In a study that included nearly 24,000 participants, those who experienced a stroke had an acute decline in cognitive function and also accelerated and persistent cognitive decline over 6 years, according to an article in the July 7 issue of JAMA. Each year, approximately 795,000 U.S. residents experience a stroke. In 2010, almost 7 million adults were stroke survivors. Cognitive decline is a major cause of disability in stroke survivors. The magnitude of survivors' cognitive changes after stroke has been uncertain, according to background information in the article. Deborah ...

In an analysis that included nearly 1.2 million participants and more than 135,000 deaths, mortality associated with a history of diabetes, stroke, or heart attack was similar for each condition, and the risk of death increased substantially with each additional condition a patient had, according to a study in the July 7 issue of JAMA. The prevalence of cardiometabolic multimorbidity (defined in this study as a history of 2 or more of the following: diabetes mellitus, stroke, myocardial infarction [MI; heart attack]) is increasing rapidly. Considerable evidence exists ...

Among patients with a first episode of pulmonary embolism (the obstruction of the pulmonary artery or a branch of it leading to the lungs by a blood clot) who received 6 months of anticoagulant treatment, an additional 18 months of treatment with warfarin reduced the risk of additional blood clots and major bleeding, however, the benefit was not maintained after discontinuation of anticoagulation therapy, according to a study in the July 7 issue of JAMA. When anticoagulant therapy is stopped after 3 to 6 months of treatment, patients with a first episode of unprovoked ...

After years of overtreatment for patients with low-risk prostate cancer, rates of active surveillance/ watchful waiting increased sharply in 2010 through 2013, and high-risk disease was more often treated appropriately with potentially curative local treatment rather than androgen deprivation alone, according to a study in the July 7 issue of JAMA. Matthew R. Cooperberg, M.D., M.P.H., and Peter R. Carroll, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of California, San Francisco, conducted a study to examine recent trends in community-based practice patterns of the management of localized ...

For women with Lynch syndrome, an association was found between the risk of endometrial cancer and the age of first menstrual cycle, having given birth, and hormonal contraceptive use, according to a study in the July 7 issue of JAMA. Lynch syndrome is a genetic condition that increases the risk for various cancers. Endometrial cancer is the most common type of gynecologic cancer in developed countries. Between 2 percent and 5 percent of all endometrial cancer cases are associated with a hereditary susceptibility to cancer, mainly Lynch syndrome, which is caused by a ...

Life expectancy for people with a history of both cardiovascular disease and diabetes is substantially lower than for people with just one condition or no disease, a new study harnessing the power of 'big data' has concluded. Researchers at the University of Cambridge analysed more than 135,000 deaths which occurred during prolonged follow-up of almost 1.2 million participants in population cohorts. They used this to provide estimates of reductions in life expectancy associated with a history of different combinations of diabetes, stroke, and/or myocardial infarction ...

Rejection of transplanted organs in hosts that were previously tolerant may not be permanent, report scientists from the University of Chicago. Using a mouse model of cardiac transplantation, they found that immune tolerance can spontaneously recover after an infection-triggered rejection event, and that hosts can accept subsequent transplants as soon as a week after. This process depends on regulatory T-cells, a component of the immune system that acts as a "brake" for other immune cells. The findings, published online in Nature Communications on July 7, support inducing ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- A stroke happens in an instant. And many who survive one report that their brain never works like it once did. But new research shows that these problems with memory and thinking ability keep getting worse for years afterward - and happen faster than normal brain aging. Stroke survivors also had a faster rate of developing cognitive impairment over the years after stroke compared to their pre-stroke rate. The study results are published in the Journal of the American Medical Association this week. "We found that stroke is associated with cognitive ...

The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games brought more than just athletes to B.C. It also left the province with a bad case of the measles. In research outlined today in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, scientists at the University of British Columbia and the B.C. Centre for Disease Control used genetic sequencing to trace the 2010 measles outbreak, linking it back to an influx of visitors during the Winter Olympics. "In 2010, we had two visitors, probably from separate parts of the world, who each brought one genotype of measles with them," said lead author Jennifer Gardy, ...

HOUSTON - (July 7, 2015) - Companies that want to increase customers' loyalty and get their repeat business would do well to understand the nuanced ways in which and reasons why a customer is committed to that company, according to a recent study by marketing experts at Rice University and Fordham University. The research provides a strategic blueprint for developing customer commitment. The researchers tested a customer-commitment model that has five dimensions -- affective, normative, economic, forced and habitual. They said previous research has used an "insufficient" ...

LAWRENCE -- A wide-ranging study of gains and losses of populations of bird species across Mexico in the 20th century shows shifts in temperature due to global climate change are the primary environmental influence on the distributions of bird species. "Of all drivers examined ... only temperature change had significant impacts on avifaunal turnover; neither precipitation change nor human impacts on landscapes had significant effects," wrote the authors of the study, which appeared recently in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances. Using analytical techniques from ...

URBANA, Ill. - A recent study looked at marijuana and alcohol use in people between the ages of 18 and 24. It's probably not surprising that the results show a drastic increase in alcohol consumption in people just over 21; after all, that's the minimum legal age to drink. What University of Illinois economist Ben Crost found remarkable is that, at the same age, there was an equally dramatic drop in marijuana use. "Alcohol appears to be a substitute for marijuana. This sudden decrease in the use of marijuana is because they suddenly have easy access to alcohol," Crost ...

ATLANTA--Structural brain abnormalities in patients with schizophrenia, providing insight into how the condition may develop and respond to treatment, have been identified in an internationally collaborative study led by a Georgia State University scientist. Scientists at more than a dozen locations across the United States and Europe analyzed brain MRI scans from 2,028 schizophrenia patients and 2,540 healthy controls, assessed with standardized methods at 15 centers worldwide. The findings, published in Molecular Psychiatry, help further the understanding of the mental ...

Researchers from the University of Houston found that some natural gas wells, compressor stations and processing plants in the Barnett Shale leak far more methane (CH4) than previously estimated, potentially offsetting the climate benefits of natural gas. The study is one of 11 papers published in the July 7 edition of Environmental Science & Technology, all looking at fugitive methane emissions in the Barnett Shale. That region, site of the first widespread shale development in the United States, includes Dallas-Fort Worth and almost two dozen counties to the west ...

Effectiveness shown in tests on ovarian and bowel cancer Drug can shut down a cancer cell's metabolism Developed by researchers at the University of Warwick's Warwick Cancer Research Centre Tests conducted by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute's Cancer Genome Project New drug could be cheaper to produce and less harmful to healthy cells Tests have shown that a new cancer drug, FY26, is 49 times more potent than the clinically used treatment Cisplatin. Based on a compound of the rare precious metal osmium and developed by researchers at the University of Warwick's ...

Professor Richard Lilford and Dr Yen-Fu Chen of the University's Warwick Medical School, raised the issue following a study that states hospital weekend death risk is common in several developed countries - not just England Professor Lilford, said: "Understanding this is an extremely important task since it is large, at about 10% in relative risk terms and 0.4% in percentage point terms. This amounts to about 160 additional deaths in a hospital with 40,000 discharges per year. "But how much of the observed increase results from service failure? And here is the rub, ...

This news release is available in German. Jülich, 7 July - Using a single molecule as a sensor, scientists in Jülich have successfully imaged electric potential fields with unrivalled precision. The ultrahigh-resolution images provide information on the distribution of charges in the electron shells of single molecules and even atoms. The 3D technique is also contact-free. The first results achieved using "scanning quantum dot microscopy" have been published in the current issue of Physical Review Letters. The related publication was chosen as ...

A yearlong study of first-time smartphone users by researchers at Rice University and the U.S. Air Force found that users felt smartphones were actually detrimental to their ability to learn. The research paper "You Can Lead a Horse to Water But You Cannot Make Him Learn: Smartphone Use in Higher Education" appeared in a recent edition of the British Journal of Educational Technology. The research reveals the self-rated impact of smartphones among the users. "Smartphone technology is penetrating world markets and becoming abundant in most college settings," said Philip ...

Today in Nature Communications, scientists at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) provide molecular details about Seckel Syndrome, a rare disease that causes microcephaly, or small brain, and growth delays. A joint study conducted by Travis Stracker and Jens Lüders indicates that the protein CEP63 plays a key role during brain development as it is involved in the correct division of stem cells in this organ. Furthermore, the researchers have discovered that CEP63 is associated with sperm production--an unknown function until now. Rescuing microcephaly ...

This news release is available in Spanish. Mikel Zubizarreta, a member of the UPV/EHU's IT 781-13 group, highlights the advantages of timber in building works: "Although it is not as tough as other materials used in structures, it is a better insulator, in other words, it is more energy-efficient and less dense so the structure weighs less. On the other hand, timber is a renewable material -trees are planted and grown and forests are a CO2 sink- and is abundant in the Basque Country (nearly 55% of its surface area consists of forests)." Yet timber is used much less ...

PHILADELPHIA - Many people believe that phase I trials with healthy volunteers are very risky and because they pose risks with no benefits, unethical. But how risky are such trials? Less than 1% of 11,000 healthy volunteers who participated in 394 phase I trials for new drugs experienced serious complications, according to a new meta-analysis of participants in non-cancer, phase I medication trials. In addition, none of the volunteers died or suffered persistent disabilities linked to the experimental drugs. In the largest study of its kind, researchers found only 34 (0.31%) ...

Washington, D.C. - July 6, 2015 - Those bacteria that require iron walk a tightrope. Iron is essential for their growth, but too much iron can damage DNA and enzymes through oxidation. Therefore, bacteria have machinery to maintain their intracellular iron within a range that is healthy for them. Now Theresa D. Ho, PhD, and Craig D. Ellermeier, PhD shed new light on how the pathogen, Clostridium difficile, which is the most common cause of hospital-acquired infectious diarrhea, regulates iron. The research is published online ahead of print July 6 in the Journal of Bacteriology, ...

While nitrous oxide gas has been used recreationally and medically for more than 200 years - originally for its euphoric and then for its pain relieving and anesthetic properties - the mechanism behind its effects on the brain has been poorly understood. A report from investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) finds that the EEG patterns of patients receiving high doses of nitrous oxide differ significantly from those of the same patients when they had received ether-based inhaled anesthetics earlier in the procedures, findings that - along with suggesting how ...

WASHINGTON, July 7, 2015 - In 1962, an underground fire started in the coal-mining town of Centralia, Pennsylvania. Fifty-three years later, that fire still burns. In this week's episode of Reactions, we explain the history and science behind the Centralia mine fire. Does anyone still live there? How could the fire keep burning for so long, and why hasn't it been extinguished? From a chemical standpoint, what is fire, anyway? It's all answered in our latest video: https://youtu.be/fsgqy5FYP2c.INFORMATION: Subscribe to the series at http://bit.ly/ACSReactions, and follow ...

HONOLULU - Aspirin may inhibit the growth of mesothelioma, an aggressive and deadly asbestos-related cancer, University of Hawai'i Cancer Center researchers have found. The finding could eventually give doctors and patients a potential new tool to fight against this devastating disease, which kills about 3,200 people a year nationwide, and advance knowledge of how to fight other cancers. The study published in Cell Death and Disease showed that aspirin slows down the growth of mesothelioma by blocking the carcinogenic effects of the inflammatory molecule, High-Mobility ...