Body

Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues have demonstrated that the inhibition of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) in mouse models of mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), an aggressive and incurable subtype of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma that becomes resistant to treatment, can harness the immune system to eradicate residual malignant cells responsible for disease relapse.

Their study appears in a recent issue of Cancer Research, published by the American Association for Cancer Research.

Scientists at The University of Nottingham believe they've found a way of fighting obesity — with a pioneering technique which uses thermal imaging. This heat-seeking technology is being used to trace our reserves of brown fat — the body's 'good fat' — which plays a key role in how quickly our body can burn calories as energy.

This special tissue known as Brown Adipose Tissue, or brown fat, produces 300 times more heat than any other tissue in the body. Potentially the more brown fat we have the less likely we are to lay down excess energy or food as white fat.

Forget bad guys and gunfire: Being a police officer can be hazardous to your health in other ways.

Researchers at the University of Iowa have found that police officers who sleep fewer than six hours per night are more susceptible to chronic fatigue and health problems, such as being overweight or obese, and contracting diabetes or heart disease. The study found that officers working the evening or night shifts were 14 times more likely to get less restful sleep than day-shift officers, and also were subjected to more back-to-back shifts, exacerbating their sleep deficit.

New Rochelle, NY, July 18, 2012— Approximately 1 in 3 Americans suffers from chronic sleep deprivation and another 10-15% of the population has chronic insomnia. Sleep disorders can profoundly affect a person's whole life and have been linked to a range of diseases, including obesity, depression, anxiety, and inflammatory disorders.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Nearly a quarter of college women try smoking tobacco with a hookah, or water pipe, for the first time during their freshman year, according to new research from The Miriam Hospital's Center for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine.

The study, published online by Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, suggests a possible link to alcohol and marijuana use. Researchers found the more alcohol women consumed, the more likely they were to experiment with hookah smoking, while women who used marijuana engaged in hookah smoking more frequently than their peers.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Severe sepsis, a body's dangerous defensive response against an infection, not only diminishes the quality of life for patients – it puts their spouses at a greater risk of depression, a joint University of Michigan Health System and University of Washington School of Medicine study shows.

Wives whose husbands were hospitalized for severe sepsis were nearly four times more likely to experience substantial depressive symptoms, according to the study released July 18 ahead of the August publish date in Critical Care Medicine.

LOS ANGELES, 18 July 2012 – Today, the Black AIDS Institute released its latest report, Back of the Line: The State of AIDS Among Black Gay Men in America. The landmark report highlights alarming data that show disproportionately high rates of HIV infections and deaths from AIDS among Black MSM, why the disparities persist and are growing worse, and the urgent need for local and national leadership to immediately address the devastating health crisis.

The word rainforest usually conjures up visions of brightly coloured birds and hyperactive monkeys swooping through a thick green canopy of leaves, vines and flowers. But rainforests are also found closer to the poles, in the northern or boreal region where temperatures are far cooler. And while there are no monkeys swinging through the trees here, these forests are every bit as endangered as their southern cousins, and highly diverse – if you know where to look.

In order to pass on their genes, southern dumpling squid engage in up to three hours of mating with each partner, but University of Melbourne researchers have found that this results in a reduced ability to swim for up to 30 minutes afterwards.

The research provides new insight into the evolution of reproductive strategies and behaviours and is the first time that the energetic costs of mating have been shown to affect physical abilities after mating.

New report from the European Science Foundation assesses the science of innovation in Europe Strasbourg, 18 July 2012: Innovation has improved human living standards to an unprecedented level, and is the key to further progress; however it is a complex phenomenon that is not easy to understand and whose effects are unclear. This is the conclusion of the policy brief published by the European Science Foundation and STOA on innovation policy. The publication follows a ESF/STOA hosted conference on The Science of Innovation, which took place in Brussels on 28th February 2012.

New research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem sheds light on pluripotency—the ability of embryonic stem cells to renew themselves indefinitely and to differentiate into all types of mature cells. Solving this problem, which is a major challenge in modern biology, could expedite the use of embryonic stem cells in cell therapy and regenerative medicine.

A study conducted at the University of Granada have demonstrated that there are not significant differences between men's and women's sexual fantasies. The fact is that both sexes have intimate and romantic sexual fantaies involving their partner or loved one. In addition, men have more sexual fantasies (positive and negative) than women, which would confirm the old believe that men think more frequently about sex than women.

A book containing misprints may cause annoyance for the reader, but typos in an individual's genetic blueprint (DNA) can mean serious disease or even death. The search for genetic correlates for the wide range of diseases plaguing humankind has inspired a wealth of research falling under the heading of genome-wide association studies (GWAS).

High consumption of vitamin E either from diet or vitamin supplements may lower the risk of liver cancer, according to a study published July 17 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin which is considered an antioxidant and numerous experimental studies have suggested that vitamin E may prevent DNA damage.

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– UC Santa Barbara researchers' discovery of a variation of an enzyme's ability to "hop" as it moves along DNA, modifying the genetic material of a bacteria –– and its physical capability and behavior –– holds much promise for biomedical and other scientific applications. Their results are published in a paper titled "Proximal recognition sites facilitate intrasite hopping by DNA adenine methyltransferase: a mechanistic exploration of epigenetic gene regulation," in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.