Body

DALLAS - Oct. 14, 2015 - A team of scientists at the Children's Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) has made a discovery that suggests cancer cells benefit more from antioxidants than normal cells, raising concerns about the use of dietary antioxidants by patients with cancer. The studies were conducted in specialized mice that had been transplanted with melanoma cells from patients. Prior studies had shown that the metastasis of human melanoma cells in these mice is predictive of their metastasis in patients.

Mangrove forests around the Indo-Pacific region could be submerged by 2070, international research published today says.Even with relatively low sea-level rises, many mangrove forests had a poor outlook said Professor Catherine Lovelock, a University of Queensland ecologist.

"Mangrove forests are particularly vulnerable," she said.

"Mangroves are predicted to be submerged in parts of Thailand, Sumatra, Java, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands."

An international team of researchers, together with participation from the University of Bonn, has investigated a stunning fossil finding from the Cretaceous period. The 125-million-year-old mouse- to rat-sized mammal is preserved so well that even detailed analyses of its fur are possible. An astounding finding: The animal may have suffered from a fungal infection of the hair which also strikes mammals nowadays. The scientists are publishing their results in the journal Nature.

The end of this summer marked the fortieth anniversary of the release of Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run. If reminiscing fans felt a wave of nostalgia for one of the iconic albums of popular music, they likely also experienced a less-pleasant undertow in realizing just how much time has passed since their rock 'n roll glory days.

Missoula, MT/Magdeburg. The basic principle behind most strategies aimed at renaturalising ecosystems is to increase biodiversity by restoring natural habitat structure, which should lead to improved ecosystem services in the process. These projects often do not result in the success researchers had hoped for because the complexity of ecological relationships is so vast that it is difficult to detect the precise ecological factors that have priority over the many others in a particular case.

HOUSTON - (Oct. 14, 2015) - Empowering customers to give feedback to service providers can have a key motivational impact on employees' creativity and customer satisfaction, two important service outcomes, according to a new study by management experts at Rice University, the University of Connecticut, the University of Maryland, the University of Minnesota and National Taiwan University.

Counties that implemented Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Suicide Prevention Program activities had lower rates of suicide attempts among young people ages 16 to 23 than counties that did not, according to an article published online by JAMA Psychiatry.

Total-body examination found a higher absolute number of skin cancers but lesion-directed screening performed by a dermatologist appeared to be an acceptable alternative screening method in a Belgian study, according to an article published online by JAMA Dermatology.

The incidence of melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) has been on the rise worldwide. Early detection is believed to result in better cure rates and subsequently more cost-effective treatment.

Human breast milk, which provides essential nutrients and antibodies to newborns, has long been known to play an important role in infant development and the immune system. In a new study published in Mucosal Immunology, researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) report that human breast milk serves as a reservoir for bio-molecules that help to resolve inflammation and combat infection.

In work involving several new generations of mouse model development, Jackson Laboratory (JAX) researchers have tested a therapeutic intervention for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) that restores some function lost due to a mutation in one gene (SMN1) and amplifies the levels of protective genes (SMN2).

Moreover, unlike current interventions, the therapy appears to work after symptoms of SMA have already appeared, and may not need to be administered directly into the central nervous system.

Regenerative medicine is a new and expanding area that aims to replace lost or damaged cells, tissues or organs in the human body through cellular transplantation. Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are pluripotent cells that are capable of long-term growth, self-renewal, and can give rise to every cell, tissue and organ in the fetus's body. Thus, ESCs hold great promise for cell therapy as a source of diverse differentiated cell-types. Two major bottlenecks to realizing such potential are allogenic immune rejection of ESC-derived cells by recipients and ethical issues.

The common cosmetic and drug preservatives known as parabens are in thousands of products -- and, at low levels, in the vast majority of Americans. Recent studies have raised concerns that the compounds might have unwanted health effects. Now scientists report for the first time that the antimicrobials are also showing up in the tissues of marine mammals, including dolphins, sea otters and polar bears. Their results appear in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Why some people live much longer than others is an enduring mystery. Now, based on a study of a worm, scientists are getting one step closer to understanding longevity. They report in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research that the metabolic profiles of the worms could accurately predict how long they would live and that middle age could be a key turning point.

A new series of studies by academics at Royal Holloway, University of London and at University of London College found that people who have social power are strongly influenced by internal body cues stemming from their motor system when making judgements about preferences of paintings, objects, movements or letter sequences.

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Engineers at Oregon State University have developed a new "sustainable development methodology" to help address a social and regulatory demand for manufacturing processes that more effectively consider their economic, environmental and social impacts.

The work was recently published in the Journal of Cleaner Production. It outlines a way to help designers and manufacturing engineers carefully consider all the ramifications of their design decisions, and to evaluate the possible different ways that a product could be built - before it ever hits the assembly line.