London, 9 July 2013: Children born as a result of assisted reproduction (ART) are at no greater risk of cancer than children born spontaneously in the general population, according to results of one of the largest ever cohort studies of ART children. "This is reassuring news for couples considering assisted conception, their subsequent children, fertility specialists and for the wider public health," said the investigators. Results of the study were presented today at the annual meeting of ESHRE by Dr Carrie Williams from the Institute of Child Health, University ...

London, 9 July 2013: Shift work, which encourages sleep deprivation and patterns of activity outside the circadian rhythm, has been associated with a greater risk of ill health and loss of well-being in some (but not all) studies.(1) However, little is known about the effects of shift work on reproductive health and fertility. Now, a study reported today at the annual meeting of ESHRE, by Dr Linden Stocker from the University of Southampton, UK, indicates that working shift patterns is associated with an increased risk of menstrual disruption and subfertility. The ...

London, 9 July 2013: Egg freezing as insurance against age-related infertility is a growing trend in many countries. Women who bank oocytes for use at some time in the future hope to buy a little time in their search for a suitable partner. However, a study from one of Europe's largest centres in reproductive medicine suggests that many of those banking eggs believe they will never use them - even though they still recognise the experience as "positive". The majority of those who did (and did not) freeze their eggs wished they had done so at an earlier age. The study ...

By studying rapidly evolving bacteria as they diversify and compete under varying environmental conditions, researchers have shown that temporal niches are important to maintaining biodiversity in natural systems. The research is believed to be the first experimental demonstration of temporal niche dynamics promoting biodiversity over evolutionary time scales. The temporal niches – changes in environmental conditions that occur during specific periods of time – promoted frequency-dependent selection within the bacterial communities and positive growth of new mutants. ...

Genetic mutations aren't the only thing that can keep a protein called PTEN from doing its tumor-suppressing job. Johns Hopkins researchers have now discovered that four small chemical tags attached (reversibly) to the protein's tail can have the same effect, and they say their finding may offer a novel path for drug design to keep PTEN working. In a report published on July 9 in the journal eLife, the Johns Hopkins scientists describe how a cluster of four phosphate groups, first found 13 years ago to bind to PTEN's tail, controls its activity. "Now that we know ...

The most common thing that couples want from each other during a conflict is not an apology, but a willingness to relinquish power, according to a new Baylor University study. Giving up power comes in many forms, among them giving a partner more independence, admitting faults, showing respect and being willing to compromise. The study is published in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology. "It's common for partners to be sensitive to how to share power and control when making decisions in their relationship," said researcher Keith Sanford, Ph.D., an associate professor ...

AUSTIN, Texas — In a development that will help predict potential sea level rise from the Antarctic ice sheet, scientists from The University of Texas at Austin's Institute for Geophysics have used an innovation in radar analysis to accurately image the vast subglacial water system under West Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier. They have detected a swamp-like canal system beneath the ice that is several times as large as Florida's Everglades. The findings, as described this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, use new observational techniques to address ...

University of British Columbia researchers have developed a vaccine that may halt the spread of West Nile Virus (WNV) among common and endangered bird species. WNV, a mosquito borne pathogen, arrived in North America in 1999 and is now endemic across the continent. In 2012 alone, WNV killed 286 people in the United States, and 42 people have died from the virus in Canada since 2002. There is currently no effective vaccine against WNV infection in humans or birds. Common birds such as crows, ravens and jays, and endangered species such as the Greater Sage-Grouse and ...

In the constant cross talk between our brain and our gut, two gut hormones are already known to tell the brain when we have had enough to eat. New research suggests that boosting levels of these hormones simultaneously may be an effective new weapon in the fight against obesity. Dr Shu Lin, Dr Yan-Chuan Shi and Professor Herbert Herzog, from Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research, have shown that when mice are injected with PYY3-36 and PP, they eat less, gain less fat, and tend not to develop insulin-resistance, a precursor to diabetes. At the same time, the researchers ...

The unique properties of graphene such as its incredible strength and, at the same time, its little weight have raised high expectations in modern material science. Graphene, a two-dimensional crystal of carbon atoms packed in a honeycomb structure, has been in the focus of intensive research which led to a Nobel Prize of Physics in 2010. One major challenge is to successfully integrate graphene into the established metal-silicide technology. Scientists from the University of Vienna and their co-workers from research institutes in Germany and Russia have succeeded in fabricating ...

(WASHINGTON, July 9, 2013) – New evidence suggests that using advanced genetics technologies to monitor for remaining cancer cells after treatment may soon become an effective tool to inform treatment decisions and ultimately predict patient outcomes for patients with a particularly aggressive form of acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). Study results were published online today in Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology (ASH). Approximately 25 to 30 percent of all adults with ALL, the second most common type of acute leukemia, have what is known as Philadelphia ...

Ben Goldacre, research fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, says we need all the evidence to make informed decisions about medicines. The lack of progress on transparency has been startling, he writes. Current estimates suggest that around half of all trials for the treatments being used today have gone unpublished; and that trials with positive results are twice as likely to be published. There is legislation mandating greater transparency – such as the law requiring trial results to be posted on the website clinicaltrials.gov – but the published ...

Brain cancer is the primary cause of cancer mortality in children. Even in cases when the cancer is cured, young patients suffer from the stress of a treatment that can be harmful to the developing brain. In a search for new target structures that would create more gentle treatments, cancer researchers are systematically analyzing all alterations in the genetic material of these tumors. This is the mission of the PedBrain consortium, which was launched in 2010. Led by Professor Stefan Pfister from the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ), ...

Before the Big Bang, space-time as we know it did not exist. So how was it born? The process of creating normal space-time from an earlier state dominated by quantum gravity has been studied for years by theorists at the Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw. Recent analyses suggest a surprising conclusion: not all elementary particles are subject to the same space-time. Several billion years ago, in the era soon after the Big Bang, the Universe was so dense and so hot that elementary particles felt the existence of gravity strongly. For decades, physicists around ...

"Pain begone!" In order to send out this signal, the human body produces tiny messenger molecules that dock to certain receptors. Using traditional biochemical methods, this interaction between the messengers, so-called enkephalins, and opioid receptors is very difficult to study. An interdisciplinary team of biochemists and inorganic chemists at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) has now succeeded in identifying the structure of an enkephalin in solution and to track its interaction with the opioid receptor in detail. The analysis provides a new, precise starting point ...

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed three-dimensional (3-D) printing technology and techniques to create free-standing structures made of liquid metal at room temperature. "It's difficult to create structures out of liquids, because liquids want to bead up. But we've found that a liquid metal alloy of gallium and indium reacts to the oxygen in the air at room temperature to form a 'skin' that allows the liquid metal structures to retain their shapes," says Dr. Michael Dickey, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at ...

This news release is available in German. An unusual posthumous honour for physicist Max Planck: Biologists in Tübingen working with Ralf J. Sommer have named a newly discovered nematode after the German Nobel laureate. Pristionchus maxplancki is thus the first species to carry the name of the scientist, who died in 1947. The discovery from the Far East is assisting the researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology to attain new insights and knowledge about the many interdependencies between evolution, genetics, and ecology. When Japanese biologist ...

CHICAGO (July 9, 2013) – After a 2011 outbreak of P. aeruginosa, investigators at Beaumont Health System near Detroit, Michigan determined contaminated ultrasound gel was the source of bacteria causing the healthcare-associated infection. The findings emphasize the need for increased scrutiny of contaminated medical products. This study is published in the August issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. "Ultrasound is a critical healthcare tool used every day in both diagnostic and interventional ...

LA JOLLA, Calif., July 8 2013 – Silencing genes that have malfunctioned is an important approach for treating diseases such as cancer and heart disease. One effective approach is to deliver drugs made from small molecules of ribonucleic acid, or RNA, which are used to inhibit gene expression. The drugs, in essence, mimic a natural process called RNA interference. In a new paper appearing today online in the journal, ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters, researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute have developed nanoparticles that appear to solve a big challenge ...

Infrared imagery from the AIRS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite revealed that Erick, now a tropical depression has reduced in strength and size and continues to weaken. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite flew over Tropical Depression Erick late on July 8 and captured an infrared image that revealed Erick was quickly weakening. The AIRS image taken on July 8 at 4:17 p.m. EDT showed a small area of clouds and circulation near the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California peninsula. The strongest thunderstorms with cloud top ...

Scientists discovered a tiny new species of catfish in the waters of Rio Rio Paraíba do Sul basin, Brazil. The new species Pareiorhina hyptiorhachis belongs to a genus of armored catfishes native to South America where and found only in Brazil. These peculiar fish get their name from their strange elongated mouth barbels that remind of cat's whiskers. The new species is distinguished from others species of the genus by the presence of a conspicuous ridge on the trunk posterior to the dorsal fin (postdorsal ridge). The description of the diminutive new species was published ...

For decades, women between the ages of 21 and 69 were advised to get annual screening exams for cervical cancer. In 2009, however, accumulating scientific evidence led major guideline groups to agree on a new recommendation that women be screened less frequently: every three years rather than annually. Despite the revised guidelines, about half of the obstetrician-gynecologists surveyed in a recent study said they continue to provide annual exams – an outdated practice that may be more harmful than helpful, said Drs. Russell Harris and Stacey Sheridan of the Cecil G. ...

New Orleans, LA – A study conducted by Dr. James Diaz, Professor of Public Health and Preventive Medicine and Program Director of the Environmental/Occupational Health Sciences Program at the LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Public Health, analyzed cases of a parasitic lung infection and found new modes of transmission and associated behaviors, identifying new groups of people at risk. Dr. Diaz hopes to raise the index of suspicion among medical professionals so non-traditional patients and those not exhibiting all symptoms but who are at risk can be diagnosed ...

An intensive lifestyle intervention, proven to help people lose weight to prevent diabetes, also works in primary care when delivered over the telephone to obese patients with metabolic syndrome. Group telephone sessions appear to be particularly effective for greater weight loss, according to a new study by Drs. Paula Trief and Ruth Weinstock from SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York, and colleagues. Their work¹ appears online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine², published by Springer. Metabolic syndrome affects a third of US adults and is associated ...

CHICAGO -- Antibiotic-resistant superbugs like carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) present a challenge to healthcare professionals as patients move from different care settings and facilities, unknowingly spreading healthcare-associated infections. In a new study, researchers screened all patients for CRE at admission to a long-term acute care hospital (LTACH). They found patients colonized with CRE coming into the LTACH from hospitals, but they also found transmission occurring among patients in the LTACH. LTACHs provide similar care as hospitals but focus on ...