A new paper says that current practices for grouping and evaluating young dancers in ballet can be counterproductive, because it places late-maturing girls at a significant disadvantage during important phases of their development and at greater risk for injury.

The authors endorse an approach to training known as 'bio-banding', which groups individuals by their biological rather than chronological age and is popular in sports like football. 

The first major clinical trial to include a blinded, placebo-controlled "statin re-challenge" in patients with a history of muscle-related side effects sheds new light on statin-associated muscle symptoms, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 65th Annual Scientific Session. The trial also demonstrates that monthly self-injection of the relatively new non-statin cholesterol-lowering drug evolocumab reduces levels of low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, cholesterol to a greater extent than ezetimibe, a traditional drug used in statin-intolerant patients.

Giving intravenous beta blockers before performing a coronary angioplasty in patients who had experienced the deadliest form of heart attack--ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI)--was safe but did not reduce heart attack severity or improve blood flow from the heart's main pumping chamber, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 65th Annual Scientific Session.

"A bend and a twist, then stretch and turn, now relax". What sounds like a series of exercise instructions, are also words that describe the various shapes a piece of DNA can assume. The classic double helix structure that one associates with DNA is but an extremely limited view of its physical 'shape'. The molecule that holds the codes of life is capable of further winding itself into myriad complex shapes called 'supercoils' that are capable of affecting gene expression patterns. Now, researchers from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA, have elucidated this pattern of supercoiling across the genome of the much studied bacterium E. coli.

MIAMI, March 31, 2016 -- A recent study by researchers at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine showed that a microRNA called miR-181a dampens signals from the cancer-driving NFκB protein pathway in the most aggressive large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCL). By reducing NFκB signaling, miR-181a controls tumor cell proliferation and survival and could be the target of novel therapies. The study was published in the journal Blood.

The mystery of a rare, debilitating disease that has afflicted generations of European families - and long baffled their doctors - has been solved by an international collaboration involving Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researchers.

Dr Seth Masters from the institute, working in conjunction with Dr Adrian Liston and Dr Carine Wouters from Belgium, studied families in France, Belgium and England who had been living with an unknown condition that caused severe skin lesions, fevers, pain and exhaustion.

Every generation, half of the children of the people who suffered from this unknown disease develop the same symptoms.

People buying fake 'luxury brand' goods experience a range of psychological motivations - including the 'thrill of the hunt' - new research has shown.

Consumer behavioural expert Dr Xuemei Bian, of the University of Kent, together with researchers from three other universities, carried out the first in-depth study of why consumer demand for counterfeit brands is growing.

The researchers found that the 'thrill of the hunt' and 'being part of a secret society' are often prime motivational factors behind purchases. They also found that, following the purchase of known counterfeit goods, people experienced a range of associated emotional outcomes, including shame and embarrassment as well as positive hedonistic feelings.

After being one of the few who picked the Mets to make it to the postseason in 2015, NJIT Mathematical Sciences Professor and Associate Dean Bruce Bukiet has published his projections of how the standings should look at the end of Major League Baseball's 2016 season.

And things look good for the Mets again.

Atmospheric scientists have found that California's highest temperatures are almost always associated with blocking ridges, regions of high atmospheric pressure than can disrupt wind patterns - including one known as the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge. The Triple R, as it's called, is also linked with California's drought.

In new research published online this week in the journal Science Advances, a team of researchers led by Stanford University scientist Noah Diffenbaugh analyzed the occurrence of large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns that occurred during California's historical precipitation and temperature extremes.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (April 3, 2016)--Women who underwent a nonsurgical, image-guided treatment, uterine fibroid embolization (UFE), for the treatment of uterine fibroids experienced improved sexual function and a higher overall quality of life. The research, part of a French multicenter study, presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology's Annual Scientific Meeting, also found the vast majority of women treated with UFE sustained improvement for more than a year.