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[Cigarette packet warning labels can prevent relapse: findings from the International Tobacco Control 4-Country policy evaluation cohort study Online First doi 10.11136/tobaccocontrol-2011-050254]

Health warnings on cigarette packs can help ex-smokers stave off the urge to start smoking again, indicates research published online in Tobacco Control.

CHAPEL Hill, N.C. – In early results of a large-scale randomized study published in 2010 and led by researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, giving daily antiretroviral drugs (ART) to HIV-infected moms or their breastfeeding babies for 28 weeks proved safe and effective for preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission through breast milk.

Now it appears that early weaning – stopping breastfeeding before six months – is of little, if any, protective value against HIV transmission nor is it safe for infant survival.

The fungal infection that has killed a record number of amphibians worldwide leads to deadly dehydration in frogs in the wild, according to a new study by University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco State University researchers.

High levels of an aquatic fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) disrupt fluid and electrolyte balance in wild frogs, the scientists say, severely depleting the frogs' sodium and potassium levels and causing cardiac arrest and death.

STANFORD, Calif. — Worrywarts, fidgety folk and the naturally nervy may have a real cause for concern: accelerated cancer. In a new study led by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, anxiety-prone mice developed more severe cancer then their calm counterparts.

Boston, MA (April 25, 2012)—Surgery, often thought to be too expensive for wholesale global health delivery, can be a highly cost-effective means of improving health in the developing world.

More than 6 million birds die every year as they migrate from the United States and Canada to Central and South America, according to a new study published Apr. 25 in the open access journal PLoS ONE. The birds are killed by the 84,000 communication towers that dot North America and can rise nearly 2,000 feet into the sky.

Dogs can be manipulated to choose against their preference by human cues, opting to turn down extra food in order to follow the human's choice, according to results published Apr. 25 in the open access journal PLoS ONE. The work was led by Sarah Marshall-Pescini of the University of Milan.

Male praying mantises are more likely to engage in risky mating behavior if they have not had recent access to females, as reported Apr. 25 in the open access journal PLoS ONE. Female praying mantises are known for their cannibalistic behavior toward their mates, and males take a large risk when they attempt to reproduce.

In the current work, led by William Brown of State University of New York at Fredonia, the researchers found that males modulate this risk by altering their approach rate and courtship behavior depending on how recently they have had access to females.

The concept of number lines, a hallmark of elementary math classrooms, does not reflect universal human intuition, and instead appears to be learned, based on a study of an indigenous group in Papua New Guinea. The full results are published Apr. 25 in the open access journal PLoS ONE.

Investing in C-sections could be a cost-effective way to improve outcomes for difficult deliveries in developing countries, reports a study published Apr. 18 in the open access journal PLoS ONE.

Researchers from the Research Programme in Biomedical Informatics (GRIB) from the IMIM (Hospital del Mar Research Institute) and the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) have identified 115 proteins in silico (via computer simulation) that could be highly relevant to treat colon-rectal cancer, since they would make it possible to define the strategy to design new generation anti-cancer drugs. During the last years, it has been proven that drugs are not as selective as it was thought, and that they actually have an affinity for multiple biological targets.

For the first time, a kidney that had been donated to a patient in need was removed and implanted into a new patient, the third individual to have the organ, after it failed in the first transplant recipient. Ray Fearing, a 27-year-old Arlington Heights resident received the organ from his sister, Cera, after a long battle with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), a disease in which scar tissue develops on the part of the kidney that filters waste out of the blood, ultimately causing kidney failure.

Government regulators and the scientific community should work to ensure that they give clear guidance to the public about dietary supplements and cancer risk, according to a commentary published April 25 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

There is an association between the rs1051730-rs16969968 genotype and objective measures of tobacco exposure, which indicates that lung cancer risk is largely, if not entirely, mediated by level of tobacco exposure, according to a study published April 25 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. (April 25, 2012) – Developmental biologists at Tufts University have identified a "self-correcting" mechanism by which developing organisms recognize and repair head and facial abnormalities. This is the first time that such a mechanism has been reported for the face and the first time that this kind of flexible, corrective process has been rigorously analyzed through mathematical modeling.