http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- A new study led by the U.S. Geological Survey and involving the University of Colorado at Boulder indicates tree deaths in the West's old-growth forests have more than doubled in recent decades, likely from regional warming and related drought conditions. http://www.physorg.com/news151856202.html Space & Earth Thu, 22 Jan 2009 14:17:18 EST news151856202 Abnormal heart rhythms - arrhythmias - are killers. They strike without warning, causing sudden cardiac death, which accounts for about 10 percent of all deaths in the United States. http://www.physorg.com/news151775019.html Medicine & Health Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:45:24 EST news151775019 The association between tobacco smoke and cancer deaths - beyond lung cancer deaths - has been strengthened by a recent study from a UC Davis researcher, suggesting that increased tobacco control efforts could save more lives than previously estimated. http://www.physorg.com/news151770432.html Medicine & Health Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:30:40 EST news151770432 Patients using a cream containing tretinoin, a retinoid commonly used to treat acne and other conditions, appeared more likely to die than those using a placebo in a clinical trial that was halted early as a result, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. However, evidence does not suggest these excess deaths were caused by the therapy. http://www.physorg.com/news151607681.html Medicine & Health Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:15:19 EST news151607681 (PhysOrg.com) -- Distressed swimmers often panic, sapping the strength they need to keep their heads above water until help arrives. When desperate for oxygen, neurons behave in a similar way. They freak out, stupidly discharging energy until they drown in a sea of their own extruded salts. Every year, millions of victims of stroke or brain trauma suffer permanent brain damage because of this mad rush to oblivion that begins once a part of the brain is deprived of blood. http://www.physorg.com/news151342666.html Biology Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:37:46 EST news151342666 As many as one million working-age men died due to the economic shock of mass privatisation policies followed by post-communist countries in the 1990s, according to a new study published in The Lancet. http://www.physorg.com/news151254022.html Medicine & Health Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:00:22 EST news151254022 (PhysOrg.com) -- Criminal justice scholars often say that the true number of innocent people convicted of crimes is unknown -in fact, unknowable. A new University of Michigan study challenges that belief in one important context. http://www.physorg.com/news150476160.html Other Sciences Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:56:00 EST news150476160 Scientists at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have determined the structure of the interactions between proteins that form the heart of the death inducing signaling complex (DISC), which is responsible for triggering apoptosis (programmed cell death). http://www.physorg.com/news150393102.html Biology Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:51:42 EST news150393102 Just days after the first retinal cell gets infected with the common cytomegalovirus, contiguous cells start committing suicide and researchers believe their death may provide clues to better treatment of this potentially blinding infection. http://www.physorg.com/news150374176.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:36:16 EST news150374176 Shredded extracellular matrix (ECM) is toxic to neurons. Chen et al. reveal a new mechanism for how ECM demolition causes brain damage. The study will appear in the December 29, 2008 issue of The Journal of Cell Biology. http://www.physorg.com/news149769426.html Biology Mon, 29 Dec 2008 10:37:06 EST news149769426 Patients with diabetes at the time of a cancer diagnosis have an increased risk of death compared to patients without diabetes, according to a meta-analysis of studies reported in the December 17 issue of JAMA. http://www.physorg.com/news148668611.html Medicine & Health Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:50:11 EST news148668611 Cancer cells and nervous system neurons may not look or act alike, but both use strikingly similar ways to survive, according to new research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. http://www.physorg.com/news148565559.html Biology Mon, 15 Dec 2008 12:12:39 EST news148565559 Deaths due to dementia and Alzheimer's disease are underreported on death certificates, according to a study conducted by Hebrew SeniorLife's Institute for Aging Research (IFAR), raising concerns about the accuracy of mortality statistics based on these documents. http://www.physorg.com/news148150719.html Medicine & Health Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:58:39 EST news148150719 A pair of proteins may help explain why people with surgically removed colorectal cancer and who are overweight, physically inactive, and follow a Western-pattern diet may have an increased risk of dying of the disease or other causes, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists report in a new study. http://www.physorg.com/news148057346.html Medicine & Health Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:02:26 EST news148057346 (PhysOrg.com) -- For the first time, researchers have found that a modified form of a naturally occurring protein, N-cadherin, could prevent blocked arteries. Blocked arteries are a major cause of heart attacks and strokes. http://www.physorg.com/news148051671.html Medicine & Health Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:27:51 EST news148051671 Men and women have about the same in-hospital death rate for heart attack - but women are twice as likely to die if hospitalized for a more severe type of heart attack, according to a report in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. http://www.physorg.com/news147979977.html Medicine & Health Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:32:57 EST news147979977 A protein that shields tumor cells from cell death and exerts resistance to chemotherapy has an Achilles heel, a vulnerability that can be exploited to target and kill the very tumor cells it usually protects, researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago show in a new study published in the Dec. 9 issue of Cancer Cell. http://www.physorg.com/news147965138.html Medicine & Health Mon, 08 Dec 2008 13:25:38 EST news147965138 Rods and cones coexist peacefully in healthy retinas. Both types of cells occupy the same layer of tissue and send signals when they detect light, which is the first step in vision. The incurable eye disease Retinitis Pigmentosa, however, reveals a codependent relationship between the two that can be destructive. When flawed rods begin to die, otherwise normal cones follow them to the grave, leading to blindness. A new study might explain why. http://www.physorg.com/news147885081.html Medicine & Health Sun, 07 Dec 2008 15:11:21 EST news147885081 New therapies for some forms of epilepsy may soon be possible, thanks to a discovery made by a team of University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute neuroscience researchers. http://www.physorg.com/news147697831.html Medicine & Health Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:10:31 EST news147697831 The risks of death are probably higher with aprotinin, a drug commonly used to control blood loss and transfusions during cardiac surgery, compared with lysine analogues, according to a study http://www.cmaj.ca//cgi/rapidpdf/cmaj.081109 to be published in the January 20th issue of CMAJ. http://www.physorg.com/news147445768.html Medicine & Health Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:09:28 EST news147445768 A new report from the nation's leading cancer organizations shows that, for the first time since the report was first issued in 1998, both incidence and death rates for all cancers combined are decreasing for both men and women, driven largely by declines in some of the most common types of cancer. The report notes that, although the decreases in overall cancer incidence and death rates are encouraging, large state and regional differences in lung cancer trends among women underscore the need to strengthen many state tobacco control programs. The findings come from the "Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2005, Featuring Trends in Lung Cancer, Tobacco Use and Tobacco Control", online Nov. 25, 2008, and appearing in the Dec. 2, 2008, Journal of the National Cancer Institute. http://www.physorg.com/news146849658.html Medicine & Health Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:34:18 EST news146849658 Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the Moores UCSD Cancer Center have discovered what could be a novel drug target for an often difficult-to-treat form of leukemia. The investigators have identified a unique "signature" or pattern of a specific family of enzymes in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), the most common form of adult leukemia. http://www.physorg.com/news146767923.html Medicine & Health Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:52:03 EST news146767923 Older adults who take the diabetes medication rosiglitazone appear to have a higher risk of death and heart failure than those taking the related medication pioglitazone, according to a report in the November 24 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. http://www.physorg.com/news146765710.html Medicine & Health Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:15:10 EST news146765710 A new study by Narendra et al. suggests that Parkin, the product of the Parkinson's disease-related gene Park2, prompts neuronal survival by clearing the cell of its damaged mitochondria. http://www.physorg.com/news146742726.html Medicine & Health Mon, 24 Nov 2008 09:52:06 EST news146742726 Raising taxes on beer, wine and liquor immediately reduces the number of deaths from alcohol-related diseases such as liver disease, oral or breast cancers, and alcohol poisoning, according to a new study published in the online edition of the American Journal of Public Health. http://www.physorg.com/news145814381.html Medicine & Health Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:59:41 EST news145814381 A new UCLA School of Nursing study is the first to reveal the devastating consequences of smoking on the nursing profession. Published in the November -December edition of the journal Nursing Research, the findings describe smoking trends and death rates among U.S. nurses and emphasize the importance of supporting smoking cessation programs in the nursing field. http://www.physorg.com/news145800798.html Medicine & Health Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:13:18 EST news145800798 Having a large waistline can almost double your risk of dying prematurely even if your body mass index is within the 'normal' range, according to a new study of over 350,000 people across Europe, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. http://www.physorg.com/news145730419.html Medicine & Health Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:40:19 EST news145730419 Women with a history of serious mental illness are much more likely to have babies that are stillborn or die within the first month of life, new research reveals. http://www.physorg.com/news145514029.html Medicine & Health Mon, 10 Nov 2008 04:33:49 EST news145514029 A new American Cancer Society study finds that recent progress in closing the gap in overall cancer mortality between African Americans and whites may be due primarily to smoking-related cancers, and that cancer mortality differences related to screening and treatment may still be increasing. The study, appearing in the November issue of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention, is the first to analyze racial and ethnic differences between the two broad categories of disease. http://www.physorg.com/news145182323.html Medicine & Health Thu, 06 Nov 2008 08:25:23 EST news145182323 A study in the Sept. 21 on-line edition of Nature Medicine describes the function and interaction of a critical molecule involved in cell death in Alzheimer's disease patients. These new findings reveal that blocking this molecule, called Cyclophilin D (CypD), and development of surrounding mitochondrial targets may be viable therapeutic strategies for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease, according to Shi Du Yan, Ph.D., professor of clinical pathology in the Department's of Pathology and Surgery and in the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain at Columbia University Medical Center, who led the multi-center research. http://www.physorg.com/news145124623.html Medicine & Health Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:23:43 EST news145124623