TORONTO, April 20, 2015-- Dual-energy CT (DECT) has several potential applications in the detection, characterization, staging, and follow-up of pancreatic cancer patients, according to a new study conducted at Johns Hopkins University. "DECT imaging is a promising technique, and it has the potential to improve lesion detection and characterization beyond levels available with single-energy CT imaging," said Satomi Kawamoto, MD, associate professor of radiology and radiological science at Hopkins. Several studies have shown that DE CT can help assessment of pancreatic ...

TORONTO, April 20, 2015--A protocol developed by radiologists at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center reduced CT misadministration at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center from 18 instances in 60,999 studies to zero in 36,608 in just 10 months. Misadministration includes, but is not limited to, imaging the wrong patient or body part without a physician's order or repeated imaging of a patient without a physician's order. The best practices protocol includes several levels of assessment, including reverification checklists, workflow clarification, and individual accountability. "CT ...

(Bethesda, MD, April 20, 2015) Researchers at the NFCR Center for Cancer System Informatics at MD Anderson Cancer Center have discovered a key factor that may explain drug resistance in glioblastoma (GBM), the most common and deadliest form of brain cancer. GBM accounts for 17% of all brain tumors, and over 10,000 new cases of GBM are diagnosed in the US each year. Unfortunately - since there are no effective, long-term therapies available - survival is typically less than 17 months. Approximately 50% of GBMs are known to have mutations in a gene called EGFR. However, ...

In 2004, astronomers examining a map of the radiation leftover from the Big Bang (the cosmic microwave background, or CMB) discovered the Cold Spot, a larger-than-expected unusually cold area of the sky. The physics surrounding the Big Bang theory predicts warmer and cooler spots of various sizes in the infant universe, but a spot this large and this cold was unexpected. Now, a team of astronomers led by Dr. Istvan Szapudi of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa may have found an explanation for the existence of the Cold Spot, which Szapudi ...

A badly dubbed foreign film makes a viewer yearn for subtitles; even subtle discrepancies between words spoken and facial motion are easy to detect. That's less likely with a method developed by Disney Research that analyzes an actor's speech motions to literally put new words in his mouth. The researchers found that the facial movements an actor makes when saying "clean swatches," for instance, are the same as those for such phrases as "likes swats," "then swine," or "need no pots." Sarah Taylor and her colleagues at Disney Research Pittsburgh and the University of ...

Leading doctors today [Monday 20 April, 2015] warn that medical and public recognition of sepsis--thought to contribute to between a third and a half of all hospital deaths--must improve if the number of deaths from this common and potentially life-threatening condition are to fall. In a new Commission, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Professor Jonathan Cohen and colleagues outline the current state of research into this little-understood condition, and highlight priority areas for future investigation. Sepsis--sometimes misleadingly called "blood poisoning"--is ...

The college graduation rate for students who have lived in foster care is 3 percent, among the lowest of any demographic group in the country. And this rate is unlikely to improve unless community colleges institute formal programs to assist foster youth both financially and academically, concludes a new study by researchers at University of the Pacific. The findings will be presented during the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in Chicago on Sunday, April 19. "Informal programs are less likely to work since foster youth lack guidance ...

PHILADELPHIA-- Once again, researchers at Penn's Abramson Cancer Center have extended the reach of the immune system in the fight against metastatic melanoma, this time by combining the checkpoint inhibitor tremelimumab with an anti-CD40 monoclonal antibody drug. The first-of-its-kind study found the dual treatments to be safe and elicit a clinical response in patients, according to new results from a phase I trial to be presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2015 on Sunday, April 19. Researchers include first author David L. Bajor, MD, instructor of Medicine in the division ...

PHILADELPHIA -- Women diagnosed with breast cancer are often told not to eat soyfoods or soy-based supplements because they can interfere with anti-estrogen treatment. But new research being presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2015 could eventually impact that advice, because in animals, a long history of eating soyfoods boosts the immune response against breast tumors, reducing cancer recurrence. The study, conducted at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, could offer good news to some women whose diet has long ...

PHILADELPHIA, April 19, 2015 - Broccoli sprout extract protects against oral cancer in mice and proved tolerable in a small group of healthy human volunteers, the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI), partner with UPMC CancerCenter, announced today at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. The promising results will be further explored in a human clinical trial, which will recruit participants at high risk for head and neck cancer recurrence later this year. This research is funded through Pitt's Specialized Program ...

PHILADEPHIA, April 19, 2015 - Identifying molecular changes that occur in tissue after chemotherapy could be crucial in advancing treatments for ovarian cancer, according to research from Magee-Womens Research Institute and Foundation (MWRIF) and the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI), partner with UPMC CancerCenter, presented today at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2015. For years now, intraperitoneal chemotherapy, a treatment which involves filling the abdominal cavity with chemotherapy drugs after surgery, has been ...

PHILADELPHIA -Genetically modified versions of patients' own immune cells successfully traveled to tumors they were designed to attack in an early-stage trial for mesothelioma and pancreatic and ovarian cancers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The data adds to a growing body of research showing the promise of CAR T cell technology. The interim results will be presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2015, April 18-22. "The goal of this phase I trial was to study the safety and feasibility of ...

Using mobile apps in preschool classrooms may help improve early literacy skills and boost school readiness for low-income children, according to research by NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. "Guided use of an educational app may be a source of motivation and engagement for children in their early years," said Susan B. Neuman, professor of childhood and literacy education at NYU Steinhardt and the study's author. "The purpose of our study was to examine if a motivating app could accelerate children's learning, which it did." Neuman ...

Schools must track the academic progress of homeless students with as much care as they track special education, Title I and English language learner students, according to researchers at University of the Pacific. "In an age of accountability, schools focus their efforts and attention on the students they are mandated to report on," said Ronald Hallett, associate professor of education and lead author of the study. "We need to realign our policies and procedures if we are going to improve academic outcomes for homeless and highly mobile students." Hallett and his colleagues ...

Meaningful college experiences, including internships and studying abroad, may not matter as much as your major and what school you attend when it comes to job satisfaction and earnings, according to research by NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. "Our study adds important nuance to our understanding of the influence specific college experiences have on economic and attitudinal job outcomes in the years following college graduation," said Gregory Wolniak, director of the Center for Research on Higher Education Outcomes at NYU Steinhardt ...

PHILADELPHIA --Poorer outcomes for African-American women with estrogen-receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer, compared with European-American patients, appears to be due, in part, to a strong survival mechanism within the cancer cells, according to a study being presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2015. Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center investigators report that breast tumors from African-American patients show reduced sensitivity to tamoxifen, a leading treatment for ER+ breast cancer, caused by increased activation ...

Chapel Hill, N.C., April 17, 2015 - Achelios Therapeutics will announce results from a Phase IIa placebo-controlled clinical trial in moderate and severe migraine sufferers treated with TOPOFEN (TM), the company's proprietary topical anti-migraine therapy. The data to be presented demonstrate that the simple application of a well-known non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), using the company's proprietary formulation on the skin, over the trigeminal nerve branches, can be a safe and effective alternative treatment for patients suffering from acute migraine. William ...

Study shows there are six different types of obese people Treating individuals according to which 'type' could be more effective Targeted strategies would also mean a more efficient use of NHS services One size does not fit all when it comes to tackling obesity, according to a new study by the University of Sheffield. Researchers looking at how to tackle the country's obesity issue - which costs the NHS £6billion pounds every year* - found that currently individuals are often treated the same regardless of how healthy they are, where they live or their ...

A new paper by a team of researchers led by Karel Matous, College of Engineering Associate Professor of Computational Mechanics in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, describes how an accurate statistical description of heterogeneous particulate materials, which is used within statistical micromechanics theories, governs the overall thermo-mechanical properties. This detailed statistical description was computed using a novel adaptive interpolation/integration scheme on the nation's largest parallel supercomputers. Quantifying ...

According to the World Health Organization's 2014 World Malaria Report, there are an estimated 198 million cases of malaria worldwide with 3.3 billion people at risk for contracting the infection. Although the impact of malaria is still significant, the statistics reflect a considerable reduction in the global malaria burden. Since 2010, disease transmission has been reduced by 30 percent and mortality due to malaria has decreased by almost half. Artemisinins are powerful drugs that have the most rapid action of all current drugs against Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite ...

For decades, frustrated parents and teachers have barked at fidgety children with ADHD to "Sit still and concentrate!" But new research shows that if you want ADHD kids to learn, you have to let them squirm. The foot-tapping, leg-swinging and chair-scooting movements of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder are actually vital to how they remember information and work out complex cognitive tasks, according to a study published in an early online release of the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. The findings show the longtime prevailing methods for ...

April 17, 2015 - A multicenter team of U.S. and Venezuelan scientists, led by researchers from NYU Langone Medical Center, have discovered the most diverse collection of bodily bacteria yet in humans among an isolated tribe of Yanomami Indians in the remote Amazonian jungles of southern Venezuela. By comparison, the microbiome of people living in industrialized countries is about 40 percent less diverse, the scientists estimate. The team reports its findings today in the journal Science Advances. The results, the researchers say, suggest a link between modern antibiotics ...

Research by scientists at The University of Manchester has revealed that the colour of light has a major impact on how the brain clock measures time of day and on how the animals' physiology and behavior adjust accordingly. The study, for the first time, provides a neuronal mechanism for how our internal clock can measure changes in light colour that accompany dawn and dusk. In research publishing on April 17th in the Open Access journal PLOS Biology, the researchers looked at the change in light around dawn and dusk to analyze whether colour could be used to determine ...

Scientists from the Icahn School of Medicine, collaborating with a multicenter team of U.S. and Venezuelan researchers, have discovered the most diverse collection of bacteria yet in humans among an isolated tribe of Yanomami Amerindians in the remote Amazonian jungles of Venezuela. Bacterial diversity in the Yanomami, previously unexposed to antibiotics or industrialized diets, was found to be nearly double that of people living in industrialized countries, and was also significantly higher than in other remote populations moderately exposed to modern practices. The team ...

An annual report from Tel Aviv University researchers reveals that anti-Semitic incidents rose dramatically worldwide in 2014, with violent attacks on Jews ranging from armed assaults to vandalism against synagogues, schools, and cemeteries. The report, released on April 15 by TAU's Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, recorded 766 incidents, mostly in Western Europe, compared to 554 in 2013 -- a surge of nearly 40 percent. The report called 2014 the worst year for anti-Semitic attacks since 2009. The authors of the report characterized such attacks ...