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Security guard industry lacks standards, training

EAST LANSING, Mich. --- Despite playing a more important role in the wake of 9/11, the security guard industry remains plagued by inadequate training and standards in many states, indicates new research by Michigan State University criminologists.

Formal training of the nation's 1 million-plus private security officers is widely neglected, a surprising finding when contrasted with other private occupations such as paramedics, childcare workers and even cosmetologists, said Mahesh Nalla, lead investigator and MSU professor of criminal justice.

New Ichthyosaur graveyard found

Boulder, Colo., USA – In a new study published in the Geological Society of America Bulletin, geoscientists Wolfgang Stinnesbeck of the University of Heidelberg and colleagues document the discovery of forty-six ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaurs (marine reptiles). These specimens were discovered in the vicinity of the Tyndall Glacier in the Torres del Paine National Park of southern Chile. Among them are numerous articulated and virtually complete skeletons of adults, pregnant females, and juveniles.

Breaking down barriers

The Gobi-Steppe Ecosystem is world renowned for its populations of migratory ungulates, which cover great distances in search of forage. Researchers at the Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology at Vetmeduni Vienna have documented, that in just one year an individual wild ass can range over an area of 70,000 km2. "Wild asses and gazelles have to be permanently on the move and travel very long distances to find enough food. Rainfall is highly variable in this region.

Stopping the spread of breast cancer

CHICAGO – The primary cause of death from breast cancer is the spread of tumor cells from the breast to other organs in the body. Northwestern Medicine® scientists have discovered a new pathway that can stop breast cancer cells from spreading.

Working with human breast cancer cells and mouse models of breast cancer, scientists identified a new protein that plays a key role in reprogramming cancer cells to migrate and invade other organs. When that protein is removed from cancer cells in mice, the ability of the cells to metastasize to the lung is dramatically decreased.

Liver cancer vaccine effective in mice

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Tweaking a protein expressed by most liver cancer cells has enabled scientists to make a vaccine that is exceedingly effective at preventing the disease in mice.

Alpha-Fetoprotein, or AFP – normally expressed during development and by liver cancer cells as well – has escaped attack in previous vaccine iterations because the body recognizes it as "self," said Dr. Yukai He, immunologist at the Medical College of Georgia and Georgia Regents University Cancer Center.

Spiders know the meaning of web music

Spider silk transmits vibrations across a wide range of frequencies so that, when plucked like a guitar string, its sound carries information about prey, mates, and even the structural integrity of a web.

'Liquid biopsy' offers new way to track lung cancer

Scientists have shown how a lung cancer patient's blood sample could be used to monitor and predict their response to treatment – paving the way for personalised medicine for the disease.

The recent study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, also offers a method to test new therapies in the lab and to better understand how tumours become resistant to drugs.

New insight into drug resistance in metastatic melanoma

A study by scientists in Manchester has shown how melanoma drugs can cause the cancer to progress once a patient has stopped responding to treatment.

Their findings suggest that using a combination of targeted therapies may be a more effective approach in the clinic.

Melanoma is a form of cancer that develops from melanocytes – the pigment-producing cells in skin. Advanced metastatic melanoma – where the cancer has spread throughout the body – is associated with poor survival, so new treatments are urgently needed.

Findings show benefit of changing measure of kidney disease progression

Developing therapies for kidney disease can be made faster by adopting a new, more sensitive definition of kidney disease progression, according to a study published by JAMA. The study is being released early online to coincide with its presentation at the European Renal Association-European Dialysis and Transplant Association Congress.

Columbia Nursing study exposes infection risks in home health

(NEW YORK, NY, June 3, 2014) – Millions of Americans depend on home health care services to recover from surgeries and hospital stays, as well as to manage daily life with chronic conditions. But all too often, evidence-based practices for preventing infections aren't followed when care is provided at home, leaving patients vulnerable to serious and potentially fatal complications.

Proteins 'ring like bells'

As far back as 1948, Erwin Schrödinger—the inventor of modern quantum mechanics—published the book "What is life?"

In it, he suggested that quantum mechanics and coherent ringing might be at the basis of all biochemical reactions. At the time, this idea never found wide acceptance because it was generally assumed that vibrations in protein molecules would be too rapidly damped.

Now, scientists at the University of Glasgow have proven he was on the right track after all.

Molecular 'scaffold' could hold key to new dementia treatments

Researchers at King's College London have discovered how a molecular 'scaffold' which allows key parts of cells to interact, comes apart in dementia and motor neuron disease, revealing a potential new target for drug discovery.

The study, published today in Nature Communications, was funded by the UK Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, Alzheimer's Research UK and the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

Tumor chromosomal translocations reproduced for the first time in human cells

Scientists from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) and the Spanish National Cardiovascular Research Centre (CNIC) have been able to reproduce, for the first time in human cells, chromosomal translocations associated with two types of cancer: acute myeloid leukaemia and Ewing's sarcoma. The discovery, published today in the journal Nature Communications, opens the door to the development of new therapeutic targets to fight these types of cancer.

Reduced neurosurgical resident hours: No significant positive effect on patient outcomes

Charlottesville, VA (June 3, 2014). In July 2003 the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) imposed a mandatory maximum 80-hour work-week restriction on medical residents. Before that time residents often worked in excess of 100 hours per week. To investigate whether positive changes in patient outcomes occurred following implementation of the ACGME mandate, four researchers from Minnesota—Kiersten Norby, M.D., Farhan Siddiq, M.D., Malik M. Adil, M.D., and Stephen J.

Bacterium causing US catfish deaths has Asian roots

A bacterium causing an epidemic among catfish farms in the southeastern United States is closely related to organisms found in diseased grass carp in China, according to researchers at Auburn University in Alabama and three other institutions. The study, published this week in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, suggests that the virulent U.S. fish epidemic emerged from an Asian source.