SPOKANE, Wash.--Washington State University researchers have found a mechanism by which omega-3 fatty acids inhibit the growth and spread of prostate cancer cells. The findings, which are at odds with a 2013 study asserting that omega-3s increase the risk of prostate cancer, point the way to more effective anti-cancer drugs. Scientists have long known that omega 3s reduce inflammation and have anti-diabetic effects, and some recently discovered how this happens. "But we're the first to show that they work this way in cancer," said Kathryn Meier, a professor of pharmacy ...

NEW YORK (March 17, 2015)--A new tuberculosis (TB) drug regimen designed to improve options for TB therapy eliminated more bacteria from sputum than standard therapy and did so at a faster rate, according to data from a phase 2b clinical trial published today in The Lancet. These results are published just as the global phase 3 clinical trial, designed to bring this regimen through the last stage of testing, has begun. PaMZ is a three-drug regimen comprised of two candidate drugs that are not yet licensed for use against TB: pretomanid (Pa), formerly known as PA-824, ...

Chemical changes that occur in tree leaves after being attacked by insects and mammals can impact nearby streams, which rely on fallen plant material as a food source, report scientists from the University of Chicago Department of Ecology and Evolution. The study, published March 17 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, shows how interactions between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems are an essential part of understanding ecological responses to climate change. Graduate student Sara Jackrel and Timothy Wootton, PhD, professor in the Department of Ecology ...

Longer duration of breastfeeding is linked with increased intelligence in adulthood, longer schooling, and higher adult earnings, a study following a group of almost 3500 newborns for 30 years published in The Lancet Global Health journal has found. "The effect of breastfeeding on brain development and child intelligence is well established, but whether these effects persist into adulthood is less clear,"* explains lead author Dr Bernardo Lessa Horta from the Federal University of Pelotas in Brazil. "Our study provides the first evidence that prolonged breastfeeding ...

Alteplase is a tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) that helps to disperse blood clots in a process called thrombolysis. Most major stroke guidelines support use of alteplase up to 4.5 hours after stroke onset, but Dr Brian Alper and colleagues believe that current guidance is based on uncertain evidence and they call for urgent reconsideration of the available data to guide policy decisions. The UK regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA), is planning to analyse all relevant sources of evidence and reassess the balance of benefits and risks for ...

Previous research among young and older adults has suggested that the context in which drinking occurs may contribute to specific alcohol-related problems, such as aggression, risky sex, and drinking and driving. However, little is known about how young drinkers select drinking contexts. A longitudinal study of drinking patterns, and demographic and psychosocial characteristics associated with youth drinking in different contexts, has found that where youth drink alcohol varies by characteristics such as age, gender, drinking frequency, smoking, and deviant behaviors. Results ...

Both the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5), and the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Edition (ICD-10) have established diagnostic criteria for alcohol use disorders (AUDs). While the DSM is widely used by clinicians, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has recently called for providers to bill for services using ICD-10 designations. Given the ramifications for who will and will be not eligible for treatment, this study compares the two diagnostic approaches, finding ...

A new study has examined genetic and environmental influences underlying alcohol use. Results show that genetic effects on the amount of alcohol use appear to be greater in low socioeconomic-status (SES) conditions. Shared environmental effects tended to increase in high-SES conditions, and non-shared environmental effects tended to decrease with SES. Research on genetic and environmental influences underlying alcohol use has thus far failed to uncover specific causes, likely because genetic and environmental influences vary by context. A study of the moderating ...

DALLAS, March 17, 2015 -- Your heart health, which is optimal for most of us at birth, can decline substantially with unhealthy childhood behaviors, according to research in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, an American Heart Association journal. "Our findings indicate that, in general, children start with pretty good blood pressure," said Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, M.D., Sc.M., senior author of the study and professor and chair of preventive medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois. "But if they have a horrible ...

March 17, 2015 -- Female community health extension workers deployed to a remote rural community in northern Nigeria led to major and sustained increases in service utilization, including antenatal care and facility-based deliveries, according to latest research by Columbia University's Mailman School of Public. The research also showed that providing a rural residence allowance in addition to a standard salary helped recruit and retain female workers. Other key components to the program's success were posting workers in pairs to avoid isolation, ensuring supplies and transportation ...

Archaeologists from The Field Museum in Chicago, IL and Shandong University (Jinan, China) have investigated the historical processes leading up to China's political unification through the juxtaposition of macro- and micro-scale analysis. The study offers new perspectives on how human impacts of infrastructural investments, interactive technologies, social contracts, and ideologies that were implemented during the Qin and Han Dynasties and before have helped establish the rough spatial configuration of what is today China. Why humans cooperate in large social groupings ...

The genome of a cell is under constant attack, suffering DNA damage that requires an army of repair mechanisms to keep the cell healthy and alive. Understanding the behavior of the enzymes defending these assaults helps determine how - and where - cancer gets its foothold and flourishes. New research published in an Advance Online Publication of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology shows that one of these enzymes - human DNA polymerase theta (POLQ) - may be a promising drug therapy target for inhibiting breast cancer. "The human genome encodes more than 15 different ...

What's in store for the future of industrial bioprocessing for medical therapies, which involves the use of living organisms or cells to create drugs or other agents? Will the batch or continuous bioprocessing platform dominate biomanufacturing of human therapeutics down the road? Three pioneers in the field address these questions in an upcoming issue of Biotechnology and Bioengineering. With batch bioprocessing, components are transferred as a batch from one holding vessel or processing equipment to the next, while with continuous bioprocessing, there is a continuous ...

URBANA, Ill. - While many recent studies have documented that agricultural producers must significantly increase yields in order to meet the food, feed, and fuel demands of a growing population, few have given practical solutions on how to do this. Crop science researchers at the University of Illinois interested in determining and reducing corn yield gaps are addressing this important issue by taking a systematic approach to the problem. A recent study from the Illinois Crop Physiology Laboratory, led by Fred Below, a U of I crop physiologist, provides the first estimate ...

Previous calculations may have overestimated the importance of HIV transmission from recently infected individuals ("acute phase infectivity") in driving HIV epidemics, according to an article published by Steve Bellan of The University of Texas at Austin, and colleagues in this week's PLOS Medicine. The lower estimates of acute phase infectivity suggest that recently infected individuals--who have not had the chance to start antiretroviral treatment--although still more infectious on average than those in the chronic stage of infection, are not as likely to infect others ...

Overpopulation, the greenhouse effect, warming temperatures and overall climate disruption are all well recognized as a major threat to the ecology and biodiversity of the Earth. The issue of mankind's negative impact on the environment, albeit hotly debated and continuously present in the public eye, still only leads to limited policy action. Urgent action is required, insist Paul Cruzten and Stanislaw Waclawek, the authors of "Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate in the Anthropocene", published in open access in the new Chemistry-Didactics-Ecology-Metrology. In their ...

TORONTO, March 17, 2015 - A group of York University investigators and their international counterparts have jointly created a database of lake surface temperatures, to help study ecological effects of climate change. "There has been a significant need to put together a database like this, considering the rapid warming of lakes," observes Professor Sapna Sharma in the Department of Biology in the Faculty of Science who led the international effort. As part of the Global Lake Temperature Collaboration (GLTC) project, Sharma and several of her undergraduate students, Anam ...

AUSTIN, Texas - People who recently have been infected with HIV may not be as highly infectious as previously believed, a finding that could improve global efforts to prevent HIV transmission and save lives. In particular, the finding bolsters the strategy of treating patients with antiretroviral drugs before the onset of AIDS to prevent transmission. Mathematical epidemiologists Steve Bellan, a postdoctoral researcher at The University of Texas at Austin, and Lauren Ancel Meyers, a biology professor at the university, authored the paper with researchers from McMaster ...

Scientists in a collaboration led by Dai Takei of the RIKEN SPring-8 Center in Japan have, for the first time, examined a detailed 'time lapse' X-ray image of the expansion of a classical nova explosion using the GK Persei nova -- a binary star system which underwent a nova explosion in 1901. Through this work, they hope to gain a better understanding of the expansion of gases in the universe, including not only in classical novae but also in supernovae--tremendous stellar explosions that are believed to be responsible for the creation of heavy elements such as uranium ...

Vitamin D may play a vital role in the prevention and treatment of diseases associated with aging, according to researchers at Loyola University Chicago Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing (MNSON). These findings were published in the latest issue of the Journal of Aging and Gerontology. Researchers reviewed evidence that suggests an association between vitamin D deficiency and chronic diseases associated with aging such as cognitive decline, depression, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes and cancer. "Vitamin D deficiency is a ...

Hamilton, ON (March 17, 2015) - It's long been known that obese men are more likely to develop type two diabetes than obese women, but researchers at McMaster University have discovered it may be related to a difference between the sexes in the activity of a protein in the muscle. As people become overweight, their skeletal muscle develops insulin resistance that can lead to type two diabetes. In a paper published by Scientific Reports today, the research team found the activity of this protein, called PTEN (for Phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10), ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Young, inexperienced drivers have always gotten into more automobile accidents, but if you add in a lot of distractions, it's a recipe for disaster - and a new Pacific Northwest research program is learning more about these risks while identifying approaches that may help reduce them. Distractions have been an issue since the age of the Model T, whether a driver was eating a sandwich or talking to a passenger. But the advent of cell phones, text messaging and heavy urban traffic has taken those distractions to a historic level, say researchers, who ...

The whirling, winged seeds of today's conifers are an engineering wonder and, as University of California, Berkeley, scientists show, a result of about 270 million years of evolution by trees experimenting with the best way to disperse their seeds. The first conifer species that produced seeds that whirl when they fall used a variety of single- and double-winged designs. Whirling, or helicoptering, keeps a seed aloft longer, increasing the chance that a gust of wind will carry a seed to a clearing where it can sprout and grow unimpeded by competitors "Winged seeds may ...

The honeycomb structure of pristine graphene is beautiful, but Northwestern University scientists, together with collaborators from five other institutions, have discovered that if the graphene naturally has a few tiny holes in it, you have a proton-selective membrane that could lead to improved fuel cells. A major challenge in fuel cell technology is efficiently separating protons from hydrogen. In a study of single-layer graphene and water, the Northwestern researchers found that slightly imperfect graphene shuttles protons -- and only protons -- from one side of the ...

An atomically thin membrane with microscopically small holes may prove to be the basis for future hydrogen fuel cells, water filtering and desalination membranes, according to a group of 15 theorists and experimentalists, including three theoretical researchers from Penn State. The team, led by Franz Geiger of Northwestern University, tested the possibility of using graphene, the robust single atomic layer carbon, as a separation membrane in water and found that naturally occurring defects, essentially a few missing carbon atoms, allowed hydrogen protons to cross the ...