A new genomic test for prostate cancer can help predict whether men are more likely to harbor an aggressive form of the disease, according to a new UC San Francisco study. The test, which improves risk assessment when patients are first diagnosed, can also aid in determining which men are suitable for active surveillance – a way of managing the disease without direct treatment. Prostate cancer often grows slowly, and many of the quarter-million patients diagnosed annually in the United States never need treatment, which typically involves surgery, radiation or both. ...

Swedish and Spanish engineers have created a system of sensors that detects fruit odours more effectively than the human sense of smell. For now, the device can distinguish between the odorous compounds emitted by pears and apples. Researchers from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV, Spain) and the University of Gävle (Sweden) have created an electronic nose with 32 sensors that can identify the odours given off by chopped pears and apples. "The fruit samples are placed in a pre-chamber into which an air flow is injected which reaches the tower with the sensors ...

Researchers at the University of Strathclyde have discovered that the greater wax moth is capable of sensing sound frequencies of up to 300kHz – the highest recorded frequency sensitivity of any animal in the natural world. Humans are only capable of hearing sounds of 20kHz maximum, dropping to around 12-15kHz as we age, and even dolphins, known exponents of ultrasound, can't compete as their limitations are around 160kHz. The research, conducted at the University's Centre for Ultrasonic Engineering, has identified the extraordinary sensory characteristics of the moth, ...

Amsterdam, May 8, 2013 – Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, announced today the publication of a clinical guide by the European Menopause and Andropause Society (EMAS) in the journal Maturitas on endometrial assessment in peri and postmenopausal women with summary recommendations. The main onus of endometrial assessment is to exclude carcinoma of the endometrium and premalignant endometrial hyperplasia. Assessment of the endometrium in the absence of bleeding should be limited to women at high risk ...

To understand how proteins work it is important to know their three-dimensional shape, but also the way it is produced. We need to know, in other words, how the amino acid filament which makes up the proteins is capable of folding over itself to take on a specific shape. Today the study of molecular dynamics of proteins is based on computer simulations in which the system is treated as a three-dimensional set of balls (1 ball = 1 atom) observed while it evolves through time. This is a very accurate but rather slow technique, therefore a group of researchers, including ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Adding captivating visuals to a textbook lesson to attract children's interest may sometimes make it harder for them to learn, a new study suggests. Researchers found that 6- to 8-year-old children best learned how to read simple bar graphs when the graphs were plain and a single color. Children who were taught using graphs with images (like shoes or flowers) on the bars didn't learn the lesson as well and sometimes tried counting the images rather than relying on the height of the bars. "Graphs with pictures may be more visually appealing and engaging ...

A small piece of paper sticks to an electrically charged plastic ruler. The principle of this simple classroom physics experiment is applied at the microscopic scale by so-called optical tweezers to get the likes of polystyrene micro-beads and even living cells to "stick" to a laser beam, or to trap atoms at ultra-low temperatures. Physicist Fam Le Kien and his colleagues from the Institute of Atomic and Subatomic Physics of the Vienna University of Technology, Austria, provide a comprehensive manual with general theoretical tools, definitions, and spectroscopic data sets ...

Bethesda, MD (May 8, 2013) — The editors of Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute, are pleased to announce the publication of this year's highly anticipated special 13th issue. Published each May, the 13th issue is devoted to a particular gastroenterological topic of broad interest; this year's topic is the biology, diseases and therapy of the pancreas. To access the 13th issue in its entirety, please visit http://www.gastrojournal.org/issues?issue_key=S0016-5085(13)X0005-8. In conjunction with Editor-in-Chief ...

ST. LOUIS, MO – May 8, 2013 – Certara™, a leading provider of software and scientific consulting services to improve productivity and decision-making from drug discovery through drug development, announced that its Pharsight Consulting Services has developed a mathematical model of tumor growth inhibition, which when combined with baseline prognostic factors, predicts treatment effect with bevacizumab for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. These results are now published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. A copy of the results can be obtained here, together ...

Consumption of whole walnuts or their extracted oil can reduce cardiovascular risk through a mechanism other than simply lowering cholesterol, according to a team of Penn State, Tufts University and University of Pennsylvania researchers. "We already know that eating walnuts in a heart-healthy diet can lower blood cholesterol levels," said Penny Kris-Etherton, Distinguished Professor of Nutrition, Penn State. "But, until now, we did not know what component of the walnut was providing this benefit. Now we understand additional ways in which whole walnuts and their oil ...

By means of special metamaterials, light and sound can be passed around objects. KIT researchers now succeeded in demonstrating that the same materials can also be used to specifically influence the propagation of heat. A structured plate of copper and silicon conducts heat around a central area without the edge being affected. The results are presented in the Physical Review Letters journal. "For the thermal invisibility cloak, both materials have to be arranged smartly," explains Robert Schittny from KIT, the first author of the study. Copper is a good heat conductor, ...

Most of the chemical elements have their origin in core collapse supernovae. When a star ends its life in a gigantic starburst, it throws most of its mass into space. The radioactive iron isotope Fe-60 is produced almost exclusively in such supernovae. Because its half-life of 2.62 million years is short compared to the age of our solar system, no supernova iron should be present on Earth. Therefore, any discovery of Fe-60 on Earth would indicate a supernova in our cosmic neighborhood. In the year 2004, Fe-60 was discovered on Earth for the first time in a ferromanganese ...

They're ba-ack! But in a new disease-fighting role. Viruses that infect and kill bacteria — used to treat infections in the pre-antibiotic era a century ago and in the former Soviet Union today — may have a new role in preventing formation of the sticky "biofilms" of bacteria responsible for infections on implanted medical devices. That's the topic of a report in the ACS journal Biomacromolecules. Marek Urban and colleagues explain that bacteriophages (literally, "bacteria eaters") were first used to treat bacterial infections in the 19th century. These viruses — more ...

A new "solder" for laser welding of tissue during surgical operations has the potential to produce stronger seals and expand use of this alternative to conventional sutures and stapling in intestinal surgery, scientists are reporting. Their study, which involves use of a gold-based solder, or sealing material, appears in the journal ACS Nano. Kaushal Rege and colleagues explain that laser tissue welding (LTW) is a "stitch-free" surgical method for connecting and sealing blood vessels, cartilage in joints, the liver, the urinary tract and other tissues. LTW involves use ...

Math and reading ability at age 7 may be linked with socioeconomic status several decades later, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The childhood abilities predict socioeconomic status in adulthood over and above associations with intelligence, education, and socioeconomic status in childhood. In light of ongoing debates about the impact that education standards have on children's lives, psychological scientists Stuart Ritchie and Timothy Bates of the University of Edinburgh wanted to investigate ...

Many kinds of cinnamon, cinnamon-flavored foods, beverages and food supplements in the United States use a form of the spice that contains high levels of a natural substance that may cause liver damage in some sensitive people, scientists are reporting. Their study, published in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, found similar results as those published in the European Union. Ikhlas Khan and colleagues explain that cinnamon, which comes from the bark of certain trees, is one of the most important flavoring agents used in foods and beverages. "True," or Ceylon, ...

TORONTO, ON – An estimated 4,837,000 asthmatics with allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) could benefit substantially from antifungal treatment, say researchers from the University of Toronto and Manchester University. Their work, published today in the journal Medical Mycology, has also re-estimated the total number of asthmatics worldwide – to reveal a staggering 193 million sufferers. Twenty-four million asthma sufferers live in the United States, 20 million each in India and China, and seven million in the United Kingdom. Clinical studies have shown that ...

Imagine a TV screen that hangs on the wall like a poster and rolls up like a window shade — or a smartphone that can fold up and fit into a pocket. It may sound like science fiction, but those technological marvels are moving closer to reality, thanks to advances toward development of flexible batteries that could power a new genre of electronics devices. Those polymer, or plastic, batteries are the topic of the cover story in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific ...

AUGUSTA, Ga. – A common nutritional supplement may be part of the magic in improving the survival rates of babies born with heart defects, researchers report. Carnitine, a compound that helps transport fat inside the cell powerhouse where it can be used for energy production, is currently used for purposes ranging from weight loss to chest pain. New research shows it appears to normalize the blood vessel dysfunction that can accompany congenital heart defects and linger even after corrective surgery, said Dr. Stephen M. Black, cell and molecular physiologist at the ...

This news release is available in French. AUDIO: Dr. Beth Foster, pediatric nephrologist at the Montreal Children's Hospital in Montreal explains the importance of her findings. Click here for more information. Montreal, May 8, 2013 – Children on dialysis for severe kidney disease have a dramatically reduced risk of death compared to 20 years ago, a new study shows. The findings, from a study ...

Children with autism see simple movement twice as quickly as other children their age, and this hypersensitivity to motion may provide clues to a fundamental cause of the developmental disorder, according to a new study. Such heightened sensory perception in autism may help explain why some people with the disorder are painfully sensitive to noise and bright lights. It also may be linked to some of the complex social and behavioral deficits associated with autism, says Duje Tadin, one of the lead authors on the study and an assistant professor of brain and cognitive ...

WASHINGTON — Using MRI, neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center found significant differences in brain anatomy when comparing men and women with dyslexia to their non-dyslexic control groups, suggesting that the disorder may have a different brain-based manifestation based on sex. Their study, investigating dyslexia in both males and females, is the first to directly compare brain anatomy of females with and without dyslexia (in children and adults). Their findings were published online in the journal Brain Structure and Function. Because dyslexia is ...

A new article available online in the American Journal of Public Health by two Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health faculty makes a compelling case that end-of-life care issues need to become an integral part of the public health agenda. Dan Morhaim, MD, and Keshia Pollack, PhD, point out that the low rate of completion of advance directives in the minority population can be identified as another health care disparity. Advance directive documents are free, legally binding and readily available, yet too few Americans have completed one. Although end-of-life ...

URBANA – Tomatoes and soy foods may be more effective in preventing prostate cancer when they are eaten together than when either is eaten alone, said a University of Illinois study. "In our study, we used mice that were genetically engineered to develop an aggressive form of prostate cancer. Even so, half the animals that had consumed tomato and soy had no cancerous lesions in the prostate at study's end. All the mice in the control group--no soy, no tomato--developed the disease," said John Erdman, a U of I professor of food science and nutrition. From the time they ...

A carnivorous, cannibalistic tadpole may play a role in understanding the evolution and development of digestive organs, according to research from North Carolina State University. These findings may also shed light on universal rules of organ development that could lead to better diagnosis and prevention of intestinal birth defects. NC State developmental biologist Nanette Nascone-Yoder, graduate student Stephanie Bloom and postdoc Cris Ledon-Rettig looked at Xenopus laevis (African clawed frog) and Lepidobatrachus laevis (Budgett's frog) tadpoles. These frog species ...