Body

Results of the EORTC10085/TBCRC/BIG/NABCG International Male Breast Cancer Program conducted in both Europe and in the United States and presented at the 2014 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium found significant improvement in survival for men with breast cancer, but this improvement was not as good as that observed for women. The study, which included 1822 men treated for breast cancer between 1990 and 2010, provides much needed information about the clinical and biological characteristics of male breast cancer.

December 12, 2014 - All children should undergo vision health screening between age 36 and 72 months--preferably every year--using evidence-based test methods and with effective referral and follow-up, according to recommendations published in the January issue of Optometry and Vision Science, official journal of the American Academy of Optometry.

MADISON, Wis. - As a fundamental unit of life, the cell is central to all of biology. Better understanding how complex cells evolved and work promises new revelations in areas as diverse as cancer research and developing new crop plants.

But deep thinking on how the eukaryotic cell came to be is astonishingly scant. Now, however, a bold new idea of how the eukaryotic cell and, by extension, all complex life came to be is giving scientists an opportunity to re-examine some of biology's key dogma.

The genomes of modern birds tell a story: Today's winged rulers of the skies emerged and evolved after the mass extinction that wiped out dinosaurs and almost everything else 66 million years ago.

That story is now coming to light, thanks to an international collaboration that has been underway for four years.

The first findings of the Avian Phylogenomics Consortium are being reported nearly simultaneously in 23 papers--eight papers in a special issue this week of Science, and 15 more in Genome Biology, GigaScience and other journals.

Chicago, IL, and New Haven, CT, December 12, 2014 - The Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research today released the first set of findings from its inaugural environment poll. The poll surveys a nationally representative sample of American adults and provides a portrait of what the public thinks and feels about environmental issues, and what actions they are taking as consumers.

Migraine was not associated with breast cancer risk or differences in the endogenous sex hormones that have been proposed to be associated with migraines, according to a new study published December 12 in the JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

PHOENIX, Ariz. -- Dec. 12, 2014 -- Using a basic genetic difference between men and women, the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) has uncovered a way to track down the source of a neurological disorder in a young girl.

TGen's discovery relies on a simple genetic fact: Men have one X and one Y chromosome, while women have two X chromosomes. This women-only factor was leveraged by TGen investigators to develop a highly accurate method of tracking down a previously unrecognized disorder of the X-chromosome.

Like a smart sensor that adjusts the lighting in each room and a home's overall temperature, a protein that governs the making of other proteins in the cell also appears capable of controlling fat levels in the body.

The finding, which appeared in Cell Reports on Dec. 11, applies to the Maf1 protein in worms.

Oil reservoirs are scattered deep inside the Earth like far-flung islands in the ocean, so their inhabitants might be expected to be very different, but a new study led by Dartmouth College and University of Oslo researchers shows these underground microbes are social creatures that have exchanged genes for eons.

BOZEMAN, Mont. - Cathy Cripps doesn't seem to worry about the grizzly bears and black bears that watch her work, but she is concerned about the ghosts and skeletons she encounters.

A matter of birth and death: Unsafe conditions still killing new mothers and newborns

WOODS HOLE, Mass.--Since the first "catalog" of the normal bacterial makeup of the human body was published in 2012, numerous connections between illness and disturbances in the human microbiota have been found. This week, scientists report yet another: Cancerous tumors in the ascending colon (the part nearest to the small intestine) are characterized by biofilms, which are dense clumps of bacterial cells encased in a self-produced matrix.

A group of researchers from Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University, Faculty of Fisheries in Turkey discovered a new trout species. The newly described species Salmo kottelati, belongs to the Salmonidae family, which includes salmons, trouts, chars, graylings and freshwater whitefishes.

Salmonids include over 200 species, which have a high economic value because of their taste and famed sporting qualities.

A new study analyses the violent behaviours exhibited towards pregnant women. While 21% of women suffer emotional violence during pregnancy, 3.6% encounter physical or sexual violence. Furthermore, 36.1% of those who reported physical violence claimed that it happened "very often" or "daily".

About 95 percent of the more than 10,000 bird species known only evolved upon the extinction of dinosaurs about 66 million years ago. According to computer analyses of the genetic data, today's diversity developed from a few species at a virtually explosive rate after 15 million years already. KIT scientists designed the algorithms for the comprehensive analysis of the evolution of birds. To obtain the results that are now presented in the Science journal, a computing capacity of 300 processor-years was required. (DOI 10.1126/science.1253451)