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A recently conducted study showed that text reminders helped increase the breast cancer screening attendance. Researchers found that women who received a text message as a reminder about their breast cancer screening appointment were 20% more likely to attend their screening than those who were not texted.

Robert Kerrison, lead author of the study, said, "We all forget things now and then, and doctor's appointments are no exception -- in fact, forgetting is one of the most commonly cited reasons why women miss breast cancer screening appointments".

He further said that through their research they have found that cheap, simple text-message-reminder could boost the number of women attending their cancer screening.

An FDA review panel has found that an asthma treatment co-developed by GlaxoSmithKline and Theravance is safe and effective in treating adults, but not adolescents.

Breo Ellipta (fluticasone furoate/vilanterol [FF/VI]) has received FDA panel's support to be used as once-daily inhaled treatment for the asthma patients aged 18 years and older, by a 16-4 vote.

But at the same time, the panel has voted against the use of asthma drug for treating patients aged between 12 and 17 years, with the panel voting 2 in favor and 18 against.

Breo is administered with the Ellipta dry powder inhaler device. It is a fixed-dose combination of the inhaled corticosteroid FF and the long-acting beta2-agonist VI.

A new study has found that adults having high blood pressure should take generous amount of food items that are rich in folic acid. By having plenty of vitamin B may lower the chances of having a stroke, which is linked to high blood pressure.

Folate is present naturally in many foods, including green leafy vegetables, beans and citrus fruits. In the United States, folate is added to most of the grain products, like wheat flour, cornmeal, pasta and rice. These products have folic acid, which is the synthetic version of folate.

But such is not the case with many countries in the world, like China, where the current study has been carried out. The study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association had more than 20,000 adults in experiment.

According to a group of biologists, the use of a gene editing technique that might alter human DNA across generations should be banned. According to researchers, there is a possibility that the technique can be used to heal genetic diseases and defects.

The new technique might also be used to improve human genetic traits that raised serious ethical concerns. The biologists fear that the technique might lead to unsafe or unethical uses. A letter has been published by Baltimore and 17 other scientists to the scientific community asking caution in using the technique.

Scientists have long wondered why some mushrooms glow in the dark? Now, they have found the reason. In a new study, researchers included 'flor de coco' mushroom, which could be found in the Brazilian coconut forests. The researchers discovered that the mushroom's light attracts the creatures like insects. The attracted insects spread the fungi's spores around the forest, which further leads to more glowing mushrooms in the forest.

Cassius Stevani, a biochemist at the Instituto de Quimica-Universidade de Sao Paulo in Brazil, said that the new study is very important as scientists were trying to figure out why mushroom glows at night.

The vernal equinox, first day of spring 2015 on Friday was celebrated by Google with a stop-motion animation doodle in the US.

The doodle displayed flowers coming into bloom and a bee collecting pollen from a daffodil. The term 'equinox' is derived from the Latin for equal ('aequus') and night ('nox').

The vernal equinox is the time of year when day and night are of equal duration. It marks the in-between point of the year's shortest and longest days.

Equinox acts more like a label in order to separate the point of Earth's revolution around the sun in which there is more daylight than darkness. Sping equinox happens on March 19, 20 or 21 every year, which marks the first day of spring for those in the Northern Hemisphere.