EUGENE, Ore. -- (May 28, 2015) -- Men and women often enter relationships with different long-term goals. In the animal world, differences in approaches to reproductive success can lead to sexual conflict. Male fruit flies, for example, transfer proteins during mating that can alter the timing of a female's egg laying and her tendency to later mate with other males. Some of these male-derived proteins also migrate from the female's reproductive tract to her brain. Now, in a new study, scientists of the University of Oregon and Bowdoin College show that sexual conflicts ...

CHICAGO -- Researchers from the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn's Perelman School of Medicine will present results from several clinical trials and other key studies during the 2015 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting from May 29 through June 2. Results of Phase II Trial Show Successful Antitumor Response Rate in Patients with Advanced BRCA-Related Ovarian Cancer Olaparib, an experimental twice-daily oral cancer drug, produces significant antitumor responses in more than a third of patients with BRCA-related ...

An app to test eyesight easily and affordably using a smartphone is as accurate as traditional charts, according to a study published today. Peek (the Portable Eye Examination Kit) is a unique smartphone-based system for comprehensive eye testing anywhere in the world which has been designed and developed by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the University of Strathclyde and the NHS Glasgow Centre for Ophthalmic Research. Globally, 285 million people are visually impaired and 80% have diseases which could be cured or prevented. However, most live in ...

Researchers from around the world have worked together to try to measure the global burden of cancer and they estimate there were 14.9 million new cases of cancer, 8.2 million deaths and 196.3 million years of a healthy life lost in 2013, according to a Special Communication published online by JAMA Oncology. The Global Burden of Disease study by the Global Burden of Disease Cancer Collaboration group provides a comprehensive assessment of new cancer cases (incidence), and cancer-related death and disability. Researchers relied on cancer registries, vital records, verbal ...

Taking the medication metformin hydrochloride was associated with reduced risk of developing the sight-threatening disease open-angle glaucoma in people with diabetes, according to a study published online by JAMA Ophthalmology. Medications that mimic caloric restriction such as metformin can reduce the risk of some late age-onset disease. It is unknown whether these caloric mimetic drugs affect the risk of age-associated eye diseases such as macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, cataract or glaucoma. Researcher Julia E. Richards, Ph.D., of the University of ...

Hearing impairment was more prevalent among men and older individuals in a study of U.S. Hispanic/Latino adults, according to a report published online by JAMA Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. Hearing impairment is a common chronic condition that affects adults. Hearing impairment may lead to lower quality of life and is associated with an increased risk for dementia. Most hearing impairment is undiagnosed and untreated. Karen J. Cruickshanks, Ph.D., of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and co-authors determined the prevalence of hearing impairment among Hispanic/Latino ...

This news release is available in Spanish. In the largest study to date of hearing loss among Hispanic/Latino adults in the United States, researchers have found that nearly 1 in 7 has hearing loss, a number similar to the general population prevalence. The analysis also looked at the differences between subgroups and found that Hispanics of Puerto Rican descent have the highest rate of hearing loss, while Mexican-Americans have the lowest. The study identified several potential risk factors for hearing loss, including age, gender, education level, income, noise exposure, ...

SEATTLE -- New cases of virtually all types of cancer are rising in countries globally - regardless of income - but the death rates from cancer are falling in many countries, according to a new analysis of 28 cancer groups in 188 countries. Thanks to prevention and treatment, progress has been made in fighting certain cancers, such as childhood leukemia. But researchers found that of all the cancers studied, there was just one - Hodgkin lymphoma - where the number of new cases dropped between 1990 and 2013. Over the same period, age-standardized death rates for all cancers ...

DAVIS, Calif. - Even though the walnut twig beetle (WTB) is likely native to Arizona, California, and New Mexico, it has become an invasive pest to economically and ecologically important walnut trees throughout much of the Western and into the Eastern United States. Through genetic testing, researchers from the Pacific Southwest Research Station (PSW) and partners from the University of California, Riverside and U.S. Forest Service Forest Health Protection have characterized the beetle's geographic distribution and range expansion. Results were recently published in the ...

CHICAGO --- An innocent mistake made by a graduate student in a Northwestern Medicine lab (she accidentally used male mice instead of female mice during an experiment) has led scientists to a novel discovery that offers new insight into why women are more likely than men to develop autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS). The finding, detailed in a paper published in The Journal of Immunology, focuses on a type of white blood cell, the innate lymphoid cell, that exhibits different immune activities in males versus females. MS is a disease that affects the ...

If you're a musician, this sounds too good to be true: University of Chicago psychologists have been able to train some adults to develop the prized musical ability of absolute pitch, and the training's effects last for months. Absolute pitch, commonly known as "perfect pitch," is the ability to identify a note by hearing it. The ability is considered remarkably rare, estimated to be less than one in 10,000 individuals. It has always been a very desired ability among musicians, especially since several famous composers, including Mozart, reportedly had it. The assumption ...

AUSTIN, Texas -- A new study by anthropologists from The University of Texas at Austin shows for the first time that epigenetic marks on DNA can be detected in a large number of ancient human remains, which may lead to further understanding about the effects of famine and disease in the ancient world. The field of epigenetics looks at chemical modifications to DNA, known as epigenetic marks, that influence which genes are expressed -- or turned on or off. Some epigenetic marks stay in place throughout a person's life, but others may be added or removed in response to ...

Boulder, Colo., USA - The modern sedimentary environment contains a diversity of microbes that interact very closely with the sediments, sometimes to such an extent that they form "biosediments." But can such a phenomenon be fossilized? How far back in time can "biosedimentation" be traced? In this study for Geology, Frances Westall and colleagues examine some of the oldest rocks on Earth -- in the Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa (older than 3.3 billion years), to answer this question. Westall and colleagues use multi-scale methods to document the simultaneous ...

WASHINGTON - Holding cynical beliefs about others may have a negative effect on your income according to research published by the American Psychological Association. "While previous research has associated cynicism with detrimental outcomes across a wide range of spheres of life, including physical health, psychological well-being and marital adjustment, the present research has established an association between cynicism and individual economic success," says Olga Stavrova, PhD, a research associate at the Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology, University of ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass--After years of research decoding the complex structure and production of spider silk, researchers have now succeeded in producing samples of this exceptionally strong and resilient material in the laboratory. The new development could lead to a variety of biomedical materials -- from sutures to scaffolding for organ replacements -- made from synthesized silk with properties specifically tuned for their intended uses. The findings are published this week in the journal Nature Communications by MIT professor of civil and environmental engineering (CEE) ...

Lugano, 28 May 2015. The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), in collaboration with the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC), expressed their views on the EU Clinical Trials Regulation in an official position paper recently published in Annals of Oncology1. "The Clinical Trials Regulation (CTR) represents one of the most important changes in the field of clinical trials in the last decade, however it still contains unresolved issues that may prove to be challenging for research in Europe and for implementation by Member States," ...

NEW YORK (May 28, 2015) - Healthcare workers frequently contaminate their gloves and gowns during every day care of nursing homes residents with drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA, according to a new study. The findings were published online today in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. "One in four nursing home residents harbor MRSA in some settings. We know that healthcare workers serve as a vector for MRSA transmission from one resident to another in settings such as nursing homes," ...

May 28, 2015 Toronto - A landmark clinical study in the Lancet provides convincing evidence that a frequently overlooked therapy for genetically-caused emphysema is effective and slows the progression of lung disease. Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency is an inherited disorder that can cause emphysema even without exposure to tobacco smoke. Alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) is a protein made in the liver that protects the lungs. With this disorder, the AAT protein builds up in liver cells and doesn't reach the lungs to protect them. Augmentation therapy involves regular infusions ...

New research by conservationists at the University of Kent suggests that in order to manage trade-threatened species more effectively the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) needs to act more upon the economic reality of wildlife trade. In a paper published in Biological Conservation Dan Challender and colleagues, Professor Douglas MacMillan from Kent and Professor Stuart Harrop from the University of Sussex, critically and constructively evaluated the CITES approach to controlling trade through means of a case study ...

The first tropical depression of the Eastern Pacific hurricane season formed during the early morning of Thursday, May 28, 2015, well southwest of Mexico. An image of the storm taken from NOAA's GOES-West satellite shows the depression in infrared light as it was born in the early morning hours before sunrise. To the east of the depression, the GOES image shows the sunlight of dawn reaching Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. At 0900 UTC (5 a.m. EDT) the center of Tropical Depression One-E was located near latitude 11.0 North, longitude 110.4 West, ABOUT 685 miles (1,105 km) ...

Lip reading normally involves deciphering speech patterns, movements, gestures and expressions just by watching a person speak. Planet Earth has LIPS, too - they are an acronym for Large Igneous Provinces, huge accumulations of igneous rocks that form when hot magma extrudes from inside the Earth and flows onto the surface of the seafloor under several kilometres of water. An international team of scientists including University of Sydney geophysicists Professor Dietmar Müller, Dr Simon Williams and Dr Maria Seton from the School of Geosciences have found a novel ...

Despite community concerns about living under high-voltage power lines, a world-first QUT study reveals that there are far more charged particles beside busy roads. The study, published in the international journal Science of the Total Environment was conducted by Dr Rohan Jayaratne, Dr Xuan Ling and Professor Lidia Morawska from QUT's International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health who found that within 10 metres of a freeway, charged particles were up to 15 times more concentrated than beneath high-voltage power lines. "Although the effects of ions and charged ...

ESF has just published a report on a pilot study of the career paths of post-doctorates and doctorate alumni from five research funding and research performing organisations: AXA Research Fund (AXA RF), France, Fonds National de la Recherche (FNR), Luxembourg, Goethe Graduate Academy at the Goethe University Frankfurt (GRADE), Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Switzerland and TDR, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, a co-sponsored programme of UNICEF, UNDP, the World Bank and WHO. The study comprised focus groups and a survey of 880 doctorate ...

Earthquakes kill, but their aftershocks can cause the rapid collapse of buildings left standing in the aftermath of the initial quake. Research published in the International Journal of Reliability and Safety offers a new approach to predicting which buildings might be most susceptible to potentially devastating collapse due to the ground-shaking aftershock tremors. Negar Nazari and John W. van de Lindt of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, at Colorado State University in Fort Collins and Yue Li of Michigan Technological University, in Houghton, USA, ...

In the most extensive survey of its kind ever conducted, a team of scientists have found an unambiguous link between the presence of supermassive black holes that power high-speed, radio-signal-emitting jets and the merger history of their host galaxies. Almost all of the galaxies hosting these jets were found to be merging with another galaxy, or to have done so recently. The results lend significant weight to the case for jets being the result of merging black holes and will be presented in the Astrophysical Journal. A team of astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space ...