Religious or spiritual considerations were discussed in 16 percent of family meetings in intensive care units and health care professionals only rarely explored the patient's or family's religious or spiritual ideas, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine. Understanding how frequently discussions of spiritual concerns take place - and what characterizes them - is a first step toward clarity regarding best practices of responding to spiritual concerns in advanced illness. Douglas B. White, M.D., M.A.S., of the University of Pittsburgh School ...

Women with multiple sclerosis (MS) who intended to breastfeed their infants exclusively for two months had a lower risk of relapse during the first six months after giving birth compared with women who did not breastfeed exclusively , according to an article published online by JAMA Neurology. About 20 percent to 30 percent of women with MS experience a relapse within the first three to four months after giving birth and there are no interventions for effective prevention of postpartum relapse. The effect of exclusive breastfeeding on postpartum risk of MS relapse is ...

It was long believed that acquired immunity--a type of immunity mediated by T- and B-cells--had memory, meaning that it could learn from new pathogens, making subsequent reactions more effective, whereas innate immunity--which is mediated by macrophages and other types of cells that react to certain molecules typically associated with pathogens--did not. However, it gradually became clear that things were not so simple. Plants and insects, which only have innate immunity, also seem to have immunological memory. Further, it has been reported that herpes virus infection increases ...

By changing the mouse model they use to study how the immune system responds to cancer, a team of researchers hopes to shift the focus for one emerging form of cancer immunotherapy back to the standard approach--relying on antigen-presenting dendritic cells--and away from the current upstart, macrophages. Although macrophages, like dendritic cells, also take up antigens, they are more likely to degrade them than present them to T cells. The recent emphasis on macrophages stems, in part, from promising, but problematic, efforts to develop an effective macrophage-driven ...

Cancer cells become addicted to glucose, which they use as their regular source of energy to grow and develop. Although this was observed over nine decades ago by the German physiologist, Otto Warburg; there is still not therapeutic strategy today that can effectively take advantage of this special energy requirement. The initial approach appears to be simple: the lack of glucose could specifically induce the death of cancer cells. A new study by the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre Cell and Cancer Unit, headed by the Cell Division and Cancer group of the Spanish ...

A UCSF-led team has developed a technique to build tiny models of human tissues, called organoids, more precisely than ever before using a process that turns human cells into a biological equivalent of LEGO bricks. These mini-tissues in a dish can be used to study how particular structural features of tissue affect normal growth or go awry in cancer. They could be used for therapeutic drug screening and to help teach researchers how to grow whole human organs. The new technique -- called DNA Programmed Assembly of Cells (DPAC) and reported in the journal Nature Methods ...

Scientists from the D'Or Institute of Research and Education (IDOR), the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and the Yale University School of Medicine have elucidated the chemical process behind a mysterious gastrointestinal disease that is becoming more frequent every day: the eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), also known as the "asthma of the esophagus". The researchers identified a molecule which plays a key role in this condition and that can be a target in a new therapeutic strategy. The eosinophilic esophagitis is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the esophagus. ...

While the French High Council for Public Health (HCSP) made public on Monday, 24 August 2015, a positive opinion regarding the relevance of the 5-colour code for the public, a team of researchers (Inserm/INRA/Paris 13 University) directed by Serge Hercberg, on publication of their article in the journal Nutrients, demonstrated that the 5-colour nutrition label (5-CNL) is the most effective nutritional information system for allowing consumers to recognise and compare the nutritional quality of foods, including "at-risk" populations (older subjects, those with a lower educational ...

Amsterdam, NL, August 31, 2015 -- Every week in the U.S. an average of 645 people lose their lives to firearm violence and 1,565 more are treated in an emergency department for a firearm-related injury. Most of these events do not make headlines, but they account for about 7% of the premature deaths before age 65 in the U.S. In a special issue of Preventive Medicine, preventive medicine and health policy experts address a wide range of critical topics related to firearm violence, from the interaction of alcohol abuse with gun violence, effects of changes to gun laws in ...

Alzheimer's disease is associated with the appearance of characteristic neurotoxic protein aggregates in various regions in the brain. Chemical analysis of these insoluble deposits reveals that they are made up of a family of short protein fragments, referred to as beta-amyloid peptides, which are derived from a precursor protein called APP by the sequential action of two enzymes. An international team of researchers led by Christian Haass (Professor of Metabolic Biochemistry at LMU and Speaker for the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Munich) and Dr. Michael ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- About 20 percent of colorectal cancer patients have cancers that have spread (metastasized) beyond the colon at the time of their diagnosis. The liver is the most common site for these metastases. The approach to treating primary tumors within the colon and metastatic tumors in the liver continues to evolve; however, it typically involves chemotherapy plus surgical removal (resection) of both types of tumors. However, experts continue to debate whether surgical resection of primary tumors and metastatic tumors should be performed at the same time (synchronously) ...

LAWRENCE -- Renewable wind energy is experiencing a boom, with more wind turbines popping up across landscapes in the U.S. and abroad. Indeed, wind energy accounted for 3.3 percent of electricity generation in the United States in 2011, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Globally, that number was 2.9 percent for the same year. But as wind turbines proliferate, researchers at the University of Kansas are looking at how these forests of turbines affect the wind itself. What happens to the wind when a larger number of wind turbines removes more and ...

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Hurricane Ignacio and viewed the storm in infrared light, providing valuable temperature data. Aqua saw a weaker Ignacio moving parallel to the Hawaiian Islands. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument aboard Aqua gathers infrared data that shows temperatures. That AIRS data was made into a false-colored infrared image from August 30 at 22:47 UTC (6:47 p.m. EDT) and showed high, cold, strong thunderstorms surrounded the center of Hurricane Ignacio. AIRS imagery also showed a thick band of thunderstorms spiraling into the ...

Researchers link babies' performance on cognitive tasks to later learning progress Study underscores importance of talking to your baby well before they can talk back Findings may eventually contribute to reducing "vocabulary gap" EVANSTON, Ill. --- At 12 months old, your infant's ability to group objects according to the names associated with them -- as opposed to their appearance alone -- offers a glimpse into how his or her vocabulary will develop by the time they are 18 months, Northwestern University researchers have found. The research, by Brock Ferguson, ...

This news release is available in Spanish. Marine energy has a great future potential according to the experts, but there is still a long way to go before it can be used on a large scale. Despite the problem of intermittency, wave energy has an advantage over wind energy, for example: it is easier to predict optimum swell than some suitable gusts of wind. That is why knowing how much energy the waves will be bringing within a few hours is as important as having available efficient prototypes to make use of wave power. If this information is known, the energy produced ...

PITTSBURGH, Aug. 31, 2015 -- People with hostile personality traits who watch more television than their peers may be at a greater risk for injury, potentially because they are more susceptible to the influence of television on violence and risk-taking behaviors, a University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health analysis discovered. The research, published online in the International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion, suggests that a reduction in television viewing and content rating systems geared not just to age, but also personality traits, ...

Life on an island isn't always easy. To make the most of the little there is to eat on many Greek islands, the digestive system of Balkan green lizards has evolved considerably compared to family members on the mainland. Surprisingly, many of these insect-eating lizards even have special valves that help to digest plants. These are some of the findings¹ from a study led by Konstantinos Sagonas of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Greece, published in Springer's journal The Science of Nature². Reptiles can adjust their digestive system and ...

PITTSBURGH, Aug. 31, 2015 -- The more hours young adults spend watching television each day, the greater the likelihood that they'll have a higher body mass index and bigger waist circumference, a 15-year analysis by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health revealed. The association did not hold in later years, indicating that young adulthood is an important time to intervene and promote less television viewing, according to the research published online in the journal SAGE Open. "We were quite surprised to find that television viewing was associated ...

ROCHESTER Minn. -- A team of Mayo Clinic Cancer Center scientists has been awarded a Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant in multiple myeloma from the National Cancer Institute. The Mayo Clinic Cancer Center is one of only three cancer centers to receive a SPORE grant for multiple myeloma cancer research. MULTIMEDIA ALERT: Video and audio are available for download on the Mayo Clinic News Network. "With project leaders from Mayo campuses in Arizona, Rochester and Florida, our SPORE team will study the genetic basis for myeloma, develop novel viral ...

Satellite data from NOAA's GOES-East satellite was made into an animation that showed the demise of former Tropical Storm Erika as it neared eastern Cuba early on August 29. At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, NASA/NOAA's GOES Project compiled three days' worth of imagery from NOAA's GOES-East satellite that showed the movement and changes in former Tropical Storm Erika from August 27 to August 29. The animation showed Erika move through the Leeward Islands and into the Eastern Caribbean Sea, as its center passed just south of Puerto Rico, then ...

London, UK - 30 Aug 2015: Recruitment of leukocytes is a hallmark of stent thrombosis, according to results from the PRESTIGE study presented today at ESC Congress1 and published in European Heart Journal.2 The findings suggest that immune cell mediated thrombotic processes may be a realistic target for novel therapies to prevent stent thrombosis. "Stent thrombosis (ST) is a life-threatening complication of percutaneous coronary intervention and recent large scale clinical registries reported an incidence of up to 0.4-0.6% per year," said principal investigator Professor ...

How did the ankylosaur get its tail club? According to research from North Carolina State University and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences that traces the evolution of the ankylosaur's distinctive tail, the handle arrived first on the scene, and the knot at the end of the tail followed. The typical ankylosaur had a wide armored body and a flexible tail. But one group of ankylosaurs - ankylosaurids - also had a tail club that could have served as a useful weapon. These "weaponized" ankylosaurids lived about 66 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period. ...

LONDON (Aug. 31, 2015) -- Cardiologists failed to identify more than half of basic and about 35 percent of advanced pre-recorded murmurs, but skills improved after a 90 minute training session, according to research presented today at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2015. Recent breakthroughs in the transcatheter treatment of aortic and mitral valve disorders provide new therapies for patients, but physicians must be able to detect valve problems in a timely manner for patients to see the full benefit of these advances, said Michael Barrett, MD, the lead ...

London, UK - 31 Aug 2015: A gene associated with sudden cardiac death in the general population has been identified using implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) monitoring in research presented for the first time at ESC Congress today.1 The research included patients from the DISCOVERY trial and Oregon-SUDS and discovered that a polymorphism in the GNAS gene predicted ventricular tachyarrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. "This is the first time a gene has been identified using ICD monitoring and then confirmed to be associated with sudden cardiac death in the general ...

LONDON, UK - 30 August, 2015: In patients with type 2 diabetes and acute coronary syndrome, the glucose-lowering medication lixisenatide did not increase or decrease the rate of cardiovascular (CV) events compared to placebo, according to results of the Evaluation of Lixisenatide in Acute Coronary Syndrome (ELIXA) trial. The study, presented today at ESC Congress 2015, "demonstrates the cardiovascular safety of lixisenatide", reported Eldrin F. Lewis, MD, MPH, a member of the ELIXA trial's executive committee, a physician in the Cardiovascular Medicine Division at Brigham ...