Body

In the past five years, the number of lung transplantations carried out has increased by about 20%. In the end stage of various lung diseases, transplantation is the last remaining option for treatment, and it can both prolong life and improve its quality. Marc Hartert and colleagues have studied how patients do after a lung transplant, and their review appears in the current edition of the Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2014; 111(7): 107–16).

New Rochelle, NY, March 5, 2014—Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection can lead to serious diseases such as cirrhosis and cancer of the liver, so viral clearance and prevention of relapse are important treatment goals.

ITHACA, N.Y. – Like mobsters following strict orders, newly engineered molecules called "ubiquibodies" can mark specific proteins inside a cell for destruction – a molecular kiss of death that is paving the way for new drug therapies and powerful research tools.

This news release is available in German.

Scientists in Freiburg may have discovered a fundamental aggravating factor in autoimmune diseases. If B-lymphocytes lack the protein PTP1B, the cells will become hyperactive for stimulatory signals and can thus promote an autoimmune attack. This study offers an additional explanation to how B-cells regulate an immune response.

FAIRFAX, Va.—Interventional radiologists have devised a new way to access a woman's fibroids—by flipping her wrist and treating via an arm not groin artery—to nonsurgically shrink noncancerous growths in the muscular wall of the uterus. Researchers found this to be less painful and traumatic for women, allowing them to immediately sit up and move after uterine fibroid embolization (UFE)—with no overnight stay, according to a March article in the Society of Interventional Radiology's flagship publication, the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology.

Although the marketing slogan suggests that Barbie can "Be Anything," girls who play with this extremely popular doll see fewer career options available to themselves compared to boys. So say Aurora Sherman of Oregon State University and Eileen Zurbriggen of the University of California, Santa Cruz, who conducted one of the first experiments on how playing with fashion dolls influences girls' perceptions about their future occupational options. The findings, which the psychologists describe as "sobering," are published in Springer's journal Sex Roles.

The banana variety Yangambi km5 produces toxic substances that kill the nematode Radopholus similis, a roundworm that infects the root tissue of banana plants – to the frustration of farmers worldwide. The finding bodes well for the Grande Naine, the export banana par excellence, which is very susceptible to the roundworms.

As shown in a study carried out by researchers at 13 research centres in Asturias, Gipuzkoa, Sabadell and Valencia, over half of non-smoking pregnant women, 55%, are passive smokers. These women are under the effect of tobacco smoke to a considerable extent because a member of the household, their partner in particular, smokes at home. The result of the study has been published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

LOS ANGELES – (March 5, 2014) – Changing the hospital orders for women who have just delivered a child led to a 69% increase in the new mothers' pertussis vaccination rate, providing protection for themselves and their newborns against the disease, commonly known as whooping cough, according to a study in the March issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

The new research, which was published in the journal Demographic Research, shows that increasing labor force participation by as little as 1 or 2 percentage points could allow pension ages to be reduced by one year without increasing the burden on the working population.

"Coping with aging populations is a challenge for most developed countries," says IIASA population expert Sergei Scherbov, who co-led the study with Warren Sanderson, a researcher at IIASA and Stony Brook University.

Though present in more than 6,000 living species of fish, the adipose fin, a small appendage that lies between the dorsal fin and tail, has no clear function and is thought to be vestigial. However, a new study analyzing their origins finds that these fins arose repeatedly and independently in multiple species. In addition, adipose fins appear to have repeatedly and independently evolved a skeleton, offering a glimpse into how new tissue types and structural complexity evolve in vertebrate appendages.

Alexandria, VA and Needham, MA – Due to rigorous disaster preparedness and the heroic actions of first responders and emergency and trauma personnel, not a single one of the nearly 200 people hospitalized after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings died, despite many grave injuries. And, thanks to the orthopaedic surgeons and physical therapists who have helped those affected, survivors are now well on the road to recovery.

AQUATIC ENVIRONMENT Seventy-five per cent of antibiotics in Danish fish farms is used to treat fish with enteric redmouth disease. With the help of 3D scans, researchers at the University of Copenhagen have mapped how the fish are infected with the bacterium. The findings were recently published in the scientific publication PLOS ONE.

Fascinating 3D images of rainbow trout give researchers a crystal clear picture of how the bacterium causing enteric redmouth disease infects fish.

New York — March 3, 2014 — A new approach to breast reconstruction surgery aimed at helping patients' bodies get back to normal more quickly cut their postoperative opioid painkiller use in half and meant a day less in the hospital on average, a Mayo Clinic study found. The method includes new pain control techniques, preventive anti-nausea treatment and getting women eating and walking soon after free flap breast reconstruction surgery. It has proved so effective, it is now being used across plastic surgery at Mayo Clinic.

Over the last two decades, huge numbers of fossils have been collected from the western Liaoning Province and adjacent parts of northeastern China, including exceptionally preserved feathered dinosaurs, early birds, and mammals. Most of these specimens are from the Cretaceous Period, including the famous Jehol Biota. However, in recent years many fossils have emerged from sites that are 30 million years earlier, from the Middle-Upper Jurassic Period, providing an exceptional window on life approximately 160 million years ago.