Body

The risk of developing cervical cancer can be significantly decreased through human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. Despite calls from leading health and professional organizations for universal vaccination for girls ages 11 and 12, the most recently published national data indicate that only 14.5 percent of 11- and 12-year-old girls have received at least one dose of the HPV vaccine and 3 percent have completed the three-dose series. A new Moffitt Cancer Center study provides insight into physician recommendations, one important factor that may contribute to these low levels of uptake.

ANN ARBOR—The recent Arctic blast that gripped much of the nation will likely contribute to a healthy rise in Great Lakes water levels in 2014, new research shows. But the processes responsible for that welcome outcome are not as simple and straightforward as you might think.

(Boston) – According to a new study from the Slone Epidemiology Center (SEC) at Boston University, African-American women who reported high levels of depressive symptoms had a greater likelihood of adult-onset asthma compared to women who reported fewer depressive symptoms.

The study, which currently appears online in the journal Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, was led by Patricia Coogan, DSc, senior epidemiologist at SEC and research professor of epidemiology at the Boston University School of Public Health.

How you seek is what you find

To understand how feeding interactions are structured, researchers from Finland and Canada chose to focus on one of the simplest food webs on Earth: the moths and butterflies of Northeast Greenland, as attacked by their specialist enemies, parasitic wasps and flies developing on their prey (called host), killing it in the process.

HEIDELBERG, 20 January 2014 – Scientists from the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital in Canada have discovered that two genes linked to hereditary Parkinson's disease are involved in the early-stage quality control of mitochondria. The protective mechanism, which is reported in The EMBO Journal, removes damaged proteins that arise from oxidative stress from mitochondria.

Today, January 21, JoVE, the Journal of Visualized Experiments, published a modern approach to a famed experiment that explored one of the most intriguing research questions facing scientists today—the origin of life on earth.

The protocol, titled Conducting Miller-Urey Experiments, is comprised of a modern and simplified approach to the method used by Dr. Stanley Miller and Dr. Harold Urey in 1953. Their research evaluated the possibility of organic compounds important for the origin of life to have been formed abiologically on early Earth.

A viral pathogen that typically infects plants has been found in honeybees and could help explain their decline. Researchers working in the U.S. and Beijing, China report their findings in mBio, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

This news release is available in French.

MONTREAL, January 21, 2014 - The development of physical aggression in toddlers is strongly associated genetic factors and to a lesser degree with the environment, according to a new study led by Eric Lacourse of the University of Montreal and its affiliated CHU Sainte-Justine Hospital. Lacourse's worked with the parents of identical and non-identical twins to evaluate and compare their behaviour, environment and genetics.

Someone with access to firearms is three times more likely to commit suicide and nearly twice as likely to be the victim of a homicide as someone who does not have access, according to a comprehensive review of the scientific literature conducted by researchers at UC San Francisco.

Concussions are common among middle-school girls who play soccer, and most continue to play with symptoms, according to a study by John W. O' Kane, M.D., of the University of Washington Sports Medicine Clinic, Seattle, and colleagues.

Sports-related concussions account for 1.6 to 3.8 million injuries in the United States annually, including about 50,000 soccer-related concussions among high school players. Injury-tracking systems for younger players are lacking so they are largely unstudied, according to the study background.

Chinese air pollution blowing across the Pacific Ocean is often caused by the manufacturing of goods for export to the U.S. and Europe, according to findings by UC Irvine and other researchers published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study is the first to quantify how much pollution reaching the American West Coast is from the production in China of cellphones, televisions and other consumer items imported here and elsewhere.

DURHAM, N.C. -- In 1859 an Australian farmer named Thomas Austin released 24 grey rabbits from Europe into the wild because it "could do little harm and might provide a touch of home, in addition to a spot of hunting."

People who enjoy life maintain better physical function in daily activities and keep up faster walking speeds as they age, compared with people who enjoy life less, according to a new study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

Cancer cells have something that every prisoner longs for—a master key that allows them to escape. A study in The Journal of Cell Biology describes how a protein that promotes tumor growth also enables cancer cells to use this key and metastasize.

Exposing skin to sunlight may help to reduce blood pressure and thus cut the risk of heart attack and stroke, a study published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology suggests.

Research carried out at the Universities of Southampton and Edinburgh shows that sunlight alters levels of the small messenger molecule, nitric oxide (NO) in the skin and blood, reducing blood pressure.