Intrauterine devices, originally developed as contraceptives, can also be used to treat and cure cancer of the endometrium according to new research published online in the cancer journal, Annals of Oncology [1] today (Wednesday 29 September). The finding opens the way for young women with the disease, which affects the lining of the womb, to be treated without the need for a hysterectomy, thus preserving their fertility until they have had all the children they want. Endometrial cancer is the sixth most common cancer in women worldwide. In 2008 there were an estimated ...

In mice, early weaning and separation from their mothers promotes long-lasting hyperactivity and anxiety . Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Neuroscience describe the development of this new behavioral model, which they hope to use to investigate the long-term effects of early childhood neglect in people. Arthur Simen and a team of researchers from Yale University School of Medicine, USA, tested their 'Maternal separation with early weaning' (MSEW) model in a group of 80 male mice. He said, "Childhood adversity, in the form of abuse and neglect, is prevalent ...

The protein could provide a target to develop new treatments for the disease or enable earlier diagnosis, say the researchers from Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. Pancreatic cancer has the lowest survival rate of all cancers due to its lack of symptoms in the early stages, late diagnosis and its resistance to chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The research – funded by the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund – found that nearly three quarters of pancreatic cancer tumours had high levels of a protein known as P110γ. In laboratory experiments, when ...

BOSTON, Mass. (September 29, 2010) — Crowdsourcing, the act of contracting out problems to large groups rather than tapping individual experts, has solved puzzles in fields such as marketing, engineering and computer software. But can the wisdom of crowds help cure disease? A large, multidisciplinary panel has recently selected 12 pioneering ideas for attacking Type 1 Diabetes, ideas selected through a crowdsourcing experiment called the Challenge in which all members of the Harvard community, as well as members of the general public, were invited to answer the question: ...

A global analysis of extinction risk for the world's plants, conducted by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew together with the Natural History Museum, London and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), has revealed that the world's plants are as threatened as mammals, with one in five of the world's plant species threatened with extinction. The study is a major baseline for plant conservation and is the first time that the true extent of the threat to the world's estimated 380,000 plant species is known, announced as governments are to meet in Nagoya, ...

In the last decade, researchers have found evidence that experiences can alter the form and structure of DNA, an effect known as epigenetics. Because these changes affect genes, events early in life have the potential to make a lasting impact on behavior and health. Recent studies focused on cancer and obesity have already shown the power of epigenetics. In a study led by Tie-Yuan Zhang, PhD, of McGill University, researchers investigated whether these changes might apply to the activity of genes in brain regions that control neural function and mental health. The authors ...

A research team led by Mount Sinai School of Medicine has identified the mechanism behind a single gene linked to the causes of both Alzheimer's disease and Type 2 diabetes. The data show that a gene for a protein called SorCS1, which can cause Type 2 diabetes, impacts the accumulation of amyloid-beta (Abeta) in the brain. Abeta plays a key role in the development of Alzheimer's disease. The study is published in the September 29th issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. Sam Gandy, MD, PhD, the Mount Sinai Professor in Alzheimer's Disease Research, Professor of Neurology ...

You may not think of the fizz in soda as spicy, but your body does. The carbon dioxide in fizzy drinks sets off the same pain sensors in the nasal cavity as mustard and horseradish, though at a lower intensity, according to new research from the University of Southern California. "Carbonation evokes two distinct sensations. It makes things sour and it also makes them burn. We have all felt that noxious tingling sensation when soda goes down your throat too fast," said Emily Liman, senior author of a study published online in the Journal of Neuroscience. That burning ...

Researchers from the University of Seville (US) have detected active pharmaceutical substances for the first time in the waters of the Doñana National Park and its surrounding areas. The results suggest eco-toxicological risks for aquatic organisms. The scientists recommend that advanced technologies should be used to treat urban waste water in order to remove these compounds. Five anti-inflammatory drugs (diclofenac, ibuprofen, ketoprofen, naproxen and salicylic acid), a nervous system stimulant (caffeine), two antibiotics (sulfametoxazol and trimethoprim), two lipid ...

Scientists from the Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp, in collaboration with colleagues from several developing countries, were able to restore a sleeping sickness parasite's susceptibility to drugs. The parasite causes sleeping sickness in cattle. Because it has become resistant against all currently available drugs, it causes enormous economic losses. Until now, that is. Not only people suffer from sleeping sickness. Trypanosoma congolense, a nephew of the human parasite, infects livestock. Millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa depend on their livestock. Nagana, ...

Scientists in Australia and Hong Kong have conducted a comprehensive study to discover how different body measurements correspond with ratings of female attractiveness. The study, published in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology, found that across cultural divides young, tall and long armed women were considered the most attractive. "Physical attractiveness is an important determining factor for evolutionary, social and economic success," said lead author Robert Brooks from the University of New South Wales. "The dimensions of someone's body can tell observers if that ...

Anyone who simply denies the facts is most certainly behaving unreasonably – aren't they? Bochum's philosophers Prof. Dr. Albert Newen and Christoph Michel expound that in some cases it may be useful to deceive yourself. The self-deception can be an important motivating factor and not entirely lacking reason. The reason may be locally restricted, however basic strategies of rational evaluation processes remain intact. The researchers have published their work in the international specialist journal Consciousness & Cognition. Become as good as you think you are Self-deception ...

A black, two-millimeter-long wasp from East Africa is helping wage war on one of its own kind—the Erythrina gall wasp, an invasive species that's decimated Hawaii's endemic wiliwili (Erythrina sandwicensis) and introduced coral bean trees (Erythrina spp.). Hawaii Department of Agriculture (HDOA) officials "recruited" the beneficial wasp, Eurytoma erythrinae, and first released it in November 2008 after evaluating its host specificity as a biocontrol agent. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) entomologist Michael Gates' scientific description and naming of the species, ...

Amsterdam, 28 September, 2010 – Elsevier, a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today released highlights from a new survey that reveals researchers around the globe are not only ready for the next phase in search and discovery, but also prepared to actively contribute to making it a reality. In developing SciVerse, Elsevier's recently launched search and discovery platform, the company conducted a significant amount of research within the scientific community. Building on earlier qualitative work, the online ...

Montreal, September 28, 2010 – The consumption of drugs and alcohol by teenagers is not just about rebellion or emotional troubles. It's about being one of the cool kids, according to a study by led by researchers at the Université de Montréal. "Our study highlights a correlation between popularity and consumption," says Jean-Sébastien Fallu, lead researcher and professor at the Université de Montréal's School of Psychoeducation. "The teenagers we studied were well-accepted, very sensitive to social codes, and understood the compromises that it takes to be popular." Link ...

Researchers from North Carolina State University have identified a "tipping point" for national debt – the point at which national debt levels begin to have an adverse effect on economic growth. The findings could influence economic policy discussions globally, and will be distributed at the upcoming meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group. "If a country's public debt reaches 77 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), bad things start to happen," says Dr. Mehmet Caner, professor of economics at NC State and co-author of the study. "There ...

September 28, 2010 (Geneva, Switzerland) – At the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) summit in New York this week, world leaders gathered to review progress on the eight goals agreed in 2000 on alleviating world poverty and ill-health by 2015. As the summit came to a close, governments, businesses and aid organisations made commitments totaling $40bn to reach the goals, with particular emphasis on improving maternal and child health. A global strategy for women's and children's health, focused on reducing maternal and child deaths, empowering women and achieving equality, ...

Amyloid protein structures are best known for the troubles they pose in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. Now researchers are trying to exploit their presence in a very different place – in semen – to find a new way to stop HIV. Scientists have created a substance that targets amyloid structures in semen and have used it to weaken the ability of HIV to infect the body's immune cells in the laboratory. The experimental compound, originally designed to help Alzheimer's patients by disrupting the actions of amyloid in the brain, make it much more likely that HIV particles ...

Guest relationships can become collateral damage when hotel employees envy the relationships co-workers have with their bosses, according to an international team of researchers. In the study of front-line hotel employees -- desk staff, food and beverage workers, housekeepers -- workers who have poor relationships with their bosses were more likely to envy co-workers with better relationships with supervisors, said John O'Neill, associate professor, School of Hospitality Management, Penn State. The study showed that the envious workers were also less likely to help co-workers ...

RUSTON, La. – Geopolymer concrete, an innovative and environmentally-friendly building material developed at Louisiana Tech University's Trenchless Technology Center (TTC), will be featured in a transportation exhibition taking place at the Detroit Science Center. Developed by Dr. Erez Allouche, research director for the TTC, and his team, geopolymer concrete is an emerging class of cementitious materials that utilize "fly ash", one of the most abundant industrial by-products, as a substitute for Portland cement, the most widely produced man-made material on earth. "Presenting ...

Philadelphia, PA, September 28, 2010 – The Epinephrine Roundtable was convened during the 25th Annual Meeting of the Wilderness Medical Society (WMS) in 2008 to explore areas of consensus and uncertainty in the field treatment of anaphylaxis. The panel endorsed the administration of epinephrine to treat anaphylaxis in the field under emergency conditions by trained non-medical professionals. Anaphylaxis, an acute allergic reaction, is sudden in onset and requires immediate treatment. The recommendations of the panel are published in the September issue of Wilderness & Environmental ...

Stem cells that glow like fireflies could someday help doctors heal damaged hearts without cutting into patients' chests. In his University of Central Florida lab, Steven Ebert engineered stem cells with the same enzyme that makes fireflies glow. The "firefly" stem cells glow brighter and brighter as they develop into healthy heart muscle, allowing doctors to track whether and where the stem cells are working. Researchers are keenly interested in stem cells because they typically morph into the organs where they are transplanted. But why and how fast they do it is ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 28, 2010 -- Individual cancer-causing mutations have a minute effect on tumor growth, increasing the rate of cell division by just 0.4 percent on average, according to new mathematical modeling by scientists at Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, and other institutions. Their research, appearing this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reinforces that cancer is the culmination of many accumulated mutations. It also highlights the fundamental heterogeneity and randomness of many cancers, consistent with the observations ...

Montreal September 28, 2010 – Loners and antisocial kids who reject other children are often bullied at school – an accepted form of punishment from peers as they establish social order. Such peer victimization may be an extreme group response to control renegades, according to a new study from Concordia University published in the Journal of Early Adolescence. "For groups to survive, they need to keep their members under control," says author William M. Bukowski, a professor at the Concordia Department of Psychology and director of its Centre for Research in Human Development. ...

A new study by University of Notre Dame ecologist Jennifer Tank and colleagues reveals that streams throughout the Midwest are receiving transgenic materials from corn crop byproducts, even six months after harvest. Transgenic maize (corn) has been genetically engineered to produce its own insecticide, a delta endotoxin from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Bt endotoxins deter crop pests, such as the European corn borer. In a 2007 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), Tank and a group of researchers demonstrated that transgenic ...