Research shows that short-term hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is appropriate for peri- and postmenopausal women. These and other results from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), the largest, most statistically valid and well analyzed research evaluating the use of HRT, are reviewed in the International Journal of Gynecological Cancer.
In peri- and postmenopausal women who have moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms associated with estrogen deficiency, data shows that HRT can be benef
The Six Parties of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) consortium have reached a decision in their negotiations, specifying the location of the world’s first energy-producing fusion reactor in Cadarache, in Southern France. The €10 billion project will generate multiple research opportunities for the Plasma Physics Research Centre at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).
ITER’s future location in Cadarache will be doubly beneficial to EPFL.
Researchers in the Department of Agricultural Production at the Public University of Navarra have been awarded the prize for the best research in the area of viticulture. The presentation took place at the V Iberian Congress of Horticultural Science recently held in Oporto (Portugal). The awarded work, entitled “Recovery of photosynthetic activity in 4 grape varieties after a hydric stress event”, studied the response to the hydric stress event of the grape, in order to enable suitable land irrig
Determining if there exist genetic alterations that can be associated with the diagnosis and prognosis of neuroblastic tumours, responsible for 15% of child deaths due to cancer, was the aim of the Paula Lázcoz Ripoll’s PhD thesis which she recently defended at the Public University of Navarra. The work was entitled: Molecular diagnosis of neuroblastic tumours: genetic profile and analysis of tumour suppressor genes.
Genetic alterations
Neuroblastic tumours are malignant extracr
An international team of scientists will in the coming five years set up a research project on developing diversions to mislead malaria mosquitoes with odours. With these the number of cases of malaria in tropical Africa may be reduced strongly. Scientists at Wageningen University will be working with colleagues in the USA, Tanzania and Gambia on a project led by Vanderbilt researchers that has received $8.5 million dollars (approximately 7 million Euro) from the U.S. Foundation for the National I
Parents whose children are born with a low birth weight run greater risk of dying of cardiovascular diseases. Even the fathers are at greater risk. These findings are published in a new report by Karolinska Institutet. The report shows that genetic factors affect both birth weight and the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
It is already known that poor foetal growth is associated with high blood pressure, type II diabetes (adult onset diabetes), and cardiovascular diseases in later life. Th
Although it seems obvious that when overweight people lose weight their health should improve, the relationship between weight loss and health may not be as simple as that, suggests previous studies from Finland and Denmark. For example, it is difficult to control for all other possible things that might cause weight loss, such as other medical conditions that could then increase mortality.
The researchers at the University of Helsinki, Helsinki and Copenhagen University Hospitals, Danish
A University of Manchester scientist has been awarded £150,000 to study slime!
But this is no ordinary slime, says biologist Chris Thompson, who believes it could unravel mysteries of evolution that even Darwin couldn’t solve.
Dr Thompson’s curious research was one of only three scientific studies to win this year’s prestigious Lister Institute Research Prize.
The award will allow him to develop his work on slime moulds – microscopic organisms that show remarkabl
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the brain reduces the need for invasive testing of seizure disorder patients being considered for surgical treatment, according to a study published in the July issue of the journal Radiology.
“fMRI gives the surgical team an important roadmap of the brain function without contrast injections or invasive tests,” said the study’s lead author, L. Santiago Medina, M.D., M.P.H., co-director of neuroradiology and director of the H
Results may be relevant to drug development
The cellular cascade of molecular signals that instructs cells with fatally damaged DNA to self-destruct pivots on the p53 tumor suppressor gene. If p53 is inactivated, as it is in over half of all human cancers, checks and balances on cell growth fail to operate, and body cells start to accumulate mutations, which ultimately may lead to cancer. Not surprisingly, the regulation of this vital safeguard has been studied in great detail f
While most women suffer from pelvic floor disorders (PFD), the majority don’t seek help until they are incontinent.
In a survey of 1111 working women, Temple University researchers were surprised to learn that while the majority, 72 percent, reported suffering from one or more pelvic floor disorders, 70 percent had not sought medical help. And further, that by the time they did see the doctor, usually triggered by the onset of incontinence, they were suffering from multiple
The theory that the mind works like a computer, in a series of distinct stages, was an important steppingstone in cognitive science, but it has outlived its usefulness, concludes a new Cornell University study. Instead, the mind should be thought of more as working the way biological organisms do: as a dynamic continuum, cascading through shades of grey.
In a new study published online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (June 27-July 1), Michael Spivey
Diuretics (water pills) work better than newer and more costly medicines in the treatment of high blood pressure and prevention of some forms of heart disease in people with type 2 diabetes, according to results from the Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial (ALLHAT). ALLHAT, the largest hypertension clinical trial ever conducted, was led in part by Tulane University physician and epidemiologist Paul K. Whelton, senior vice president for health sciences and
Intergenerational transmission of infant abuse is more likely caused by early experience than genetic inheritance, new University of Chicago research on macaque monkeys shows.
“Maternal abuse of offspring in macaque monkeys shares some similarities with child maltreatment in humans, including its transmission across generations,” said Dario Maestripieri, Associate Professor in the Department of Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago.
“The mechanis
A study on markers of inflammation in smokers and non-smokers shows that it can take several years after smoking for changes in the blood to return to normal. The researchers, Arvind Bakhru and Thomas Erlinger, gathered data on 15,489 US adults between 1988 and 1994 in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. They found that the inflammatory markers, C-reactive protein, white blood cell count, albumin, and fibrinogen, took longer to return to normal after smokers quit than did mor
As mothers get older and assisted conception becomes more common, the incidence of multiple births–primarily of nonidentical siblings, but also of identical ones–has dramatically increased. Multiple pregnancies are high-risk pregnancies, with preterm delivery and monochorionicity (shared placenta) the major problems. Consequently, efforts are underway to optimize the management of these pregnancies. Nicholas Fisk and colleagues from the Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology at Imper
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