WASHINGTON --Many seniors who visit emergency departments require more assistance with physical tasks than they think they do, which may lead to hospital readmission later on. The results of the study were published online Friday in Annals of Emergency Medicine ("Self-Reported vs. Performance-Based Assessments of a Simple Mobility Task Among Older Adults in the Emergency Department"). "Ensuring that older adults discharged from the emergency department are able to safely function in their home environment is important because those who are unable to function safely ...

WASHINGTON --An urban emergency department that set up a hepatitis C testing protocol saw high rates of infection among intravenous drug users and Baby Boomers, with three-quarters of those testing positive unaware they were infected. The results of a screening and diagnostic testing program for hepatitis C were reported online Tuesday in Annals of Emergency Medicine ("Results of a Rapid Hepatitis C Virus Screening and Diagnostic Testing Program in an Urban Emergency Department"). "Given skyrocketing rates of injection heroin use around the country, we expect the already ...

TORONTO -- In an effort to build better bodies, more men are turning not to illegal anabolic steroids, but to legal over-the-counter bodybuilding supplements to the point where it may qualify as an emerging eating disorder, according to research presented at the American Psychological Association's annual convention. "These products have become an almost ubiquitous fixture in the pantries of young men across the country and can seemingly be purchased anywhere and everywhere -- from grocery stores to college book stores," said Richard Achiro, PhD, California School of ...

TORONTO, ON - Adults who were exposed to childhood physical or sexual abuse were approximately twice as likely to have ulcerative colitis, according to a new nationally representative study from four researchers at the University of Toronto. "We found that one-quarter of adults with ulcerative colitis reported they had been physically abused during their childhood, compared to one in 10 of those without inflammatory bowel disease," said the study's lead author, Professor Esme Fuller-Thomson, who holds the Sandra Rotman Endowed Chair at University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash ...

Rio de Janeiro -It could be a plot for a vampire story: In the middle of the night, blood-sucking creatures feed on peoples' faces and spread a deadly disease to the hearts of millions, who are then fated to endure a painful death. Unfortunately, the excerpt is not science fiction, and dramatically illustrates what happens to millions of people who suffer, and eventually die from, chagasic heart failure. Chagas Disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi and is spread by triatomine bugs, also called "kissing bugs". ...

TORONTO - While recently published parenting books have preached the effectiveness of positive parenting and "no drama" discipline, psychologists presenting at the American Psychological Association's 123rd Annual Convention said don't put timeout in timeout yet. "Parental discipline and positive parenting techniques are often polarized in popular parenting resources and in parenting research conclusions," presenter and researcher Robert Larzelere, PhD, of Oklahoma State University, said at a symposium. "But scientifically supported parenting interventions for young defiant ...

Rabbits have long been considered immune to prion disease, but recently scientists have shown that they can--under certain circumstances--get transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (or TSE, the scientific term for the fatal brain disease caused by prions). Two studies published on August 6th in PLOS Pathogens address what makes rabbits hard to infect with prions and how their resistance can be overcome. Prions are misfolded versions of a protein that, in its normal form (called PrPC, encoded by the PRNP gene), is found mainly in nerve cells of all mammals. The misfolded ...

This news release is available in Japanese. Today, many wealthy countries are able to mitigate, to some degree, their risk of delta flooding through vulnerability-reducing investments, but a new model suggests that this mitigation may not be sustainable in the long-term. Ultimately, wealthy countries could be feeling the strain of floods to a similar degree as developing countries. To calculate a given delta population's risk of flooding, Zachary Tessler and colleagues accounted for the population's probability of a damage-producing event, how the population's exposure ...

This news release is available in Japanese. As a devastating earthquake ruptured Nepal on April 25, 2015, nearby GPS networks continuously recorded measurements at very close distances. In a new study, these data provide the scientific community with unique insights into megathrust earthquakes, which occur when two tectonic plates converge and one plate is forced underneath the other, and may help hazard assessment teams improve earthquake hazard models. To better understand the sudden and intense changes megathrust earthquakes entail, John Galetzka et al. analyzed ...

This news release is available in Japanese. In the face of the recent Ebola outbreak, some good news emerges: a preclinical study testing the efficacy of the Ebola vaccine VSV-EBOV against the newly emerged West African Ebola strain shows complete protection when administered seven days before infection in nonhuman primates, and partial protection when administered three days before infection. The positive results of this study further reveal the mechanisms by which an effective immune response is mounted against the Ebola virus, aspects of which have been unclear. ...

Darwinian selection can be used to evolve robot controllers able to efficiently self-organize their tasks. Taking inspiration from the way in which ants organise their work and divide up tasks, Eliseo Ferrante and colleagues evolved complex robot behaviors using artificial evolution and detailed robotics simulations. Just like social insects such as ants, bees or termites teams of robots display a self-organized division of labor in which the different robots automatically specialized into carrying out different subtasks in the group, says new research publishing in PLOS ...

Big data sets are important tools of modern science. Mining for correlations between millions of pieces of information can reveal vital relationships or predict future outcomes, such as risk factors for a disease or structures of new chemical compounds. These mining operations are not without risk, however. Researchers can have a tough time telling when they have unearthed a nugget of truth, or what amounts to fool's gold: a correlation that seems to have predictive value but actually does not, as it results just from random chance. A research team that bridges academia ...

Autopsies of nearly every patient with the lethal neurodegenerative disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and many with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), show pathologists telltale clumps of a protein called TDP-43. Now, working with mouse and human cells, Johns Hopkins researchers report they have discovered the normal role of TDP-43 in cells and why its abnormal accumulation may cause disease. In an article published Aug. 7 in Science, the researchers say TDP-43 is normally responsible for keeping unwanted stretches of the genetic material RNA, called cryptic ...

For more than 20 years, Caltech geologist Jean-Philippe Avouac has collaborated with the Department of Mines and Geology of Nepal to study the Himalayas--the most active, above-water mountain range on Earth--to learn more about the processes that build mountains and trigger earthquakes. Over that period, he and his colleagues have installed a network of GPS stations in Nepal that allows them to monitor the way Earth's crust moves during and in between earthquakes. So when he heard on April 25 that a magnitude 7.8 earthquake had struck near Gorkha, Nepal, not far from Kathmandu, ...

Case Western Reserve scientists may have uncovered a molecular mechanism that sets into motion dangerous infection in the feet and hands often occurring with uncontrolled diabetes. It appears that high blood sugar unleashes destructive molecules that interfere with the body's natural infection-control defenses. The harmful molecules -- dicarbonyls -- are breakdown products of glucose that interfere with infection-controlling antimicrobial peptides known as beta-defensins. The Case Western Reserve team discovered how two dicarbonyls -- methylglyoxal (MGO) and glyoxal (GO) ...

ROSEMONT, Ill.--According to a new study in the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (JAAOS), imaging studies necessary to diagnose traumatic injuries sustained by pregnant women are safe when used properly. During pregnancy, approximately 5 to 8 percent of women sustain traumatic injuries, including fractures and muscle tears. To help evaluate and manage these injuries, orthopaedic surgeons often recommend radiographs and other imaging studies. "While care should be taken to protect the fetus from exposure, most diagnostic studies are generally safe, ...

Women experience more emotional pain following a breakup, but they also more fully recover, according to new research from Binghamton University. Researchers from Binghamton University and University College London asked 5,705 participants in 96 countries to rate the emotional and physical pain of a breakup on a scale of one (none) to 10 (unbearable). They found that women tend to be more negatively affected by breakups, reporting higher levels of both physical and emotional pain. Women averaged 6.84 in terms of emotional anguish versus 6.58 in men. In terms of physical ...

PITTSBURGH-- In the era of launching Kickstarter campaigns to pay for just about anything, Carnegie Mellon University ethicists warn that the trend of patients funding their own clinical trials may do more harm than good. CMU's Danielle Wenner and Alex John London and McGill University's Jonathan Kimmelman co-wrote a column in Cell Stem Cell outlining how patient-funded trials may seem like a beneficial new way to involve more patients in research and establish new funding opportunities, but instead they threaten scientific rigor, relevance, efficiency and fairness. "Patient-funded ...

Easily manufactured, low cost, lightweight, flexible dielectric polymers that can operate at high temperatures may be the solution to energy storage and power conversion in electric vehicles and other high temperature applications, according to a team of Penn State engineers. "Ceramics are usually the choice for energy storage dielectrics for high temperature applications, but they are heavy, weight is a consideration and they are often also brittle," said Qing Wang, professor of materials science and engineering, Penn State. "Polymers have a low working temperature and ...

Researchers at USC have developed a yeast model to study a gene mutation that disrupts the duplication of DNA, causing massive damage to a cell's chromosomes, while somehow allowing the cell to continue dividing. The result is a mess: Zombie cells that by all rights shouldn't be able to survive, let alone divide, with their chromosomes shattered and strung out between tiny micronuclei. Sometimes they're connected to each other by ultrafine DNA bridges. (Imagine tearing apart a hot pizza - these DNA bridges are like strings of cheese still draping between the separated ...

WASHINGTON - The Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) announces the publication of a Health Education & Behavior theme section devoted to the latest research on domestic violence prevention and the effectiveness of community coalitions in 19 states to prevent and reduce intimate partner violence. The theme section "DELTA PREP" (Domestic Violence Prevention Enhancement and Leadership Through Alliances and Preparing and Raising Expectations for Prevention) presents findings from a multi-site project supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ...

Abusive men put female partners at greater sexual risk, study finds Abusive and controlling men are more likely to put their female partners at sexual risk, and the level of that risk escalates along with the abusive behavior, a UW study found. Published in the Journal of Sex Research in July, the study looked at patterns of risky sexual behavior among heterosexual men aged 18 to 25, including some who self-reported using abusive and/or controlling behaviors in their relationships and others who didn't. The research found that men who were physically and sexually ...

A critical immune organ called the thymus shrinks rapidly with age, putting older individuals at greater risk for life-threatening infections. A study published August 6 in Cell Reports reveals that thymus atrophy may stem from a decline in its ability to protect against DNA damage from free radicals. The damage accelerates metabolic dysfunction in the organ, progressively reducing its production of pathogen-fighting T cells. The findings suggest that common dietary antioxidants may slow thymus atrophy and could represent a promising treatment strategy for protecting ...

CINCINNATI - Researchers have developed a new technology that precisely marks where groups of regulatory proteins called transcription factors bind DNA in the nuclei of live cells. Reporting their data Aug. 6 in the journal Molecular Cell, scientists at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center say the new technology - called SpDamID - could allow scientists to answer basic questions about tissue development and disease that existing technology cannot address. "With further development this technology has the potential to give investigators glimpses into biological ...

AUSTIN, Texas -- Men's and women's ideas of the perfect mate differ significantly due to evolutionary pressures, according to a cross-cultural study on multiple mate preferences by psychologists at The University of Texas at Austin. The study of 4,764 men and 5,389 women in 33 countries and 37 cultures showed that sex differences in mate preferences are much larger than previously appreciated and stable across cultures. "Many want to believe that women and men are identical in their underlying psychology, but the genders differ strikingly in their evolved mate preferences ...