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.
Regular consumption of deep-fried foods like chicken, french fries and doughnuts has been associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer by investigators at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
Previous studies have suggested that eating foods made with high-heat cooking methods, like grilled meat, may increase the risk of prostate cancer but this is the first one to implicate deep frying to cancer.
Sick children suffering dehydration from flu or other illnesses may risk significant kidney injury if given drugs such as ibuprofen and naproxen, according to researchers writing in the Journal of Pediatrics.
Jason Misurac, M.D., and colleagues from
Indiana University School of Medicine
and Butler University reported that nearly 3 percent of cases of pediatric acute kidney injury over a decade could be traced directly to having taken the common non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs. Although small in terms of percentage of total kidney damage cases, they noted that the children with problems associated with NSAIDs included four young patients who needed dialysis, and at least seven who may have suffered permanent kidney damage.
The 1950s are irrationally idealized by some economists and also irrationally derided by some in culture, but a new paper in the Archives of Sexual Behavior seeks to rehabilitate the cultural aspects and make the case that the 1950s use of penicillin, and not birth control or more common abortions a decade later, created the 'sexual revolution' and its rise in in risky, consequence-free behavior during the "swinging 60s".
In a development that could lead to faster and more effective toxicity tests for airborne chemicals, scientists from Rice University and Nano3D Biosciences have used magnetic levitation to grow some of the most realistic lung tissue ever produced in a laboratory.
In the new study, researchers combined four types of cells to replicate tissue from the wall of the bronchiole deep inside the lung.
In vitro laboratory tests have historically been conducted on 2-D cell cultures grown in flat petri dishes, but scientists have become increasingly aware that cells in flat cultures sometimes behave and interact differently than cells that are immersed in 3-D tissue.
A group of researchers say they have shown environmental toxicants can negatively affect as many as three generations of an exposed animal's offspring.
Washington State University scientists led by molecular biologist Michael Skinner says he found reproductive disease and obesity in the descendants of rats exposed to the plasticizer bisephenol-A, or BPA, as well DEHP and DBP, plastic compounds known as phthalates. In the journal Reproductive Toxicology, they report the first observation of cross-generation disease from a widely used hydrocarbon mixture the military refers to as JP8.
Stratasys Ltd., a manufacturer of 3D printers and production systems for prototyping and manufacturing, says that the "magic arms" WREX exoskeleton, designed by Nemours/Alfred l. duPont Hospital for Children, has been nominated for the Designs of the Year 2013 awards by London's Design Museum.
While the cultural debate of nationalized health care is whether or not to let obese people and smokers die(1), a new paper in Spain says males are pressuring women to be thin and it is making females less happy.
The psychologists also contend that women who are not comfortable with their body perceive women with a normal body as a threat. Specifically, when these women see a "normal" body they experience feelings of displeasure and lack of control, since they feel they have not any control on their own body and cannot make it be as they want.
The sun has terrific energy potential but harnessing its electricity with silicon solar cells is too expensive; at times 10 times the price of coal energy it is fine for wealthier people but unrealistic in developing nations, where CO2 emissions are rising the fastest.
At least in America, CO2 emissions have dropped dramatically. The energy sector, the largest producer of CO2, is already back at early 1990s levels of emissions and the traditionally worst offender, coal, is at early 1980s levels.
CO2 is the primary greenhouse gas emitted by human activity. A simple way to measure climate sensitivity is to calculate how much the mean air temperature will rise if we were to double the level of overall CO2 emissions compared to the world's pre-industrialized level around the year 1750. If we continue to emit greenhouse gases at our current rate, estimates are that we risk doubling that atmospheric CO2 level in roughly 2050.
About ten percent of all cases of malignant melanoma are familial cases. The genome of affected families tells scientists a lot about how the disease develops. Prof. Dr. Rajiv Kumar of the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) together with Prof. Dr. Dirk Schadendorf from Essen University Hospital studied a family where 14 family members were affected by malignant melanoma.
Decentralization is the greatest challenge facing energy companies in Germany - directing energy efficiently has become more important than how much to produce.
"Distribution System Operators (DSO) and energy companies are working feverishly on various new models and technologies to ensure the right amounts of energy get to the right places at the right times, as well as attempting to pre-empt looming new questions," said Tobias Rothacher, Senior Manager of Renewable Energies and Resources at Germany Trade&Invest.
Electric cars of the future will present a whole host of new riddles in power availability that will need answering, as will eventual turns to electric forms of heating and/or cooling.
The “coffee-ring effect” is a commonplace occurrence that happens when drops of liquid with suspended particles dry, leaving a ring-shaped stain at the drop’s edges. How those particles stack up as they reach the drop’s edge, and how different particles make smoother or rougher deposition profiles at the drop edge depending on their shape, is the subject of a new study from Penn and the growth profiles they found offer tests of deep mathematical ideas about growing interfaces.
