Scientists have reported that an experimental vaccine targeting one of the most common genetic drivers of pancreatic cancer, called mutant KRAS, is safe and generated a durable immune responses aimed at preventing the cancer.
While heart disease still edges out cancer among all Americans, cancer is the number one killer among Hispanics in Texas. Yet their prognosis remains superior to Caucasians, a Hispanic paradox that debunks the notion that income and education are key factors in health care.
Heart disease is rather common in the general population but the risk is up to four times greater for diabetics, according to the National Institutes of Health. The American Heart Association estimates that at least 65 percent of people with diabetes die from heart disease or stroke.
Researchers have identified a biological pathway that is activated when blood sugar levels are abnormally high and causes irregular heartbeats. This cardiac arrhythmia is linked with heart failure and sudden cardiac death.
In 1963, Roy Kerr's hypothesis was of a "clean" black hole model and that remains the dominant paradigm. From theory to reality things may be quite different, black holes may be much "dirtier" than what Kerr believed, the authors write.
A tiny Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) accelerometer used in smart phones to adjust the orientation of the screen could serve to create a real-time urban seismic network and increase the amount of strong motion data collected during a large earthquake, according to a new paper in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.
Since the 1990s, (MEMS accelerometers have been measure the rate of acceleration of ground motion and vibration of cars, buildings and installations. They revolutionized the automotive airbag industry and are found in many devices used daily, including smart phones, video games and laptops.
The Affordable Care Act is not quite ready, some of the key aspects won't be available and many large corporations are still exempt, but it is rolling out for individuals tomorrow. 76% of U.S. adults are aware of the law's individual mandate - they know the law will require them to have insurance or pay penalties - but only 40% are aware that new health insurance marketplaces are (in many cases) opening on October 1, or that financial assistance that is available to help people with low or moderate incomes pay their health insurance premiums.
Oxytocin, colloquially called the 'love hormone' because of its correlation to mother-infant attachment and romantic bonding in adults, could also make us more accepting of other people, according to a new psychology paper.
Screening for colorectal cancer (CRC) in European countries is highly effective in reducing mortality from the disease. Some of the resources currently being devoted to breast and prostate screening programmes, where the evidence of effectiveness is much less clear-cut, should be reallocated to the early detection of CRC, the 2013 European Cancer Congress (ECC2013) [1] will hear today (Sunday).
The first Phase II study to investigate the use of the anti-cancer drug, everolimus, for the initial treatment of advanced papillary kidney cancer has shown that it is successful in slowing or preventing the spread of the disease, according to research to be presented today (Sunday) at the 2013 European Cancer Congress (ECC2013) [1].
An old star, IRAS 15445-5449, is "blooming" in the southern sky — it has begun to push out a jet of charged particles that glow with radio waves. And astronomers are on the hunt to determine why
Researchers recently used a laser to accelerate electrons at a rate 10 times higher than conventional technology in a nanostructured glass chip smaller than a grain of rice, an advance that could dramatically shrink particle accelerators for science and medicine.
Because it employs commercial lasers and low-cost, mass-production techniques, the researchers believe it will set the stage for new generations of "tabletop" accelerators.
At its full potential, the new "accelerator on a chip" could match the accelerating power of SLAC's 2-mile-long linear accelerator in just 100 feet, and deliver a million more electron pulses per second.
Instead of letting them mess around on the Wii or, worse, watching a "Baby Einstein" video, the way to make kids of all ages and incomes smarter could be as simple as handing them a few blocks.
Playing with blocks may help preschoolers develop the kinds of skills that support later learning in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), according to a new study.
More than a hundred 3-year-olds of various socioeconomic levels took part in the study. Children who were better at copying block structures were also better at early math, the study found. Among the skills tested were whether children could figure out that a block belongs above or below another block and whether they aligned the pieces.
Streamers may be great for decorating a child's party, but in dielectrics they are the primary origin of electric breakdown and can cause catastrophic damage to electrical equipment, harm the surrounding environment, and lead to large-scale power outages.
Understanding streamers and the mechanisms behind their initiation, acceleration and branching is necessary to devise better solutions to avoid them. A team of researchers at MIT have developed an accurate 3-D model of streamer propagation that qualitatively and quantitatively describes the streamer development, an advance that may impact applications such as medical imaging, aerospace engineering, power transmission, atmospheric sensing, natural sciences, sensing technologies and large-scale industry.
