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Reston, VA (July 14, 2016) - A new Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute report discusses the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) and its implications for radiology. The two-part series, supported by the Neiman Institute through American College of Radiology Foundation funding raised through a private practice donation, explores how radiologists may succeed in the new payment landscape.

Cancer treatment in people could be transformed thanks to a study on treating cancer in animals led by researchers from the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) at the University of Guelph.

Their findings in mice and companion animals such as cats are already leading to clinical trials to treat people with various forms of cancer.

BOSTON - The recent emergence of bacterial infections that are resistant to many existing antibiotics is driving an urgent need for tools to quickly identify the small number of therapies that are still effective for individual patients. Currently, multi-drug resistant bacteria often must be sent to specialized laboratories for analysis, leading to several days of delay before results can guide therapy.

A team of the Lomonosov MSU researchers in collaboration with their German colleagues from the Institute of Polymer Research in Dresden (Leibniz Institute) managed to find a molecule that, to their opinion, could give the impetus to the development of organic electronics. The results of the work were published in Advanced Materials.

Why do some organisms within a single species have many offspring, while others have relatively few? A new study led by University of Minnesota researcher Emilie Snell-Rood finds that access to some nutrients may be a star player in shaping traits related to fitness such as fecundity and eye size over the long term. Given drastic increases in the availability of many nutrients due to the widespread use of fertilizers and road salts, the finding has important implications for agriculture and ecology.

WORCESTER, MA - A long non-coding RNA (lincRNA) - called lincRNA-EPS - responsible for regulating innate immunity has been identified by a team of scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Abundantly found in macrophages, lincRNA-EPS keeps the genes that trigger inflammation turned off until a pathogen is encountered. This discovery points to an unrecognized role for lincRNAs in the immune system and may lead to new insights into inflammatory diseases caused by uncontrolled immune responses such as lupus or inflammatory bowel disease.

MONTREAL, 13 July, 2016 - Scientists at the Research Institute of McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) have discovered a new genetic mutation linked to osteonecrosis of the hip, specifically the femoral head - the spherical-shaped mass at the top of the femur. This breakthrough could allow doctors to identify and treat the disease before symptoms arise and potentially avoid hip replacements.

PORTLAND, Ore.- The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology today published a special anniversary edition in their journal Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science with more than 70 articles to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the invention of Optical Coherence Tomography technology, co-invented by Oregon Health & Science University Casey Eye Institute's David Huang, M.D., Ph.D. while Huang was a Ph.D. student with James Fujimoto, Ph.D. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Biophysics: As they age, more and more defects arise in most organisms. Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute have discovered that microorganisms like bacteria can keep a colony young by practicing a common strategy for propagation. The same may be true for, for example, stem cells in humans. The results have been published in the scientific journal, Cell Systems.

Ala Trusina working in the laboratory, where she studies cell division in bacterial colonies and stem cells. (Photo: Ola Jakup Joensen)

(TORONTO, Canada - July, 14, 2016) - Dr. Gang Zheng and a team of biomedical researchers have discovered a "smart" organic, biodegradable nanoparticle that uses heat and light in a controlled manner to potentially target and ablate tumours with greater precision.

Nanoscale "rivets" give graphene qualities that may speed the wonder material's adoption in products like flexible, transparent electronics, according to researchers at Rice University.

The Rice lab of chemist James Tour reported the creation of "rivet graphene," two-dimensional carbon that incorporates carbon nanotubes for strength and carbon spheres that encase iron nanoparticles, which enhance both the material's portability and its electronic properties.

The material is the subject of a paper in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano.

Prehistoric proto-Jê Brazilian peoples may have continually renovated and extended their pit houses to allow occupation over centuries, according to a study published July 6, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Jonas Gregorio de Souza from the University of Exeter, UK, and colleagues.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- The largest island in the Philippines may be home to the greatest concentration of mammal diversity in the world, according to a research team that has been exploring the island for the past 15 years.

Though the West African Ebola outbreak that began in 2013 is now under control, 23 countries remain environmentally suitable for animal-to-human transmission of the Ebola virus. Only seven of these countries have experienced cases of Ebola, leaving the remaining 16 countries potentially unaware of regions of suitability, and therefore underprepared for future outbreaks.

PHILADELPHIA - The microenvironment of tumors is a mix of cell types, mostly comprised of inflammatory cells. White blood cells, recruited from the blood and bone marrow, represent a significant portion of these inflammatory cells and influence nearly all steps of tumor progression. One type, called tumor associated neutrophils (TANs), predominates; however, the role of TANs in tumor development remains largely unexplored in humans.