For the first time, researchers have shown that practising mindfulness meditation or being involved in a support group has a positive physical impact at the cellular level in breast cancer survivors. A group working out of Alberta Health Services' Tom Baker Cancer Centre and the University of Calgary Department of Oncology has demonstrated that telomeres – protein complexes at the end of chromosomes – maintain their length in breast cancer survivors who practise meditation or are involved in support groups, while they shorten in a comparison group without ...

Introducing competing "biosimilar" versions of complex biologic drugs used to treat illnesses such as cancer and rheumatoid arthritis could cut spending on biologics in the United States by $44 billion over the next decade, according to new analysis from the RAND Corporation. While biologics have advanced medical treatment for many conditions, they often are expensive and patient copays for some biologics can be several thousand dollars per year. In 2011, eight of the top 20 drugs in the United States in terms of sales were biologics and the annual spending on the drugs ...

BOSTON—New research reports that preoperative pain and depressive symptoms in older adults place them at greater risk of delirium following surgery. According to the findings published today in The Lancet Psychiatry journal, both pain and depression are independent and interactive risk factors for delirium, suggesting a cumulative effect. Individuals with delirium experience a sharp decline in attention and mental function. Older adults are especially susceptible to delirium following surgery, occurring in up to 51% of surgical patients 65 and older. Moreover, depression ...

Clemson researchers find that blending movement and computer programming supports girls in building computational thinking skills, according to an ongoing study funded by the National Science Foundation and emerging technology report published in journal Technology, Learning and Knowledge. Even with increasing demands for computationally savvy workers, there is a lack of representation among women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields (STEM), the researchers say. "We want more diverse faces around the table, helping to come up with technological ...

Aging is the most significant and universal risk factor for developing neurodegenerative diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases. This risk increases disproportionately with age, but no one really knows why. Now a team of scientists from Northwestern University, Proteostasis Therapeutics, Inc. and Harvard University has uncovered some clues. The researchers are the first to find that the quality of protective genes called molecular chaperones declines dramatically in the brains of older humans, both ...

Roughly one-third of the 700,000 United States troops who fought in the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War have subsequently developed a distinct set of chronic health problems, dubbed Gulf War illness. Their symptoms, from fatigue, muscle pain and weakness to decreased cognitive function and gastrointestinal and skin problems, persist decades after the conflict. In a study published in the Nov. 1 issue of Neural Computation, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report that a high quality brand of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) – a compound ...

NOAA's GOES-West satellite captured an image of Hurricane Vance and a much smaller developing low pressure area in the Eastern Pacific Ocean on Nov. 3. Vance's tropical-storm force winds extended to about 250 miles in diameter. NOAA's GOES-West satellite captured an infrared image of the Eastern Pacific that showed Hurricane Vance was a couple of times larger than the developing low pressure area known as System 94E to the southeast of the hurricane. In the GOES image, taken Nov. 3 at 1200 UTC (7 a.m. EST/4 a.m. PST) clouds and showers extending from Vance's northern ...

Women are significantly underrepresented in many science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, and attempts to understand why have only resulted in disagreement among researchers, the lay public, and policymakers. In a comprehensive new report, an interdisciplinary team of psychological scientists and economists aims to cut through the confusion, synthesizing available research and providing a host of new analyses to identify the factors that drive women's underrepresentation in STEM. Their analyses show that, despite many differences between the sexes prior ...

New York | Heidelberg, 3 November 2014 -- A new theoretical work establishes a long-sought-after connection between nuclear particles and electromagnetic theories. Its findings suggest that there is an equivalence between generalised Casimir forces and those that are referred to as weak nuclear interactions between protons and neutrons. The Casimir forces are due to the quantisation of electromagnetic fluctuations in vacuum, while the weak nuclear interactions are mediated by subatomic scale particles, originally called mesons by Yukawa. These findings by Barry Ninham ...

This news release is available in French. A team of researchers from Inserm led by Paul Hofman (Inserm Unit 1081/University of Nice) has just made a significant advance in the area of early diagnosis of invasive cancers. In a study which has just been published in the journal PLOS ONE, the team shows that it is possible to detect, in patients at risk of developing lung cancer, early signs, in the form of circulating cancer cells, several months, and in some cases several years, before the cancer becomes detectable by CT scanning. This warning could play a key role in ...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3, 2014 — As Carl Sagan famously said, "We are made of star stuff." It's a mind-boggling thought, but what exactly did he mean? Ahead of Sagan's birthday on November 9th, Reactions teamed up with the American Association of Chemistry Teachers (AACT) and best-selling author Sam Kean to explain the chemistry behind this iconic quote. Watch our latest episode to find out how many of the atoms that make up you (and everything else) were forged in the nuclear cores of stars billions of years ago. Watch the video here: http://youtu.be/2bm479V8qPs. INFORMATION: Kean's ...

This news release is available in Spanish. Biological membranes define the functional architecture of living systems: they are selectively permeable, maintain the chemical identity of the cells and intracellular organelles, and regulate the exchange of material between them. To control the transporting of ions and small molecules through cell membranes, highly specialised proteins that transport these molecules through the membrane are used. Recent advances in nanotechnology and nanofabrication have made it possible to synthesise and manufacture artificial compounds ...

CHICAGO (November 3, 2014): Researchers from the University Health Network in Toronto are hoping to improve the operational efficiency of bariatric surgery programs to increase access to care. Studies have shown that bariatric operations can alleviate chronic health issues like diabetes and arthritis for extremely obese people. Now the University Health Network researchers are trying to determine why many patients who are referred for a bariatric operation do not ultimately have the procedure performed, despite being in a publicly funded health care program. Findings ...

Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Massey Cancer Center researchers have developed the first and only tool that can accurately measure cancer health literacy (CHL) and quickly identify patients with limited CHL. This tool has the potential to improve communication and understanding between physicians and patients, which, in turn, could lead to better clinical outcomes. Recently published in the Journal of Health Communications, the Cancer Health Literacy Study was conducted over four years and involved 1,306 African-American and Caucasian patients from Massey and ...

San Diego — A nasal vaccine in development by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin has been shown to provide long-term protection for non-human primates against the deadly Ebola virus. Results from a small pre-clinical study represent the only proof to date that a single dose of a non-injectable vaccine platform for Ebola is long-lasting, which could have significant global implications in controlling future outbreaks. This work is being presented Nov. 5 at the 2014 American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Annual Meeting and Exposition, ...

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Fat and sugar aren't usually considered healthy staples, but scientists have found that a biological fat with a sugar attached is essential for maintaining the brain's store of stem cells. Neural stem cells help the brain develop initially, then repopulate brain cells lost to usual cell turnover as well as to a trauma or malady, such as a head injury or stroke. While the cell population and activity decrease as a natural part of aging, scientists at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University are studying how neural stem cells ...

The school environment in which teachers work is related to their expectations of students, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Montreal. "It is known that low teacher expectations are negatively associated with student achievement and school effectiveness. While we know that expectations are primarily determined by the specific characteristics of teachers, we have shown that the school environment also plays a determining role," says lead author of the study, Marie-Christine Brault, a post-doctoral researcher at the university's Institut de recherche ...

What we believed as children about the soul and the afterlife shapes what we believe as adults – regardless of what we say we believe now, according to a new Rutgers study. "My starting point was, assuming that people have these automatic – that is, implicit or ingrained – beliefs about the soul and afterlife, how can we measure those implicit beliefs?," said Stephanie Anglin, a doctoral student in psychology in Rutgers' School of Arts and Sciences. Her research, "On the Nature of Implicit Soul Beliefs: When the Past Weighs More Than the Present," ...

TORONTO, ON, Nov. 3, 2014 — Women who have been previously hospitalized for bipolar disorder are nearly twice as likely to have premature babies compared to women without a history of mental illness, according to a new study by researchers at Women's College Hospital and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). The study, published today in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, shows pregnant women with bipolar disorder are at greater risk of having premature babies and other serious complications. While the study did not examine the ...

Today's natural resource manager tending to the health of a stream in Louisiana needs to look upstream. Way upstream - like Montana. Michigan State University (MSU) scientists have invented a way to more easily manage the extensive nature of streams. There are 2.6 million stream reaches in the contiguous United States that are intricately interconnected. It's impossible to address the health of one reach without knowing what's happening upstream. Science, wielding geographic information systems, has obliged with data on geology, climate, pollution and land use. But ...

Packing on the pounds may lead to dangerous inflammation in response to anti-cancer treatment, according to a study by William Murphy and colleages at UC Davis. The study, published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine, shows that overweight mice develop lethal inflammation in response to certain anti-cancer therapies, suggesting a possible link between body weight and adverse side effects in cancer patients treated with similar protocols. Cancer treatment has been revolutionized by new approaches aimed at stimulating the body's own immune system to fight off tumor ...

Flu infection has long-ranging effects beyond the lung that can wreak havoc in the gut and cause a dreaded symptom, diarrhea, according to a study published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine. Gastrointestinal symptoms are often seen with flu infection, but because the virus only grows in lung cells, it's unclear how intestinal symptoms develop. Researchers in China now show that flu infection in mice prompts responding immune cells in the lung to alter their homing receptors, causing them to migrate to the gut. Once there, they produce the antiviral mediator IFN-γ, ...

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Immunotherapy that can be effective against tumors in young, thin mice can be lethal to obese ones, a new study by UC Davis researchers has found. The findings, published online today in The Journal of Experimental Medicine, suggest a possible link between body fat and the risk of toxicity from some types of immunotherapy. The study comes at a time of great excitement about immunotherapy drugs, which are being developed and used increasingly against cancer, particularly in melanoma and kidney and prostate cancers. Immunotherapies use immune ...

When western retailers like Walmart and Tesco move into China, Chinese manufacturing gets a boost, shows a new study by the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business. "Many assume Western retailers act as gateways for western goods into Chinese markets, helping to resolve trade imbalances tipped in favour of China's powerhouse manufacturing sector," says lead author Keith Head, HSBC Professor in Asian Commerce at Sauder. "But it appears that multinational retailers are actually enhancing the export capabilities of Chinese suppliers." After 1995, when ...

Almost everyone knows that improving your eating habits will most likely improve your health. What most people may not know, however, is that the effects of poor eating habits persist long after dietary habits are improved. In a new report appearing in the November 2014 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, scientists use mice to show that even after successful treatment of atherosclerosis (including lowering of blood cholesterol and a change in dietary habits) the effects of an unhealthy lifestyle still affect the way the immune system functions. This change in function ...