Body

The record numbers of young people who took part in last year's presidential election, along with high schools' raised expectations that students participate in community service, have led to growing research on teens' civic beliefs and behavior. A new study finds that most young people consider civic activity to be obligatory, but their judgments and justifications about different types of civic involvement vary by gender and a variety of other factors.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Predictors of atrial fibrillation (AF or afib) might offer physicians a better way to prevent stroke in blacks, according to a new study done by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

When migraine strikes, because of severe pain, often accompanied by nausea and sensitivity to light and sound, sufferers are effectively disabled for up to 72 hours. Since they are forced to stop what they are doing until the pain and other symptoms subside, migraine causes a significant loss in productivity at work and the personal lives of those affected. Migraineurs – especially the 25% of migraineurs who experience more than three migraine attacks per month – are looking to drug developers to provide new drugs to prevent migraine attacks before they start. In the U.S.

When migraine strikes, because of severe pain, often accompanied by nausea and sensitivity to light and sound, sufferers are effectively disabled for up to 72 hours. Since they are forced to stop what they are doing until the pain and other symptoms subside, migraine causes a significant loss in productivity at work and the personal lives of those affected. Migraineurs – especially the 25% of migraineurs who experience more than three migraine attacks per month – are looking to drug developers to provide new drugs to prevent migraine attacks before they start. In the U.S.

Scientists from Queen Mary, University of London have discovered a new protein complex operating in fruit fly circadian clocks, which may also help to regulate our own biological clocks.

Circadian clocks are thought to have evolved to enable organisms to match their behaviour to specific time slots during the 24 hour day. They are synchronised with our surrounding environment via natural light or temperature cycles.

French researchers have discovered a simple and cheap method of predicting who is at greater risk of dying suddenly and unexpectedly from a heart attack.

An in-depth proteomic analysis of the sera of 50 participants from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) hormone replacement therapy trial provides some explanations for the trial's clinical results. The study, published in Biomed Central's open access journal Genome Medicine, shows that estrogen upregulates proteins involved in several major body processes.

General anesthesia (GA) is associated with an increased risk of infant intubation and low Apgar scores, relative to regional anesthesia. An analysis of 50,806 cesarean deliveries, published in the open access journal BMC Medicine, strongly supports guidelines that regional anesthesia is to be preferred over GA for most cesarean sections.

Researchers from Durham University's Centre for Bioactive Chemistry are developing methods that show how proteins interact with cell membranes when a virus strikes. Using their approach, the team hopes to find new ways to disrupt and disarm 'enveloped viruses' before they spread in our bodies.

Team members, Dr John Sanderson and Dr Paul Yeo from Durham University have helped produce the first ever, high-resolution, full-length structure of a protein from an enveloped virus called the 'matrix protein'.

During a seminar at another institution several years ago, University of Chicago paleontologist David Jablonski fielded a hostile question: Why bother classifying organisms according to their physical appearance, let alone analyze their evolutionary dynamics, when molecular techniques had already invalidated that approach?

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---A limestone countertop, a practiced eye and Google Earth all played roles in the discovery of a trove of fossils that may shed light on the origins of African wildlife.

Dietary acrylamide was not associated with an increased risk of lung cancer, according to data from a large prospective case-cohort study in the April 28 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Acrylamide is formed in some starchy foods, such as potato chips and French fries, during high-temperature cooking. Epidemiological studies have found a positive association between dietary acrylamide intake and the risk of endometrial, ovarian, renal cell, and estrogen-receptor positive breast cancers.

Alterations in the topoisomerase II alpha (TOP2A) gene were associated with better patient outcomes following anthracycline-based therapy compared with non-anthracycline-based regimens, according to a study in the April 28 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The increased responsiveness is similar to what is seen in patients whose tumors carry an amplification of the HER2 gene.

Comets have always fascinated us. A mysterious appearance could symbolize God's displeasure or mean a sure failure in battle, at least for one side. Now Tel Aviv University justifies our fascination ― comets might have provided the elements for the emergence of life on our planet.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Pharmacy researchers at Oregon State University today announced the discovery of a genetic regulator that is expressed at higher levels in the most aggressive types of head and neck cancers, in work that may help to identify them earlier or even offer a new therapy at some point in the future.