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Boston, Mass. – This June, a law took effect in the state of Florida limiting physicians' ability to ask patients about firearm ownership. In September, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction preventing enforcement of the law, citing that the law impeded doctors' Constitutional right to freedom of speech. An article to be published online Nov.

GENEVA -- Vaccines against the primary cause of deaths from pneumonia in developing countries could save millions of lives and are highly cost-effective, according to a comprehensive new analysis to be released on Thursday, Nov. 10.

When both a predator and its prey are conservationally at risk, it can be difficult to find the right balance of ecosystem management to sustain and protect both.

Such is the case for a particular population of orcas called southern resident killer whales and their prey, Chinook salmon, off the coast of Washington State and British Columbia, but a new detailed model of the two species may provide some guidance about what must be done to conserve both.

Properly functioning ecosystems have their own pest management system – predation – but as new manmade ecosystems develop, these natural maintenance systems are often disrupted. In some cases, though, installing a simple nest box may be all that's needed to restore the balance, and improve avian conservation, according to a new report published Nov. 9 in the online journal PLoS ONE.

Peer review of scientific research is an essential component of research publication, the awarding of grants, and academic promotion. Reviewers are often anonymous. However, a new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that greater cooperation between reviewer and author can improve accuracy of the review. Their study is published in the Nov. 9 edition of the journal PLoS ONE.

Durham, NC — A growing body of evidence shows that man-made noise is bad for birds, but some species are harder hit than others — particularly bigger birds with low-frequency songs, finds a new study.

"Bigger birds sing at frequencies that are more easily masked by the low frequencies typical of human noise pollution," said lead author Clinton Francis of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham, North Carolina.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – November 9, 2011 – Data from the BRIDGE clinical trial demonstrate that intravenous use of the drug cangrelor was effective at maintaining platelet inhibition in patients on thienopyridines who required bypass surgery. Trial results were presented today at the 23rd annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) scientific symposium, sponsored by the Cardiovascular Research Foundation.

Fecal immunochemical testing (FIT) is more effective in its health benefits at the same or lower costs compared to guaiac fecal occult blood testing (gFOBT) at all levels of colonoscopy capacity, according to a study published November 9 by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

A new study released today offers hope that California may finally be getting a handle on its 30-year battle with childhood obesity, but it also showcases a patchwork of progress that leaves the majority of the state's counties still registering increases in obesity rates among school-age children.

The National Initiative on Cybersecurity Education (NICE) has published for public comment a draft document that classifies the typical duties and skill requirements of cybersecurity workers. The document is meant to define professional requirements in cybersecurity, much as other professions, such as medicine and law, have done.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – NOVEMBER 9, 2011 – A clinical trial of patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and stable angina showed that a strategy of rapid genotyping followed by selective administration of prasugrel to carriers of a common genetic variant (CYP2C19*2) resulted in a decreased rate of high on-treatment platelet reactivity (platelet non-responder rate) compared to standard therapy.

OTTAWA -- Tailored anti-platelet therapy, made possible through a novel point-of-care genetic test, optimizes treatment for patients who carry a common genetic variant, researchers at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) have found.

A research team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has provided the first look* at a genetic structure that may play a critical role in the reproduction of the infectious salmon anemia virus (ISAV), more commonly known as the "fish flu." A scourge in fish farms with a mortality rate as high as 90 percent, ISAV was recently found in wild salmon in the Pacific Northwest for the first time, threatening an already dwindling population and the vast food web it supports.

HOUSTON – Obese rhesus monkeys lost on average 11 percent of their body weight after four weeks of treatment with an experimental drug that selectively destroys the blood supply of fat tissue, a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reports in Science Translational Medicine.

Body mass index (BMI) and abdominal circumference (waistline) also were reduced, while all three measures were unchanged in untreated control monkeys. Imaging studies also showed a substantial decrease in body fat among treated animals.

By studying tumor biology at the molecular level, researchers are gaining a deeper understanding of drug resistance -- and how to avoid it by designing pediatric cancer treatments tailored to specific mutations in a child's DNA. In a fruitful collaboration, pediatric oncologists and biochemists are targeting neuroblastoma, an often-deadly childhood cancer of the peripheral nervous system.