Body

New insight into the physiology of cardiac muscle may lead to the development of therapeutic strategies that exploit an inherent protective state of the heart. The research, published by Cell Press online on April 19th in the Biophysical Journal, discovers a state of cardiac muscle that exhibits a low metabolic rate and may help to regulate energy use and promote efficiency in this hard-working and vital organ.

BOSTON – The long-standing prohibition against testosterone therapy in men with untreated or low-risk prostate cancer merits reevaluation, according to a new study published in The Journal of Urology.

Breast implants appear to be associated with a rare form of lymphoma, but there is not yet evidence to show that the cancer is caused by implants or to suggest an underlying mechanism for how the disease might develop, according to a study by researchers from the RAND Corporation.

The study, published online by the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, also finds that the disease takes a slow course and can be controlled by surgical removal of the implant and surrounding capsule.

BINGHAMTON, NY – Many of the newest weapons in the war on cancer come in the form of personalized therapies that can target specific changes in an individual's tumor. By disrupting molecular processes in tumor cells, these drugs can keep the tumor from growing and spreading. At the forefront of this work are Binghamton University researchers, Susan Bane, and Susannah Gal, who are deploying a new tool in their study of an enzyme called tubulin tyrosine ligase, or TTL.

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The scarcity of raw materials and increasing usage of rare metals is making electronic components and devices more and more costly. Such rare metals are used, for example, to make the transparent electrodes found in mobile phone touchscreen displays, liquid-crystal displays, organic LEDs and thin-film solar cells. The material of choice in these cases is indium tin oxide (ITO), a largely transparent mixed oxide. Because ITO is relatively expensive, however, it is uneconomic to use in large area applications such as solar cells.

Thalidomide may have been withdrawn in the early 1960s for use by pregnant women, but its dramatic effects remain memorable half a century later. Now, researchers have taken a major step toward understanding exactly how thalidomide causes the birth defects. This is important as thalidomide is still used to treat diseases like multiple myeloma and leprosy, and is being tested for cancers and autoimmune disorders. This discovery was recently published online in the FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org).

A new study published in The American Journal on Addictions reveals that Veterans who suffer from mental health disorders also have high rates of substance use disorders.

Led by Ismene Petrakis, MD, of Yale University School of Medicine, researchers used national administrative data from the Department of Veterans Affairs to examine rates of substance use disorders among Veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan who were also diagnosed with PTSD and other psychiatric disorders.

Mediterranean landscapes have undergone great change in recent decades, but species have adapted to this, at least in the case of roe deer, Spanish ibex, red deer and wild boar. This has been shown by Spanish researchers who have analysed the effects of changes in land use on the past, present and future distribution of these species.

"In the last few decades there has been an increase in the area of distribution of wild ungulates", explains Pelayo Acevedo, lead author of the study and researcher in the Department of Animal Biology at the University of Málaga, speaking to SINC.

Eating raw or undercooked mollusks may pose a safety hazard if they are harvested from waters polluted with pathogenic microbes, so U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists are studying ways to enhance the food safety of these popular shellfish.

For example, USDA molecular biologist David H. Kingsley at Delaware State University in Dover is exploring new techniques that will decontaminate mollusks while protecting the seafood's flavor, texture, and color.

Consumers will choose and eat more indulgent food after they see someone who is overweight—unless they consciously think about their health goals, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

Dieters are so involved with trying to eat virtuously that they are more likely than non-dieters to choose unhealthy foods that are labeled as healthy, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. It seems dieter focus on food names can work to their disadvantage.

Happy people are more likely to eat candy bars, whereas hopeful people choose fruit, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. That's because when people feel hope, they're thinking about the future.

"Most of us are aware that we often fall victim to emotional eating, but how is it that we might choose unhealthy or healthy snacks when we're feeling good?" write authors Karen Page Winterich (Pennsylvania State University) and Kelly L. Haws (Texas A&M University).

When your team wins a close one, you may be in danger driving home after the game, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. The study shows that traffic fatalities rise near the hometowns of winning teams on game days.

Someone is more likely to predict the quality of a product by its price if someone else is buying it, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. But when consumers buy products themselves, they are more likely to judge quality by a product's attributes.

A large group of distinguished scientists published a very detailed and rather complex paper describing the association between alcohol consumption and cancer in the BMJ. It is based on data from the EPIC study in Europe, with a mean follow up of 8.8 years for more than 300,000 subjects. The authors describe an increase in risk of many cancers from alcohol intake, but do not give data permitting the detection of a threshold of intake for an adverse effect on cancer risk.