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Zoologists from the School of Natural Sciences at Trinity College Dublin have discovered how endangered vultures find their food, which will have important applications for their conservation. It turns out the iconic birds, which look like they belong in a former world dominated by dinosaurs, use social cues from birds of prey to locate food before swooping down in large groups to steal the freshest of 'ready meals'.

Paradoxical bronchoconstriction in response to the use of bronchodilators is not well understood. This study is the first to investigate the prevalence of bronchoconstriction after using bronchodilators, such as β2 agonists, in 9986 smokers and ex-smokers with COPD. A paradoxical response was twice as common in African-American patients, and was also associated with worse respiratory outcomes including more shortness of breath, shorter 6 minute walk distance, and more frequent exacerbations.

Furthermore, the safety of several new technologies "could be compromised," warn the researchers, who call for improved stakeholder oversight to prevent patients from being further exposed to new devices "without proper evidence of improved clinical benefits and safety."

Since the failures of some metal on metal hip implants were brought to light, the introduction of new joint implants has been the focus of major scientific and policy discussions.

The development of common diabetes complications* that can lead to blindness and amputations could be reduced by taking statins, indicates new research published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.

It is well established that statins via cholesterol lowering effectively reduce the risks of heart attack and stroke in people with type 2 diabetes, but whether statin use affects the development of small blood vessel (or microvascular) complications, such as eye, nerve, and kidney disease in individuals with diabetes is not known.

Less than half of the women diagnosed with ovarian cancer will survive beyond 5 years. Ovarian cancer readily spreads to abdominal organs, which are covered by a layer of cells called the mesothelium. Ovarian cancer cells that breach the mesothelium invade and damage the organs underneath. A new study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation indicates that mesothelial cells actively promote the spread of ovarian cancer.

As we and other vertebrates age, our DNA accumulates mutations and becomes rearranged, which may result in a variety of age-related illnesses, including cancers. Biologists Vera Gorbunova and Andei Seluanov have now discovered one reason for the increasing DNA damage: the primary repair process begins to fail with increasing age and is replaced by one that is less accurate.

The findings have been published in the journal PLOS Genetics.

A new mechanism to inhibit proteasomes, protein complexes that are a target for cancer therapy, is the topic of an article published in the journal Chemistry & Biology. The first author of the study is Daniela Trivella, researcher at the Brazilian Biosciences National Laboratory at the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (LNBio/CNPEM).

The number of people going to the emergency room for essential hypertension, high blood pressure with no known cause, increased by 25 percent in recent years, according to a study presented at the American Heart Association's High Blood Pressure Research Scientific Sessions 2014. "This shows we are not doing a good job in controlling high blood pressure in the outpatient setting," said Sourabh Aggarwal, M.D., the study's lead researcher and Chief Resident in the Department of Internal Medicine at Western Michigan University School of Medicine in Kalamazoo.

The unusual river dolphins, some of them known for their poor eyesight and side-swimming behavior are all descendants of ocean-dwelling species. Until now, however, there has been no consensus about their relationships, and few specimens to help illuminate them. In the new issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, researchers describe a new fossil dolphin species from the Miocene (dating to more than 16 mya) of the Pisco Basin, a desert on the coast of Peru.

Ten-year follow-up of children who have been taking statin therapy for an inherited cholesterol disorder showed benefit on a measure of atherosclerosis, although levels of low-density lipoprotein suggested that stronger or earlier initiation of statin therapy may be warranted, according to a study in the September 10 issue of JAMA.

DALLAS – September 9, 2014– The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) has released the first comprehensive, evidence-based guidelines for management of sickle cell disease from birth to end of life, based on recommendations developed by a nationwide team of experts co-chaired by a UT Southwestern Medical Center hematologist.

Turnover of registered nurses (RNs) is an important and widely used measure in analyzing the health care workforce. It's used to project the job market for nurses (based on availability of jobs) and can also be considered an indicator of whether a health care organization has a good working environment.

From AGU's blogs: Global food trade may not meet all future demand, new study indicates

As the world population continues to grow, by about 1 billion people every 12 to 14 years since the 1960s, the global food supply may not meet escalating demand – particularly for agriculturally poor countries in arid to semi-arid regions, such as Africa's Sahel, that already depend on imports for much of their food supply, according to a new study published online in the American Geophysical Union journal, Earth's Future.

People who are in control of their gambling habits play for fun and like the idea of possibly winning big. They set limits on how much money and time they can spend, and they are likely to gamble on the internet. But gambling is just one of several leisure activities these players undertake. In contrast, gambling is a form of escapism for problem players and often their only social activity, say Richard Wood of GamRes Ltd. in Canada, and Mark Griffiths of Nottingham Trent University in the UK. The results appear in Springer's Journal of Gambling Studies.

Donors, Ministries of Health, implementing agencies, and other partners should prioritise providing pregnant women in malaria endemic regions with long-lasting insecticide treated nets (LLINs) through antenatal care clinics to help prevent malaria and its adverse effects on mother and infant, according to experts from the UK and US, writing in this week's PLOS Medicine.