Boston, MA – Up to 40 percent of patients undergoing breast cancer surgery require additional operations because surgeons may fail to remove all the cancerous tissue in the initial operation. However, researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have successfully tested a tool they developed that will help surgeons better distinguish cancerous breast tissue from normal tissue, thereby decreasing the chances for repeat operations. The study is published online the week of September 22, 2014 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The tool, known ...

Manufacturing biofuels from food crop by-products such as straw could be made quicker and cheaper thanks to the work of scientists in the UK and France. Researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have discovered variant straw plants whose cell walls are more easily broken down to make biofuels, but which are not significantly smaller or weaker than regular plants. The discovery could help ease pressure on global food security as biofuels from non-food crops become easier and cheaper to make. The impact of carbon emissions ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Antarctic fishes that manufacture their own "antifreeze" proteins to survive in the icy Southern Ocean also suffer an unfortunate side effect, researchers report: The protein-bound ice crystals that accumulate inside their bodies resist melting even when temperatures warm. The finding is reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "We discovered what appears to be an undesirable consequence of the evolution of antifreeze proteins in Antarctic notothenioid fishes," said University of Oregon doctoral student Paul Cziko, who led ...

WASHINGTON (Sept. 22, 2014) — Following a healthy lifestyle, including maintaining a healthy weight and diet, exercise, not smoking and moderating alcohol intake, could prevent four out of five coronary events in men, according to a new study publishing today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. While mortality from heart disease has declined in recent decades, with much of the reduction attributed to medical therapies, the authors said prevention through a healthy lifestyle avoids potential side effects of medication and is more cost effective for population-wide ...

Pregnant women have an unusually strong immune response to influenza, an unexpected finding that may explain why they get sicker from the flu than other healthy adults, new research from the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford has found. The results were surprising because immune responses are thought to be weakened by pregnancy to prevent the woman's body from rejecting her fetus. The study, which will be published online Sept. 22 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first to examine the ...

SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 22, 2014 – After human ancestors controlled fire 400,000 to 1 million years ago, flames not only let them cook food and fend off predators, but also extended their day. A University of Utah study of Africa's Kalahari Bushmen suggests that stories told over firelight helped human culture and thought evolve by reinforcing social traditions, promoting harmony and equality, and sparking the imagination to envision a broad sense of community, both with distant people and the spirit world. Researchers previously studied how cooking affected diets and ...

SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 22, 2014 – University of Utah engineers discovered a way to create a special material – a metal layer on top of a silicon semiconductor – that could lead to cost-effective, superfast computers that perform lightning-fast calculations but don't overheat. This new "topological insulator" behaves like an insulator on the inside but conducts electricity on the outside and may pave the way for quantum computers and fast spintronic devices. The research, led by University of Utah materials science and engineering professor Feng Liu, was published today ...

Thanks to new LEGO®-like components developed by researchers at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, it is now possible to build a 3-D microfluidic system quickly and cheaply by simply snapping together small modules by hand. Microfluidic systems are used in many fields including engineering, chemistry and biotechnology to precisely manipulate small volumes of fluids for use in applications such as enzymatic or DNA analysis, pathogen detection, clinical diagnostic testing, and synthetic chemistry. Traditionally, microfluidic devices are built in a cleanroom on a two-dimensional ...

Platelets, the tiny cell fragments whose job it is to stop bleeding, are very simple. They don't have a cell nucleus. But they can "feel" the physical environment around them, researchers at Emory and Georgia Tech have discovered. Platelets respond to surfaces with greater stiffness by increasing their stickiness, the degree to which they "turn on" other platelets and other components of the clotting system, the researchers found. "Platelets are smarter than we give them credit for, in that they are able to sense the physical characteristics of their environment and ...

Scientists have discovered a key molecular cog in a plant's biological clock – one that modulates the speed of circadian (daily) rhythms based on temperature. Transcription factors, or genetic switches, drive gene expression in plants based on external stresses – such as light, rain, soil quality, or even animals grazing on them. A team of researchers at USC has isolated one, called FBH1, that reacts to temperature – tweaking the rhythm here and there as needed while in keeping it on a consistent track. "Temperature helps keep the hands of the biological clock in the ...

Analysis of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in a mouse model of pancreatic cancer identified distinct patterns of gene expression in several groups of CTCs, including significant differences from the primary tumor that may contribute to the ability to generate metastases. In their study reported in the Sept. 25 issue of Cell Reports, investigators from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center identified several different classes of pancreatic CTCs and found unexpected factors that may prove to be targets for improved treatment of the deadly tumor. "Our ...

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have observed what may be the first-ever signs of windy weather around a T Tauri star, an infant analog of our own Sun. This may help explain why some T Tauri stars have disks that glow weirdly in infrared light while others shine in a more expected fashion. T Tauri stars are the infant versions of stars like our Sun. They are relatively normal, medium-size stars that are surrounded by the raw materials to build both rocky and gaseous planets. Though nearly invisible in optical light, these disks ...

Hamilton, ON (September 22, 2014) – McMaster scientists have found that an anticonvulsant drug may help in developing a new class of antibiotics. Although dozens of antibiotics target what bacteria do, their study has looked at how a certain part of bacteria are created, and they found there is a way of stopping it. The discovery is important as there is growing concern worldwide about how antibiotic resistance is making the cures for infections ineffective. The World Health Organization has declared that antibiotic resistance is a major threat to global health security. ...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- Many native species have vanished from tropical islands because of human impact, but University of Florida scientists have discovered how fossils can be used to restore lost biodiversity. The key lies in organic materials found in fossil bones, which contain evidence for how ancient ecosystems functioned, according to a new study available online and in the September issue of the Journal of Herpetology. Pre-human island ecosystems provide vital clues for saving endangered island species and re-establishing native species, said lead author Alex Hastings, ...

Hamilton, ON (September 22, 2014) – South Asians living in Canada have a higher rate of heart disease and double the rate of diabetes compared with while people, McMaster researchers have found. The paper was published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ Open) and may be found at http://www.cmajopen.ca/content/2/3/E183.full One of the fastest-growing ethnic groups in the country is the more than one million South Asian people living in Canada, comprising about three percent of the population. They include people from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, ...

The Tibetan Plateau in south-central Asia, because of its size, elevation and impact on climate, is one of the world's greatest geological oddities. At about 960,000 square miles it covers slightly more land area than Alaska, Texas and California combined, and its elevation is on the same scale as Mount Rainier in the Cascade Range of Washington state. Because it rises so high into the atmosphere, it helps bring monsoons over India and other nations to the south while the plateau itself remains generally arid. For decades, geologists have debated when and how the plateau ...

Athens, Ga. – When employees feel left out, they act out. That's the message that new research from the University of Georgia Terry College of Business delivers as it explains why employees can become weasels to benefit their work group. "Everybody has a need for social approval. It's the basis of our human functioning," said Marie Mitchell, co-author of the research and professor of management at UGA. "But when individuals are faced with a risk of social exclusion, it motivates some pretty unsavory behaviors. We already know how people react when they're definitely ...

New Haven, Conn. – Yale University researchers are studying a potential new treatment that reverses the effects of pulmonary fibrosis, a respiratory disease in which scars develop in the lungs and severely hamper breathing. The treatment uses a microRNA mimic, miR-29, which is delivered to lung tissue intravenously. In mouse models, miR-29 not only blocked pulmonary fibrosis, it reversed fibrosis after several days. The findings were published Sept. 19 in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine. "The mimic, when injected into the blood, goes to the lung and it has a ...

HOUSTON – (Sept. 22, 2014) – As genetic sequencing technologies continue to evolve rapidly, becoming part of clinical care, there is a critical need to establish appropriate policies and regulatory frameworks to address potential challenges, legal and ethical experts have said. A special policy issue of the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics published online today and edited by experts with the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor College of Medicine gives policy makers the tools to jumpstart this process. Experts with the Center for Medical Ethics and ...

New Rochelle, NY, September 22, 2014—Cassava, also known as tapioca, has large starch-filled roots and can grow at high yields in areas of Africa, Asia, and Latin America where corn and sugarcane are not commonly grown. With the availability of novel enzymes and processes designed to break down tapioca starch into sugars that can then be used to produce sweeteners such as glucose, fructose, or maltose syrup, tapioca may be an ideal alternative to corn, as described in a Review article in Industrial Biotechnology, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. ...

West Orange, NJ. September 22, 2014. Kessler researchers have published a pilot study showing the benefits of a 10-week psychoeducational wellness program in people with multiple sclerosis (MS). Improvements were seen in mood, overall mental health, perceived stress, and pain. "Development and effectiveness of a psychoeducational wellness group for individuals living with MS: Description and outcomes" was epublished ahead of print on September 3 in the International Journal of MS Care (doi: 10.7224/1537-2073.2013-045). The authors are Kimberly Beckwith McGuire, PhD, of ...

PENSACOLA, Fla. – In 2011 the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) held a workshop for 45 international experts to identify and prioritize the scientific research needed to understand the risks of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in the environment. The effort was extended, and results were published in the most recent issue of the Society's international journal, Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management (IEAM). The published work is accompanied by a podcast interviewing the lead author of the study, Murray Rudd from the ...

Most of the fires captured in this image burn in Khabarovsk Krai, a territory occupying the coastline of the Sea of Okhotsk. Dozens of red hotspots, accompanied by plumes of smoke mark active fires. The smoke, which appears mostly white or grey, blows to the east towards the Sea of Okhotsk. Taiga and tundra are found in the north of this area, swampy forest inhabit the central depression, and deciduous forests are the natural vegetation in the south. While large wildfires are common in Russia in the summer, the 2014 wildfire season appears to be more intense than usual. ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Researchers have developed a chip capable of simulating a tumor's "microenvironment" and plan to use the new system to test the effectiveness of nanoparticles and drugs that target cancer. The new system, called a tumor-microenvironment-on-chip (T-MOC) device, will allow researchers to study the complex environment surrounding tumors and the barriers that prevent the targeted delivery of therapeutic agents, said Bumsoo Han, a Purdue University associate professor of mechanical engineering. Researchers are trying to perfect "targeted delivery" methods ...

September 22, 2014 – (BRONX, NY) – A new study by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University suggests that measuring how fast the brain responds to sights and sounds could help in objectively classifying people on the autism spectrum and may help diagnose the condition earlier. The paper was published today in the online edition of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disabilities. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1 in 68 children has been identified with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The signs and ...