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HOUSTON – (Feb. 3, 2014) – Chinese protectionism in the digital media sphere has created a major underdiscussed trade gap between China and the United States, and the U.S. government must place more pressure on the Chinese government to open up the nation's media to foreign competition, according to a new paper from Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.

The accumulation of age-associated changes in a biochemical process that helps control genes may be responsible for some of the increased risk of cancer seen in older people, according to a National Institutes of Health study.

Maybe you've seen the movies or played with toy Transformers, those shape-shifting machines that morph in response to whatever challenge they face. It turns out that DNA-repair machines in your cells use a similar approach to fight cancer and other diseases, according to research led by scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

As reported in a pair of new studies, the scientists gained new insights into how a protein complex called Mre11-Rad50 reshapes itself to take on different DNA-repair tasks.

ALEXANDRIA, VA — With one in every 123 people in the United States affected by Acute Otits Externa or "swimmer's ear" each year, the American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery Foundation released an evidence-based guideline to improve the diagnosis and treatment. The guideline, updated from 2006, was published Monday in the journal Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery.

A new coral species, Psammogorgia hookeri, has been collected by scuba divers from rocky ledges at depths to 25 meters in Peru's Paracas National Reserve. The corals' hand-sized colonies are slightly smaller than the colonies of their closest relative. Costa Rican researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the University of Costa Rica have named the coral for Yuri Hooker, biologist and naturalist at the Cayetano Heredia Peruvian University in Lima, Peru. Researchers also found bits of coral attached to mussels from Independence Bay at a local fish market.

PITTSBURGH, Feb. 3, 2014 – Opening up a can of worms is a good way to start hunting for new drugs, recommend researchers from Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. In a study published today in the Public Library of Science One, they used a primitive worm model to show that a drug typically used to treat agitation in schizophrenia and dementia has potential as a treatment for α-1 antitrypsin (AT) deficiency, an inherited disease that causes severe liver scarring.

Camels are mentioned as pack animals in the biblical stories of Abraham, Joseph, and Jacob. But archaeologists have shown that camels were not domesticated in the Land of Israel until centuries after the Age of the Patriarchs (2000-1500 BCE). In addition to challenging the Bible's historicity, this anachronism is direct proof that the text was compiled well after the events it describes.

Astrocytomas are the most common malignant brain tumors. While most patients' tumors prove to be quite aggressive, outcomes overall can vary widely, with some patients surviving for many years. Now a new study has found that malignant astrocytoma patients whose tumors carry a specific genetic mutation benefit greatly from surgical removal of the largest possible amount of tumor. Preliminary results of the study were reported at the 2012 American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting, and the team's full report appears in the January issue of the journal Neuro-Oncology.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is characterized by the inappropriate replacement of normal bone marrow with white blood cells due to dysfunctional hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) differentiation. Many of the identified AML-associated mutations lie within genes encoding epigenetic modifiers, suggesting that evaluation of epigenetic signatures could be used to identify sub-groups of AML.

Women who take nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) during pregnancy are not at increased risk of miscarriages, confirms a new study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

NSAIDs, which include ibuprofen, naproxen, diclofenac and others, are increasingly used by pregnant women in the first trimester to combat pain, fever and inflammation. However, it is unclear whether they increase the risk of pregnancy loss because previous studies have shown inconsistent results.

February 3, 2014 — (Bronx, NY) — Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Montefiore Medical Center have found a chemical "signature" in blood-forming stem cells that predicts whether patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) will respond to chemotherapy.

Whether it's season tickets to Green Bay Packers' games or silver place settings, divorce and inheritance have bred protracted disputes over the assignment of belongings. But, now, a trio of researchers has found a method for resolving such conflicts in an envy-free way.

Augusta, Ga. – Most adolescents consume as much salt as adults – some more than twice the recommended daily allowance – and that high sodium intake correlates with fatness and inflammation regardless of how many calories they consume, researchers report.

In a study of 766 healthy teens, 97 percent self-reported exceeding the American Heart Association's recommendation of consuming less than 1,500 milligrams of sodium daily, according to a study in the journal Pediatrics.

TORONTO, February 3, 2014 – Women with schizophrenia are nearly twice as likely to experience pre-eclampsia, pre-term birth and other serious pregnancy and delivery complications as women without the condition, a landmark study by researchers at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) and Women's College Hospital has found.