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A team of British and Australian scientists has discovered how carbon is drawn down from the surface of the Southern Ocean to the deep waters beneath.

The Southern Ocean is an important carbon sink in the world – around 40 per cent of the annual global CO2 emissions absorbed by the world's oceans enter through this region.

University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business -- A just completed multi-year research project by the Fisher CIO Leadership Program at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business has uncovered the most important, role specific career success factors of chief information officers.

UCLA life scientists, working with colleagues in China, have discovered a new method to quickly assess plants' drought tolerance. The method works for many diverse species growing around the world. The research, published in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution, may revolutionize the ability to survey plant species for their ability to withstand drought, said senior author Lawren Sack, a UCLA professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.

Washington, July 30, 2012 -- Nurse burnout leads to higher healthcare-associated infection rates (HAIs) and costs hospitals millions of additional dollars annually, according to a study published in the August issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

Chicago—(July 30, 2012): A surgical patient safety program that combines three components—accurate outcome measurement, support of hospital leadership, and engaged frontline providers—reduces surgical site infections (SSIs) by 33 percent in patients who undergo colorectal procedures, according to a new study published in the August issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

A new analysis has found that doing away with PSA (prostate specific antigen) testing for prostate cancer would likely cause three times as many men to develop advanced disease that has spread to other parts of the body before being diagnosed. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study suggests that PSA testing and early detection may prevent approximately 17,000 men each year from having such advanced prostate cancer at diagnosis.

Eliminating the PSA test to screen for prostate cancer would be taking a big step backwards and would likely result in rising numbers of men with metastatic cancer at the time of diagnosis, predicted a University of Rochester Medical Center analysis published in the journal, Cancer.

BOSTON, MA—A research team led by Xian Chang Li, MD, PhD, Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) Transplantation Research Center, has shed light on how a population of lymphocytes, called CD4+ T cells, mature into various subsets of adult T helper cells. In particular, the team uncovered that a particular cell surface molecule, known as OX40, is a powerful inducer of new T helper cells that make copious amounts of interleukin-9 (IL-9) (and therefore called TH9 cells) in vitro; such TH9 cells are responsible for ongoing inflammation in the airways in the lungs in vivo.

BOSTON (July 29, 2012) – Researchers from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Loyola University Chicago Health Sciences Division and their collaborators have isolated an elusive human gene that causes a common form of Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), a relatively rare but devastating form of early-onset blindness. The new LCA gene is called NMNAT1. Finding the specific gene mutated in patients with LCA is the first step towards developing sight-saving gene therapy.

A team of British and Australian scientists has discovered an important method of how carbon is drawn down from the surface of the Southern Ocean to the deep waters beneath. The Southern Ocean is an important carbon sink in the world – around 40% of the annual global CO2 emissions absorbed by the world's oceans enter through this region.

DURHAM, N.C. – Alternating hemiplegia of childhood (AHC) is a very rare disorder that causes paralysis that freezes one side of the body and then the other in devastating bouts that arise at unpredictable intervals. Seizures, learning disabilities and difficulty walking are common among patients with this diagnosis.

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have now discovered that mutations in one gene cause the disease in the majority of patients with a diagnosis of AHC, and because of the root problem they discovered, a treatment may become possible.

July 29th, 2012, Shenzhen, China – A five-country international team, led by Casey Eye Institute Molecular Diagnostic laboratory, BGI and Zhejiang University School of Medicine First Affiliated Hospital identified the NMNAT1 mutations as a cause of Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), one of the most common causes of inherited blindness in children. The latest study was published online in Nature Genetics, reporting the genetic characteristics underlying some LCA patients, and providing important evidences that support NMNAT1 as a promising target for the gene therapy of LCA.

Even the fastest man in the world, Usain Bolt, couldn't beat greyhounds, cheetahs, or the pronghorn antelope in a race, finds a light-hearted comparison of the extraordinary athleticism of humans and animals.

As Olympic competition starts in earnest today, Craig Sharp from the Centre for Sports Medicine and Human Performance at Brunel University, highlights a range of animals whose speed and strength easily trumps that of our most elite athletes.

Geneva, 28th July 2012 – Marking World Hepatitis Day, the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) calls on the different organizations which make up the United Nations systems to take action to fight against Viral Hepatitis (Hepatitis B and C), a potentially fatal infection of the liver which affects 500 million people. Viral hepatitis is the cause of death of over one million people a year and, around the world, one in every 3 people has been exposed to either the Hepatitis B virus or the Hepatitis C virus.

Researchers in Newcastle and Singapore have identified a new type of white blood cell which activates a killing immune response to an external source – providing a new potential target for vaccines for conditions such as cancer or Hepatitis B.

Publishing in the journal Immunity, the team of researchers from Newcastle University in collaboration with A*STAR's Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN) describe a new human tissue dendritic cell with cross-presenting function.