Women whose breast cancer was detected by screening mammography had a significantly better prognosis than those whose cancer was found another way – even if the cancer had already spread to their lymph nodes, say researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center who looked at outcomes from randomized screening studies of more than 150,000 women.
A likely reason for that finding is that mammography can detect tumors that are both slower growing and less biological
The gene mutation that identifies the lung cancer patients most likely to respond to the drug gefitinib (Iressa) is not associated with a response to the drug cetuximab (Erbitux), according to a new study published in the August 17 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Both drugs target the same gene but through different mechanisms.
Some patients with non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have mutant versions of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). This p
A weight control protein with a key role in the brain’s ability to monitor body fat content may yield new approaches for treating obesity and type 2 diabetes, according to a new report in the August issue of Cell Metabolism. The findings in mice further suggest that particular variants of the protein SH2-B might underlie obesity in humans, the researchers said.
SH2-B, which has multiple functions in cells throughout the body, keeps the brain sensitive to the fat hormone leptin
Oral medications may control symptoms of Type II diabetes in children just as well as insulin injections, a new study reports.
According to the medical records of 26 children diagnosed with the disease, oral medications reduced levels of a compound in the blood called hemoglobin A1C by an average of 2 percentage points.
A 2-percentage-point reduction is enough to decrease serious health risks and symptoms associated with Type II diabetes, said Milap Nahata, the study
Working at the Armagh Observatory with Dr Simon Jeffery and Dr Tolis Christou, Nuffield Science Bursary scholar Elizabeth Connolly was using an internet connection to control the Faulkes Telescope in Hawaii. During her half-hour observing session, she briefly turned the telescope to where the new planet had been discovered. After taking a photograph with the 2-metre telescope, she compared the new image with an old image of the same patch of sky. The new planet was clearly visible as a faint s
Peakadilly receives multiple patents for breakthrough Protein biomarker discovery and identification technologies.
The patent offices of the United States of America and Canada have granted patents for Peakadilly’s core technology, Cofradic. Cofradic, initially developed at the University of Ghent, Belgium, allows the identification and quantification of proteins in any biological sample and represents the most important component of the company’s Masstermind biomar
Meat and bone meal (MBM) contains mineral elements essential for all organisms, typically 6-8% Nitrogen (N) and 5-6% Phosphorus (P). Phosphorus is essentially short lived and non renewable. It is estimated that currently the world’s naturally occurring stocks of P will only last for 50-150 years. The amount of P in MBM corresponds to less than 10% of the P-requirement of the entire needs of German agriculture, or approximately a third of the requirement of mineral P-fertilisers.
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The latest technologies such as satellite navigation and unmanned autonomous vehicles do not stop at agriculture. In precision agriculture these techniques are used for variable rate spreading of fertilisers or pesticides. Using this technology the natural variability of soil fertility parameters within a field is taken into account, and the means of production are tailored to the crops specific needs in an ecologically desirable way.
Whereas in the industrial and service sector the intro
Results of an experts round table “decomposition behaviour of animal residues in soil” at the Institute of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science, Federal Agricultural Research Centre (FAL), Braunschweig, Germany.
As a result of the BSE-crisis, any feed for livestock must be “free” of anything of animal origin. This EU-decree lasts until 2006 and should prevent “MBM” (Meat Bone Meal) from reaching the feed trough. MBM means the heated, dried and ground remains of animal slaughter w
A unique piece of software that will code any piece of recorded music, or speech, for any device, has been created by a team of European researchers.
The IST project, called ARDOR, developed a unique codec, short for COmpressor-DECompressor. Codecs are the engine under the hood of software media players.
“At the moment there are dozens of standardised sound codecs. Basically each application has its own dedicated codec and these codecs are optimised for specific input sig
Scientists at CERN announced the completion of the target assembly for the CERN neutrinos to Gran Sasso project, CNGS. On schedule for start-up in May 2006, CNGS will send a beam of neutrinos through the Earth to the Gran Sasso laboratory 730km away in Italy in a bid to unravel the mysteries of nature’s most elusive particles.
CNGS forms a unique element in the global effort to understand neutrinos, the chameleons of the fundamental particle world. Neutrinos come in three types, or flavou
Study may one day lead to test that could show which patients may be helped by immediate steroid treatment
Our immune system protects us from disease, destroying invading microbes with a swarm of attacking cells. But it can also go haywire for no apparent reason, ganging up on normal tissues in our body and wreaking havoc.
In thousands of people each year, the immune system attacks the inner ear, home to the tiny, delicate structures that allow us to hear. Without war
It took almost 10 years for Elaine Fuchs, Ph.D., a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Rockefeller University, to find a postdoctoral fellow who shared her curiosity for the direction of cell divisions in the skin. Then Terry Lechler, Ph.D., came along and the result is a new paper published online last week in Nature detailing how asymmetric cell divisions are essential for skin development. Their findings challenge long standing ideas of how skin forms and functions and is one of
Renowned for their ability to walk up walls like miniature Spider-Men–or even to hang from the ceiling by one toe–the colorful lizards of the gecko family owe their wall-crawling prowess to their remarkable footpads. Each five-toed foot is covered with microscopic elastic hairs called setae, which are themselves split at the ends to form a forest of nanoscale fibers known as spatulas. So when a gecko steps on almost anything, these nano-hairs make such extremely close contact with the surface th
Consumers who are very skeptical about the truth of advertising claims are more responsive to emotionally appealing ads than ones peppered with information, according to a new study.
The finding comes from work by researchers at the University of Washington, Seattle University, and Washington State University who examined consumers’ responses to advertising, including brand beliefs, responses to informational and emotional appeals, efforts to avoid advertising, attention to ads
If you binged for two weeks while on vacation and gained 5 pounds, would you be biologically primed to eat less to compensate and shake off the excess weight? No, suggests a new Cornell University study.
When a group of 12 normal-weight men and women, average age 31, agreed to overeat by 35 percent for two weeks, they gained an average of 5 pounds, half of it body fat. When they were permitted to return to their normal eating behavior, they did not spontaneously cut back on th
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