Dr Tim Osborn from UEA's Climatic Research Unit said: Our collaboration with scientists from China has been very fruitful leading to
Dr Osborn said: The most recent few decades have on average the widest rings in the 3500-year record which suggests that this may have been the wettest period perhaps associated with global warming during the last century.
and on the other occasion the orange juice contained a placebo. The tests showed that the candidates performed better on the stopping task
This makes them preferable to Ritalin and Modafinil products that students often reach for to improve their academic performance.
and doesn't need a doctor's prescription. Videoeating to stop: http://www. youtube. com/watch?
The graphics and minimal text make it a promising format to engage younger populations said lead author May May Leung Phd RD City university of New york School of Public health
After reading either a Manga comic titled Fight for Your Right to Fruit or a non-health-related newsletter children were given the choice between a healthy snack (oranges grapes apples strawberries)
And according to the recently published study the method is a natural and inexpensive way to produce broccoli that has even more health benefits
Jack Juvik a U of I crop sciences researcher explained that the combined application of two compounds both are extracted natural products from plants increased the presence of cancer-fighting agents in broccoli
and maintain the improved health-promoting properties that's always of great interest to growers he added.
Glucosinolates have been identified as potent cancer-preventative agents because of their ability to induce detoxification enzymes such as quinone reductase (QR) that detoxify
and it's about as toxic as salt. It takes very little to elevate all the desirable aspects.
but it provides a preventative approach to all the medical costs associated with degenerative diseases. These are not pills that go in
and take away or change damaged tissues but it's a way to protect people by reducing the risk they currently have to different diseases.
It won't take it away but it could prevent further damage he said. As for its impact on impending global food security concerns Juvik said any mechanisms that will improve people's health especially later in life will benefit food security.
We need to look at what mechanisms we can use to improve not only food security but the functioning of people later in their life spans.
When you look at how much the United states spends on medical costs associated with these diseases you see it's a huge burden on the economy
#New tobacco control guides developed to help communities address tobacco issuesin January of 1964 the Surgeon general released the first Report on Smoking
and Health a landmark report that linked tobacco smoke to heart disease and lung cancer and laid the foundation for tobacco control efforts in the United states
. Since then 31 Surgeon general's Reports have been released including the latest The Health Consequences of Smoking--50 Years of Progress released Jan 11.
The anniversary report specifically called for tobacco control policies to increase the price of tobacco products and implement smoke-free policies.
Tremendous progress has been made in the 50 years after the release of the first Surgeon general's Report said Douglas A. Luke Phd professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St louis and director of the Center for Public health
CPHSS in partnership with the Tobacco Control Legal Consortium a program of the Public health Law Center in St paul Minn. has published two new tobacco control guides--one on Policy Strategies
*learn from case studies of other practitioners'successes;**provide information to stakeholders to gain support for tobacco control efforts;
The health effects of tobacco use are said staggering principal investigator Sarah Moreland-Russell Phd assistant research professor and associate director of the CPHSS.
The Surgeon general's most recent report confirms that comprehensive tobacco control programs and policies are said effective she
#Clinical pharmacologist researching chronic lead intoxication in goatsthe Nile is a river in Egypt. Sometimes that river is polluted with industrial waste such as lead
Kansas State university's Ronette Gehring is an associate professor of clinical pharmacology in the of anatomy and physiology department of the university's College of Veterinary medicine.
In December 2013 the researchers published Effect of chronic lead intoxication on the distribution and elimination of amoxicillin in goats in the Journal of Veterinary Science.
The group found that lead intoxication can impair the therapeutic effectiveness of the antibiotic amoxicillin in goats.
Amoxicillin is used to treat various types of infections in animals Gehring said. The goats with lead intoxication show signs of kidney and liver damage so we had hypothesized this damage would inhibit the excretion of amoxicillin leading to higher drug concentrations in these animals.
The test involved intravenous and intramuscular administration of amoxicillin. Blood and urine samples were collected over a period of 10 weeks to measure serum protein and amoxicillin concentrations.
The protein concentrations helped indicate levels of kidney damage while the amoxicillin levels helped to demonstrate how much of the antibiotic was absorbed for therapeutic purpose.
Surprisingly the lead-intoxicated goats actually had lower concentrations of amoxicillin compared to the healthy animals.
We found that amoxicillin was disposed more quickly in the lead-intoxicated goats than in the control group Gehring said.
We believe that goats with chronic lead intoxication would therefore need more frequent administrations of amoxicillin administration for the antibiotic therapy to be as effective as it is in the control group of healthy goats.
Gehring said a literature investigation had found similar research for lead poisoning in humans but not in animal subjects.
As one of the first studies of its kind she said that the effects of lead intoxication on drug disposition still warrant further investigation.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Kansas State university. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference e
#Wasps use ancient aggression genes to create social groupsaggression-causing genes appeared early in animal evolution
or develop a disease Grozinger said. But our results show that the external environment plays a much greater role in regulating expression of genes in the brain
Genetic discovery to keep crops disease-freeaccording to John Curtin Distinguished Professor Richard Oliver Director of the Australian Centre for Necrotrophic Fungal Pathogens (ACNFP) at Curtin
For an average-sized farm of 4000 hectares this could mean an almost $500000 loss to disease per year--or about $212 million worth of damage to the wider Australian agricultural industry.
Funded by the Grains Research & development Corporation Professor Oliver and his team in conjunction with independent research provider Kalyx Australia have demonstrated that by taking away disease-sensitivity genes from the wheat germplasm
pathogens find it difficult to latch onto wheat and cause damage. Our finding will help breeders produce crops in
which disease losses are 60 to 80 per cent lower and would be a real win for farmers--they will often be able to avoid using foliar fungicides Professor Oliver said.
The key has been to supply breeders with specific proteins (we call them effectors) that the fungi use to cause disease.
For the first time our technology allows for a steady and sustained improvement in disease resistance without affecting the farmer's pocket.
when subjected to natural disease and stress pressures in the WA wheatbelt. They compared cultivars with disease-sensitivity genes to cultivars that lacked these particular genes
and were able to show that the cultivars lacking the gene showed no yield loss and in some instances increased yields in the presence of disease.
From this the team were able to conclude if a sensitivity gene was eliminated there would be associated minimal risks
and it would be a safe and straightforward strategy for improving disease resistance. Professor Oliver said this research had never been done before as direct mapping for disease resistance had led not to useful molecular markers.
Previously geneticists would infect plants that were progeny of crosses between relatively resistant and relatively susceptible parents before doing the QTL (quantitative disease-resistance gene) mapping.
But as disease resistance is multifactorial due to the several effector reactions the QTL mapping was always a bit fuzzy
and was passed therefore never on Professor Oliver said. Our research looks directly at the loci that recognise the pathogens
which can be identified readily using a process we developed earlier thereby bypassing the need for QTL mapping.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Curtin University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
This standard is about the determination of one of the major components in milk and many milk products in fact the component that accounts for over 50%of the market value of milk Dr. Harrie van den Bijgaart Chair of the ISO
and caseinate Dr. Jaap Evers Chair of the IDF Methods Standards Steering Group explained. The validation of this method for more products will also provide better guarantees to consumers that the labelled content of milk products was determined with globally standardized methodology Dr. van den Bijgaart added.
Greater harmonization around the worldthe global impact of IDF/ISO analytical methods is illustrated by the fact that many of these methods are referenced in national and regional regulations
of trade disputes resulting from differences in analytical test results continues Dr. Evers. Given the increasing global demand for milk and milk products standardization is ever more important to ensure food safety food quality and fairness in international trade.
The research offers new perspective on evolutionary biology microbiology and the production of natural gas and may shed light on climate change agriculture and human health.
and human health They live in the digestive systems of cattle and sheep where they facilitate the digestion of feed consumed in the diet.
and the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston have developed a simple highly sensitive and efficient test for the diarrheal disease cryptosporidiosis that could have great impact on global health.
whether samples taken from the stool of a patient contain genetic DNA from the parasite that causes the disease.
Diarrheal illness is a leading cause of global mortality and morbidity said Richards-Kortum director of the Rice 360ë:
Institute for Global Health Technologies. Parasites such as cryptosporidium are more common causes of prolonged diarrhea.
Current laboratory tests are not sensitive are time-consuming and require days before results are available.
A rapid affordable accurate point-of-care test could greatly enhance care for the underserved populations who are affected most by parasites that cause diarrheal illness.
A. Clinton White director of the Infectious disease Division at UTMB asked Richards-Kortum to help develop a diagnostic test for the parasite.
I wanted to combine her expertise in diagnosis with our clinical interest he said. Recent studies in Africa and South Asia by people using sophisticated techniques show this organism is a very common underappreciated cause of diarrheal disease in underresourced countries.
The parasite is common in the United states he said but less than 5 percent of an estimated 750000 cases are diagnosed every year.
Lead author Zachary Crannell a graduate student based at Rice's Bioscience Research Collaborative said the disease usually transmitted through drinking water accounts for 20 percent of childhood diarrheal deaths in developing countries.
Cryptosporidiosis is also a threat to people with HIV whose immune system is less able to fight it off he said.
In the most recent global burden-of-disease study diarrheal disease accounts for the loss of more disability-adjusted life years than any other infectious disease
and cryptosporidiosis is the second leading cause of diarrheal illness. Crannell said. Anybody if it's not treated can get dehydrated to the point of death.
or fluorescent analysis of stool samples or polymerase chain reactions (PCR) that amplify pathogen DNA are considered impractical for deployment in developing countries because of the need for expensive equipment
and enzymes tuned to amplify the pathogen of interest Crannell said. If the pathogen DNA is present these primers will amplify it billions of times to a level that we can easily detect he said.
The sample is flowed then over the detection strip which provides a positive or negative result.
While current tests might catch the disease in samples with thousands of the pathogens the Rice technique detects the presence of very few--even one--parasite in a sample.
or absence of the disease was identified correctly in 27 of 28 infected and control-group mice and all 21 humans
The research team's goal is to produce a low-cost diagnostic that may also test for the presence of several other parasites including giardia the cause of another intestinal disease.
Dr Robin Allaby of the School of Life sciences at the University of Warwick who led the study said:
It is important to know as much as we can about virus evolution as emerging infectious plant diseases are a growing threat to global food security
History tells us about the devastation caused by the emergence of disease from wild hosts in disparate countries such as the Central american origin of the oomycete that led to The irish potato famine.
It is very difficult to understand how a plant disease evolved by solely relying on recent samples
The researchers believe that the Medieval BSMV genome came from a time of rapid expansion of the plant disease in the Near east and Europe.
There it can have serious consequences for health some of them lethal. In a new study conducted in Assistant professor Melha Mellata's lab at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State university lead author Alyssa K. Stacy
In the first study of its kind they analyzed the way these structures contribute to APEC's ability to cause infection
APEC infections are a serious threat to poultry causing both systemic and localized infections collectively known as colibacillosis.
Further APEC infections may pose a risk to humans due to their zoonotic potential--their ability to infect human hosts.
A better understanding of infectious capacity (or virulence) and zoonotic potential are therefore essential for combatting these hazardous pathogens.
Stacy was an undergraduate student in Dr. Mellata's lab and was supported partialy by funding from School of Life sciences Undergraduate Research (SOLUR) ASU.
She was joined by Biodesign researchers Natalie M. Mitchell Jacob T. Maddux and Roy Curtiss III (who directs the Institute's Center for Infectious diseases and Vaccinology).
Avian Pathogenic E coli (APEC) belong to a broad group of extraintestinal pathogenic E coli (Expec) strains. Colibacillosis caused by APEC in birds leads to serious illness often attacking the avian respiratory system producing systemic
or localized infections depending on the age and gender of bird immunologic health and various environmental factors.
Because APEC and human Expec forms share important virulence characteristics possible zoonotic transmission is a serious health concern.
APEC may also provide a reservoir for virulence genes that may be acquired by human strains. Many types of bacteria produce extracellular surface fibers like ECP enabling them to adhere to one another as well as to various surfaces.
But such fibers or pili perform other vital functions particularly in the case of pathogenic bacteria Pili including those projecting from the surfaces of E coli are capable of recognizing specific host cell receptors during their initial phase of colonization.
Bacteria make further use of their pili to form cellular biofilms. Such bacterial aggregates are of clinical importance as they provide reservoirs for pathogenic organisms to persist in the host and often display increased resistance to antibiotics.
E coli common pilus (ECP) was identified originally in an Expec form known to cause neonatal meningitis in humans
but was recognized later as a component in all classes of E coli--both pathogenic and benign.
While E coli bacteria exist primarily as beneficial residents of the human intestine extraintestinal variants are responsible for diarrheal diseases like hemorrhagic colitis as well as urinary tract infections neonatal meningitis sepsis and pneumonia.
The toll of such diseases--particularly in the developing world--is substantial claiming some 2. 5 million lives per year.
With the aid of PCR methods the group tested 167 APEC strains derived from chickens
The authors stress that the results confirm that APEC and human pathogenic E coli strains share virulence traits.
and high acetate concentration have been shown to upregulate the expression of ECP in human E coli strains that cause urinary tract infections meningitis and diarrheal diseases.
In the current study an APEC strain was found to adhere to human cervical cells in a manner similar to human Expec infections.
Further the results showed that adorning APEC with anti-ECP antibodies--a process known as opsonization--could significantly inhibit bacterial adherence.
This finding suggests that ECP could be considered as a potential antigen for vaccines for both human and poultry infections.
Bacteria forming biofilms frequently display antibiotic resistance and can be tenacious foes to combat medically.
Finally the study attempted to evaluate APEC virulence in baby chicks using strains with deleted ECP genes.
In fact the potential for colonization among the ECP deletion strains was reduced particularly in the bloodstream.
and thus presents a plausible target for future therapeutics aimed at these serious infections of both humans and animals.
or off by different factors will help us understand how these bacteria cause disease. Story Source:
#Whole diet approach to lower cardiovascular risk has more evidence than low-fat dietsa study published in The American Journal of Medicine reveals that a whole diet approach which focuses on increased intake of fruits vegetables nuts
and heart disease studies conducted over the last several decades investigators found that participants directed to adopt a whole diet approach instead of limiting fat intake had a greater reduction in cardiovascular death and nonfatal myocardial infarction.
Early investigations of the relationship between food and heart disease linked high levels of serum cholesterol to increased intake of saturated fat and subsequently an increased rate of coronary heart disease.
Nearly all clinical trials in the 1960s 70s and 80s compared usual diets to those characterized by low total fat low saturated fat low dietary cholesterol
and increased polyunsaturated fats says study co-author James E. Dalen MD MPH Weil Foundation and University of Arizona College of Medicine.
However they did not reduce the incidence of myocardial infarction or coronary heart disease deaths. Carefully analyzing studies
and specifically Mediterranean-style diets are effective in preventing heart disease even though they may not lower total serum or LDL cholesterol.
--and perhaps even stronger than many of the medications and procedures that have been the focus of modern cardiology explains co-author Stephen Devries MD FACC Gaples Institute for Integrative Cardiology (Deerfield IL) and Division of Cardiology
and overall better at preventing heart disease than a blanket low-fat diet. Encouraging the consumption of olive oil over butter
The last fifty years of epidemiology and clinical trials have established a clear link between diet atherosclerosis
and cardiovascular events concludes Dr. Dalen. Nutritional interventions have proven that a'whole diet'approach with equal attention to
what is consumed as well as what is excluded is more effective in preventing cardiovascular disease than low fat low cholesterol diets.
#Study shows yogurt consumption reduces the risk of type 2 diabetesnew research published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes) shows that higher consumption of yoghurt compared with no consumption can reduce the risk of new
-onset type 2 diabetes by 28%.%Scientists at the University of Cambridge found that in fact higher consumption of low-fat fermented dairy products which include all yoghurt varieties
and some low-fat cheeses also reduced the relative risk of diabetes by 24%overall.
Lead scientist Dr Nita Forouhi from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge commented this research highlights that specific foods may have an important role in the prevention of type 2 diabetes
and are relevant for public health messages. Dairy products are an important source of high quality protein vitamins and minerals.
or low fat) and diabetes had inconclusive findings. Thus the nature of the association between dairy product intake and type 2 diabetes remains unclear prompting the authors to carry out this new investigation using much more detailed assessment of dairy product consumption than was done in past research.
The research was based on the large EPIC-Norfolk study which includes more than 25000 men and women living in Norfolk UK.
and drink consumed over a week at the time of study entry among 753 people who developed new-onset type 2 diabetes over 11 years of follow-up with 3502 randomly selected study participants.
This allowed the researchers to examine the risk of diabetes in relation to the consumption of total dairy products and also types of individual dairy products.
or total low-fat dairy was associated not with new-onset diabetes once important factors like healthier lifestyles education obesity levels other eating habits
Total milk and cheese intakes were associated also not with diabetes risk. In contrast those with the highest consumption of low-fat fermented dairy products (such as yoghurt fromage frais
and low-fat cottage cheese) were 24%less likely to develop type 2 diabetes over the 11 years compared with non-consumers.
which makes up more than 85%of these products was associated with a 28%reduced risk of developing diabetes.
A further finding was that consuming yoghurt in place of a portion of other snacks such as crisps also reduced the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
While this type of study cannot prove that eating dairy products causes the reduced diabetes risk dairy products do contain beneficial constituents such as Vitamin d calcium and magnesium.
In addition fermented dairy products may exert beneficial effects against diabetes through probiotic bacteria and a special form of Vitamin k (part of the menaquinone family) associated with fermentation.
therefore helps to provide robust evidence that consumption of low-fat fermented dairy products largely driven by yoghurt intake is associated with a decreased risk of developing future type 2 diabetes.
Dr Forouhi stated that at a time when we have a lot of other evidence that consuming high amounts of certain foods such as added sugars
and sugary drinks is bad for our health it is very reassuring to have messages about other foods like yoghurt
and low-fat fermented dairy products that could be good for our health. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Diabetologia.
'and the new research shows that pests pathogens and management issues likely play a major role in this
and has led to hypotheses that a specific novel syndrome'Colony Collapse Disorder'(CCD) is plaguing bee populations.
That the major causes of annual losses include pests (e g. the Varroa mite) pathogens (e g. viruses that these mites carry) and the need for research and advancements in management techniques available for large-scale apiaries
and pathogens play in species declines said Dr. Peter Daszak Disease Ecologist and President of Ecohealth Alliance.
We call this phenomenon'Pathogen Pollution 'and bees are no exception--the role of introduced mites
and the pathogens they carry is researched under and desperately in need of more work he added.
and resources to adapt to a swiftly growing production system said Dr. Kristine Smith Wildlife Veterinarian and Associate Director of Health and Policy at Ecohealth Alliance.
Dr. Smith continued confusion also exists around the term Colony Collapse Disorder since the media and general public often generalize by applying this term to any larger than normal annual losses.
and apparent low abundance for some species. Understandably most people have heard never of them says international team leader Dr Merel Dalebout a visiting research fellow at UNSW.
While it is closely related to the ginkgo-toothed beaked whale it is definitely not the same species says Dr Dalebout.
and we are still finding new ones so the situation with Deraniyagala's whale is not that unusual Dr Dalebout says.
both through research in which Dr Dalebout was involved. In 2002 Mesoplodon perrini or Perrin's beaked whale was described from the eastern North Pacific
of which may be harmful (such as diseases and herbivores) and some of which may be beneficial (such as mycorrhizal fungi).
It also turned out that sterilised soil (regardless of origin) inoculated with Canadian organisms showed stunted growth while Swedish inoculation improved growth.
#Clearer labels needed on drugs containing animal productsdr Kinesh Patel and Dr Kate Tatham say most medications prescribed in primary care contain animal derived products
and it is unclear whether they are suitable for vegetarians. They call for improved labeling similar to those on food to help inform doctors pharmacists and patients about the content of medicines.
And they stress that concerned patients should not stop taking their medication without consulting their doctor first.
Specific dietary preferences regarding animal products in food are common in the general population. Influences such as religion culture economic status environmental concern food intolerances and personal preferences all play a part in the foods that people choose to consume.
Yet many patients and doctors are unaware that commonly prescribed drugs contain animal products --and simply reading the list of ingredients will not make it clear
whether the product meets the patient's dietary preferences. Problem ingredients include lactose (often extracted using bovine rennet) gelatine (sourced from cows pigs
Last year a campaign to vaccinate children in Scotland against influenza was halted because of concern in the Muslim community about pork gelatine within the vaccine.
Even though the absolute levels of animal products in many medications are likely to be minimal the authors say doctors need to consider this
To ascertain the scale of the problem they identified the 100 most commonly prescribed drugs in UK primary care in January 2013.
Our data suggest that it is likely that patients are unwittingly ingesting medications containing animal products with neither prescriber nor dispenser aware they write.
They call for improved drug labeling mirroring those standards advised for food. However they acknowledge it is unlikely that any labeling standard could address all dietary requirements
and the ultimate solution would be to eliminate animal derived products where possible from medications.
and they would limit the exposure of patients to products they find unacceptable they conclude.
The above story is provided based on materials by BMJ-British Medical Journal. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
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