Using data from the Heinz Nixdorf Recall study, an ongoing population study from three neighbouring cities in the Ruhr region of Germany, study leader Barbara Hoffmann, MD, MPH, a professor of environmental epidemiology at the IUF Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine in Germany and her colleagues assessed the long-term exposure to fine particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter <2.5 micrometre (PM2.5) and long-term exposure to traffic noise in 4238 study participants (mean age 60 years, 49.9 percent male).

The exposure to air pollutants was determined by using the EURopean Air Pollution Disperson, or EURAD, model.

Exposure to traffic noise was calculated using European Union models of outdoor traffic noise levels. These levels were quantified as weighted 24-hour mean exposure (Lden) and nighttime exposure (Lnight).

To determine the association of the two variables with cardiovascular risk, the researchers looked at thoracic aortic calcification (TAC), a measure of subclinical atherosclerosis.

TAC was quantified using non-contrast enhanced electron beam computed tomography. Using multiple linear regression, the researchers controlled for other cardiovascular risk factors, including age, gender, education, unemployment, smoking status and history, exposure to second-hand smoke, physical activity, alcohol use and body mass index.

After controlling for these variables, the researchers found that fine-particle air pollution was associated with an increase in TAC burden by 19.9 percent (95 percent CI 8.2; 32.8 percent) per 2.4microgram/m3. (To put that increase in perspective: in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency recently revised the overall limit downward from 15 to 12microgram/m3).

The researchers also found that nighttime traffic noise pollution increased TAC burden by 8 percent (95 percent CI 0.8; 8.9 percent) per 5 dB. (An average living room would typically have a noise level of about 40 A-weighted decibels. Mean exposure to traffic noise over 24 hours was not associated with increased TAC.

Among subgroups of participants, the researchers found even stronger associations. The interaction of PM2.5 and TAC was clearer among those younger than 65, participants with prevalent coronary artery disease and those taking statins. In contrast, the effect of Lnight was stronger in participants who were not obese, did not have coronary artery disease and did not take statins. (ANI)

As a results of her endeavour, Eesha Khare of Saratoga, California, won the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award on Friday in Phoenix as part of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, and a 50,000 prize, Fox News reported.

Her gadget may be able to fill the crucial need for energy-efficient storage devices and could have potential applications for car batteries. (ANI)

Lead author Mary Rice, MD, a pulmonary and critical care fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, said that their study extends previous findings by showing that proximity to a major roadway during the prenatal period is associated with increased risk of subsequent respiratory infection in children.

The study included 1,271 mother-child pairs enrolled during the first trimester of pregnancy between 1999 and 2002 in Project Viva in eastern Massachusetts.

The distance from home addresses to the nearest Federal class 1/2A (“major”) roadway was calculated using geographic information system software.

Respiratory infections were defined as maternal report of any doctor-diagnosed pneumonia, bronchiolitis, croup or other respiratory infection from birth until age 3.

Statistical analyses of the relationship between exposure to a major roadway and respiratory infection were adjusted for gender, birth weight, maternal education, household income, neighborhood income and education, maternal smoking during pregnancy, postnatal household smoking, breastfeeding, daycare attendance, presence of other young children in the household and season of birth.

Of the 1,271 mother-child pairs studied, 6.4 percent lived less than 100 meters, 6.5 percent lived 100 to 200 meters, 33.7 percent lived 200 to less than 1000 meters and 53.4 percent lived 1,000 meters or more from a major roadway.

By the age of 3, 678 (53.3 percent) of the kids had at least one doctor-diagnosed respiratory infection.

After adjustment for possible confounders and risk factors for respiratory infection, children whose mothers lived less than 100 meters from a major roadway during pregnancy were 1.74 times as likely as those living 100 meters or more from a major roadway to have had a respiratory infection.

Those living 100 to 200 meters from a major roadway were 1.49 times as likely to have had a respiratory infection. (ANI)

According to the researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and colleagues, more than 2,600 donor kidneys are discarded each year in the U.S.

“With about 100,000 people in the U.S. awaiting kidney transplants, it is devastating when an organ is donated but cannot be used. These discarded organs may represent an ideal platform for investigations aimed at manufacturing kidneys for transplant,” said Giuseppe Orlando, M.D., Ph.D., lead author, a Wake Forest Baptist transplant surgeon and regenerative medicine researcher.

The research involved pumping a mild detergent through kidneys that were refused for transplant. The goal of the process, called decellularization, is to remove all cells – leaving only the organ structure or “skeleton,” known in regenerative medicine terms as a scaffold. Ultimately, the patient’s own cells could be placed in this scaffold, creating a customized organ that the patient theoretically would not reject.

In fact, an analysis of the decellularized organs revealed that antigens likely to cause an immune response were removed in the cleaning process.

“This finding has significant implications. It indicates that transplantation of such customized kidneys could be performed without the need for anti-rejection therapy. In addition, these kidneys maintain their innate three-dimensional architecture, their basic biochemistry, as well as their vessel network system. When we tested their ability to be transplanted (in pigs), these kidneys were able to maintain blood pressure, suggesting a functional and resilient vasculature,” said Orlando.

While the project is in its infancy, the idea represents a potential solution to the extreme shortage of donor kidneys.

The research, supported in part by a grant from the state of North Carolina, was reported in the journal Biomaterials. (ANI)

The research led by Michigan State University’s Zach found that a copious amount of practice is not enough to explain why people differ in level of skill in two widely studied activities, chess and music.

In other words, the finding suggests that it takes more than hard work to become an expert.

Hambrick said natural talent and other factors likely play a role in mastering a complicated activity.

“Practice is indeed important to reach an elite level of performance, but this paper makes an overwhelming case that it isn’t enough,” said Hambrick, associate professor of psychology.

The debate over why and how people become experts has existed for more than a century. Many theorists argue that thousands of hours of focused, deliberate practice is sufficient to achieve elite status.

Hambrick disagrees.

“The evidence is quite clear,” he said, “that some people do reach an elite level of performance without copious practice, while other people fail to do so despite copious practice.”

Hambrick and colleagues analyzed 14 studies of chess players and musicians, looking specifically at how practice was related to differences in performance. Practice, they found, accounted for only about one-third of the differences in skill in both music and chess.

Based on existing research, Hambrick said it could be explained by factors such as intelligence or innate ability, and the age at which people start the particular activity. A previous study of Hambrick’s suggested that working memory capacity – which is closely related to general intelligence – may sometimes be the deciding factor between being good and great.

While the conclusion that practice may not make perfect runs counter to the popular view that just about anyone can achieve greatness if they work hard enough, Hambrick said there is a “silver lining” to the research.

“If people are given an accurate assessment of their abilities and the likelihood of achieving certain goals given those abilities,” he said, “they may gravitate toward domains in which they have a realistic chance of becoming an expert through deliberate practice.”

Hambrick reported the finding in the research journal Intelligence. (ANI)

The new fabric works like human skin, forming excess sweat into droplets that drain away by themselves, said inventor Tingrui Pan, professor of biomedical engineering.

One area of research in Pan”s Micro-Nano Innovations Laboratory at UC Davis is a field known as microfluidics, which focuses on making “lab on a chip” devices that use tiny channels to manipulate fluids.

Pan and his colleagues are developing such systems for applications like medical diagnostic tests.

Graduate students Siyuan Xing and Jia Jiang developed a new textile microfluidic platform using hydrophilic (water-attracting) threads stitched into a highly water-repellent fabric. They were able to create patterns of threads that suck droplets of water from one side of the fabric, propel them along the threads and expel them from the other side.

“We intentionally did not use any fancy microfabrication techniques so it is compatible with the textile manufacturing process and very easy to scale up,” said Xing, lead graduate student on the project.

It”s not just that the threads conduct water through capillary action. The water-repellent properties of the surrounding fabric also help drive water down the channels.

Unlike conventional fabrics, the water-pumping effect keeps working even when the water-conducting fibers are completely saturated, because of the sustaining pressure gradient generated by the surface tension of droplets.

The rest of the fabric stays completely dry and breathable. By adjusting the pattern of water-conducting fibers and how they are stitched on each side of the fabric, the researchers can control where sweat is collected and where it drains away on the outside.

The innovation is a good news for workout enthusiasts, athletes and clothing manufacturers as they are all interested in fabrics that remove sweat and let the skin breathe.

Cotton fibers, for example, wick away sweat — but during heavy exercise, cotton can get soaked, making it clingy and uncomfortable.

A paper describing the research was published recently in the journal Lab on a Chip. (ANI)

So, look low in the west-northwest after sunset in late May, and you can watch Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury pirouetting through the tightest gathering of three naked-eye planets that the world will see until 2026.

“Here’s a beautiful chance to see three planets all together,” said Alan MacRobert, a senior editor at Sky and Telescope magazine.

“Add the Earth under your feet, and you’re seeing half of the solar system’s planets at once. They’ll be a lovely part of the spring twilight,” he added.

MacRober said that the view could be best about 30 to 45 minutes after sunset and the show will continue with two of the planets well into June.

The program of events:

May 20-23. Venus and Jupiter, the brightest two planets of the solar system, have been approaching each other in the western evening sky for weeks.

As they draw close together now, Mercury — currently the third-brightest planet — climbs up from the horizon day by day to join them. By May 20th you should be able to spot Mercury to the lower right of the other two. It moves up closer to bright Venus for the next few days.

May 24. Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury now all fit within a 5-degree circle. That means you could cover them with a golf ball held at about arm’s length. And you can view all three at the same time in most binoculars. They’ll stay within a 5-degree circle until May 29.

May 26. The grouping is now tightest; all three planets fit in a 2.5-degree circle, forming a striking little triangle. Your thumb at arm’s length will just about cover them.

May 27. Jupiter appears right next to Venus. After this evening, Jupiter pulls down and right of Venus and Mercury, disappearing from view in early June.

May 28 and on. Mercury, meanwhile, is coming into its own. It’s entering its best evening showing of 2013, soaring ever higher above Venus until about June 7th. At that point it slowly begins to sink back toward Venus and also starts fading — slowly at first, then increasingly fast after mid-June.

Although the three planets may look close together, they’re not. During the last week of May, Mercury is about 9 light-minutes from Earth (105 million miles), Venus is farther at 14 light-minutes (150 million miles), and Jupiter is 51 light-minutes from us (565 million miles).

The fainter star Elnath, or Beta Tauri, which appears with them in the sky, is more than a million times farther in the background at a distance of 130 light-years.(ANI)

The study found that mice lost 85 percent of their hair if they received radiation therapy in the morning, compared to a 17 percent loss when treatment occurred in the evening.

The researchers, from Salk Institute for Biological Studies, the University of Southern California (USC) and the University of California, Irvine (UCI), worked out the precise timing of the hair circadian clock, and also uncovered the biology behind the clockwork – the molecules that tells hair when to grow and when to repair damage. They then tested the clock using radiotherapy.

“These findings are particularly exciting because they present a significant step towards developing new radiation therapy protocols that include minimizing negative side effects on normal tissues, such as hair or bone marrow, while maintaining the desired effects on cancer cells,” said Maksim Plikus, assistant professor of developmental and cell biology at UCI and the study`s first author.

“We will now apply our findings to design novel circadian rhythm-based approaches to cancer therapy,” Plikus asserted.

The scientists can`t say their findings will directly translate to human cancer therapy because they haven`t yet studied that possibility. But they say it is becoming increasingly clear that body organs and tissues have their own circadian clocks that, when understood, could be used to time drug therapy for maximum benefit.

“There are clocks everywhere in the body – clocks that have their own unique rhythm that, we found, have little to do with the central clock in our brains,” said the study`s co-lead investigator, Satchidananda Panda, an associate professor in Salk`s Regulatory Biology Laboratory and an expert on circadian rhythm.

“This suggests that delivering a drug to an organ while it is largely inactive is not a good idea. You could do more damage to the organ than when it is awake, repairing and restoring itself,” added Panda.

The study appeared in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). (ANI)

The five-year study by Sydney University researchers suggests children aged under six years should spend at least 10 hours a week outdoors in the sunshine to reduce their risk of becoming short-sighted or myopic.

Orthoptist Professor Kathryn Rose, head of the study, explained that exposure to direct sunlight at a young age helps prevent the eyeball from growing too fast and becoming oval or egg-shaped instead of round, News.com.au reported.

The researchers noted that prevention of myopia is important for future eye health because even low levels of the condition can create a higher risk of cataracts and glaucoma in adulthood.

The research, published in American journal Ophthalmology, also suggested that there is a “modern myopia epidemic” in countries where there is an emphasis on academic success at an early age, with levels of myopia in schoolchildren in countries like Singapore, Taiwan and Korea now between 80 and 90 per cent.

To this, Prof Rose suggested that schools should move classes outside to ensure kids were exposed to sunlight. (ANI)

A lot of research has shown that bilinguals are pretty good at accommodating speech variation across languages, but there`s been a debate as to how, said lead author Kalim Gonzales, a psychology doctoral student at the University of Arizona.

“There are two views: One is that bilinguals have different processing modes for their two languages — they have a mode for processing speech in one language and then a mode for processing speech in the other language. Another view is that bilinguals just adjust to speech variation by recalibrating to the unique acoustic properties of each language,” he noted.

Gonzales`s research supports the first view — that bilinguals who learn two languages early in life learn two separate processing modes, or “sound systems.”

The study looked at 32 Spanish-English early bilinguals, who had learned their second language before age 8. Participants were presented with a series of pseudo-words beginning with a `pa` or a `ba` sound and asked to identify which of the two sounds they heard.

While `pa` and `ba` sounds exist in both English and Spanish, how those sounds are produced and perceived in the two languages varies subtly. In the case of `ba,` for example, English speakers typically begin to vibrate their vocal chords the moment they open their lips, while Spanish speakers begin vocal chord vibration slightly before they open their lips and produce `pa` in a manner similar to English `ba.`

As a result of those subtle differences, English-only speakers might, in some cases, confuse the `ba` and `pa` sounds they hear in Spanish, explains co-author Andrew Lotto, associate professor of speech, language and hearing sciences at the University of Arizona.

For the study, the bilingual participants were divided into two groups. One group was told they would be hearing rare words in Spanish, while the other was told they would be hearing rare words in English. Both groups heard audio recordings of variations of the same two words — bafri and pafri — which are not real words in either language.

Participants were then asked to identify whether the words they heard began with a `ba` or a `pa` sound.

Each group heard the same series of words, but for the group told they were hearing Spanish, the ends of the words were pronounced slightly differently, with the `r` getting a Spanish pronunciation.

The findings: Participants perceived `ba` and `pa` sounds differently depending on whether they were told they were hearing Spanish words, with the Spanish pronunciation of `r,` or whether they were told they were hearing English words, with the English pronunciation of `r.`

“What this showed is that when you put people in English mode, they actually would act like English speakers, and then if you put them in Spanish mode, they would switch to acting like Spanish speakers,” Lotto said.

“These bilinguals, hearing the exact same `ba`s and `pa`s would label them differently depending on the context,” he added.

When the study was repeated with 32 English monolinguals, participants did not show the same shift in perception; they labeled `ba` and `pa` sounds the same way regardless of which language they were told they were hearing. It was that lack of an effect for monolinguals that provided the strongest evidence for two sound systems in bilinguals.

Lotto said “This is one of the first clear demonstrations that bilinguals really do have two different sounds systems and that they can switch between one language and the other and then use that sound system.”

This is true primarily for those who learn two languages very young, he asserted.

The study will be published in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. (ANI)