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Ongoing research by Mercyhurst University biologists intended to expand and expedite testing for potential pathogens in beach water at Presque Isle State Park has resulted in a new method that delivers near real-time water quality results.

Mercyhurst biologist Dr. Steven Mauro, who has been instrumental in local beach water research the past five years, said the system is being piloted at Presque Isle this summer and represents a collaboration of Mercyhurst, Penn State Behrend, the Regional Science Consortium and Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

Type 2 diabetes is popularly associated with obesity and a sedentary lifestyle. However, just as there are obese people without type 2 diabetes, there are lean people with the disease.

MINNEAPOLIS /ST. PAUL (JUNE 14, 2012) – University of Minnesota School of Public Health researchers have reported two high-signal genetic markers correlated with coronary artery disease (CAD) that should help define genetic fingerprints that can signal an increased risk of developing the disease.

The results also offer biological and clinical data supporting future research into the genetic markers and their relationship to CAD, a condition that impacts more than 13 million Americans each year.

EVANSTON, Ill. --- They seem to live their personal lives online, but when there is a glitch in the sex lives of college students, and emergency contraception is needed, many struggle to navigate the Web and find the information they need, according to a Northwestern University study.

The study was recently published online in the journal Policy & Internet.

BOSTON, MA—Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is the second most common cause of childhood blindness in the United States, occurring in half of premature infants born earlier than or at 28 weeks gestational age. The condition is caused by abnormal blood vessel development in the retina of the eye. ROP risk increases with decreasing gestational age.

A study by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) suggests that the antioxidant, rhSOD (recombinant human Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase), reduces the risk of developing ROP in extremely low gestational age newborns.

Philadelphia, PA, June 15, 2012 – Certain short strands of RNA, known as microRNAs (miRNAs), have been linked to the progression and metastasis of breast cancer and may provide information about prognosis. However, studies of miRNA expression profiles often report conflicting findings. While the potential for using miRNAs in breast cancer diagnosis is promising, scientists report in a new study published online today in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics that differences in the amount and types of miRNA within breast tumors can be misleading.

PHILADELPHIA – In a first of its kind study in the U.S., researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have shown that the addition of graphic warning labels on cigarette packaging can improve smokers' recall of the warning and health risks associated with smoking. The new findings are published online-first in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

>WASHINGTON, DC (14 JUNE 2012)—An unconventional approach that involves building alliances between groups competing for limited land and water resources has the potential to dramatically increase food production, boost rural incomes, improve human health and restore degraded land, rivers and habitats, according to a report released today by a newly launched global coalition of leading research, advocacy and multilateral organizations.

Male Cardiocondyla obscurior ants are diphenic (either winged or wingless). New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Ecology demonstrates that the dominant wingless (ergatoid) male is able to identify potential rivals before they emerge from their pupae. Constant patrolling of the nest ensures that this male is able to bite or chemically tag rivals as soon as they emerge from their pupae. Chemically tagged ants are quickly destroyed by workers.

CHAPEL HILL – More than 15 percent of new HIV infections occur in children. Without treatment, only 65 percent of HIV-infected children will live until their first birthday, and fewer than half will make it to the age of two. Although breastfeeding is attributed to a significant number of these infections, most breastfed infants are not infected with HIV, despite prolonged and repeated exposure.

HIV researchers have been left with a conundrum: does breast milk transmit the virus or protect against it?

Preventable childhood deaths caused by illnesses such as pneumonia and diarrhea can be nearly eliminated in 10 years according to researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the National Institutes of Health. In a new commentary featured in the June issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers outline a strategy and benchmarks for curbing childhood preventable deaths and recommend a new common vision for a global commitment to end all preventable child deaths.

PHILADELPHIA—It has long been known that cancer is a disease of aging, but a molecular link between the two has remained elusive.

Now, researchers at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson (KCC) have shown that senescence (aging cells which lose their ability to divide) and autophagy (self-eating or self-cannibalism) in the surrounding normal cells of a tumor are essentially two sides of the same coin, acting as "food" to fuel cancer cell growth and metastasis.

Drawn together by the force of nature, but pulled apart by the force of man – it sounds like the setting for a love story, but it is also a basic description of how scientists have begun to make more efficient organic solar cells.

At the atomic level, organic solar cells function like the feuding families in Romeo and Juliet. There's a strong natural attraction between the positive and negative charges that a photon generates after it strikes the cell, but in order to capture the energy, these charges need to be kept separate.

NEW YORK (June 14, 2012) — A novel form of vitamin B3 found in milk in small quantities produces remarkable health benefits in mice when high doses are administered, according to a new study conducted by researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College and the Polytechnic School in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Computed tomographic colonography (CTC), also known as virtual colonoscopy, administered without laxatives is as accurate as conventional colonoscopy in detecting clinically significant, potentially cancerous polyps, according to a study performed jointly at the San Francisco VA Medical Center, the University of California, San Francisco and Massachusetts General Hospital.