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DURHAM, N.C. -- Home visits from a nurse are a proven, but expensive, way to help newborns get a good start in life.

New research from Duke University suggests that less costly home visiting programs can reach more families and still produce significant health care improvements. Infants in the study had 50 percent fewer emergency care episodes than other babies in the first year of life.

An experimental cancer drug that has shown promise in the treatment of melanoma has also shown early potential as an effective treatment for patients with non-small cell lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death among men and women worldwide.

Dr. Edward Garon, director of thoracic oncology at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, presented the preliminary results of a Phase 1B study of the new drug, called MK-3475, on Oct. 29 at the World Conference on Lung Cancer in Sydney, Australia.

The November issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology (JACR®) focuses on a variety of issues relating to clinical practice, practice management, health services and policy, and radiology education and training.

A 20% tax on sugar sweetened drinks would reduce the number of UK adults who are obese by 180,000 (1.3%) and who are overweight by 285,000 (0.9%), suggests a study published on bmj.com today.

Although this is a relatively modest effect, people aged 16-29 years, as the major consumers of sugar sweetened drinks, would be impacted the most, say the authors.

This news release is available in Spanish, French, Portuguese and Arabic.

Washington, DC (October 31, 2013) — A patient's immune response may provide better and more rapid insights into the cause, severity, and prognosis of certain bacterial infections than conventional tests, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). Such an "immune fingerprint" could lead to more accurate diagnoses and more appropriate antibiotic treatment.

Malaria is one of the major infectious diseases transmitted by mosquitos, with enormous impact on quality of life. According to World Health Organization figures, as of 2010 there were over 219 million reported cases of malaria with an estimated 660,000 deaths. Plasmodium vivax, which is the second most prevalent species of the human malaria parasite, is widely distributed around the world especially in Asia, Melanesia, the Middle East, South and Central America. 2.85 billion people worldwide live at risk of the infection in 2009.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Researchers at Oregon State University have discovered that one gene in a common fungus acts as a master regulator, and deleting it has opened access to a wealth of new compounds that have never before been studied – with the potential to identify new antibiotics.

The finding was announced today in the journal PLOS Genetics, in research supported by the National Institutes of Health and the American Cancer Society.

A leading cause of heart disease remains overlooked in North America's most impoverished communities, researchers said today in an editorial published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. Chagas disease has rendered a heavy health and economic toll, yet insufficient political and medical support for gathering specific data, providing diagnosis and treatment, and developing new tools has impeded much-needed breakthroughs.

DENVER - The earliest possible detection of quagga and zebra mussels has long been a goal of biologists seeking to discover their presence in water bodies. The Bureau of Reclamation's Detection Laboratory has released two reports identifying a new sampling method to improve the accuracy of quagga and zebra mussel detection while still at the microscopic larval stage.The reports also outline the processes and procedures used to identify invasive mussels through DNA testing.

University of Colorado Cancer Center researchers used data from 4,276 cases of male breast cancer and 718,587 cases of female breast cancer to show that the disease is treated differently in men than in women. Specifically, male breast cancer is treated with mastectomy more often than female breast cancer, and in cases in which locally advanced female breast cancer is commonly treated with radiation, the treatment is less used in the male disease.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Snoring during pregnancy may be bad for the new baby's health, according to research from the University of Michigan Health System.

Moms who snored three or more nights a week had a higher risk of poor delivery outcomes – including Cesarean births and delivering smaller babies – according to the research that appears in scientific journal Sleep. The study is believed to be the largest of its kind to link maternal snoring to baby health by following moms from pregnancy through delivery.

A shot in the neck of local anesthesia may reduce hot flashes by as much as 50 percent for at least six months, a recent Northwestern Medicine® study found.

"We think we are resetting the thermostat in women who are experiencing moderate to very severe hot flashes without using hormonal therapies," said David Walega, MD, chief of the Division of Pain Medicine at Northwestern Memorial Hospital andNorthwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Walega presented the results of the initial study at a recent American Society of Anesthesiologists annual meeting.

Using protein engineering and two different cutting-edge structural biology imaging techniques, researchers have developed a detailed picture of the protein largely responsible for enabling HIV to enter human immune cells and cause infection. An in-depth understanding of the atomic structure of the HIV envelope trimer—or Env, the three-component protein found on HIV's surface—is critical to better understanding how HIV gains entry into cells and for creating potential HIV vaccines.

LA JOLLA, CA—October 31, 2013—Collaborating scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and Weill Cornell Medical College have determined the first atomic-level structure of the tripartite HIV envelope protein—long considered one of the most difficult targets in structural biology and of great value for medical science.

The new findings provide the most detailed picture yet of the AIDS-causing virus’s complex envelope, including sites that future vaccines will try to mimic to elicit a protective immune response.