Body

Scientists have added another piece to the evolutionary puzzle to explain why certain mammal families evolved to be very large, while others remained tiny.

In research published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, an international group of scientists including Monash University's Dr Alistair Evans proposed a new theory explaining the diversity of mammal sizes - from the Etruscan shrew which weighs around two grams, to the blue whale which clocks in at almost 200 tonnes. Surprisingly, baby weight relative to adult body mass is key.

LOS ANGELES (June 25, 2013) – Researchers at the Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute have uncovered for the first time the vital role a popular protein plays in the stroma, the cell-lined area outside of a prostate tumor.

Researchers have long understood the function of the protein, Caveolin-1 (Cav-1), in prostate cancer, including its role in treatment resistance and disease aggressiveness. However, prior to this study, little was known about the role of Cav-1 within the stroma.

MAYWOOD, Il. -- In women who have type 2 diabetes and show signs of depression, vitamin D supplements significantly lowered blood pressure and improved their moods, according to a pilot study at Loyola University Chicago Niehoff School of Nursing.

Vitamin D even helped the women lose a few pounds.

The study was presented at the American Diabetes Association 73rd Scientific Sessions in Chicago.

OAK BROOK, Ill. – Moderate-intensity exercise reduces fat stored around the heart, in the liver and in the abdomen of people with type 2 diabetes mellitus, even in the absence of any changes in diet, according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology.

Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body does not produce enough insulin, a hormone that regulates the movement of sugar into the cells, or when the cells resist the effects of insulin. The disease can lead to a wide range of complications, including damage to the eyes and kidneys and hardening of the arteries.

A new palm-sized microarray that holds 1,200 individual cultures of fungi or bacteria could enable faster, more efficient drug discovery, according to a study published in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

A unique health economics assessment of copper's role in preventing healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs) is being presented this week at the WHO's International Conference on Prevention and Infection Control (ICPIC) in Geneva, demonstrating rapid payback on the capital investment.

This may be because family doctors tend to attribute women's - rather than men's - initial symptoms to harmless causes, such as bacterial infections, and some women therefore have to visit their GP several times before they get referred to a specialist, say the researchers.

Currently, survival rates for kidney and bladder cancer in England show that fewer women than men live for five years after diagnosis.

PITTSBURGH—A landmark study investigating the long-term effects of weight loss on the risks of cardiovascular disease among patients with Type 2 diabetes has now concluded, with significant results to be published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Postmenopausal hormone therapy with conjugated equine estrogens (CEEs) was not associated with overall sustained benefit or risk to cognitive function when given to women ages 50 to 55 years, according to a report published Online First by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.

The Women's Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS) demonstrated that postmenopausal hormone therapy with CEEs, when prescribed to women 65 years and older, caused deficits in global and domain-specific cognitive functioning.

Hospital performance on publicly reported conditions (acute myocardial infarction [heart attack], congestive heart failure, and pneumonia), may potentially be used as a signal of overall hospital mortality rates, according to a study by Marta L. McCrum, M.D., of Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, and colleagues. (Online First)

Conversations between parents and adolescents that focus on weight and size are associated with an increased risk for unhealthy adolescent weight-control behaviors, according to a study published Online First by JAMA Pediatrics, a JAMA Network publication.

The study by University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, researchers also found that overweight or obese adolescents whose mothers engaged in conversations that were focused only on healthful eating behaviors were less likely to diet and use unhealthy weight-control behaviors (UWCBs).

The excess risk of death from ischemic (due to reduced blood flow), but not hemorrhagic (due to bleeding), stroke in US black children has decreased over the past decade, according to a study by Laura L. Lehman, M.D., of Boston Children's Hospital, and colleagues. (Online First)

EAST BOOTHBAY, MAINE -- A research team led by Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences has discovered that marine microbes are adapted to very narrow and specialized niches in their environment. This may explain why so few of these microbes—usually less than 1%—can be grown for study in the laboratory. By utilizing new genetic tools, the researchers' new ability to read and interpret genetic information from the remaining 99% will be pivotal in detecting and mitigating the impact of human activities in the ocean.

Bacterial DNA may integrate into the human genome more readily in tumors than in normal human tissue, scientists have found.

The researchers, affiliated with the University of Maryland School of Medicine's Institute for Genome Sciences, analyzed genomic sequencing data available from the Human Genome Project, the 1,000 Genomes Project and The Cancer Genome Atlas.

They considered the phenomenon of lateral gene transfer (LGT), the transmission of genetic material between organisms in a manner other than than traditional reproduction.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Rural women with breast cancer are less likely than their urban counterparts to receive recommended radiation therapy after having a lumpectomy, a breast-sparing surgery that removes only tumors and surrounding tissue, a study by Mayo Clinic and others found. The difference is one of several rural disparities in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment the researchers discovered. The findings are being presented at the AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting in Baltimore.