Conventional estimates for life expectancy after cancer diagnosis have been too pessimistic, suggests a study in this week’s issue of THE LANCET.
There are two main ways of quantifying survival estimates after cancer diagnosis. The conventional method, known as the cohort method, is based on the survival experience of cancer patients whose diagnosis occurred many years ago. This method therefore fails to disclose recent improvements in cancer detection and treatment. A recently developed alt
More children are treated in the U.S. with antibiotics for inflammation of the middle ear, or otitis media, than any other child health problem. More than five million cases are diagnosed every year. But now, a scholarly review of over one hundred studies by a U.Va. pediatrician concludes that antibiotics help only one in eight children with ear infections.
Dr. J. Owen Hendley, professor of pediatrics and a specialist in pediatric infectious diseases, writes in the Oct. 10 edition of the Ne
It would send and receive faxes and video and have the processing power of a personal computer. The cell phone of the future would be on the market today but for one hitch: the battery.
The technology is available to build cell phones that would make the latest versions — those that allow users to send pictures and play video games — seem almost primitive. But the batteries now used in cell phones are not nearly powerful enough to drive all the fancy add-ons, said Charles Martin, a Univers
Three ESA missions are due to send down robotic `spaceprobes` when they arrive at their alien destinations. Since these craft will be going where no one has gone before, how can scientists be sure what it will be like down there? How do you ensure that your spaceprobe is prepared for anything?
Experts take every precaution to ensure that these probes will not burn up entering an alien atmosphere, or meet a spectacular, untimely end via a crash landing on inhospitable terrain. These probes ex
A remote control sensing device is being developed to detect defects in sewer walls.
Using both ultrasound and laser light, digital information on the condition of the sewer walls is fed back to a computer which can be programmed to spot problems.
The research is being carried out by a team in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at King’s College London, led by Dr Kaspar Althoefer and Professor Lakmal Seneviratne. Funding is from the Swindon based Engineering and Physical Sci
An international team of astronomers today report the discovery of a huge distorted disk of cold dust surrounding Fomalhaut – one of the brightest stars in the sky. The most likely cause of the distortion is the gravitational influence of a Saturn-like planet at a large distance from the star tugging on the disk. This provides some of the strongest evidence so far that Solar Systems similar in size, or even bigger than our own, are likely to exist.
One hundred planets are already known to e
High Level Group for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell
Thank you Madam Vice President, and thank you again, (Ladies and) gentlemen for your attention.
Madam de Palacio has presented to you our concerns in the European Union over Global climate change, energy security and transport. We are committed to achieving sustainable development.
We re-stated our commitment in Johannesburg and are embarking on a comprehensive range of measures. This includes research on the most promisi
A process developed at Ohio State University for shaping metal parts using magnetism has reached a new milestone — one that may cut manufacturing costs and help preserve the environment.
The process could also expand manufacturers’ choice of available metals, and enable the use of aluminum parts in lighter, fuel-efficient automobiles.
Glenn S. Daehn, professor of materials science and engineering, and his colleagues pioneered hybrid electromagnetic metal forming in 1999, while col
A new study at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston helps explain why practice makes perfect. Baylor researchers found that neurons in the visual cortex, the part of the brain responsible for vision, were more active when study monkeys anticipated the occurrence of predictable events. The results of the study were published in the Oct. 10 issue of Nature. “We really don’t have a great understanding of what changes in the brain when we practice things,” said Dr. Geoffrey M. Ghose, first author o
Researchers at the University of Minnesota have discovered a new process by which HIV damages the immune system. They demonstrated that the portion of lymph nodes called the T cell zone is significantly damaged by chronic inflammation, which causes fibrosis. This is important because the T cell zone is where a significant portion of the human immune response occurs. The finding of accumulation of scar tissue in this portion of the lymph node may explain why aggressive anti-retroviral therapy (ART) do
Ribosome Recycling Factor Mimics Shape, But Not The Functions of Transfer RNA
RRF Protein Offers Potential Target for New Antibiotics
The fact that ribosome recycling factor (RRF) looks a lot like transfer RNA (tRNA) has not been lost on scientists. After all, both molecules are an important part of a bacteria’s ability to create new proteins. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the University of Southern California, Santa Cruz, however, hav
Using an optical fluorescence microscope to monitor enzyme activity, researchers at three universities have solved a long-running mystery. It takes at least two proteins, working in an unstable tandem, to unzip two strands of DNA.
Their newly designed approach, which focuses on the activity of single molecules, also showed — for the first time — that if one protein falls away, the process stops. Unless another climbs aboard, DNA reverts to its zipped state.
The technique, which o
A team led by Terumi Kohwi-Shigematsu of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Life Sciences Division has demonstrated that SATB1, a protein crucial to the development of the immune system, works by forming a network in the cell nucleus, attaching chromatin to the network structure at specific sites, and orchestrating remodeling of the chromatin over long distances to regulate gene expression.
“SATB1 determines when and how the genes are read — when they are activated and when they are
Companies that create HIV-AIDS drugs now have key information that could assist in making new medications with fewer side effects.
Researchers Henry Weiner, a professor of biochemistry at Purdue University, Steven Zollo of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Lauren Wood of the National Cancer Institute, noted the similarity between HIV-AIDS treatment side effects and naturally occurring diseases. Certain HIV-AIDS treatment side effects, such as fat loss and insulin resista
A research team at two Midwest universities has developed a new way to genetically alter cells in living mice, offering new possibilities in the war against cancer and other diseases.
Using a modified virus as a Trojan horse, a team led by Purdue University’s David Sanders has found a promising system to deliver genes to diseased liver and brain cells. By placing helpful genetic material within the outer protein shell of Ross River Virus (RRV), Sanders’ team was able to alter the
The first clinical trial to compare directly two of the most widely-used drugs in advanced lung cancer, cisplatinin and carboplatin (both in combination with paclitaxel) – have concluded that the older drug, cisplatin, is the better treatment.
Patients given cisplatin and paclitaxel had better survival rates and their quality of life was just as good as patients receiving carboplatin and paclitaxel.
The phase III multi-national European trial involving 618 patients with advanced non
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