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.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has lifted the clinical hold previously placed on a proposed Phase II study of SparVax, a next generation recombinant anthrax vaccine, PharmAthene, Inc. announced.The clinical hold was enacted in August 2012, prior to the commencement of a proposed Phase II clinical trial of SparVax. In its notification to the Company, the FDA requested that PharmAthene provide additional stability data for both its engineering and GMP lots of U.S. manufactured Final Drug Product, as well as additional information about the intended stability indicating assays.
Asteroid 1998 QE2 will be its closest to Earth on Friday at 1:59 p.m. Pacific time. At 1.7 miles wide it is one of the larger asteroids to swing by Earth - about the size of the rock that wiped out the dinosaurs.Luckily, Asteroid 1998 QE2 will be a comfortable 3.6 million miles away.Astronomical bonus: it even has its own moon, a smaller rock circling it that is about about 2,000 feet wide.A sequence of radar images of asteroid 1998 QE2 was obtained on the evening of May 29, 2013, by NASA scientists using the 230-foot (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., when the asteroid was about 3.75 million miles (6 million kilometers) from Earth, which is 15.6 lunar distances.
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), known to deplete ozone, are also to blame for global warming since the 1970s, according to a paper in the International Journal of Modern Physics B.
The statistical analysis found that CFCs are the key driver in global climate change, rather than carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, which the author says would explain why temperature has not continued to rise as CO2 has - CFCs have gone down a lot.
Marijuana became popular as a recreational drug and as its legalization movement became more popular, studies were conducted on its therapeutic properties. Medical cannabis is often used by sufferers of chronic ailments, including cancer and post-traumatic stress disorder, to combat pain, insomnia, lack of appetite, and other symptoms. But self-reported milder symptoms often claim that only marijuana helps. Women have 50% of prescription-level pain, for example, but men have gotten 80% of the 'medical marijuana' cards, so objective data is lacking.
A naturally occurring protein, diazepam binding inhibitor (DBI) , secreted only in discrete areas of the mammalian brain may act as a Valium-like brake on certain types of epileptic seizures.
Valium, which is notoriously addictive, prone to abuse and dangerous at high doses, was an early drug treatment for epilepsy, but it has fallen out of use for this purpose because its efficacy quickly wears off and because newer, better anti-epileptic drugs have come along.
Researchers writing in Neuron say DBI calms the rhythms of a key brain circuit and so could prove valuable in developing novel, less side-effect-prone therapies not only for epilepsy but possibly for anxiety and sleep disorders.
Global use of nuclear power has prevented about 1.84 million air pollution-related deaths and release of 64 billion tons of greenhouse gases that would have resulted from burning coal and other fossil fuels, according to a paper in Environmental Science&Technology.
Because government mandates and subsidies for ethanol have caused grain prices to increase, pig farmers have instead looked for alternatives. One of those is distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), a co-product of ethanol that has expanded along with that industry.
But it is an evolving feed and some believe that unsaturated fatty acids in distillers dried grains leads to increased oxidation, which affects texture, color, juiciness and the overall flavor of pork products, and therefore the shelf life. Some producers believe they can counteract that by feeding pigs saturated fats which will undo the fat-softening effects of DDGS. Firmer fat means longer-lasting pork.
Pundits are wrong more often than they are right but when preaching to the faithful, being accurate is less important than being confident. It's no different in politics or sports or business shows.
You often choose to be accurate - or be popular.
"In a perfect world, you want to be accurate and confident," says Jadrian Wooten of Washington State University economics program, who co-wrote a paper on the subject with Ben Smith, a fellow economics graduate. Smith originally wanted to test the accuracy and confidence of stock market pundits, taking inspiration from stock watcher and perpetual CNBC yeller Jim Cramer.
Psychology students, male and female, lie about their sexual behavior to match the cultural expectations of how they perceive other students believe men or women should act – even though they wouldn't distort other gender-related behaviors, a new paper has concluded.
Researchers have detected microplastic pollution - a concern in oceans because small bits of plastic can be harmful to fish and birds that feed on plankton or other small waterborne organisms
- in one of Western Europe's largest lakes, Lake Geneva, in large enough quantities to raise concern.
If you are a patient in the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS), try to have surgery on a Monday instead of a Friday, says a paper in the British Medical Journal.
The authors analyzed over four million elective procedures conducted in NHS hospitals in England between 2008 and 2011. They found that 27,582 patients died within 30 days of surgery and the mortality rate was lowest for patients having operations on Monday. Mortality increased for each subsequent day of the week. The odds of death were 44 per cent higher for operations on a Friday than a Monday.
Many seeds germinate in the soil and get their nutrition in the dark from limited reserves of starch and lipids, so as soon as possible they grow toward light. Light-sensing proteins find the shortest route to sunlight – and then plants are even able to bend in the direction of the light source.
