Body

Alexandria, VA – Physical therapist-directed exercise counseling combined with fitness center-based exercise training can improve muscular strength and exercise capacity in people with type 2 diabetes, with outcomes similar to those of supervised exercise, according to a randomized clinical trial published in the September issue of Physical Therapy, the scientific journal of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA).

If you think the air outside is polluted, a new research report in the September 2009 issue of the journal Genetics (http://www.genetics.org) might make you to think twice about the air inside our bodies too. That's because researchers show how about 3 percent of the air we breathe gets converted into harmful superoxides, which ultimately harm our muscles.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (Sept. 22, 2009) – TGen Clinical Research Services at Scottsdale Healthcare today announced the start of a clinical trial for a drug designed to combat adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC), a rare but deadly cancer that attacks the adrenal glands.

TCRS is a strategic alliance between the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and Scottsdale Healthcare.

Other than surgery, the only treatment for ACC is the exacting use of a compound called mitotane, a chemical relative of DDT, which the U.S. banned as an insecticide in 1972.

SEPTEMBER 2009 – The discovery of brown (grizzly) bears feeding on migrating broad whitefish in a stream in Mackenzie Delta region of the Northwest Territories has researchers advising increased care in petroleum extraction and infrastructure development within the area.

WASHINGTON -- Significant weaknesses undermine the global community's abilities to prevent, detect early, and respond efficiently to potentially deadly species-crossing microbes, such as the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus sweeping the globe, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council.

(CHICAGO) – Even though the incidence of atrial fibrillation is higher in men than women, a review of past studies and medical literature completed by cardiac experts at Rush University Medical Center shows that women are more likely than men to experience symptomatic attacks, a higher frequency of recurrences, and significantly higher heart rates during atrial fibrillation, which increases the risk of stroke.

Findings from the review of past studies will be published in the September issue of Gender Medicine.

HOUSTON -- (Sept. 22, 2009) -- The tools of biochemistry have finally caught up with lactose repressor protein. Biologists from Rice University in Houston and the University of Florence in Italy this week published new results about "lac repressor," which was the first known genetic regulatory protein when discovered in 1966.

Scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have uncovered what happens to biomimetic nanoparticles when they enter human cells. They found that the important proteins that make up the outer layer of these nanoparticles are degraded by an enzyme called cathepsin L. Scientists now have to take this phenomenon into account and overcome this process to ensure the exciting field of nanomedicine can progress. The research is published today (22 September) in ACS Nano.

Scientists have shown that the main shoot dominates a plant's growth principally because it was there first, rather than due to its position at the top of the plant.

Collaborating teams from the University of York in the UK and the University of Calgary in Canada combined their expertise in molecular genetics and computational modelling to make a significant discovery that helps explain why pruning encourages plants to thrive.

For scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Monterotondo, Italy, what seemed like a disappointing result turned out to be an important discovery. Their findings, published online this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), provide conclusive proof that, when a muscle is injured, white blood cells called macrophages play a crucial role in its regeneration.

New species are not just discovered in exotic locales—even places as urban as California still yield discoveries of new plants and animals. Academy scientists recently named a new species of chimaera, an ancient and bizarre group of fishes distantly related to sharks, from the coast of Southern California and Baja California, Mexico. The new species, the Eastern Pacific black ghostshark (Hydrolagus melanophasma), was described in the September issue of the international journal Zootaxa by a research team including Academy Research Associates David Ebert and Douglas J. Long.

Berlin, Germany: New research has found that hormone therapy used to treat men with advanced prostate cancer is associated with an increased chance of developing various heart problems. Some choices of therapy appear, however, to be less risky than others.

A new audit report issued by the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) today shows that osteoporosis is a serious and growing problem throughout Asia.

Gathering data from 14 Asian countries, regions or territories, 'The Asian Audit' is a landmark report examining epidemiology, costs and burden in individual countries as well as collectively across the region. The report's key findings include:

A major increase in fractures is predicted for Asia as a whole

DALLAS – Sept. 17, 2009 – Researchers have long suspected that overweight people tend to have large fat deposits in their pancreases, but they've been unable to confirm or calculate how much fat resides there because of the organ's location.

Until now.

Research published this week in the open access journal PLoS Medicine shows that the rising rate of preterm birth in Scotland is as much a result of an increase in spontaneous preterm birth as it is of preterm birth that is medically-induced to avoid risking the lives of the mother and child.