Body

BOSTON - According to new research led by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) pulmonologist and critical care physician Mary B. Rice, MD, MPH, improved air quality in U.S. cities since the 1990s may not be enough to ensure normal lung function in children. The findings were recently published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care, a journal of the American Thoracic Society.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- As Puerto Rico suffers through an ongoing financial crisis and recent credit default, and its Medicare Advantage (MA) plans receive 40% lower payment rates than those in the mainland U.S., a new study in JAMA Internal Medicine reports substantial disparities in health care quality experienced by Hispanic Puerto Rican residents in MA plans.

Scientists at the John Innes Centre (JIC) and The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL) have pioneered a new gene-detecting technology which, if deployed correctly could lead to the creation of a new elite variety of wheat with durable resistance to disease.

Working with fellow scientists at TSL, Dr Brande Wulff from the JIC developed the new technology called 'MutRenSeq' which accurately pinpoints the location of disease resistance genes in large plant genomes and which has reduced the time it takes to clone these genes in wheat from 5 to 10 years down to just two.

A team of scientists from The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL) and The Genome Analysis Centre (TGAC) have developed a new method to accelerate isolation of plant disease resistance genes. The team have also identified a brand new source of blight resistance genes in Solanum americanum, a wild relative of the potato.

An intervention at a Canadian acute care facility to screen and isolate asymptomatic Clostridium difficile carriers was associated with decreased incidence of health-care associated C. difficile infection, a finding that needs to be confirmed in additional studies, according to a new study published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.

Although rice and rice products are typical first foods for infants, a new study found that infants who ate rice and rice products had higher urinary arsenic concentrations than those who did not consume any type of rice, according to an article published online by JAMA Pediatrics.

The children of Hispanic mothers not born in the United States appeared to have a lower risk for some types of childhood cancers, according to an article published online by JAMA Pediatrics.

Hispanic Medicare Advantage enrollees on the U.S. island territory of Puerto Rico received worse care compared with Hispanics in the United States (the 50 states and Washington, D.C.), according to a new study published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.

The largest ever study of global genetic variation in the human Y chromosome has uncovered the hidden history of men. Research published today (25 April) in Nature Genetics reveals explosions in male population numbers in five continents, occurring at times between 55 thousand and four thousand years ago.

The study, led by Dr Chris Tyler-Smith of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, analysed sequence differences between the Y chromosomes of more than 1200 men from 26 populations around the world using data generated by the 1000 Genomes Project.

Evanston, IL - Today's advanced online publication of the journal Nature Biotechnology carries three important papers on crop disease resistance. They report the isolation of novel disease resistance genes and the successful transfer of resistance into wheat, soybean, and potato. The 2Blades Foundation supported the development of these efforts as part of the organization's mission to discover, advance, and deliver genetic improvements in crop disease resistance.

A study published today in the journal Nature Cell Biology shows that chronic exposure to an inflammatory "emergency" signal, interleukin-1, causes blood-forming bone marrow stem cells to produce cells needed to fight infection and repair injury, but at the expense of their own ability to self-renew and maintain a healthy blood system. This results in overproduction of aggressive immune cells capable of severely damaging tissues. Elevated interleukin-1 (IL-1) accompanies the chronic inflammation associated with human conditions including obesity, diabetes and autoimmune disorders.

Coral reefs--the world's most productive and diverse marine ecosystems--rely on a masterful recycling program to stay healthy. The corals and algae that form the base of the reef's food web release a variety of nutrients that support a complex and efficient food chain. But when this system gets out of whack, the cycle breaks down and endangers the coral reef's health. A new study led by researchers at San Diego State University and published today in the journal Nature Microbiology explores how a process known as "microbialization" destroys links in this delicate food chain.

The human intestine is home to a dense and diverse ecosystem of microbes, but little is known about how the abundant bacteria in our gut interact with each other. In a new study published in Nature this week, Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) investigators, in collaboration with colleagues at Boston Children's Hospital, report on a rare example of cooperation between different species of bacteria.

Research from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago conducted in mice shows the drug hydrocortisone -- a steroid commonly used to treat a variety of inflammatory and allergic conditions -- can also prevent lung damage that often develops in premature babies treated with oxygen.

New research from North Carolina State University and Pennsylvania State University finds that black female college students were often unlikely to use online resources related to HIV prevention, due to the stigma associated with the disease and concerns that their social network would learn they were accessing HIV-related materials.