Body

DALLAS – May 18, 2011 – How fast can you run a mile?

If you're middle-aged, the answer could provide a strong predictor of your risk of heart attack or stroke over the next decade or more.

In two separate studies, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found that how fast a middle-age person can run a mile can help predict the risk of dying of heart attack or stroke decades later for men and could be an early indicator of cardiovascular disease for women.

CHICAGO --- A man's rising PSA (prostate-specific antigen) level over several years – which had been seen as a possible warning sign of prostate cancer – has recently come under fire as a screening test because it sometimes prompts biopsies that turn out to be normal.

A new study, however, shows nearly 70 percent of men who had rising PSA levels and subsequent normal biopsies were eventually diagnosed with prostate cancer, according to research from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. The trend of a PSA level over several years is called PSA velocity.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – As the proliferation of social media in society continues, companies and organizations are taking advantage of online platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to communicate interactively with their customers and the public. With this influx of new technology, many organizations are struggling to find the most effective ways to manage these user interactions to maximize the positive experience for their customers.

The genetic 'wiring' that helps a seed to decide on the perfect time to germinate has been revealed by scientists for the first time.

Plant biologists at The University of Nottingham have also discovered that the same mechanism that controls germination is responsible for another important decision in the life cycle of plants — when to start flowering.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The more than 2.7 million new HIV infections recorded per year leave little doubt that the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to spread globally. That's why there's the need for safe, inexpensive and effective drugs to successfully block HIV transmission.

A gene-sequencing study of children with autism, described in an advance online publication in Nature Genetics on 15 May, offers a sneak peek at a technique which, combined with other approaches, may explain 40 to 50 percent of the genetic causes of the disorder within just a few years, proposes the study's lead investigator.

PHILADELPHIA — A biomechanical experiment conducted at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science has answered a long-standing theoretical question: Will microorganisms swim faster or slower in elastic fluids? For a prevalent type of swimming, undulation, the answer is "slower."

Paulo Arratia, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and applied mechanics, along with student Xiaoning Shen, conducted the experiment. Their findings were published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

New research from North Carolina State University shows that a "gatekeeper" protein plays an important role in skin-cancer prevention in humans and lab mice.

The protein, C/EBP alpha, is normally abundantly expressed to help protect skin cells from DNA damage when humans are exposed to sunlight. The NC State research shows, however, that the protein is not expressed when certain human skin cancers are present.

Moreover, when the protein is inactivated in special lab mice exposed to small amounts of the UVB solar radiation, the mice become more susceptible to skin cancer.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Mayo Clinic has developed a screening procedure that could dramatically increase testing for Lynch syndrome (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/lynch-syndrome/DS00669), a hereditary genetic disorder that raises cancer risk, particularly for colorectal cancer. An estimated 3 percent of colon cancers can be attributed to Lynch syndrome.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] —Dairy products can be high in harmful saturated fat but not necessarily in risk to the heart. A newly published analysis of thousands of adults in Costa Rica found that their levels of dairy consumption had nothing to do statistically with their risk of a heart attack.

and Spanish.

The research group AGR 206 at the University of Granada Department of Physiology and Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology "Jose Matáix", coordinated by professor Margarita Sánchez Campos, have proven that goat milk has nutritional characteristics beneficial to health.

ATS 2011, DENVER - Children whose mothers or grandmothers smoked during pregnancy are at increased risk of asthma in childhood, but the underlying causes of this are not well understood. Now a new study indicates changes in a process called DNA methylation that occurs before birth may be a root cause.

The study will be presented at the ATS 2011 International Conference.

Baylor University, in collaboration with the U.S Forest Service (USFS) Rocky Mountain Research Station, has developed a model that predicts the risk of wetland habitat loss based on local wetland features and characteristics of the landscape surrounding the wetland. The new model was used to predict the fate of wetland habitats over a 13-state area in the southern United States and was published in the journal Ecological Applications.

Scientists have used the latest computer-imaging technology to produce stunning three-dimensional pictures of a 49 million-year-old spider trapped inside an opaque piece of fossilized amber resin.

University of Manchester researchers, working with colleagues in Germany, created the intricate images using X-ray computed tomography to study the remarkable spider, which can barely be seen under the microscope in the old and darkened amber.

ATS 2011, DENVER – A Wednesday morning session will explore the inhalational exposures and respiratory outcomes of military deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan. Presenters will review current knowledge on complex inhalational exposures, epidemiologic studies, animal toxicology studies, and clinical lung findings in U.S. military men and women who are returning from Southwest Asia.