Body

DETROIT – Henry Ford Hospital researchers have found that the presence of excess protein in a common urine test is an effective prognostic marker of acute renal failure in patients with severe sepsis.

Researchers analyzed data from 328 sepsis patients with no previous history of protein in the urine and found the urine dipstick test predicted the presence of renal failure in 55 percent of these patients.

The first study using cultivation independent sequencing of the microorganisms in the adolescent male urinary tract has revealed that the composition of microbial communities colonizing the penis in young men depends upon their circumcision status and patterns of sexual activity.

A new study has found that, contrary to current thinking, taking beta blockers that treat high blood pressure does not decrease a person's risk of developing colorectal cancer. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study also revealed that even long-term use or subtypes of beta blockers showed no reduction of colorectal cancer risk.

Steel – the traditional industry for which the UK city of Sheffield is so well known – could help provide a green alternative for heating the city's homes and businesses, alongside other renewable energy sources.

Experts from the University of Sheffield's Faculty of Engineering believe that the many steel plants located just outside the city centre could be connected to Sheffield's existing district heating network to provide an extra 20 MW of thermal energy, enough to heat around 2,000 homes.

Dr Julian Hiscox and Dr John Barr of the University's Faculty of Biological Sciences are working with the Health Protection Agency Porton (HPA) to build a bank of molecular signatures that will help identify the severity of virus infection from characteristic changes seen in cells. Currently the team is barcoding different strains of influenza virus and human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) - a virus associated with the onset of asthma in young children.

Imagine charging your phone as you walk, thanks to a paper-thin generator embedded in the sole of your shoe. This futuristic scenario is now a little closer to reality. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a way to generate power using harmless viruses that convert mechanical energy into electricity.

May 13, 2012, Shenzhen, China – BGI, the world's largest genomics organization, in cooperation with Zhangjiakou Academy of Agricultural Science, has completed the genome sequence and analysis of foxtail millet (Setaria italica), the second-most widely planted species of millet. This study provides an invaluable resource for the study and genetic improvement of foxtail millet and millet crops at a genome-wide level. Results of the latest study were published online today in Nature Biotechnology.

DURHAM, N.C. – A team of Duke University engineers has created a master "ingredient list" describing the properties of more than 2,000 compounds that might be combined to create the next generation of quantum electronics devices.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The foundation of biological inheritance is DNA replication – a tightly coordinated process in which DNA is simultaneously copied at hundreds of thousands of different sites across the genome. If that copying mechanism doesn't work as it should, the result could be cells with missing or extra genetic material, a hallmark of the genomic instability seen in most birth defects and cancers.

Barcelona, Spain: Respiratory movement during radiotherapy makes it difficult to hit the right treatment target and this in turn can lead to an under-dose of radiation to the tumour, or a potentially toxic over-dose to the surrounding healthy tissue. Getting this right is a real challenge for the radiotherapist, but new techniques are helping to deliver the correct dose to the right place, the 31st conference of the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO 31) [1] will hear today (Saturday).

What can we do to reduce the number of tragic cardiac events in sport? doi 10.1136/bjsports-2012-091252

Big gaps in basic knowledge about the numbers and causes of apparently inexplicable heart attacks among young sportsmen and women are seriously hampering our ability to prevent them, says a sport and exercise medicine specialist in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

CHICAGO – More than 75 percent of cardiac arrest victims are stricken too far away from an automated external defibrillator for the lifesaving device to be obtained quickly enough to offer the best chance at saving their lives, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania that will be presented today at the annual meeting of Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

SAN ANTONIO (May 11, 2012) — The naked mole rat, a curiously strange, hairless rodent, lives many years longer than any other mouse or rat. Scientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio's Barshop Institute of Longevity and Aging Studies continue to explore this mystery.

On May 2 a Barshop Institute team reported that the naked mole rat's cellular machines for protein disposal — called proteasome assemblies — differ in composition from those of other short-lived rodents. The study is in the journal PLoS ONE.

Multiple myeloma is a form of cancer where the plasma cells in the bone marrow grow out of control, causing damage to bones as well as predisposing patients to anemia, infection and kidney failure. A medical procedure called autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, commonly known as a stem cell transplant, is frequently an important treatment option for many patients.

Cancer therapies targeting specific molecular subtypes of the disease allow physicians to tailor treatment to a patient's individual molecular profile. But scientists are finding that in many types of cancer the molecular subtypes are more varied than previously thought and contain further genetic alterations that can affect a patient's response to therapy.