Vitamin a plays key roles in eye health and the immune system as well as in the synthesis of certain hormones.
Vitamin a deficiency causes blindness in 250000 to 500000 children every year half of whom die within a year of losing their eyesight according to the World health organization.
Insufficient carotenoids may also contribute to macular degeneration in the elderly a leading cause of blindness in older populations in Europe
which shows China's growing economy has caused also serious stresses on the country's freshwater both in terms of consumption and pollution.
Discovery on how fungi avoid immune responses of plants leads to new generation of fungicidesplants that come under attack from pathogens have an automatic immune response.
This rapid communication between the point of invasion and the fungal cell nucleus enables the fungus to produce the effector proteins that help evade the plant's immune response from the moment the fungus enters the host tissue.
This signalling mechanism occurs very early in the fungal infection process at a time when the fungi are most accessible to fungicide treatment.
In fact losses of wheat rice and maize to fungal pathogens per year are the same as the annual spend by US Department of Homeland Security--some 60 billion US dollars.
In order to efficiently protect crops we must better understand molecular mechanisms like these that occur in the very earliest stages of infection.
Speaking about the research Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor Nick Talbot said The University of Exeter is committed to tackling fundamental research questions to help control plant diseases
This exciting discovery by Prof Steinberg's group provides a new potential route to disease control.
and Genomics (CBGP UPM-INIA) has shown that by the contact of a plant with a strain of the Colletotrichum tofieldiae microorganism previously isolated this plant can increase the number size
because they have a large amount of crop pathogen. However this species has other subspecies that does not harm their host plants
and without the contamination issues than can produce the mineral fertilizers. Thus its application in agriculture horticulture forestry plants ornamental plants or any other plant with commercial interest would represent a significant environmental and economic saving.
These data can be linked to data on key attributes such as health calving fertility milk yield
and effectively focus the breeding work for the benefit of livestock health welfare and production.
#U s. releases 13th Report on Carcinogensfour substances have been added in the U s. Department of health and human services 13th Report on Carcinogens a science-based document that identifies chemical biological and physical agents that are considered cancer hazards for people living
Identifying substances in our environment that can make people vulnerable to cancer will help in prevention efforts said Linda Birnbaum Ph d. director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National
Toxicology Program (NTP. This report provides a valuable resource for health regulatory and research agencies
and it empowers the public with information people can use to reduce exposure to cancer causing substances.
The Report on Carcinogens is mandated a congressionally report prepared for the HHS Secretary by NTP.
The new report is available at http://ntp. niehs. nih. gov/go/roc13. A listing in the report indicates a cancer hazard
but does not by itself mean that a substance will cause cancer. Many factors including the amount
and duration of exposure and an individual's susceptibility to a substance can affect whether a person will develop cancer.
One substance added as a known human carcinogensince 1983 ortho-toluidine has been listed in the Report on Carcinogens as reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.
However new cancer studies led NTP to reevaluate and reclassify ortho-toluidine and it is added now to the category of known to be a human carcinogen based on studies in humans showing it causes urinary bladder cancer.
Ortho-toluidine is a synthetic chemical produced in other countries and imported into the United states by several companies in high volumes.
It is used also in some consumer and medical products. People are exposed mainly through the workplace by skin contact
No human studies were identified that evaluated the relationship between human cancer and exposure specifically to 1-bromopropane.
However inhalation exposure to 1-bromopropane in rodents caused tumors in several organs including the skin lungs and large intestine.
Inhalation exposure to cumene caused lung tumors in male and female mice and liver tumors in female mice.
No human studies were identified that looked at the relationship between human cancer and exposure specifically to cumene.
Exposure to this mixture was associated with an increased risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in studies in humans.
It also caused tumors in the liver and other organs in mice. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
#Doing math with your bodyyou do math in your head most of the time but you can also teach your body how to do it.
The results will open new interesting possibilities for evaluation of possible health benefits of barley and beer.
More information is needed of the possible health effects of hordatines their precursor and other phenolamides.
Often these spiders are presumed to be of medical importance because of their size or similarity to spiders that are known to be toxic to humans.
In 2006 after witnessing multiple episodes where harmless spiders were mistaken for toxic ones Richard Vetter an arachnologist at the University of California Riverside asked other arachnologists
and international fruit importers to provide data on specimens they found in international cargo that had been submitted to them for identification.
which they describe in an ad hoc study in the Journal of Medical Entomology. The authors hope that their paper will fill a knowledge gap
because misidentifications can lead to costly and unwarranted eradication measures unnecessary employee health education heightened employee anxiety
Spiders of medical importance were rare. Spiders found in international cargo especially those in banana cartons are typically harmless species they wrote.
and thereby reduce unwarranted paranoia and anxiety when media stories about toxic banana spiders are unleashed onto an unsuspecting and easily frightened North american general public.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Entomological Society of America. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Scientists have combined genetic analyses with new modeling approaches for the first time to help identify how well balsam popular trees are adapted to handle climate change.
The problem with the approach is you're assuming all individuals within a species are identical like assuming all humans will respond identically to an illness said Fitzpatrick.
while others are not--just like some people a more likely to survive a disease than others.
Pet food safety was another area of concern particularly with pet foods that are formulated specifically to address food allergies in both cats and dogs continued Dr. Hellberg.
The U s. Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary medicine regulates animal feed and pet foods. While the U s. Department of agriculture regulates the interstate transportation and processing of animal products as well as the inspection of animal product imports and exports.
and Sciences later this month said Ramirez's work uncovered another melting pot of diversity in New york city--within the soil of Central park. The soil microbes in Central park benefit us benefit soil health
but it also solves some instability problems where the materials in mixed blends of polymers tend to lose their phase-separated behavior over time degrading energy transfer the polymer chemist says.
and determined the mechanism of crystallization the polymer chemist adds. Vertical nanopillars are ideal geometries for getting around these challenges Briseno says
and European colleagues studied the resistance of forests to drought according to the diversity of tree species. Due to climate change parts of the world will face droughts that will affect forest health.
and resistance to insect pests and diseases but whether or not diverse forests are adapted also better to deal with drought stress remains unknown.
This study shows that mixed species forests are more resistant to drought stress than monocultures in some regions only:
and thus maintain ecosystem functions under drought stress. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by INRA-France.
#An apple a day could keep obesity awayscientists at Washington state University have concluded that nondigestible compounds in apples--specifically Granny smith apples--may help prevent disorders associated with obesity.
The discovery could help prevent some of the disorders associated with obesity such as low-grade chronic inflammation that can lead to diabetes.
This results in microbial byproducts that lead to inflammation and influence metabolic disorders associated with obesity Noratto said.
Co-author Dr. Hanks notes that These findings suggest that Chefs Move to Schools has potential to offer a win-win opportunity for school lunch programs and for students.
and defend against invaders--an important step in preventing pathogens from contaminating fruits and vegetables. Now scientists have discovered that plants may package their commensal bacteria inside of seeds;
Pathogens can include viruses and bacteria that damage the plant itself or bacteria like the Shiga-toxin producing E coli O104:
H4. In 2011 Germany France and The netherlands experienced an outbreak of E coli that was traced ultimately to the consumption of contaminated sprouts
Such opportunistic contamination is hard to guard against as most growing takes place in open outdoor spaces with little opportunity for control.
The hypothesis behind this research is that the best way to defend against pathogenic contamination is with a healthy microbiome colonized by bacteria provide protection from invasive pathogens.
The researchers led by Dr. Shaun Lee looked inside sterilized mung beans and were able to isolate a unique strain of Bacillus pumilus that provides the bean with enhanced microbial protection.
This was a genuine curiosity that my colleague and I had about whether commensal bacteria could be found in various plant sources including seed supplies said Dr. Lee.
The fact that we could isolate and grow a bacterium that was packaged inside a seed was quite surprising.
What they found was the new strain of Bacillus pumilus a unique highly motile Gram-positive bacterium capable of colonizing the mung bean plant without causing any harm.
Genome sequencing revealed that the isolated B. pumilus contained three unique gene clusters for the production of antimicrobial peptide compounds known as bacteriocins.
Dr. Lee and his colleagues theorize that their findings could have a wide impact both on our understanding of plants
and in creating food-safe antimicrobials. The finding that plant seeds can be colonized pre may be an important mechanism by which a beneficial plant microbiome is established and sustained.
which Dr. Lee says have tremendous potential. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by American Society for Microbiology.
#No sign of health or nutrition problems from GMO livestock feed, study findsa new scientific review from the University of California Davis reports that the performance
and health of food-producing animals consuming genetically engineered feed first introduced 18 years ago has been comparable to that of animals consuming non-GE feed.
#Cow behavior changes in response to deterioration in healthwhen a cow develops mastitis her behaviour changes
but is it possible to recognise the signs of this diseases in other ways and even earlier?
A dairy cow becomes restless four hours after it contracts bacterial mastitis. Simultaneously the other symptoms of a steadily progressing inflammation such as increased body temperature
The study showed that it is in the milk that the first symptoms of a disease can be detected
while changes in a cow's behaviour acted as an indicator for a change in the cow's health says Jutta Kauppi summing up the results of her study.
At a conventional milking stall mastitis is detected often as late as during a milking session
Kauppi's doctoral dissertation sought to identify critical points in cow behaviour pointing to deterioration in the cow's health.
Changes in cow behaviour including restlessness proved promising indicators for an incipient change in health status. To our surprise changes in milk composition were identifiable before such symptoms were evident
Technology provides extra set of eyes for the stockpersonin addition to the stockperson's good eye for cattle technology is used heavily in the modern cowshed in feeding cattle in ensuring a successful completion of milking and in monitoring cows'health and activity levels.
Because some cows are naturally more active than others technology alone is insufficient detect decreasing health status of a cow.
and on welfare technologies will increasingly target at early detection of signals that predict a health problem of an animal.
This will enable the launch of preventive measures at an earlier stage than before affecting the process of a cow contracting a disease and shortening the recovery time.
Mastitis is extremely harmful for both the farmer and the cow. When an inflammation has gained a footing the cow is seriously ill.
The milk extracted from the cow is also unsuitable for the food chain causing substantial loss due to treatment with antibiotics
With regard to the cow's well-being and the financial impact caused by the disease warning signals should be intercepted as early
Grasses and crops such as maize attach sugars to chemical defenses called benzoxazinoids to protect themselves from being poisoned by their own protective agents.
Then when an insect starts feeding a plant enzyme removes the sugar to deploy the active toxin.
When the researchers examined the frass of these pests â pests that cause enormous crop damage â they found the toxin with sugar still attached.
In contrast to the original plant compound the new substance can no longer be cleaved by the plant enzyme to generate the toxin.
Attaching the sugar in the opposite configuration turns out to be a very simple but effective detoxification strategy
which explains the success of Spodoptera species. Plants usually defend themselves against insect feeding by producing toxins or deterrents.
and can feed on plant tissues containing toxins or deterrents without the expected negative effects. Insects overcome plant defenses by the rapid excretion sequestration
or detoxification of toxic substances Not only have contributed such adaptations to the vast diversification of insects in the course of evolution they also support the success of agricultural pests specialized on certain crop plants that jeopardize crop yields every year.
and Jonathan Gershenzon from the Department of Biochemistry at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena Germany have discovered recently a previously unknown detoxification strategy in these pest insects.
Caterpillars of the fall armyworm and two other Spodoptera species deploy a gut enzyme that catalyzes the attachment of a sugar to the toxic free DIMBOA.
and the toxic DIMBOA cannot be formed any more. The elegance of such a mechanism comes from its simplicity yet it saves the insects from being poisoned said Felipe Wouters who performed the experiments for his doctoral thesis at the institute summarizing the results.
Like his colleague Daniel Giddings Vassã£o Felipe Wouters is from Brazil where fall armyworm caused major losses of the maize yield before Bt maize was introduced.
and corresponds to an anatomical principle namely the mirror-image arrangement of our left and right hands.
That two mirror molecules can have a completely different mode of action became widely known in the aftermath of the tragic effects the sedative drug Contergan had on unborn children in the early 1960s.
As a drug the chemical agent thalidomide was available in two versions as an (S)- as well as an (R)- thalidomide.
When scientists tried to clarify the fatal effects the drug had taken when by pregnant women they found that only (S)- thalidomide caused birth defects
whereas (R)- thalidomide had desired the calming and anti-nausea effects. The Max Planck scientists now want to identify the enzymes
and the encoding genes that are responsible for the detoxification process in the fall armyworm. They also want to look for equivalent enzymes in related species and compare these.
DIMBOA is only one member of the vast variety of toxic benzoxazinoids found in grasses.
If the researchers can obtain a more comprehensive picture of how benzoxazinoids are metabolized in pest insects they may be able to design better strategies to reduce pest damage.
#Flying doctor bees to prevent cherry diseaseuniversity of Adelaide researchers are introducing a method to use bees to deliver disease control to cherry blossom preventing brown rot in cherries.
and bee researcher Dr Katja Hogendoorn postdoctoral research associate with the University's School of Agriculture Food and Wine.
The'flying doctors'technology is used successfully in Europe to control strawberry grey mould but it's the first time for Australia
and the first time in cherry orchards anywhere Dr Hogendoorn says. Dr Hogendoorn says the use of bees has many environmental and economic benefits compared to spraying fungicide.
The bees deliver control on target every day she says. There is no spray drift or run off into the environment less use of heavy equipment water labour and fuel.
Dr Hogendoorn says adoption of the technique will have the additional benefit of building up the honey bee industry
With increasing availability of suitable biological control agents future application of the'flying doctors'technology is expected to become available for disease control in almonds grapes strawberry raspberry apple pear
The research led by U s. Forest Service Research Ecologist Dr. Christian Giardina with the agency's Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry Pacific Southwest Research Station with co-authors Drs.
Creighton Litton and Susan Crow (University of Hawai`i at Manoa) and Dr. Greg Asner (Carnegie Institution for Science) shows that soil carbon storage was constant across a highly constrained 5 degrees
These findings have significance for human health but also for biofuels production since the same sugars can be fed to yeast to generate ethanol and other liquid fuels.
but dietary quality could be improveda new American Cancer Society study suggests that participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program (SNAP) previously known as the food stamp program had lower dietary quality scores compared with income eligible nonparticipants.
For their study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings researchers led by Binh T. Nguyen Phd of the American Cancer Society explored the diet quality of SNAP participants using data from a nationally representative sample of over 4000 adult
Americans from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003-2010 (NHANES. Their analyses revealed that compared with low-income nonparticipants SNAP participants had lower dietary quality scores overall and lower scores for fruits
but also particularly in the subgroups we've identified as being particularly at risk said Dr. Nguyen.
The above story is provided based on materials by American Cancer Society. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
and vegetable consumption could be as good for your mental as your physical health new research suggests.
The research conducted by the University of Warwick's Medical school using data from the Health Survey for England
Commenting on the findings Dr Saverio Stranges the research paper's lead author said: The data suggest that higher an individual's fruit
Other health-related behaviours were found to be associated with mental wellbeing but along with smoking only fruit and vegetable consumption was associated consistently in both men and women.
Commenting on the findings Dr Saverio Stranges the research paper's lead author said: Along with smoking fruit and vegetable consumption was related the health behaviour most consistently associated with both low and high mental wellbeing.
These novel findings suggest that fruit and vegetable intake may play a potential role as a driver not just of physical
Low mental wellbeing is linked strongly to mental illness and mental health problems but high mental wellbeing is more than the absence of symptoms or illness;
it is a state in which people feel good and function well. Optimism happiness self-esteem resilience and good relationships with others are all part of this state.
Mental wellbeing is important not just to protect people from mental illness but because it protects people against common and serious physical diseases.
Discussing the implications of the research co-author Professor Sarah Stewart-Brown says that: Mental illness is hugely costly to both the individual
and society and mental wellbeing underpins many physical diseases unhealthy lifestyles and social inequalities in health.
It has become very important that we begin to research the factors that enable people to maintain a sense of wellbeing.
and mean that people are likely to be able to enhance their mental wellbeing at the same time as preventing heart disease and cancer.
or over with 56%of those being female and 44%male as part of the Health Survey for England
--which saw detailed information collected on mental and physical health health related behaviours demographics and socioeconomic characteristics.
#Maternal breast milk is risk factor for cytomegalovirus transmission in premature infantspremature infants especially those born with very low-birth-weight (VLBW) are particularly vulnerable to cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection because of their immature immune systems.
CMV infection can cause serious disease and in severe cases lead to death. Two important potential sources of CMV infection in premature infants are blood transfusions and breast milk.
Neither source has previously been examined systematically in a large enough study however to quantify the specific risks of infection
and identify risk factors to help guide prevention strategies. In a new study published in JAMA Pediatrics researchers have confirmed that the common strategy of transfusing blood products to VLBW infants that are CMV-seronegative
and leukoreduced (blood products with white blood cells removed) effectively prevents transmission of CMV from blood transfusion.
Using this transfusion approach maternal breast milk becomes the primary source of postnatal CMV infection among VLBW infants.
The prospective clinical study enrolled 462 mothers and 539 VLBW infants in three neonatal intensive care units between January 2010 and June 2013.
A majority of mothers had a history of CMV infection prior to delivery (CMV sero-prevalence of 76.2 percent.
The infants were enrolled within five days of birth and at the time of enrollment they had received not a blood transfusion.
The infants were tested at birth to evaluate for congenital infection and again at five additional intervals between birth and 90 days discharge or death.
A total of 29 out of the 539 enrolled infants were found to have CMV infection (cumulative incidence of 6. 9 percent at 12 weeks.
Five infants with CMV infection developed severe disease or died. Although 2061 transfusions were administered to 310 of the infants (57.5 percent) the blood products were CMV-seronegative
and leukoreduced and none of the CMV infections was linked to transfusion. Twenty-seven of 28 infections acquired after birth occurred among infants fed CMV-positive breast milk.
The authors estimate that between 1 in 5 and 1 in 10 VLBW infants who are fed CMV positive breast milk from mothers with a history of CMV infection will develop postnatal CMV infection.
We believe our study is the largest evaluation of both blood transfusion and breast-milk sources of postnatal CMV infection in VLBW infants says first author Cassandra Josephson MD from the Center for Transfusion and Cellular Therapies Department of Pathology and Laboratory
Medicine Emory University School of medicine and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. Previously the risk of CMV infection from blood transfusion of seronegative or leukoreduced transfusions was estimated to be 1 to 3 percent.
We showed that using blood components that are both CMV-seronegative and leukoreduced we can effectively prevent the transfusion-transmission of CMV.
Therefore we believe that this is the safest approach to reduce the risk of CMV infection when giving transfusions to VLBW infants.
The American Academy of Pediatrics currently states that the value of routinely feeding breast milk from CMV seropositive mothers to preterm infants outweighs the risks of clinical disease from CMV.
Although breast milk is the best source of nutrition for preterm infants the authors note that new strategies to prevent breast milk transmission of CMV are needed
because freezing and thawing breast milk did not completely prevent transmission in the current study.
Alternative approaches to prevent breast milk transmission of CMV say the authors could include routine CMV-serologic testing of pregnant mothers to enable counseling regarding the risk of infection;
closer surveillance of infants with CMV-positive mothers; and pasteurization of breast milk until a corrected gestational age of 34 weeks (as recommended by the Austrian Society of Pediatrics.
Although most infants who develop CMV infection are asymptomatic in the neonatal period a minority progress to develop serious symptoms.
Routine screening for postnatal CMV infection may be one potential strategy to help identify these infants before they go on to develop symptomatic disease.
The authors note that although the effect of asymptomatic postnatal CMV infection on long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes is not clear the frequency of CMV infection in this study raises significant concern about the potential consequences of CMV infection among VLBW
infants and points to the need for large long-term follow-up studies of neurological outcomes in infants with postnatal CMV infection.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Emory Health Sciences. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference e
#Healthy lifestyle choices may dramatically reduce risk of heart attack in menfollowing a healthy lifestyle including maintaining a healthy weight
and diet exercise not smoking and moderating alcohol intake could prevent four out of five coronary events in men according to a new study publishing today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
While mortality from heart disease has declined in recent decades with much of the reduction attributed to medical therapies the authors said prevention through a healthy lifestyle avoids potential side effects of medication
and is more cost effective for population-wide reductions in coronary heart disease. For the study researchers examined a population of 20721 healthy Swedish men aged 45-79 years of age
and followed them for 11 years Lifestyle choices were assessed through a questionnaire exploring diet alcohol consumption smoking status level of physical activity
and abdominal adiposity (belly fat). Men in the study with the lowest risk were walked nonsmokers
or cycled for at least 40 minutes per day exercised at least one hour per week had a waist circumference below 95 centimeters consumed moderate amounts of alcohol
The researchers found a clear reduction in risk for heart attack for each individual lifestyle factor the participants practiced.
For instance having a low-risk diet together with a moderate alcohol consumption led to an estimated 35 percent lower risk of heart attack compared to the high-risk group those who practice none of the low-risk factors.
Researchers found similar results in men with hypertension and high cholesterol levels. It is not surprising that healthy lifestyle choices would lead to a reduction in heart attacks said Agneta Akesson Ph d. Associate professor at the Institute of Environmental Medicine Karolinska Institutet Stockholm
and lead author of the study. What is surprising is how drastically the risk dropped due to these factors.
what is defined as ideal cardiovascular health. The burden of cardiovascular disease could be reduced significantly through programs targeted to men
and promoting low-risk lifestyle choices. Even in those who take medication an additional reduction in risk for chronic heart disease has been observed in those with a healthy lifestyle.
It is important to note that these lifestyle behaviors are modifiable and changing from high-risk to low-risk behaviors can have great impact on cardiovascular health Akesson said.
However the best thing one can do is to adopt healthy lifestyle choices early in Life story Source:
The above story is provided based on materials by American College of Cardiology. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
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