Body

Boston, MA -- Low-income housing residents who live in "green" buildings that are built with eco-friendly materials and energy-efficient features appear to have fewer "sick building" symptoms (SBS) than residents of traditionally constructed low-income housing, according to a new study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Asthma outcomes--hospitalizations, attacks, and missed school days due to asthma--were also significantly lower for children living in the green buildings.

To help stop the spread of antibiotic resistance, UC San Francisco scientists are urging hospitals around the country to stop buying meat from animals that were given antibiotics for growth promotion.

For the last two years, UCSF Medical Center has been phasing out meat from animals that were routinely fed antibiotics, and now nearly a third of the meat served to patients, as well as in the medical center's cafeterias and catering operations, comes from animals that were only given antibiotics in the case of illness.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill.-- Searching for the precise, complexly folded three-dimensional structure of a protein can be like hacking through a jungle without a map: a long, intensive process with uncertain direction. University of Illinois researchers developed a new approach, dubbed COMPASS, that points directly to a protein's likely structure using a combination of advanced molecular spectroscopy techniques, predictive protein-folding algorithms and image recognition software.

Led by U. of I. chemistry professor Chad Rienstra, the team published its results in the journal Structure.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Enemas are commonly used by men who have sex with men (MSM) and transwomen (TW) before sexual intercourse. But these groups are vulnerable to HIV and a host of other sexually transmitted infections because enemas -- even those that use tap water -- can seriously damage the thin tissue lining the rectum, allowing for easier transmission of harmful viruses and bacteria.

Scientists have shown why a drug widely used to treat chemotherapy-induced anemia in ovarian and breast cancer patients also may shorten survival times in some patients by inadvertently stimulating tumor growth.

CHICAGO--The exotic Ceylon gooseberry fruit is an attractive purple berry that is produced in the southwest tropics of Brazil and is often used in jams and drinks and also sold as a fresh fruit. The authors of a recent study in the Journal of Food Science, published by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), discovered that gooseberry skin and pulp contained higher antioxidant activity than other berries such as blueberries and cranberries.

An enzyme called telomerase plays a significant role in aging and most cancers, but until recently many aspects of the enzyme's structure could not be clearly seen.

Now, scientists from UCLA and UC Berkeley have produced images of telomerase in much higher resolution than ever before, giving them major new insights about the enzyme. Their findings, published online today by the journal Science, could ultimately lead to new directions for treating cancer and preventing premature aging.

Harbor seals have an amazingly fine-tuned sense for detecting prey, as marine biologists have noted for years. Even when blindfolded, trained seals are able to chase the precise path of an object that swam by 30 seconds earlier. Scientists have suspected that the seal's laser-like tracking ability is due in part to its antennae-like whiskers.

Now engineers at MIT have fabricated and tested a large-scale model of a harbor seal's whisker, and identified a mechanism that may explain how seals sense their environment and track their prey.

TORONTO, Oct. 15, 2015 -- Following the introduction of Cancer Care Ontario's 2012 cervical cancer screening guidelines, female patients were 50 per cent less likely to undergo screening for sexually transmitted infections, a new St. Michael's study has found.

The research, published today in Canadian Family Physician, tracked patient charts across five primary care sites at St. Michael's Hospital in the year before the guidelines changed and the year after.

Invasive aspergillosis (IA) is a serious disease of immune-compromised individuals and the most common invasive mold infection in humans. Although more than 250 different Aspergillus species are found in nature, and most contribute spores to the air we breathe, over 80% of human disease is caused by one particular culprit called Aspergillus fumigatus. A study published on October 15th in PLOS Pathogens explores what distinguishes this fungus from its relatives and likely makes it so dangerous.

Using two complementary analytical approaches, scientists at Whitehead Institute and Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have for the first time identified the universe of genes in the human genome essential for the survival and proliferation of human cell lines or cultured human cells.

Their findings and the materials they developed in conducting the research will not only serve as invaluable resources for the global research community but should also have application in the discovery of drug-targetable genetic vulnerabilities in a variety of human cancers.

The parasitic disease schistosomiasis is caused by a trematode flatworm, different species of which can affect either the intestine or the urinary tract. Mixed species (co-) infections are common, and research is needed to understand exactly how infection by both urinary and intestinal parasites affects the course of infection and response to treatment.

It's tempting to believe that people these days aren't getting enough sleep, living as we do in our well-lit houses with TVs blaring, cell phones buzzing, and a well-used coffee maker in every kitchen. But new evidence reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on October 15 shows that three ancient groups of hunter-gatherers--living in different parts of the world without any of those trappings of modern life--don't get any more sleep than we do.

A study of young women in China undergoing cosmetic surgery on their eyelids and noses suggests feelings of self-esteem and self-efficacy (confidence in one's abilities) were lower before surgery but increased in the months after surgery, according to an article published by JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery.

The number of patients undergoing facial cosmetic surgery in China has increased markedly in the past decade. As more young women seek these procedures more research is investigating the psychosocial profile of these patients.

Researchers have long known and well-documented how dye disperses when injected into a fluid flowing through a pipe.

But a team of mathematicians at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has discovered that the size and shape of the pipe dramatically affects how the dye will disperse in the early moments after injection.

Their results have major implications for drug delivery, chemical manufacturing, managing pollutants spilled in waterways or any application that involves mixing substances into fluids that are flowing.