Body

Cancer of the pancreas is an extremely aggressive disease with a dismal prognosis. The number of cases that is newly diagnosed with this type of cancer each year is almost the same as the one of people who succumb to it. While advances in prevention, early detection and treatment have led to a drop in mortality rates in most other cancer types, a growing number of people in Germany and world-wide develop pancreatic cancer and die from it.

Moderate to high impact sports such as gymnastics, basketball, or football have been shown to benefit bone mass, structure and strength - with benefits particularly apparent during pre-and early adolescence.

A long-term study carried out in four Swedish schools evaluated whether extra physical education classes would have an impact on bone parameters in growing children. The seven-year study specifically measured the impact of school-based exercise on tibia cortical bone mass distribution.

A new Tel Aviv University study on women in the workplace finds women are as savvy and exacting as their male counterparts when negotiating with or on behalf of friends.

The study was conducted by Dr. Hilla Dotan of TAU's Coller School of Management and Prof. Uta Herbst of Potsdam University in Germany. It will appear in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing.

More than 20 years ago, a billboard in China piqued the interest of a chemical biologist. It endorsed an extract from the plant known as the "thunder god vine" as an immunosuppressant. A brief review of published research revealed that the extract's key ingredient -- the small molecule triptolide -- had been identified 20 years before that billboard ad, and it could stop cells from multiplying.

Orlando, Florida (September 7, 2016) - Research published in the Journal of Nutrition has for the first time documented the potential effects of mango consumption on gut microbiota of mice.1 When samples were compared from the beginning to the end of the study period, mango supplementation was found to prevent the loss of beneficial gut bacteria often induced by a high-fat diet.

As health departments around the U.S. boost efforts to combat Zika, scientists are working on new ways to kill the mosquitoes that carry the virus. One approach involves understanding the molecular mechanisms that keep the bugs alive so we can then undermine them. Scientists report in the ACS journal Biochemistry that they have revealed new structural insights on a key protein from Aedes aegypti, the mosquito species most often linked to the spread of Zika.

PISCATAWAY, NJ - The more advertising kids see for particular brands of alcohol, the more they consume of those brands, according to a new study.

The research, published in the September issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, adds to evidence linking alcohol advertising to underage drinking. And it suggests that TV ads really do influence the amount of alcohol kids drink.

Past studies have found that underage drinkers often have a preference for the brands of alcohol they see advertised.

p53 has long been known to be a key protein associated with many cancers. Its main function is to suppress tumor formation in the body, and thus protect it from cancer development. However, p53 is considerably less stable compared to its two cousins, p63 and p73. Of the three proteins, p53 is the one that has deviated the most from its ancestral invertebrate version. All three proteins have a region in their sequences that is responsible for recognizing and binding to target gene sequences, called a DNA binding domain (DBD).

Global health experts are today are calling for the removal of restrictions preventing people who use drugs from accessing new hepatitis C cures. So long as these restrictions exist, the goal of disease elimination will remain out of reach, they say.

New research suggests the Polynesians, Europeans and the Chinese have had a penchant for black pigs because of the novelty of their colour. Pigs have played an important cultural role in Hawaii since Polynesian explorers first brought them to Hawaii 800 years ago. Scientists led by Professor Greger Larson from Oxford examined the DNA sequences of modern feral Hawaiian pigs and discovered that a novel mutation is responsible for their black coats, a significant finding because the pigs were expected to have either the Asian or the European genetic mutation leading to their black colour.

Mobile phone technology could help to beat bad practices in healthcare delivery, research suggests.

Innovations such as apps offer opportunities for improving governance in the healthcare sector, particularly in low and middle income countries, the study found.

Experts say that good governance is essential for ensuring citizens have fair access to high quality healthcare.

Corruption, fraud, inefficiency and discrimination are major barriers to medical care provision in many developing countries.

Scientists have developed an endoscope that uses near-infrared light to spot early warning signs of oesophageal - food pipe - cancer, according to research published in the Journal of Biomedical Optics today.

Researchers at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute sprayed a dye on oesophageal tissue samples taken from people with Barrett's oesophagus - a condition that increases the risk of developing oesophageal cancer. The dye sticks to healthy oesophageal cells but not to pre-cancerous cells.

Although chemotherapy can sometimes cure acute myeloid leukemia and other hematologic cancers, many patients experience relapses when their tumors become resistant to available chemotherapies. This resistance may be caused by the survival and proliferation of chemotherapy-resistant cells that were already present in the tumor prior to treatment. Studying the characteristics of these cells could help researchers understand and develop better approaches to target chemotherapy-resistant cancers.

Twins should be delivered at 37 weeks' gestation to minimise stillbirths and newborn deaths, and there is no clear evidence to support routine delivery before 36 week's gestation, finds a large international study in The BMJ today.

It is well known that the risk of stillbirth is higher in twin pregnancies than in singleton pregnancies. Uncomplicated twin pregnancies are often delivered early in an attempt to prevent stillbirth, but the optimal gestational age for delivery that minimises risks to newborns is not known.

A new metric, known as the Relative Citation Ratio (RCR), will allow researchers to measure the influence of a scientific article, regardless of publication and scientific field. While RCR cannot replace expert review, it does overcome many of the issues faced by previous metrics. RCR was developed by scientists with the Office of Portfolio Analysis (OPA), Division of Program Coordination, Planning and Strategic Initiatives (DPCPSI), part of the National Institutes of Health. A description of the new metric will be published in PLOS Biology on Sept. 6, 2016.