All countries should offer universal infant immunization for hepatitis B, write Dr. Christopher Mackie from McMaster University and coauthors in a public health analysis in CMAJ http://www.cmaj.ca/press/pg196.pdf.
Epidemiological studies suggest that roughly one-third of chronic hepatitis B infections are acquired during infancy and early childhood.
While the harsh winter pounding many areas of North America and Europe seemingly contradicts the fact that global warming continues unabated, a new survey finds consensus among scientists about the reality of climate change and its likely cause.
A group of 3,146 earth scientists surveyed around the world overwhelmingly agree that in the past 200-plus years, mean global temperatures have been rising, and that human activity is a significant contributing factor in changing mean global temperatures.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- Algae is a livid green giveaway of nutrient pollution in a lake. Scientists would love to reproduce that action in tiny particles that would turn different colors if exposed to biological weapons, food spoilage or signs of poor health in the blood.
Now, University of Florida engineering researchers have tapped the working parts of cells to clear a major hurdle to creating such "smart dust."The feat, which signifies a new approach to technology known as the "lab on a chip," is to be reported Sunday in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
A French study reported in the 12th January issue of Archives of Internal Medicine has found a strong correlation between blood pressure and outdoor temperature in a large sample of the elderly.(1) As a result, the investigators advise that, during periods of extreme temperatures, careful monitoring of blood pressure and antihypertensive treatment "could contribute to reducing the consequences of blood pressure variations in the elderly".
Scientists have developed a mathematical model of the mating game to help explain why courtship is often protracted. The study, by researchers at UCL (University College London), University of Warwick and LSE (London School of Economics and Political Science), shows that extended courtship enables a male to signal his suitability to a female and enables the female to screen out the male if he is unsuitable as a mate.
Nematodes
Nematodes are small worms. Some species are plant-parasitic and infect plants including important agricultural crops. The typical symptoms of a nematode-infection are withering, seriously retarded growth, and impaired development of flower and fruit. Severely infected plants often do not survive the damage that the worms inflict. Each year, plant-parasitic nematodes cause more than 80 billion euro in agricultural losses worldwide.
Plant roots as food factories
Scientists from Ghent University and VIB (The Flemisch Institute for Biotechnology) have demonstrated how nematodes, also known as roundworms, manipulate the transport of the plant hormone auxin in order to force the plant to produce food for them. Their findings, published January 16 in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens, could open up new possibilities for the development of nematode-resistant plants.
Bill Andresen, President of the Science Coalition (TSC) issued the following statement today in response to the House Appropriations Committee economic stimulus package proposal:
"The Science Coalition applauds the House for recognizing the vital need to include research funding in the economic stimulus and recovery efforts. Funding for targeted federal research programs will have the immediate impact of creating jobs and stimulating economic activity in communities across the country. This is an example that we hope the Senate will eventually follow.
Countries seeking to make massive changes in the way their economies are run, for example by privatising formerly state-run sectors, must take into account the potential impact of such changes on people's health, experts warn today.
The warning comes after a study of former countries of the Soviet Union, including Russia, that underwent privatisation programmes in the 1990s, following the collapse of communism, revealed how the process coincided with large increases in male mortality in some countries. The findings are published in the Lancet Online First today.
ANN ARBOR, Mich.---As fighting continues in Gaza, a University of Michigan survey of neighboring Lebanon illuminates some of the values underlying the use of violence in the Middle East.
The findings are part of the World Values Surveys conducted by the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR).
WASHINGTON, Jan. 14, 2009 – Recent research presented today at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Small Changes Summit that addresses childhood obesity shows that calories in recipes have gradually increased over time. Speaking before the Summit, Dr. Brian Wansink, Executive Director of the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion said, "As an example, the calories in recipes in the iconic cookbook, The Joy of Cooking, have increased by 63% from its first publication in 1937 to its most recent edition in 2006.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 14, 2009 – Recent research presented today at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Small Changes Summit that addresses childhood obesity shows that calories in recipes have gradually increased over time. Speaking before the Summit, Dr. Brian Wansink, Executive Director of the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion said, "As an example, the calories in recipes in the iconic cookbook, The Joy of Cooking, have increased by 63% from its first publication in 1937 to its most recent edition in 2006.
A researcher from the University of Leicester has identified what looks to be the oldest archaeological evidence for chemical warfare--from Roman times.
At the meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, University of Leicester archaeologist Simon James presented CSI-style arguments that about twenty Roman soldiers, found in a siege-mine at the city of Dura-Europos, Syria, met their deaths not as a result of sword or spear, but through asphyxiation.
Physicists at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland have proposed a recipe for turning ultracold “boson” atoms—the ingredients of Bose-Einstein condensates—into a “supersolid,” an exotic state of matter that behaves simultaneously as a solid and a friction-free superfluid.
While exploring the properties of polymer formation, a team of scientists at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) has made a fundamental discovery* about these materials that could improve methods of creating the stable crystalline films that are widely used in electronics applications—and also offer insight into a range of other phenomena.