Body

BOSTON--The vast majority of patients with incurable lung or colorectal cancer talk with a physician about their options for care at the end of life, but often not until late in the course of their illness, according to a new study by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute investigators published in the Feb. 7 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Meyers is an expert in biomimetics, the study of natural materials from living organisms and the processes that produce them. He says that engineers are pursuing biomimetics because "we are hitting a wall, so to speak" with conventional materials and syntheses.

"We have used our ingenuity to the maximum, but one way to overcome that is to look at nature," Meyers suggested. "The materials that nature has at its disposal are not very strong, but nature combines them in a very ingenious way to produce strong components and strong designs."

Researchers are continuing to sound the alarm on the growing threat of multi-drug resistant gonorrhea in the United States, according to a Perspective commentary in the Feb. 9 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

In July 2011, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released "Cephalosporin Susceptibility Among Neisseria gonorrhoeae Isolates - United States, 2000-2010," which signaled the potential for resistance to the cephalosporins, the last line of defense for treating gonorrhea.

New Rochelle, NY, February 8, 2012—Chronic neuropathic pain following a spinal cord injury is common and very difficult to treat, but a new therapeutic strategy requiring a one-time injection into the spinal column has potential to improve patient outcomes.

New Rochelle, NY, February 8, 2012—A clinically challenging and under-studied subset of diseases affecting the lymphatic system and grouped under the disease spectrum lymphangiomatosis and Gorham's disease is the focus of a special issue of Lymphatic Research and Biology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.. The issue is available free online at www.liebertpub.com/lrb

Ann Arbor, Mich. – Beauty is more than skin deep, at least for fruit flies studied in new research that demonstrates how age-related changes in pheromone production can reduce sexual attractiveness.

If there was a 'Just So' story for how the zebra got its stripes, I'm sure that Rudyard Kipling would have come up with an amusing and entertaining camouflage explanation. But would he have come up with the explanation that Gábor Horváth, Susanne Åkesson and colleagues from Hungary and Sweden have: that zebra's stripes stave off blood-sucking insects?

DALLAS (February 9, 2012) — In a study to be presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in Dallas, Texas, researchers will report findings that indicate that prescription medications may affect the body's ability to metabolize 17-alpha-hydroxyprogesterone caproate (17-OHPC), the only FDA approved medication for the prevention of recurrent preterm birth.

DALLAS (Feb. 9, 2012) — In a study to be presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in Dallas, Texas, researchers will report findings that show that, for children with spina bifida, surgery conducted while the fetus is still in utero as opposed to surgery on a newborn is more cost effective due to the costs associated with caring for a child with significant deficits.

DALLAS (February 9, 2012) — In a study to be presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in Dallas, Texas, researchers will report findings that indicate that women who deliver their first baby early are more likely to have a subsequent baby that is small for its gestational age, even when the second pregnancy is carried to term.

Cincinnati, OH [February 9, 2012] – Preterm infants born with extremely low birth weights have an increased risk of death during the first year of life. Although researchers have extensively studied risk factors that could contribute to the death of preterm infants, limited information is available after infants are released from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

HOUSTON -- (Feb. 9, 2012) – Aging takes its toll on sex appeal and now an international team of researchers led by Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Michigan find that in fruit flies, at least, it even diminishes the come-hither effect of the chemicals of love – pheromones.

Tarsiers are pint-size primates from Southeast Asia who produce some of the most extreme ultrasonic calls in the animal kingdom, well beyond the threshold of human hearing.

The management of tuberculosis cases in the European Union (EU) is not meeting international standards, according to new research.

The research, published online ahead of print in the European Respiratory Journal, has identified key areas of priority for public action to combat the growing number of drug-resistant tuberculosis cases.

A common heart disease which kills thousands each year may be passed genetically from father to son, according to a study led by the University of Leicester.

A paper published in medical journal The Lancet on THURSDAY FEB 9 shows that the Y chromosome, a part of DNA present only in men, plays a role in the inheritance of coronary artery disease (CAD).