BOSTON – It is an intricate network of activity that enables breast cancer cells to move from the primary breast tumor and set up new growths in other parts of the body, a process known as metastasis. Now a research team led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has identified an unexpected link between a transcription factor known to regulate speech and language development and metastatic colonization of breast cancer. Currently described online in Cell Stem Cell, the new findings demonstrate that, when silenced, the FOXP2 transcription ...

October 22, 2014 – In contrast to national trends, a study performed at Alabama's largest hospital finds no racial difference in the risk of pregnancy-related death between African American and Caucasian women, reports the November issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia. However, the results show a significant increase in maternal mortality for women who live greater distances from the hospital, according to the study Dr Michael Froelich of University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and colleagues. The findings point to differences in health care access as a possible explanation ...

A large international clinical trial has shed new light on the effectiveness of current hospital protocols for managing blood pressure in stroke patients. The two-part ENOS trial (Efficacy of Nitric Oxide in Stroke,) was carried out at The University of Nottingham in collaboration with 23 countries to try to solve two major conundrums faced by doctors when treating people who have suffered a stroke — should blood pressure be lowered using medicated skin patches, and should existing blood pressure medication be stopped or continued after a stroke? The results of ...

PITTSBURGH, Oct. 22, 2014 – Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were more likely to have been exposed to higher levels of certain air toxics during their mothers' pregnancies and the first two years of life compared to children without the condition, according to the preliminary findings of a University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health investigation of children in southwestern Pennsylvania. This research, funded by The Heinz Endowments, will be presented today at the American Association for Aerosol Research annual meeting in Orlando, Fla. ...

A painful inflamed lesion on the oral mucosa, which often seems to be burning at the periphery: every third individual has at one point had such a lesion—an aphthous ulcer. Often they resolve after a brief period of time. In 2% to 10% of patients these lesions are recurrent and require medical treatment. Unfortunately, as Andreas Altenberg and co-authors point out in a current review on the therapy of aphthous ulcers (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2014; 111: 665–73), the etiology of these lesions is unclear. Thus aphthous ulcers can only be treated symptomatically. Even ...

Boston, MA – A research team led by Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) has developed and tested a novel nanoparticle platform that efficiently delivers clinically important proteins in vivo in initial proof-of-concept tests. Nanoparticles, which are particles measuring nanometers in size, hold promise for a range of applications, including human therapeutics. The key advantage of the new platform, known as a thermosponge nanoparticle, is that it eliminates the need for harsh solvents, which can damage the very molecules the particles are designed to carry. The study ...

(Sacramento, CA): Broad-spectrum prevention that can simultaneously prevent unintended pregnancy along with STIs, including HIV, is on the horizon say experts in a special supplement of the BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The issue features an international assemblage of researchers, funders, developers and advocates who identify the pressing global health rationale for MPTs and present new research and strategies for making the go/no-go funding and research decisions that shape the field. The invited guest editor for the supplement is Dr. ...

A review of sentencing following the 2011 English riots has shown that sentences were much harsher than realised at first. And just as people got caught up in the riots and acted out of character the study, carried out by The University of Manchester and Liverpool John Moores University, found that the courts themselves got caught up in a similar kind of collective hysteria. Dr Hannah Quirk, a Senior Lecturer in Criminal Law and Justice from The University of Manchester, was the co-author of the research which has just been published in The British Journal of Criminology. ...

Our immune system defends us from harmful bacteria and viruses, but, if left unchecked, the cells that destroy those invaders can turn on the body itself, causing auto-immune diseases like type-1 diabetes or multiple sclerosis. A molecule called insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) boosts the body's natural defence against this 'friendly fire', scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Monterotondo, Italy, have found. The findings, published today in EMBO Molecular Medicine, are especially exciting because IGF-1 is already approved for use in patients, ...

Using two world-class supercomputers, the researchers were able to demonstrate the effectiveness of their approach by simulating the formation of a massive galaxy at the dawn of cosmic time. The ALMA radio telescope – which stands at an elevation of 5,000 meters in the Atacama Desert of Chile, one of the driest places on earth – was then used to forge observations of the galaxy, showing how their method improves upon previous efforts. It is extremely difficult to gather information about galaxies at the edge of the Universe: the signals from these heavenly ...

CHICAGO (October 22, 2014) – New research shows vulnerable patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) who received enhanced oral care from a dentist were at significantly less risk for developing a lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI), like ventilator-associated pneumonia, during their stay. The study was published in the November issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA). "Bacteria causing healthcare-associated infections often start in the oral cavity," said Fernando Bellissimo-Rodrigues, ...

CHICAGO (October 22, 2014) – New research found tracking influenza vaccination of healthcare personnel through an automated system increased vaccination compliance and reduced workload burden on human resources and occupational health staff. The study is published in the November issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA). "Mandatory vaccination programs help protect vulnerable patients, but can be tremendously time and resource dependent," said Susan Huang, MD, MPH, an author of ...

Frying is one of the world's most popular ways to prepare food — think fried chicken and french fries. Even candy bars and whole turkeys have joined the list. But before dunking your favorite food in a vat of just any old oil, consider using olive. Scientists report in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that olive oil withstands the heat of the fryer or pan better than several seed oils to yield more healthful food. Mohamed Bouaziz and colleagues note that different oils have a range of physical, chemical and nutritional properties that can degrade ...

Drawing blood and testing it is standard practice for many medical diagnostics. As a less painful alternative, scientists are developing skin patches that could one day replace the syringe. In the ACS journal Analytical Chemistry, one team reports they have designed and successfully tested, for the first time, a small skin patch that detected malaria proteins in live mice. It could someday be adapted for use in humans to diagnose other diseases, too. Simon R. Corrie and colleagues note that while blood is rich with molecular clues that tell a story about a person's health, ...

Action-packed science-fiction movies often feature colourful laser bolts. But what would a real laser missile look like during flight, if we could only make it out? How would it illuminate its surroundings? The answers lie in a film made at the Laser Centre of the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in cooperation with the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw. Tests of a new compact high-power laser have given researchers at the Laser Centre of the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Faculty ...

"We're using less expensive raw materials in smaller amounts, we have fewer production steps, and have potentially lower total energy consumption," PhD candidate Fredrik Martinsen and Professor Ursula Gibson of the Department of Physics at NTNU explain. They recently published their technique in Scientific Reports. Their processing technique allows them to make solar cells from silicon that is 1000 times less pure, and thus less expensive, than the current industry standard. Glass fibers with a silicon core The researchers' solar cells are composed of silicon fibers ...

Bright colours appear on a fruit fly's transparent wings against a dark background as a result of light refraction. Researchers from Lund University in Sweden have now demonstrated that females choose a mate based on the males' hidden wing colours. "Our experiment shows that this newly-discovered trait is important in female choice in fruit flies, and is the first evidence that wing interference patterns have a biological signalling function between the sexes during sexual selection", said Jessica Abbott, a biologist at Lund University. The extremely thin wings of the ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Doctors at Duke University Hospital have developed a new collaborative model in cancer care that reduced the rates at which patients were sent to intensive care or readmitted to the hospital after discharge. The Duke researchers shared their findings today at the Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium sponsored by the American Society of Clinical Oncology. In the new treatment model, medical oncologists and palliative care physicians partnered in a "co-rounding" format to deliver cancer care for patients admitted to Duke University Hospital's solid tumor ...

Predicting which people will commit murder is extremely difficult, according to a new study by criminologists at The University of Texas at Dallas. Dr. Alex Piquero, Ashbel Smith Professor of criminology and co-author of the paper, said he and his fellow researchers were motivated by the lack of scientific literature on distinguishing people who will commit homicide from those who will not. According to the study, the similarities outweigh the differences between the two groups. "Based on a whole slew of characteristics that we know predict and differentiate criminal ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – For the first time, a team of interdisciplinary researchers have made recordings of neurons associated with visual perception inside the poppy seed-sized brain of a jumping spider (Phidippus audax). Video: http://www.cornell.edu/video/vision-in-jumping-spiders/s252/e552 Though neurobiologists have tried for half a century to better understand the brains of jumping spiders, no one has succeeded. The liquid in spiders' bodies is pressurized, as they move with hydraulic pressure and muscles, so they don't tolerate previous research techniques. As ...

Patients diagnosed with high blood pressure are given better control of their condition from a physician-pharmacist collaborative intervention than physician management alone, according to new research. Pharmacists can play a key role in communicating with physicians to address suboptimal therapy, helping physicians to provide counselling on lifestyle change and performing patient follow-up. The research was carried out to evaluate the individual care processes of the physician-pharmacist collaborative intervention in treating hypertension, a major cause of heart disease, ...

CHAPEL HILL, NC – UNC School of Medicine researchers have pinpointed a set of intriguing characteristics in a previously unknown subpopulation of melanoma cancer cells in blood vessels of tumors. These cells, which mimic non-cancerous endothelial cells that normally populate blood vessels in tumors, could provide researchers with another target for cancer therapies. The research, published today in the journal Nature Communications, provides evidence for how these particular melanoma cells help tumors resist drugs designed to block blood vessel formation. "For ...

Those who self-harm as teenagers are more at risk of developing mental health and substance misuse problems as adults, new research from the biggest study of its kind in the UK has revealed. Researchers at the University of Bristol, working together with colleagues from the University of Oxford and University College London, collected data from 4,799 adolescents as part of Children of the 90s - one of the world's largest population studies - to examine the outcomes of self-harm for the first time. The research paper, funded by the Medical Research Council and published ...

When a toddler takes their first steps we observe an uncertain sway in their walking. Being unsteady on our feet is something we can experience throughout life – and a new study has shown how even the lightest fingertip touch can help people to maintain their balance. The research, led by the University of Birmingham, explains how neural and mechanical mechanisms synchronize our sway with another person. Dr Raymond Reynolds explained, "There's something very human, very instinctive, that makes us reach out and grab something or someone when we're unsure of our ...

The search for blood-borne biomarkers that could be used to screen for colorectal cancer (CRC) has uncovered two promising candidates that may one day lead to the development of a simple blood test. Scientists have been piecing together the molecular events involved in the development of CRC and have identified abnormal DNA methylation patterns and the presence of microRNAs as major players in the carcinogenic process. Speaking to journalists today at the 22nd United European Gastroenterology Week (UEG Week 2014) in Vienna, Austria, Dr Antoni Castells from the Institute ...