EurekAlert! Public News List

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Evolutionary Applications
Early exposure to insecticides gives amphibians higher tolerance later
Amphibians exposed to insecticides early in life -- even those not yet hatched -- have a higher tolerance to those same insecticides later in life, according to a recent University of Pittsburgh study.

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Annals of Biomedical Engineering
Head hits can be reduced in youth football
Less contact during practice could mean a lot less exposure to head injuries for young football players, according to researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and Virginia Tech.

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Clinical Pediatrics
Study predicts potential surge in medically-attended injuries
As federal and state policies encouraging people to be covered by health insurance go into effect, this study signals a need to prepare for potential large increases in demand for care of minor and moderate pediatric and young adult injuries in both emergency department and outpatient settings.

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

PLoS ONE
Saliva samples can reveal serious illnesses
Björn Klinge and his research group have now shown that it is also possible that saliva contains traces of other illnesses with an inflammatory component, including for example the growth of certain tumors, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Journal of Comparative Psychology
Cockatoos know what is going on behind barriers
How do you know that the cookies are still there although they have been placed out of your sight into the drawer? Alice Auersperg and her team from the University of Vienna and Oxford show that "object permanence" abilities in a cockatoo levels apes and four year old human toddlers. The researchers published their findings in the Journal of Comparative Psychology.

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Nature Communications
The best of 2 worlds: Solar hydrogen production breakthrough
Using a simple solar cell and a photo anode made of a metal oxide, HZB and TU Delft scientists have successfully stored nearly five percent of solar energy chemically in the form of hydrogen. This is a major feat as the design of the solar cell is much simpler than that of the high-efficiency triple-junction cells based on amorphous silicon or expensive III-V semiconductors that are traditionally used for this purpose.

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

American Journal of Primatology
Borneo's orangutans are coming down from the trees
Orangutans might be the king of the swingers, but primatologists in Borneo have found that the great apes spend a surprising amount of time walking on the ground. The research, published in the American Journal of Primatology found that it is common for orangutans to come down from the trees to forage or to travel, a discovery which may have implications for conservation efforts.

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Capturing black hole spin could further understanding of galaxy growth
Astronomers have found a new way of measuring the spin in supermassive black holes, which could lead to better understanding about how they drive the growth of galaxies.

Science and Technology Facilities Council

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013
Danes contract Salmonella infections abroad
In 2012 the number of Salmonella cases increased slightly after the record low incidence in 2011. Nearly half of the Danes who contracted Salmonella were infected abroad. Among people infected in Denmark, Danish pork and beef were estimated to be the major sources of Salmonella cases, while no cases could be attributed to Danish broiler meat.

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Could sleeping stem cells hold key to treatment of aggressive blood cancer?
Scientists studying an aggressive form of leukaemia have discovered that rather than displacing healthy stem cells in the bone marrow as previously believed, the cancer is putting them to sleep to prevent them forming new blood cells.

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

International Journal of Public Health
Young cannabis-smokers aware of the health risks
Young Swiss men who drink alcohol and smoke tobacco or cannabis read up on addictive substances more frequently than their abstinent peers. They report their knowledge of the health risks as very good whereas abstainers rate themselves as poorer in this respect. Preventive measures that are solely based on providing information come up short for informed young consumers. These insights were gained by researchers from the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Zurich.

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Breast Cancer Research and Treatment
Examination of lymph nodes provides more accurate breast cancer prognosis
After a breast cancer operation, the removed tumour is always examined, as its subtype can provide an indication of how aggressive the disease is. The patient's lymph nodes are not analysed in the same way. Yet the breast tumour can sometimes appear to be of a less aggressive type while the subtype in the lymph nodes gives a different and more worrying picture.

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
New modular vaccine design combines best of existing vaccine technologies
Boston Children's researchers develop new method of vaccine design -- Multiple Antigen Presentation System. It could speed new vaccine development for range of globally serious pathogens, infectious agents. Method permits rapid construction of new vaccines that bring together benefits of whole-cell and acellular or defined subunit vaccination and activate mulitple arms of the immune system simultaneously against one or more pathogens, generating robust immune protection with lower risk of adverse effects.

Boston Children's Hospital

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Natural affinities -- unrecognized until now -- may have set stage for life to ignite
The chemical components crucial to the start of life on Earth may have primed and protected each other in never-before-realized ways, according to new research. It could mean a simpler scenario for how that first spark of life came about on the planet.

National Science Foundation

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Physical Review Letters
Experimental quest to test Einstein's speed limit
Special relativity states that the speed of light is the same in all frames of reference and that nothing can exceed that limit. UC Berkeley physicists used a novel experimental system -- the unusual electron orbitals of dysprosium -- to test whether the maximum speed of electrons follows this rule. The answer is yes, to tighter limits than ever before. They plan another experiment a thousand times more sensitive, approaching the realm where theory may break down.

National Science Foundation, Miller Institute, Foundational Questions Institute

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

JAMA
Major changes urged for cancer screening and treatment
To address the growing problem of people being overdiagnosed and overtreated for cancer, a group of scientists convened by the National Cancer Institute and chaired by a UC San Francisco breast cancer expert is proposing a major update of the way the nation approaches diseases now classified as "cancer."

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
UT Southwestern researchers identify novel mechanism that helps stomach bug cause illness
A seafood contaminant that thrives in brackish water during the summer works like a spy to infiltrate cells and quickly open communication channels to sicken the host, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center report.

NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Burroughs Wellcome Foundation

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Journal of Neuroscience
Impaired visual signals might contribute to schizophrenia symptoms
By observing the eye movements of schizophrenia patients while playing a simple video game, a University of British Columbia researcher has discovered a potential explanation for some of their symptoms, including difficulty with everyday tasks.

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Social amoebae travel with a posse
Some social amoebae farm the bacteria they eat. Now a collaboration of scientists at Washington University in St. Louis and Harvard University has taken a closer look at one lineage, or clone, of D. discoideum farmer. This farmer carries not one but two strains of bacteria. One strain is the "seed corn" for a crop of edible bacteria, and the other strain is a weapon that produces defensive chemicals. The edible bacteria, the scientists found, evolved from the toxic one.

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology
NIH math model predicts effects of diet, physical activity on childhood weight
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have created and confirmed the accuracy of a mathematical model that predicts how weight and body fat in children respond to adjustments in diet and physical activity. The results will appear online July 30 in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology.

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Psychological Science
Intent to harm: Willful acts seem more damaging
How harmful we perceive an act to be depends on whether we see the act as intentional, reveals new research published in Psychological Science.

National Science Foundation

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
NIH researchers identify therapy that may curb kidney deterioration in patients with rare disorder
A team led by NIH researchers has overcome a biological hurdle to find improved treatments for patients with methylmalonic acidemia . Using genetically engineered mice created for their studies, the team identified a set of biomarkers of kidney damage -- a hallmark of the disorder -- and demonstrated that antioxidant therapy protected kidney function in the mice. The discovery is reported in the July 29, 2013, advance online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

JAMA Internal Medicine
BIDMC study suggests worsening trends in back pain management
Patient care could be enhanced and the health care system could see significant cost savings if health care professionals followed published clinical guidelines to manage and treat back pain, according to researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and published in the July 29 issue of JAMA Internal Medicine.

US Health Services and Research Administration, Harvard Catalyst

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

JAMA Neurology
Glucose intolerance, diabetes or insulin resistance not linked with pathological features of AD
Glucose intolerance or insulin resistance do not appear to be associated with pathological features of Alzheimer disease or detection of the accumulation of the brain protein β-amyloid, according to a report published by JAMA Neurology, a JAMA Network publication.

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

JAMA Pediatrics
Breastfeeding duration appears associated with intelligence later in life
Breastfeeding longer is associated with better receptive language at 3 years of age and verbal and nonverbal intelligence at age 7 years, according to a study published by JAMA Pediatrics, a JAMA Network publication.


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