Body

TORONTO (Jan. 25, 2016) -- Mailing free nicotine patches to smokers, without any behavioral support, does help some of them quit, according to a study by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).

Smoking is a leading cause of preventable disease worldwide, and 13 per cent of Ontario adults reported that they smoked daily in the most recent CAMH Monitor survey.

Suggestively called Cryptomaster, the herein studied daddy longlegs genus, represented until recently by a single species, is not only difficult to find in the mountains of southwest Oregon, but had also stayed understudied for several decades since its establishment in 1969.

Found on a herb bush, a toad of only 24 mm average length, measured from its snout tip to its cloaca, was quick to make its discoverers consider its status as a new species. After identifying its unique morphological and skeletal characters, and conducting a molecular phylogenetic analysis, not only did Dr. Aggarwal, Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology, Dr.

Normally, tissues demonstrate a slightly acidic intracellular pH (pHi) and slightly alkaline extracellular pH (pHe). However, proliferating tissues demonstrate transient pH Gradient Reversal i.e. alkalinization of pHi and acidification of pHe. Persistent and magnified pH Gradient Reversal is a hallmark of cancer. High acidic pHe is toxic to normal cells and beneficial to tumor cells giving them a proliferative advantage. It further augments tumorigenesis by upregulating proteolysis, genomic instability, immunosuppression, thereupeutic resistance and angiogenesis.

All tumor cells are the offspring of a single, aberrant cell, but they are not all alike. Only a few retain the capacity of the original cell to create an entire tumor. Such cancer stem cells can migrate to other tissues and become fatal metastases. To fully cure a patient's cancer, it is crucial to find and eliminate all of these cells because any that escape can regenerate the tumor and trigger its spread through the body.

PITTSBURGH, Jan. 25, 2016 - When compared with their heterosexual peers, sexual-minority youth score lower on key indicators of positive youth development--and those disparities may be due in part to more bullying of these adolescents, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health researchers have found.

The findings, funded partly by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), are published online and scheduled for an upcoming issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

In a recent analysis of US data, one in seven colorectal patients was younger than 50 years old, the recommended age to begin screening. Younger patients were more likely to be diagnosed with advanced stage disease; however, they received more aggressive therapy and lived longer without a cancer recurrence, suggesting some compensation for their later diagnosis.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Nearly 15 percent of patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer were younger than 50, the age at which screening recommendations begin.

The study by researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center also found that younger patients were more likely to have advanced disease. The authors suggest this is in part because they are diagnosed only after their cancers have grown large enough to cause symptoms.

Playground equipment should be monitored more regularly to ensure toxic metals contained within paints do not present a danger to public and child health, a study recommends.

Environmental scientists from Plymouth University analysed the metallic content of paints on equipment at almost 50 playgrounds, including some less than a decade old, across the south of England.

They discovered lead content up to 40 times greater than recommended concentrations, along with higher than expected levels of chromium, antimony and cadmium.

DALLAS - Jan. 22, 2016 - The most commonly mutated gene in cancer, p53, works to prevent tumor formation by keeping mobile elements in check that otherwise lead to genomic instability, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found.

The p53 gene long has been known to suppress tumor formation, but the mechanisms behind this function - and why disabling the gene allows tumors to form - were not fully understood.

A team of biologists and biomedical researchers at UC San Diego has developed a new method to determine if bacteria are susceptible to antibiotics within a few hours, an advance that could slow the appearance of drug resistance and allow doctors to more rapidly identify the appropriate treatment for patients with life threatening bacterial infections.

PHILADELPHIA--(Jan. 22, 2016) -- Recent clinical trials conducted in South Africa have established that babies born with HIV should be treated with antiretroviral therapy (ART) as early as possible, since earlier treatment significantly decreases their mortality and morbidity rates. However, scientists were unsure whether infants treated with ART eventually develop a "normal" immune system.

If you've always thought of a zebra's stripes as offering some type of camouflaging protection against predators, it's time to think again, suggest scientists at the University of Calgary and UC Davis.

Findings from their study will be published Friday, Jan. 22, 2016 in the journal PLOS ONE.

"The most longstanding hypothesis for zebra striping is crypsis, or camouflaging, but until now the question has always been framed through human eyes," said the study's lead author Amanda Melin, an assistant professor of biological anthropology at the University of Calgary, Canada.

ALLENDALE, Mich. -- In the world of American football, there is a stigma that players need to increase their overall body size to make an impact on the field. But, new research from a Grand Valley State University movement science professor and one of his students suggests that being bigger doesn't mean being better -- or healthier.

Jeffrey Potteiger, professor of exercise science, and Maggie McGowan-Stinski, senior athletic training major, set out to determine how body size has changed in college and professional football players over the past 70 years.

Philadelphia, PA, January 22, 2016 - The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a multi-national trade agreement now being considered by 12 countries. In an insightful commentary in Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy (RSAP), the ramifications of major components of the agreement are discussed, especially those potentially impacting the worldwide pharmaceutical industry.