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CHICAGO -- When patients are discharged from the emergency department, their recovery depends on carefully following the doctors' instructions for their post care at home. Yet a vast majority of patients don't fully understand what they are supposed to do, and most are not even aware of the chasm in their understanding.

Montreal, July 17, 2008 – A group of Canadian and European researchers have unlocked the mystery of a gene with the potential to both regulate and block ovulation. The new study – a collaboration between the Université de Montréal in Canada and the Institut de génetique et biologie moléculaire et cellulaire of the Université de Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France – is published in the latest issue of the journal Genes & Development.

BET DAGAN, ISRAEL - Table grapes are subject to serious water loss and decay while making the long trip from the vine to dinner tables around the world. Mold and browning of the stems are the two main factors that reduce grape quality during shipping and storage in retail produce sections.

Professors Peter Timms and Ken Beagley from Queensland University of Technology's Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI) said the vaccinated koalas, which are at Brisbane's Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, were mounting a good response to the vaccine.

"A good T-cell immune response is essential if the vaccine is to be effective," Professor Timms said.

"This initial trial will measure only the animals' immune response and will not involve any live chlamydial infections.

After soliciting and considering broad input from the scientific and HIV advocacy communities, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has determined that it will not conduct the HIV vaccine study known as PAVE 100. However, NIAID believes the vaccine developed by its Vaccine Research Center (VRC) is scientifically intriguing and sufficiently different from previously tested HIV vaccines to consider testing it in a smaller, more focused clinical study.

A severe complication of the Marfan syndrome is that the aorta may split and be torn apart. The patient can be protected if the syndrome is diagnosed and treated in good time. In the current edition of the Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2008; 105[27]: 483-91), the human geneticist Mine Arslan-Kirchner from Hannover University Medical School and his coauthors present additional studies on Marfan patients.

http://www.aerzteblatt.de/v4/archiv/pdf.asp?id=60813

Ninety-six per cent of children who have received liver transplants from living relations are still alive five years after surgery, according to research published in the July issue of the British Journal of Surgery.

The findings by the Institute of Liver Studies at King's College Hospital, London, are based on the 50 living related liver transplants (LRLT) carried out on children by the hospital between 1993 and 2006. King's was the only UK centre to perform this ground-breaking procedure during that period.

University of Rochester Medical Center researchers found a new protein produced excessively in malignant melanoma, a discovery that is particularly relevant as skin cancer rates climb dramatically among young women.

A genetic variant found almost exclusively in individuals of Asian descent increases the risk of elevated triglycerides over four-fold, reports a comprehensive study in the August Journal of Lipid Research. In fact, all 11 subjects who carried both copies of this rare variant for apolipoprotein A-V had extremely high and dangerous triglyceride levels in their blood.

FORT PIERCE, FL - Travel America's highways or drive down any city street this summer and you'll probably see them. From small, manicured beds of flowers maintained by community volunteers to extensive landscaping projects along America's byways, roadside gardens are taking root.

Scientists here have found that certain substances from bacteria living in the human intestine cause the normally harmless Candida albicans fungus to become highly infectious.

This discovery by researchers at Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)'s Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) could possibly lead to the development of novel treatments for immunocompromised patients infected by the fungus.

Dr Charles Worringham of Queensland University of Technology's Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation said the unique 'Cardiomobile' monitoring system, developed by Gold Coast company Alive Technologies, was being further developed and trialled together with QUT under an ARC Linkage Grant.

"The program allows people who have been in hospital for a heart attack or heart surgery to undergo a six-week walking exercise rehabilitation program wherever it's convenient, while having their heart signal, location and speed monitored in real time," Dr Worringham said.

DURHAM, N.C. – Nature, in the simple form of a tree canopy, appears to provide keen insights into the best way to design complex systems to move substances from one place to another, an essential ingredient in the development of novel "smart" materials.

Duke University engineers believe that an image of two tree canopies touching top-to-top can guide their efforts to most efficiently control the flow of liquids in new materials, including the next generation of aircraft and rocket "skins" that can self-repair when damaged, or self-cool when overheated.

From ancient Arabian traders to Marco Polo's followers, merchants have tried to transform China's massive population into materialistic consumers. In less than 30 years, millionaires, pop stars, and "Mongolia Cow Yogurt Super Girls" have replaced Mao's working-class heroes. How did China become a consumerist society in such short order?

When consumers shop for televisions or cereal, what makes them prefer one option to another? Which brand will they purchase again and tell their friends about?