Chapel Hill, NC – Patient-reported outcomes should be a standard part of evaluating the comparative effectiveness of cancer treatments, according to recommendations put forward by a multi-institution research group. In an early release article published this week online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, a research group led by Ethan Basch, MD, Director of the Cancer Outcomes Research Program at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, recommends that patient-reported symptoms and health-related quality of life measures should be assessed in comparative effectiveness ...

In many pathologies of the nervous system, there is a common event - cells called microglia are activated from surveillant watchmen into fighters. Microglia are the immune cells of the nervous system, ingesting and destroying pathogens and damaged nerve cells. Until now little was known about the molecular mechanisms of microglia activation despite this being a critical process in the body. Now new research from the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital – The Neuro - at McGill University provides the first evidence that mechanisms regulated by the Runx1 gene control ...

Older black patients are three times more likely than older white patients to suffer poorer outcomes after surgery, including death, when cared for by nurses with higher workloads, reports research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. The large-scale study showed higher nurse workloads negatively affected older surgical patients generally and that the rate was more significant in older black individuals. When the patient-to-nurse ratio increased above 5:1, the odds of patient death increased by 3 percent per additional patient among whites and by 10 percent ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – October 16, 2012 – A new study shows that endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) before radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a safe and effective treatment option for patients with nodular Barrett's esophagus (BE) and advanced neoplasia. The performance of EMR before RFA was not associated with a diminished likelihood of success of therapy or an increased rate of stricture compared with those with advanced neoplasia undergoing RFA alone. The study appears in the October issue of GIE: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the ...

The United States may lose its leadership role in space to other countries unless it makes research and development funding and processes -- especially in nanotechnology -- a renewed and urgent priority, according to a new paper from Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. The paper, "NASA's Relationship with Nanotechnology: Past, Present and Future Challenges," investigates how NASA has both guided and defunded cutting-edge nanotechnology development since 1996 at its own research facilities and in its collaborations with university scientists and laboratories. ...

Fairbanks, Alaska—University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists have identified what they think is the ancestral trait that allowed for the evolution of air breathing in vertebrates. They will present their research at the 42nd annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience Oct. 17 in New Orleans. "To breathe air with a lung you need more than a lung, you need neural circuitry that is sensitive to carbon dioxide," said Michael Harris, a UAF neuroscientist and lead researcher on a project investigating the mechanisms that generate and control breathing. "It's the neural ...

BOSTON—In what they say is a promising and highly selective treatment strategy, scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have safely shut down breast cancer and a form of leukemia in mice by targeting abnormal proteins to which the cancers are "addicted," according to a new study. Even though the investigators genetically silenced the proteins or blocked them with a drug in normal as well as cancerous tissues, the animals remained healthy, they report in the Oct. 16 issue of the journal Cancer Cell. Peter Sicinski, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber is the paper's senior author. The ...

CHICAGO --- A team of Northwestern University scientists will meet with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrators in Washington D.C. Oct. 18 to advocate for important changes in the agency's guidelines for reproductive health research. "The problem is current research assessing the risk of toxins on reproductive health is not being uniformly investigated in both sexes and across the lifespan," said Kate Timmerman, program director of the Oncofertility Consortium of Northwestern University, who will be one of the scientists meeting with the EPA. The reproductive ...

Hailed by some as the "end of race as we know it" and the beginning of a "post-racial" America, the 2008 election of Barack Obama sparked a measurable bump in feelings of political empowerment among black Americans. But those sentiments have faded considerably over the last year or so, according to a new analysis of political survey data, with the sharpest declines in perceived political power coming among blacks who identify themselves as conservatives or "born again" Christians. "The election of a black American to the U.S. presidency did seem to empower African Americans, ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A study by the University at Buffalo shows for the first time that obese males ages 14 to 20 have up to 50 percent less total testosterone than do normal males of the same age, significantly increasing their potential to be impotent and infertile as adults. The paper was published online as an accepted article in Clinical Endocrinology. The authors are the same researchers in the University at Buffalo's School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences who first reported in 2004 the presence of low testosterone levels, known as hypogonadism, in obese, type ...

AUGUSTA, Ga. – A common birth control device is effective in treating early-stage endometrial cancer in morbidly obese and high-risk surgery patients, said Georgia Health Sciences University Cancer Center researchers, and could lead to a cost-effective treatment for all women with this cancer type. Endometrial cancer, which starts in the lining of the uterus, is the third most common gynecologic cancer, striking more than 47,000 American women every year, particularly the obese. "Total hysterectomy, sometimes with removal of lymph nodes, is the most common treatment ...

Amsterdam, NL, October 16, 2012 – Little is known about oculomotor function in amblyopia, or "lazy eye," despite the special role of eye movements in vision. A group of scientists has discovered that abnormal visual processing and circuitry in the brain have an impact on fixational saccades (FSs), involuntary eye movements that occur during fixation and are important for the maintenance of vision. The results, which raise the question of whether the alterations in FS are the cause or the effect of amblyopia and have implications for amblyopia treatment, are available ...

PULLMAN, Wash.— Washington State University researchers have found that viruses will join forces to overcome a plant's defenses and cause more severe infections. "These findings have important implications in our ability to control these viruses", says Hanu Pappu, Sam Smith Distinguished Professor of Plant Virology and chair of WSU's Department of Plant Pathology. "Mixed infections are quite common in the field and now we know that viruses in these mixed infections are helping each other at the genetic level to overcome host defenses and possibly lead to the generation ...

Though not often considered beyond the plasma television, small-scale microplasmas have great utility in a wide variety of applications. Recently, new developments have begun to capitalize on how these microplasmas interact with liquids in applications ranging from killing bacteria for sterilizing a surface to rapidly synthesizing nanoparticles. An interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers at Case Western Reserve University and the University of Notre Dame has revealed a critical interaction that is occurring at this plasma-liquid interface in that the electrons ...

No matter which way you look at it, rejection hurts. Experiencing rejection from a boss, a friend, or a partner is difficult enough for many adults to handle. But adolescents, who are dealing with the one-two punch of biological and social change, may be the most vulnerable to its negative effects. In a new study published in Clinical Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, researcher Michael Murphy and colleagues examine the human immune response as a potential link between social stressors like rejection and later mental and physical ...

Cambridge, Mass. - October 16, 2012 - Atmospheric chemists at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have found that when it comes to secondary organic material in the atmosphere, there are two distinct breeds: liquids and jellies. Secondary organic materials (SOM) are airborne particles that have begun to react with gases in the atmosphere. In the last 20 years' research and climate modeling, these SOM particles have been assumed to drift as liquids. In a liquid phase, the organic materials would absorb other compounds like ammonia or ozone very ...

The song "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" from the famous film "The Sound of Music" comes to mind when looking at NASA satellite imagery of Tropical Storm Maria churning in the western North Pacific Ocean. The answer lies in increased wind shear and cool ocean temperatures – two factors that can weaken the storm, but won't be present over the next day or two. NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Storm Maria on Oct. 16 at 0355 UTC, 12:55 p.m. local time Tokyo/Japan (Oct. 15 at 11:55 p.m. EDT) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument ...

NASA's Aqua satellite captured a stunning image of Hurricane Paul in the eastern Pacific Ocean that revealed Mexico's Socorro Island was just outside of Paul's eye. Now, Paul is expected to track along the Baja California coast, triggering more warnings. Hurricane Paul is stirring up rough seas in the eastern Pacific Ocean and warnings are posted along Baja California. A hurricane warning is in effect for the west coast of Baja California from Santa Fe northward to Punta Abreojos. A tropical storm warning is in effect for the west coast of Baja California north of Punta ...

Hurricane Rafael is a large hurricane and Bermuda has battened down for Rafael's battering today, Oct. 16. NOAA's GOES-14 satellite revealed Rafael's large span that covers several hundred miles and dwarfs Bermuda. NOAA's GOES-14 satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Storm Rafael in the Atlantic on Oct. 16 at 7:45 a.m. EDT. The image shows the extent of Hurricane Rafael, which is over 410 miles in diameter. That's longer than the distance between Boston and Washington, D.C. The visible image also showed a thick row of clouds northwest of Rafael. Those clouds ...

VIDEO: Dr. O'Shea discusses her research. Click here for more information. LA JOLLA, CA---- Cold viruses generally get a bad rap----which they've certainly earned----but new findings by a team of scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies suggest that these viruses might also be a valuable ally in the fight against cancer. Adenovirus, a type of cold virus, has developed molecular tools----proteins----that allow it to hijack a cell's molecular machinery, including ...

Satellite imagery from NASA's TRMM satellite showed that wind shear is pushing the bulk of rainfall away from the center of Tropical Storm Anais. When NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite passed over Tropical Storm Anais on Oct. 16 at 0654 UTC (2:54 a.m. EDT), light to moderate rainfall was occurring southeast of the center and falling at a rate between .78 to 1.57 inches/20 to 40 mm per hour. The displacement of rainfall from around the storm's center to the southeast indicates moderate to strong northwesterly wind shear.There no areas of heavy ...

Tropical Storm Prapiroon is still meandering in the western north Pacific Ocean, and NASA's TRMM satellite noticed that dry air and wind shear are adversely affecting rainfall north of the storm's center. NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite flew above Prapiroon when it was a typhoon on Oct. 15, 2012 at 0632 UTC (2:32 a.m. EDT). Prapiroon's sustained wind speeds had dropped to 70 knots (~81 mph) with a large and ragged eye being its dominant feature. TRMM's Microwave Imager (TMI) data indicated that the most intense rain bands south of Prapiroon's ...

NASA's Operation IceBridge got the 2012 Antarctic campaign off to a productive start with a land ice survey of Thwaites Glacier and a sea ice flight over parts of the Bellingshausen Sea. During the first few weeks of a campaign, IceBridge typically concentrates on sea ice before it begins to melt as spring temperatures rise, but as often happens in the field, the weather had other ideas. On Oct. 12, the IceBridge team met with meteorologists at the Punta Arenas airport to discuss weather conditions and make a final decision on where to fly. "The forecast for all sea ...

Ice-sheet retreat can halt temporarily during long phases of climate warming, according to scientists. A UK team led by Durham University has found that the geometry of channels beneath the ice can be a strong control on ice behaviour, temporarily hiding the signals of retreat. The findings, which provide the first simulation of past ice-sheet retreat and collapse over a ten thousand year period in Antarctica, shed new light on what makes ice stable or unstable and will help refine predictions of future ice extent and global sea-level rise, the researchers say. The ...

An inexpensive, five-minute eye scan can accurately assess the amount of brain damage in people with the debilitating autoimmune disorder multiple sclerosis (MS), and offer clues about how quickly the disease is progressing, according to results of two Johns Hopkins studies. "The eye is the window into the brain and by measuring how healthy the eye is, we can determine how healthy the rest of the brain is," says Peter A. Calabresi, M.D., a professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and leader of the studies described in recent issues of ...