ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Think "mass extinction" and you probably envision dinosaurs dropping dead in the long-ago past or exotic tropical creatures being wiped out when their rainforest habitats are decimated. But a major mass extinction took place right here in North America in the first half of the 20th century, when 47 species of mollusk disappeared after the watershed in which they lived was dammed. Now, a population of one of those species---a freshwater limpet last seen more than 60 years ago and presumed extinct---has been found in a tributary of the heavily dammed ...

Albuquerque, NM – Under a completely new way of providing health care, primary care clinicians in remote villages, prisons and poor urban neighborhoods who were trained to treat patients with hepatitis C achieved excellent results identical to those of specialists at a university medical center. These findings, from an evaluation of Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes), were published today online by the New England Journal of Medicine and will appear in the June 9 print edition. They demonstrate that primary care providers anywhere can be trained ...

In a recent clinical trial, non–HIV-infected individuals who used the antiretroviral drug Truvada on a daily basis cut their risk of becoming infected with HIV by 44 percent. While the findings are reason for great optimism, researchers say it is now important to understand the factors that could influence the public's willingness to use the drug in this way, known as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP. Scientists, health authorities and policymakers are currently debating the pros and cons of PrEP in the U.S. and around the world. One significant issue is these ...

PASADENA, Calif.—For all animals, development begins with the embryo. It is here that uniform cells divide and diversify, and blueprints are laid for future structures, like skeletal and digestive systems. Although biologists have known for some time that signaling processes—messages that tell a cell to express certain genes so as to become certain parts of these structures—exist at this stage, there has not been a clear framework explanation of how it all comes together. Now, a research team at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has outlined exactly how ...

A small male bird called a golden-collared manakin performs a difficult, elaborate, physically demanding courtship dance. In new research, life scientists report that female golden-collared manakins select mates based on subtle differences in motor performance during these dances. "The male jumps like he's been shot out of a cannon," said study co-author Barney Schlinger, professor and departmental chair of integrative biology and physiology and a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UCLA. "It's exquisite. He sails like an acrobat and lands perfectly on ...

Participants in two weight-loss programs -- one involving traditional health club sessions and the other delivered online in a 3D virtual world -- lost similar amounts of weight and body fat, but the online contingent reported significantly greater gains in behaviors that could help them live healthier and leaner lives. "It's counter-intuitive, the idea of being more active in a virtual world, but the activities that they do in a virtual world can carry over into the real world," said Jeanne Johnston, assistant professor of kinesiology at Indiana University. "Through ...

Scientists have identified a new strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) which occurs both in human and dairy cow populations. The study, led by Dr Mark Holmes at the University of Cambridge, identified the new strain in milk from dairy cows while researching mastitis (a bacterial infection which occurs in the cows' udders). The new strain's genetic makeup differs greatly from previous strains, which means that the 'gold standard' molecular tests currently used to identify MRSA - a polymerase chain reaction technique (PCR) and slide agglutination ...

DETROIT – Emergency department physicians are frustrated and burned out from treating patients who frequent the ED for their care, according to a Henry Ford Hospital survey of physicians from across the country. The survey found that 59 percent of physicians acknowledged having less empathy for so-called frequent users than other patients, and 77 percent held bias for frequent users. Physicians defined frequent users in the survey as patients who visit the ED at least 10 times a year. Other highlights: 91 percent of physicians say frequent users pose challenges ...

An unusual signal detected by the seismic monitoring station at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's research facility on Barro Colorado Island results from waves in Lake Gatun, the reservoir that forms the Panama Canal channel, scientists report. Understanding seismic background signals leads to improved earthquake and tsunami detection in the Caribbean region where 100 tsunamis have been reported in the past 500 years. As part of a $37.5 million U.S. presidential initiative to improve earthquake monitoring following the devastating tsunami in the Indian Ocean ...

When earthquake, tsunami, tornado or flood strike, among the most vulnerable group are the elderly. Writing in the International Journal of Emergency Management, researchers in New Zealand suggest that emergency response plans must take into account the age-related needs of adults with regards to the personal and social resources they have available. Robyn Tuohy and Christine Stephens of Massey University in Palmerston North, point out that elderly citizens are likely to experience the negative impacts of floods and other natural disasters partly because of age-related ...

Brussels - One in three women will be faced at least once in her life with cystitis, for some the start of a constantly recurring infection. Cystitis is caused by Escherichia coli bacteria which fasten on to the wall of the bladder by means of thread-like structures (pili). Han Remaut of the VIB Department for Structural Biology Brussels, Vrije Universiteit Brussel reveals for the first time the complex interactions which lead to the formation of these pili. This knowledge can be used to develop new antibiotics to treat infections of the urinary tract. Cystitis Around ...

A new study from the Journal of Traumatic Stress finds that for active-duty male soldiers in the U.S. Army who are happily married, communicating frequently with one's spouse through letters and emails during deployment may protect against the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms after returning home. After studying information from 193 married male Army soldiers who returned from military deployment within the past year, investigators found that more frequent spousal communication through "delayed" communication such as letters, care packages, ...

In Western societies, atherosclerosis of the arteries is one of the leading causes of death. Chronic, localized inflammation of the blood vessel wall facilitates the growth of fibrous plaques, which leads to narrowing or occlusion of the vessel, and thereby promotes heart attacks and stroke. The persistence of the inflammatory reaction is due to a loss of control over the activity of the immune system. So-called dendritic cells are known to play a central role in the adaptive immune response, functioning as activators of other classes of immune cells. Their precise contribution ...

TORONTO, Ont., June 3, 2011—Hospitals that provide quality care for young people do not always provide the same quality care for the elderly, a new study has found. As our population ages and requires more healthcare, hospitals need to measure the quality of care they provide for the over 65s and implement programs to meet their distinct needs, said the study's author, Dr. Avery Nathens, trauma director at St. Michael's Hospital. The study, published in the June issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, evaluated the condition of elderly patients 30 ...

(Boston) - Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) researchers have found that Gabapentin, (trade name Neurontin) a medication commonly used to treat neuropathic pain, seizures and biopolar disease in older and elderly patients, seems to have a higher incidence of anorgasmia, or failure to experience orgasm, than previously reported. This study appears in the current issue of the American Journal of Geriatric Pharmacotherapy. Anticonvulsants are the fastest growing prescribed medication in the baby boomer generation. In patients 44-82 years old, anticonvulsants are ...

Almost all bacteria owe their structure to an outer cell wall that interacts closely with the supporting MreB protein inside the cell. As scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry and at the French INRA now show, MreB molecules assemble into larger units, but not - as previously believed – into continuous helical structures. The circular movement of these units along the inside of the bacterial envelope is mediated by cell wall synthesis, which in turn requires the support of MreB. This mutual interaction may be a widespread phenomenon among bacteria and opens ...

INDIANAPOLIS – A new research study investigates the challenges that pen and paper workarounds or computerized communication breakdowns pose to the use of electronic health records. Understanding these challenges may lead to improved coordination of care supported by health IT. Focusing on referrals by primary care physicians to specialists and communications from the specialists back to the referring physician, "Paper Persistence, Workarounds, and Communication Breakdowns in Computerized Consultation Management" appears in the July 2011 issue of the International Journal ...

In data presented at The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, cancer researchers found that the brain tumor vaccine HSPPC-96 for treating recurrent gliobastoma (GBM) has a favorable safety profile and extends survival by two to three times more than the current median survival rate. Patients in the study, conducted at University Hospitals Case Medical Center, University of California, San Francisco and Columbia University, were found to have a median survival of 11 months compared to current three to five month survival. "The findings are very ...

Due to increasing international demand, MedWOW greatly expanded its operations by launching a Global Franchise Program. MedWOW's Franchise Program screens qualified medical equipment professionals throughout the world, in order to find the best representatives to join the MedWOW brand and offer the website's services in their defined territory. The franchise program offers reputable key-players in the medical equipment industry the opportunity to expand their existing business, by giving them the rights to market MedWOW to end-users in their territories, including: ...

Sexual pleasure among young adults (ages 18-26) is linked to healthy psychological and social development, according to a new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study is the first to use a representative population sample of heterosexuals to find a relationship between key developmental assets and sexual pleasure. The findings are published in the June 2011 issue of The Journal of Adolescent Health. The research study examined data from 3,237 respondents ages 18 to 26 from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, ...

Scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, have demonstrated why certain immune cells chronically exposed to HIV shut down, and how they can be reactivated. Healthy B cells have a balanced mix of surface proteins that the immune system can use, like the gas pedal and brake of a car, either to activate the cell or to damp down its activity. However, in people with long-term HIV infection who have not begun antiretroviral therapy, their B cells—responsible for producing anti-HIV antibodies—display ...

Los Angeles, Calif., June 2, 2011—Researchers in the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC), together with scientists in Beijing, China, have discovered a chromosomal mutation responsible for a very rare condition in which people grow excess hair all over their bodies. Investigators hope the finding ultimately will lead to new treatments for this and less severe forms of excessive hair growth as well as baldness. The study, "X-linked congenital hypertrichosis syndrome is associated with interchromosomal insertions mediated by a human-specific ...

CHICAGO — Customizing targeted therapies to each tumor's molecular characteristics, instead of a one-size-fits-all approach by tumor type, may be more effective for some types of cancer, according to research conducted by The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. MD Anderson's Phase I findings were presented today on the opening press program of the 47th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Apostolia-Maria Tsimberidou, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor in MD Anderson's Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics, and the study's principal ...

AURORA, Colo. (June 3, 2011) – A drug that targets a specific type of lung cancer shows a dramatic response in more than half of the people who take it. The drug, called crizotinib, has been in clinical trials since 2006, and the results from the largest group of patients to take it within the first of these clinical trials are being presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). The patients taking crizotinib have anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) positive advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and the drug targets the gene ...

(CHICAGO) – For patients with advanced melanoma, which is the most lethal type of skin cancer, the results of a large clinical trial show that a vaccine combined with the immune-boosting drug Interleukin-2 can improve response rate and progression-free survival. The findings of the study were published in the June 2 issue of New England Journal of Medicine. This marks the first vaccine study in the disease and one of the first in all cancers to show clinical benefit in a randomized Phase III clinical trial. "This is the first time that a vaccine has shown benefit ...