Grasses take up this toxic heavy metal which is eaten then by the cattle and sheep that graze them.
if cadmium concentrations rise to unsafe levels in meat and dairy products human health and New zealand's agricultural economy could be jeopardized.
Robinson's research can also be applied worldwide to help with cadmium contamination. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by American Society of Agronomy (ASA) Crop science Society of America (CSSA) Soil science Society of.
The surprise according to Dr. Coe was the importance of drought. The forest didn't burn much in average years but burned extensively in drought years.
According to Dr. Coe We tend to think only about average conditions but it is the non-average conditions we have to worry about.
and makes them vulnerable to escaped fires said Dr. Macedo. These fragmented forests are more likely to be invaded by flammable grasses
According to lead-author Dr. Paulo Brando This study shows that fires are already degrading large areas of forests in Southern Amazonia
None of the models used to evaluate future Amazon forest health include fire so most predictions grossly underestimate the amount of tree death
and overestimate overall forest health said Dr. Coe. The results of this project show that extreme droughts may interact with fires to push Amazonian forests beyond a tipping point that may abruptly increase tree mortality and change vegetation over large areas.
which seeks to identify the defect in T-cell activation--an immune response used to fight foreign antigens--during microgravity exposure.
and results in a significantly reduced ability to fight infection and disease. The reasoning for this is not understood fully
but these same types of changes in immune response are found to occur in healthy crew members during spaceflight.
and treating a range of autoimmune diseases such as arthritis and diabetes. Identifying this defect may someday inhibit the decline of the immune system as a normal part of the aging process.
Enteric disease in pigs has turned into a huge huge problem and we're developing all kinds of new tests to address the old problems
but also to address the new diseases that are just destroying everything said Dick Hesse director of diagnostic virology at the lab and professor of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology.
of which have entered the United states for the first time--porcine epidemic diarrhea virus and delta coronavirus. Swine specialists and molecular diagnosticians at the Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory have developed tests to detect which virus is infecting the pigs.
If you know what they've been exposed to and how high the immunity is you can make adjustments on how you treat the virus Hesse said.
Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus has killed already an estimated 6 million pigs. The Kansas State university laboratory is one of only four in the United states with the new tests to identify these diseases.
The researchers hope the tests will stop the spread of these diseases before they become endemic.
They're management tools Hesse said. With enough information you can make informed decisions and minimize the impact of the disease.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Kansas State university. The original article was written by Lindsey Elliott.
Dr. Natia Kopaliani Dr. David Tarkhnishvili and colleagues from the Institute of Ecology at Ilia State university in Georgia and from the Tbilisi Zoo in Georgia used a range of genetic techniques to extract
The study was undertaken as part of Dr. Kopaliani's work exploring human-wolf conflict in Georgia
Climate change is expected also to intensify several stresses that forests already face such as damaging insect pests and diseases drought and wildfire.
#Green space keeps you from feeling blueif you start feeling better as spring begins pushing up its tender shoots you might be living proof of a trend discovered in data from the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin:
Across neighborhoods of Wisconsin from the North Woods to the cities the results are striking says Dr. Kristen Malecki assistant professor of population health sciences at the UW School of medicine and Public health.
Higher levels of green space were associated with lower symptoms of anxiety depression and stress. The study published recently in the International Journal of Environmental Research
and Public health combines mental-health data from the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin (SHOW) and Landsat 5 satellite data from July 2009 that analyzed how much vegetation was present in each of the SHOW census blocks.
About 2500 Wisconsin residents from 229 neighborhoods answered an assessment that asked them to rate their symptoms of depression anxiety and stress.
The research team which was led by also Dr. Kirsten Beyer of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee adjusted the results to make sure they weren't confounded by race age income level education marital status employment and other factors.
They found that across all strata of society people who lived in a neighborhood with less than 10 percent tree canopy were much more likely to report symptoms of depression stress and anxiety.
and reduces mental fatigue. This idea is also the theme of the book Last Child in the Woods
It also suggests a relatively simple solution to improving the mental health of poor urban neighborhoods:
The greening of neighborhoods could be a simple solution to reducing stress says Malecki. If you want to feel better go outside.
Research Supportthe SHOW project is supported by grants from the Wisconsin Partnership Program the National institutes of health (IRC2HL101468-01) and the UW Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (KL2-RR025012.
This research was supported also by the Clinical and Translational Research Institute of Southeast Wisconsin (NIH UL1RR031973.
which releases toxic hydrogen cyanide to keep the kernels from being eaten. Wheat seeds are coated with substances that also form hydrocyanic acid
and a stomach like a cow while still another the Abbott's Booby breeds only on Christmas Island.
#Mercury contamination threatens Antarctic birdsmercury contamination in the Antarctic and Subantarctic affects bird populations reveal researchers from the Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizã and from the'Littoral Environnement et Sociã tã s'Laboratory (CNRS/Universitã de
This is the first time that toxicological measurements have been combined with a population study carried out over such a long period in the Antarctic and Subantarctic.
In the Polar regions many seabirds such as skuas were known to accumulate this toxic element at high levels in their tissues.
This could be due to the fact that in Adã lie Land the more severe environmental conditions combined with the increasing presence of other pollutants (pesticides PCBS) magnify the impact of mercury contamination.
if mercury contamination continues to increase skua populations could decline in the long term. The scientists call for further toxicological and demographic studies on other southern species
. In addition they are carrying out similar studies to measure the effects on bird populations of'conventional'pollutants such as pesticides
In addition to the stresses of a warming climate they may face competition and displacement from more cosmopolitan birds like blue jays which tend to come along with residential development.
Dr Steve Rothwell from Vitacress says: The results open the door to exciting further studies across a wider range of crops
#Chips with olestra cause body toxins to dip, study findsaccording to a clinical trial led by University of Cincinnati researchers a snack food ingredient called olestra has been found to speed up the removal of toxins in the body.
High levels of PCBS in the body are associated with an increase in hypertension and diabetes.
The findings showed that the rate of PCB disappearance from the participants that ate olestra was markedly faster during the one-year trial than that before the trial says principal investigator Ronald Jandacek Phd an adjunct professor in the department of pathology
and laboratory medicine at UC's College of Medicine. Olestra (brand name Olean) is a nonabsorbable fat product that Procter & gamble developed in collaboration with UC
Early reports of indigestion issues however prompted reformulation of the product prior to its market entry.
and remarkably it has revealed a potential health benefit of removing PCBS. Our early work with animal studies predicted that we would see this effect in people Jandacek says of the clinical trial.
Twenty-eight residents Anniston Ala. who had known high levels of PCBS participated in the yearlong study.
and the solubilization reduces absorption of these compounds into the body says Jandacek who was the principal investigator on a 2005 study that found that olestra removed toxins from animals.
The above story is provided based on materials by University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
against muscle atrophy. Muscle atrophy or wasting is caused by aging and a variety of illnesses and injuries including cancer heart failure
and orthopedic injuries to name a few. It makes people weak and fatigued impairs physical activity
and quality of life and predisposes people to falls and fractures. The condition affects more than 50 million Americans annually including 30 million people over age 60 and often forces people into nursing homes or rehabilitation facilities.
Muscle atrophy causes many problems for people their families and the health care system in general says Christopher Adams M d. Ph d. UI associate professor of internal medicine and molecular physiology and biophysics.
However we lack an effective way to prevent or treat it. Exercise certainly helps but it's not enough
and not very possible for many people who are injured ill or. More muscle less fatin a new study published online April 9 in the Journal of Biological Chemistry Adams searched for a small molecule compound that might be used to treat muscle atrophy.
He zeroed in on tomatidine using a systems biology tool called the Connectivity Map which was developed at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard university.
Adams discovered that tomatidine generates changes in gene expression that are essentially opposite to the changes that occur in muscle cells
when people are affected by muscle atrophy. After identifying tomatidine Adams and his team tested its effects on skeletal muscle.
And most importantly they found that tomatidine prevented and treated muscle atrophy. Interestingly although mice fed tomatidine had larger muscles their overall body weight did not change due to a corresponding loss of fat suggesting that the compound may also have potential for treating obesity.
The company recently received funding from the National institutes of health to develop strategies for preserving muscle mass
and ursolic acid as natural leads for new medicines targeting muscle atrophy and obesity. Story Source:
One of the last strongholds for Western chimpanzeeswhen Liberia enters the news it is usually in the context of civil war economic crisis poverty or a disease outbreak such as the recent emergence of Ebola in West Africa.
This combination of large-scale habitat destruction and high hunting rates may seriously jeopardize the long-term survival of Liberia's wildlife populations says Dr. Annika Hillers co-author of the article and conservation scientist for The Royal Society
or pathogens that can affect consumer health and shorten the shelf life of the product. However microbes--known as thermoduric--can survive pasteurization according to South dakota State university dairy science professor Sanjeev Anand.
In addition some spore formers produce harmful toxins. Rounding up bad guysfor nearly five years Anand
The study's lead author graduate student Alysha Coppola of UC Irvine also conducted an extensive chemical analysis of the types
#Synthetic gene circuits pump up cell signals in study of neurodegenerative diseasessynthetic genetic circuitry created by researchers at Rice university is helping them see for the first time how to regulate cell mechanisms that degrade the misfolded proteins implicated in Parkinson's Huntington
's and other diseases. The Rice lab of chemical and biomolecular engineer Laura Segatori has designed a sophisticated circuit that signals increases in the degradation of proteins by the cell's ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS). The research appears online today in Nature Communications.
The UPS is essential to a variety of fundamental cellular processes including the cell cycle DNA repair immune response cell death and the degradation of misfolded and damaged proteins.
These aggregates can form plaques as often seen in the brains of people with neurodegenerative diseases.
which are associated with the development of a number of human diseases. The Deg-On circuit couples proteasomal degradation of an engineered tetracycline repressor to an easily detectable fluorescent signal.
The tetracycline repressor is engineered to function as a UPS substrate; it essentially mimics a misfolded protein.
Normally enhanced degradation would dampen the output signal but this genetic circuit makes it possible to link enhanced degradation to an increase in output.
The engineered repressor can still be regulated by the antibiotic tetracycline which allows calibrating the system for the detection of even minimal activation of UPS degradation.
so that adding tetracycline further boosts the signal. The Rice team did extensive computer modeling of Deg-On to improve its sensitivity
which is a self-activation loop for the tetracycline repressor in our second circuit (an enhanced Deg-On) Zhao said.
or strategies that could enhance degradation not only for the study and treatment of misfolding diseases but also for a variety of other applications.
The National Science Foundation the Welch Foundation and the Sid W. Richardson Foundation through a Rice Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering Medical Innovations Award Grant supported the research.
#Kitchens are source of multi-drug resistant bacteriaafter handling raw poultry hands of food preparers
and cutting boards remain a source of transmission for multi-drug resistant bacteria such as E coli that produce extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLS).
The study of household and hospital kitchens was published in the May issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.
The spread of multi-drug resistant bacteria has been associated with the hospital setting but these findings suggest that transmission of drug-resistant E coli occurs both in the hospital
and households said Andreas Widmer MD lead author of the study. Our findings emphasize the importance of hand hygiene
Researchers from University Hospital in Basel Switzerland collected and examined 298 cutting boards (154 from University Hospital
and 144 from private households) after preparation of various meats (i e. poultry beef/veal pork lamb game
They also found that 50 percent of the hospital kitchen gloves were contaminated with this drug-resistant E coli.
The above story is provided based on materials by Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
WHO reportlarge graphic health warnings on tobacco packets in China would increase awareness about the harms of smoking help to cut smoking rates
These are the key findings from a new report Tobacco health warnings in China--Evidence of effectiveness
--or'graphic'--health warnings on all tobacco packages in China Dr Bernhard Schwartlã¤nder WHO Representative in China said.
This means the average smoker is exposed to a health warning more than 6200 times in one year simply through the act of getting each cigarette from the pack.
therefore an incredibly effective way of warning smokers about the health hazards of smoking and encouraging them to quit.
or enforce explained Dr Schwartlã¤nder. The report highlights important international evidence from the ITC Project on the implementation of large pictorial warnings in other countries and areas.
Our research in China shows that the current text-only Chinese health warnings are very ineffective.
Revising the current health warnings in line with THE WHO FCTC and its Guidelines would increase awareness about smoking-related harms in China
and encourage Chinese smokers to quit. With its more than 300 million smokers there is an urgent need for China to introduce policies that the evidence shows work Professor Fong added.
and full implementation of THE WHO FCTC would help reduce the growing burden of non-communicable disease in China.
Tobacco-related noncommunicable diseases pose a serious threat to the health and life of the Chinese people also creating a heavy burden on socioeconomic development said Dr Liang Xiaofeng Deputy Director of the Chinese Center for disease control and Prevention.
Increasing awareness about the health harms of smoking is particularly important in China where awareness is currently poor
and there is a tradition of people presenting cigarettes to one another and giving cigarettes as gifts.
Educating people about the harm of tobacco through graphic warnings on cigarette packages would be one of the most direct and effective ways to reduce tobacco use Dr Liang added.
Stronger warning labels on tobacco packages are also likely to be popular with the public according to Dr Wang Ke'an Director of the Thinktank Research center for Health Development.
Following the exhibitions 85%of people surveyed were supportive of pictorial warning labels on cigarette packages said Dr Wang.
and to protect public health in our country. Graphic pack warnings work to educate everyone--young old children
and importantly people in disadvantaged areas who may be illiterate Dr Wang added. THE WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control FCTC) calls for warning labels covering 50%or more of the tobacco pack.
by improving public awareness of tobacco harms stronger tobacco pack warnings would help to reinforce this policy said THE WHO's Dr Schwartlã¤nder.
if implemented will help China to do just that Dr Schwartlã¤nder concluded. The report is available at:
Put under stress through physical exertion--such as long-distance walking or running--they gain in strength as the fibres are added
or redistributed according to where strains are highest. The ability of bone to adapt to loading is shown by analysis of the skeletons of modern athletes
whose bones show remarkably rapid adaptation to both the intensity and direction of strains. Because the structure of human bones can inform us about the lifestyles of the individuals they belong to they can provide valuable clues for biological anthropologists looking at past cultures.
Work published by biological anthropologist Dr Colin Shaw (also Cambridge university) has enabled Macintosh to interpret this male decline in relation to Cambridge university students Using Shaw's study of bone rigidity among modern Cambridge university undergraduates Macintosh
#Spring allergies linked to specific food allergies, says specialistthe Midwest's high tree pollen count is primarily birch and oak bad news for carrot celery and almond lovers.
or your gums and throat itch says Joseph Leija MD allergist who performs the Gottlieb Allergy Count the official allergy count for the Midwest.
The spring allergy count in the Midwest is high in birch and oak which usually triggers reactions to carrots celery almonds apples peaches and pears in those with sensitive systems.
More than 45 million Americans suffer from seasonal allergies primarily occurring in spring and fall according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.
Those with grass allergies should avoid melon tomatoes and oranges Leija warns. And ragweed allergies are linked also to allergies to bananas cantaloupe cucumber zucchini and chamomile tea.
While many people experience minor reactions to certain foods that are basically harmless others have extreme reactions.
Difficulty breathing and itchy rashes are signs to go to a board-certified allergist or in extreme cases straight to the emergency room says Leija who has been performing the Gottlieb Allergy Count for more than two decades.
Dr. Leija who normally conducts the Gottlieb Allergy Count from March to October began the count later than usual this year due to Chicago's longer winter.
The trees have been slow to bloom this year due to the inconsistent warm and cold temperatures he says.
The recent rains coupled with the sun has caused a huge growth spurt in the trees
which means post nasal drip congestion and headaches in sufferers. An octogenarian Dr. Leija rises before dawn to collect specimens from his pollen-catching-machine atop a building on the Gottlieb Memorial Hospital campus to deliver the count to the public by 7 a m. You cannot control the weather
but you can control your environment he says. Take your allergy medication and see your allergist before you experience health problems.
Dr. Leija also advises: Â Wash your hair before sleep to remove trapped pollens. Â Rinse your nostrils lightly with saline solution daily to remove irritants.
 Keep windows closed to protect inside air from contaminants.  Run the air conditioner and air purifier to remove pollutants.
 Leave outdoor-exposed gear such as shoes and backpacks on the porch steps to preserve interior air.
 Cover mouth with a handkerchief or mask when doing spring yard cleanups including raking edging
The above story is provided based on materials by Loyola University Health System. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length n
and therefore the risk of cardiovascular disease a new study has found. However most people in North america would have to more than double their consumption of these foods known as pulses to reach that target said the researchers at St michael's Hospital.
The study led by Dr. John Sievenpiper of the hospital's Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor Modification Centre was published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Dr. Sievenpiper said that by eating one serving a day of pulses people could lower their LDL (bad) cholesterol by five per cent.
He said that would translate into a five to six per cent reduction in the risk of cardiovascular disease the leading cause of death in the United states. One serving of pulses is 130 grams
or  cup yet North americans on average eat less than half a serving a day. Pulses have a low glycemic index (meaning that they are foods that break down slowly)
and tend to reduce or displace animal protein as well as bad fats such as trans fat in a dish or meal.
We have a lot of room in our diets for increasing our pulse intake to derive the cardiovascular benefits Dr. Sievenpiper said.
Dr. Sievenpiper's meta-analysis reviewed 26 randomized controlled trials that included 1037 people. Men had greater reduction in LDL cholesterol compared with women perhaps
Some study participants reported stomach upset such as bloating gas diarrhea or constipation but these symptoms subsided over the course of the study.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by St michael's Hospital. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference n
#Putting a price on ecological restorationputting a price on clean water and soil fertility helps the UN set ecological restoration targets for degraded
or low-fat milk may delay the progression of osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee. Results published in the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) journal Arthritis Care
& Research show that women who ate cheese saw an increase in knee OA progression.
OA is a common degenerative joint disease that causes pain and swelling of joints in the hand hips or knee.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) OA affects nearly 27 million Americans age 25 and older with knee OA being more prevalent and severe in women.
While medical evidence points to obesity joint injury and repetitive use from some sports as risk factors for incident knee OA risks associated with OA progression remain unclear.
Milk consumption plays an important role in bone health explains lead author Bing Lu M d. Dr. P. H. from Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston Mass.
For the present study 2148 participants (3064 knees) with knee OA were recruited for the Osteoarthritis Initiative.
Results persisted even after adjusting for disease severity body mass index (BMI) and dietary factors.
Our findings indicate that women who frequently drink milk may reduce the progression of OA concludes Dr. Lu.
In a related editorial also published in Arthritis Care & Research Shivani Sahni Ph d. and Robert Mclean D. Sc.
which can lead to functional disability. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Wiley.
According to a study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health exposure to direct marketing is associated with increased use of tobacco.
and promotions appealing said lead author Samir Soneji Phd Norris Cotton Cancer Center researcher and assistant professor at the Geisel School of medicine at Dartmouth and the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical
Norris Cotton Cancer Center prevention experts recommend stricter security for websites and increased enforcement for direct-to-consumer marketing.
The above story is provided based on materials by Norris Cotton Cancer Centerdartmouth-Hitchcock Medical center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
The research is by Dr Derrick Bennett Nuffield Department of Population Health University of Oxford UK and colleagues.
The research looks at the results relating to IS in the global burden of disease (GBD) study published in 2012
Dr Bennett says: Tobacco control policies that target both smoking initiation and smoking cessation can play an important role in the prevention of IS.
Dr Bennett adds: Worryingly the estimated IS deaths attributable to tobacco consumption in China Russia
Dr Bennett underlines the major importance of tobacco smoking as a risk factor for stroke highlighting a recent study by Peters et al. showing that the risk for IS was around 50%higher in smokers (men and women) versus nonsmokers.
not only for reducing IS burden but also the burden from other chronic noncommunicable diseases. Story Source:
The above story is provided based on materials by BMJ-British Medical Journal. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
#What bank voles can teach us about prion disease transmission and neurodegenerationwhen cannibals ate brains of people who died from prion disease many of them fell ill with the fatal neurodegenerative disease as well.
Likewise when cows were fed protein contaminated with bovine prions many of them developed mad cow disease. On the other hand transmission of prions between species for example from cows sheep or deer to humans is--fortunately--inefficient and only a small proportion of exposed recipients become sick within their lifetimes.
A study published on April 3rd in PLOS Pathogens takes a close look at one exception to this rule:
bank voles appear to lack a species barrier for prion transmission and their universal susceptibility turns out to be both informative and useful for the development of strategies to prevent prion transmission.
Prions are misfolded toxic versions of a protein called Prp which in its normal form is present in all mammalian species that have been examined.
Toxic prions are infectious; they can induce existing properly folded Prp proteins to convert into the disease-associated prion form.
Prion diseases are rare but they share features with more common neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease.
Trying to understand the unusual susceptibility of bank voles to prions from other species Stanley Prusiner Joel Watts Kurt Giles
and colleagues from the University of California in San francisco USA first tested whether the susceptibility is an intrinsic property of the voles'Prp
When these mice get older some of them spontaneously develop neurologic illness but in the younger ones the bank vole Prp is in its normal benign folded state.
The scientists then exposed young mice to toxic misfolded prions from 8 different species including human cattle elk sheep and hamster.
They found that all of these foreign-species prions can cause prion disease in the transgenic mice
and that the disease develops often more rapidly than it does in bank voles. The latter is likely
Because the transgenic mice develop prion disease rapidly the scientists propose that the mice will be useful tools in studying the processes by
which toxic prions convert healthy Prp and thereby destroy the brain. And because that process is similar across many neurodegenerative diseases better understanding prion disease development might have broader implications.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by PLOS. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
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