Body

In a study appearing in the April 26 issue of JAMA, Nancy R. Kressin, Ph.D., of the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, Boston University School of Medicine, and colleagues examined the content, readability, and understandability of dense breast notifications sent to women following screening mammography.

CINCINNATI--Cancer researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) have found a particular signaling route in microRNA (miR-22) that could lead to targets for acute myeloid leukemia, the most common type of fast-growing cancer of the blood and bone marrow.

These findings are being published in the April 26 issue of the online journal Nature Communications.

Women in sub-Saharan Africa who use modern contraceptives are more likely to be tested for HIV than those who do not, according to a study published April 25, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Katherine Center from the University of Arizona and colleagues.

A new NYU Steinhardt study published in the journal AERA Open looks at income-based gaps in educational attainment. While the difference in high school graduation rates between high- and low-income students shrunk, inequality may have shifted to higher education, with gaps growing in college attendance and completion.

A team of researchers led by the University of Leicester has shed new light on how the regulation machinery that controls gene expression works by characterising a complex known as the NuRD complex.

The study, led by John Schwabe, Professor of Structural Biology and Head of Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Leicester and published in the journal eLIFE, focuses on three protein components which make up the core of the NuRD complex: MTA1, RBBP4 and HDAC1.

Chewbacca, the fictional 'Star Wars' character, has given his name to a new species of flightless beetle, discovered in New Britain, Papua New Guinea. Although Trigonopterus chewbacca was only one of the four black new weevil beetles found during the expedition, it stood out with its curious scales, which made the authors think of Han Solo's loyal companion.

Usher syndrome (USH) is characterized by hearing loss or deafness at birth and progressive vision loss, and is the most common cause of inherited dual sensory deficit. No treatment is currently available to stop or slow the progression of vision or hearing loss in USH3, one of three clinical classifications for USH that are further divided into subtypes and all associated with different genes.

Seven international tobacco control experts urged government regulators to avoid heavy-handed condemnation of e-cigarette use, in a study published online today in the journal Addiction.

The researchers noted that regulations of e-cigarettes are clearly needed, but that governments need to weigh growing evidence of the benefits e-cigarettes provide in helping some addicted cigarette smokers quit against the potential for harm if non-smokers take up vaping, the term commonly used to describe use of e-cigarettes.

When an assembly of microgel particles includes one particle that's significantly larger than the rest, that oversized particle spontaneously shrinks to match the size of its smaller neighbors. This self-healing nature of the system allows the microparticles to form defect-free colloidal crystals, an unusual property not seen in systems made up of "hard" particles.

AUGUSTA, Ga. - A series of tests physicians routinely order to help diagnose and follow their patients with an elevated antibody level that is a marker for cancer risk, often do not benefit the patient but do increase health care costs, pathologists report.

Dissection might prove unnecessary when identifying new molluscs after scientists Corey Whisson, Western Australian Museum, and Dr Abraham Breure, Naturalis Biodiversity Centre, the Netherlands, and Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Belgium, described a previously unknown land snail based on its genitalia, yet without damaging the specimen in the slightest.

As blood vessels grow, the cells that compose them must make a choice between forming side-branches or expanding the vessel surface and increasing its diameter. Now Prof. Holger Gerhardt at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in the Helmholtz Association and his international research teams have made a crucial disovery about this process: the cells can behave as a collective, moving in the same direction together.

You not only pick up aromas through your nose, but also through your mouth while you chew your food. Some people simply can smell better than others and those may enjoy an enhanced flavor of foods. Unfortunately, for some, this ability decreases with age, report Tyler Flaherty and Juyun Lim of Oregon State University in the US in Springer's journal Chemosensory Perception.

Many tropical forest trees depend on large fruit-eating animals such as elephants, tapirs, monkeys and hornbills for dispersing their sizeable seeds. Declines of these large mammals and birds due to hunting and forest disturbance, and consequent declines of tree species that they disperse, constitute a global conservation problem. Now, an international consortium of researchers predicts that such losses can cause substantial changes in the potential for tropical forests across the globe to store carbon, and thereby alter their ability to regulate our world's climate.

Berlin, 26 April 2016 - Hidden conflicts of interest can distort study results and endanger trust in medical research. This is the finding of new article published in the Open Access journal Innovative Surgical Science, which addresses transparency and conflicts of interest in surgical studies. Transparency is particularly relevant in this area, as surgical practice is strongly influenced by medical devices, meaning there are often close relationships between industry and professionals.