A web-based programme to encourage more frequent handwashing reduces the risk of catching and passing on respiratory tract infections to other household members, a randomised trial of more than 16000 UK households published in The Lancet has found. Users of the programme, called PRIMIT [1], also reported fewer gastrointestinal infections, a lower demand for consultations with their doctors, and fewer antibiotic prescriptions. "Our findings suggest that a simple, cheap internet programme to encourage handwashing can reduce the risk of infection by around 14%. Because most ...

Adding the price tag to prescription medicines worth more than £20 in England is just a "headline grabbing gimmick," which, among other things, could potentially mislead patients into believing that cheaper drugs are somehow less important, says an editorial in Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin (dtb). On 1 July this year, health secretary for England Jeremy Hunt announced plans to print the indicative cost of medicines on all packs of those worth more than £20 alongside the phrase "funded by the UK taxpayer." The initiative aims to encourage more people to ...

There is very little evidence to recommend avoiding certain types of dietary carbohydrate, known as the FODMAP diet, to ease the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS for short, concludes a review of the available data in Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin (dtb). IBS is characterised by abdominal pain/discomfort and altered bowel frequency in the absence of any obvious gut abnormalities. Symptoms can include abdominal bloating, which eating can worsen. Up to one in five of the population is thought to be affected, with women twice as likely to develop IBS symptoms ...

Highlights In a population-based study, poor kidney function was strongly related to decreased blood flow to the brain. Poor kidney function was linked to stroke and dementia most strongly in participants with decreased blood flow to the brain. A growing body of research suggests a link between kidney impairment and brain disorders. Washington, DC (August 6, 2015) -- Impaired kidney function may lead to decreased blood flow to the brain, and ultimately to the occurrence of stroke or dementia. The findings, which come from a study appearing in an upcoming issue ...

Simon Fraser University scientist Jonathan Moore has authored new research suggesting that a proposed controversial terminal to load fossil fuels in the Skeena River estuary has more far-reaching risks than previously recognized. In a letter newly published in the journal Science Moore and First Nations leaders and fisheries biologists from throughout the Skeena watershed refer to the new data, which is on the Moore Lab site. Moore is a Faculty of Science and a Faculty of Environment professor of ecology and conservation of freshwaters and the Liber Ero Chair of Coastal ...

BOSTON - Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have identified a new vitamin B3 pathway that regulates liver metabolism. The discovery provides an opportunity to pursue the development of novel drug therapies to address obesity, type 2 diabetes and related metabolic diseases. Published in the August 2015 issue of Nature Medicine, the new findings show that a small molecule called N1-methylnicotinamide prevents metabolic complications caused by a high-fat diet. "Our laboratory investigates the metabolic effects of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide ...

Alexandria, Va. - It now appears that, of the many moons of Jupiter and Saturn, two of them may have oceans beneath their icy exteriors. Scientists studying Jupiter's moon Ganymede - the largest moon in the solar system and the only one with its own magnetic field, which frequently sparks aurorae - used the Hubble space telescope to detect ultraviolet light emitted by the aurorae, which were less active than expected, given the moon's magnetic field. Researchers propose the field is being counteracted by an electrically conductive saltwater ocean beneath the crust. In a ...

WASHINGTON --An emergency physician-led workgroup has published five primary and seven secondary recommendations about how to maximize the value of health information exchange (HIE) in emergency departments. The recommendations were published online Tuesday in Annals of Emergency Medicine ("Health Information Exchange in Emergency Medicine"). "HIE helps emergency physicians - who usually do not have much information about their patients - access patient health information from multiple sources, which is essential for critical, time-sensitive decisions," said co-author ...

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 ...