New findings show vitamin D accelerates recovery from TB

[EMBARGOED FOR JAN. 5, 2011] For those infected with the 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) virus, extreme obesity was a powerful risk factor for death, according to an analysis of a public health surveillance database. In a study to be published in the February 1, 2011, issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, researchers associated extreme obesity with a nearly three-fold increased odds of death from 2009 H1N1 influenza. Half of Californians greater than 20 years of age hospitalized with 2009 H1N1 were obese. (Please see below for a link to the study online.) Data from ...

Artistry from science: Cornell University researchers have unveiled striking, atomic-resolution details of what graphene "quilts" look like at the boundaries between patches, and have uncovered key insights into graphene's electrical and mechanical properties. (Nature, Jan. 5, 2010.) Researchers focused on graphene – a one atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms bonded in a crystal lattice like a honeycomb or chicken wire – because of its electrical properties and potential to improve everything from solar cells to cell phone screens. But graphene doesn't grow in perfect ...

When vaccinating children against varicella (chicken pox), researchers at Yale School of Medicine have found, two doses are better than one. In fact, the odds of developing chicken pox were 95 percent lower in children who had received two doses of the vaccine compared with those who had received only one dose. Published in the February 1 issue of Journal of Infectious Diseases, the study was led by Eugene D. Shapiro, M.D., professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Yale and his colleagues at Yale and Columbia universities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ...

The University of Minnesota's Water Resources Center has authored a first-ever, comprehensive report designed to protect and preserve Minnesota's lakes, rivers and groundwater for the 21st century and beyond. The report is being formally presented to the Minnesota House of Representative's Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee today at 8:15 a.m., Wednesday, Jan. 5 in Room 5 of the State Office Building, St. Paul. The Minnesota Water Sustainability Framework, commissioned by the 2009 Minnesota Legislature, is intended to serve as a legislative ...

Boulder, CO, USA - The Jan.-Feb. 2011 GSA Bulletin focuses on river geomorphology; submarine landslides and submarine uplift; the Sangamon paleosol in the Lower Mississippi Valley; the nature and formation of basins, plateaus, cratons, and mountains around the world, including continent building, plate tectonics, and subduction zones, and magmatism; charcoal accumulation rates and teleconnections among regional climates; zircon dating of Amazon River sand; the Messinian salinity crisis; and characteristics of the Sierra Madera impact structure. Keywords: Sandy River, ...

Fewer children who attend regular formal centre- and family-based child care at 1.5 years and 3 years of age were late talkers compared with children who are looked after at home by a parent, child-carer or in an outdoor nursery. This is shown in a new study by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health of nearly 20,000 children. The study found no relation between the type of child care at the age of 1 year and subsequent language competence, which may indicate that the positive effect of centre-based child care first occurs between the ages of 1 to 1.5 years. Furthermore, ...

Enrique García Artero, the principal author of the study and researcher at the University of Granada pointed out that, "Our objective was to analyse the relationship between the duration of breastfeeding babies and their physical condition in adolescence". "The results suggest further beneficial effects and provide support to breast feeding as superior to any other type of feeding". The authors asked the parents of 2,567 adolescents about the type of feeding their children received at birth and the time this lasted. The adolescents also carried out physical tests in order ...

Medical experts have issued a warning about the common practice of tablet splitting, after a study found that nearly a third of the split fragments deviated from recommended dosages by 15 per cent or more. Their study, published in the January issue of the Journal of Advanced Nursing, points out that the practice could have serious clinical consequences for tablets that have a narrow margin between therapeutic and toxic doses. And they are calling on manufacturers to produce greater dose options and liquid alternatives to make the practice unnecessary. Researchers ...

Treating fractures in children requires special knowledge of growth physiology. Incorrect treatment of bone fractures in child and adolescent patients is less often caused by technical deficiencies than by a misjudgment of the special conditions in this age group. Using the example of treating fractures of the upper limb, Ralf Kraus from the Marburg-Gießen University Medical Center, and Lucas Wessel, University Medical Center Mannheim, report in the current issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International what should be borne in mind when diagnosing and treating fractures in ...

Brain scans of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have shown for the first time why people affected by the condition sometimes have such difficulty in concentrating. The study, funded by the Wellcome Trust, may explain why parents often say that their child can maintain concentration when they are doing something that interests them, but struggles with boring tasks. Using a 'Whac-a-Mole' style game, researchers from the Motivation, Inhibition and Development in ADHD Study (MIDAS) group at the University of Nottingham found evidence that children ...