Body

STANFORD, Calif. - After three years working with investigators from 10 different clinical trials around the world from Brazil to London to Pittsburgh, Stanford University School of Medicine researchers have pooled enough individual patient data to compare the effectiveness of coronary artery bypass surgery with the less-invasive angioplasty procedure on specific groups of patients for the first time.

WASHINGTON, March 19— To get a better look at the abnormalities that cause age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of vision loss in Americans and Europeans over 50, the research groups of James Fujimoto at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and collaborators Jay Duker of the Tufts University School of Medicine, and Joel Schuman of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have created ultra-detailed 3-D images of the eyes of more than 2,000 people from different ethnic groups, 400 of whom have AMD.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- If you and your child are romping in the park or enjoying a stroll on a warm spring day and a dog approaches, be ultra vigilant.

Children, warm weather, and dogs, even family dogs, don't mix well, according to a study conducted by pediatric otolaryngologists from the University at Buffalo's School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

Results show that young children are especially vulnerable to severe dog bites in the head and neck areas, and that there is a correlation between cases of dog bites and rising temperatures.

While heavy drinking is associated with a greater risk of stroke, light-to-moderate drinking has been linked to a lesser risk of ischemic stroke and coronary heart disease. Other studies have shown that more social support is linked to less risk of mortality and cardiovascular disease. A Japanese examination of the effects of social support on the relationship between drinking and cardiovascular disease has found that the health benefits of light-to-moderate drinking are more pronounced in men with greater social support.

Hospital practices, such as supplementing newborns with formula or water or giving them pacifiers, significantly reduce the chances that mothers who intend to exclusively breastfeed will achieve that intention, according to a new study led by a Boston University School of Public Health researcher.

"The discovery of a single top quark production marks a milestone in physics," Schwienhorst added. "We anticipate upcoming research at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe to take these findings to the next step and either evolve our understanding of particle physics or overturn the model completely."

Hamilton, ON (March 19, 2009) - McMaster University researchers are about to launch Canada's first tuberculosis (TB) vaccine clinical trial with a vaccine totally designed, manufactured and tested within McMaster.

"The exciting thing for McMaster is that this is translational research that has gone from the basic science where the vector has been designed here at McMaster, then manufactured here, with all the pre-clinical studies done at McMaster," said Dr. Fiona Smaill, a professor of medicine and chair of the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine.

Our circadian clock, or biological timing system, governs our daily cycles of feeding, activity and sleep. Research using cells has produced a solid portrait of the clock at the genetic and molecular levels, but understanding how those mechanisms contribute to the health and disease of living animals, including humans, has been elusive.

Hurdia victoria was originally described in 1912 as a crustacean-like animal. Now, researchers from Uppsala University and colleagues reveal it to be just one part of a complex and remarkable new animal that has an important story to tell about the origin of the largest group of living animals, the arthropods. The findings are being published in this week's issue of Science.

Scientists at the University of Liverpool and Durham University have developed a new material to further understanding of how superconductors could be used to transmit electricity to built-up areas and reduce global energy losses.

The team have produced a material from a football-shaped molecule, called carbon60, to demonstrate how a superconductor – an element, compound or alloy that does not oppose the steady passage of an electric current – could work at temperatures suitable for commercial use in cities and towns.

March 19, 2009 – Researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health examined the association of neighborhood food environments and "walkability" with body mass index (BMI) and obesity in New York City and found that a higher density of BMI-healthy food outlets is associated with a lower BMI and lower prevalence of obesity. BMI-unhealthy food stores and restaurants -- although far more abundant than healthy ones -- were not significantly associated with higher BMI or prevalence of obesity.

This is the tale of two biological substances—cells from mammals and bacteria. It's a story about the havoc these microscopic entities can wreak on all manner of surfaces, from mighty ships to teeth and medical devices, and how two Syracuse University researchers are discovering new ways prevent the damage.

PITTSBURGH—Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine have developed an onsite method to quickly diagnose tuberculosis (TB) and expose the deadly drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis that can mingle undetected with treatable strains. The researchers engineered bacteriophages—tiny viruses that attack bacteria—to inject TB bacteria with a glowing, fluorescent-green protein. They report their findings in the March 19 edition of PLoS ONE, a peer-reviewed online journal from the Public Library of Science.

A newly published study found patients actually have more control of their high blood pressure (hypertension) when treated with less medication. The study led by Dr. Ross D. Feldman, a clinical scientist with the Robarts Research Institute at The University of Western Ontario recommends a simplified and more effective method of treating hypertension using low doses of single pill combinations, rather than multiple pills. The "Simplified Treatment Intervention to Control Hypertension" (STITCH) study is in the April edition of the journal Hypertension.

MADISON — The adage that dead men tell no tales has long been disproved by archaeology.

Now, however, science is taking interrogation of the dead to new heights. In a study that promises fresh and perhaps personal insight into the earliest European visitors to the New World, a team or researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison is extracting the chemical details of life history from the teeth of crew members Christopher Columbus left on the island of Hispaniola after his second voyage to America in 1493-94.