Body

A study by researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) found that overweight Hispanic children are at significant risk for pre-diabetes, a condition marked by higher than normal blood glucose levels that are not yet high enough for a diagnosis of diabetes. The persistence of pre-diabetes during growth is associated with progression in risk towards future diabetes, according to the study, which will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Diabetes, and is now available online.

BERKELEY – Devastating declines of amphibian species around the world are a sign of a biodiversity disaster larger than just frogs, salamanders and their ilk, according to researchers from the University of California, Berkeley.

In an article published online this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers argue that substantial die-offs of amphibians and other plant and animal species add up to a new mass extinction facing the planet.

DURHAM, N.C. – Race, age, and geography appear to play important roles in who receives cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT), a proven treatment for some patients with heart failure, say researchers at Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI).

Chemists are pulling cancer onto a sucker punch by getting infected cells to drop their guard – according to research published today. They are using the metal ruthenium as a catalyst to a cancer-busting reaction which calls up an old cellular enemy – oxidants – as an ally.

Cancer adapts quickly to traditional drugs which attack infected cells directly. But the latest laboratory tests reveal a second line of defence using ruthenium as a catalyst to a reaction which stops cells developing the anti-oxidant chemical glutathione.

As America's aging population increases, so does its need for long-term care. And the workers who provide these services often lack the support they need — particularly in the area of pay and work relationships, according to "Better Jobs Better Care: New Research on the Long-Term Care Workforce," the latest special issue of The Gerontologist (Volume 48, Special Issue 1).

A study of 439 U.S. and Mexican-born Latinas seeking pregnancy and postpartum services at public health clinics in San Antonio uncovered elevated levels of depression among the more "Americanized" women, report researchers from The University of Texas School of Public Health and The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio in the most recent online issue of the Maternal and Child Health Journal.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Online Internet shopping today offers many benefits. You can research a product in the privacy of your own home and purchase most anything by clicking a mouse. But should we be allowed to buy prescription drugs via the Internet, bypassing a traditional office visit or conversation with a physician?

CSIRO is investigating ways of controlling a devastating new wheat disease strain which could lead to a global wheat production and food supply crisis.

Cornell University in the United States, with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Global Development Program, has subcontracted CSIRO to undertake the research as part of the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project to tackle Ug99 – a strain of the fungus, wheat stem rust.

Breast cancer survivors continue to have a substantial risk of disease recurrence after five years of systemic therapy, according to a study published in the August 12 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Among breast cancer patients who were cancer-free five years after initiating systemic therapy, 89 percent remained recurrence-free at five years (approximately 10 years after a woman's initial diagnosis) and 80 percent remained recurrence free at 10 years (approximately 15 years after diagnosis).

Men with early prostate cancer who undergo radical prostatectomy have a lower rate of death due to prostate cancer than men who are followed without treatment, known as watchful waiting, according to a randomized controlled trial published in the August 12 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The benefit from the surgery, with respect to prostate cancer death rates, remained constant beyond 10 years, but the overall death rates in the two groups were not statistically different.

Hepatitis B Genotypes and Mutants May Influence Liver Cancer Risk

Infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) causes liver cancer in some individuals, but not all strains of the virus are associated with the same degree of risk. If confirmed, the newly reported data could help target chemoprevention strategies in the future.

CHAMPAIGN – A new study of transfer RNA, a molecule that delivers amino acids to the protein-building machinery of the cell, challenges long-held ideas about the evolutionary history of protein synthesis.

In the study, researchers report that the dual functions of transfer RNA (reading the genetic blueprint for a protein, and adding a specific amino acid to the protein as it is formed) appear to have originated independently of one another. The new findings are detailed in the July 30 Public Library of Science (PLoS) ONE.

Adverse events from antibiotics cause an estimated 142,000 emergency department visits per year in the United States, according to a study published in the September 15, 2008 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases.

"This number is an important reminder for physicians and patients that antibiotics can have serious side effects and should only be taken when necessary," said study author Daniel Budnitz, M.D., at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The apparent narrowing of the wage gap between working men and women in the last 30 years reflects changes in the type of women in the workforce, rather than in how much they're being paid, according to groundbreaking new research by Brown University economist Yona Rubinstein and Casey Mulligan of the University of Chicago. Rubinstein says the impression that the labor market treats women better today than three decades ago is a "statistical illusion." The findings are published in the August issue of The Quarterly Journal of Economics.

DALLAS – Aug. 12, 2008 – The development and repair of heart tissue and blood vessels is intimately tied to a tiny piece of ribonucleic acid (RNA) that is found nowhere else in the body, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.

Because of its specificity to the cardiovascular system, this "microRNA" is an attractive potential target for therapeutic treatment, the researchers said.