerous pathogens, marking a hopeful next step in the ever-escalating battle between man and microbe.

In a paper published online Feb. 10 in the journal PLoS Pathogens, scientists demonstrate that by stopping bacteria's ability to degrade RNA – a "housekeeping" process crucial to their ability to thrive – scientists were able to stop methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA both in the laboratory and in infected mice.

Leafcutter ant genome reveals secrets of fungus farming ways

MADISON -- Leafcutter ants, signature denizens of New World tropical forests, are unique in their ability to harvest fresh leaves to cultivate a nutrient-rich fungus as food.

Now, this mutualism -- a complicated interplay of ants, fungi and a suite of bacteria -- is coming into sharper focus as a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers has published the complete genome of the leafcutter ant, Atta cephalotes.

Inhibiting MRSA's ability to degrade RNA slows the spread of the bacteria

Scientists have demonstrated that stopping the ability of methicillin-resistant Staphylcoccus aureus (MRSA) to degrade RNA can inhibit its spread, both in the laboratory and in infected mice. The team of researchers is led by Paul Dunman of the University of Rochester Medical Center and includes scientists from three other laboratories. These results are reported February 10 in the open access journal PLoS Pathogens.