A new study from Columbia University School of Nursing supports a growing body of evidence that women are less likely to contract bloodstream or surgical site infections than their male counterparts.
WACO, Texas (May 30, 2013) - When their schools are near fast-food restaurants, black and Hispanic adolescents are more likely to be overweight and receive less benefit from exercise than Asian or white students, according to a study published in the current issue of Journal of Public Policy & Marketing. The study underscores the importance of understanding how adolescents respond to fast-food availability near school.
On June 3, 2013, a new article studying amygdala activity in human beings will be published as part of JoVE Behavior, a new section of the video journal that focuses on the behavioral sciences. The technique, developed by Dr. Fred Helmstetter and his research group at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, studies how the brain responds to anticipated painful stimuli, in this case an electric shock, in volunteer test subjects.
Public health officials in New York City have launched a successful program to locate HIV-positive patients who have been "lost to follow-up" and reconnect them with treatment services, reports a study published in AIDS, official journal of the International AIDS Society. AIDS is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
An innovative "hybrid" surveillance strategy—highlighted by close cooperation between public health officials and clinical partners—helped Virginia mount an efficient and effective response to the ongoing outbreak of fungal meningitis and other infections, according to a report in the July/August issue of Journal of Public Health Management and Practice. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
While occupational homicides continue to decline in the U.S., law enforcement remains one of the deadliest jobs in America. A new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health The report found documents that 93 percent of homicides of law enforcement officers between 1996 and 2010 were committed with firearms. Among those homicides, 10 percent were committed using the officer’s own service weapon. The findings could help develop new procedures to reduce risk to officers.
People in most cultures view women with small feet as attractive and a sign of a potential mate's youth and fertility. But a new research study shows that the Karo Batak living in rural villages in Indonesia deem women with big feet as more appealing, suggesting that culture – not just genetics – plays a role in deciding what makes a mate attractive.
The risk of postoperative infection appears to increase when patients receive red blood cell (RBC) transfusion during or after cardiac surgery, and greater attention to practices that limit red blood cell use could potentially reduce the occurrence of major postoperative infections
The more heart attack-induced PTSD symptoms a patient has, the worse their sleep likely was in the month following their heart attack. New findings from a research team at Columbia University Medical Center’s Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health, published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine.
Less-educated white women were increasingly more likely to die than their better-educated peers from the mid-1990s through the mid-2000s, according to a new study, which found that growing disparities in economic circumstances and health behaviors—particularly employment status and smoking habits—across education levels accounted for an important part of the widening mortality gap.
A new study suggests that the decline of labor unions, partly as an outcome of computerization, is the main reason why U.S. corporate profits have surged as a share of national income while workers’ wages and other compensation have declined.
Perceptual learning techniques may provide a useful new approach to rehabilitation in patients with central vision loss—taking advantage of visual plasticity that persists even in old age, according to a special article in the June issue of Optometry and Vision Science, official journal of the American Academy of Optometry. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
Charles H. Hennekens, M.D., Dr.P.H. and colleagues from around the world, under the direction of the Clinical Trial Service and Epidemiology Studies Unit at the University of Oxford, conducted a world-wide meta-analyses using individual participant data from 280 trials of NSAIDs vs. placebo and 474 trials of NSAID vs. another NSAID, which involved a total of 353,809 participants and a total of 233,798 person-years. These results address risks and benefits of drugs used for relief of inflammatory arthritis including cardiovascular disease and other relevant outcomes such as gastrointestinal effects.
The pattern of brain responses to words in 2-year-old children with autism spectrum disorder predicted the youngsters' linguistic, cognitive and adaptive skills at ages 4 and 6, according to a new study. The findings are among the first to demonstrate that a brain marker can predict future abilities in children with autism.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that a popular artificial sweetener can modify how the body handles sugar. They analyzed the sweetener sucralose in 17 severely obese people and found it can influence how the body reacts to glucose.
The temporary placement of umbrella-like, metal mesh filters in abdominal veins to stop potentially lethal blood clots from traveling to the lungs during and after weight loss surgery may actually increase the risk of death in morbidly obese patients, according to new Johns Hopkins research.
Living in a poor neighborhood as an adolescent is linked to an increased risk of getting the sexually transmitted infection (STI) chlamydia in young adulthood, according to new research.
A University of Missouri scientist has discovered that by combining cells from bone marrow with a new drug may help cure type 1 diabetes. The discovery is reported in the current online issue of Diabetes.
Researchers have developed a new gene therapy to thwart a potential influenza pandemic. They demonstrated that a single dose of an adeno-associated virus expressing a broadly neutralizing flu antibody into the noses of animal models gives them complete protection and substantial reductions in flu replication when exposed to lethal strains of H5N1 and H1N1 flu virus. These were isolated from samples associated from historic human pandemics – the infamous 1918 flu pandemic and another from 2009.
Many valedictorians from less affluent families don’t even apply to prestigious colleges and universities, according to a new book by Alexandria Walton Radford, Ph.D., associate program director in postsecondary education at RTI International.
A new guideline from the American Academy of Neurology advises that it is likely safe to continue taking blood thinners before minor procedures such as dental procedures, cataract surgery or dermatologic procedures. The guideline is published in Neurology.
In one of the first successful attempts at genetically engineering mosquitoes, HHMI researchers have altered the way the insects respond to odors, including the smell of humans and the insect repellant DEET. The research not only demonstrates that mosquitoes can be genetically altered using the latest research techniques, but paves the way to understanding why the insect is so attracted to humans, and how to block that attraction.
A study at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine identified a protein that is responsible for regulating blood vessel growth by mediating the efficient removal of cholesterol from the cells. Unregulated development of blood vessels can feed the growth of tumors.
Pregnant women who have thyroid disorders face greater risk of preterm birth and other complications that have short- and long-term consequences for the health of mother and child, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).
Practicing a form of meditation and stretching can help relieve symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and normalize stress hormone levels, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).
Levels of a biomarker in a pregnant woman’s blood can help physicians gauge her risk of developing gestational diabetes during the first trimester, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).
Dr. Jeffrey Gaffney, an internationally known chemist specializing in atmospheric sciences, says there is a gap in knowledge about the effect of gases produced as a result of wildfires and our consumption of biofuels.
Radiation oncology research received 197 grants, totaling only 1.6 percent ($85.5 million) of the $5.4 billion in cancer research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Fiscal Year (FY) 2013, according to a study available online and in the June 1, 2013, print issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology • Biology • Physics (Red Journal), the official scientific journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).
New research by University of Iowa psychologists show pigeons can make informed choices, and use a computerized touch-screen as well. The study by Ed Wasserman and colleagues appears in the journal "Animal Cognition."
New flu strains prompt review of current research and a call to redouble the flu fight. Review article appears in online edition of American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology
People lie about their health related behaviors. It’s a problem that has long bedeviled health research on issues ranging from diet to exercise to smoking. And it’s not just that we have faulty memories. Many of us stretch the truth to make ourselves seem more virtuous in the eyes of the person in the white coat. That makes drawing conclusions about behaviors that affect health from self-reported records tricky.
For women undergoing breast reconstruction after mastectomy, the weight of the tissue flap used affects the risk of an important complication called fat necrosis, reports a study in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery—Global Open®, the official open-access medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
Facial fractures are relatively common, and potentially serious, sports-related injuries among children participating in a wide range of sports, according to a study in the June issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
Experimental genetic techniques may one day provide plastic and reconstructive surgeons with an invaluable tool—the ability to promote growth of the patient's own tissues for reconstructive surgery. A review of recent progress toward developing effective gene therapies for use in "regenerative surgery" appears in the June issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
Blood offers promise as a way to detect Alzheimer’s disease at its earliest onset, Mayo Clinic researchers say. They envision a test that would detect distinct metabolic signatures in blood plasma that are synonymous with the disease -- years before patients begin showing cognitive decline. Their study was recently published online in the journal PLOS ONE.
Physicists at the University of Arkansas have collaborated with scientists in the United States and Asia to discover that a crucial ingredient of high-temperature superconductivity could be found in an entirely different class of materials.
Cancer patients, physicians and insurers want to be sure that whatever therapy is recommended and provided to patients is based on evidence, preferably results from randomized clinical trials. But are there enough clinical trials data to provide this level of confidence?
Devices snaked into the brain artery of a patient experiencing a stroke that snatch and remove the offending clot, or pump a dissolving drug into the blockage, should primarily be used within a clinical trial setting, say a team of vascular neurologists at Mayo Clinic in Florida.
Paper is known for its ability to absorb liquids. But by modifying the underlying network of cellulose fibers, etching off surface “fluff” and applying a thin chemical coating, researchers have created a new type of paper that repels a wide variety of liquids.
A novel disease in songbirds has rapidly evolved to become more harmful to its host on at least two separate occasions in just two decades, according to a new study. The research provides a real-life model to help understand how diseases that threaten humans can be expected to change in virulence as they emerge.
Johns Hopkins scientists report that a 10-minute test for “frailty” first designed to predict whether the elderly can withstand surgery and other physical stress could be useful in assessing the increased risk of death and frequent hospitalization among kidney dialysis patients of any age.
UCLA researchers now have the first evidence that bacteria ingested in food can affect brain function in humans. In an early proof-of-concept study of healthy women, they found that women who regularly consumed beneficial bacteria known as probiotics through yogurt showed altered brain function, both while in a resting state and in response to an emotion-recognition task.
Study of 38,000 blood stem cell transplant recipients, led by Dr. Theresa Hahn of Roswell Park Cancer Institute, shows that survival rates increased significantly over 12 years, and numbers of patients receiving transplants grew dramatically.
Dr. Jung-Mo Ahn, associate professor of chemistry at The University of Texas at Dallas, has designed and synthesized a novel small molecule that might become a large weapon in the fight against prostate cancer.
An Alzheimer’s disease protein controls the speed at which materials move through brain cells, and defects could lead to deadly pileups of the kind seen in neurodegenerative disease, a new publication finds.
A new study on prostate cancer describes a novel class of drugs developed by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers that interrupts critical signaling needed for prostate cancer cells to grow.