http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Researchers at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have shown that search algorithms used in digital communications can help scientists identify effective multi-drug combinations. The study, led by Giovanni Paternostro, M.D., Ph.D., was published in the December 26, 2008, issue of PLoS Computational Biology. http://www.physorg.com/news150726449.html Biology Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:27:29 EST news150726449 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have been puzzled in recent years by observations that drug-releasing stents (mesh-like tubes implanted to hold patients' coronary arteries open) can increase the likelihood of blood clots and heart attacks. Now, a mathematical model developed by MIT engineers can predict whether particular types of stents are likely to cause life-threatening side effects. http://www.physorg.com/news150473094.html Other Sciences Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:04:54 EST news150473094 Ed Wagner, MD, MPH, knew there had to be a better way. He and Group Health colleagues set out 15 years ago to explore how best to engage patients with chronic diseases in effective care. With Robert Wood Johnson Foundation support, they developed the Chronic Care Model. More than 1,500 U.S. and international medical practices have adopted the Model. Now the largest roundup of evidence on how the Model performs in practice confirms that it works. This review is in the January/February 2009 issue of Health Affairs, focused on a key part of reforming health care: caring for chronic diseases in a "fragmented" health care system. http://www.physorg.com/news150448410.html Medicine & Health Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:13:30 EST news150448410 Physicists at Indiana University have developed a promising new way to identify a possible abnormality in a fundamental building block of Einstein's theory of relativity known as "Lorentz invariance." If confirmed, the abnormality would disprove the basic tenet that the laws of physics remain the same for any two objects traveling at a constant speed or rotated relative to one another. http://www.physorg.com/news150388964.html Physics Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:42:44 EST news150388964 Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) have, for the first time in history, derived authentic embryonic stem (ES) cells from rats. This breakthrough finding will enable scientists to create far more effective animal models for the study of a range of human diseases. http://www.physorg.com/news149343895.html Biology Wed, 24 Dec 2008 12:24:55 EST news149343895 Mast cells are now recognized as "granular cells of the connective tissue", whose activation exacerbates allergic immune responses and as key players in the establishment of innate immunity as well as modulators of adaptive immune responses. The role of mast cells in the gastrointestinal mucosa is not only to react to antigens, but also to actively regulate the barrier and transport properties of the intestinal epithelium. http://www.physorg.com/news149247749.html Medicine & Health Tue, 23 Dec 2008 09:42:29 EST news149247749 New research sheds light on a common link between tumor formation and Costello Syndrome, an inherited developmental disorder in which patients have cardiac defects, mild mental retardation, and face-shape abnormalities. The study published in the journal Disease Models & Mechanisms (DMM), dmm.biologists.org uses a zebrafish model to help explain a puzzling connection between Costello syndrome and cancer. http://www.physorg.com/news149143213.html Medicine & Health Mon, 22 Dec 2008 04:40:13 EST news149143213 (PhysOrg.com) -- Modifying the environment by using everything from shovels and plows to plant-derived pesticides may be as important as mosquito nets and vaccinations in the fight against malaria, according to a computerized analysis by MIT researchers. http://www.physorg.com/news148913236.html Space & Earth Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:47:16 EST news148913236 The initial results of the first computer model that simulates the global atmosphere with a detailed representation of individual clouds have been analyzed by a team of scientists at the International Pacific Research Center (IPRC) at the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa, Japan-Agency for Marine Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), and the University of Tokyo. http://www.physorg.com/news148908011.html Space & Earth Fri, 19 Dec 2008 11:20:11 EST news148908011 Dystonia is a neurological disorder characterized by involuntary abnormal muscle constrictions. More than 300,000 people in North America are affected, but the mechanism of abnormal muscle constrictions has not been well understood. http://www.physorg.com/news148735788.html Medicine & Health Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:29:48 EST news148735788 (PhysOrg.com) -- Learning a feeling of safety activates cellular and molecular processes that act against depression. This has been analysed using a new animal model that helps examine and explain the relevant cell biology processes more effectively. The findings now published in the journal Neuron show that "learned safety" can have an anti-depressive effect comparable to pharmacological antidepressants but that this effect is controlled by other molecular processes. The project supported by the Austrian Science Fund FWF was carried out by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Columbia University in the U.S. http://www.physorg.com/news148575145.html Medicine & Health Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:52:25 EST news148575145 Australia's capabilities in understanding the impact of air pollution have advanced with a new version of software that can predict the direction and concentration of odours and pollutants. http://www.physorg.com/news147955525.html Space & Earth Mon, 08 Dec 2008 10:45:25 EST news147955525 The apparent success of a case in which German doctors cured a man of AIDS using a bone marrow transplant comes as no surprise to Gerhard Bauer, a UC Davis stem cell researcher. Bauer has been working for more than 10 years on a similar cure for AIDS based on replacing the devastated immune system of an HIV-infected patient with stem cells that have been engineered to resist human immunodeficiency syndrome. http://www.physorg.com/news147720965.html Medicine & Health Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:36:05 EST news147720965 A worldwide group of scientists has created an infectious prion disease in a mouse model, in a step that may help unravel the mystery of this progressive disease that affects the nervous system in humans and animals. The research team, including Christina J. Sigurdson, D.V.M., Ph.D., assistant professor of pathology at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, also discovered that changing the structure of the prion protein by altering just two nucleic acids leads to a fatal neurological disorder in mice. Their findings will be published on line in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) the week of December 1. http://www.physorg.com/news147702312.html Biology Fri, 05 Dec 2008 12:25:12 EST news147702312 Australia`s capabilities in understanding the impact of air pollution have advanced with a new version of software that can predict the direction and concentration of odours and pollutants. http://www.physorg.com/news147539269.html Space & Earth Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:07:49 EST news147539269 Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affects as many as one in five of all Americans who survive a harrowing experience like rape, assault, war or terrorism. It has emotionally paralyzed survivors of 9/11 and broken up survivors' families. http://www.physorg.com/news147366265.html Medicine & Health Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:04:25 EST news147366265 Mercury levels in fish are prompting widespread consumption advisories and uncertainty among consumers over which species are safe to eat. Now researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a model that will help scientists and regulators around the country predict which areas are likely to have fish with high mercury levels - a breakthrough that should help officials address public uncertainty by developing health advisories for specific water bodies and fish species. http://www.physorg.com/news147354867.html Space & Earth Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:54:27 EST news147354867 A new method of characterizing breast lesions found during an MRI exam could result in fewer biopsies of benign tumors with the benefits of reduced pain and expense for patients and providers, according to a paper that will be presented today (Sunday, Nov. 30) at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). http://www.physorg.com/news147272754.html Medicine & Health Sun, 30 Nov 2008 13:05:54 EST news147272754 A comprehensive mouse model of inherited prion disease exhibits cognitive, motor, and neurophysiological deficits that bear a striking resemblance to the symptoms experienced by patients with the human version of "mad cow disease," Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). The research, published by Cell Press in the November 26th issue of the journal Neuron, provides exciting insight into the mechanism of disease and may lead to the development of new therapeutic strategies for this devastating neurodegenerative disorder. http://www.physorg.com/news146922723.html Medicine & Health Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:52:03 EST news146922723 How can moss help us to treat Alzheimer's disease? What can the lamprey immune system tell us about evolution? Can genetic studies of snapdragon populations help with efforts to conserve rare species? What can quail teach us about human aging, reproduction, and hereditary diseases? Will studies of choanoflagellates unravel the origins of animals? http://www.physorg.com/news146491986.html Biology Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:13:06 EST news146491986 Computational neuroscientists at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a computational model that provides insight into the function of the brain's visual cortex and the information processing that enables people to perceive contours and surfaces, and understand what they see in the world around them. http://www.physorg.com/news146321002.html Medicine & Health Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:43:22 EST news146321002 In the last 10 years, e-mail has gone from a novelty to a necessity. What was once a pastime is now an essential form of communication, with many people opening their inboxes to find dozens of e-mails waiting. http://www.physorg.com/news146320233.html Technology Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:30:33 EST news146320233 One of the biggest threats to today's farmlands is the loss of soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil organic matter (SOM) from poor land-management practices. The presence of these materials is essential as they do everything from providing plants with proper nutrients to filtering harmful chemical compounds to the prevention of soil erosion. Sustainable management practices for crop residues are critical for maintaining soil productivity, but being able to measure a loss in the quality of soil can be difficult. http://www.physorg.com/news146314199.html Space & Earth Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:49:59 EST news146314199 A computer model that can predict how people will complete a controlled task and how the knowledge needed to complete that task develops over time is the product of a group of researchers, led by a professor from Penn State's College of Information Sciences and Technology. http://www.physorg.com/news145281421.html Medicine & Health Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:57:01 EST news145281421 A new study highlights the role of a charge-switching enzyme in nervous system deficits characteristic of multiple sclerosis and other related neurological illness. http://www.physorg.com/news145181846.html Biology Thu, 06 Nov 2008 08:17:26 EST news145181846 In a paper published in Genome Research on Nov. 4, scientists at the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) report that what was previously believed to be "junk" DNA is one of the important ingredients distinguishing humans from other species. http://www.physorg.com/news145038245.html Medicine & Health Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:24:05 EST news145038245 Doctors use diagnostic sonography or ultrasound to visualise organs and other internal structures of the human body. Dutch researcher Koos Huijssen has developed a computer model that can predict the sound transmission of improved designs for ultrasound instruments. The computer model is capable of processing large quantities of data and can be run on both a PC and a parallel supercomputer. Erasmus University Medical Centre and Oldelft Ultrasound are now using this program to design a new sonographic transducer. http://www.physorg.com/news145019085.html Medicine & Health Tue, 04 Nov 2008 11:04:45 EST news145019085 Research using a new mouse model has led to the identification of a potential therapeutic target for a type of leukemia commonly associated with an unfavorable prognosis. The study, published by Cell Press in the November issue of the journal Cancer Cell, also validates examination of histone modification as a strategy for distinguishing cancer subtypes. http://www.physorg.com/news144947285.html Medicine & Health Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:08:05 EST news144947285 EPFL researchers have developed a numerical model that can re-create the state of Switzerland's Rhône Glacier as it was in 1874 and predict its evolution until the year 2100. This is the longest period of time ever modeled in the life of a glacier, involving complex data analysis and mathematical techniques. http://www.physorg.com/news144494795.html Space & Earth Wed, 29 Oct 2008 10:26:35 EST news144494795 A new predictive model shows that vaccinating infants with 7 valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7)--the current recommendation--not only saves lives and money during a normal flu season by preventing related bacterial infections; it also would prevent more than 357,000 deaths during an influenza pandemic, while saving $7 billion in costs. http://www.physorg.com/news144431908.html Medicine & Health Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:58:28 EST news144431908