Health News
Date: Apr-29-2013
New artemisinin-resistant strains of the malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium falciparum are spreading rapidly in Cambodia, an international group of scientists says in a research paper that also reveals how the drug-resistant strains can be identified from their genetic fingerprints. Senior author Dominic Kwiatkowski, from the University of Oxford and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute near Cambridge, and colleagues, discovered the new artemisinin-resistant strains in western Cambodia, a known hotspot for drug-resistance...
Date: Apr-29-2013
Clues about how cells become cancerous are revealed in a new catalogue of their physical and chemical features. The catalogue shows, among other things, how malignant cells that break out of tumors and invade other organs are nimbler and more aggressive than non-malignant ones: they are able to pass more easily through small spaces, and they exert a greater force on their environment...
Date: Apr-29-2013
Despite decades of research, relatively little is known about the identity of RNA molecules that are transported as part of the molecular process underpinning learning and memory. Now, working together, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), Columbia University and the University of Florida, Gainesville, have developed a novel strategy for isolating and characterizing a substantial number of RNAs transported from the cell-body of neuron (nerve cell) to the synapse, the small gap separating neurons that enables cell to cell communication...
Date: Apr-29-2013
You are walking down the street with a friend. A shot is fired. The two of you duck behind the nearest cover and you pull out your smartphone. A map of the neighborhood pops up on its screen with a large red arrow pointing in the direction the shot came from. A team of computer engineers from Vanderbilt University's Institute of Software Integrated Systems has made such a scenario possible by developing an inexpensive hardware module and related software that can transform an Android smartphone into a simple shooter location system...
Date: Apr-29-2013
Thanks to a rare bacteria that grows only on rocks in the Swiss Alps, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and the Pasteur Institute in France have been the first to identify how alcohol might affect key brain proteins. It's a major step on the road to eventually developing drugs that could disrupt the interaction between alcohol and the brain...
Date: Apr-29-2013
Regular exercise has been proven to reduce the chance of developing liver cancer in a world-first mice study that carries hope for patients at risk from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The research announced at the International Liver Congress™ 2013 involved two groups of mice fed a control diet and a high fat diet then divided into separate exercise and sedentary groups. The exercise groups ran on a motorised treadmill for 60 minutes per day, five days a week...
Date: Apr-29-2013
New data from two clinical trials presented at the International Liver Congress™ 2013 demonstrate substantial improvements in the detection of both hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cholangiocarcinoma (CC) using diagnostic urine tests. HCC is common throughout the world and most often develops as a late complication of chronic viral hepatitis or cirrhosis of any cause. The overall survival rate of HCC is poor and so screening for HCC offers the best hope for early detection, eligibility for treatment, and improved survival...
Date: Apr-29-2013
A study conducted by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) provides new evidence that longwave ultraviolet light (UVA) induces a protein that could result in premature skin aging. The findings demonstrate that aspects of photoaging, the process of skin aging by chronic exposure to ultraviolet radiation, could be linked to genetic factors that accelerate the aging process when induced by the environment. The study, published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, was led by BUSM co-authors Thomas M...
Date: Apr-29-2013
School violence is a very important social issue world-wide. It poses a significant threat to the health, achievement, and well-being of students. Although the most highly published incidents involve serious physical violence, less serious forms of physical aggression and psychological violence (including harassment, bullying, and relational aggression) present far more prevalent and persistent problems. During the last twenty years there has been extensive research on identifying risk factors of school violence. Especially the concept of school climate has received increased attention...
Date: Apr-29-2013
Using a one-of-a-kind computer-aided program, Mayo Clinic has developed and implemented a Mayo-wide electronic warning system to identify patients at risk of QT-related deaths from an abnormality in the heart's electrical system. The system informs all physicians, regardless of their specialty or QT awareness, if their patient's ECG activated the QT alarm. In addition, the researchers discovered that the death rate of patients whose 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) activated the QT alert was nearly four times greater than all other patients who had an ECG...