Testing medicines to prevent lung cancer requires treating many thousands of high-risk individuals and then waiting 5, 10 or 15 years to discover which of them develop cancer and which, if any, experience survival benefit from the treatment. A University of Colorado Cancer Center study recently published in the journal Cancer Prevention Research proposes a possible waypoint on the way to benefit, which if validated, could dramatically reduce the number of patients needed and time required to test drugs for lung cancer prevention. "Chemoprevention is an important approach ...

ROSEMONT, Ill.—Female athletes are three times more likely to suffer from anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) ruptures, one of the most common knee injuries, compared to male athletes. The ACL is one of the four main ligaments within the knee that connect the femur (upper leg bone) to the tibia (lower leg bone). Recent research highlights the unique anatomical differences in the female knee that may contribute to higher injury rates, and should be taken into consideration during reconstructive surgery and sports training, according to a review article in the January 2013 issue ...

LA JOLLA, CA – January 8, 2013 - Chemists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found an easier way to perform one of the most fundamental tasks in molecular biology. Their new method allows scientists to add a marker to certain cells, so that these cells may be easily located and/or selected out from a larger cell population. The technique, which is described in a recent issue of the chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition, makes use of the tight binding of two proteins that are cheaply obtainable but are not found in human or other mammalian ...

Foreign invaders such as pythons and lionfish are not the only threats to Florida's natural habitat. The native Carolina Willow is also starting to strangle portions of the St. Johns River. Biologists at the University of Central Florida recently completed a study that shows this slender tree once used by Native Americans for medicinal purposes, may be thriving because of water-management projects initiated in the 1950s. Canals were built to control runoff and provide water for agriculture. The unintended consequence -- stable water levels -- allowed Carolina Willow ...

New York children participating in a federal nutrition program had healthier eating behaviors and lower rates of obesity two years after improvements to the program were undertaken, according to a study published online today in Obesity, the official journal of the Obesity Society. In 2009 all 50 states rolled out sweeping changes to the menu of foods available through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC, which reaches nearly half of all infants born in the United States. New York was the first state in the nation to roll ...

A new American Chemical Society (ACS) video provides a behind-the-scenes-look at the DayGlo Color Corp. factory, producer of the fluorescent paints that light up traffic cones, black light posters, hula-hoops and other products. The video, the latest episode of the award-winning Bytesize Science series from the world's largest scientific society, is at www.BytesizeScience.com. Inside DayGlo opens with a brief history of the company, which has been designated as an ACS National Historic Chemical Landmark, and continues with an in-depth look inside its main production ...

With the first explosions of atomic bombs, the world became witness to one of the most important and consequential principles in physics: Energy and mass, fundamentally speaking, are the same thing and can, in fact, be converted into each other. This was first demonstrated by Albert Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity and famously expressed in his iconic equation, E=mc2, where E stands for energy, m for mass and c for the speed of light (squared). Although physicists have since validated Einstein's equation in countless experiments and calculations, and many technologies ...

VIDEO: This is a computer simulation of one octant of a core collapse supernova, using SNSPH. Click here for more information. Two University of Texas at Arlington researchers want to bridge the gap between what is known about exploding stars and the remnants left behind thousands of years later. So they're trying something new – using SNSPH, a complex computer code developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory. On Tuesday, Carola I. Ellinger, a post-doctoral researcher at ...

By taking a "bottom-up" approach, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have observed for the first time that "size does matter" in regards "pyroelectricity"—the current/voltage developed in response to temperature fluctuations that enables technologies such as infrared sensors, night-vision, and energy conversion units, to name a few. "Controlling and manipulating heat for applications such as waste heat energy harvesting, integrated cooling technologies, electron emission, and related functions is an exciting field of study today," explained ...

HERSHEY, Pa. -- While the number of overweight and obese Americans has increased, the amount of weight counseling offered by primary care physicians has decreased -- especially for patients with high blood pressure and diabetes -- according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers. More than 145 million adult Americans are overweight or obese. Researchers analyzed data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey for the years 1995-1996 and 2007-2008. This national survey collects information about the provision and use of outpatient medical care services in ...

Our Milky Way is a spiral galaxy - a pinwheel-shaped collection of stars, gas and dust. It has a central bar and two major spiral arms that wrap around its disk. Since we view the Milky Way from the inside, its exact structure is difficult to determine. Astronomers have identified a new structure in the Milky Way: a long tendril of dust and gas that they are calling a "bone." "This is the first time we've seen such a delicate piece of the galactic skeleton," says lead author Alyssa Goodman of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). Goodman presented the ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- A combination of the drugs pazopanib and paclitaxel shows promise in slowing anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC), according to a Mayo Clinic-led study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. The two drugs together resulted in greater anti-cancer activity in ATC than either drug alone, says lead researcher Keith Bible, M.D., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic oncologist. Anaplastic thyroid cancer is a rare but devastating form of thyroid cancer that typically strikes men and women in their 60s and 70s. It is very aggressive, with a median survival ...

The sun ejects a continuous flow of electrically charged particles and magnetic fields in the form of the solar wind -- and this wind is hotter than it should be. A new study of data obtained by European Space Agency's Cluster spacecraft may help explain the mystery. The solar wind is made of an electrically-charged gas called plasma. One theory about the wind's puzzling high temperatures is that irregularities in the flow of charged particles and magnetic fields in the plasma create turbulence, which, in turn, dissipates and adds heat to its surroundings. Using two separate ...

The eighth tropical cyclone to form during the Southern Indian Ocean cyclone season formed from low pressure System 98S and became Tropical Cyclone Narelle. NASA's TRMM satellite passed over System 98S and saw the hallmark "hot towers" that indicated the storm would soon likely intensify into Tropical Storm Narelle. NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite passed over System 98S on Jan. 7 at 0901 UTC (4:01 a.m. EST/U.S.) hours before it intensified into Tropical Storm Narelle. TRMM's Precipitation Radar instrument captured estimates of rainfall occurring ...

Tropical Depression Sonamu has been consistently slow moving over the last couple of days, and that has not changed. NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image of the stubborn storm lingering in the South China Sea, and it still contained some strong thunderstorms. When NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Depression Sonamu on Jan. 8 at 0641 UTC (1:41 a.m. EST/U.S.), the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument aboard took an infrared look at the storm. AIRS data showed that Sonamu still contained some very cold cloud top temperatures of -63F (-52C) ...

Older adults who have suffered from aphasia for a long time can nevertheless improve their language function and maintain these improvements in the long term, according to a study by Dr. Ana Inés Ansaldo, PhD, a researcher at the Research Centre of the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal (University Geriatrics Institute of Montreal) and a professor in the School of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology at the Faculty of Medicine of Université de Montréal. The study was published in Brain and Language. After six weeks of intensive and specific language therapy, ...

Marine biologists are beginning to understand the varied diving and foraging strategies of filter-feeding whales by analyzing data from multisensor tags attached to the animals with suction cups. Such tags, in combination with other techniques such as echolocation, are providing a wealth of fine detail about how the world's largest creatures find and trap their prey. Recent studies on the behavior of baleen whales—which filter small fish or invertebrate animals from seawater—are described in the February issue of BioScience. Jeremy A. Goldbogen of the Cascadia Research ...

New York (January 9, 2013) -- A new study by NYU School of Medicine researchers reveals that an especially virulent strain of the gut bacterium Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) isn't implicated in the overall death rate of the U.S. population, and may even protect against stroke and some cancers. The findings, based a nationwide health survey of nearly 10,000 individuals over a period of some 12 years, are published online, January 9, in the journal Gut. Those individuals carrying the most virulent strain of H. pylori, the study found, had a 55 percent reduced risk of ...

New law legalizes hands-free communication while driving It is no secret that Los Angeles residents spend a great deal of time on the highways. They may be happy to hear that a new law creates an exception to the ban on text-based communication. Under the exception, drivers may engage in hands-free texting and email if they are using voice-operated technology. Details of the new law California is the second state to legalize hands-free texting using voice-operated technology. Idaho was the first. Authors of the law, which takes effect on the first of January, say ...

Marijuana is legal in Washington, but driving under its influence is not In November 2012, Washington became one of only two states in the nation -- the other state is Colorado -- to legalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use. As of 12:01 a.m. on December 6, 2012, Washington ballot Initiative 502 (I-502) became law, and now anyone over 21 years old can legally possess up to one ounce of marijuana. How non-medicinal users of marijuana can legally obtain the substance, however, is still a gray area. While pro-legalization individuals celebrated ...

Maryland child custody basics Child custody decisions as a result of divorce can be complicated. Divorcing parents have leeway to make mutual decisions about child custody, but if they cannot agree, the court will step in to make the decision for them. Maryland child custody law There are two types of custody: physical and legal. Physical custody refers to the home where the child lives and making routine decisions about the child's day-to-day life. Legal custody is the right to make global, long-term decisions on behalf of the child, such as religious affiliation, ...

Tips for business owners to avoid tax audits Many people mistakenly believe that small businesses are less likely than larger companies to be audited by the Internal Revenue Service -- but this is not the case. In fact, the IRS often targets small companies for tax audits. Therefore, it is especially important for small business owners to take steps to protect themselves from the risk of an IRS audit. Declare all income As obvious as it may seem, one of the most common mistakes that result in tax audits for small business owners is failing to report their entire ...

The Push for Alimony Reform in New Jersey In June 2012, the New Jersey Assembly unanimously passed a bill to create a blue-ribbon commission to study the state's alimony laws and give recommendations to the legislature on how to update them. A companion bill is working its way through the New Jersey Senate. Supporters of the measure believe the time has come to modernize the state's alimony system to eliminate what many believe are injustices it causes. Activists are also pushing for more reform to the state's alimony laws. Commission Proposed to Study Alimony Laws The ...

Pennsylvania DOT Launches Safety Campaign to Curb Distracted Driving The act of driving is a more complicated task than many people realize. Driving requires the measurement of the distance of vehicles and objects in front, behind and to the side of the car, and it requires the simultaneous manipulation of the steering wheel and foot pedals to safely travel down the road. It is because driving is so complicated that distracted driving, such as reading a text or eating a burger while behind the wheel, poses such a hazard. According to the Pennsylvania Department of ...

Property owners must inspect for hazards Most Connecticut residents probably realize that being an owner or occupant of property carries certain responsibilities. A classic responsibility for homeowners is shoveling their sidewalks in winter so visitors don't slip. The responsibility an owner owes to most visitors to his or her property is called premises liability: the legal responsibility property occupants and owners have for injuries and accidents on their property. A recent incident in Bridgeport, Connecticut is illustrative of the issue of premises liability. ...