The house fly might be a worldwide pest, but its genome will provide information that could improve our lives. From insights into pathogen immunity, to pest control and decomposing waste, the 691 Mb genome has been sequenced and analyzed by a global consortium of scientists, and is published in the open access journal Genome Biology. The genome highlights detoxification and immune system genes that are unique to the insect, and could be subjects of further study to help humans deal with toxic and disease causing environments. The house fly (Musca domestica) lives on ...

Scientists at the IRCM and the University of Montreal discovered a mechanism that promotes the progression of medulloblastoma, the most common brain tumour found in children. The team, led by Frédéric Charron, PhD, found that a protein known as Sonic Hedgehog induces DNA damage, which causes the cancer to develop. This important breakthrough will be published in the October 13 issue of the prestigious scientific journal Developmental Cell. The editors also selected the article to be featured on the journal's cover. Sonic Hedgehog belongs to a family of proteins ...

Childhood overweight and obesity rates have plateaued in primary school aged children in the Republic of Ireland, reveals research published today in the open access journal BMC Public Health. The study found that although obesity rates remain high, there is evidence that they have stabilised and may be beginning to fall. During the last three decades of the 20th century, a two to three fold increase in overweight and obesity prevalence in school age children was reported across regions in North America and Western Europe. It was estimated that by the year 2000, 25-33% ...

Using stents to keep neck arteries open is just as effective as invasive neck surgery for long-term prevention of fatal and disabling strokes, reports an international trial led by UCL (University College London) funded by the Medical Research Council and Stroke Association. The research paper, published today in the Lancet, was authored by researchers from UCL, Basel University, Switzerland, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the University Medical Center Utrecht, Netherlands, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Newcastle University. The ...

Poor oral health affecting athletes' general health and performance shows 'no signs of improvement' and must be remedied, say a group of UCL-led health experts and sporting bodies. In a consensus statement published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, the authors call for action to tackle poor oral health among athletes. They say that simple measures such as encouraging better brushing and flossing could provide the same marginal performance gains as expensive physical therapies. The statement came out of the April 2014 Oral Health and Performance in Sport collaboration ...

But diet is not the only culprit, says the Statement. There is little in the way of education or encouragement to help athletes appreciate the importance of good dental health on their training and performance, it says. The Consensus Statement, which draws on a comprehensive review of the published evidence and a recent symposium on the lessons of the London 2012 Olympic Games, is intended as a call to action. The UK and North American authors, all experts in dental health and sport and exercise medicine, point out that dental consultations accounted for almost a third ...

The findings suggest that family doctors may not be picking up the signs of lung cancer and investigating them as appropriately as they might, or promptly enough, say the researchers. The UK lags behind other countries in survival rates for lung cancer, a gap that has largely been attributed to late diagnosis of the disease. In a bid to find out more about the factors in primary care associated with these figures, the researchers analysed family doctors' (GPs') investigation of lung cancer between 2000 and 2013. They used data from The Health Improvement Network (THIN), ...

SAN FRANCISCO – Four urban sections of the San Andreas Fault system in Northern California have stored enough energy to produce major earthquakes, according to a new study that measures fault creep. Three fault sections – Hayward, Rodgers Creek and Green Valley – are nearing or past their average recurrence interval, according to the study published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA). The earthquake cycle reflects the accumulation of strain on a fault, its release as slip, and its re-accumulation and re-release. Fault creep ...

1. Experts urge cautious use of experimental Ebola drugs While a World Health Organization (WHO) advisory panel says it is ethical to use experimental medications and vaccines on Ebola patients, experts caution that these drugs are not without risks, and physicians must carefully triage patients or risk serious adverse events, according to a commentary being published in Annals of Internal Medicine. The WHO's epidemic-specific conclusion mandates that health care professionals employ particular ethical standards (fairness of dissemination, patient consent, physician nonmaleficence) ...

Philadelphia, October 14, 2014 -- High Value Care sub-scores from the Internal Medicine In-Training Examination (IM-ITE) reflect the importance of training medical residents to understand the benefits, harms, and costs of tests and treatments, according to a study published today in Annals of Internal Medicine. The IM-ITE is a multiple-choice exam developed by the American College of Physicians (ACP) in collaboration with the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (AAIM) to help residents along with their program directors assess their knowledge of internal medicine ...

Living close to a major road may increase women's risk of dying from sudden cardiac death, according to new research in the American Heart Association journal Circulation. "It's important for healthcare providers to recognize that environmental exposures may be under-appreciated risk factors for diseases such as sudden cardiac death and fatal coronary heart disease," said Jaime E. Hart, Sc.D., study lead author and an instructor in medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. "On a population level, living near a major roadway ...

MINNEAPOLIS – A new guideline from the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and the American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM) recommends guidance on how doctors should evaluate the full picture—from symptoms, family history and ethnicity to a physical exam and certain lab test results—in order to determine what genetic tests may best diagnose a person's subtype of limb-girdle or distal muscular dystrophy. The guideline is published in the October 14, 2014, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American ...

Bottom Line: Adults in the United States suffered from approximately 14 million major medical conditions attributable to smoking. Author: Brian L. Rostron, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the Center for Tobacco Products, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, Md., and colleagues. Background: Smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease in the United States. Cigarette smoking harms nearly every organ and organ system in the body. The authors estimated major medical conditions (morbidity) attributed to smoking in 2009. How the Study Was Conducted: The authors ...

Bottom Line: A study of teenagers suggests there is no association between physical activity (PA) and the development of depressive symptoms later in adolescence. Author: Umar Toseeb, Ph.D., of the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, and colleagues. Background: Depression contributes to the global burden of disease. A reduction in the associated costs – both personal and financial – would benefit society. The onset of depression is thought to happen in adolescence or earlier so preventive measures during this period of life could be beneficial. PA ...

Bottom Line: In patients with Alzheimer disease (AD), increased cerebrospinal fluid levels of orexin, which helps regulate the sleep-wake cycle, may be associated with sleep deterioration, which appears to be associated with cognitive decline. Authors: Claudio Liguori, M.D., of the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy, and colleagues. Background: AD is a neurodegenerative disease marked by progressive memory loss and cognitive decline and often complicated by sleep disturbance. Orexin A is part of the orexinergic system and it helps regulate the sleep-wake cycle ...

Results of a small clinical trial suggest that a chemical derived from broccoli sprouts — and best known for claims that it can help prevent certain cancers — may ease classic behavioral symptoms in those with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). The study, a joint effort by scientists at MassGeneral Hospital for Children and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, involved 40 teenage boys and young men, ages 13 to 27, with moderate to severe autism. In a report published online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences during ...

A small study led by investigators at MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHfC) and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine has found evidence that daily treatment with sulforaphane – a molecule found in foods such as broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage – may improve some symptoms of autism spectrum disorders. In their report being published online in PNAS Early Edition, the investigators describe how participants receiving a daily dose of sulforaphane showed improvement in both behavioral and communication assessments in as little as four weeks. The authors ...

The discovery of a "maternal age effect" by a team of Penn State scientists that could be used to predict the accumulation of mitochondrial DNA mutations in maternal egg cells -- and the transmission of these mutations to children -- could provide valuable insights for genetic counseling. These mutations cause more than 200 diseases and contribute to others such as diabetes, cancer, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease. The study found greater rates of the mitochondrial DNA variants in children born to older mothers, as well as in the mothers themselves. The research ...

BOSTON – Increased consumption of table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup has been linked to rising rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes in the United States and throughout the world. Both sweeteners are commonly found in processed foods and sugar-sweetened beverages, and both are made up of nearly equal amounts of two basic sugars, glucose and fructose. The effects of glucose ingestion in humans are well understood, in part, because they are easily assessed by performing a Glucose Tolerance Test, which measures serum glucose levels after glucose ingestion and ...

Long assumed to be destructive to tissues and cells, "free radicals" generated by the cell's mitochondria—the energy producing structures in the cell—are actually beneficial to healing wounds. That's the conclusion of biologists at UC San Diego who discovered that "reactive oxygen species"—chemically reactive molecules containing oxygen, such as peroxides, commonly referred to as free radicals—are necessary for the proper healing of skin wounds in the laboratory roundworm C. elegans. In a paper published in the October 13 issue of the journal ...

Scientists at Imperial College London have developed a new cancer drug which they plan to trial in multiple myeloma patients by the end of next year. In a paper published today in the journal Cancer Cell, the researchers report how the drug, known as DTP3, kills myeloma cells in laboratory tests in human cells and mice, without causing any toxic side effects, which is the main problem with most other cancer drugs. The new drug works by stopping a key process that allows cancer cells to multiply. The team have been awarded Biomedical Catalyst funding from the Medical ...

Scientists from the Department of Life Science, National Taiwan Normal University and the Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica described a new endemic land snail species. The new species Aegista diversifamilia was long confused for the widely distributed A. subchinensis. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys. Aegista subchinensis was first described in 1884 and was thought to be widely distributed in Taiwan. In 2003, one of the co-authors Dr. Yen-Chang Lee noticed that there was morphological divergence between the western and eastern populations ...

WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 10, 2014 - A robust, broad spectrum antibiotic, and a gene that confers immunity to that antibiotic are both found in the bacterium Staphylococcus epidermidis Strain 115. The antibiotic, a member of the thiopeptide family of antibiotics, is not in widespread use, partly due to its complex structure, but the investigators, from Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, now report that the mechanism of synthesis is surprisingly simple. "We hope to come up with innovative processes for large-scale production and derivitization so that new, and possibly ...

Developing the cloak of invisibility would be wonderful, but sometimes simply making an object appear to be something else will do the trick, according to Penn State electrical engineers. "Previous attempts at cloaking using a single metasurface layer were restricted to very small-sized objects," said Zhi Hao Jiang, postdoctoral fellow in electrical engineering, Penn State. "Also, the act of cloaking would prevent an enclosed antenna or sensor from communicating with the outside world." Jiang and Douglas H. Werner, John L. and Genevieve H. McCain Chair Professor of ...

Stanford University scientists have developed a "smart" lithium-ion battery that gives ample warning before it overheats and bursts into flames. The new technology is designed for conventional lithium-ion batteries now used in billions of cellphones, laptops and other electronic devices, as well as a growing number of cars and airplanes. "Our goal is to create an early-warning system that saves lives and property," said Yi Cui, an associate professor of materials science and engineering at Stanford. "The system can detect problems that occur during the normal operation ...