Body

COLUMBUS, Ohio - New research suggests that there could be health hazards associated with consuming excessive amounts of beta-carotene.

This antioxidant is a naturally occurring pigment that gives color to foods such as carrots, sweet potatoes and certain greens. It also converts to vitamin A, and foods and supplements are the only sources for this essential nutrient.

Despite years of intensive research about the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs about 65.5 million years ago, a fundamental question remains: were dinosaurs already undergoing a long-term decline before an asteroid hit at the end of the Cretaceous? A study led by scientists at the American Museum of Natural History gives a multifaceted answer.

During high school the parents of teenagers' friends can have as much effect on the teens' substance use as their own parents, according to prevention researchers.

Abdominal tumors involving both roots of the celiac and superior mesenteric artery (SMA) are deemed unresectable by conventional surgical methods, as removal would cause necrosis of the organs that are supplied by those blood vessels.

A case report published in the journal American Journal of Transplantation presents a novel surgical technique that enables surgeons to remove tumors that are unresectable by the usual surgical techniques.

New Rochelle, NY, May 1, 2012—Passage of the America Invents Act into law led to the most dramatic changes in the U.S. patent system in 60 years. These reforms will have a significant impact on technology innovators such as biotechnology-based businesses, as detailed in two articles in Industrial Biotechnology, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The articles are available free online on the Industrial Biotechnology website.

Washington, April 30, 2012 -- The 2008 decision by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to cease additional reimbursement to hospitals for certain healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) has led to enhanced focus on infection prevention and changes in practice by front-line staff, according to a national survey of infection preventionists published in the May issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

AMHERST, Mass. – Though the human genome has been sequenced, scientists are still trying to figure out how the accomplishment can help people, for example, how it can be used to treat disease. As University of Massachusetts Amherst geneticist Jacob Mayfield notes, "It was easy to think of the human genome as the big prize, but what we realize now is, it's just a foot in the door."

Wrist, hand and finger trauma are the most common injuries presenting to emergency departments nationwide, yet only 7 percent of Tennessee hospitals have a hand specialist on call 24/7 to treat these patients, according to a Vanderbilt study published online today in the Annals of Plastic Surgery.

Patients from Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama are traveling long distances to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for treatment and follow-up care.

Nearly 80 percent of disease in developing countries is linked to bad water and sanitation. Now a scientist at Michigan Technological University has developed a simple, cheap way to make water safe to drink, even if it's muddy.

It's easy enough to purify clear water. The solar water disinfection method, or SODIS, calls for leaving a transparent plastic bottle of clear water out in the sun for six hours. That allows heat and ultraviolet radiation to wipe out most pathogens that cause diarrhea, a malady that kills 4,000 children a day in Africa.

New Rochelle, NY, May 1, 2012—Herbal, dietary, and energy or nutritional supplements may offer specific health benefits, but they can also have harmful and even life-threatening effects when combined with commonly used medications. Clinicians need to be aware of and educate their patients about the potential risks of mixing supplements and therapeutic agents, since their interaction can diminish or increase drug levels. This timely topic is explored in a provocative article in Alternative and Complementary Therapies, published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

Scientists using high-powered microscopes have made a stunning observation of the architecture within a cell – and identified for the first time how the architecture changes during the formation of gametes, also known as sex cells, in order to successfully complete the process.

The findings by the international team led by the University of Leicester could impact on the treatment of disorders caused by a misregulation of cellular structures called microtubules. These disorders include Down's Syndrome, lissencephaly (a brain formation disorder) or cancer.

Computer scientists in India have developed a two-pronged algorithm that can detect the presence of a botnet on a computer network and block its malicious activities before it causes too much harm. The team describes details of the system in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Wireless and Mobile Computing.

If you throw a rubber balloon filled with water against a wall, it will spread out and deform on impact, while the same balloon filled with honey, which is more viscous, will deform much less. If the balloon's elastic rubber was stiffer, an even smaller change in shape would be observed.

By simply analyzing how much a balloon changes shape upon hitting a wall, you can uncover information about its physical properties.

Teens with high levels of uric acid appear to be at increased risk for high blood pressure, according to results of research from scientists at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

Although the findings do not establish a cause-and-effect link between uric acid and high blood pressure, they point to uric acid as one potential mechanism, or at least a biomarker, of disease, the researchers report in the April issue of the journal Hypertension.

A team of researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the National Human Genome Research Institute has evaluated the whole genomic sequence of stem cells derived from human bone marrow cells—so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells—and found that relatively few genetic changes occur during stem cell conversion by an improved method. The findings, reported in the March issue of Cell Stem Cell, the official journal of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), will be presented at the annual ISSCR meeting in June.