Science News Today

Medical News Preterm Babies Born at 23 Weeks’ or Longer Gestation Benefit From Mom’s Receiving Steroids Prior to Delivery Antenatal corticosteroids given to high-risk moms are associated with better outcomes for babies born prematurely. – University of Alabama at Birmingham BMJ, March 2017 Embargo expired on 28-Mar-2017 at 17:30 ET Researchers Find Knee Replacement Surgery May Have Minimal Effect on Quality of Life and Unattractive Economic Outcomes Knee replacement surgery for patients with osteoarthritis, as currently used, provides minimal improvements in quality of life and is economically unattractive, according to a study led by Mount Sinai researchers and published today in the BMJ. Howev... – Mount Sinai Health System Embargo expired on 28-Mar-2017 at 18:30 ET Man with Quadriplegia Employs Injury Bridging Technologies to Move Again—Just by Thinking Bill Kochevar, who was paralyzed below his shoulders in a bicycling accident, is believed to be the first person with quadriplegia in the world to have arm and hand movements restored with the help of two temporarily implanted technologies. – Case Western Reserve University The Lancet Embargo expired on 28-Mar-2017 at 18:30 ET New Study Suggests That Vitamin D Decreases Risk of Cancer Evidence suggests that low vitamin D status may increase the risk of cancer. – Creighton University The Journal of the American Medical Association Embargo expired on 28-Mar-2017 at 11:00 ET Heart Failure and Skilled Nursing Facilities: The Importance of Getting the Facts For many people diagnosed with heart failure — which almost invariably results in a hospital stay — the next stop is a skilled nursing facility. While their physician often will reassure them that it’s just for a short time until they can get ... – Mayo Clinic Embargo expired on 29-Mar-2017 at 09:00 ET ASN and AAKP Advocates are on Capitol Hill Urging Congress to Support Kidney Disease Research and the Living Donor Protection Act Advocates from the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) and the American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP) are meeting with Representatives, Senators, and their respective staffs today to urge Congress to continue its historic support of research... – American Society of Nephrology (ASN) Embargo expired on 29-Mar-2017 at 09:00 ET Can Childhood Obesity be Prevented Before Conception? A Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and MetroHealth System researcher, along with Cleveland Clinic’s director of metabolic research, have received federal funding to determine if childhood obesity can be prevented before women beco... – Case Western Reserve University Embargo expired on 29-Mar-2017 at 05:00 ET New MRSA Defense: New Study Reports Cannabinoid Effective Against Antibiotic-Resistant MRSA Nemus Bioscience and the University of Mississippi report significant anti-MRSA synergy data utilizing proprietary cannabinoid-based anti-infective platforms – Nemus Biosciences Vulnerability to Psychosis: How to Detect It An international research team has demonstrated that an exaggerated emotional brain response to non-threatening information predicts emergence of clinically psychotic symptoms. – Universite de Montreal American Journal of Psychiatry, March 2017 Penn Studies Find Promise for Innovations in Liquid Biopsies From using fluid in the lungs to better understand the potential of immunotherapy treatments in lung cancer, to tracking circulating tumor cells in prostate cancer, to conducting RNA sequencing of cancer cell clusters from the blood of pancreatic can... – Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania AACR Annual Meeting 2017; U54-CA163004; RO1CA207642 Insurance for IVF, Price Transparency, What's Next for Health Consumers, and More in the Healthcare News Source The latest research, features and announcements in healthcare in the Healthcare News Source – Newswise Insurance Coverage for IVF Increases Chance of Having Baby Women who pursue in vitro fertilization (IVF) to become pregnant are more likely to give birth if they have health insurance that covers the procedure, according to new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The key reason... – Washington University in St. Louis JAMA; NIH K12HD063086 “Substantial” Room for Improvement in HPV Vaccination Coverage, Study Finds While an HPV vaccine became available over 10 years ago, a study led by the Yale School of Public Health finds that there is “substantial” room for improvement in the way it is recommended and discussed. – Yale Cancer Center Study Shows How BPA May Affect Inflammatory Breast Cancer The chemical bisphenol A, or BPA, appears to aid the survival of inflammatory breast cancer cells, revealing a potential mechanism for how the disease grows, according to a study led by researchers in the Department of Surgery at Duke University Scho... – Duke Health Carcinogenesis; RSG-08-290-01-CCE; T32CA009111 Female Menstrual Cycle in a Dish Northwestern Medicine has developed a miniature female reproductive tract that fits in the palm of your hand and could eventually change the future of research and treatment of diseases in women’s reproductive organs.This new 3-D technology — cal... – Northwestern University UH3TR001207; UH2ES022920 A Molecular On/Off Switch for CRISPR TSRI Scientists Reveal How Viruses Disable Bacterial Immune Systems – Scripps Research Institute P20GM103500; P30GM110732-03; R01GM110270; Q1 R01GM108888; P20GM103474; F32 GM108436; DP2EB020402; DP5-OD021344; MOP-130482 ; MOP-136845... Fluorescent Probe Could Light Up Cancer A fluorescent probe developed by Michigan Tech chemist Haiying Liu lights up the enzyme beta-galactosidase in a cell culture. The glowing probe-enzyme combination could make tumors fluoresce, allowing surgeons to cut away cancer while leaving healthy... – Michigan Technological University Analytica Chimica Acta. Mar-2017 ; National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health R15GM114751; National Science Foundation 1048655 Broad Support Exists for Larger Warnings on Cigarette Packs A UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center-led study found broad support, even among smokers, for increasing the size of health warnings on cigarette packs. – University of North Carolina Health Care System PLOS One-2017 New Method Heats up Ultrasonic Approach to Treating Tumors High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is a breakthrough therapeutic technique used to treat tumors. The principle of this noninvasive, targeted treatment is much like that of focusing sunlight through a lens, using an ultrasonic transducer like a ... – American Institute of Physics (AIP) Alcohol Use in Veterans with Schizophrenia Less Common Than Thought, but No Level Safe Large, multi-site study sheds light and dispels misconceptions about drinking in people with serious mental illness. – University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Health Sciences Psychological Services, Mar-2017 TSRI Researchers Develop New Method to ‘Fingerprint’ HIV Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have developed a method to analyze the glycan shield on HIV’s protective outer glycoprotein, developed as a potential HIV vaccine candidate. – Scripps Research Institute R01AI113867; UM1 AI100663 ; P41 GM103533 A National Effort to Understand Acute Liver Failure – Two Decades and 3,000 Study Participants Later A multicenter study on acute liver failure funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has increased understanding of this sometimes fatal condition since the research effort began 20 years ago, improving patient care and saving lives. – UT Southwestern Medical Center Tiny Bioengineered Blood Vessel Grafts Aid Delicate Microsurgeries Scientists have been working diligently to create engineered tissue implants to repair or replace damaged or diseased tissue and organs; but their success hinges on the ability to build a sturdy connection linking the implant’s blood vessels and th... – National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering Tissue Engineering: Part A, Jan 2017; EB018551, EB006359 Springing Forward – to Allergy Season California experienced record rainfall this year, and may have even made headway against the state’s historic drought. Now that lush landscapes abound and spring is upon us, what does this mean for allergy sufferers? The wet weather can be a h... – University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Health Sciences Judy Garber, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber, Wins AACR Award for Outstanding Clinical Research Achievement Judy E. Garber, MD, MPH, director of the Center for Cancer Genetics and Prevention at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, has been honored by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) for outstanding achievement in clinical cancer research. – Dana-Farber Cancer Institute AACR annual meeting David Livingston, MD, of Dana-Farber, Wins Major Cancer Research Award David M. Livingston, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, has won a major award for discoveries in cancer research from the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). – Dana-Farber Cancer Institute AACR annual meeting Music Therapy Reduces Pain in Spine Surgery Patients Music therapy has been found to decrease pain in patients recovering from spine surgery, compared to a control group of patients who received standard postoperative care alone. – Mount Sinai Health System American Journal of Orthopedics Patient, Provider, Caregiver: Physicians Share Lessons Learned When the Tables Are Turned In the first time addressing a public forum together, Kalanithi’s widow, Lucy Kalanithi, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stanford School of Medicine; and Paul’s treating oncologist, Heather Wakelee, MD, Associate Professor of Medi... – National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) Register Now for ATS 2017 International Conference ATS 2017 will feature more than 500 sessions as well as scientific poster sessions and individual presentations of approximately 6,700 scientific and case report abstracts, covering a range of clinical and basic science discoveries that are changing ... – American Thoracic Society (ATS) Panelists Urge Attendees to Break Down Silos and Address Biases in Cancer Care NCCN Conference Roundtable Addresses Health Disparities – National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) Mayo Clinic Researchers Identify Interaction Among Proteins That Cause Cancer Cells to Metastasize Researchers at Mayo Clinic have identified an interaction among proteins that allows cancer cells to grow and metastasize. They say the discovery may play a role in developing a better understanding of how tumors grow in a variety of malignancies, in... – Mayo Clinic Unraveling the Mysteries Behind America’s No. 1 Cause of Acute Liver Failure Twenty years ago, the federal government funded the study of a condition quietly killing hundreds of Americans a year – acute liver failure, or ALF. Growing evidence had linked ALF to overdoses of acetaminophen, the popular over-the-counter pain me... – UT Southwestern Medical Center Beaumont Hospital, Dearborn Employees’ Courage, Quick Action Protects Others From Harm Courageous, quick action by Beaumont Hospital, Dearborn employees protected others from harm when a man entered the hospital on March 8 and set himself on fire inside an elevator in the first floor lobby. – Beaumont Health Executive Order to Rescind Clean Power Plan Is an Affront to Human Health: American Thoracic Society "Climate change is real. It is affecting our world and it is having a direct impact on public health, today. The science clearly illustrates how human health is harmed by heat waves, forest fires, extreme weather events and other consequences of car... – American Thoracic Society (ATS) NCCN Foundation Awards Grants to Four Young Investigators NCCN Foundation Young Investigator Awards provide grants of $150,000 over a two-year period for research initiatives focused on assessing and improving outcomes in cancer care. – National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) Case Western Reserve, Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein of São Paulo, Brazil, to Hold Health Research and Education Symposium in Cleveland Case Western Reserve University, including the School of Medicine, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, and Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein in São Paulo, Brazil, will be holding a three-day symposium, ... – Case Western Reserve University ASA Announces Alex Hannenberg, M.D, New Chief Quality Officer The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) today announced the selection of Alex Hannenberg, M.D., interim chief quality officer. Dr. Hannenberg’s dedication, service and passion for the specialty are recognized throughout anesthesiology and t... – American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) FSMB Spotlight: Is Compounding Fraud Occurring in Your State? FSMB President and CEO Humayun Chaudhry, DO, MACP, sits down with Claudette E. Dalton, MD, Chair of the FSMB’s Ethics and Professionalism Committee, to discuss regulations around compounding medicine, as well as a recent rise in fraud schemes invol... – Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) UTHealth Researchers Collaborate to Increase Low Vaccination Rates in Houston Schools Susan Wootton, M.D., associate professor of pediatric infectious diseases at McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), will lead a project to increase low vaccination rates among pre-kindergarten ... – University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Science News Understanding Predictability and Randomness by Digging in the Dirt When tilling soil, the blade of the tool cuts through dirt, loosening it in preparation for seeding. The dirt granules are pushed aside in a way that looks random -- but might not be. Now, researchers have found a way to distinguish whether such a pr... – American Institute of Physics (AIP) CHAOS Embargo expired on 28-Mar-2017 at 11:00 ET Physics Can Predict Wealth Inequality The 2016 election year highlighted the growing problem of wealth inequality and finding ways to help the people who are falling behind. This human urge of compassion isn’t new, but the big question that remains to be addressed is why inequality is ... – American Institute of Physics (AIP) Journal of Applied Physics Embargo expired on 28-Mar-2017 at 11:00 ET Cattle Associated Antibiotics Disturb Soil Ecosystems The team analyzed soil samples from 11 dairy farms in the United States, and found that the amount of antibiotic resistant genes was 200 times greater in soil near manure piles compared with soil that wasn’t. – Virginia Tech Proceedings of the Royal Society B Embargo expired on 28-Mar-2017 at 20:00 ET Microscopic Muscles: How Non-Muscle Cells Find the Strength to Move Researchers from the Mechanobiology Institute, Singapore at the National University of Singapore have described, for the first time, the ordered arrangement of myosin-II filaments in actin cables of non-muscle cells. – National University of Singapore Nature Cell Biology, Jan 2017 Americans Are Water Conscious, UF/IFAS Survey Shows Researchers based their assessment on responses to a survey of 1,052 respondents. The poll shows 46 percent are “water considerate;” 44 percent of the participants are what researchers classified as “water savvy conservationists” and 9 percen... – University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Why Don’t Americans Have a Name for the Color “Light Blue?” “Mizu” translates to “water” and has emerged in recent decades as a unique shade in the Japenese lexicon, new research has found. Color terminology varies widely from country to country, and the U.S. and Japan have many different colors for w... – Ohio State University New Research Disproves Common Assumption on Cranial Joints of Alligators, Birds, Dinosaurs Researchers from the University of Missouri School Of Medicine recently discovered that although alligators, birds and dinosaurs have a similar skull-joint shape, this does not guarantee that their movements are the same. – University of Missouri Health Protein Identified as Potential Druggable Target for Pancreatic Cancer A protein known as arginine methyltransferase 1 (PRMT1) may be a potential therapeutic target for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), the most common type of pancreatic cancer, and one of the most deadliest with a less than 10 percent, five-year... – University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Forests Fight Global Warming in Ways More Important Than Previously Understood Trees impact climate by regulating the exchange of water and energy between the Earth’s surface and the atmosphere, an important influence that should be considered as policymakers contemplate efforts to conserve forested land, said the authors of ... – Ohio State University Using a Method From Wall Street to Track Slow Slipping of Earth’s Crust An algorithm for stock prices can be used with GPS data to automatically detect slow-slip earthquakes at a single station, offering a new way to monitor seismic activity. – University of Washington Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth Iowa State Engineers Test Heated Pavement Technology at Des Moines International Airport Halil Ceylan and a group of Iowa State engineers are testing heated pavement technologies at the Des Moines International Airport. They've installed two test slabs of electrically conductive concrete. And the pavement has effectively cleared ice and ... – Iowa State University FAA PEGASAS program Pulling Together to Rescue 11 Asian Elephants The rescue of 11 Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus) from a mud hole inside the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, Mondulkiri Province, Cambodia, on 24th March 2017 avoided a tragedy for wildlife conservation in Cambodia. – Wildlife Conservation Society A Seismic Mapping Milestone Using advanced modeling and simulation, seismic data generated by earthquakes, and one of the world’s fastest supercomputers, a team led by Jeroen Tromp of Princeton University is creating a detailed 3-D picture of Earth’s interior. Currently, th... – Oak Ridge National Laboratory Researchers Shoot for Success with Simulations of Laser Pulse–Material Interactions University of Virginia professor Leonid Zhigilei led a team that used the Titan supercomputer to gain deeper insights into laser interactions with metal surfaces. – Oak Ridge National Laboratory Taking Down the Paywall for Free the Science Week The Electrochemical Society (ECS) is celebrating its 115th anniversary this year by giving the world a preview of what complete open access to peer-reviewed scientific research will look like. ECS will launch the first Free the Science Week, April 3-... – The Electrochemical Society Van Andel Research Institute Installs World-Class Microscopes to Enable Discovery of the Molecular Basis of Disease Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) is now home to one of the world’s most powerful microscopes—one that images life’s building blocks in startling clarity and equips VARI’s growing team of scientists to push the limits of discovery in search... – Van Andel Research Institute Last Call for Entries: 2017 Science Writing Awards The American Institute of Physics (AIP) and the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) are both accepting submissions for their respective 2017 science writing awards. The deadline for entries for each award is March 31, 2017. – American Institute of Physics (AIP) MSU, Shedd Aquarium Partnering to Create Healthier Aquatic Homes Viruses are the most abundant living organisms on the planet, yet we know very little about them, especially in aquatic environments. Michigan State University’s Joan Rose is partnering with Shedd Aquarium in Chicago to better understand how viruse... – Michigan State University Jefferson Lab Accomplishes Critical Milestones Toward Completion of 12 GeV Upgrade The Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) at the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility has achieved two major commissioning milestones and is now entering the final stretch of work to conclude its ... – Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Penn State Biomechanics and Imaging Lab: Elastography The Biomechanics and Imaging Laboratory aims to develop non-invasive techniques to diagnose and evaluate treatment strategies for degenerative disease and injuries in orthopaedic tissues. To this end, researchers are combining imaging techniques, bio... – Penn State Materials Research Institute Lifestyle & Social Sciences Queen’s University Launches the Visual Voices of the Prisons Memory Archive Queen’s University launch The Visual Voices of the Prison Memory Archive project. Expert Available – Queen's University Belfast Embargo expired on 29-Mar-2017 at 02:00 ET Products Can Be Pals When You’re Lonely, but It May Cost You, Study Finds According to a new study, it appears humanlike products do keep people from seeking out normal human interaction, which is typically how people try to recover from loneliness. However, there are limits to this phenomenon, and the long-term consequenc... – University of Kansas Journal of Consumer Research Fake News, Civil Rights, ACA, Rebuilding the Middle Class, and More in the U.S. Politics News Source Go here for the latest political experts, features and research in U.S. Politics – Newswise Researchers Find Video Games Influence Sexist Attitudes The images and roles of female characters in video games send a powerful message that can influence the underlying attitudes of gamers. Iowa State and French researchers found a link between video game exposure and sexism in a new study of more than ... – Iowa State University Frontiers in Psychology Parents Who Play ‘Pokémon Go’ with Kids: ‘It Wasn’t Really About the Pokémon’ In the first study to survey and interview parents who play "Pokémon GO" with their children, families reported a number of side benefits, including increased exercise, more time spent outdoors and opportunities for family bonding. However, some wor... – University of Washington Puppets Provide Voice During Times of Political Unrest