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Bacteria May Signal Pancreatic Cancer Risk

By Guest PostSeptember 25, 2012Healthantibodies, bacterium strain, blood sample, brown university, cancer, carcinogenesis, commensal bacteria, dominique michaud, european adult, forsyth institute, harvard university, immune defense, infectious, jacques izard, lance liotta, marker, oral bacterium, pancreatic cancer, pathogenic bacteria, periodontal disease, porphyromonas gingivalis, risk factor, united states

Pancreatic cancer is highly lethal and difficult to detect early. In a new study, researchers report that people who had high levels of antibodies for an infectious oral bacterium turned out to have double the risk for developing the cancer. High antibody levels for harmless oral bacteria, meanwhile, predicted a reduced pancreatic cancer risk.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A new study finds significant associations between antibodies for multiple oral bacteria and the risk of pancreatic cancer, adding support for the emerging idea that the ostensibly distant medical conditions are related.

The study of blood samples from more than 800 European adults, published in the journal Gut, found that high antibody levels for one of the more infectious periodontal bacterium strains of Porphyromonas gingivalis were associated with a two-fold risk for pancreatic cancer. Meanwhile, study subjects with high levels of antibodies for some kinds of harmless “commensal” oral bacteria were associated with a 45-percent lower risk of pancreatic cancer. (more…)

New Study Analyzes Why People Are Resistant to Correcting Misinformation, Offers Solutions

By Guest PostSeptember 21, 2012Scienceautism, childhood, colleen seifert, decision, erroneous belief, fiction, global warming, health care, ideology, information, michigan, misinformation, norbert schwarz, President Obama, queensland, reform, rumor, stephan lewandowsky, ullrich ecker, united states, university, vaccine, western australia

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Childhood vaccines do not cause autism. President Obama was born in the United States. Global warming is confirmed by science. And yet, many people believe claims to the contrary.

In a study appearing in the current issue of Psychological Science in the Public Interest, researchers from the University of Michigan, University of Western Australia and University of Queensland examined factors that cause people to resist correcting misinformation.

Misinformation can originate from rumors but also fiction, government and politicians, and organizations, the researchers say. (more…)

IBM and Broadridge Study Reveals Financial Markets Firms Challenged to Deliver Innovation and Efficiency

By Guest PostSeptember 21, 2012Economy, Technologyapplied insights, broadridge, business services, capital market, center, charles marchesani, customer demand, decision maker, financial solutions, global, hong kong, ibm, it, North America, organizational dna, proxy service, ron lefferts, singapore, united kingdom, united states

Only 1 in 5 firms excels at supporting new regulation and responding rapidly to client demands

Leading firms are rethinking their operations, forming external partnerships

NEW YORK, N.Y. – 21 Sep 2012: A new report released by IBM in collaboration with Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. reveals that increasing regulatory pressures and shifting customer demands are forcing financial markets firms to transform how they operate. Forward-thinking firms are breaking away from the industry’s long-held “not invented here” approach to managing operations to create a more open, agile and customer-focused model that expands the traditional boundaries of collaboration with external partners.

In a survey of 133 senior business executives and top IT decision makers from large and small firms located in the world’s trading centers – the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore and Hong Kong – 77 percent cite regulatory requirements and 59 percent point to more demanding customers as the top external market drivers triggering changes in their operating models. Only 22 percent of the firms currently excel at meeting both. (more…)

CU-led Mountain Forest Study Shows Vulnerability to Climate Change

By Guest PostSeptember 16, 2012Environmentalpine, anne kelly, Arctic, atmosphere, boulder, carbon dioxide, change, climate change, colorado, data, dry, energy, ernesto trujillo, flux towers, forest greenness, ground measurement, high resolution, michael golden, mid elevation, moisture change, mountain ecosystem, mountain range, noah molotch, precipitation, radiometer, rising temperature, roger bales, satellite image, sensitivity, sierra nevada, snowmelt, tipping point, united states, university, water vapor, western, wet, year

A new University of Colorado Boulder-led study that ties forest “greenness” in the western United States to fluctuating year-to-year snowpack indicates mid-elevation mountain ecosystems are most sensitive to rising temperatures and changes in precipitation and snowmelt.

Led by CU-Boulder researcher Ernesto Trujillo and Assistant Professor Noah Molotch, the study team used the data — including satellite images and ground measurements — to identify the threshold where mid-level forests sustained primarily by moisture change to higher-elevation forests sustained primarily by sunlight and temperature. Being able to identify this “tipping point” is important because it is in the mid-level forests — at altitudes from roughly 6,500 to 8,000 feet — where many people live and play in the West and which are associated with increasing wildfires, beetle outbreaks and increased tree mortality, said Molotch. (more…)

Hospitals that Make Longer Attempts at Resuscitation Have Higher Survival Rates

By Guest PostSeptember 15, 2012Healthamerican, brahmajee nallamotu, cardiac arrest, code blue drill, couple, cpr, cpr duration, cpr effort, defibrillator, electrical charge, heart, heart association, heartbeat, hospital, mannequin, resuscitation, rhythm, survival rate, the lancet, united states, university, Washington, zachary goldberger

Hospitals that continue CPR longer have better survival rates from cardiac arrests, according to a study published online Sept. 5 in The Lancet. The findings challenge the assumption that, if a pulse is not restored soon, continuing resuscitation efforts is futile.

The results also showed that patients who recovered after an extended CPR effort were no more likely to suffer brain damage than are patients revived after a shorter effort. (more…)

Researchers Devise More Accurate Method for Predicting Hurricane Activity

By Guest PostSeptember 14, 2012Environmentalok choudhary, cross validation, factor, forecasting, fredrick semazzi, historical data, humidity, hurricane season, method, model, motif based, nagiza samatova, network, north atlantic, north Carolina, seasonal hurricane, state university, statistical method, temperature, united states, william hendrix, zhengzhang chen

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new method for forecasting seasonal hurricane activity that is 15 percent more accurate than previous techniques.

“This approach should give policymakers more reliable information than current state-of-the-art methods,” says Dr. Nagiza Samatova, an associate professor of computer science at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the work. “This will hopefully give them more confidence in planning for the hurricane season.” (more…)

September 11 and The Cost of War

By Guest PostSeptember 11, 2012Politicsafghanistan, attack, brown university, catherine lutz, combat, conflict, connecticut, cost, death, democracy, domestic, environmental degradation, ethnicity, federal government, fiscal year, human lives. economic term, human right, international, international studies, Iraq, oregon, Pakistan, pentagon, september 11, united states, US, violation, war, war project, watson institute, yemen

The Costs of War project is assessing the total cost of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan in the wake of the 9-11 attacks. Findings thus far put the cost at more than 300,000 lives and $4 trillion. The project’s findings are continually updated. (more…)

Increase in Metal Concentrations in Rocky Mountain Watershed Tied to Warming Temperatures

By Guest PostSeptember 10, 2012Environmentacid rock drainage, acidity, air temperature, andrew manning, andrew todd, ard, bedrock, biologist, caitlin crouch, calcium concentration, chemical reaction, colorado, colorado boulder, continental divide, diane mcknight, ecological concern, geological survey, hypothesis, keystone, metal concentration, mineral weathering, mineralized, pennsylvania mine, permafrost, peru creek, philip verplanck, pyrite, pyrite weathering, rate, remediation effort, rocky mountain, snake river, stream, stream ecosystem, sulfide mineral, sulfuric acid, tributary, united states, university, US, usgs, water table, watershed, zinc

Warmer air temperatures since the 1980s may explain significant increases in zinc and other metal concentrations of ecological concern in a Rocky Mountain watershed, reports a new study led by the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Colorado Boulder.

Rising concentrations of zinc and other metals in the upper Snake River just west of the Continental Divide near Keystone, Colo., may be the result of falling water tables, melting permafrost and accelerating mineral weathering rates, all driven by warmer air temperatures in the watershed. Researchers observed a fourfold increase in dissolved zinc over the last 30 years during the month of September. (more…)

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