Body

Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC (May 21, 2009) – In comparing ultrasound with other medical imaging methods such as MRI and CT scans, a literature review of published studies in the May/June issue of Journal of Diagnostic Medical Sonography (JDMS) describes the use of ultrasound to provide an accurate diagnosis more cost effectively than the alternatives.

Most of the current obesity research is not proving helpful in finding solutions to the growing international epidemic, according to a Deakin University public health expert.

Professor Boyd Swinburn believes that research funding would be better directed at testing possible solutions rather than continuing to unpick what is causing the rise in obesity.

"It seems counter intuitive, but knowing the causes or mechanisms for weight gain does not always help with identifying the solutions," he said.

New sequencing and analysis of six strains Chlamydia will result in improved diagnosis of the sexually transmitted infection. This study provides remarkable insights into a new strain of Chlamydia that was identified in Sweden in 2006 after spreading rapidly across the country by evading most established diagnostic tests.

Researchers from the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter have synthesized a new molecule which releases hydrogen sulfide (H2S) – the gas that gives rotten eggs their characteristic smell and which has recently been found to be produced naturally in the body – and discovered that it could in time lead to a range of new, safer and effective anti-inflammatory drugs for human use.

The study has been published in respected journal Free Radical Biology and Medicine.

For the first time, a combination of aspirin and the anti-platelet drug dipyridamole has been shown to significantly reduce blockages and extend the useful life of new artery-vein access grafts used for hemodialysis, according to a study by the Dialysis Access Consortium (DAC). The study, supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health, will be published in the May 21, 2009, New England Journal of Medicine.

In the developing fetus, cell growth follows a very specific schedule. In the eye's retina, for example, cones – which help distinguish color during the day – develop before the more light-sensitive rods – which are needed for night vision.

But minor differences in the timing of cell proliferation can explain the large differences found in the eyes of two species – owl monkeys and capuchin monkeys – that evolved from a common ancestor.

Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) have identified a critical molecular mechanism that allows the influenza virus to evade the body's immune response system.

The study will be published in the May 21 issue of the journal Cell Host & Microbe.

Stanford, CA—May 20, 2009—A new article in the journal Risk Analysis assessed various ways in which aerosol transmission of the flu, a central mode of diffusion which involves breathing droplets in the air, can be reduced. Results show that face protection is a key infection control measure for influenza and can thus affect how people should try to protect themselves from the swine flu.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---A study of venomous snails on remote Pacific islands reveals genetic underpinnings of an ecological phenomenon that has fascinated scientists since Darwin.

The research, by University of Michigan evolutionary biologists Tom Duda and Taehwan Lee, is scheduled to be published online May 20 in the open-access journal PLoS ONE.

Twins born as a result of assisted reproductive technology (ART) are more likely to be admitted to neonatal intensive care and to be hospitalised in their first three years of life than spontaneously conceived twins, according to new research published online today (Wednesday 20 May) in Europe's leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction [1].

Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have discovered a family of green fluorescent proteins (GFPs) in a primitive sea animal, along with new clues about the role of the proteins that has nothing to do with their famous glow.

Research by a North Carolina State University biologist and colleagues shows that using landscape corridors, the "superhighways" that connect isolated patches of habitat, to protect certain plants has a large "spillover" effect that increases the number of plant species outside the conservation area.

MBL, WOODS HOLE, MA-The ability to mount an immune response to influenza A (H1N1) infection is significantly compromised by a low level of arsenic exposure that commonly occurs through drinking contaminated well water, scientists at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and Dartmouth Medical School have found.

Most cancers are rare in people with Down syndrome, whose overall cancer mortality is below 10 percent of that in the general population. Since they have an extra copy of chromosome 21, it's been proposed that people with Down syndrome may be getting an extra dose of one or more cancer-protective genes.

(Boston) -- A Boston University–led research team has identified the structural underpinnings of a widely-known enzyme -- acetoacetate decarboxylase (AADase) -- that was first described correctly more than 43 years ago including how it accelerates its target reaction. Until now it has never been fully explained how the reactions occur in the environment of the cell.