Indoor smoking bans have forced smokers at bars and restaurants onto outdoor patios, but a new University of Georgia study in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that these outdoor smoking areas might be creating a new health hazard.
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With thousands of stinging cells that can emit deadly venom from tentacles that can reach ten feet in length, the 50 or so species of box jellyfish have long been of interest to scientists and to the public. Yet little has been known about the evolution of this early branch in the animal tree of life.
RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Breakthrough research done earlier this year by a plant cell biologist at the University of California, Riverside has greatly accelerated scientists' knowledge on how plants and crops can survive difficult environmental conditions such as drought.
EAST LANSING, Mich. – The more prominent and financially successful a corporation becomes, the more likely it is to break the law, according to a new study led by a Michigan State University scholar that challenges previous research.
Rockville, Md., November 18, 2009 — To help bring greater certainty to the measurement of medication levels in a patient's bloodstream for three drugs with narrow therapeutic ranges, the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) is releasing new certified reference materials (CRMs).
Just as fly paper captures insects, an innovative new device with nano-sized features developed by researchers at UCLA is able to grab cancer cells in the blood that have broken off from a tumor.
These cells, known as circulating tumor cells, or CTCs, can provide critical information for examining and diagnosing cancer metastasis, determining patient prognosis, and monitoring the effectiveness of therapies.
Although morphine has been the gold-standard treatment for postoperative and chronic cancer pain for two centuries, a growing body of evidence is showing that opiate-based painkillers can stimulate the growth and spread of cancer cells. Two new studies advance that argument and demonstrate how shielding lung cancer cells from opiates reduces cell proliferation, invasion and migration in both cell-culture and mouse models.
Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have found that exaggerated responses of the immune system explain why the elderly succumb to viral infections more readily than younger people. Published in the November 19 Cell Host & Microbe, the study bucks the general belief that declining immune responses are to blame for susceptibility to viral infections.
Amsterdam, November 18, 2009 – IOS Press announces the November 2009 publication of a special issue of NeuroRehabilitation: An International Journal devoted to residential design for persons with neurodisability. While there is clearly agreement that the nature of the long-term living environment can improve quality of life and minimize safety risks for individuals who are cognitively, behaviorally and/or physically challenged due to neurodisability, residential design factors are often either ignored or minimally considered.
Viruses are well known for attacking humans and animals, but some viruses instead attack bacteria. Texas A&M University researchers are exploring how hungry viruses, armed with transformer-like weapons, attack bacteria, which may aid in the treatment of bacterial infections.
The Texas A&M researchers' work is published in the renowned journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.
The attackers are called phages, or bacteriophages, meaning eaters of bacteria.
The word bacteriophage is derived from the Greek "phagein," meaning eater of bacteria.
In a step toward using human saliva to tell whether those stiff joints, memory lapses, and other telltale signs of aging are normal or red flags for disease, scientists are describing how the protein content of women's saliva change with advancing age. The discovery could lead to a simple, noninvasive test for better diagnosing and treating certain age-related diseases in women, they suggest in a report in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research, a monthly publication.
Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine set out to address a question that has been challenging scientists for years: How do dietary restriction—and the reverse, overconsumption—produce protective effects against aging and disease?
In their competition with brick-and-mortar stores, online retailers will do best if they promote the ability to search out and obtain niche products online, according to the Management Insights feature in the current issue of Management Science, the flagship journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®).
Management Insights, a regular feature of the journal, is a digest of important research in business, management, operations research, and management science. It appears in every issue of the monthly journal.
Scientists in China are reporting discovery of unusual liver proteins, found only in males, that may help explain the long-standing mystery of why the hepatitis B virus (HBV) sexually discriminates -- hitting men harder than women. Their study has been published online in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research, a monthly publication.
New Rochelle, NY, November 18, 2009—Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) technology is experiencing a surge of interest and rapid expansion as a result of advances such as instrumentation that pushes capacity to 1,536 wells and optimization-free multiplexing, reports Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN). The technique's ability to both detect and simultaneously quantify specific DNA sequences is increasing its use in basic research and diagnostics, according to the November 15 issue of GEN.