#New formula assigns dollar value to natural resourcesimagine that you are considering selling stocks that you own in a company.
former measurement methods have lacked necessary inputs from experts from various disciplines resulting in vast gaps of information said Joshua Abbott associate professor at ASU's School of Sustainability who coauthored the study with Eli
During their research Abbott and Fenichel found that the value of preserving live reef fish was more than $3 a pound in 2004 a price that jumped to almost $9 in 2007 after policymakers implemented management reforms that incentivized conservation.
either enhance or detract from its value said Abbott. According to him what goes unmeasured often goes unvalued.
Implications for sustainable policymakingin assigning a dollar value to natural capital Abbott and Fenichel's approach will have widespread implications for policymakers
when the previous generation received them said Abbott. As humans we are not going to have zero impact on the environment
#Limiting carbs could reduce breast cancer recurrence in women with positive IGF1 receptordartmouth researchers have found that reducing carbohydrate intake could reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence among women
whose tumor tissue is positive for the IGF-1 receptor. The study Risk of Breast cancer Recurrence Associated with Carbohydrate Intake
and Tissue Expression of IGFI Receptor will appear in the July issue of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention.
There is a growing body of research demonstrating associations between obesity diabetes and cancer risk said lead author Jennifer A. Emond an instructor in the Department of Community and Family Medicine at the Geisel School of medicine at Dartmouth College.
There are similarities between the biological pathways that underlie all of these conditions and there is some evidence to suggest that over-activation of the insulin/insulin-like growth factor axis which increases the availability of IGF1 in the blood may relate to a poor prognosis among breast cancer survivors.
Receptors for IGF1 have been found in breast tumor tissue and expression of those receptors may contribute to treatment resistance among breast cancer survivors.
Since diet can influence insulin activation the researchers wondered whether diet could impact breast cancer prognosis based on expression of the IGF1 receptor in the primary breast tumor tissue.
Using an unusual approach this study assessed the combined association of two factors implicated in tumor growth--carbohydrate intake
and IGF1 receptor status--to test whether activating the insulin/insulin-like growth-factor axis can impact breast cancer
Since carbohydrates stimulate the biological pathway that can increase concentrations of IGF1 the researchers focused on carbohydrate intake.
The women they studied were part of a larger intervention trial called the Women's Healthy Eating
and Living (WHEL) study conducted between 2001 and 2007. We found an association between increased breast cancer recurrence in women with a primary breast cancer tumor that was positive for the IGF1 receptor
which is consistent with other studies said Emond. We further found that a decreased carbohydrate intake was associated with decreased breast cancer recurrence for these women.
This is the first study to suggest that it might be possible to personalize recommended diets for breast cancer survivors based on the molecular characteristics of their primary tumor.
Further research is needed to confirm these findings and Emond notes that breast cancer survivors should not be concerned about dramatically lowering their carbohydrate intake based on this study.
There are still many unanswered questions regarding this study including what type of carbohydrate-containing foods may be the most important foods that breast cancer survivors should limit she said.
Breast cancer survivors should continue to follow a plant-based dietary pattern as suggested by the American Association for Cancer Research and the American Cancer Association
which means eating lots of fiber rich vegetables legumes and fruits; consuming whole grains and also limiting refined grains starchy vegetables and added sugar.
It could happen with new plant-breeding toolsince the first plant genome sequence was obtained for the plant Arabidopsis in 2000 scientists have sequenced gene everything from cannabis to castor bean.
Dr. Alexandra-Maria Klein and her colleagues from the USA. The team published articles presenting their findings in the journals Plant Biology and PLOS ONE.
#The ugly truth about summer allergiesas if a runny nose and red eyes weren't enough to ruin your warm weather look summer allergies can gift you with even more than you've bargained for this year.
Summer allergies can cause severe symptoms for some sufferers and can be just as bad as the spring and fall seasons said allergist Michael Foggs MD president of the American College of Allergy Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI).
Symptoms aren't always limited to the hallmark sneezing runny nose and watery eyes. Black eyes lines across the nose and other cosmetic symptoms can occur.
Even if you've never before had allergies they can suddenly strike at any age and time of year.
You might want to consider visiting your board-certified allergist if these undesirable signs accompany your sniffle and sneeze.
According to the ACAAI pollen mold and insect stings are common allergy culprits during the summer months.
But fresh produce such as celery apples and melons can also cause allergy symptoms. This is known as food pollen syndrome cross-reacting allergens found in both pollen and raw fruits vegetables and some tree nuts.
Summer allergy symptoms can easily be mistaken for colds food intolerances or other ailments said Dr. Foggs.
If your symptoms are persistent and last for more than two weeks you should see your allergist for proper testing diagnosis and treatment.
Finding and treating the source of your suffering can also clear up other unwanted symptoms. Before turning to over-the-counter antihistamines and nasal sprays for relief allergy sufferers should speak with an allergist to ensure medication is right for them
and enough to combat symptoms. For more information about seasonal allergies and to locate an allergist in your area visit Allergyandasthmarelief. org.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by American College of Allergy Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
#Tomato pill improves function of blood vessels in patients with cardiovascular diseasea daily supplement of an extract found in tomatoes may improve the function of blood vessels in patients with cardiovascular disease according to new research from the University of Cambridge.
The incidence of cardiovascular disease varies worldwide but is reduced notably in southern Europe where a'Mediterranean diet'consisting of a larger consumption of fruit vegetables and olive oil predominates.
Recent dietary studies suggest that this diet reduces the incidence of events related to the disease including heart attack
and stroke in patients at high cardiovascular risk or those who have had previously the disease.
One component of the Mediterranean diet thought to play a role in reducing this risk is lycopene a powerful antioxidant
which is ten times more potent than Vitamin e. Lycopene is found in tomatoes and other fruits and its potency appears to be enhanced
Whilst there is strong epidemiological evidence to support the role of lycopene in reducing cardiovascular risk the mechanism by
and the Cambridge university Hospitals National Health Service Foundation Trust demonstrate one mechanism by which they believe lycopene reduces the risk.
Dr Joseph Cheriyan consultant clinical pharmacologist & physician at Addenbrooke's Hospital and Associate Lecturer at the University of Cambridge says:
and other fruit as a component--is good for our cardiovascular health. But so far it's been a mystery
The researchers carried out a randomised double blind placebo controlled interventional trial investigating the effects of lycopene a gold standard method of measuring the function of blood vessels called forearm blood flow
Thirty-six cardiovascular disease patients and thirty-six healthy volunteers were given either Ateronon (an off-the-shelf supplement containing 7mg of lycopene) or a placebo treatment.
As a double blind trial neither the study participants nor the researchers dispensing the pills were aware
which treatment was being provided. The patients with cardiovascular disease were all on statins (cholesterol-lowering drugs.
However despite this they still had impaired a relatively function of the endothelium--the inner lining of blood vessels--compared to healthy volunteers.
Endothelial function predicts future events so having a healthy endothelium is an important factor in preventing the evolution of heart disease.
The researchers found that 7mg of oral lycopene supplementation improved and normalised endothelial function in the patients but not in healthy volunteers.
Lycopene improved the widening of the blood vessels by over a half (53%)compared to baseline in those taking the pill after correction for those who took the placebo;
constriction of the blood vessels is one of the key factors that can lead to heart attack and stroke.
We've shown quite clearly that lycopene improves the function of blood vessels in cardiovascular disease patients adds Dr Cheriyan.
It reinforces the need for a healthy diet in people at risk from heart disease and stroke.
A daily'tomato pill'is not a substitute for other treatments but may provide added benefits when taken alongside other medication.
However we cannot answer if this may reduce heart disease--this would need much larger trials to investigate outcomes more carefully.
Professor Jeremy Pearson Associate Medical Director at The british Heart Foundation says Impaired endothelial function is known a predictor of increased risk of future heart disease.
Further work is needed to understand whether the beneficial effects seen in this small study translate into clinical benefit for at-risk patients.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Cambridge. The original story is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence.
This pathway could be a potential new target for osteoporosis treatment. In humans it is well known that vitamin deficiencies lead to stunted growth
and systemic factors play an important role in their function so it's important to unpick the multitude of biological factors that can affect their proliferation says Dr Pablo Roman-Garcia a first author from the Wellcome Trust Sanger
Giving the mother a single injection of Vitamin b12 during pregnancy was enough to prevent stunted growth and the onset of osteoporosis in the offspring.
and that taurine plays an important role in bone formation Dr Vidya Velagapudi Head of the Metabolomics Unit at the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland.
While the focus of this study was the impact of maternal Vitamin b12 deficiency on offspring in mouse models there are promising parallels between these findings and data from human patients.
Samples collected by Kocaeli University Hospital Turkey from children born of nutritionally Vitamin b12-deficient mothers also showed a significant decrease in levels of Vitamin b12 and taurine.
In addition older patients with Vitamin b12 deficiency from a study by the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland displayed a statistically positive correlation suggesting that Vitamin b12 plays a key role in regulating taurine synthesis and bone formation in humans of all ages.
and studies in the clinic that allowed us to understand interactions between these organs says Dr Vijay K Yadav a senior author from the Sanger Institute.
and human beings raises the prospect that targeting this pathway through pharmacological means could be a novel approach toward an anabolic treatment of osteoporosis. Story Source:
Diets that do not provide adequate amounts of micronutrients lead to a variety of diseases that affect most parts of the human body.
Selenium deficiency can lead to diseases that weaken heart muscles and cause breakdown of cartilage. It can also give rise to hypothyroidism
since selenium is required a chemical in the production of thyroid hormone. Warkentin concludes Increased production and consumption of grain legume crops should be encouraged by agriculturalists and dietitians around the world.
Since grain legume crops don't require nitrogen-based fertilizers which are derived from fossil fuels they are very sustainable.
However the study published in the on-line journal Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology also determined that lower oxygen levels in the water known as hypoxia
and increased acidification actually increased how toxic some of the pesticides were. Such climate variables should be considered
when using these pesticides in the coastal zone the study concluded. What we found is that larval oysters
if their ecosystem is suffering from local climate stressors like hypoxia and acidification said the study's lead author Marie Delorenzo Ph d. NOAA environmental physiology
This is compounded by a lack of data on the toxicity of mosquito insecticides for these shellfish.
In addition to causing painful itchy bumps to people mosquito bites can transmit serious diseases such as malaria dengue fever
The study sought to address a lack of toxicity data for mosquito control pesticide effects on shellfish early life stages.
The research team examined the toxicity of four mosquito control pesticides (naled resmethrin permethrin and methoprene) to larval and juvenile life stages of hard clams (Mercenaria mercenaria) and Eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica.
Naled an organophosphate chemical was the most toxic compound in oyster larvae while resmethrin was the most toxic compound in clam larvae.
Decreased swimming activity was observed after four days in larval oysters and decreased growth was found in juvenile clams and oysters after 21 days.
which compared the toxicity thresholds to concentrations expected in the environment the researchers calculated a low-level of risk to clams and oysters from application of these pesticides for mosquito control.
The researchers also tested the pesticides'toxicity under climate stress conditions. The more extreme climate conditions caused increased pesticide toxicity.
The study did not address the impacts of the pesticides on other shellfish such as shrimp or lobsters.
#Rising tobacco epidemic in Asia linked to elevated risk of deatha new study estimates that tobacco smoking has been linked to approximately 2 million deaths among adult men
The study published in PLOS Medicine was led by Wei Zheng M d. Ph d. MPH professor of Medicine and director of the Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center and John Potter M d. Ph d. a member and scientific
advisor of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research center Seattle Washington. Roughly 60 percent of the world's population lives in Asia where approximately half of men are tobacco smokers.
The study's authors representing more than 3 dozen medical centers government health agencies and institutes in the U s. Asia and Europe credit this rise in smoking among Asians to aggressive product marketing by tobacco companies and a lack of education about health issues related to tobacco.
For this population-based research investigators pooled data from large cohort studies conducted in Asia
Among men who had smoked ever there was an elevated risk of death from cardiovascular disease (CVD) cancer or respiratory diseases in all of the geographic regions in 2004.
The risk of death due to any disease however varied considerably across populations with the stronger association generally found in Japan South korea Singapore
The association with cancer risk was quite consistent across study populations. Men who had smoked were nearly twice as likely to die from cancer especially lung cancer
but there was also an elevated risk of death from cancers of the head and neck esophagus stomach colorectum liver pancreas and bladder--all diseases that have been linked to smoking in previous studies according to the authors.
Men who had smoked ever tobacco were approximately 50 percent more likely to die from respiratory diseases than those who had smoked not.
While women in most Asian regions are far less likely to smoke than men the study also found an increased risk of death from cancer CVD and respiratory diseases among East Asian women.
Approximately 16.7 percent of lung cancer deaths in East Asian women at least 45 years old were attributable to tobacco smoking in 2004
while for men this number approached 63.2 percent. Our study showed a clear dose-response relationship between the length of time someone smoked
and the number of packs they smoked known as pack-years and the risk of death from all causes said Zheng.
Tobacco smoking has reached now epidemic proportions in Asia and it is likely with the maturation of this epidemic
and the lack of effective tobacco control efforts smokers will continue to face an increased risk of death from cancer and other diseases.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Vanderbilt University Medical center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference e
#More than just a hill of beans: Phaseolus genome lends insights into nitrogen fixationit doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people doesn't add up to a hill of beans in this crazy world Humphrey Bogart famously said in the movie Casablanca.
They found dense clusters of genes related to disease resistance within the chromosomes. They also identified a handful of genes involved in moving nitrogen around.
Improvement of common bean will require a more fundamental understanding of the genetic basis of how it responds to biotic and abiotic stresses the team concluded.
and The americas via trade citrus is now under attack from citrus greening an insidious emerging infectious disease that is destroying entire orchards.
To help defend citrus against this disease and other threats researchers worldwide are mobilizing to apply genomic tools
and how they respond to disease and other stresses. In a study published in the June 2014 edition of Nature Biotechnology an international consortium of researchers from the United states France Italy Spain
if one tree is susceptible to disease they all are. By inferring the past hybridization events that gave rise to these common citrus varieties
--either in the wild populations before domestication or in early undocumented human-directed breeding efforts--the team hopes to enable strategies for improving citrus including resistance to greening and other diseases.
Another was the sweet orange genome produced jointly by researchers at the DOE JGI the University of Florida and 454 Life sciences a Roche company.
which could lead to crops that are more resistant to disease and stresses such as environmental changes.
#Vitamin d and the nursing mothereveryone seems to agree that Vitamin d is important throughout life. This is certainly as true in the first year of life as it is later on.
in addition to its role in calcium metabolism this critical nutrient reduces both the risk of current infections and the late-life development of such autoimmune diseases as multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes.
Both the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) agree that Vitamin d intake during the first year of life should be 400 IU/d. My own estimation of the requirement (for different ages
Human milk in most nursing mothers contains very little Vitamin d. Infant formulas from various manufacturers all contain some added Vitamin d in amounts calculated to be sufficient to meet an infant's needs.
or formula fed receive their 400 IU/d as pediatric drops. Unfortunately this recommendation while appropriate is followed not often.
Nursing mothers have so little Vitamin d in their own bodies that there is little or none left over to put into their milk.
There is one important proviso for nursing mothers concerning the needed intake. Those who live in North america
and the official IOM recommendation for nursing mothers i e. only 400 IU/d--the same intake for her as IOM recommends for her baby (whose body weight is less than 10%of her own).
The IOM if it were to be explicit about its current recommendations would be telling nursing mothers something like this:
And those of us who got Vitamin d by neither route were increased at risk of a whole host of Vitamin d-related disorders most obvious and most easily recognized being rickets.
The bony deformities of rickets were common a century ago in Europe North america and East asia and were eradicated largely in growing children by use of cod liver oil and in the US by the introduction of Vitamin d fortification of milk in the 1930s.
Fortunately growing children can repair some of the bone deformities of rickets if they are given Vitamin d soon enough.
But repairing rickets while a good and necessary thing to do is not sufficient. It is too late
by the time we recognize the deformities of rickets to ensure maximal protection against the autoimmune diseases (for example) for which susceptibility is determined mainly in the first year of life.
Why not rely on giving nursing infants Vitamin d drops as the AAP recommends? Two reasons: 1) It's been tried
An adequate intake for nursing mothers as noted earlier is not the 400 IU/d the IOM recommends
and new ways of thinking about and monitoring the effects of environmental stresses on the reproductive process.
Further studies using this resource could reveal new insights to diseases that affect sheep. Researchers from the University of Edinburgh's Roslin Institute which receives strategic funding from the Biotechnology
Utah State university and Baylor College of Medicine in the US; and The Roslin Institute. The BBSRC-funded ARK-Genomics facility--which is part of Edinburgh Genomics at the University of Edinburgh--provided a substantial body of sequence data including information on
They found that freely foraging bumblebees soon learnt to differentiate between rewarding (sucrose solution providing) and aversive (quinine solution providing) artificial'flowers'with two different polarization patterns.
Both pollinator and plant fitness is greatly dependent on the ability of pollinators to discriminate flowers accurately
The weak environmental reforms in the CAP put the fate of Europe's declining biodiversity at the hands of the individual member states said Dr Guy Pe'er lead author from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research
when properly implemented these are included not as options under the new compulsory greening elements said Dr Lynn Dicks a co-author from the Department of Zoology in the University of Cambridge.
But what we're looking to give us even more information is multispectral cameras that can give us imagery in other wavelengths such as near-infrared to help us identify areas of crop stress.
or reflecting light differently an indication that the plants are under some type of stress such as pests disease or nutrient deficiencies.
overall healthnutrition is vital to a person's oral health--and therefore to their overall health.
Collaboration between registered dietitian nutritionists dietetic technicians registered and oral health-care professionals is recommended for health promotion disease prevention
The practice paper Oral Health and Nutrition has been published on the Academy's website for Academy members
This practice paper supports the Academy's position paper on oral health and nutrition published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics in May 2013.
It is the position of the Academy that nutrition is an integral component of oral health.
and nutritional factors that may affect a person's oral health. Health-care professionals should address the importance of food choices to help ensure optimal oral health by explaining how oral health status can affect their food intake.
The multifaceted interactions between diet nutrition and oral health in practice education and research in both dietetics and dentistry merit collaborative efforts to ensure comprehensive care for patients and clients according to the practice paper's authors.
The practice paper encourages food and nutrition practitioners to educate their patients and clients on important aspects of nutritional health that lead to oral health:
â#¢Consuming fresh fruits vegetables and dairy foods such as milk cheese and yogurt without added sugar helps reduce an individual's risk of cavities. â#¢Consuming fewer foods
and cavities. â#¢Seeking guidance from registered dietitian nutritionists about healthy food choices and regular oral health care can help improve nutritional and oral health status. The paper is online at:
grown in pigsone of the biggest challenges for medical researchers studying the effectiveness of stem cell therapies is that transplants
and grafts by host bodies is a huge hurdle for medical researchers said R. Michael Roberts Curators Professor of Animal Science and Biochemistry and a researcher in the Bond Life sciences Center.
By establishing that these pigs will support transplants without the fear of rejection we can move stem cell therapy research forward at a quicker pace.
Many medical researchers prefer conducting studies with pigs because they are more anatomically similar to humans than other animals such as mice
and scale of humans than other animals and they respond to health threats similarly. This means that research in pigs is more likely to have results similar to those in humans for many different tests and treatments.
Hopefully this means that we are one step closer to therapies and treatments for a number of debilitating human diseases.
Access to these trees can save about half the water a koala would need to keep cool on a hot day lead researcher Dr Natalie Briscoe from the University of Melbourne said.
Access to cool tree trunks would significantly reduce the amount of heat stress for koalas. Co-author Dr Michael Kearney said the findings were important as climate change is bringing about more extreme weather.
Researchers used a portable weather station on a long pole to measure what the koalas were experiencing in the places they chose to sit compared to other places available to them.
When we took the heat imagery it dramatically confirmed our idea that'tree hugging'was an important cooling behavior in extreme heat Dr Michael Kearney said.
#Chemicals found that treat citrus greening in the laba University of Florida research team is cautiously optimistic after finding a possible treatment in the lab for citrus greening a disease devastating Floridaâ##s $9 billion
Their research was published in late April by the online open access journal PLOS Pathogens. Gonzalez and Lorca are UF associate professors in the microbiology and cell science department part of UFÂ##s Institute of food and agricultural sciences.
Benzbromarone is used typically to treat gout in humans. Citrus greening first enters the tree via a tiny bug the Asian citrus psyllid
The disease starves the tree of nutrients damages its roots and the tree produces fruits that are green and misshapen unsuitable for sale as fresh fruit or for juice.
The disease has affected already millions of citrus trees in North america and could wipe out the industry in the next decade
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