Body

Heart medication taken in combination with chemotherapy reduces the risk of serious cardiovascular damage in patients with early-stage breast cancer, according to results from a new landmark clinical trial.

Existing research has shown some cancer therapies such as Herceptin greatly improve survival rates for early-stage breast cancer, but come with a fivefold risk of heart failure--a devastating condition as life-threatening as the cancer itself.

Pulmonary hypertension is an umbrella term used for many conditions that all result in elevation of the pulmonary arterial pressure. Of interest, many of these completely different clinical and pathophysiological entities result in a final common pathway of vasoconstriction, micro thrombosis and vascular remodelling. Remodelling, due to neoplastic-like alterations in smooth muscle and endothelial cells of the vessel wall, is arguably the most important and, to date, the least treated factor in this pathogenetic triad.

Bulletproof vests and other super-strong materials could soon become even tougher and more environmentally friendly at the same time with the help of extra firm, or "al dente," fibers. Researchers report in ACS' journal Macromolecules an innovative way to spin high-performance polyethylene fibers from natural fats, such as oils from olives and peanuts.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Increasing state alcohol taxes could help prevent sexually transmitted infections, such as gonorrhea, according to University of Florida Health researchers, who found that gonorrhea rates decreased by 24 percent in Maryland after the state increased its sales tax on alcohol in 2011.

In today's issue of Nature Communications, University of Louisville scientists reveal research that increases the understanding of the mechanisms regulating adult stem cells required for skeletal muscle regeneration. Sajedah M. Hindi, Ph.D., of UofL's Department of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology, and Yuji Ogura, Ph.D., now of Japan, and other researchers show that the protein kinase TAK1 (transforming growth factor-B-activated kinase 1), is vital in regulating the survival and proliferation of satellite stem cells.

PHILADELPHIA--(Dec. 9, 2015) -- More than half of all people infected by the HIV-1 virus worldwide are women. Commercial sex workers, who are at increased risk of contracting HIV because of repeated exposure to the virus, have long been studied to test preventive behavioral and vaccine approaches aimed at decreasing the number of infections. In some areas of the world where HIV prevalence is higher, a small number of female sex workers continue to test negative for the infection despite repeated sexual activity and low rates of condom use.

Prior to the rise of modern day mammalian carnivores (lions and tigers and bears, as well as weasels, raccoons, wolves and other members of the order Carnivora), North America was dominated by a now extinct group of mammalian carnivores - the hyaenodontids. While fossils of hyaenodontids are relatively common from the early Eocene (between 50 and 55 million years ago), most of these are specimens of teeth.

A recent study published in Science by Tomasetti and Vogelstein suggests that variations in terms of cancer risk among tissues from various organs in the body merely amount to pure bad luck. In other words, cancer risk is linked to random mutations arising in the normal course of DNA replication of healthy cells. They also claim that environmental and genetic factors play a lesser role. The scientific community has primarily reacted negatively to this interpretation and promptly refuted it with qualitative arguments and empirical evidence.

The authors specifically took a look at complexity theory which is part of theoretical computer science as well as mathematics. It classifies algorithms that can solve certain categories of computational problems according to their inherent difficulty.

They applied these well-defined classes of complexity to some fundamental questions in biology, namely to the ecological and evolutionary dynamics within structured populations. These research questions investigate how population structures affect the outcome of the evolutionary process.

Oncologists are increasingly using information obtained from investigations of the tumor genome in order to find individualized therapies for patients. They specifically search the hereditary information of cancer cells for mutations that drive malignant growth. By now, targeted drugs against many of these cancer-typical cellular alterations have become available.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Within weeks, flu will start spreading across North America, sickening millions of people. It will hit people with health problems and weak immune systems hardest, and may kill tens of thousands of them.

Multiple national recommendations urge all healthcare workers to get the influenza vaccination, to reduce the chances they will pass the virus on to their patients.

The German research vessel Polarstern covers thousands of kilometres between the northern and southern hemispheres in search of samples of biological material. This ship, however, has some other on board passengers: organisms that can adapt to extreme water temperatures and could potentially invade the new waters where this ice breaker takes them. Upon analysing the DNA present in this vessel's ballast water, a team of scientists showed the first molecular evidence of the persistence of DNA belonging to a tiny sea snail which is capable of tolerating adverse conditions.

A team led by Professor Takafumi Uchida has created a new technique for visualizing the dynamics of nitrate (NO3-) and nitrite (NO2−), both markers of nitric oxide in a cell. Nitric oxide is a critical second messenger in the body, playing roles in vascular homeostasis, neurotransmission and host defense.

Health practitioners need more resources and expert guidelines to provide appropriate medical and psychological treatment for women and girls that have had female genital mutilation or cutting, says a new review of the evidence by University of Sydney scholars.

Published today in the open access journal BMC International Health and Human Rights the review's authors say more research is needed to assess the attitudes of health professionals' and to raise their awareness about this harmful practice.

The temple of Angkor Wat was much larger and more complex than previously thought, University of Sydney archaeologists have discovered.

The University of Sydney's Professor Roland Fletcher and Dr Damian Evans lead the Greater Angkor Project in Cambodia, a major international research collaboration which is using airborne laser scanning (LiDAR) technology, ground-penetrating radar and targeted excavation to map the great pre-industrial temple.

The landscape of Angkor Wat redefined