Body

Blocking thoughts of cigarettes helps reduce smokers' intake at first, but means they smoke more than usual when they stop suppressing, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

The study was carried out by researchers at St. George's, University of London and the University of Hertfordshire.

In the vast majority of patients with advanced cancer, their muscles will gradually waste away for reasons that have never been well understood. Now, researchers reporting in the August 20 issue of Cell, a Cell Press Publication, have found some new clues and a way to reverse that process in mice. What's more, animals with cancer that received the experimental treatment lived significantly longer, even as their tumors continued to grow.

"This is the first demonstration that muscle mass plays a key role in cancer survival," said H.Q. Han of Amgen Research.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Falsely advertising one's fighting ability might seem like a good strategy for a wimp who wants to come off as a toughie, but in paper wasp societies, such deception is discouraged through punishment, experiments at the University of Michigan suggest.

Montreal, August 19, 2010 – The internationally-renowned scientific journal Immunity, from the Cell Press group, publishes online today, and will publish in its August 27 print issue, the results of a study conducted by a team of researchers led by Dr. André Veillette, Director of the Molecular Oncology research unit at the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (IRCM). Their scientific breakthrough could have an impact on the treatment of multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases, which affect tens of thousands of Canadians.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Controlling urban growth and increasing forested land are the most effective ways to decrease future water runoff and flooding, according to a Purdue University study.

Bryan Pijanowski, an associate professor of forestry and natural resources, used a model to simulate Michigan's Muskegon River watershed runoff rates from 1900 through the present and forecast them 30 years into the future. Several scenarios, including forest regrowth, urbanization, and buffers between development and streams, were analyzed to estimate their impact on rivers and streams.

University of Alberta researcher Margie McNeely says results from an international study she was part of indicates certain precautions about the risk of lymphedema for breast cancer survivors are outdated.

McNeely, from the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, says women who've had breast cancer surgery are often warned that pressure changes in an airplane cabin could trigger lymphedema, chronic swelling in the arm. But the study she did with an Australian research team showed that only five per cent of these women are likely at risk of developing any arm swelling when flying.

The widening of the Panama Canal currently underway has created a rare opportunity to study the insects that inhabit the plants of environmentally sensitive Central American rain forest habitats. Dr. Amy Berkov, Professor of Biology at The City College of New York (CCNY), is leading a research effort that could shed new light on biodiversity by documenting the area's host-plant relationships.

A recent study by researchers at Penn State College of Medicine found significant racial disparities in the age of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients at the time of hospital admission for cardiovascular disease (CVD) events and CVD-related death. Black women were youngest to both be admitted with CVD and to have an in-hospital death due to CVD. Results of the study appear in the September issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American College of Rheumatology.

Researchers at the University of Michigan and Arbor Research Collaborative for Health, both in Ann Arbor, have identified geographic variation as a key factor accounting for disparities in access to liver transplantation among racial and ethnic groups. Full details appear in the September issue of Liver Transplantation, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD).

CAMDEN – When kitchens become infiltrated with fruit flies, especially during the dog days of summer, homeowners might wish that the flying pests would just turn to ice.

The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster does boast a powerful genetic system making it an ideal organism to test a cool new discovery: how an enzyme regulates body energy levels. Shutting off this molecular thermostat could result in a newfound cold tolerance that has multiple applications, including extending the 24-hour window donated organs now have for optimum use.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists have developed a new tool for improving the expression of desirable genes in rice in parts of the plant where the results will do the most good.

August 18, 2010 — (BRONX, NY) — Commonly prescribed drugs used to lower blood pressure can actually have the opposite effect—raising blood pressure in a statistically significant percentage of patients. A new study by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University suggests that doctors could avoid this problem—and select drugs most suitable for their patients—by measuring blood levels of the enzyme renin through a blood test that is becoming more widely available.

ST. LOUIS -- Black and Hispanic kidney donors are significantly more likely than white donors to develop hypertension, diabetes and chronic kidney disease, according to new Saint Louis University research published in the August 19, 2010 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Geneva, 18 August 2010. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), an experiment that will search for antimatter and dark matter in space, leaves CERN next Tuesday on the next leg of its journey to the International Space Station. The AMS detector is being transported from CERN to Geneva International Airport in preparation for its planned departure from Switzerland on 26 August, when it will be flown to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on board a US Air Force Galaxy transport aircraft.