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Researchers find a new way to potentially thwart anthrax

In a new study, NYU School of Medicine researchers have found what may be an Achilles’ heel of deadly anthrax — a system that the bacteria use to communicate their presence to others of their kind. The researchers, Martin Blaser, M.D., the Frederick King Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medicine, and Professor of Microbiology and graduate student Marcus Jones, describe a “quorum-sensing system” in anthrax that is a type of bacterial “calling card.” Disrupting this system may open new avenues to prevention and treatment of anthrax, says Dr. Blaser.

Revealed: Europe’s master plan for space technology

The European Space Agency and its 16 national delegations have come together with the European Commission and more than a hundred separate industries to develop future road maps for space technology research and development across the continent. The new ‘European Space Technology Master Plan’ consolidates the overall process for space R&D and highlights 20 separate harmonised technology areas. It was discussed at a round table at this year’s Le Bourget with key representatives from the EC, European industry and ESA.

Pretreatment increases liver transplant survival

Pretreating transplanted livers with the immune molecule interleukin-6 (IL-6) dramatically increased survival of rats receiving organs with fatty degeneration–a common condition in humans that typically reduces transplant viability. The results suggest a means of making it possible to use a higher percentage of available donor livers for transplantation in humans. With over three times as many Americans needing transplants as there are available donor livers, an effective approach to increasing the number of viable donor organs would help narrow the gap between demand and supply.

Should men abstain from sex before fertility treatment?

New research by Israeli fertility experts has challenged current medical opinion, which holds that refraining from sex for up to a week at least is beneficial for men prior to undergoing some types of fertility treatment. Doctors and scientists from Soroka University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, tested over 7,200 semen samples for semen volume, sperm concentration and shape, and the percentage and total count of motile (active and moving) sperm. The samples were from around 6,000 men being investigated or treated for infertility who had abstained from sex for periods up to two weeks.

Scientists find what type of genes affect longevity

Tracing all the genetic changes that flow from a single mutation, UCSF scientists have identified the kinds of genes and systems in the body that ultimately allow a doubling of lifespan in the roundworm, C. elegans. Humans share many of these genes, and the researchers think the new findings offer clues to increasing human youthfulness and longevity as well.

Moderate malnutrition killing millions of children annually

About 90 percent of child deaths worldwide occur in just 42 countries — and about one-fourth of these deaths occur before age 5 in the poorest countries, such as Angola and Niger. Yet, 8 million of the 11 million childhood deaths worldwide each year could easily be prevented, says a Cornell University expert, writing in the authoritative medical journal The Lancet . That’s because almost 60 percent of deaths of children under 5 in the developing world are due to malnutrition and its interactive effects on preventable diseases.

Life-saving benefits found in traffic tickets

Police should hand out more traffic tickets. While Robert Tibshirani, PhD, won’t win any popularity contests with that sentiment, the Stanford School of Medicine researcher and his colleagues at the University of Toronto report in a paper being published in the June 28 issue of The Lancet that vigilant traffic law enforcement may reduce fatal car crashes.

Teams Set New Long-range Speed Record with Next-generation Internet Protocol

Scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) have set a new Internet2 land speed record using the next-generation Internet protocol IPv6. The team sustained a single stream TCP rate of 983 megabits per second for more than one hour between the CERN facility in Geneva and Chicago, a distance of more than 7,000 kilometers. This is equivalent to transferring a full CD in 5.6 seconds.

Scientists Propose Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise

With over 40 million people worldwide currently living with HIV/AIDS and millions more becoming infected each year, a group of scientists is calling for a coordinated global HIV vaccine enterprise to speed up the development and testing of promising candidates. In an article in the June 27 issue of Science, the authors emphasize the urgent need for an HIV vaccine, and outline a plan to accelerate research. Without a vaccine, if current trends continue, 45 million new people will become infected by 2010 and 70 million people will die by 2020, the World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS predict.

Relocating children after divorce may cause long-term problems

Children of divorced parents who are separated from one parent due to the custodial or non-custodial parent moving beyond an hour’s drive from the other parent are significantly less well off on many child mental and physical health measures compared to those children whose parents don’t relocate after divorce, according to new research. The findings, say the study authors, cast doubt on the current legal presumption that a move by a custodial parent to a destination that the moving parent believes will improve his or her life will also be in the best interest of the children that moves with them.

Blacks less likely to benefit from high-tech treatments for rapid heartbeat

Testing to guide treatment of rapid heart rhythms leads to poorer survival in blacks than in whites, according to research published in today’s rapid access issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. Lead author Andrea M. Russo, M.D., says blacks were much more likely to refuse implantable cardioverter-defibrillators or ICDs when doctors recommended the devices, which may explain some of the survival difference.

Herbal drug therapy effective in treating vascular dementia

For centuries, the herb Chinese gastrodine has been used in China to treat disorders such as dizziness, headache and even ischemic stroke. Research presented at the American Heart Association’s Second Asia Pacific Scientific Forum shows treatment with a gastrodine compound granule is effective in improving impaired memory, orientation, language and other effects of stroke in patients who were diagnosed with mild to moderate vascular dementia (VaD) after their stroke.