Body

An investigation published by The BMJ today raises new concerns about the top-selling anti-clotting drug, rivaroxaban (Xarelto).

It questions the validity of a pivotal trial - known as the ROCKET-AF trial - that was used to gain approval for rivaroxaban from the US and European regulators.

The trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) in 2011, compared rivaroxaban with the older anti-clotting drug warfarin for preventing strokes in patients with irregular heartbeat (atrial fibrillation).

It had been thought that all ants, wasps and other eusocial insects used a common class of chemical compounds to distinguish queens from workers and other members of their colonies or hives. But new research finds that there is significant variation in these chemical signals, even between closely related species. The work was done by scientists at North Carolina State University, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, the University of California, Riverside, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

A forthcoming Review in The Condor: Ornithological Applications explores how oaks and pines depend on corvids, the group of birds that includes ravens, crows, and jays, to reproduce and spread--and how birds may be the key to helping these valuable trees weather the challenges of habitat fragmentation and climate change.

The researchers behind a forthcoming study in The Auk: Ornithological Advances have shown that Semipalmated Sandpipers on their annual stopover in Canada's Bay of Fundy eat a far broader diet than anyone suspected--and they did it by analyzing poop.

London, UK (February 4, 2016). Diversity in the boardroom is key to advancing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)- inclusive polices, finds a study published by SAGE in the journal Human Relations, in partnership with The Tavistock Institute.

Boston, MA - A new study suggests that the current recommendation to treat severely malnourished children with routine antibiotics does not increase the likelihood of nutritional recovery in uncomplicated cases. Given this finding, the study's authors say that routinely using antibiotics may not be necessary or beneficial for severely malnourished children being treated at home when there is adequate local health infrastructure.

Reducing routine antibiotic use would be prudent given global concern over the problem of antibiotic resistance, say the researchers.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- In a review article published in the Feb. 4 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, a pair of Mayo Clinic Cancer Center researchers provide an in-depth look at the issues associated with the care of women in families with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome who have not yet developed cancer themselves.

Scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have identified a genetic mutation responsible for a rare form of inherited hives induced by vibration, also known as vibratory urticaria. Running, hand clapping, towel drying or even taking a bumpy bus ride can cause temporary skin rashes in people with this rare disorder. By studying affected families, researchers discovered how vibration promotes the release of inflammatory chemicals from the immune system's mast cells, causing hives and other allergic symptoms.

Large butterfly-like insects known as Kalligrammatid lacewings, which fluttered through Eurasian fern- and cycad-filled woodland during the Mesozoic Era, have been extinct for more than 120 million years. But with new fossil analyses, scientists at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History have discovered that these ancient lacewings were surprisingly similar to modern butterflies, which did not appear on Earth for another 50 million years.

MIAMI--New research from a University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science-led science team provides new insight into one of the world's most diverse and extensive ecosystems of living microbes. The study offers a new perspective on the growth and structure of rare, microbial reefs, called stromatolites, which are a window into the emergence and evolution of life on Earth.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Lisa M. Jones, an assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology in the School of Science at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, has received the National Science Foundation's most prestigious award in support of junior faculty.

UC Davis researchers have developed a way to use the empty shell of a Hepatitis E virus to carry vaccines or drugs into the body. The technique has been tested in rodents as a way to target breast cancer, and is available for commercial licensing through UC Davis Office of Research.

Hepatitis E virus is feco-orally transmitted, so it can survive passing through the digestive system, said Marie Stark, a graduate student working with Professor Holland Cheng in the UC Davis Department of Molecular and Cell Biology.

In the first systemic investigation of participants' views on open consent in the Personal Genome Project, researchers found that greater transparency and full disclosure of the risks involved in public sharing of genetic and health data could encourage, rather than deter, participation in human research.

Location and environmental conditions may influence when gentoo chicks huddle in cold, wet Antarctic conditions, according to a study published February 3, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Caitlin Black from the University of Oxford, and colleagues.

PHILADELPHIA - Abolishing the 24-hour clock by knocking out a key gene during development accelerates aging and shortens lifespan by two thirds in mice, but this effect is absent if the gene deletion is delayed until after birth, according to a new study published this week in Science Translational Medicine by scientists from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.