Body

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 15, 2011)––With an increase in abdominal imaging over the past decade, there has been an increase in the detection of incidental kidney cancer, which has led to concerns that we may be over-treating indolent disease. As part of this effort, clinicians have started to investigate the effectiveness of active surveillance (AS), or close observation as opposed to immediate surgery, for select patients with small renal masses (SRMs).

PHILADELPHIA, PA (May 16, 2011)––Today's anticancer drugs often work wonders against malignancies, but sometimes tumors become resistant to the effects of such drugs, and treatment fails. Medical researchers would like to find ways of counteracting such resistance, but first they must understand why and how it happens. New findings by Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers identify one protein, Abcc10 (also known as Mrp7), as being intimately involved in resistance to certain drugs used to treat breast, ovarian, lung, and other cancers.

Climbing is possibly one of the riskiest things an adult tarantula can do. Weighing in at anything up to 50gm, the dry attachment systems that keep daintier spiders firmly anchored are on the verge of failure in these colossal arachnids. 'The animals are very delicate. They wouldn't survive a fall from any height,' explains Claire Rind from the University of Newcastle, UK. In 2006, Stanislav Gorb and his colleagues published a paper in Nature suggesting that tarantulas may save themselves from falling by releasing silk threads from their feet.

Toronto - Why isn't knowledge transfer happening more often in companies spending money on it?

Maybe it's because their staff don't always want to share.

"We've had years of research in organizations about the benefits of knowledge-sharing but an important issue is the fact that people don't necessarily want to share their knowledge," says David Zweig, a professor of organizational behaviour and human resources management at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and the University of Toronto at Scarborough.

Boston (May 16, 2011) – Most degenerative diseases begin with a gradual loss of specific cell types that progresses, eventually leading to symptoms. For example, in type I diabetes, hyperglycemia commonly develops when approximately 80 percent of the beta cells in the pancreas are lost; in Parkinson's disease, motor dysfunction typically begins when neurons in a certain portion of the brain are decreased by 70 to 80 percent. Finding ways to stop early cell destruction is vital, but methods to do so have proven challenging because of limitations of models for early stages of cell loss.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Monday, May 16, 2011 – A new discovery in mice by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center may one day allow doctors to spare some patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) from toxic treatments, while also opening the door for new therapeutic research.

AML, the most common form of acute leukemia seen in adults, is an aggressive form of cancer that primarily affects the elderly. Despite years of research, outcomes for most patients remain poor, particularly for one subset of patients with a specific mutation of the FLT3 receptor.

MAY 16, 2011 – Critical new research has found that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth who experience high levels of school victimization in middle and high school report impaired health and mental health in young adulthood, including depression, suicide attempts that require medical care, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and risk for HIV.

Satellite tracking of olive ridley sea turtles off the coast of Central Africa has revealed that existing protected areas may be inadequate to safeguard turtles from fishing nets, according to scientists with the University of California-Santa Cruz, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the University of Exeter, and others. Scientists involved in the study recommended the extension of an international marine park that spans the waters of Gabon and the Republic of Congo and better international cooperation to manage this threatened species.

When they dive together, sperm whales make patterns of clicks to each other known as "codas". Recent findings suggest that, not only do different codas mean different things, but that whales can also tell which member of their community is speaking based on the sound properties of the codas. Just as we can tell our friends apart by the sounds of their voices and the way they pronounce their words, different sperm whales make the same pattern of clicks, but with different accents.

Every year, between 3000 and 3500 children are physically abused in Germany. Many more, some 12,000 to 13,000, suffer sexual abuse. These are the figures from official criminal statistics, but in fact a high proportion of unreported cases is assumed for both offenses.

DURHAM, N.C. – Rising salinity in the primary source for desalinated tap water in North Carolina's Outer Banks has been traced to fossil seawater, not – as some have feared – to recent seawater intrusion.

This means the saline groundwater in the Yorktown aquifer can remain a valuable source of desalination for decades to come, without Dare County communities having to switch to the much more costly alternative of desalinating seawater, says Duke University researcher Avner Vengosh.

Men and women infected with HIV reduced the risk of transmitting the virus to their sexual partners by taking oral antiretroviral medicines when their immune systems were relatively healthy, according to findings from a large-scale clinical study sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

CHAPEL HILL, NC — A research study led by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has made a major discovery in the effort to halt the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The study results show that early initiation of antiretroviral treatment in people infected with HIV prevents them from transmitting the virus to their partners.

DALLAS – May 12, 2011 – A cancer drug already used to treat adults and school-age children with sickle cell anemia is safe and significantly reduces pain and other complications of the disease in children as young as 9 months, according to a national study involving a UT Southwestern Medical Center researcher.

According to a new study released online today, a majority of Americans, including most African Americans, stand together in support of banning menthol in cigarettes just as other cigarette flavorings have now been banned by the FDA. According to established reports, 83 percent of African American smokers and 24 percent of white smokers smoke menthol cigarettes.