Body

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Using ultrasound waves, researchers from MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have found a way to enable ultra-rapid delivery of drugs to the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. This approach could make it easier to deliver drugs to patients suffering from GI disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn's disease, the researchers say.

LA JOLLA, CA - October 21, 2015 - Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have discovered how a mutant protein triggers nerve damage in a subtype of Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) diseases, a group of currently untreatable conditions that cause loss of function in a person's hands and feet.

The new research suggests future therapies may target this haywire protein, restoring nerve function in patients with CMT.

Since bee colonies started declining at alarming rates over the past few decades, some scientists have identified a group of pesticides called neonicotinoids that are commonly used on crops as a potential contributor. Now one team reports in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology that bees could be getting an unexpected dose of neonicotinoids from wildflowers on farms. Their results suggest past studies may have underestimated the bees' exposure to these compounds.

Processing fabric for the latest fashions and other textile-based products today requires thousands of chemicals, some of which are toxic and cause 20 percent of the world's water pollution. To reduce its environmental footprint, the textile industry is making changes, designing safer chemicals and turning to nature to find replacements to potentially harmful compounds, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society.

Kids who receive antibiotics throughout the course of their childhoods gain weight significantly faster than those who do not, according to new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research.

The findings, published online Oct. 21 in the International Journal of Obesity, suggest that antibiotics may have a compounding effect throughout childhood on body mass index (BMI), a measure often used to determine whether someone is at a healthy weight.

For academics, practitioners, and generalists alike, an article forthcoming in the December 2015 issue of the Journal of Retailing can serve as a handy guide to the massively studied science of marketing channel systems. Roughly one third of worldwide gross domestic product moves through channels such as wholesalers, retailers, and franchisors, making the identification of trends, context, and perspectives both challenging and necessary as the field rapidly evolves in the era of globalization and the Internet.

Making ice to chill our drinks is easy enough, but surprisingly, the details of that seemingly simple process are still not well understood. Now scientists report in the Journal of the American Chemical Society that they have unlocked some of ice's mysteries while debunking a major assumption about the process. The findings could help us better understand how water freezes, which has significant implications for climate science, air travel and cryopreservation.

Researchers from Emory University, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and the World Health Organization have carried out an updated Cochrane review to assess the effectiveness of interventions to improve water quality for preventing diarrhoea.

Contaminated water is a major cause of diarrhoea worldwide, especially among young children in low- and middle-income countries. In these settings, water often has to be collected from open rivers or streams, sometimes carried long distances, and frequently stored in open containers.

Hamilton, ON (Oct 21, 2015) - Many people in the world who need essential heart medicine do not get it, even in rich countries, says new research published today in the medical journal The Lancet.

In low- and middle-income countries the medicines are not widely available and, when available, are often unaffordable. In rich countries, although these medicines are available and affordable, the researchers earlier found that 35% to 50% of patients who have heart disease or previous stroke do not use the medicine.

Treating out-of-control blood pressure with antihypertensive medication can greatly reduce your risk for heart attack, stroke and heart failure, but the current approach to treatment can't undo all of the previous damage or restore cardiovascular disease risk to ideal levels, a new Northwestern Medicine study suggests.

SAN ANTONIO--Toxicity results of the phase I/II NRG Oncology/RTOG 0813 trial evaluating the use of stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for treating patients who are not surgical candidates and have lung cancer tumors that are located centrally in the chest were reported today at the 57th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).

The billions of consumers in developing countries are tantalizing to global consumer packaged goods companies, but they're hardly low-hanging fruit. They're more like a mega-crop of berries hanging off the tiniest, most difficult to reach branches of very tall and spreading trees. New research described in the December 2015 issue of the Journal of Retailing details the difficulties in reaching these consumers and proposes an econometric model to help firms develop a multichannel distribution strategy tailored to emerging markets.

Taking an e-commerce business global isn't just a matter of translating the text and product details into the local language and measurement scale, a new meta-analysis of e-excellence points out. Almost every aspect of an online business must be adjusted to local culture, regulatory environment, and industry-specific factors, according to a paper to be published in the December 2015 issue of the Journal of Retailing.

An Australian scientist has developed a new crime scene identification technique for fingerprint detection and analysis.

By adding a drop of liquid containing crystals to surfaces, investigators using a UV light are able to see invisible fingerprints "glow" in about 30 seconds.

The strong luminescent effect creates greater contrast between the latent print and surface enabling higher resolution images to be taken for easier and more precise analyses.

Belatacept (trade name: Nulojix) has been approved since June 2011 for adults after a kidney transplant. It is used together with other drugs to prevent the body from rejecting the transplanted organ. After a first early benefit assessment in April 2012, the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) now reexamined whether the drug offers an added benefit over the appropriate comparator therapy. This new assessment was conducted because a limitation of the corresponding decision by the Federal Joint Commission (G-BA) expired in July 2015.