Body

Carbon markets and related international schemes that allow payments to landholders for planting trees, sometimes called carbon farming, are intended to support sequestration of carbon from the atmosphere. But they will have harmful effects, such as degrading ecosystems and causing food supply problems, if other benefits and disbenefits from revegetating agricultural landscapes are not also taken into account in land-use decisions, according to an article published in the October issue of BioScience.

Although emergence of antimicrobial resistance severely threatens our future ability to treat many infections, the UK infection-research spend targeting this important area is still unacceptably small, say a team of researchers led by Michael Head of UCL (University College London). Their study is published online today in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.

This study is the first systematic analysis of research funding for infectious disease research, and for antimicrobial resistance, in the UK between 1997 and 2010.

TORONTO, Sept. 13, 2013—People with diabetes have a 30 per cent less chance of dying if they undergo coronary artery bypass surgery rather than opening the artery through angioplasty and inserting a stent, a new study has found.

Washington, DC (September 12, 2013) — A genetic variant on chromosome 2 is strongly linked with kidney failure in diabetic women but not in men, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). The findings may help explain gender-specific differences in kidney failure, as well as why some diabetic women are prone to develop kidney failure.

A genetic study has identified a biological process that influences whether we are right handed or left handed.

Scientists at the Universities of Oxford, St Andrews, Bristol and the Max Plank Institute in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, found correlations between handedness and a network of genes involved in establishing left-right asymmetry in developing embryos.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Does gum disease indicate future joint problems? Although researchers and clinicians have long known about an association between two prevalent chronic inflammatory diseases - periodontal disease and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) - the microbiological mechanisms have remained unclear.

Children with one or more high blood pressure readings were about three times more likely to develop the condition as adults, in a study presented at the American Heart Association High Blood Pressure Research Scientific Sessions 2013.

After accounting for age, gender and weight, researchers found a direct link between high blood pressure readings during childhood and high blood pressure in adulthood:

Obese children quadruple their risk and overweight children double their risk of developing high blood pressure in adulthood, according to a study presented at the American Heart Association High Blood Pressure Research Scientific Sessions 2013.

Researchers tracked the growth and blood pressure of 1,117 healthy adolescents from Indianapolis for 27 years, starting in 1986, and found:

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The body's immune system is set up much like a home security system; it has sensors on the outside of cells that act like motion detectors — floodlights — that click on when there's an intruder rustling in the bushes, bacteria that seem suspect. For over a decade researchers have known about one group of external sensors called Toll-like receptors that detect when bacteria are nearby.

Safety measures intended to improve bariatric surgery outcomes may impede obese minorities' access to care. This is according to a new research letter published online in the September 12 issue of JAMA which compares rates of bariatric (weight-loss) surgery for minority Medicare vs. non-Medicare patients before and after implementation of a Medicare coverage policy. The policy limits Medicare patients seeking bariatric surgery to high-volume hospitals designated as centers of excellence.

When it comes to nursery habitat, scientists have long known that blue crabs prefer seagrass beds compared to open areas in the same neighborhood.

A new study by researchers at William & Mary's Virginia Institute of Marine Science refines that knowledge, showing that it's not just the presence of a seagrass bed that matters to young crabs, but also its quality—with denser beds holding exponentially more crabs per square meter than more open beds where plants are separated by small patches of mud or sand.

INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 12, 2013 — Even though sewage treatment plants are not designed to remove tiny amounts of pesticides, they do an excellent job of dealing with the most widely used family of home and garden insecticides, scientists reported here today. Their study on pyrethroid insecticides — used in more than 3,500 products — was part of the 246th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society.

This release includes special "late-breaking" press conferences. For the rest of the press conference schedule on EurekAlert!, please click here.

246th American Chemical Society National Meeting & Exposition Sept. 8-12, 2013

Attend in Person in Indianapolis or Access Live Audio & Video Online

Type 2 diabetes independently increases the risk of heart disease in premenopausal women, according to a study presented at the American Heart AssociationHigh Blood Pressure Research Scientific Sessions 2013.

Measuring sodium in a child's urine may help doctors identify those at risk for having high blood pressure later in life, according to a study presented at the American Heart Association High Blood Pressure Research Scientific Sessions 2013.

In a small study, researchers used a new protocol to quickly screen 19 children who were 10-19-year-olds. Researchers found that of the eight who retained sodium seven had high blood pressure.