DOWNERS GROVE, Ill.-- September 10, 2015--Having patients lie on their left side while the right side of their colon is being examined can result in more polyps being found, thus increasing the effectiveness of colonoscopy for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening, according to a study in the September issue of GIE: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE). CRC is one of the most common cancers in the US and other western countries. Studies have shown that deaths from CRC are reduced ...

Two recently published studies in the journals Age and the British Journal of Nutrition (BJN) demonstrate that consuming cocoa flavanols improves cardiovascular function and lessens the burden on the heart that comes with the ageing and stiffening of arteries. The studies also provide novel data to indicate that intake of cocoa flavanols reduces the risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD). As we age, our blood vessels become less flexible and less able to expand to let blood flow and circulate normally, and the risk of hypertension also increases. Arterial stiffness ...

This news release is available in German. Protein labeling with synthetic fluorescent probes is a key technology in chemical biology and biomedical research. The target proximity achieved by small-molecule probes is essential to exploit the full potential of super-resolution fluorescence microscopy. Single-molecule localization techniques provide high spatial resolution by reporting on the position of the fluorophore and thus only indirectly on the target molecule itself. Large labels, such as antibodies, can misleadingly position a fluorophore tens of nanometers away ...

An international research team, which includes NYU anthropologists Scott Williams and Myra Laird, has discovered a new species of a human relative. Homo naledi, uncovered in a cave outside of Johannesburg, South Africa, sheds light on the diversity of our genus and possibly its origin. "This discovery is unprecedented in the sheer number of hominins collected from such a small area in the virtual absence of other animal remains," says Williams, an assistant professor in NYU's Department of Anthropology. "That makes this site unique. Moreover, the announcement describes ...

Bethesda, MD (Sept. 10, 2015) -- Detection of small fragments of tumor DNA, known as circulating tumor DNA, in a patient's pre-surgery serum samples predicts early recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma and may guide treatment, according to a study1 published in Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the basic and translational science journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. Hepatocellular carcinoma -- the most common type of liver cancer -- is the third leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. "We uncovered that circulating tumor DNA ...

The steps involved in evaluating and diagnosing patients with epilepsy are complicated. In a new and extensive literature review of available information, experts provide insights on the valuable role of genetic testing in the diagnosis and care of pediatric epilepsy. Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder that affects up to 1.5% of the world's population and is more commonly diagnosed in children than adults. Most cases of epilepsy have been considered "idiopathic" or of unknown cause, but recent advances in genetic testing are providing insights on the potential ...

In a modern, multicore chip, every core -- or processor -- has its own small memory cache, where it stores frequently used data. But the chip also has a larger, shared cache, which all the cores can access. If one core tries to update data in the shared cache, other cores working on the same data need to know. So the shared cache keeps a directory of which cores have copies of which data. That directory takes up a significant chunk of memory: In a 64-core chip, it might be 12 percent of the shared cache. And that percentage will only increase with the core count. Envisioned ...

MADISON, Wis. -- Working in a cave complex deep beneath South Africa's Malmani dolomites, an international team of scientists has brought to light an unprecedented trove of hominin fossils -- more than 1,500 well-preserved bones and teeth -- representing the largest, most complete set of such remains found to date in Africa. The discovery of the fossils, cached in a barely accessible chamber in a subterranean labyrinth not far from Johannesburg, adds a new branch to the human family tree, a creature dubbed Homo naledi. The remains, scientists believe, could only have ...

Bethesda, MD (Sept. 10, 2015) --All colorectal cancer patients should undergo tumor testing to see if they carry Lynch syndrome, the most common inherited cause of colorectal cancer, according to a new guideline1 published in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. "Approximately 50,000 Americans are expected to die from colorectal cancer this year, and hereditary syndromes account for a small, but important fraction of those diagnoses," said Joel H. Rubenstein, MD, AGAF, lead author of the guideline, research scientist ...

A new study of more than 500 Black and Latino college students has confirmed that many encounter obstacles after enrolling in college without adequate financial resources. "Students were surveyed in the fall, winter and spring of freshman year," said Micere Keels, associate professor in comparative human development at the University of Chicago, who led the study. "At each time-point, approximately 35 percent reported having difficulty paying their bills, being upset that they did not have enough money and being concerned that they would not be able to afford to complete ...

Amsterdam, September 10, 2015 - Surgery to remove the breasts of women at increased risk of developing breast cancer may not be necessary in the future, according to research published in EBioMedicine. Two new studies looking at the effect the menstrual cycle has on the development of breast and ovarian cancer reveal alternative prevention strategies that may render surgery unnecessary. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide and ovarian cancer is the deadliest gynaecological cancer. Women who have inherited mutations in genes called BRCA1 and BRCA2 ...

The discovery of a new species of human relative was announced today, 10 September 2015, by the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University), the National Geographic Society and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF). Besides shedding light on the origins and diversity of our genus, the new species, Homo naledi, appears to have intentionally deposited bodies of its dead in a remote cave chamber, a behaviour previously thought limited to humans. Consisting of more than 1 550 numbered fossil elements, ...

An accident waiting to happen: that's what an intoxicated driver is whose attention is further distracted by anything from a text message to dashboard controls. Such distractions are just too much to handle safely, even for people who drive while still within the legal alcohol limits, say Nicholas van Dyke and Mark Fillmore of the University of Kentucky in the US. Their study provides some of the first evidence on the degree to which distractions influence the ability of intoxicated drivers to safely control their vehicles. The findings are published in Springer's journal ...

James Cook University scientists have played a role in a discovery that may alter the known history of humankind. JCU's Professor Paul Dirks and Dr Eric Roberts were part of a team that explored the Rising Star Cave system in South Africa. A chamber deep in the caves was found to contain multiple specimens of what is being called Homo naledi - an extinct, previously unknown species related to modern homosapiens. Testing at JCU and the University of Johannesburg shows sediments in the chamber did not come from external sources, ruling out the possibility of flash ...

Researchers at EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) have developed a new method for studying the targets and effects of cancer drugs using data from discovery mass spectrometry (MS) experiments. The study is published in Nature Communications. Understanding the biological signaling pathways that regulate metabolism and gene expression is challenging, because so many things are happening at once. But this understanding is crucial for knowing how a drug will affect healthy and cancer cells. Protein kinases play a pivotal role in these pathways by turning ...

NS3 is an enzyme specific to the hepatitis C virus. If developed, a drug capable of recognizing and selectively attacking it could fight the disease without side effects for the body. However, to be able to develop one we need to know more about the behavior of this important protein in the virus replication process. Some SISSA scientists have provided a detailed and comprehensive view of the behavior of NS3. The study has been published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research. According to the WHO, a good 140 million people are affected by hepatitis C (3/4 million new cases ...

While sexual contact is not the most efficient means of hepatitis C (HCV) transmission, there have been several reports of outbreaks of sexually transmitted HCV in HIV-positive men who have sex with men (MSM). HCV infections are more likely to become persistent and to lead to progressive liver disease in people who are HIV-infected, even if they are receiving HIV treatment. Factors underlying these infections in HIV-positive MSM are only partially understood. Researchers at NYU's Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR) at the College of Nursing (NYUCN) have conducted ...

Future computers will require a magnetic material which can be manipulated ultra-rapidly by breaking the strong magnetic coupling. A study has been published in Nature Communications today in which Swedish and German scientists demonstrate that even the strongest magnetic coupling may be broken within picoseconds (10-12 s). This will open up an exciting new area of research. The element gadolinium is named after the Uppsala chemist Johan Gadolin who discovered the first rare-earth metal yttrium in the late 1700s. Gadolinium is in the same class of elements and it has ...

Dublin, Thursday September 10th, 2015 - Scientists from Trinity College Dublin have discovered that one gene mutation in a single species can trigger dramatic changes in whole biological communities; changes can be as great as those caused by the extinction of a top predator. By using bacteria to replicate ecological systems in the lab, they found that mutations of a single gene that alter how one bacterial species interacts with others had huge structural impacts across their multi-species microbial communities. These 'social mutants' varied in their ability to produce ...

Mathematicians investigating one of science's great questions -- how to unite the physics of the very big with that of the very small -- have discovered that when the understanding of complex networks such as the brain or the Internet is applied to geometry the results match up with quantum behavior. The findings, published today (Thursday) in Scientific Reports, by researchers from Queen Mary University of London and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, could explain one of the great problems in modern physics. Currently ideas of gravity, developed by Einstein and Newton, ...

This news release is available in Japanese. The Earth's atmosphere contains oxygen because plants continuously produce it through photosynthesis. This abundant supply of oxygen allows life forms like animals to flourish. Therefore, oxygen had been thought to be an essential biomarker for life on extrasolar planets. But now, a research assistant professor Norio Narita of the Astrobiology Center of National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS), which was founded in April 2015, and an associate professor Shigeyuki Masaoka, of the Institute of Molecular Science of NINS, ...

DENVER (Sept. 10, 2015) - An international team of scientists, including one from the University of Colorado Denver and another from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, announced the discovery Thursday of a new species of hominin, a small creature with a tiny brain that opens the door to a new way of thinking about our ancient ancestors. The discovery of 15 individuals, consisting of 1,550 bones, represents the largest fossil hominin find on the African continent. "We found adults and children in the cave who are members of genus Homo but ...

A new study conducted in collaboration with Facebook using anonymised data from the social networking site shows a correlation between people's social and financial status, and the levels of internationalism in their friendship networks - with those from higher social classes around the world having fewer friends outside of their own country. Despite the fact that, arguably, people from higher social classes should be better positioned to travel and meet people from different countries, researchers found that, when it comes to friendship networks, people from those ...

ATLANTA -September 10, 2015- A new study finds breast cancer incidence and death rates are increasing in several low and middle income countries, even as death rates have declined in most high income countries, despite increasing or stable incidence rates. The findings come from a new report examining global patterns and trends in breast cancer using the most up-to-date cancer registry-based data available. It appears early online in Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention. Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among all women worldwide overall and ...

Mothers who quit smoking in pregnancy are more likely to light-up again after their baby is born if they feel stressed - according to a new report from the University of East Anglia. Researchers studied interviews with more than 1,000 new mothers and found that the stress of caring for a newborn, sleepless nights, social pressure, and the idea that they no longer need to protect the baby - all contribute to relapse. The study also found that women who felt they were being supported by a partner were less likely to start smoking again. Lead researcher Dr Caitlin Notley, ...