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Reston, Va.—A study published in the July issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM) reports on investigative research of a novel optical imaging technique called "Cerenkov luminescence imaging (CLI)." According to the authors, the technique could lead to the faster and more cost-effective development of radiopharmaceuticals for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and other conditions.

A new study by researchers at NYU School of Medicine found that UVA radiation damages the DNA in human melanocyte cells, causing mutations that can lead to melanoma. Melanocytes, which contain a substance called melanin that darkens the skin to protect it from the ultraviolet rays of the sun, are more vulnerable to UVA radiation than normal skin cells because they are unable to repair themselves as efficiently.

St. Louis, MO, July 1, 2010 – Investigators from the University of Minnesota have found a direct association between parenting style and the frequency of meals eaten together as a family and that an authoritative parenting style was associated with more frequent family meals. Their data further indicated that family meals have a positive influence on adolescents to eat a healthy diet. The results of the study are published in the July issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

Killer whales and the mystery of human menopause

The evolutionary mystery of menopause is a step closer to being solved thanks to research on killer whales.

A study by the Universities of Exeter and Cambridge has found a link between killer whales, pilot whales and humans — the only three known species where females stop breeding relatively early in their lifespan.

Fewer males than females are surviving the negative effects of inbreeding in a reintroduced population of a rare New Zealand bird, reports new research published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Studying a population of the endangered New Zealand Hihi, researchers from the Zoological Society of London found that male survival rate was 24 per cent lower than their female siblings during early development, and as chicks.

PASADENA, Calif.—The concept of pregnancy makes no sense—at least not from an immunological point of view. After all, a fetus, carrying half of its father's genome, is biologically distinct from its mother. The fetus is thus made of cells and tissues that are very much not "self"—and not-self is precisely what the immune system is meant to search out and destroy.

Progress toward understanding the role of sex hormones in the growth of prostate cancer—the most common cancer in U.S. men—has been hindered by the lack of a suitable laboratory research model. Now researchers say they have developed the first model of hormone-induced human prostate cancer initiation and progression.

Their results were presented at The Endocrine Society's 92nd Annual Meeting in San Diego.

A large U.S. multicenter study shows that older men with higher testosterone levels are more likely to have a heart attack or other cardiovascular disease in the future. The results were presented at The Endocrine Society's 92nd Annual Meeting in San Diego.

"The study finding contradicts smaller studies that have shown that testosterone levels are not associated with higher rates of cardiovascular disease," said presenting author Kristen Sueoka, MD, a resident physician at the University of California, San Francisco.

A new nonsteroidal, anti-inflammatory therapy made from a human protein significantly decreases disease signs of asthma in mice, opening the possibility of a new asthma therapy for patients who do not respond to current steroid treatments. Results of this therapy in an animal model were presented at The Endocrine Society's 92nd Annual Meeting in San Diego.

A new study from researchers in Ottawa and Toronto suggests that a commonly used type of bone marrow stem cell may be able to help treat sepsis, a deadly condition that can occur when an infection spreads throughout the body. The study, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, shows that these cells can triple survival rates in an experimental model of sepsis.

An imaging algorithm produced by a radiology department and distributed through the medical director's office, in a top-down fashion, enabled a large, academic medical center to significantly reduce the number of unnecessary cervical spine radiographs (X-rays) in the emergency department, according to a study published in the July issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology (www.jacr.org).

A study of the occurrence of fishes in the ocean's deepest reaches—the hadal zone, below 6000 meters—has provided evidence that some species of fishes are more numerous at such depths than experts had thought. The authors of the study, which is published in the July/August issue of BioScience, observed 10 to 20 snailfish congregating at a depth of 7703 meters around a baited video lander in the Japan Trench. The observation period lasted only five hours, so the occurrence of so many snailfish, which were of the species Pseudoliparis amblystomopsis, was a surprise.

Philadelphia, PA, July 1, 2010 – About 1 in 200 women in the US delivers her baby at home, with approximately 75% of these low-risk, single-baby births planned in advance as home deliveries. In a study published online today by the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology (AJOG), researchers from Maine Medical Center, Portland, Maine, analyzed the results of multiple studies from around the world.