Twitter 'big data' could provide valuable details about transgender individuals' health and social needs Transgender and gender nonconforming people are at high risk for diseases such as AIDS and are vulnerable to depression and other mental health issues, but may be reluctant to disclose their identities to researchers due to stigma. As a result, very little is known about their health and social needs. New research from the UC Institute for Prediction Technology in the UCLA Department of Family Medicine suggests that social media could help fill that knowledge gap. ...

A multidisciplinary team led by Johns Hopkins researcher Venu Raman, Ph.D., with notable contributions from Guus Bol, Farhad Vesuna and Phuoc Tran of Johns Hopkins, has identified a new therapy for lung cancer, the most common cancer worldwide. The therapy has been in development for six years and involves a first-in-class molecule designed by the team. The molecule, RK-33, interrupts the cell cycle of lung cancer cells without harming normal cells, and it is effective both on its own and in combination with radiation therapy. The team designed the molecule to bind to ...

LAWRENCE -- Whole Foods Market encourages its employees to connect with the supermarket's "core values" on a personal level and make them "come to life" every day in their work. Whether it's at the organic foods supermarket or firms such as Google or Apple or even Southwest Airlines, cohesive corporate culture is a strong buzzword among some of the world's most successful companies. However, a University of Kansas researcher who studies the intersection of economics, evolutionary theory and philosophy has found that strong culture among a business' employees is only ...

The drug dasabuvir (trade name Exviera) has been available since January 2015 for the treatment of adults with chronic hepatitis C infection. The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined in a dossier assessment whether this drug offers an added benefit over the appropriate comparator therapy. According to the findings, there are indications of an added benefit in patients who have not yet developed cirrhosis of the liver and who are infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1a. In case of genotype 1b, this only applies to treatment-naive, ...

Radio systems, such as mobile phones and wireless internet connections, have become an integral part of modern life. However, today's devices use twice as much of the radio spectrum as is necessary. New technology is being developed that could fundamentally change radio design and could increase data rates and network capacity, reduce power consumption, create cheaper devices and enable global roaming. A pioneering team of researchers from the University of Bristol's Communication Systems and Networks research group, have developed a new technique that can estimate ...

Oral care products containing a natural chemical that stops bacteria harming teeth could help prevent decay, a study suggests. The plant natural product acts against harmful mouth bacteria and could improve oral health by helping to prevent the build-up of plaque, researchers say. The compound - known as trans-chalcone - is related to chemicals found in liquorice root. The study shows that it blocks the action of a key enzyme that allows the bacteria to thrive in oral cavities. The bacteria - Streptococcus mutans - metabolise sugars from food and drink, which produces ...

Some mountain gorilla females linger into adulthood in the group into which they were born. In the process, they also remain in the company of their father, who is often their group's dominant male. To curb inbreeding, though, they appear to tactically avoid mating with their fathers. This strategy works so well that the chances of alpha gorilla males siring the offspring of their own daughters are effectively zero, according to Linda Vigilant of the Max Planck Institute for Anthropology in Germany. The findings are published in Springer's journal Behavioral Ecology and ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass--Researchers have found a way to couple the properties of different two-dimensional materials to provide an exceptional degree of control over light waves. They say this has the potential to lead to new kinds of light detection, thermal-management systems, and high-resolution imaging devices. The new findings -- using a layer of one-atom-thick graphene deposited on top of a similar 2-D layer of a material called hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) -- are published in the journal Nano Letters. The work is co-authored by MIT associate professor of mechanical engineering ...

The rapid evolution of gadgets has brought us an impressive array of "smart" products from phones to tablets, and now watches and glasses. But they still haven't broken free from their rigid form. Now scientists are reporting in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces a new step toward bendable electronics. They have developed the first light-emitting, transparent and flexible paper out of environmentally friendly materials via a simple, suction-filtration method. Technology experts have long predicted the coming age of flexible electronics, and researchers have ...

Scientists from General Atomics and the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have discovered a phenomenon that helps them to improve fusion plasmas, a finding that may quicken the development of fusion energy. Together with a team of researchers from across the United States, the scientists found that when they injected tiny grains of lithium into a plasma undergoing a particular kind of turbulence then, under the right conditions, the temperature and pressure rose dramatically. High heat and pressure are crucial to fusion, a process ...

(PARIS, FRANCE) - Clearing blood clots from arteries during treatment for an acute myocardial infarction was a relatively common practice until a recent, large-scale study showed that the technique, known as thrombectomy, might actually increase the risk of stroke. Now, new insights from the TOTAL trial, presented here at EuroPCR 2015, indicate that the risk of stroke with thrombectomy during angioplasty, compared to angioplasty alone is evident very early following the procedure. Dr. Sanjit Jolly, the study's lead author and an interventional cardiologist and Associate ...

This beautiful planetary nebula is named after a dreadful creature from Greek mythology -- the Gorgon Medusa. It is also known as Sharpless 2-274 and is located in the constellation of [Gemini] (The Twins). The Medusa Nebula spans approximately four light-years and lies at a distance of about 1500 light-years. Despite its size it is extremely dim and hard to observe. Medusa was a hideous creature with snakes in place of hair. These snakes are represented by the serpentine filaments of glowing gas in this nebula. The red glow from hydrogen and the fainter green emission ...

Noise from pile driving during offshore wind turbine construction could be damaging the hearing of harbour seals around the UK, according to ecologists who attached GPS data loggers to 24 harbor seals while offshore wind turbines were being installed in 2012. Data on the seals' locations and their diving behaviour was combined with information from the wind farm developers on when pile driving was taking place. Models revealed that half of the tagged seals were exposed to noise levels that exceeded hearing damage thresholds. There are currently 1,184 offshore wind turbines ...

The harlequin ladybird, officially known as Harmonia axyridis, was widely introduced across continental Europe as a way to limit the population of small sap-sucking insects called aphids. While it was never intentionally introduced into Britain, H. axyridis was discovered there in 2003, and people across the region have been tracking its spread since 2005. A new review in The Royal Entomological Society's journal Ecological Entomology notes that tens of thousands of people have provided records of H. axyridis and other species of ladybirds, creating an invaluable dataset ...

Gun violence restraining orders (GVROs) are a promising strategy for reducing firearm homicide and suicide in the United States, and should be considered by states seeking to address gun violence, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University of California, Davis, argue in a new report. The article is being published online in Behavioral Sciences and the Law on May 20. GVROs allow family members and intimate partners who believe a relative's dangerous behavior may lead ...

A new large study finds that women who are diagnosed with breast cancer and have a family history of the disease face no worse of a prognosis after treatment than other women with breast cancer. The study, which was published recently in the BJS (British Journal of Surgery), offers a positive message for women who may worry about their future in light of a family history of breast cancer. About one- quarter of breast cancer cases in developed countries are thought to be related to hereditary factors. It can be scary for a woman to know that she has a family history of ...

This news release is available in French. A drug that could halt the progression of multiple sclerosis may soon be developed thanks to a discovery by a team at the CHUM Research Centre and the University of Montreal. The researchers have identified a molecule called MCAM, and they have shown that blocking this molecule could delay the onset of the disease and significantly slow its progression. These encouraging results from in vitro tests in humans and in vivo tests in mice were published today in the Annals of Neurology. "We believe we have identified the first therapy ...

Women with advanced ovarian cancer have fewer side effects and tend to have a better quality of life if given chemotherapy before surgery, according to a Cancer Research UK study published today (Wednesday) in The Lancet. The CHORUS trial, conducted at the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit at University College London, challenged the international standard for treating advanced ovarian cancer. 550 women with the disease took part in the trial, with 276 given the standard treatment of surgery followed by six cycles of chemotherapy, and 274 had surgery after ...

Researchers at the University of Birmingham have highlighted significant similarities between the behavioural effects of oxytocin and alcohol. The research, published today in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, draws on existing studies into the two compounds and details the similarities between the effects of alcohol and the 'love hormone', oxytocin, on our actions. The team warn that the oft-used nickname hides the darker side of oxytocin, and claim that it bears more semblances with the effects of alcohol than previously thought. Oxytocin is a neuropeptide ...

Cold-blooded and other animals that are unable to regulate their internal temperature may have a hard time tolerating global warming, according to an analysis by biologists from the University of California, Berkeley, and San Francisco State University. A meta-analysis of studies that measured the ability of animals to deal with extremes of heat and cold found that, on average, most ectotherms are not very flexible. Terrestrial ectotherms, such as lizards and insects, are even less adaptable than fish and crustaceans, they found. As Earth warms, these animals will be ...

The proportion of people dying in hospices in England has nearly doubled since 1993, but the gap in hospice deaths between people living in the least and most deprived areas appears to be growing, find a new study by the Cicely Saunders Institute at King's College London. The study, funded by the National Institute for Health Research HS&DR Programme (09/2000/58) through the NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) and published in the journal Palliative Medicine, examined all hospice deaths in England over a 20-year period, including ...

A new study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B by the teams of Dr. Gregory West (Assistant Professor at the Université de Montréal) and Dr. Véronique Bohbot (Douglas Institute researcher and associate Professor at McGill University and the Douglas Research Institute of the CIUSSS de l'Ouest-de-l'Île de Montréal) shows that while video game players (VGPs) exhibit more efficient visual attention abilities, they are also much more likely to use navigation strategies that rely on the brain's reward system (the caudate nucleus) ...

ATS 2015, DENVER--Patient-selected music during weaning from prolonged mechanical ventilation could benefit patients by decreasing their heart rate and anxiety, according to a study presented at the 2015 American Thoracic Society International Conference. Patients on prolonged mechanical ventilation may feel stress or insecurity during daily weaning trials because they do not have support from the ventilator. "Having patients listen to music during these trials may help reduce stress and speed up extubation," said lead author Zhan Liang, a PhD candidate at the University ...

ATS 2015, DENVER -- Critically ill patients who have been mechanically ventilated for more than seven days are at greatly increased risk for functional impairment and mortality at one year following discharge from the intensive care unit (ICU), according to a new study presented at the 2015 American Thoracic Society International Conference. "Prolonged mechanical ventilation has a significant impact on the long-term well-being of patients," said lead author Margaret Herridge. MD, MPH. of the University of Toronto. "In our study of nearly 400 ICU patients, we were able ...

DARIEN, IL - A new study of young U.S. veterans shows that the probability of having a high risk of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) increased with increasing severity of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. The study involved 195 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who visited a VA outpatient PTSD clinic for evaluation. Results show that 69.2 percent of participants had a high risk for sleep apnea, and this risk increased with PTSD symptom severity. Every clinically significant increase in PTSD symptom severity was associated with a 40 percent increase in the probability ...