ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Standing out in a crowd is better than blending in, at least if you're a paper wasp in a colony where fights between nest-mates determine social status.
That's the conclusion of a study by University of Michigan researchers published online this week in the journal Evolution.
"It's good to be different, to wear a nametag advertising your identity," said graduate student Michael Sheehan, who collaborated on the research with evolutionary biologist Elizabeth Tibbetts.
TORONTO, Ont., October 15, 2009 — Researchers at St. Michael's Hospital have developed the first mathematical model in cardiology and emergency medicine to more quickly and reliably diagnose acute heart failure (AHF) in emergency room patients. Research findings published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, have been shown to help physicians diagnose AHF with greater accuracy.
CORAL GABLES, FL (October 14, 2009) – University of Miami Law Professor Anthony V. Alfieri has recently authored an essay titled, "Discovering Identity in Civil Procedure" that explores the story of Floride Norelus, an undocumented Haitian immigrant. The backdrop for Norelus's story comes out of Ariela J. Gross's new book "What Blood Won't Tell: A History of Race on Trial in America." In the book, Gross expands on slavery, race, and antebellum trials to investigate the changing meaning of identity in law and litigation.
DEERFIELD, Ill., October 14, 2009 – A study, published online in the journal Current Medical Research and Opinion, showed that a greater percentage of patients with type 2 diabetes treated with the fixed-dose combination ACTOplus met® (pioglitazone HCl and metformin HCl) as initial therapy reached the study goal of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) of ≤7 percent compared to either component alone. Safety and tolerability of ACTOplus met therapy were evaluated by rate of drug discontinuation and treatment-emergent adverse events.
Veterinary scientists have made a discovery that promises to deliver a new approach to fast development of cheap vaccines that are effective in all mammals – not just humans or another particular species. They propose that by harnessing the system that reads the biological 'barcodes' of infectious microbes such as food poisoning bacteria, flu viruses and protozoa that cause malaria, one vaccine could be made to prevent a particular disease in all mammals.
In the annals of medicine, Edward Jenner's 1796 vaccination of a young boy against smallpox, using fluid from cowpox blisters, remains a landmark case. In a new study, Kathryn Sykes, a researcher at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute and her colleagues have taken a fresh look at cowpox. Their findings, appearing in the advanced online issue of Virology, demonstrate that this ancient pathogen still has much to teach us, and may hasten development of novel vaccines against smallpox and other pox-like diseases.
Testicular cancer survivors can face an increased risk of long-term illness, not because of the malignancy, but the highly effective treatment they receive, according to a study in the urology journal BJUI.
Researchers from the Norwegian Radium Hospital at the University of Oslo found that the number of problems faced by survivors are higher than generally thought, because clinicians only report those that are life-threatening or require medical intervention. Awareness of this discrepancy has led to a greater focus on patient-reported outcomes.
A team of engineers from the University of Almería (UAL) has developed a methodology to help meet the EU objective of cutting road deaths by 50% between 2000 and 2010. The researchers have calculated the relevant amount for each country according to its starting point, and have done the same for each of the Spanish provinces.
Westchester, Ill. – A study in the Oct. 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found that while a strict diet and exercise program may benefit obese patients with mild to moderate obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), it is unlikely to eliminate the condition.
DALLAS – Oct. 15, 2009 – A naturally produced molecule called resveratrol, found in the skin of red grapes, has been shown to lower insulin levels in mice when injected directly into the brain, even when the animals ate a high-fat diet.
Washington, DC – Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) are voicing alarm that drugs to treat a wide variety of allergies, asthma and autoimmune diseases now in human clinical trials may errantly spur development of breast tumors.
Increased hand hygiene in primary schools is only a short-term measure in preventing infections such as H1N1 from spreading. Researchers writing in the open access journal, BMC Public Health, found stricter hand hygiene practices are difficult to maintain in a school setting.
School children may be twice as likely to catch H1N1 influenza as adults, as such health policies often stress hand hygiene among school children as one low cost intervention that may prevent influenza from spreading.
INDIANAPOLIS – A growing number of older adults are dying from dementia. In an editorial in the October 15, 2009 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, Greg Sachs, M.D., professor of medicine and director of the Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine and a Regenstrief Institute investigator, notes that end-of-life care for most older adults with dementia has not changed in decades and urges that these individuals be provided far greater access to palliative care, the management of pain and other symptoms.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) congratulates the 2009 Nobel laureates, particularly those who have received NSF funding over the years: Jack W. Szostak, who shared the prize in physiology or medicine; Thomas A. Steitz, who shared the prize in chemistry; and Elinor Ostrom and Oliver E. Williamson who earned the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in economic sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel 2009.
When Professor Joel Levine's team genetically tweaked fruit flies so that they didn't produce certain pheromones, they triggered a sexual tsunami in their University of Toronto Mississauga laboratory. In fact, they produced bugs so irresistible that normal male fruit flies attempted to mate with pheromone-free males and even females from a different species—generally a no-no in the fruit fly dating scene.