In the 1990s advance care planning (ACP) developed as an alternative to the traditional approach to creating advance directives. In contrast to the traditional approach, the ACP concept views advance health care planning as a lifelong communication process. All persons in a target group are actively offered professional facilitation. Furthermore, the relevant institutions and professionals are involved and receive regular training and updates. They thus assume responsibility for ensuring that newly written advance directives are relevant, valid, available when needed, and ...

The drug tamoxifen appears to kill a fungus associated with a deadly brain infection that afflicts HIV/AIDS patients, according to a University of Rochester study published online today by mBio, the journal of the American Society for Microbiology. The findings, by Damian J. Krysan, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of Pediatrics and Microbiology and Immunology at the UR School of Medicine and Dentistry, point to an example of Rochester researchers looking to repurpose older drugs by discovering new applications for secondary properties of the drug. In this case, investigators ...

This news release is available in German. Scientists have discovered that a polymer can provide a key to get into tumors: Prof. Prasad Shastri, Director of the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry and core member of the cluster of excellence BIOSS Centre for Biological Signalling Studies at the University of Freiburg, and graduate students Julia Voigt and Jon Christensen have developed a new paradigm to home nanoparticles, containers that measure a few 100 nanometers in size, to endothelial cells. Using just charged polymers with the right affinity for cell lipids ...

Once the snow melts, Canada's bee population will be back in business -- pollinating, making honey and keeping busy doing bee things. For at least two urban bee species, that means making nests out of plastic waste. A new study by a University of Guelph graduate and a U of G scientist reveals that some bees use bits of plastic bags and plastic building materials to construct their nests. The research was published recently in the journal Ecosphere. It's an important discovery because it shows bees' resourcefulness and flexibility in adapting to a human-dominated world, ...

The development of drugs to treat acute stroke or aid in stroke recovery is a multibillion-dollar endeavor that only rarely pays off in the form of government-approved pharmaceuticals. Drug companies spend years testing safety and dosage in the clinic, only to find in Phase III clinical efficacy trials that target compounds have little to no benefit. The lengthy process is inefficient, costly, and discouraging, says Hermano Igo Krebs, a principal research scientist in MIT's Department of Mechanical Engineering. "Most drug studies failed and some companies are getting ...

The researcher Manuel Palacín, head of the Heterogenic and Multigenic Diseases lab at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB), in Barcelona, is among the world's experts in HATs (heteromeric amino acid transporters). In humans, there are eight HAT molecules. These are associated, for example, with the following: rare diseases called aminoacidurias, such as lysinuric protein intolerance and cystinuria; the development of infections caused by the Kaposi sarcoma virus; various types of cancer; and relapse in cocaine use. HATs are, as the name implies, amino acid ...

Brussels, Belgium, 11 February 2014 -- Inaccurate diagnosis is a major obstacle for the proper treatment of patients with rare cancers. A Consensus on Improving the Pathologic Diagnosis of Rare Cancers was presented today by RARE CANCERS EUROPE, together with the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and the European Society of Pathology (ESP) in Brussels. The recommendations aim to help rare cancer patients get a timely and accurate diagnosis. The statement is the result of a two-day workshop, where the particular challenges for each type of rare cancer(1) were ...

Two Perelman School of Medicine microbiologists may have found a way to use statins, the well-known blockbuster cholesterol-lowering drugs, to fight the hantavirus, a mysterious and lethal microorganism that appeared suddenly in the US southwest over 20 years ago. That first outbreak led to the deaths of more than a dozen people, most of them in their prime. The last reported outbreak happened in Yellowstone Park in 2012. Only about 30 known human cases of hantavirus are reported in the US each year. The respiratory syndrome caused by a hantavirus infection comes from ...

New technologies are changing the way we collect biodiversity data. Data that once required taking expensive, bulky and fragile equipment on field trips can now be collected on cheap, compact and robust devices. In a recent paper in the Biodiversity Data Journal the construction of an environmental data-logger using the Arduino platform is described. It is hoped that this work will encourage the adoption of new data collection technologies by biodiversity scientists and foster new collaborations with both electronics hobbyists and electronics engineers who have an interest ...

New Rochelle, NY, February 11, 2014—An innovative therapeutic strategy for reducing the levels of toxic protein fragments associated with Huntington's disease uses a new approach called exon skipping to remove the disease-causing component of the essential protein, huntingtin. Proof of concept using antisense oligonucleotides to "skip over" the specific exon in a mouse model of Huntington's disease is reported in an article in Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article, part of a special focus issue on exon skipping, ...

Being overweight appears related to reduced levels of a molecule that reflects brain cell health in the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in memory, learning, and emotions, and likely also involved in appetite control, according to a study performed by researchers at SUNY Downstate Medical Center and other institutions. The results of the study were published in Neuroimage: Clinical. Jeremy D. Coplan, MD, professor of psychiatry at SUNY Downstate, led a multicenter team that visualized the molecule, N-acetyl-aspartate (NAA), using magnetic resonance spectroscopy, ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – In a recent study, researchers at Rhode Island Hospital found significant benefits of cognitive behavioral therapy as a treatment modality for patients with Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). BDD is a common, often severe, and under-recognized body image disorder that affects an estimated 1.7 percent to 2.4 percent of the population. This study demonstrated significant improvement in patients' BDD symptoms and level of disability, as well as high levels of patient satisfaction with the treatment. The study is published online in advance of print in the journal ...

Strange events have long been linked to nights of a full moon, though careful scrutiny dispels any association. So, when signals bounced off the lunar surface returned surprisingly faint echoes on full moon nights, scientists sought an explanation in reason rather than superstition. Still, the most compelling evidence arrived during another event that once evoked irrational fears—on a night when Earth's shadow eclipsed the full moon. Tom Murphy, a physicist at UC San Diego, is among the scientists who have aimed laser beams at suitcase-sized reflectors placed on the moon ...

A child's illness can challenge a parent's wellbeing. However, a study recently published in the journal Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation shows that in the case of a child's stem cell transplant, parents feel increased distress at the time of the procedure, but eventually recover to normal levels of adjustment. "Across all study groups, what we basically showed is that parents are resilient. Overall, parents get better over time," says Jennifer Lindwall, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry at the CU School of Medicine, teaching partner of the University ...

Here's yet another reason to focus on kids' early years. Children who grow up in well-managed households, enjoy school, and have friends who stay out of trouble report fewer sexually transmitted diseases in young adulthood, according to a new analysis. The findings, from University of Washington longitudinal surveys of nearly 2,000 participants, suggest that efforts to curb the spread of sexually transmitted diseases should begin years before most people start having sex. "Pay less attention to the sex aspect of this and think of the larger context," is lead author ...

EVENT: Advances in the design and operation of particle accelerators built for basic physics research are leading to the rapid evolution of machines that deliver cancer-killing beams. Hear about the latest developments and challenges in this field from a physicist, a radiobiologist, and a clinical oncologist, and participate in a discussion about cost, access, and ethics at a symposium organized by the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory ("Targeting Tumors: Ion Beam Accelerators Take Aim at Cancer") and at a related press briefing--both to be held ...

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have demonstrated a new approach to treating muscular dystrophy. Mice with a form of this muscle-weakening disease showed improved strength and heart function when treated with nanoparticles loaded with rapamycin, an immunosuppressive drug recently found to improve recycling of cellular waste. The study appears online in The FASEB Journal. The investigators, including first author Kristin P. Bibee, MD, PhD, looked at a mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the most severe inherited form of the ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – As the Great Recession deepened and income inequality became more pronounced, county-by-county rates of child maltreatment – from sexual, physical and emotional abuse to traumatic brain injuries and death – worsened, according to a nationwide study by Cornell University. The income inequality-child maltreatment study, to be published in the March 2014 edition of the peer-review journal Pediatrics, covers all 3,142 American counties from 2005-09, and is one of the most comprehensive of its kind and the first to target child abuse in places with the greatest ...

While smoking among California adults has dramatically declined in recent decades, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report there is a surprisingly large number of people who say they use cigarettes, but don't consider themselves to be "smokers." Writing in the February 5 online issue of Tobacco Control, Wael K. Al-Delaimy, MD, PhD, professor and chief of the Division of Global Health in the UC San Diego Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, and colleagues estimate that, in 2011, almost 396,000 Californians (12.3 percent ...

A study by Dartmouth and Australian researchers provides the first empirical evidence using data from a variety of countries that foreign aid can greatly improve foreign public opinion of donor countries. The findings are based on a U.S. foreign aid program targeting HIV and AIDS -- the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) -- that has substantially improved public perception of the United States in the more than 80 developing countries receiving the aid. But the findings have broader policy implications for an emerging international order in which major ...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine have discovered a highly accurate, noninvasive test to identify benign pancreatic cysts, which could spare patients years of nerve-racking trips to the doctor or potentially dangerous surgery. The findings are reported in "Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor, a Novel and Highly Accurate Pancreatic Fluid Biomarker for Serous Pancreatic Cysts" online in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. The test, which analyzes fluid from pancreatic cysts, can identify a common type of benign cyst that ...

SAN ANTONIO (February 11, 2014) – There are potentially effective treatments for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), but they only work in 20 to 40 percent of cases. In a paper published today in Leukemia, a Nature journal, a UT Health Science Center researcher has pinpointed a protein that could play a key, previously unknown role in the development of pediatric AML — promising new information in the quest to treat and cure childhood leukemias. AML starts at the point when cells mature into different kinds of blood cells. In AML, the cancerous cells grow and proliferate in ...

Juggling may seem like mere entertainment, but a study led by Johns Hopkins engineers used this circus skill to gather critical clues about how vision and the sense of touch help control the way humans and animals move their limbs in a repetitive way, such as in running. The findings eventually may aid in the treatment of people with neurological diseases and could lead to prosthetic limbs and robots that move more efficiently. The study was published online recently by the Journal of Neurophysiology and will be the cover article in the journal's March 2014 print edition. In ...

Children with cancer are being denied new, potentially life-saving drugs, because EU rules are allowing companies to trial some drugs only in adults, leading cancer experts warn today. Changes to how EU rules are implemented could allow children access to a goldmine of potential cancer drugs which have currently only been tested in adults – by making it more difficult for pharma companies to avoid testing them in under-18s too. Under the current system, pharma companies often gain exemptions from carrying out expensive testing of cancer drugs in patients under the age ...

New Orleans, LA – Research led by David Lefer, PhD, Professor and Director of the Cardiovascular Center of Excellence at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Medicine, demonstrates for the first time cross-talk between two protective signaling molecules during a heart attack. By providing new and important information about the mechanisms involved in heart attacks and organ transplantation, the research identifies a potential new treatment target for heart disease. The paper will be published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Online Early ...