A new study by researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and colleagues shows that a drug originally used to treat breast cancer may help combat the severe weight loss that can plague patients undergoing radiation treatment for lung and head and neck cancer.
A United Nations-sponsored report released today urges extra protection for the world’s small cetaceans — dolphins, porpoises and related species — more than two-thirds of which are at risk from entanglement in fishing nets and which are vulnerable to pollution, habitat degradation and military sonar.
The genius of Albert Einstein, who added a “cosmological constant” to his equation for the expansion of the universe but later retracted it, may be vindicated by new research published today in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. The enigmatic “dark energy” that drives the acceleration of the Universe behaves just like Einstein’s famed cosmological constant, according to the Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS), an international team of researchers in France and Toronto and Victoria in Canada, collaborating with large telescope observers in Oxford, Caltech and Berkeley. Their observations reveal that the dark energy behaves like Einstein’s cosmological constant to a precision of 10%.
Using a novel application of an fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) technique, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have, for the first time, visualized the effects of everyday psychological stress in a healthy human brain. Their work, performed at Penn’s Center for Functional Neuroimaging, provides a neuro-imaging marker of psychological stress — which will pave the way for the development of improved strategies for preventing or correcting the long-term health consequences of chronic stress.
Stem cells may cause some forms of bone cancer, University of Florida scientists report. The researchers are the first to identify a population of cells with characteristics of adult and embryonic stem cells in cultures derived from biopsies of patients’ bone tumors. They describe their findings in this month’s issue of the medical journal Neoplasia.
Families gathered around the Thanksgiving dinner table might consider giving thanks for the bacteria-busting ability of cranberry juice, say dental researchers who have discovered that the beverage holds important clues for preventing cavities.
Two proteins involved in the process that controls plant growth may help explain why human cells reject chemotherapy drugs, according to an international team of scientists. Researchers from Purdue University and Kyoto University in Japan have shown for the first time that proteins similar to multi-drug resistant proteins in humans move a plant growth hormone into cells.
Sweating during physical activity or in hot weather is healthy. But when individuals begin perspiring while experiencing discomfort in their chest, arm, neck or jaw — with little or no exertion — it could be the onset of a heart attack, according to a new study at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
The genius of Albert Einstein, who added a “cosmological constant” to his equation for the expansion of the universe but later retracted it, may be vindicated by new research. The enigmatic dark energy that drives the accelerating expansion of the universe behaves just like Einstein’s famed cosmological constant, according to the Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS), an international team of researchers in France and Canada that collaborated with large telescope observers at Oxford, Caltech and Berkeley. Their observations reveal that the dark energy behaves like Einstein’s cosmological constant to a precision of 10 per cent.
Having reviewed Dava Sobel’s new book, The Planets, favorably, but not completely so, I was interested in seeing her book talk at the Drue Heinz lecture series in Pittsburgh.
The rapidly emerging field of swarm intelligence has attracted substantial attention from science and engineering researchers over the last few years. Discrete Mathematics and Discrete Optimization, constitute an important source of computationally hard problems that can be tackled through swarm intelligence algorithms. Particle Swarm Optimization and Ant Colony Optimization, the most common swarm intelligence paradigms, have already been applied to problems of this sort. The aim of this special session is to bring together researchers interested in applications of swarm intelligence in discrete mathematical problems, as well as the improvement of swarm intelligence algorithms through discrete mathematical tools.
A nanoparticle commonly used in industry could have a damaging effect on plant life, according to a report by an environmental scientist at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). The report, published in a recent issue of “Toxicology Letters,” shows that nanoparticles of alumina (aluminum oxide) slowed the growth of roots in five species of plants — corn, cucumber, cabbage, carrot and soybean. Alumina nanoparticles are commonly used in scratch-resistant transparent coatings, sunscreen lotions that provide transparent-UV protection and environmental catalysts that reduce pollution, said Daniel J. Watts, PhD, the lead author of the study
Astronomers have combined two powerful astronomical assets, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, to identify 19 new “gravitationally lensed” galaxies. Among these 19, they have found eight new so-called “Einstein rings”, which are perhaps the most elegant manifestation of the lensing phenomenon. Only three such rings had previously been seen in visible light.