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Coroners are more likely to hold inquests for deaths involving younger people or people who died of fatal complications from medical care, according to a study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal.)

Coroners must usually be notified of a death if it was violent or unexpected, if the identity of the deceased is not known, or if the deceased was in the custody or care of the state when he or she died.

Augusta, Ga. – An international research team may have found a way to block a second wave of death that can result from pneumonia treatment.

Antibiotics are effective at killing pneumococcus – the cause of about 50 percent of pneumonias – but as it dies the bacterium releases potentially lethal toxins.

Adding an agonist that mimics the action of growth hormone-releasing hormone – which ultimately enables growth – may stop that second wave, according to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Mums-to-be who are both overweight and smoke during their pregnancy risk damaging their baby's developing heart, finds research published online in Heart.

Congenital heart abnormalities are some of the most common defects found at birth, with around eight in every 1000 babies affected. A likely cause is only found in 15% of cases.

The authors base their findings on an analysis of almost 800 babies and foetuses who were born with congenital heart abnormalities, but no other defects, between 1997 and 2008.

The use of probiotic bacteria, isolated from naturally-occurring bacterial communities, is gaining in popularity in the aquaculture industry as the preferred, environmentally-friendly management alternative to the use of antibiotics and other antimicrobials for disease prevention. Known to the public for their use in yogurt and other foods to improve human digestion and health, probiotic bacteria isolated from other sources can also be used to improve survival, nutrition and disease prevention in larvae grown in shellfish hatcheries.

Hispanic children are more likely than those from other racial and ethnic backgrounds to be diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and are more likely to die of their disease. Work led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists has pinpointed genetic factors behind the grim statistics.

AIKEN, S.C. (January 30, 2012) – Sometimes bigger isn't better.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River National Laboratory have successfully shown that they can replace useful little particles of monosodium titanate (MST) with even tinier nano-sized particles, making them even more useful for a variety of applications.

Think of them as a group of guys, hanging out together, but not spending much time with the ladies, nor getting much "action." Except these "guys" are forked fungus beetles.

Forked what? Yes, forked fungus beetles. Like other insects and animals, they have their own societies. Most are highly social, but some hang out in small guy groups.

National parks often are established to help preserve species native to a particular region, but it appears that some species preservation is more successful if a significant portion of land adjacent to a park also is left as natural habitat.

The Cerrado region in Brazil has been identified as the most biologically diverse savanna on Earth, and Emas National Park is an important protected area for populations of wide-ranging large mammals such as giant anteaters, jaguars and puma.

TAMPA, Fla. -- Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center, who teamed with colleagues at five universities around the United States, analyzed past studies of cancer-related pain reduction and found that psychosocial interventions can have a beneficial effect on cancer patients' pain severity. They also found that certain psychosocial interventions provide better pain management and are effective in reducing the degree to which pain related to cancer and its treatment interferes with patients' lives.

New Rochelle, NY -- If you think palliative care and the ICU don't go together, think again. The importance and potential benefits of palliative care to ease suffering and improve quality of life for patients being treated in hospital intensive care units (ICUs) has received increasing recognition but is not without significant challenges, as discussed in a Roundtable discussion in Journal of Palliative Medicine, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (http://www.liebertpub.com).

Coroners are more likely to hold inquests for deaths involving younger people or people who died of fatal complications from medical care, according to a study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

A new study in the Journal of General Physiology (www.jgp.org) uses state-of-the-art fluorescence microscopy to provide a striking 3-D picture of how class V myosins (myoV) "walk" along their actin track.

Glioblastomas grow extremely aggressively into healthy brain tissue and, moreover, are highly resistant to radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Therefore, they are regarded as the most malignant type of brain tumor. Currently available treatment methods are frequently not very effective against this type of cancer. Glioblastoma can affect people of all ages, but is less common in children than in adults.

Researchers in Lille and Paris demonstrated that mutations in the melatonin receptor gene (melatonin or the "hormone of darkness" induces sleep) lead to an almost sevenfold increase in the risk of developing diabetes. This research, which was published in Nature Genetics on 29 January 2012, could contributed to the development of new drugs for the treatment or prevention of this metabolic disease.

A new family of proteins which regulate the human body's 'hypoxic response' to low levels of oxygen has been discovered by scientists at Barts Cancer Institute at Queen Mary, University of London and The University of Nottingham.

The discovery has been published in the international journal Nature Cell Biology. It marks a significant step towards understanding the complex processes involved in the hypoxic response which, when it malfunctions, can cause and affect the progress of many types of serious disease, including cancer.