Body

Tiny extensions on cells, cilia, play an important role in insulin release, according to a new study, which is published in Nature Communications. The researchers report that the cilia of beta cells in the pancreas are covered with insulin receptors and that changed ciliary function can be associated with the development of type 2 diabetes.

Even more remarkably, the UW authors found that the re-development of orange-producing xanthophores requires thyroid hormone, the same hormone that turns tadpoles into frogs, suggesting that xanthophores undergo their own metamorphosis. At the same time thyroid hormone blocks development of the black cells, setting the proper shade overall.

Berlin, Germany (November, 2014) – Closely related groups can differ dramatically in their diversity, but why this happens is a fundamental question in evolutionary biology, dating back to Darwin's observation that a few hyper-diverse groups dominate the modern biota. One of the most extreme examples of this observation is found in the comparison of rodents (Rodentia) and rabbits (Lagomorpha).

November 5, 2014, Hong Kong, China –Today, the international open-access open-data journal GigaScience (a BGI and BioMed Central journal) announced publication of an article that presents GWATCH1, a new web-based platform that provides visualization tools for identifying disease-associated genetic markers from privacy-protected human data without risk to patient privacy.

Fast, on-the-spot tests for bacterial infections may help to reduce excessive antibiotic use. A systematic review published in The Cochrane Library, found that when doctors tested for the presence of bacterial infections they prescribed fewer antibiotics.

PRINCETON, N.J.—Life satisfaction dips around middle age and rises in older age in high-income, English-speaking countries, but that is not a universal pattern, according to a new report published in The Lancet as part of a special series on ageing. In contrast, residents of other regions — such as the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa — grow increasingly less satisfied as they age.

A major new Series on health and ageing, published in The Lancet, warns that unless health systems find effective strategies to address the problems faced by an ageing world population, the growing burden of chronic disease will greatly affect the quality of life of older people. As people across the world live longer, soaring levels of chronic illness and diminished wellbeing are poised to become a major global public health challenge.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A new statistical analysis of results from the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) concludes that performing low-dose computerized tomography screening can be cost-effective compared to doing no screening for lung cancer in aging smokers.

"This provides evidence, given the assumptions we used, that it is cost-effective," said Ilana Gareen, assistant professor (research) of epidemiology in Brown University's School of Public Health and second author on the new study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The road that connects also divides.

This dichotomy – half-century-old roads connecting portions of Bahamian islands while fragmenting the tidal waters below – leads to rapid and interesting changes in the fish living in those fragmented sections, according to a new study from North Carolina State University.

MINNEAPOLIS – Commonly prescribed, older drugs for arthritis and pain may increase the risk of death from stroke, according to a study published in the November 5, 2014, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Stroke is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While the incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) in people 50 years or older has declined, the incidence among people 20 to 49 years has increased, according to a report published online by JAMA Surgery.

A tiny fraction of adverse events occurred after dermatologists performed more than 20,000 noninvasive and minimally invasive cosmetic procedures, according to a study published online by JAMA Dermatology.

Cosmetic dermatology is a well-developed field and data suggest the procedures are associated with a low rate of adverse events, according to background information in the study.

November 5, 2014 – In the next 15 years, more than one in 10 colon cancers and nearly one in four rectal cancers will be diagnosed in patients younger than the traditional screening age, according to researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. This growing public health problem is underscored by data trends among 20- to 34-year-olds in the U.S., among whom the incidence of colon and rectal cancer (CRC) is expected to increase by 90% and 124.2%, respectively, by 2030.

When in doubt, an expert always knows better. Except in the case of mutual-fund managers. There may be some room for doubt in their case a new study by Andriy Bodnaruk, an assistant finance professor at the University of Notre Dame, and colleague Andrei Simonov from Michigan State University, suggests.

Bodnaruk and Simonov studied 84 mutual-fund managers in Sweden to determine how well they manage their own finances.

DALLAS – November 5, 2014 – UT Southwestern Medical Center physician-researchers found that 1-in-5 parents of overweight Latino children is not directly told that the child is overweight. Furthermore, sometimes no discussion of weight occurred when a language barrier existed – a finding that signifies the challenges of reversing the rapidly rising rates of obesity in minority children. The study is published in the November edition of the journal Pediatrics.