WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Looks can be deceiving, but certain bird species have figured out that a voice can tell them most of what they need to know to find the right mate.
Andrew DeWoody, a Purdue University associate professor of forestry and natural resources, found that the higher the pitch of a male bird's song, the more genetic diversity that bird has, making him a better mate for breeding. His study was published Wednesday (Dec. 2) in the early online edition of PLoS Biology.
Durham, NC—December 2, 2009—Ninety-six percent of low-income mothers who participated in a recent study on gender-based distrust indicated a strong general feeling of distrust of the opposite sex. However, this general distrust towards men did not prevent them from entering into a marriage, live-in, or romantic relationship. Furthermore, the union was often later described by some of the women as "trusting," despite their prior assertions of distrust and insecurity. The results of the study are published in a recent issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family.
BOSTON – Peripheral artery disease (PAD) affects 5 million individuals in the U.S. and is the leading cause of limb amputations. Doctors have long considered exercise to be the single best therapy for PAD, and now a new study helps explain why. Led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and published in this week's Online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the findings demonstrate that a protein called PGC-1alpha plays a key role in the process.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Even when women at high-risk of breast cancer are well-informed about the risks and benefits of using the drug tamoxifen for prevention, only 6 percent said they were likely to take it.
Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center created a decision aid designed to inform women about the risks and benefits associated with tamoxifen, a drug that was first used to stop breast cancer from returning and has recently been shown to prevent breast cancer in the first place.
PHILADELPHIA – (December 1, 2009) – Wistar Institute researchers and collaborators from the University of Pennsylvania and New York University have identified immune system markers in the blood which indicate early-stage lung tumors in people at high risk for developing lung cancer. The findings, published online December 1 in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, could lead to a simple blood test to detect lung cancer in its earliest phases, when it can be most successfully treated.
New York, NY, December 2, 2009 – Commonly prescribed beta 2 adrenergic agonist drugs for the treatment of asthma in pregnant women as well as pre-term labor may increase the incidence of autism-spectrum disorders, psychiatric pathology, cognitive problems and poor school performance in their children, according to a new study published in the December 2009 issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
A scientist from the University of Salamanca and another from Yale University have shown that the presence of predators affects the behaviour of Acanthodactylus beershebensis, a lizard species from the Negev Desert in the Near East. According to the study, these reptiles move less and catch less mobile and different prey if they are under pressure from predators.
Sally Hall, a PhD student at the University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science (SOES) at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS) has formally described four new species of king crab, all from the deep sea.
Before one of your muscles can twitch, before the thought telling it to flex can race down your nerve, a tiny floodgate of sorts—called an ion channel—must open in the surface of each cell in these organs to let in the chemical signals that spur the cell to action. New research* at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has allowed scientists to observe ion channels within the surface membrane for the first time, potentially offering insights for future drug development.
Single-walled nanotubes—cylinders of carbon about a nanometer in diameter—have been highly touted for potential applications such as ultrastrong fibers, electrical wires in molecular devices, or hydrogen storage components for fuel cells. Thanks to a new development by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and five partners, you can add one more application to the list: detection and destruction of an aggressive form of breast cancer.
(Dec. 2, 2009) – HOBOKEN, NJ – According to the National Institute of Health, 40 percent to 45 percent of Americans diagnosed with diabetes already have some stage of diabetic retinopathy. Diabetic retinopathy, damage to the retina caused by leaky blood vessels, is a major cause of blindness in people with diabetes and is one of the most feared diabetic complications. In fact, up to 80 percent of all patients who've had diabetes for 10 years or more will experience some form of diabetic retinopathy.
CHICAGO – Targeted breast ultrasound of suspicious areas of the breast, including lumps, is a safe, reliable and cost-effective alternative to invasive biopsies for women under age 40, according to the findings of two studies presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
Researchers in Japan have found that female mice produced by using genetic material from two mothers but no father live significantly longer than mice with the normal mix of maternal and paternal genes. Their findings provide the first evidence that sperm genes may have a detrimental effect on lifespan in mammals.
A large proportion of late-stage breast cancers that have spread to other parts of the body (metastatic breast cancers) are characterized by overexpression of the protein Mdm2. Lindsey Mayo and colleagues, at Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, have now determined what drives this increased Mdm2 expression and found that Mdm2 helps promote cancer cells take on more aggressive characteristics, making it a potential target for drugs to treat late-stage metastatic breast cancer.
DALLAS – Dec.1, 2009 – UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found that a naturally occurring protein -- transforming growth factor beta1 (TGF-ß1) -- which normally suppresses the growth of cancer cells, causes a rebound effect after a prolonged exposure. Cancer cells go into overdrive and become even more aggressive and likely to spread, the researchers report.