#Creating accountable anonymity online: Systems that currently allow users complete anonymity are being abusedthe World wide web is in many ways still the Wild west.
Though a large portion of internet traffic is monitored and traceable systems like the Tor Project allow users to post
#Plan to address hypoxia in Gulf of mexico urged by expertsdespite a 12-year action plan calling for reducing the hypoxia zone in the Gulf of mexico little progress has been made
Experts at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center dispel common myths and share new educational resources to address this persistent challenge.
Still lung cancer remains the number one cancer killer and the leading preventable cause of death in the United states. With the approaching 50th anniversary of the Surgeon general's Report Foxhall and other MD Anderson experts urge the public to take a proactive stance against this pervasive health
Even brief secondhand smoke exposure can cause harm. Exposure to secondhand smoke at home or work increases a person's risk of heart disease by 25 to 30%and lung cancer by 20 to 30%.
%That's because the amount of cancer-causing chemicals is higher in secondhand smoke than in the smoke inhaled by smokers.
Families that prohibit smoking in and around the home are on the right path said Wetter.
and sharing this knowledge with others are ways to action said Ernest Hawk M d. vice president of cancer prevention and population sciences at MD Anderson.
As part of MD Anderson's Moon shot program to end cancer Hawk and other experts have developed a comprehensive plan that addresses the burden of tobacco use in institutions communities states and nations.
More than 200000 people are diagnosed with lung cancer each year in the United states and about 150000 people die as a result of this disease.
Smoking contributes to almost 90%of lung cancer deaths and 30%of all cancer deaths. Story Source:
The above story is provided based on materials by University of Texas M d. Anderson Cancer Center. Note:
The new work detailed in the American Heart Association journal Arteriosclerosis Thrombosis and Vascular Biology opens up a huge line of investigation Grande-Allen said.
For patients smoking cessation improves their health by reducing the impact of smoking-related illnesses.
This in turn lowers costs in treating those illnesses. The paradox is that we still pay for the heart disease
and cancer that these smokers develop so it makes more sense to help them stop smoking explained Williams who recently became chair of New jersey Breathes a coalition working for a tobacco-free New jersey.
and policies that focus specifically on underserved populations including individuals with mental health illness. For healthcare providers integrated programs could provide strategies for improving Medicaid reimbursement of tobacco treatment services.
#Tearless onions could help in fight against cardiovascular disease, weight gainonions a key ingredient in recipes around the globe come in a tearless version that scientists are now reporting could pack health benefits like its close relative garlic which is renowned for protecting against heart disease.
They published their laboratory analysis which suggests a similar heart-friendly role for the tearless onions as well as a possible role in managing weight gain in ACS'Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Because many fungal pathogens develop resistance to prolonged treatment with antifungal drugs it is desirable to find alternatives for their control in medical agricultural and those applications in which the fungi cause damage.
In this regard the combination may have potential in the treatment of tumors. This novel composition can be used as a medicine for clinical or veterinary use for the treatment and/or prevention of fungal infections by pathogenic yeasts and filamentous fungi such as Candida spp.
Cryptococcus spp. Fusarium spp. and probably also in the control of tumor cells. In agriculture pesticide treatments preferably in the control of diseases caused by pathogenic fungi as Botrytis cinerea and Fusarium oxysporum.
In the food industry for example for coating foods to prevent microbial contamination and in the textile industry as a detergent for cleaning surfaces.
The research group has led numerous laboratory tests that have successfully proven the effectiveness of this novel composition of fungal growth inhibition of numerous species of pathogenic yeasts and filamentous fungi.
or prevent pathologies associated with the metabolic syndrome including cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The metabolic syndrome (Mets) is a group of risk factors characterized by obesity hypertension inflammation dyslipidemia glucose intolerance
and insulin resistance and endothelial dysfunction explains Dr. Klimis-Zacas a Professor of clinical nutrition at the University of Maine
and high blood pressure says Klimis-Zacas. Our new findings show that these benefits extend to the obese Zucker rat a widely used model resembling human Mets. Endothelial dysfunction is a landmark characteristic of Mets
and improve the balance between relaxing and constricting factors in the vascular wall improving blood flow and blood pressure regulation of obese Zucker rats with metabolic syndrome.
and endothelial function regular long-term wild blueberry diets may also help improve pathologies associated with the Mets. Story Source:
#Higher rates of diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, stroke in food desertthere is more to the cost of living in a food desert than higher prices for the few fruits
Researchers found that residents of the community have much higher rates of diabetes hypertension heart disease and stroke than in other areas of Marion County.
and can lead to higher levels of obesity and other diet-related illness such as diabetes and heart disease.
#The prevalence of colds and pneumonia in cows can be controlledrespiratory diseases in cattle are a great threat to animal welfare and lead to financial losses in the cattle industry.
The bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV) is one of the main causes of respiratory disease in cattle.
A study of the prevalence and infection distribution of the virus shows that it is possible to control the virus
The BRS virus is equivalent to the human RS virus and causes most of the cases of serious pneumonia that lead to fatalities in calves and to epidemics
and infection distribution of the virus between Norwegian cattle herds and found that during the course of one year nearly half of the cattle herds were infected newly
while almost as many herds became free of infection. It therefore appears that the virus does not survive for a long time in one herd
and that it should be possible to reduce the number of infections by preventing the herds becoming reinfected.
The infection dynamics of the BRSV virus was studied in 134 randomly selected Norwegian dairy herds.
The frequency of new infections was the same irrespective of the season. 33%of the herds
which had tested originally positive managed to get rid of the infection after six months. The findings of this study indicate that monitoring the prevalence of the virus
and focusing on measures to combat infection in these herds ought to be effective strategies for limiting the prevalence and the consequences of BRSV infection in cattle.
The research group Viral infections in cattle at the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science which carried out this study is engaged currently in projects that seek to identify the most effective ways of preventing new infections in herds.
#Endometriosis risk linked to two pesticidesa Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research center-led study has found that two organochlorine pesticides are associated with an increased risk of endometriosis a condition that affects up to 10 percent of reproductive
and mirex had a 30-to 70-percent increase in endometriosis risk. The findings are published online ahead of the print issue of Environmental Health Perspectives a journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences part of the National institutes of health.
Endometriosis is a noncancerous condition that occurs when the tissue that lines the inside of the uterus or womb grows outside of the organ
For many women the symptoms of endometriosis can be chronic and debilitating negatively affecting health-related quality of life personal relationships
Since endometriosis is driven an estrogen condition we were interested in investigating the role of environmental chemicals that have estrogenic properties such as organochlorine pesticides on the risk of the disease she said.
This research is important as endometriosis is a serious condition that can adversely affect the quality of a woman's life yet we still do not have a clear understanding of why endometriosis develops in some women
The study involved 248 women newly diagnosed with endometriosis and for comparison 538 women without the disease.
and were associated with increased endometriosis risk Upson said. The take-home message from our study is that persistent environmental chemicals even those used in the past may affect the health of the current generation of reproductive-age women with regard to a hormonally driven disease.
and ovaries as well as hormone production Given these actions it's plausible that organochlorine pesticides could increase the risk of an estrogen-driven disease such as endometriosis Upson said.
The above story is provided based on materials by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Is it an allergy? Patients with non-celiac wheat sensitivity (NCWS) and other food sensitivities showed clinical laboratory
and histological characteristics suggesting they may be suffering from a non-Ige-mediated food allergy according to the article Non-Celiac Wheat Sensitivity as an Allergic Condition:
and other relevant medical literature focusing on NCWS patients who may suffer from non-Ige-mediated wheat allergy.
Food allergies are divided typically into two areas: Ige mediated or non-Ige mediated. In Ige mediated food allergies people develop symptoms almost immediately after eating
and when blood and skin tests are carried out there is a positive marker. Non-Ige mediated food allergies including celiac disease primarily affect the GI mucosa (the innermost layer of the gastrointestinal tract)
and have delayed a onset of symptoms which can make it difficult to diagnosis. Dr. Carroccio and his colleagues reviewed data on 276 patients diagnosed with NCWS using a double-blind placebo-controlled wheat challenge.
The data indicating a possible wheat allergy diagnosis and other data in the literature were examined.
The authors hypothesize that patients with NCWS may be suffering from non-Ige mediated food allergy.
and the basophil activation assay in food allergy as well as the histology findings in the food allergy diagnosis said Dr. Carroccio.
We compared patients suffering from NCSW and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) to controls with IBS not due to NCWS.
#Gene responsible for hereditary cancer found to disrupt growth-regulating cellular pathwaywhitehead Institute scientists report that the gene mutated in the rare hereditary disorder known as Birt-Hogg-Dub cancer syndrome
This is an unexpected finding as some cancers keep this pathway turned on to fuel their unchecked growth and expansion.
In the case of Birt-Hogg-Dub syndrome the mutated gene prevents mtorc1 pathway activation early in the formation of tumors.
And in my view that's an important first step to understanding how it might be involved in cancer.
In the early 2000s scientists determined that mutations in the gene coding for FLCN caused the rare cancer Birt-Hogg-Dub syndrome
but the syndrome's symptoms offered little insight into FLCN's molecular function. Birt-Hogg-Dub syndrome causes unsightly but benign hair follicle tumors on the face benign tumors in the lungs that can lead to collapsed lungs and kidney cancer.
The syndrome is an autosomal dominant disorder which means that a child inheriting one mutated copy of the FLCN gene will eventually develop the syndrome.
Currently the disease is managed by treating symptoms but no cure exists. FLCN's dual roles--as a cause of a rare cancer in its mutated form
and as a trigger for a growth pathway that is often hijacked in cancer cells--has prompted Tsun
and Sabatini to rethink how a mutation can push cells to become cancerous. Basically the mtorc1 pathway is essential for life explains Tsun.
And this is actually what we see in patient tumors. For Birt-Hogg-Dub syndrome patients and their families better understanding of FCLN's function moves the field one step closer to developing a therapy.
Usually diseases are described first then the responsible gene or genes are identified and then that gene's molecular function is figured out says Tsun.
The results of the study were published in the scientific journal Plant disease. The banana is not just the world's favourite fruit--for many people it is a vital important source of food.
Ana Rodriguez-Mateos and colleagues note that eating blueberries is associated with several health perks including improved thinking reduced risk for heart disease and reduced inflammation.
#Male birth defect weakly linked to pesticide exposurea study of several hundred chemicals used in commercial pesticides has found only weak evidence that any of them are associated with a common birth defect in male infants.
Any birth defect is concerning to parents and a defect in the genital structure often causes special concern said William Kennedy MD associate professor of urology at Stanford and associate chief of pediatric urology at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.
#New drug to help common bowel diseasean international team led by University of Adelaide researchers has identified the mechanism of pain relief of a new drug for treating Irritable bowel syndrome with Constipation (IBS-C) based on nonclinical studies
Published in the journal Gastroenterology the study describes the pain mechanism of action for Linaclotide a recently approved drug for the treatment of chronic abdominal pain and constipation in adult IBS-C patients.
IBS is a potentially debilitating condition with abdominal pain bloating diarrhea and/or constipation. It affects up to 15%of western populations costing millions of dollars annually in Australia alone in lost productivity and health care.
However initial trials had shown that it also reduced abdominal pain associated with IBS-C independently of its action on improving constipation.
in order to reduce the number of childhood asthma cases. The research is signed by professors Toni Monleã n-Getino and Martã n RÃ os from the Department of Statistics of the University of Barcelona and experts Oriol Vall Carme Puig Ãcar
Asthma is the most common chronic illness during childhood and adolescence in industrialized countries. Several factors have been proposed to explain asthma.
It affects between 10%and 17%of children and teenagers in Spain. There is no treatment to cure this illness
which may decrease considerably patients'quality of life. Although its prevalence has been increasing over the last 40 years in many countries no statistical
or simulation model existed to forecast the evolution of childhood asthma in Europe. A model based on conditional probabilitythe study first presents a statistical
and simulation model--based on the theory of conditional probability--to forecast the risk of childhood asthma episodes.
and the project Asthma Multicenter Infant Cohort Study (AMICS) developed by IMIM researchers in order to analyse the relationship between environmental factors and childhood asthma development in different phenotypes.
On January 1 2006 a law that set anti-tobacco regulations in Spain came into force.
%but this reduction did not produce any remarkable effect on asthma incidence among children. Objective:
to reduce childhood asthmatoni Monleã n Getino first author of the article explains that the statistic model indicates that childhood asthma incidence is stable.
and mothers who smoke a reduction of childhood asthma prevalence won't occur alerts the researcher who started the study together with the Italian National institute of health.
Professor Martã n RÃ os states that asthma is caused an illness by several factors (genetic propensity environment food etc.
and asthma is not a cause-effect one but tobacco even environmental smoke or the one that remains on clothes favours asthma episodes in children.
Data proves that the incidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma in adults has been reduced in the last years due to smoke-free policy.
In the case of children maternal smoking and environmental tobacco smoke are some of the main risk factors for inducing new cases of asthma.
UB experts point out that there is no doubt that smoking and respiratory diseases in children are related. Even if it is difficult to prove
if alterations in respiratory functions begin to occur in the fetus or if they appear later during lactation altered respiratory function has been found in those children whose mothers smoke during pregnancy
of infectious diseases (tuberculosis meningitis etc. alert that nowadays there are not enough measures to avoid children's exposure to tobacco.
This can lead to grass tetany or milk fever in livestock but the problems don't stop there.
Low-calcium diets can also trigger human diseases such as osteoporosis rickets and colon cancer. Another major health concern arises from the chloride in KCL
I'm reminded of a recent clinical study that links cadmium intake to an increased risk of breast cancer.
The region's incredible flora and fauna is being lost to gold fever. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Carnegie Institution.
#Bee sting allergy could be a defense response gone haywirefor most people a bee sting causes temporary pain
and discomfort but for those with a bee venom allergy the consequences can be devastating:
New findings by Stanford university School of medicine scientists may provide an evolutionary explanation for severe allergic reactions. In a paper to be published online Oct 24 in Immunity the researchers show that mice injected with a small dose of bee venom were later resistant to a potentially lethal dose of the same venom.
The study is the first experimental evidence that the same immune response involved in allergies may have evolved to serve a protective role against toxins.
Innate immune responses occur in subjects exposed to a foreign substance such as a pathogen or a toxic material like venom for the first time.
when a pathogen or toxin intrudes. In a previous study the researchers found that mast cells produce enzymes that can detoxify components of snake venom
By contrast during an adaptive immune response the immune system generates antibodies that recognize the invading pathogen or toxin;
this process makes it possible to vaccinate against infectious diseases. Adaptive immunity is usually a faster more specific and more effective form of defense than innate immunity.
In allergic reactions a type of antibody called Ige binds to the surface of mast cells and prompts them to initiate an adaptive immune response
The functions of Ige and mast cells are known mostly in the context of allergies said Thomas Marichal DVM Phd a postdoctoral scholar
and that allergies are an extreme and maladaptive example of this type of defense. This idea known as the toxin hypothesis of allergy was proposed first by Margie Profet in 1991
but was ignored largely by immunologists until recently. To find out whether adaptive immune responses could help mice resist bee venom Marichal
Moreover they did not develop the anaphylactic reactions characteristic of severe allergies. To determine whether Ige antibodies were required for this protection the team tested mice with three types of mutations:
or in the event of a snakebite said Stephen Galli MD professor and chair of pathology and the co-senior author of the study.
Anaphylaxis probably represents the extreme end of a spectrum of Ige-associated reactivity which in some unfortunate individuals is regulated either poorly
which causes blood vessels to constrict during bacterial infections. At the same time mammals have evolved immune responses to venom which in some cases escalate into maladaptive allergic reactions.
We experience allergies in a much cleaner world where we don't have the same threats of venomous creatures
and potentially toxic food that existed for much of our evolutionary history said Galli. And so we're left with this residual type of reactivity that seems completely mysterious and pointless and harmful.
This is the first evidence that we know of indicating that Ige-associated'allergic-type'immune responses can actually reduce the toxicity of naturally occurring venoms.
#Hypoxia Issues in the Gulf of Mexicothe Mississippi river Basin is home to much of the United states'fertile crop land.
This low oxygen condition is called hypoxia. The result is dying fish and a poor ecosystem called a dead zone.
because kin-blindness benefits the colony. But it's also possible that the veil of ignorance arose for other reasons
and Iowa to trace the likely origin of the emergent porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) to a strain from the Anhui province in China.
There is currently no vaccine against porcine epidemic diarrhea virus in the United states . Although some vaccines are in use in Asia we do not know
whether they would work against the U s. strains of the virus. The researchers determined not only that the three U s. strains of the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus are most closely related to the Chinese strains of the virus
and Genotyping of Emergent Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus Strains in the United states abstract in the Oct 15 issue of the American Academy of Microbiology's journal mbio.
and Chinese virus strains coincides with a porcine epidemic diarrhea virus outbreak in China back in December of 2010.
whether the U s. strains of the virus diverged in China or in the United states. The sudden emergence of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus
and public health concerns in the United states. The ongoing outbreaks of Middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus in humans from countries in
or near the Arabian peninsula and the historical deadly nature of the 2002 outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus create further anxiety about the emergency of PEDV in the United states due to the lack of scientific information about the origin
Symptoms include acute vomiting anorexia and watery diarrhea with high mortality rates in pigs less than 10 days old.
and mouth disease (FMD) moves over relatively short distances and the African buffalo are important natural reservoirs for the infection.
It's very clear that historically infections have moved from buffalo to cattle says corresponding author Matthew Hall of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.
FMD strikes cloven-hoofed animals presenting as a high fever blistering in the mouth and feet decline in milk production in females and weight loss.
That means it could take longer than previously thought to reduce nitrate contamination in groundwater including in aquifers that supply drinking water in North america
In the 1980s surveys by the U s. Environmental protection agency and the U s. Geological Survey showed that nitrate contamination had impacted probably more public and domestic water supply wells in the U s. than any other contaminant.
Mayer is recognized an internationally expert in the use of stable isotopes to track contaminants in the environment.
Nitrate contamination of aquatic ecosystems can be reduced by farmers following the 4rs of nutrient stewardship:
#Breast milk protein may be key to protecting babies from HIVA substance in breast milk that neutralizes HIV
and may protect babies from acquiring HIV from their infected mothers has been identified for the first time by researchers at Duke Medicine.
The protein called Tenascin-C or TNC had previously been recognized as playing a role in wound healing
The discovery could lead to potential new HIV-prevention strategies. Reporting in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences during the week of Oct 21 2013 the researchers describe how the TNC protein in breast milk binds to
and neutralizes the HIV virus potentially protecting exposed infants who might otherwise become infected from repeated exposures to the virus
. Even though we have antiretroviral drugs that can work to prevent mother-to-child transmission not every pregnant woman is being tested for HIV
Worldwide in 2011 an estimated 330000 children acquired HIV from their mothers during pregnancy or birth or through breastfeeding according to UNICEF.
As international health organizations have set a goal of eliminating mother-to-child infections researchers have worked to develop safe and affordable alternatives to antiretroviral therapy that can be used to block HIV transmission to infants.
but the majority of the HIV-neutralizing activity of breast milk remained unexplained. More recent studies pointed to a large protein that had yet to be identified.
In their study the Duke team screened mature milk samples from uninfected women for neutralizing activity against a panel of HIV strains confirming that all of the detectable HIV-neutralization activity was contained in the high molecular weight portion.
Using a multi-step protein separation process the researchers narrowed the detectable HIV-neutralization activity to a single protein and identified it as TNC.
This is a protein involved during wound healing playing a role in tissue repair. It is known also to be important in fetal development
Further analysis described how TNC works against HIV by blocking virus entry. The protein is uniquely effective in capturing virus particles
and neutralizes the virus specifically binding to the HIV envelope. These properties provide widespread protection against infection.
It's likely that TNC is acting in concert with other anti-HIV factors in breast milk and further research should explore this Permar said.
But given TNC's broad-spectrum HIV-1-binding and neutralizing activity it could be developed as an HIV-prevention therapy given orally to infants prior to breastfeeding similar to the way oral rehydration salts are administered routinely to infants in developing regions.
Permar said TNC would also appear to be inherently safe since it is a naturally occurring component of breast milk
and it may avoid the problem of HIV resistance to antiretroviral regimens that complicate maternal/infant applications.
The discovery of the HIV inhibiting effect of this common protein in breast milk provides a potential explanation for why nursing infants born to HIV-infected mothers do not become infected more often than they do said Barton F. Haynes M d. director of the Duke
Human Vaccine Institute. It also provides support for inducing inhibitory factors in breast milk that might be even more protective such as antibodies that would completely protect babies from HIV infection in this setting.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Duke university Medical center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
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