A new study from the European Centre for Environment & Human Health, Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Exeter, has revealed that people living near the coast tend to have better health than those living inland. Researchers from the Centre used data from the UK's census to examine how health varied across the country, finding that people were more likely to have good health the closer they live to the sea. The analysis also showed that the link between living near the coast and good health was strongest in the most economically deprived communities. The ...

VIDEO: This video shows relative movement paths of 224 radio-tagged palm seeds handled by rodents on Barro Colorado Island, Panama. Colored dots mark locations of 129 seeds that were found eaten... Click here for more information. Big seeds produced by many tropical trees were probably once ingested and then defecated whole by huge mammals called gomphotheres that dispersed the seeds over large distances. But gomphotheres were probably hunted to extinction more than 10,000 ...

ONCOLOGY A new target in acute myeloid leukemia | Back to top Acute myeloid leukemia, a common leukemia in adults, is characterized by aberrant proliferation of cancerous bone marrow cells. Activating mutations in a protein receptor known as FLT3 receptor are among the most prevalent mutations observed in acute myeloid leukemias. FLT3 mutants are thought to activate several signaling pathways that contribute to cancer development. Dr. Daniel Tenen and colleagues from Harvard University in Boston discovered a new pathway activated by FLT3 mutation. Their results show ...

Acute myeloid leukemia, a common leukemia in adults, is characterized by aberrant proliferation of cancerous bone marrow cells. Activating mutations in a protein receptor known as FLT3 receptor are among the most prevalent mutations observed in acute myeloid leukemias. FLT3 mutants are thought to activate several signaling pathways that contribute to cancer development. Dr. Daniel Tenen and colleagues from Harvard University in Boston discovered a new pathway activated by FLT3 mutation. Their results show that cyclin dependent kinase 1 (CDK1), a critical regulator of cell ...

Ticagrelor, a blood-thinning drug approved by the FDA in 2011, should be considered along with older blood thinners clopidogrel and prasugrel for treating patients who are experiencing chest pain or some heart attacks, according to joint updated guidelines issued by the American Heart Association (AHA) Task Force on Practice Guidelines and the American College of Cardiology (ACCF) Foundation. The "focused update" on unstable angina (chest pain) or a specific kind of heart attack known as non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) is published in Circulation: Journal ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A new study suggests that higher blood pressure is associated with lower mortality in extremely frail, elderly adults. The study, published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association's (JAMA) Archives of Internal Medicine, looked at a nationally representative group of 2,340 adults ages 65 and older. The researchers found that lower blood pressure protected healthier, robust older adults but the same may not be true for their more frail counterparts. Lead author Michelle Odden, a public health epidemiologist at Oregon State University, ...

CHICAGO – A study suggests that safety-net hospitals (SNHs), which typically care for poor patients, performed more poorly than other hospitals on nearly every measure of patient experience and that could have financial consequences as hospital payments are connected to performance, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication. Value-based purchasing (VBP), a program run by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), now ties part of each hospital's payments to its performance on a set of quality measures. ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Currently, large doses of chemotherapy are required when treating certain forms of cancer, resulting in toxic side effects. The chemicals enter the body and work to destroy or shrink the tumor, but also harm vital organs and drastically affect bodily functions. Now, University of Missouri scientists have found a more efficient way of targeting prostate tumors by using gold nanoparticles and a compound found in tea leaves. This new treatment would require doses that are thousands of times smaller than chemotherapy and do not travel through the body inflicting ...

An innovative, high-tech "smart village" built in Malaysia provides a potential global template for addressing rural poverty in a sustainable environment, say international experts meeting in California's Silicon Valley. Rimbunan Kaseh, a model community built north-east of Kuala Lumpur, consists of 100 affordable homes, high-tech educational, training and recreational facilities, and a creative, closed-loop agricultural system designed to provide both food and supplementary income for villagers. Malaysian Dato' Tan Say Jim detailed the project Monday at a special meeting ...

CHICAGO – A study suggests bariatric surgery to treat obesity was not associated with reduced health care expenditures three years after the procedure in a group of predominantly older men, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of Surgery, a JAMA Network publication. Bariatric surgery is the most effective way to induce weight loss in the severely obese. As demand for the procedure has increased, the numbers of nonwhite, older and male patients with a greater prevalence of obesity-related diseases have increased, although the related health care expenditure ...

CHICAGO – A study of laryngeal (voice box) cancers suggests that racial disparities may exist with black patients less likely to undergo larynx preservation than white patients, according to a report published by Archives of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery, a JAMA Network publication. Annually about 12,000 cases of laryngeal cancer are diagnosed in the United States, and the standard of care historically has been total laryngectomy (removal of the voice box) followed by radiation for locally advanced cancer. However, studies have now resulted in widespread acceptance ...

CHICAGO – Restrictions on indoor tanning, which studies suggest is linked to skin cancer, appear to have increased in several countries since 2003, according to a study published Online First by Archives of Dermatology, a JAMA Network publication. The number of countries with nationwide indoor tanning legislation restricting young people 18 years or younger increased from two countries (France and Brazil) in 2003 to 11 countries in 2011. The 11 countries were France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Belgium, England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Brazil, according ...

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) —A new epidemiological study led by UC Davis researchers reveals significant racial disparities in the use of non-surgical larynx-preservation therapy for locally advanced laryngeal cancer. A review of medical records between 1991 and 2008 from across the country reveals that over 80 percent of white patients received radiation treatment combined with chemotherapy that preserves the larynx, or voice box. Only 74.5 percent of African American patients received this same treatment, with the remainder undergoing surgery that removed the larynx altogether, ...

BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine is pleased to be able to add scientific rigour to the debate about open access research, by publishing an article which compares the scientific impact of open access with traditional subscription publishing and has found that both of these publishing business models produce high quality peer reviewed articles. The debate about who should pay for scientific publishing is of continuing importance to the scientific community but also to the general public who not only often pay for the research though charitable contributions, ...

There's no honor among thieves when it comes to rodent robbers—which turns out to be a good thing for tropical trees that depend on animals to spread their seeds. Results of a yearlong study in Panama, published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of July 16, suggest that thieving rodents helped the black palm tree survive by taking over the seed-spreading role of the mighty mastodon and other extinct elephant-like creatures that are thought to have eaten these large seeds. "The question is how this tree managed to survive for 10,000 years ...

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute have genetically modified a bacterium commonly found in the mosquito's midgut and found that the parasite that causes malaria in people does not survive in mosquitoes carrying the modified bacterium. The bacterium, Pantoea agglomerans, was modified to secrete proteins toxic to the malaria parasite, but the toxins do not harm the mosquito or humans. According to a study published by PNAS, the modified bacteria were 98 percent effective in reducing the malaria parasite burden in mosquitoes. "In the past, we worked ...

Cambridge, Mass. - July 16, 2012 - Harvard-led researchers have discovered that an Ascomycete fungus that is common in polluted water produces environmentally important minerals during asexual reproduction. The key chemical in the process, superoxide, is a byproduct of fungal growth when the organism produces spores. Once released into the environment, superoxide reacts with the element manganese (Mn), producing a highly reactive mineral that aids in the cleanup of toxic metals, degrades carbon substrates, and controls the bioavailability of nutrients. The results, ...

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. – As organisms develop, their internal organs arrange in a consistent asymmetrical pattern--heart and stomach to the left, liver and appendix to the right. But how does this happen? Biologists at Tufts University have produced the first evidence that a class of proteins that make up a cell's skeleton -- tubulin proteins -- drives asymmetrical patterning across a broad spectrum of species, including plants, nematode worms, frogs, and human cells, at their earliest stages of development. "Understanding this mechanism offers insights important ...

WASHINGTON, DC (July 16, 2012) -- Two new studies presented today at the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior's (SNEB) annual conference may make it easier for moms to get their kids to eat – and enjoy – vegetables. Both studies were conducted by SNEB president Brian Wansink, PhD, the John Dyson Professor of Consumer Behavior at Cornell University, and funded by Birds Eye, the country's leading vegetable brand that recently launched a three-year campaign to inspire kids to eat more veggies. With nine out of 10 American children and teens not meeting daily vegetable ...

In the largest study to examine the impact of the recession on child abuse, researchers at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's (CHOP) PolicyLab detected a significant increase in children admitted to the nation's largest children's hospitals due to serious physical abuse over the last decade. The study, published today in the journal Pediatrics, found a strong relationship between the rate of child physical abuse and local mortgage foreclosures, which have been a hallmark of the recent recession. The CHOP findings, based on data from 38 children's hospitals, contradict ...

Scientists at A*STAR's Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN), in collaboration with Newcastle University, UK, the Singapore Institute of Clinical Sciences and clinicians from multiple hospitals in Singapore, have identified a new subset of dendritic cells (DCs%r9 in human peripheral tissue which have a critical role in activating our immune response against harmful pathogens. This research will have significant impact on the design of vaccines and other targeted immunotherapies. The scientists also showed for the first time that DC subsets are conserved between species, facilitating ...

The nursing profession needs to harness the power of the video-sharing website YouTube to promote a positive image of nurses, after research found that many of the top hits portray them in a derogatory way. That is the key finding of research published in the August issue of the Journal of Advanced Nursing. Researchers examined the YouTube database to find the most viewed videos for "nurses" and "nursing". Ninety-six videos were included after preliminary analysis of the first 50 hits for each word. The top ten hits - attracting between 61,695 and 901,439 hits - were ...

Far from processing every word we read or hear, our brains often do not even notice key words that can change the whole meaning of a sentence, according to new research from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). After a plane crash, where should the survivors be buried? If you are considering where the most appropriate burial place should be, you are not alone. Scientists have found that around half the people asked this question, answer it as if they were being asked about the victims not the survivors. Similarly, when asked "Can a man marry his widow's ...

High-tech technology, traditionally usually used to design racing cars and aeroplanes, has helped researchers to understand how plant-eating dinosaurs fed 150 million years ago. A team of international researchers, led by the University of Bristol and the Natural History Museum, used CT scans and biomechanical modelling to show that Diplodocus - one of the largest dinosaurs ever discovered – had a skull adapted to strip leaves from tree branches. The research is published today [16 July] in leading international natural sciences journal, Naturwissenschaften. The Diplodocus ...

Women who are obese continue to have higher levels of oestrogen than women of normal weight even after treatment with hormone-suppressing drugs, raising the possibility that they might benefit from changes to their treatment. The study, led by a team at The Institute of Cancer Research in London and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, found hormone-suppressing drugs did markedly reduce oestrogen levels in obese women – but that their levels of oestrogen remained more than double those of women of normal weight. The research, which is published today in the Journal ...