SAN ANTONIO (Aug. 26, 2010) - Maybe you worshipped the sun in your youth or weren't as meticulous as you should have been with sunscreen. If so, take heart: Scientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio are finding that certain plant substances, when given in combinations, may suppress damage that can cause skin cancer.
PITTSBURGH, Aug. 27 – Mothers who did not breastfeed their children have significantly higher rates of type 2 diabetes later in life than moms who breastfed, report University of Pittsburgh researchers in a study published in the September issue of the American Journal of Medicine.
The number of children admitted to English hospitals with bacterial pneumonia decreased by a fifth in the two years following the introduction of a vaccine to combat the disease, according to a new study published today in the journal Thorax.
Bacterial pneumonia is a serious illness caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria that mostly affects babies, young children and elderly people. In Europe, around one in ten deaths in the under-fives is caused by the disease.
Seoul, Korea, 25 August 2010. Almost half the agricultural land in the world, about a billion hectares, has more than 10 percent tree cover, but there is still huge potential to increase the number of trees on farmland and improve their productivity. Incorporating trees within farming landscapes, or agroforestry, can increase soil fertility, raise and sustain yields, increase income through the sale of timber and other tree products, and produce fodder and fuelwood.
Jianchu Xu, East-Asia Coordinator for the World Agroforestry Centre, which has been providing technical expertise and training for the project since 2008, said agroforestry – in this case the growing of trees on sloping land - is uniquely suited to DPR Korea for addressing food security and protecting the environment.
"What we have managed to achieve so far has had a dramatic impact on people's lives and the local environment," Jianchu explains.
One of the most spectacular migrations on Earth is that of the Christmas Island red crab (Gecarcoidea natalis). Acknowledged as one of the wonders of the natural world, every year millions of the crabs simultaneously embark on a five-kilometre breeding migration. Now, scientists have discovered the key to their remarkable athletic feat.
Westminster, Colo. (August 27, 2010) – Although having a high body mass index (BMI) is a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease, researchers are only beginning to understand how BMI affects the physiological processes involved in the development of the disease. Now, a study of a subset of women in the Kronos Early Estrogen Prevention Study (KEEPS), suggests that as BMI increases, so do platelet reactivity and thrombogenic microvesicles and activated protein C in the blood—all of which contribute to the formation of atherothrombosis and associated cardiovascular events.
Fertilizer chemicals may pose a bigger hazard to the environment – specifically to creatures that live in water – than originally foreseen, according to new research from North Carolina State University toxicologists.
In a study published in the Aug. 27 edition of PLoS One, the NC State researchers show that water fleas take up nitrates and nitrites – common chemicals used primarily in agriculture as fertilizers – and convert those chemicals into nitric oxide. Nitric oxide can be toxic to many organisms.
Fluctuations in blood composition that often arise from commonly used therapies among kidney disease patients are not an independent predictor of adverse outcomes for European hemodialysis patients, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). The results suggest that although hemoglobin variability is common in kidney disease patients, it does not appear to increase their likelihood of dying early.
NORFOLK, VA – Researchers have isolated a molecule, small enough to be used as a drug, that can shut down a dysfunctional immune response that causes deadly hemorrhagic shock, results in delayed death of heart attack patients, promotes rejection of transplanted organs and destroys joints in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, according to a paper published in Molecular Immunology.
COLLEGE STATION, Aug. 26, 2010 — Subfertility of breeding stallions — meaning the horses are less able to sire foals — is a well-recognized problem that has caused multi-million-dollar losses in the equine industry, experts say. Texas A&M researchers believe they are making progress in solving the problem by using an approach that might provide tools and resources necessary to study subfertility without causing stallions the angst of providing testicular samples for testing.
Rockville, Md., August 26, 2010 — Recent incidents of adulteration involving infant formula, other milk products and pet food with the industrial chemical melamine revealed the weaknesses of current methods widely used across the domestic and global food industry for determining protein content in foods. The possible utility of alternative existing and emerging methods is the subject of a new paper published in Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, a peer-reviewed journal of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT).
EAST LANSING, Mich. –– New ground broken by Michigan State University biochemists helps explain how plants protect themselves from freezing temperatures and could lead to discoveries related to plant tolerance for drought and other extreme conditions.
