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CHICAGO: Researchers analyzing data from the National Cancer Data Base (NCDB) have found that patients who had a cancer operation at precisely eight weeks--56 days--after the end of combined chemoradiotherapy had the best overall survival and successful removal of their residual tumors. The six-year study of almost 12,000 patients may bring clarity to doctors who have long debated the ideal waiting time between combined chemotherapy and radiation for rectal cancer and surgical removal of the cancer.

The Tibetan Plateau has long been seen as a "hotspot" for international environmental research, and there have been fears that water supplies in the major Asian rivers would drastically decline in the near future. However, new research now shows that water supplies will be stable and may even increase in the coming decades.

A report by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from 2007suggests that the glaciers in the Himalayas will be gone by 2035. This statement was questioned and caused a great stir.

Pearls have adorned the necklines of women throughout history, but some evidence suggests that the gems' future could be uncertain. Increasingly acidic seawater causes oyster shells to weaken, which doesn't bode well for the pearls forming within. But, as scientists report in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology, the mollusks might be more resilient to changing conditions than previously thought.

Genes play a crucial role over time although environmental factors matter most in the short term, according to a major study into social anxiety and avoidant personality disorders from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.

"The results show a surprisingly high heritability of the long-term risk of developing social anxiety," says Fartein Ask Torvik, a researcher in the Department of Genetics, Environment and Mental Health at the institute.

Up to half of women with advanced-stage ovarian cancer might be cured, compared to the current 20 per cent survival rate, argues Dr. Steven Narod, senior scientist at Women's College Research Institute, who calls for a new standard of treatment for women with late-stage ovarian cancer.

The grapes used to make pinot noir, the red wine of hit comedy "Sideways" fame, are known to be literally and figuratively thin-skinned. They're highly sensitive to their environment, making it difficult for growers to determine their quality at harvest time. To get a better handle on the finicky fruit, scientists have now figured out how the grapes' aroma profile changes as they ripen. Their report appears in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

A bacterium found in the remote Gobi Desert has shown talents for using the sun's light as energy, and now researchers reveal that it can be found in surprisingly many different places, including water treatment plants. The bacterium may become a valuable partner for researchers working with environmentally friendly biofuels.

Photosynthesis is one of the most fundamental biological processes on Earth. Normally photosynthesis is performed by plants, but a few bacterial phyla also have the talent.

The Anthropocene, which is regarded as having begun halfway through the 20th century, is marked by the expansion of new materials, such as aluminium, cement, plastic, ash from the combustion of hydrocarbons, and radioisotopes originating from atomic tests around the planet, in addition to high greenhouse gas emissions and the unprecedented global spread of invasive species.

Pioneering research by mood disorder experts at Newcastle University has questioned the effectiveness of metyrapone, a drug suggested to treat depression.

It is well recognised that stress can lead to an episode of depressive illness and some patients have raised levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, in their body as an indication of the mental health condition.

Regular exercise improves balance for people with dementia and reduces dependence on assistance. This according to new research on healthcare for people suffering from dementia conducted at Umeå University in Sweden, which has now been published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Quebec City, Jan. 20, 2016 -- Researchers from Université Laval and Quebec's Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks have shown that the DNA suspended in lake water can be used to effectively estimate the abundance of fish living in it. The details of this new approach, which could revolutionize how fish stocks are managed in lakes, are presented in a recent issue of the Journal of Applied Ecology.

Bethesda, MD (Jan. 20, 2016) -- In the fight against obesity, bariatric surgery is currently the most effective treatment; however, only 1 to 2 percent of qualified patients receive this surgery due to limited access, patient choice, associated risks and the high costs. A novel treatment method -- endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty -- might offer a new solution for obese patients.

In 1917, Florence Sabin, the first female member of the US National Academy of Sciences, discovered hemangioblasts, the common precursor cells for blood cells and blood vessel endothelia. Her discovery faced a great deal of critical opinions, but by the end of the 20th century, those opinions were overcome, and the existence of hemangioblasts had at long last come to be acknowledged. In the present day, the existence of hemangioblasts has been proven not only in chicken embryos, which Sabin had studied, but in the embryos of humans, mice, and fish as well.

Microtubules, one component of a cell's skeleton, are hollow tubes formed from the polymerization of α- and β-tubulin, which are themselves important structural proteins of the mitotic spindle that equally separates chromosomes during cell division. As such, several α/β-tubulin inhibitory agents are used as therapeutic drugs against cancer cells, which are undergoing vigorous cell division.

Research published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) introduced a new quantum phenomenon which the authors called the "quantum pigeonhole principle." Prior to this breakthrough, the pigeonhole principle was a basic tenet of conventional wisdom. It states that if you put three pigeons in two pigeonholes then at least two of the pigeons must end up in the same hole. It is an obvious yet fundamental principle of nature as it captures the very essence of counting.