STANFORD, Calif. — Got diabetes? If so, you probably know that the adult-onset form of the disease can be triggered by, among other things, obesity and a fatty diet. You're also more likely to develop diabetes if other family members have it. But a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine suggests that you should also begin looking suspiciously at other aspects of your life — like your past exposure to certain pesticides or chemicals and even one form of vitamin E.
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Receiving an organ low in weight in relation to the recipient's body weight increases kidney transplant recipients risk of complications and transplant failure, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). The results suggest that compatibility between a donated kidney's weight and the weight of the recipient could improve the success of transplantation.
BBSRC funded researchers at the University of Oxford and Royal Holloway University of London have discovered that the commonly used and naturally occurring bacterial insecticide Bt works best if applied to young plants and is enhanced by the presence of the insect pests. The research is published today (20 May) in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens.
Like many complex diseases, diabetes results from the interplay of genetic and environmental factors. To examine genetic risk factors, scientists pore over the human genome sequence. Environmental factors have been trickier to pin down because there is no way to evaluate them comprehensively.
The incidence of blood clot-related strokes fell among whites in the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area for the first time, according to long-term surveillance study representative of strokes in blacks and whites nationwide reported in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.
However, there was no decrease in stroke rates among blacks.
Increased use of drug-eluting stents (DES) and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) between 2003 and 2006 netted significantly higher costs for coronary artery disease and chronic heart failure patients, researchers said.
The increased use of these technologies also partly explained the growth in healthcare costs during these years.
DES and ICDs are among the most common and costly interventional therapies used in patients with cardiovascular disease.
Six new corn inbred lines with resistance to aflatoxin contamination have been found to be free of seed-borne diseases foreign to the United States, and seeds of these lines are now available in the United States for further development toward commercialization. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) plant pathologist Robert Brown, working in collaboration with Abebe Menkir at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Ibadan, Nigeria, developed the lines.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- For the first time, biologists have directly shown how spontaneous mutation of a small RNA (sRNA) regulatory molecule can provide an evolutionary advantage. Reporting in this week's Science, Indiana University Bloomington scientists also identify the sRNA as a key regulator of social behavior in Myxococcus xanthus, a soil bacterium widely studied for its ability to cooperatively construct fruiting bodies that house stress-resistant spores when food runs out.
HOUSTON -- (May 21, 2010) – A consortium of genome sequencing leaders including the Baylor College of Medicine (www.bcm.edu) Human Genome Sequencing Center (www.hgsc.bcm.tmc.edu/) released data on the first 178 microbial reference genomes representative of those in the human body in a report that appears in today's issue of the journal Science (www.sciencemag.org/).
The Human Microbiome Project (HMP) today published an analysis of 178 genomes from microbes that live in or on the human body. The researchers discovered novel genes and proteins that serve functions in human health and disease, adding a new level of understanding to what is known about the complexity and diversity of these organisms.
Birds flock. Fish gather in schools. Bees swarm. Even amoebae clump together in mystifyingly clever constellations.
Montreal, May 20, 2010 – The results of a major clinical study carried out at the Montreal Heart Institute (MHI) by Dr. Jean-Claude Tardif are now available in the journal Circulation Cardiovascular Imaging. Dr. Tardif is a cardiologist and director of the MHI Research Centre, as well as a professor in the faculty of medicine and holder of the atherosclerosis research chair at the Université de Montréal.
Security systems could be more effective if officials looked at how organisms deal with threats in the natural world, University of Arizona researchers suggest in the May 20 edition of the journal Nature.
Synthia: Craig Venter announces artificial 'life form' - first cell controlled by a synthetic genome
Scientists have developed the first cell controlled by a synthetic genome. They now hope to use this method to probe the basic machinery of life and to engineer bacteria specially designed to solve environmental or energy problems. The study was published on the Science Express website.
Using experiments involving a mechanical shaker and a robotic frog, researchers reporting online on May 20th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, have found new evidence that male red-eyed treefrogs communicate with one another in aggressive contests by using vibrations they send through their plant perches. The findings open the door to further study of what has been a neglected channel for vertebrate communication.