science newsletter: Science News SciGuru.com

Πέμπτη 29 Αυγούστου 2013

Science News SciGuru.com

Moderate physical activity does not increase risk of knee osteoarthritis
Neutron stars in the computer cloud
Brain inflammation linked to more severe Parkinson’s symptoms
Global Distributions of Three Types of Solar Wind During the Entire Solar Cycle
Poor oral health linked to cancer-causing oral HPV infection

Moderate physical activity does not increase risk of knee osteoarthritis

Posted: 29 Aug 2013 07:33 AM PDT

Adults age 45 and older who engaged in moderate physical activity up to two and a half hours a week did not increase their risk of developing knee osteoarthritis over a 6-year follow-up period, a new study finds.

Study participants who engaged in the highest levels of physical activity – up to 5 hours a week – did have a slightly higher risk of knee osteoarthritis, but the difference was not statistically significant.

Neutron stars in the computer cloud

Posted: 29 Aug 2013 04:49 AM PDT

The combined computing power of 200,000 private PCs helps astronomers take an inventory of the Milky Way. The Einstein@Home project connects home and office PCs of volunteers from around the world to a global supercomputer. Using this computer cloud, an international team lead by scientists from the Max Planck Institutes for Gravitational Physics and for Radio Astronomy analysed archival data from the CSIRO Parkes radio telescope in Australia. Using new search methods, the global computer network discovered 24 pulsars – extraordinary stellar remnants with extreme physical properties.

Brain inflammation linked to more severe Parkinson’s symptoms

Posted: 28 Aug 2013 12:48 PM PDT

Reversing inflammation in the fluid surrounding the brain’s cortex may provide a solution to the complex riddle of Parkinson’s, according to researchers who have found a link between pro-inflammatory biomarkers and the severity of symptoms such as fatigue, depression and anxiety in patients with the chronic disease.

Lena Brundin of Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine was part of a research team that measured inflammatory markers found in cerebrospinal fluid samples of Parkinson’s patients and members of a control group.

Global Distributions of Three Types of Solar Wind During the Entire Solar Cycle

Posted: 28 Aug 2013 12:28 PM PDT

The three types of solar wind — coronal-hole-associated fast and cold wind, streamer-associated slow and hot wind, and interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) — have been differentiated by their composition and studied using ACE/SWICS observations from 1998 to 2005 (Zhao et al. GRL 2009 and ACE News #106).

Poor oral health linked to cancer-causing oral HPV infection

Posted: 28 Aug 2013 08:37 AM PDT

Poor oral health, including gum disease and dental problems, was found to be associated with oral human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, which causes about 40 percent to 80 percent of oropharyngeal cancers, according to researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

The study was published in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.