As part of this effort the research team led by wildlife technical assistant Samantha Carpenter and wildlife veterinary epidemiologist Nohra Mateus-Pinilla both with the natural history survey and U. of
Andreas Lehner of Michigan State university conducted the toxicological tests. The researchers were surprised to find that average concentrations of one of the compounds they analyzed dieldrin--an insecticide
The PCBS dieldrin and DDE were the contaminants that we detected in highest concentration in terms of average concentrations Carpenter said.
and coolants in motors and electrical systems but were banned in 1979 in the U s. after studies found that exposure to these compounds caused cancer and other deleterious health effects in animals.
and there are fish consumption advisories for this contaminant in many Illinois rivers. DDT was banned in the U s. in the early 1970s after decades of widespread use.
and are toxic to fish shellfish and other organisms. In mammals these compounds can cause gene disruption
Some studies (of dieldrin) exposure find links to cancer Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's and some do said not Carpenter.
But perhaps most concerning is that both dieldrin and PCBS can act as developmental neurotoxicants meaning that developing fetuses can be harmed at concentrations much smaller than those that can impact the health of adults.
Concentrations of contaminants in river otters ranged widely. One male had a concentration of PCBS in its liver of 3450 parts per billion (ppb)
while another had only 30 ppb. Dieldrin concentrations ranged from 14.4 to 534 ppb. Since the otters were collected from counties all over Central Illinois the findings could indicate that some watersheds have a worse contamination problem than others Carpenter said.
For many of the contaminants we did detect a large range she said. This is a red flag.
We need to understand more about what humans and wildlife are being exposed to in different watersheds.
They may range further than the females picking up more toxins as they go. Or the females might transfer some of the contaminants to their offspring during nursing as previous research suggests.
Maternal transfer is particularly interesting Novakofski said. In some watersheds humans may have the same kind of risk
We don't know enough about how these contaminants behave synergistically Carpenter said especially since the cocktail of contaminants that we're exposed to here in the Midwest differs from
what humans and wildlife are exposed to in eastern or western North america. The research team also included Illinois pathobiology professor Kuldeep Singh Robert Bluett of the Illinois Department of Natural resources and Damian Satterthwaite-Phillips and Nelda Rivera both of the natural history survey.
For example sophisticated vintners use precise irrigation to put regulated water stress on grapevines to create just the right grape composition for a premium cabernet or a chardonnay wine.
While growers can use the sensors to monitor water in soils for their crops civil engineers can embed these chips in concrete to determine optimal moisture levels as the concrete cures.
#Compound derived from vegetables shields rodents from lethal radiation dosesgeorgetown University Medical center researchers say a compound derived from cruciferous vegetable such as cabbage cauliflower and broccoli protected rats and mice from lethal doses of radiation.
Their study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) suggests the compound already shown to be safe for humans may protect normal tissues during radiation therapy for cancer treatment
and prevent or mitigate sickness caused by radiation exposure. The compound known as DIM (33'-diindolylmethane) previously has been found to have cancer preventive properties.
DIM has been studied as a cancer prevention agent for years but this is the first indication that DIM can also act as a radiation protector says the study's corresponding author Eliot Rosen MD Phd of Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.
For the study the researchers irradiated rats with lethal doses of gamma ray radiation. The animals were treated then with a daily injection of DIM for two weeks starting 10 minutes after the radiation exposure.
The result was stunning says Rosen a professor of oncology biochemistry and cell & molecular biology and radiation medicine.
All of the untreated rats died but well over half of the DIM-treated animals remained alive 30 days after the radiation exposure.
Rosen adds that DIM also provided protection whether the first injection was administered 24 hours before or up to 24 hours after radiation exposure.
We also showed that DIM protects the survival of lethally irradiated mice Rosen says. In addition irradiated mice treated with DIM had less reduction in red blood cells white blood cells
and platelets--side effects often seen in patients undergoing radiation treatment for cancer. Rosen says this study points to two potential uses of the compound.
DIM could protect normal tissues in patients receiving radiation therapy for cancer but could also protect individuals from the lethal consequences of a nuclear disaster.
The above story is provided based on materials by Georgetown University Medical center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Human albumin is the most widely used intravenous protein in the world for therapeutic purposes.
and prevent the risk of infarction and its application in operating theatres is almost a daily occurrence.
It is used also in burns surgical operations haemorrhages or when the patient is undernourished or dehydrated and in the case of chronic infections and renal or hepatic diseases.
Although commercial albumin is extracted from blood the lack of a sufficient volume in reserve has prompted many researchers to seek new formulas for obtaining this protein on a large scale economically and safely.
We have come up with an easier cheaper procedure for producing it in the tobacco plant
#Diet, lifestyle advice for those with diabetes should be no different from that for general publicnew research published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes EASD) suggests that lifestyle advice for people with diabetes should be no different from that for the general public
although those with diabetes may benefit more from that same advice. The research is by Dr Diewertje Sluik Department of Epidemiology German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke Nuthetal Germany and colleagues.
In this new study the researchers investigated whether the associations between lifestyle factors and mortality risk differ between individuals with and without diabetes.
Within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) a cohort was formed of 6384 persons with diabetes and 258911 EPIC participants without known diabetes.
Computer modelling was used to explore the relationship (in both those with and without diabetes) of mortality with the following risk factors:
body-mass index waist/height ratio 26 food groups alcohol consumption leisure-time physical activity smoking.
Unsurprisingly the researchers found that overall mortality was 62%higher in people with diabetes compared with those without.
While the strength of the association was different in those with diabetes versus those without the associations were in the same direction in each case (see table 2 full paper).
No differences between people with and without diabetes were detected for the other lifestyle factors including adiposity alcohol consumption physical activity and smoking.
in people with diabetes. This may indicate that individuals with diabetes may benefit more from a healthy diet than people without diabetes.
However since the directions of association were generally the same recommendations for a healthy diet should be similar for people with or without diabetes.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Diabetologia. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
The commercials were real commercials for existing products that were however foreign to the German participants for instance the Skandinavian butter LURPAK and a body lotion from INNISFREE.
They were given a small amount of money that they should spend on buying a skin lotion and donate to charity.
Specifically they were presented with six different lotions (with different brand names) and six charity foundations with fictitious names.
Three of the lotions and three of the charity foundations had been advertised in the earlier cinema session.
they were more likely to buy the advertised lotions and donated their money for the advertised charities.
#Badgers ultimately responsible for around half of TB in cattlebadgers are ultimately responsible for roughly half of tuberculosis (TB) in cattle in areas with high TB prevalence according to new estimates based on data from a previous badger culling trial.
whether badgers should be culled to control the disease. The Randomised Badger Culling Trial which ran from 1998 to 2005 found evidence that culling could reduce TB in herds inside culled areas while increasing TB in areas nearby.
Professor Christl Donnelly from the Medical Research Council Centre for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling at Imperial said:
and solid fats counter to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommendations increasing the risk of obesity and diabetes.
and obesity habits among children persists leading to increased risk of diabetes and heart disease in adulthood.
of Nutrition Harvard School of Public health Boston. The team wanted to test its hypothesis that students exposed to the study would improve their diet quality due to healthier food environments.
Dr. Cohen concludes The outcomes of the CHANGE study provide evidence that a multi-component intervention targeting low-income children living in rural communities in America can improve their diet quality.
The Rice lab of chemist James Tour has enhanced a polymer material to make it far more impermeable to pressurized gas
Air quality regulations in the United states have focused always on public health because air pollution leads to premature deaths
A new study led in part by Washington University in St louis'Center for Public health Systems science (CPHSS) details Providence's efforts and provides a road map for other municipalities to follow.
This is a great public health victory he said. In February 2012 Providence passed ordinances that cracked down on two tactics--sweet flavors
Kurt Ribisl Phd associate professor of health behavior and health education at the University of North carolina;
Funding is provided by a grant from the National Cancer Institute at the National institutes of health. The study also is part of the National Cancer Institute's State and Community Tobacco Control Research Initiative.
To read the full study visit here. To find out more about the CPHSS visit cphss. wustl. edu. Story Source:
and urbanization and agriculture now send runoff laden with fertilizers and other contaminants into Lake Okeechobee.
#oethe complex Rddm machinery is composed of several proteins that guide the genome in response to growth developmental and stress signals.
and studying its response to various conditions We found that there is a mechanism that can in principle close cracks under any applied stress Demkowicz says.
A computer simulation of the molecular stucture of a metal alloy showing the boundaries between microcystalline grains (white lines forming hexagons) shows a small crack (dark horizontal bar just right of bottom center) that mends itself as the metal is put under stress.
These defects have intense stress fields which can be so strong they actually reverse what an applied load would do Demkowicz says:
The stress from the disclinations is leading to this unexpected behavior he says. Having discovered this mechanism the researchers plan to study how to design metal alloys so cracks would close
Metal fatigue for example--which can result from an accumulation of nanoscale cracks over time--is probably the most common failure mode for structural metals in general he says.
To be exact UB researchers contributes to first literature references on TUP application to epidemiological or clinical studies.
According to the expert this methodology makes a more reliable and accurate evaluation of the association between food intake and mortality or disease risk.
and vegetables are at lower risk of several chronic diseases and overall mortality. Moreover the research stresses the importance of evaluating
effects on people's health. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Universidad de Barcelona.
and health benefits explained Dr. Rick Green Vice president Technology at POS Biosciences in Saskatoon co-author of the study Our results provide evidence that these fruits do in fact possess such nutritional benefits
and contain compounds of interest for their health and wellness attributes. Thus our work supports the commercial development of buffaloberry chokecherry and sea buckthorn berries.
and further develop these nutritive-rich ingredients is being sought from the recently established (2010) Global Institute for Food security (GIFS) says co-author of the study Dr. Nicholas Low a Professor of Food Chemistry at the Department of Food and Bioproduct Sciences University
#New urine test could diagnose eye diseaseyou might not think to look to a urine test to diagnose an eye disease.
But a new Duke university study says it can link what is in a patient's urine to gene mutations that cause retinitis pigmentosa or RP an inherited degenerative disease that results in severe vision impairment and often blindness.
My collaborators Dr. Rong Wen and Dr. Byron Lam at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Florida first sought my expertise in mass spectrometry to analyze cells cultured from a family
This mutation appears to be prevalent in RP patients of the Ashkenazi Jewish origin and 1 in 322 Ashkenazi carries one copy of the mutation.
I knew from my previous experience in analyzing urine samples from liver disease patients that I can readily detect dolichols by liquid chromatography
Guan and his collaborators hope to develop the dolichol profiling method as a first-line diagnostic test to identify RP patients with abnormal dolichol metabolism.
They think this mass spectrometry-based detection method will help physicians provide more personalized care to RP patients especially to young children whose retinal degeneration has developed not fully.
Since the urine samples gave us more distinct profiles than the blood samples we think that urine is a better clinical material for dolichol profiling he said.
but Guan hopes his research will shed light on potential drug design strategies for treating RP caused by DHDDS mutation.
We are now researching ways to manipulate the dolichol synthesis pathway in RP patients with the DHDDS mutation
and health of honeybees noted that the study showed that ants and bees are related more closely than previously thought.
when we are hungry explains Dr. Beshel. Dr. Zhong and I wanted to find the part of the brain that might be responsible for these types of behavior.
Is there somewhere in the brain that deals with food odors in particular? How does brain activity change
As Dr. Beshel explains: The more general idea is that there are areas in the brain that might be involved specifically in saying:'
Led by scientists at the American Museum of Natural history the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology
and the Museum fuì r Naturkunde Berlin the new study reveals that two bat-infecting parasites are closely related to parasites in rodents that are used commonly to model human malaria in laboratory studies.
Bats which are important reservoir hosts for many pathogens particularly viruses have been hosts to malaria parasites for more than a century said coauthor Susan Perkins an associate curator in the Museum's Division of Invertebrate Zoology.
and how they fit into the tree of life is key to understanding this important human disease.
Malaria is caused by a handful of species of parasites in the Genus plasmodium through the bite of mosquitos
and remains a widespread vector-borne infectious disease sickening almost half a billion people every year around the planet.
Experimental research on drugs immunology and the development of malaria is done typically on related Plasmodium species that infect rodents including laboratory-reared mice.
but the high diversity of parasites as well as the high proportion of individuals that are infected with the parasites suggest that this may be yet another example of the unusually high tolerance of these flying mammals for pathogens said co-author Juliane Schaer a researcher at the Max Planck Institute
for Infection Biology and the Museum fuì r Naturkunde Berlin. Other work has suggested that the evolution of flight may have triggered parallel strengthening of the immune system of bats
and may explain why they are able to host viruses such as Ebola rabies and the recently discovered Middle east Respiratory system (MERS) virus
which transmits devastating diseases to cattle has developed resistance to one of the main pesticides used to kill it.
--which can cause anemia reduced rate of growth and death resulting in a major economic impact on farmers.
Prevention of disease is through frequent treatment of cattle with acarides-pesticides for ticks and mites--mainly amitraz ivermectins and pyrethroids but ticks have become increasingly resistant to these treatments.
The global cost of the tick-borne diseases and associated acaricide application is estimated to be more than £4 billion annually.
Professor Nicholas Jonsson of the Institute of Biodiversity Animal health and Comparative Medicine said: Resistance to all the main acaricides is documented well--for example amitraz resistance is seen in about 20%of Australian tick populations and more than 50%of Mexican ticks.
The most common response to the diagnosis of acaricide resistance on a farm is to change acaricide classes
and examining the resulting root system formation Dr. Dubrovsky and colleagues have determined that this molecule can in fact have the opposite effect as previously found
One in three mouthfuls of our food depend on bee pollination said lead author Dr John Bryden from the School of Biological sciences at Royal Holloway.
and other factors such as habitat loss and disease which can all contribute to colony failure.
but if stress levels get too high the colony will eventually fail added Dr Bryden.
Pesticides can have a detrimental effect on bees at levels used in the field said co-author Dr Nigel Raine.
and safer for farm workerssince 1996 corn containing a gene that allows it to create a protein that is toxic to certain insects yet safe for human consumption has been grown in the United states
For some time now the impact of environmental stressors during pregnancy on allergy risk among newborn children is a main research topic at Leipzig Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ.
As part of the long-term study LINA environmental immunologists from Leipzig have been focussing on tobacco smoke as an environmental stressor.
The main objective for Dr Gunda Herberth was to reveal the influence of tobacco smoke on the development of children's immune systems--at molecular level.
From the results that were published recently in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology one thing is certain:
For the first time we were able to describe the effect of prenatal environmental stressors on the regulation of microrna.
later on in life respiratory diseases diabetes type II asthma or cardiovascular diseases were also more common. However the exact molecular mechanisms and processes that are behind such developments still struggle researchers.
For this reason Dr. Gunda Herberth and Dr. Irina Lehmann from the UFZ decided to address the relatively recent research area of microrna.
In the meantime for humans more than 1200 different short single-stranded RNA molecules have been named some of them playing an important role in immune response.
which in turn prevent an overactive immune system and thus autoimmune diseases. If there are insufficient Treg cells or if their function is impaired the self-regulatory function of the immune system will be reduced possibly resulting in allergies.
To investigate the relationship between smoking mothers during pregnancy on the one hand and their children's risk of developing allergies on the other the scientists from Leipzig examined microrna-223 microrna-155 and regulatory T cells--not only in the blood samples of pregnant women (36 weeks pregnant
) but also at birth in the cord blood of their babies. At the same time questionnaires were filled out and urine samples of the pregnant women were tested to substantiate the effect from exposure to tobacco smoke
What we are interested now in finding out explains Dr. Gunda Herberth is whether or not these micrornas link exposure to smoke regulatory T cells and the risk of developing allergies.
By measuring the concentration of these micrornas as well as the number of regulatory T cells in maternal
Finally it could be shown that low regulatory T-cell numbers in umbilical cord blood was an indication that children exposed to tobacco smoke were more likely to develop an allergy before the age of three compared to those children with normal values for mir-223 and Treg cells.
Furthermore the probability of developing eczema was almost twice as high for these children. After already being able to demonstrate the influence of prenatal smoking on regulatory T-cell numbers in cord blood from our LINA study the current epidemiological investigation delves even deeper into molecular processes Dr. Gunda Herberth
and Dr. Irina Lehmann resume. Now the immunologists from Leipzig explicate we will know more about the molecular processes that trigger off stressors from smoke during pregnancy.
Thus for the first time the association between prenatal environmental stressors and the regulation of microrna is described. In this respect the current Helmholtz study opens the door to further research on the role of microrna in terms of how the human immune system reacts to environmental stressors.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Helmholtz Centre For Environmental Research-UFZ.
Moreover the developing fruit also has to contend with the attentions of pathogens and pests.
Dr. Thilo Fischer Privatdozent at The chair of Plant Biochemistry and Physiology at LMU and Professor Wilfried Schwab of the Center for Life and Food Sciences Weihenstephan at the Technische Universitã¤t
These compounds help to protect the developing fruit against predators pathogens and abiotic stresses. When the seeds are ripe the Anr gene is turned off.
and stress plants at the same time. In addition as she has repeatedly proven salty soils often host bacteria that are noxious for humans.
In her investigation Egamberdieva has spotted beneficial soil salt-resistant bacteria that help plants grow better causing no harm to men.
Here Pseudomonas produce antibiotics that plants use to defend themselves against fungi trigger the rooting process
To better exploit these useful bacterial strains the Uzbek microbiologist has come up with a technique that allows the selective enrichment of Pseudomonas strains.
which were effective but left toxic residue for human consumption. However this can be substituted by an ozone system that ventilates the grains for 48 hours.
and activity of microorganisms in a way that emissions of nitrous oxide--also known as laughing gas (N2o)--are reduced significantly according to researchers Johannes Harter and Hans-Martin Krause.
Their study was supervised by environmental microbiologist Dr. Sebastian Behrens and geomicrobiologist Professor Andreas Kappler of the Center for Applied Geosciences at the University of TÃ bingen in cooperation with researchers from the University of Hohenheim.
#Aggressive fungal pathogen causes mold in fruits, vegetablesa research team led by a molecular plant pathologist at the University of California Riverside has discovered the mechanism by
which an aggressive fungal pathogen infects almost all fruits and vegetables. The team discovered a novel virulence mechanism--the mechanism by
which infection takes place--of Botrytis cinerea. This pathogen can infect more than 200 plant species causing serious gray mold disease on almost all fruits
and vegetables that have been around even at times in the refrigerator for more than a week. Study results appear in the Oct 4 issue of the journal Science.
Many bacterial fungal and oomycete pathogens deliver protein effectors--molecules the pathogens secrete--into the cells of hosts to manipulate
The new study represents the first example of a fungal pathogen delivering RNA effectors specifically small RNA effector molecules into host cells to suppress host immunity
and achieve infection of the host plant. To date almost all the pathogen effectors studied or discovered have been said proteins lead author Hailing Jin a professor of plant pathology and microbiology.
Ours is the first study to add the RNA molecule to the list of effectors.
We expect our work will help in the development of new means to control aggressive pathogens.
The process is similar to how protein effectors weaken host immunity in the case of most pathogens.
What we have discovered is a naturally-occurring cross-kingdom RNAI phenomenon between a fungal pathogen
if the novel mechanism they discovered also exists in other aggressive pathogens. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of California-Riverside.
#Health of honey bees adversely impacted by seleniumtraditionally honey bee research has focused on environmental stressors such as pesticides pathogens and diseases.
Our study examined the toxic effects of selenium at multiple life stages of the honey bee
Study results appear in the Oct. 2013 issue of the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.
In areas of Se contamination honey bees may be at risk because of the biotransfer of the metal from Se-accumulating plants.
Se contamination is a global problem originating from naturally contaminated soils and a multitude of anthropogenic sources including mining
Slightly higher concentrations however are toxic. Several insect species suffer toxic effects from feeding on Se-contaminated food.
In the case of the honey bee Se enters the body through ingestion of contaminated pollen and nectar.
and cause developmental problems and inorganic forms of Se can cause oxidative stress. It is not clear how selenium damages the insect's internal organs
Hladun explained that honey bees may also be more susceptible than other insects due to a lack of detoxification enzymes that other insects still possess.
In the United states the well-established toxicity of Se to wildlife and humans has resulted in this element being regulated by the Toxic Substances Control Act and the Clean Water Act.
According to Hladun knowing which contaminants are the most important to regulate is key to minimizing the exposure of honey bee hives to contaminants.
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