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This release is available in http://chinese..org/zh/emb_releases/2010-01/jaaj-_1010710.php">Chinese.

An apparently increasingly used treatment method for a type of Achilles tendon disorder that includes injection of platelet-rich plasma into the tendon does not appear to result in greater improvement in pain or activity compared to placebo, according to results of a preliminary study published in the January 13 issue of JAMA.

This release is available in http://chinese..org/zh/emb_releases/2010-01/jaaj-010710.php">Chinese.

Preliminary research suggests that variation of a gene for a plasma protein is associated with slower age-related memory decline and a lower risk of dementia and Alzheimer disease (AD), according to a study in the January 13 issue of JAMA.

Pancreatic cancer cell invasion along nerves is regulated by a paracrine pathway that involves glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor, which may be a possible target for preventing the invasion, according to a new study published online January 12 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

A person who has multiple family members with pancreatic cancer ("familial pancreatic cancer") is six times as likely to develop that cancer. This risk is even higher, nine times that of the general population, if one of their relatives developed their cancer under the age of 50, according to a new study published online January 12 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Older patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) might benefit from a drug that reactivates genes that cancer cells turn off, according to research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and collaborating institutions. The researchers say the findings support further investigation of the drug, decitabine, as a first-line treatment for these patients, who have limited treatment options.

University of Iowa researchers have confirmed that sediments of the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal (IHSC) in East Chicago, Ind., are contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

The IHSC, part of the Calumet River tributary of Lake Michigan, will begin being dredged in the next few years to maintain the proper depth for ship traffic, with uncertain environmental impacts in regard to PCBs. Scientists aren't sure whether dredging will help the situation by removing the potentially harmful compounds or hurt it by stirring them up.

A nationwide ban on affirmative action in college admissions would cause a 10 percent drop in black and Hispanic enrollment at the nation's most selective colleges and universities, according to a new study. Overall black and Hispanic representation in four-year institutions would decline by two percent, the study found.

The research, conducted by economist Jessica Howell of California State University, Sacramento, is published in the January issue of the Journal of Labor Economics.

Many people who grow bamboo in their yards soon regret it, and spend the rest of their days trying to kill it off. The U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), however, is glad to have a bamboo nursery.

These are the kinds of bamboo that can be troublesome to property owners—the kinds with runners—but that feature is exactly what makes them possibly valuable to a place like the Savannah River Site.

Boston, Mass. -- Melanoma, if not detected in its early stages, transforms into a highly deadly, treatment-resistant cancer. Although the immune system initially responds to melanoma and mounts anti-tumor attacks, these assaults are generally ineffective, allowing more advanced melanomas to win the battle and spread beyond the primary site. Now, researchers at Children's Hospital Boston and Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) shed light on how melanomas stimulate, yet ultimately evade, a patient's immune system.

New child survival programs must engage evaluation teams from the start to identify the major causes of child mortality in intervention areas and to ensure that appropriate resources are available to scale up coverage and treatment, according to a retrospective evaluation led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study—the first in a series of articles to focus on evidence from large-scale evaluations—will appear in the January 16 issue of the Lancet and is now available online.

The poster child for sustainable fish farming—the tilapia—is actually a problematic invasive species for the native fish of the islands of Fiji, according to a new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society and other groups.

Scientists suspect that tilapia introduced to the waterways of the Fiji Islands may be gobbling up the larvae and juvenile fish of several native species of goby, fish that live in both fresh and salt water and begin their lives in island streams.

MADISON — A team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers has created the strongest form of collagen known to science, a stable alternative to human collagen that could one day be used to treat arthritis and other conditions that result from collagen defects.

"It's by far the most stable collagen ever made," says Ron Raines, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of chemistry and biochemistry who led the study, published in the Jan. 12 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Genetic analyses of avian influenza in wild birds can help pinpoint likely carrier species and geographic hot spots where Eurasian viruses would be most likely to enter North America, according to new U.S. Geological Survey research.

LA JOLLA, CA—January 5, 2010—An enzyme that normally helps break down stored fats goes into overdrive in some cancer cells, making them more malignant, according to new findings by a team at The Scripps Research Institute.

On the marine microbial stage, there appears to be a vast, varied group of understudies only too ready to step in when "star" microbes "break a leg."

At least that's what happens at the Lost City hydrothermal vent field, according to research results published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS).