The discovery of a gene involved in determining the melting point of cocoa butter -- a critical attribute of the substance widely used in foods and pharmaceuticals -- will likely lead to new and improved products, according to researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. The finding by plant geneticists also should lead to new varieties of the cocoa plant that could extend the climate and soil-nutrient range for growing the crop and increase the value of its yield, they said, providing a boost to farmers' incomes in the cocoa-growing regions of the world. Cacao, ...

Singapore, 20 April 2015 - Since the discovery of graphene about a decade ago, scientists have been studying ways to engineer electronic band gaps in the material to produce semiconductors which can create new electronic devices. A team of researchers from Yale-NUS College, the Center for Advanced 2D Materials and Department of Physics at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the University of Texas at Austin, USA (UT Austin) have established a theoretical framework to understand the elastic and electronic properties of graphene. The findings were published in ...

As two galaxies enter the final stages of merging, scientists have theorized that the galaxies' supermassive black holes will form a "binary," or two black holes in such close orbit they are gravitationally bound to one another. In a new study, astronomers at the University of Maryland present direct evidence of a pulsing quasar, which may substantiate the existence of black hole binaries. "We believe we have observed two supermassive black holes in closer proximity than ever before," said Suvi Gezari, assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Maryland and ...

Research by scientists at The University of Manchester has revealed that the colour of light has a major impact on how our body clock measures the time of day. It's the first time the impact of colour has been tested and demonstrates that colour provides a more reliable way of telling the time than measuring brightness. In research being published on April 17th in the Open Access journal PLOS Biology, the researchers looked at the change in light around dawn and dusk to analyse whether colour could be used to determine time of day. Besides the well-known changes in ...

Cells of the vascular system of vertebrates can fuse with themselves. This process, which occurs when a blood vessel is no longer necessary and pruned, has now been described on the cellular level by Prof. Markus Affolter from the Biozentrum of the University of Basel. The findings of this study have been published in the journal PLOS Biology. The vascular system is the supply network of the human organism and delivers oxygen and nutrients to the last corners of the body. So far, research on the vascular system has focused primarily on the formation of such vascular networks. ...

The horticulturist who came up with the concept of 'evolution by natural selection' 27 years before Charles Darwin did should be more widely acknowledged for his contribution, states a new paper by a King's College London geneticist. The paper, published in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, argues that Patrick Matthew deserves to be considered alongside Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace as one of the three originators of the idea of large-scale evolution by natural selection. Furthermore, Matthew's version of evolution by natural section captures ...

Human emotion can be transferred by technology that stimulates different parts of the hand without making physical contact with your body, a University of Sussex-led study has shown. Sussex scientist Dr Marianna Obrist, Lecturer at the Department of Informatics, has pinpointed how next-generation technologies can stimulate different areas of the hand to convey feelings of, for example, happiness, sadness, excitement or fear. For example, short, sharp bursts of air to the area around the thumb, index finger and middle part of the palm generate excitement, whereas sad ...

Philadelphia, PA, April 20, 2015 - The search for genes that contribute to the risk for autism has made tremendous strides over the past 3 years. As this field has advanced, investigators have wondered whether the diversity of clinical features across patients with autism reflects heterogeneous sources of genetic risk. If so, it was reasoned, then selecting a group of patients with very similar clinical features might result in a "purer", i.e., more genetically homogenous, group of patients, making it easier to find autism-related genes. Results from a new study published ...

Research has shown that, for a number of reasons, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are significantly more likely than heterosexuals to avoid or delay medical care. For instance, LGBT individuals who are between the ages of 18 and 44 and single are less likely than heterosexuals to have the money or insurance for care, and even partnered gays and lesbians are twice as likely to be uninsured. The fear of stigma and homophobia can also keep LGBT people from seeking care. And many are afraid to disclose their sexual or gender identity to their physicians, which ...

PHILADELPHIA - A protein produced by nerve cells appears to be elevated in the blood of those with an aggressive form of neuroblastoma. The finding, presented today at the American Association for Cancer Research 2015 Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, could potentially lead to a prognostic test for the disease or be used to monitor its progress. Neuroblastoma is a pediatric cancer with varying types, ranging from spontaneously regressing to untreatable fatal tumors. Consequently, treatment strategies vary significantly between patients, encompassing different approaches ...

A decrease in the amount of time spent eating and an increase in overnight fasting reduces glucose levels and may reduce the risk of breast cancer among women, report University of California, San Diego School of Medicine researchers in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. The findings were presented at the American Association of Cancer Research's annual meeting in Philadelphia. "Increasing the duration of overnight fasting could be a novel strategy to reduce the risk of developing breast cancer," said Catherine Marinac, UC San Diego doctoral candidate ...

Early data in a preliminary human study show that an experimental immune system drug is generally safe and well tolerated in women with metastatic, triple-negative breast cancer, a persistently difficult form of the disease to treat. Results of the early-phase clinical trial of the therapy, called MPDL3280A, which aims to restore the immune system's ability to recognize and attack cancer cells, are expected to be presented at the American Association for Cancer Research's 2015 Annual Meeting in Philadelphia from April 18-22. Triple-negative breast cancer cells lack expression ...

TORONTO, April 20, 2015--Although ultrasound remains the primary imaging modality used in prenatal imaging, fetal MRI is playing an increasing role in further evaluation of fetuses suspected of congenital anomalies. As 3-T MRI scanners become more common due to their improved image signal-to-noise ratio and anatomical detail, the benefits of 3-T MRI must be weighed against potential risks to the fetus that may result from the higher field strength. "MRI is playing an increasingly important role in the assessment of complex prenatal disease," said Kathleen E. Carey, MD, ...

TORONTO, April 20, 2015--The design of inferior vena cava (IVC) filters for pulmonary embolism prophylaxis, once used almost exclusively for permanent implantation, has progressed to retrievable designs. However, complications can create scenarios in which the routine filter retrieval is either extremely difficult or impossible. The use of advanced retrieval techniques, such as loop-snare, "sandwich," stiff wire or balloon realignment, forceps retrieval and excimer laser sheath can raise the overall success rate above 98%. "Implementation of IVC filters is increasing ...

TORONTO, April 20, 2015--Research comparing the accuracy of three MDCT slice thicknesses has found that 3-mm slices underestimated coronary artery calcium (CAC) scores at every level of calcification. The inaccuracies were caused by partial volume averaging errors. "Our analysis proved this concept and showed that CAC can be more accurately measured with 0.5 or 1 mm using isotropic data acquisition obtained by a volume scanner at identical radiation dose ," said Farhood Saremi, MD, University of Southern California. "Coronary artery calcium can be more accurately measured ...

TORONTO, April 20, 2015--Research conducted at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University has found that multiparametric MRI and subsequent fusion of MR images with ultrasound enables a targeted biopsy of high-suspicion foci with increased diagnostic accuracy of prostate cancer over established methods. For patients on active surveillance for low-risk cancer, multiparametric MRI can better characterize the prostate gland and find occult foci of higher grade disease. "The need to differentiate a clinically significant cancer from indolent cancers is ...

TORONTO, April 20, 2015-- Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation based on 3D luminal reconstructions of the coronary artery tree can be used to analyze local flow fields and flow profiling resulting from changes in coronary artery geometry. Research conducted at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, used the technique to identify risk factors for development and progression of coronary artery disease. Both idealized and realistic coronary models were successfully generated using CFD simulations of hemodynamic flow. Results showed a direct correlation between left ...

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 ...