news 2009

Independent whether we consider grapevines in the vineyard or tomatoes in the greenhouse: how well plants are being supplied with water can be viewed by an innovative magnetic probe that is simply clamped to the leaves.

Polyphosphate from blood platelets plays a key role in inflammation and the formation of blood clots, scientists from Karolinska Institutet have shown. The study, which is presented in the prestigious scientific journal Cell, describes how this mechanism can be used in treatment. Blood clots are a common cause of myocardial infarction and stroke, and they arise when blood coagulates and clogs a blood vessel.

Treating suspected cases of swine flu with tamiflu in patients who are otherwise healthy provides no real benefit, according to researchers at the University of Birmingham. In research published on bmj.com, Professor Nick Freemantle and Melanie Calvert found that oseltamivir, or tamiflu, the drug used to treat the H1N1 stain of the flu virus, does not necessarily prevent complications of the virus in otherwise healthy patients.

A talented academic at the University of Sheffield is set to lead the way in new research after being awarded a prestigious research fellowship title by the Royal Society - the UK's national academy of science. Dr Gino Hrkac, from the Department of Engineering Materials, was selected to be one of only 38 new University Research Fellows (URFs) across the UK for 2009 as a result of his research into the new phenomena of functional nano-magnetism and spintronics.

BERKELEY — Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are challenging long-held beliefs that human beings are wired to be selfish. In a wide range of studies, social scientists are amassing a growing body of evidence to show we are evolving to become more compassionate and collaborative in our quest to survive and thrive.

Researchers from the UCLA AIDS Institute and colleagues have for the first time demonstrated that human blood stem cells can be engineered into cells that can target and kill HIV-infected cells ? a process that potentially could be used against a range of chronic viral diseases. The study, published Dec.

The teen years can be a tumultuous time, as many parents know, a time when adolescents begin to flex their mental muscles, testing boundaries and turning to peers rather than parents for advice. Sometimes emotions and arguments can become so intense that things get out of hand and the child runs away.

UCLA researchers and colleagues examined the influence of HIV-positive mothers' parenting skills on their children and found that adolescents in families with higher levels of parental monitoring and frequent, regular routines that brought predictability into their lives had lower rates of aggression, anxiety, depression, binge drinking and other behavioral issues.

By measuring the total gene activity in organs relevant for coronary artery disease (CAD), scientists at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have identified a module of genes that is important for the recruitment of white blood cells into the atherosclerotic plaque. The findings, which are to be published in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics, suggest that targeting the migration of white blood cells in the development of atherosclerosis may help to reduce the risk for adverse clinical effects such as ischemia and myocardial infarction.

For obese men, a dramatic weight loss can be an effective way to improve moderate to severe sleep apnoea, scientists at Karolinska Institutet report. Those with severe sleep apnoea when the study began benefited most from weight loss. "Our findings suggest that weight loss may be an effective treatment strategy for sleep apnoea in obese men," says Kari Johansson, one of the researchers involved in the study.

There was no substantial change in brain tumor incidence among adults 5 to 10 years after cell phone usage sharply increased, according to a new study conducted by researchers at Karolinska Institutet amongst others. The study was published in the latest issue of Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Cambridge, Mass. December 3, 2009 - Taking inspiration from genetic screening techniques, researchers from Harvard and MIT have demonstrated a way to build better artificial visual systems with the help of low-cost, high-performance gaming hardware. The neural processing involved in visually recognizing even the simplest object in a natural environment is profound - and profoundly difficult to mimic.

Getting the correct balance of proteins in our diet may be more important for healthy ageing than reducing calories, new research at UCL suggests. The new study may help explain why 'dietary restriction? (also known as calorie restriction) ' reducing food intake whilst maintaining sufficient quantities of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients ' appears to have health benefits.

Birmingham physicists have played a key role in producing the first results from CERN's Large Hadron Collider, a 27km underground tunnel near Geneva, where scientists are colliding together particles to discover what happened a millionth of a second after the Big Bang. These results have come out of the ALICE collaboration's detector which will study the physics from ultra-high energy proton-proton and lead-lead interactions.

CERN's Large Hadron Collider has today become the world's highest energy particle accelerator, having accelerated its twin beams of protons to an energy of 1.

Birmingham physicists are delighted that their experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), that aim to find what happened just after the Big Bang, will soon be underway as scientists have successfully collided together two low-energy beams of protons for the first time. Based at the CERN laboratory, Geneva, the LHC is the world's largest machine and aims to discover many secrets of the nature of matter and the universe.

November 25, 2009 — Coral Gables — New research suggests that behavioral therapy can provide a safe, effective alternative treatment for anxiety and depression. These programs seem to work as well as-or better than-medication treatments. The University of Miami (UM) is now providing these evidence-based, quality treatments for anxiety and related disorders to the public, at low or no cost.

Cambridge, Mass. November 24, 2009 - Applied mathematicians dissected the morphology of the plantain lily (Hosta lancifolia), a characteristic long leaf with a saddle-like arc midsection and closely packed ripples along the edges. The simple cause of the lily's fan-like shape - elastic relaxation resulting from bending during differential growth - was revealed by using an equally simple technique, stretching foam ribbons.

A new UCLA study shows that patient-care performance ratings for 25 medical groups across California improved significantly following the launch of a statewide pay-for-performance program in 2004 — but not when incentives focused on doctors' productivity.

Farmers and pastoralists in a maize-growing region of Eastern Kenya. A new study finds that climate change could severely harm crop productivity and increase the likelihood that disadvantaged rural populations will take up arms. (Marshall Burke photo) BERKELEY — Climate change could increase the likelihood of civil war in sub-Saharan Africa by over 50 percent within the next two decades, according to a new study led by a team of researchers at University of California, Berkeley, and published in today's (Monday, Nov.