Body

BOSTON, Mass. – Oct. 29, 2012. Elderly women with early-stage breast cancer live longer with radiation therapy and surgery compared with surgery alone, researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have found. The researchers, who collected data on almost 30,000 women, ages 70 to 84, with early, highly treatable breast cancer enrolled in a nationwide cancer registry, are reporting their findings at the 54th annual meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).

STANFORD, Calif. — Would you take part in a weight-loss program in which you were explicitly asked not to lose any weight for the first eight weeks?

Millions of years ago fire and water forged the gypsum rocks locked in at Cuatro Ciénegas, a Mexican valley similar to the Martian crater where NASA's Rover Curiosity roams. A team of researchers have now analysed the bacterial communities that have survived in these inhospitable springs since the beginning of life on Earth.

Physicists use hydrodynamics to understand the physical mechanism responsible for changes in the long-range order of groups of particles. Particularly, Aparna Baskaran of Brandeis University, Massachusetts, USA, and Cristina Marchetti of Syracuse University, New York, USA, focused on ordered groups of elongated self-propelled particles. They studied the breakdown of long-range order due to fluctuations that render them unstable and give rise to complex structures, in a study about to be published in EPJ E.

Biologists from the University of Bonn have discovered that the cichlid fish Pelvicachromis taeniatus can see in the near infrared range; this was thought to be unlikely until now. Seeing in the infrared range is apparently helping fish to hunt in shallow African rivers. The results will be published in the journal "Naturwissenschaften" and are already available online now.

Introducing abstinence education into UK schools could be a less effective substitute for comprehensive Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) aimed at children and young adults, say a research team led by Sheffield Hallam University.

As part of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Festival of Social Science 2012, Sheffield Hallam and partners will host a one day event to debate the issues surrounding abstinence education.

Biking, running and walking are all good for you. But the strain can be tough if you're overweight, have arthritis or suffer from other joint problems or injuries. What to do? Just add water.

A study presented today at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress found that people who used an immersible ergocycle – basically an exercise bike in a pool – had just about the equivalent workout to using a typical stationary bike.

The Canadian Cardiovascular Society is the first in Canada to issue guidelines aimed at helping primary care and emergency physicians, as well as specialists, recognize and manage heart failure in children. The guidelines were released today at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress.

Pediatric heart failure is often fatal and occurs in about 3,000 children annually in North America. Worldwide, the problem is far greater and the causes are diverse. To date there has been little guidance to assist practitioners who deal with children with heart failure.

Bacteria in the guts of honeybees are highly resistant to the antibiotic tetracycline, probably as a result of decades of preventive antibiotic use in domesticated hives. Researchers from Yale University identified eight different tetracycline resistance genes among U.S. honeybees that were exposed to the antibiotic, but the genes were largely absent in bees from countries where such antibiotic use is banned. The study appears on October 30 in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

Public health researchers examining data from an Indiana Adult Tobacco Survey found nearly 75 percent of Hoosiers support a statewide or community indoor workplace smoking ban.

The results of this study could be important in increasing focused public awareness strategies aimed at reducing exposure to secondhand smoke, said Terrell Zollinger, professor of epidemiology and associate director of the Center for Health Policy in the Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, who led the study.

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Community colleges in the United States have made huge strides since 2008 in cultivating a global workforce, according to a first-of-its-kind study co-led by a Michigan State University researcher.

In 2008, about 51 percent of community colleges offered a basic course in international business. Four years later that number has jumped to 85 percent, said Tomas Hult, director of MSU's International Business Center, who led the study with Lansing Community College professor William Motz.

As crackdowns get tougher on alcohol, tobacco sales, and illicit drugs, there's a growing trend among youth to turn to another source to get high: their parent's medicine cabinet. A new University of Cincinnati study suggests adolescent males are at a higher risk of reporting longtime use of over-the-counter drugs, compared with their female peers.

A new study out of the University of Cincinnati finds that both school bullies and their victims are likely to abuse alcohol after a bullying episode. Keith King, a University of Cincinnati professor of health promotion, along with Rebecca Vidourek, a UC assistant professor of health promotion, will present early findings of a new study on Oct. 29, at the 140th Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association in San Francisco.

BOSTON, MA - Two studies led by The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have found that proton therapy preserves the quality of life, specifically urinary and bowel function, in men treated with this targeted radiation modality for prostate cancer.

Both studies, led by Andrew K. Lee, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor in MD Anderson's Department of Radiation Oncology, will be presented in a poster session at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).

A study in The Journal of Cell Biology shows how a transcription factor called STAT3 remains in the axon of nerve cells to help prevent neurodegeneration. The findings could pave the way for future drug therapies to slow nerve damage in patients with neurodegenerative diseases.