Body

Orange, Calif. – December 16, 2013 – Researchers at Children's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC Children's), one of the nation's 50 best children's hospitals, have identified a new technique that will significantly decrease pain for children following high-risk urology surgeries. Findings of the pain management technique were published in the December 2013 online issue of the Journal of Pediatric Urology.

The nutritional value of food and drinks advertised on children's television programs is worse than food shown in ads during general air time, according to University of Illinois at Chicago researchers.

The study is published in the December issue of the journal Childhood Obesity.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Researchers have created a new type of molecular motor made of DNA and demonstrated its potential by using it to transport a nanoparticle along the length of a carbon nanotube.

The design was inspired by natural biological motors that have evolved to perform specific tasks critical to the function of cells, said Jong Hyun Choi, a Purdue University assistant professor of mechanical engineering.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Forest geneticists at Oregon State University have created genetically modified poplar trees that grow faster, have resistance to insect pests and are able to retain expression of the inserted genes for at least 14 years, a report in the Canadian Journal of Forest Research just announced.

Diverticulosis, a condition that develops when pouches form in the wall of the colon, is increasing in frequency. It affects the majority of those reaching the age of 80 — a growing portion of the population — and imposes a substantial burden on health-care resources, but curiously there is a lack of data and unanswered questions around this condition.

ANN ARBOR—In a sort of biological "spooky action at a distance," water in a cell slows down in the tightest confines between proteins and develops the ability to affect other proteins much farther away, University of Michigan researchers have discovered.

Chevy Chase, MD— A new Scientific Statement issued today by The Endocrine Society represents a comprehensive evaluation of available information on the prevalence and medical consequences of the use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). The statement highlights the clinical pharmacology, adverse effects and detection of many substances often classified as PEDs, identifies gaps in knowledge and aims to focus the attention of the medical community and policymakers on PED use as an important public health problem.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Membrane proteins are the "gatekeepers" that allow information and molecules to pass into and out of a cell. Until recently, the microscopic study of these complex proteins has been restricted due to limitations of "force microscopes" that are available to researchers and the one-dimensional results these microscopes reveal. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have developed a three-dimensional microscope that will yield unparalleled study of membrane proteins and how they interact on the cellular level.

Despite the fact that chimpanzees and bonobos share similar starting conditions at birth they develop different behavioural patterns later in life. These differences might be caused by different hormone levels. Researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and the Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp in Belgium have analyzed thyroid hormones from urine samples of zoo-living chimpanzees and bonobos.

A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published online ahead of print in the journal Molecular Cancer Research shows that ALK and ROS1 gene rearrangements known to drive subsets of lung cancer are also present in some colorectal cancers. These results imply that drugs used to target ALK and ROS1 in lung cancer may also have applications in this subset of colorectal cancer patients.

Radiation therapy used to treat uterine cancer may increase a patient's risk of developing bladder cancer. That is the conclusion of a recent study published in BJU International. The findings indicate the importance of monitoring patients for potential signs of bladder cancer to ensure early diagnosis and treatment.

Researchers at the Moffitt Cancer Center have discovered a control mechanism that can trigger the development of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), a group of blood cancers. This finding may lead to therapies capable of preventing the progression of these diseases.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Chronic wounds affect an estimated 6.5 million Americans at an annual cost of about $25 billion. Further, foot blisters and other diabetic ulcers or sores account for the vast majority of foot and leg amputations in the United States today.

Why does treating chronic wounds cost so much? What complicates chronic wound infections, making healing difficult?

The generally poor health of Irish immigrants to England during most of the 20th century was not caused primarily by difficulties of assimilation or tensions between the two nations, but by the abuse Irish expatriates suffered as children in their homeland, according to a new study.

The findings published in the December issue of the academic journal Demography challenge the common view that the cause of the poor health of Irish immigrants to England is that conditions in England were very stressful for the Irish-born migrants.

A UCLA research team has found no evidence of an association between iron levels in the body and the risk of atherosclerosis, the hardening and narrowing of the arteries that leads to cardiovascular disease, the No. 1 killer in the U.S.