MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. – Every parent with young children knows that couples need to work together to accomplish the myriad tasks waiting both at work and at home. But it may come as a surprise that fireflies also juggle their commitments to find a comfortable work-family balance. According to new research led by biologists at Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences, wingless "stay-at-home" female fireflies get less support from their mates than females who are able to fly.
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Loss of glaciers and snowpack due to climate warming in alpine regions is putting pressure on a rare aquatic insect, the meltwater stonefly, according to a study recently released in Climatic Change Letters.
New data from the University of Calgary's Faculty of Medicine shows that wait times for a number of heart surgeries have gone down close to 50 per cent in Alberta and British Columbia.
The objective of the study was to investigate wait times for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, after the patient has undergone diagnosis through a process called catheterization. PCI's are commonly referred to as balloon angioplasty and CABG's refer to open heart or bypass surgery.
Teenagers who undergo spine fusion for scoliosis using the newest surgical techniques can expect to be doing well 10 years after surgery, according to a Hospital for Special Surgery study published online ahead of print in the [TK issue] of the journal Spine. Researchers had thought that the surgery would cause damage to the spine just below the fused discs, but the study showed that this was not the case.
Women who suffer from asthma or poor lung function as adults generally started their periods at the age of 10 or before. This is the conclusion of a European research study with Spanish participation, which shows that this trend is more common in southern Europe, and particularly affects women from large families.
ORLANDO, FL (April 5, 2011) – Cancer risk increases with age, and scientists have long perceived a possible evolutionary tradeoff between longer lifespan and greater risk of cancer. Now, researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center find direct evidence for that tradeoff in new data showing that expression of a key tumor suppressor protein induces premature aging in mice.
Greg H. Enders, MD, PhD, associate professor in the Epigenetics and Progenitor Cell Program at Fox Chase, will present the results at the AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011 on Tuesday, April 5.
ORLANDO, FL (April 5, 2011) – Women who have children, particularly early in life, have a lower lifetime risk of breast cancer compared with women who do not. Now, Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers have identified a gene expression pattern in breast tissue that differs between post-menopausal women who had children and post-menopausal women who did not. The results will help scientists understand why pregnancy reduces breast cancer risk and may help them develop chemopreventive strategies that can provide similar protection for women who did not have children.
ORLANDO, FL (April 5, 2011) –Tumor suppressor genes normally control the growth of cells, but cancer can spring up when these genes are silenced by certain chemical reactions that modify chromosomes. Among the most common culprits responsible for inactivating these genes are histone deacetylases, a class of enzymes that remove acetyl groups from DNA-scaffolding proteins, and DNA methyltransferases, a family of enzymes that add methyl groups to DNA.
OAK BROOK, Ill. – Computed tomography examinations of children in hospital emergency departments increased substantially from 1995 to 2008, according to a new study published online and in the June print edition of Radiology. Researchers said the findings underscore the need for collaboration among medical professionals to ensure that pediatric CT is appropriately ordered, performed and interpreted.
Scientists from the School of Pharmacy at Queen's University Belfast and Almac Discovery Ltd have developed a new treatment for cancer which rather than attacking tumours directly, prevents the growth of new blood vessels in tumours, starving them of oxygen and nutrients, thereby preventing their growth.
Targeting tumour blood vessels is not a new concept, however, this drug attacks the blood vessels using an entirely different pathway and therefore could be useful for treating tumours which don't respond to or which are resistant to current therapies of this type.
Taking statins could help prevent people dying from pneumonia, according to a study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The researchers found that the risk of death in the six month period after diagnosis of pneumonia was substantially lower among those who were already receiving the cholesterol-lowering drugs compared with those who were not.
Previous studies have suggested that statins may be associated with a more favourable outcome after bacterial infection.
DALLAS – April 5, 2011 – UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified one reason people with hypertension experience an even greater increase in their blood pressure when they exercise, and they've learned how to prevent the rise.
A study in a March issue of the Journal of Physiology reported that hypertensive people who exercise undergo decreased blood flow and oxygen in muscles. The scientists also identified a specific type of blood pressure medication that minimizes this effect.
Tropical Depression One W formed on April 2 and was dissipating by April 4 a couple of hundred miles east southeast of Vietnam and NASA's Aqua satellite captured its brief life.
The Northwestern Pacific Ocean basin can experience tropical cyclones almost all year 'round, except that activity is usually minimal in February and March. So, the first tropical cyclone of the new "season" didn't take long to form after the end of March. The Northwestern Pacific includes all of the area north of the equator and west of the International Date Line, including the South China Sea.
Descendents of Mexican immigrants in the U.S. may be making better socioeconomic progress than many studies indicate, according to research published in the April issue of The Journal of Labor Economics.
A large body of recent research has raised concerns about the economic progress of Mexican Americans. Third and fourth-generation Mexican Americans are no more likely to graduate high school than second-generation Mexican Americans, the studies show. Wages appear to stagnate after the second generation as well.
About one in 44,000 National Collegiate Athletic Association athletes has sudden cardiac death each year, according to a new study in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
The death rate — higher than many estimates for young athletes — could influence health screening guidelines for youths in organized sports, researchers said.