By examining the development of bones in the vertebral column, limbs, and ribcage, scientists at the University of Cambridge have discovered how sloths evolved their unique neck skeleton. From mice to giraffes, mammals are remarkable in that all but a handful of their 5000 species have exactly seven vertebrae in the neck. Among the few that deviate from this number are three-toed sloths, which may have up to ten ribless vertebrae in the neck. Traditionally, vertebrae above the shoulders that lack ribs are known as cervical or neck vertebrae. Animals such as birds and ...

Removing an extra two millimetres around an area of invasive breast cancer is sufficient to minimise any residual disease in 98 per cent of patients, according to research published in the November issue of IJCP, the International Journal of Clinical Practice. Surgeons from the Department of Breast Surgery at Good Hope Hospital, Sutton Coldfield, UK, studied 303 women who had undergone breast conserving surgery at the hospital between 2002 and 2008. "Breast conserving surgery followed by radiotherapy is a well-established alternative to breast removal and studies have ...

Superficial contacts on Facebook, apparently unnecessary comments, and banal status updates may be more worthwhile than we think. This is shown in a new report from the National IT User Center. The report also predicts the new social media will ultimately lead to more individual entrepreneurs. Many people are critical of those who collect hundreds of so-called friends on Facebook. Often the majority of these "friends" are old classmates, acquaintances of acquaintances, and the like, relationships that are fundamentally weak. The comments and updates of relatively banal ...

Our genetic material is often compared to a book. However, it is not so much like a novel to be read in one piece, but rather like a cookbook. The cell reads only those recipes which are to be cooked at the moment. The recipes are the genes; 'reading' in the book of the cell means creating RNA copies of individual genes, which will then be translated into proteins. The cell uses highly complex, sophisticated regulatory mechanisms to make sure that not all genes are read at the same time. Particular gene switches need to be activated and, in addition, there are particular ...

New findings suggesting that bacteria in the mouth and/or intestine can affect the the outcome pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and lead to new treatment strategies, reveals research from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The results are to be published in the distinguished journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS. "The causes of atherosclerosis have recently become clearer, but we know less about why the plaque in the arteries ruptures and contributes to clot formation," says Fredrik Bäckhed, researcher at the Sahlgrenska Academy's Department ...

A first-ever, long-term study of patients who underwent robot-assisted surgery to remove their cancerous prostates found that nearly 87 percent of them had no recurrence of the disease after five years. The findings were reported in this month's issue of the European Urology journal by a team of Henry Ford Hospital researchers led by Mani Menon, M.D., an internationally recognized pioneer in the use of high-precision surgical robots. In an editorial accompanying the article, the author wrote "it is very clear that the article by Menon et al represents a land mark contribution ...

Genetic variants associated with increased susceptibility to psoriasis are reported in five papers published online this week in Nature Genetics. Psoriasis is a chronic and recurrent skin disease, and one of the most prevalent autoimmune diseases, with a global prevalence of 2-3%. One of the studies was led by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) at Guy's and St Thomas' and King's College London and the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford University, and involved multiple UK institutions. The ...

Philadelphia, PA, 18 October 2010 - Alcohol is one of the most commonly abused substances, and men are up to twice as likely to develop alcoholism as women. Until now, the underlying biology contributing to this difference in vulnerability has remained unclear. A new study published in Biological Psychiatry reveals that dopamine may be an important factor. Researchers from Columbia and Yale studied male and female college-age social drinkers in a laboratory test of alcohol consumption. After consuming an alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink, each participant underwent a ...

Engineering students with average grades from upper secondary school can manage difficult courses just as well as students with high grades. At least, if a group of them meet an older student once a week during the first semester to discuss and solve maths problems and other difficult exercises from their courses. This is shown by a new evaluation from the Faculty of Engineering at Lund University of the 'peer learning' sessions, or SI (supplemental instruction), as the method is also known. The SI method is also used at universities in the USA, Canada, Australia, ...

By applying the same rules that explain how genomes evolve, Rice University physicists have shown that the world economy is more sensitive to recessionary shocks and recovers more slowly from recessions now than it did 40 years ago, due to increased trade globalization. Their findings are available online and will appear in an upcoming issue of the Physical Review Letters. "Standard economic theory suggests that trade networks with a more modular structure tend to recover more slowly from recessions, but using evolutionary theory we predicted the opposite, and U.N. ...

More research and evaluation are needed to determine the most effective community programmes to encourage cycling, says a study published on bmj.com today. The authors, led by Dr David Ogilvie from the Institute of Public Health in Cambridge, say that it is unclear whether community approaches to increase cycling amongst children and adults have anything more than a modest effect. Established research shows that cycling is linked to greater cardio-respiratory fitness in adults and children. And general physical activity reduces the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, ...

Spain's excellent record on organ donation rates has nothing to do with its presumed consent legislation, say experts in an article published on bmj.com today. Professor John Fabre, from the Department of Hepatology and Transplantation at King's College London, Paul Murphy from the Department of Neuroanaesthesia and Critical Care at the Leeds General Infirmary, and Rafael Matesanz from the Orgaizacion Nacional de Trasplantes in Madrid say that the Spanish example shows that higher rates can be achieved without presumed consent. Spain has the world's highest rate ...

A change to the way paramedics use oxygen when treating patients with chronic lung disease could cut the death rate in these cases by up to 78%, according to a new study published on bmj.com today. Researchers based in Australia found the risk of death in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was significantly reduced by using titrated (controlled) oxygen therapy instead of the current common approach of high concentration oxygen. High concentration oxygen is used routinely by many paramedics in emergency situations for patients with acute breathlessness ...

Oxford, UK, 18 October 2010 – Elsevier announces the publication of the 2010 European Resuscitation Council (ERC) Guidelines in the journal Resuscitation. These guidelines are based on an extensive international review of all the science supporting cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), the 2010 International Consensus on CPR Science, which is also published in the current issue of Resuscitation. This year is the 50th anniversary of CPR. Throughout Europe, each year, about 500,000 people have an out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest. Less than 10% of these will survive. ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Celebrity journalism is often considered to be without merit, discounted due to its sensational details and lack of news value. MU researchers now say that celebrity journalism may be an underappreciated way to communicate health messages. In a recent award-winning paper, Amanda Hinnant, assistant professor of magazine journalism in the University of Missouri School of Journalism, found some readers of celebrity health stories report that the stories have an impact on their own behavior and how they discuss health issues. Amanda Hinnant, assistant professor ...

A rethink is needed on the 'dire' situation of funding of databases across biology, researchers say. A paper co-authored by Sabina Leonelli, Research Fellow at Egenis at the University of Exeter, reviews the business models currently used to deal with long-term sustainability of these resources, and suggests a 'global change' in funding policies is necessary. "There is no point investing resources into collecting data, if the development of tools needed to disseminate and interpret those data is not supported. In this sense, building appropriate cyberinfrastructure ...

HOUSTON - Between 2010 and 2020, the demand for radiation therapy will exceed the number of radiation oncologists practicing in the U.S. tenfold, which could profoundly affect the ability to provide patients with sufficient access to treatment, according to new research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The study, published in the October 18, 2010 issue of The Journal of Clinical Oncology, estimates that over the next decade, the number of cancer patients requiring radiation therapy will increase by 22 percent, while the number of full-time equivalent ...

There is an association between type 2 diabetes mellitus and colorectal cancer (CRC) among men, but not women, according to a new study in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute. In 2000, the prevalence of type 2 diabetes was approximately 171 million worldwide, and 366 million people are projected to have the disease by 2030. Obesity, western-style diet and lack of physical activity are established risk factors for CRC. Hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia, which are especially pronounced during the early ...

Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. – Just as we visually map a room by spatially identifying the objects in it, we map our aural world based on the frequencies of sounds. The neurons within the brain's "hearing center"—the auditory cortex—are organized into modules that each respond to sounds within a specific frequency band. But how responses actually emanate from this complex network of neurons is still a mystery. A team of scientists led by Anthony Zador, M.D., Ph.D., Professor and Chair of the Neuroscience program at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) has come a step closer ...

Fatalism may prevent women from Latin American descent – Latinas - from using cancer screening services, according to Karla Espinosa de los Monteros and Dr. Linda Gallo from San Diego State University in the US. Their review (1) shows that women who are pessimistic about preventive health practices and disease outcomes are less likely to have been screened for cervical, breast and colorectal cancer. The research is published online in Springer's International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. Latinas have some of the lowest cancer screening rates in the United States. They ...

Mount Sinai researchers have discovered how cocaine corrupts the brain and becomes addictive. These findings—the first to connect activation of specific neurons to alterations in cocaine reward—were published in Science on October 15. The results may help researchers in developing new ways of treating those addicted to the drug. Led by Mary Kay Lobo, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Neuroscience at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and first author of the study, researchers found that the two main neurons (D1 and D2) in the nucleus accumbens region of the brain, ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Having an egg allergy is not a reason to avoid getting the 2010-2011 flu vaccination. According to new recommendations by the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology website, anyone with a history of suspected egg allergy should first be evaluated by an allergist or immunologist for appropriate testing and diagnosis but can probably receive the vaccination. Matthew J. Greenhawt, M.D., M.B.A., clinical lecturer at the University of Michigan Health System and James T. Li, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Division of Allergic Diseases in the Department ...

An enzyme that keeps intestinal bacteria out of the bloodstream may also play an important role in maintaining the normal microbial population of the gastrointestinal system. Since the loss of beneficial bacteria that usually results from antibiotic therapy can sometimes lead to serious health problems, a treatment that maintains microbial levels could have significant benefits. "Our mouse studies confirmed that giving this enzyme by mouth keeps the gut healthy, in terms of the microbes that usually live there," says Richard Hodin, MD, of the Massachusetts General Hospital ...

Information on proteins is critical for understanding how cells function in health and disease. But while regular proteins are easy to extract and study, it is far more difficult to gather information about membrane proteins, which are responsible for exchanging elements essential to our health, like copper, between a cell and its surrounding tissues. Now Prof. Nir Ben-Tal and his graduate students Maya Schushan and Yariv Barkan of Tel Aviv University's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology have investigated how a type of membrane protein transfers essential ...

URBANA – As consumer demand for naturally raised beef continues to increase, researchers at the University of Illinois have discovered that naturally raised beef can be produced effectively for this niche market as long as a substantial premium is offered to cover additional production and transportation costs. Naturally raised beef is produced without hormones or antibiotics, whereas traditional systems take advantage of technologies the industry offers such as ionophores like Rumensin® to improve feed efficiency and implants to improve gain and efficiency. "Producers ...