ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

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• Health costs of air pollution from agriculture clarified
• Drilling into trends in genetics, epigenetics of aging, longevity
• Fabricating nanostructures with silk could make clean rooms green rooms
• Safety, immunogenicity of two doses of the HPV-16/18 AS04 adjuvanted vaccine Cervarix
• Stigmas, once evolutionarily sound, are now bad health strategies
• Adjuvant chemotherapy increases markers of molecular aging in blood of breast cancer survivors
• New device stimulating human gut will save money, reduce testing on animals
• Information processing demonstrated using a light-based chip inspired by our brain
• Technique measures quantity, risks of engineered nanomaterials delivered to cells
• Rainbow-catching waveguide could revolutionize energy technologies
• Long-standing theory disproved: Fingerprint of dissolved glycine in the Terahertz range explained
• Genetic variation linked to heart disease risk through RNA machinery
• How rotavirus infection accelerates autoimmune diabetes in a mouse model

Health costs of air pollution from agriculture clarified Posted: 28 Mar 2014 02:52 PM PDT Ammonia pollution from agricultural sources poses larger health costs than previously estimated, according to research. Computer models, including a NASA model of chemical reactions in the atmosphere, were used to better represent how ammonia interacts in the atmosphere to form harmful particulate matter. The improved simulation helped the scientists narrow in on the estimated health costs from air pollution associated with food produced for export -- a growing sector of agriculture and a source of trade surplus.

Drilling into trends in genetics, epigenetics of aging, longevity Posted: 28 Mar 2014 02:52 PM PDT A comprehensive analysis of the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms by an international group of scientists demonstrated that the majority of the genes, as well as genetic and epigenetic mechanisms that are involved in regulation of longevity, are highly interconnected and related to stress response.

Fabricating nanostructures with silk could make clean rooms green rooms Posted: 28 Mar 2014 02:52 PM PDT Engineers have demonstrated that it is possible to generate nanostructures from silk in an environmentally friendly process that uses water as a developing agent and standard fabrication techniques. This approach provides a green alternative to the toxic materials commonly used in nanofabrication while delivering fabrication quality comparable to conventional synthetic polymers. Nanofabrication is at the heart of manufacture of semi-conductors and other electronic and photonic devices.

Safety, immunogenicity of two doses of the HPV-16/18 AS04 adjuvanted vaccine Cervarix Posted: 28 Mar 2014 02:52 PM PDT Two doses of the HPV-16/18 AS04-adjuvanted vaccine Cervarix (GlaxoSmithKline) are non-inferior to three-doses in the current schedule, research shows. Since high coverage and compliance rates can be difficult to achieve with the current three-dose HPV vaccineregimen, several studies have looked at the possibility of reducing the number of doses. Proof-of-principle that a two-dose schedule can provide sufficient protection against cervical cancer came initially from a study performed in Costa Rica in 2011.

Stigmas, once evolutionarily sound, are now bad health strategies Posted: 28 Mar 2014 02:52 PM PDT Stigmatization may have once served to protect early humans from infectious diseases, but that strategy may do more harm than good for modern humans, according to researchers. Stigmatizing and ostracizing members stricken with infectious diseases may have helped groups of early humans survive. But "the things that made stigmas a more functional strategy thousands of years ago rarely exist now," explained one author

Adjuvant chemotherapy increases markers of molecular aging in blood of breast cancer survivors Posted: 28 Mar 2014 02:52 PM PDT Adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer is 'gerontogenic,' accelerating the pace of physiologic aging, according to a new study. The authors conclude, "We have shown that cytotoxic chemotherapy potently induces the expression of markers of cellular senescence in the hematologic compartment in vivo, comparable with the effects of 10 to 15 years of chronologic aging in independent cohorts of healthy donors."

New device stimulating human gut will save money, reduce testing on animals Posted: 28 Mar 2014 02:51 PM PDT A breakthrough in drug testing could lead to cheaper, more effective medicines. A device has been created that accurately simulates the gastro-intestinal tract and how it absorbs medication. This means that the cost of clinical trials, as well as the use of animals in testing, could be greatly reduced, with savings passed on to customers.

Information processing demonstrated using a light-based chip inspired by our brain Posted: 28 Mar 2014 02:51 PM PDT Researchers report on a novel paradigm to do optical information processing on a chip, using techniques inspired by the way our brain works. Neural networks have been employed in the past to solve pattern recognition problems like speech recognition or image recognition, but so far, these bio-inspired techniques have been implemented mostly in software on a traditional computer. What researchers have now done is implement a small (16 nodes) neural network directly in hardware, using a silicon photonics chip.

Technique measures quantity, risks of engineered nanomaterials delivered to cells Posted: 28 Mar 2014 02:50 PM PDT Scientists have discovered a way to measure the effective density of engineered nanoparticles in physiological fluids, making it possible to determine the amount of nanomaterials that come into contact with cells and tissue in culture.

Rainbow-catching waveguide could revolutionize energy technologies Posted: 28 Mar 2014 09:10 AM PDT By slowing and absorbing certain wavelengths of light, engineers open new possibilities in solar power, thermal energy recycling and stealth technology More efficient photovoltaic cells. Improved radar and stealth technology. A new way to recycle waste heat generated by machines into energy. All may be possible due to breakthrough photonics research.

Long-standing theory disproved: Fingerprint of dissolved glycine in the Terahertz range explained Posted: 28 Mar 2014 04:58 AM PDT Chemists have, for the first time, completely analyzed the fingerprint region of the Terahertz spectrum of a biologically relevant molecule in water, in this case, an amino acid. By combining spectroscopy and molecular-dynamics simulations, they rendered the motion of the most basic amino acid, glycine, visible in an aqueous solution. Their results have disproved the long-standing theory that frequencies in the Terahertz range provide no information regarding the amino acid's motion.

Genetic variation linked to heart disease risk through RNA machinery Posted: 27 Mar 2014 07:23 PM PDT Researchers have pinpointed a new mechanism of how natural variation in our DNA alters an individual's risk for developing heart disease by interfering with the ability of a developmental gene to interact with a specialized type of RNA. This work expands on previous work identifying the 'hidden' causes of complex disease risk, with the goal of unlocking new pathways and potential drug targets for cardiovascular disease.

How rotavirus infection accelerates autoimmune diabetes in a mouse model Posted: 27 Mar 2014 07:23 PM PDT A combination of genetic predisposition and environmental factors is believed to cause autoimmune (type 1) diabetes. A new study gets at the mechanisms by which rotavirus infection contributes to autoimmune diabetes in a mouse model of the disease.

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