A deadly parasite that causes Chagas disease is widespread in a common Texas insect, according to a new study by University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) researchers. The finding suggests that the risk of Texans contracting the disease may be higher than previously thought. The parasite Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi), which causes Chagas disease can be transmitted to humans by blood-sucking insects known as "assassin bugs" or "kissing bugs." Unlike mosquitoes that transmit malaria through the bite, kissing bugs drop feces on the subject while filling up with blood. The feces, ...

A low resting heart rate in late adolescence was associated with increased risk for violent criminality in men later in life, according to an article published online by JAMA Psychiatry. Low resting heart rate is related to antisocial behavior in children and adolescents. Low resting heart rate (RHR) has been viewed either as an indicator of a chronically low level of psychological arousal, which may lead some people to seek stimulating experiences, or as a marker of weakened responses to aversive and stressful stimuli, which can lead to fearless behavior and risk taking. ...

Among patients 70 years or older who underwent elective surgery, major complications contributed significantly to a prolonged length of hospital stay while delirium contributed significantly to several adverse outcomes, including length of stay and hospital readmission, according to a study published online by JAMA Surgery. Major postoperative complications and delirium contribute independently to adverse outcomes and high resource use in patients who undergo major surgery; however, their interrelationship has not been well examined. Understanding the risks of adverse ...

A follow-up of nearly 60,000 women who received a synthetic vaginal mesh sling for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence finds the risk is low for needing a second surgery for mesh removal or revision (about 1 in 30 women ten years after surgery), according to a study published online by JAMA Surgery. Female stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is a common condition that is often treated with surgery when conservative management options are unsuccessful. An estimated 1 in 7 women will undergo surgery for SUI during their lifetime. Synthetic mesh slings are the most ...

BOSTON -- Researchers from the Aging Brain Center at the Institute for Aging Research (IFAR) at Hebrew SeniorLife confirm that delirium is a significant and independent contributing factor to poor postsurgical outcomes in older adults. Findings published in JAMA Surgery suggest that the combination of major postoperative complications and delirium demonstrate a strong combined effect on adverse outcomes in older adults undergoing major surgery. Of all inpatient operations in the U.S. in 2007, 36% were performed on patients 65 years of age or older, and that number is ...

Capsaicin, the compound responsible for chilis' heat, is used in creams sold to relieve pain, and recent research shows that in high doses, it kills prostate cancer cells. Now researchers are finding clues that help explain how the substance works. Their conclusions suggest that one day it could come in a new, therapeutic form. Their study appears in ACS' The Journal of Physical Chemistry B. About 10 years ago, researchers reported that capsaicin can kill prostate cancer cells in mice while leaving healthy cells unharmed. But translating that dose to humans would require ...

An isolated, iron-rich bay in the heart of East Africa is offering scientists a rare glimpse back into Earth's primitive marine environment, and supports theories that tiny microbes created some of the world's largest ore deposits billions of years ago. According to University of British Columbia (UBC) research published this week in Scientific Reports, 30 per cent of the microbes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Kabuno Bay grow by a type of photosynthesis that oxidizes (rusts) iron rather than converting water into oxygen like plants and algae. "Kabuno Bay ...

Smoking has been shown to have drastic consequences for lifespan and disease progression, and it has been suggested that cigarette exposure may impact the risk of death and disease via its acceleration of the aging process. Not all smokers experience early mortality, however, and a small proportion manage to survive to extreme ages. Using long-lived smokers as their phenotype, the authors of a study published today in The Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences & Medical Sciences identified a network of SNPs (a DNA sequence variation occurring commonly ...

WASHINGTON - The percentage of poor children who received federal disability benefits for at least one of 10 major mental disorders increased from 1.88 percent in 2004 to 2.09 percent in 2013, and such growth is consistent with and proportionate to trends in the prevalence of diagnosed mental disorders among children in the general U.S. population, says a new report of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The increase also is not unexpected. This is because a sizeable number of low-income children with disabling mental disorders do not receive ...

BOSTON -- Racial and ethnic inequalities in medical care are widely documented in literature. However, variations in Americans' experiences with healthcare, specifically regarding physician-patient communication and shared decision-making about treatment plans, are not well understood. A new study from Boston Medical Center, which suggests that a patient's race/ethnicity may influence the amount and type of information they receive from physicians regarding treatment recommendations, is published online in advance of print in the journal Patient Education and Counseling. "It's ...

Scientists have developed a new hybrid, solar-energy system that harnesses the full spectrum of the sun's radiation by pairing a photovoltaic cell with polymer films. The films convert the light that goes unused by the solar cell into heat and then converts the heat into electricity. They report on their device, which produces a voltage more than five times higher than other hybrid systems, in the journal ACS Nano. Solar cells today are getting better at converting sunlight to electricity, but commercial panels still harvest only part of the radiation they're exposed ...

September 9, 2015 - Getting a sports pre-participation exam (PPE) is a familiar preseason ritual for student athletes. But what about the growing number of people, of all ages, interested in participating in wilderness athletic and adventure events? Issues and advice on the PPE for wilderness athletes are featured in a special September issue of the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, published by Wolters Kluwer. The special issue provides health care providers, event organizers, and participants with an update on the PPE for wilderness athletes and adventurers. "By matching ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Brown-headed cowbirds have a reputation for being deadbeat parents: They lay their eggs in other birds' nests and then disappear, the story goes, leaving the care and feeding of their offspring to an unwitting foster family. A new study suggests, however, that cowbird moms pay close attention to how well their offspring do, returning to lay their eggs in the most successful host nests, and avoiding those that have failed. The new findings are reported in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. "Cowbirds may be paying attention not only to their own ...

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (September 9, 2015) -- Have you ever wondered why we call a dog a dog and not a cat? Is this an arbitrary decision, or is it based on iconicity--the resemblance between word structure and meaning? New research shows that for Indo-European languages, like English and Spanish, iconicity is more common than previously believed. The results are important for understanding the nature of human language, explains Lynn Perry, assistant professor of psychology in the University of Miami College of Arts & Sciences and co-lead author of the study. "Many linguists ...

In a study with 18 adults who had never smoked, scientists at Johns Hopkins report they have demonstrated one of the earliest steps -- nicotine "reinforcement" -- in the process of addiction, and shown that some people are far more vulnerable to nicotine addiction than others. In a summary of the research, published online Sept. 8 in the journal Psychopharmacology, the investigators say they have, for the first time, characterized the body's reaction to the first, tiniest "hits" of nicotine. The results, they say, should lay groundwork for future revelations about genetic ...

September 9, 2015 - The aging of the population, shifting diagnostic criteria, and new health care policy initiatives are some of the factors driving changes in mental health treatment for older Americans, according to the September special issue of the Harvard Review of Psychiatry. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer. "Both workforce shortages and fiscal pressures have presented obstacles to caring for the behavioral needs of our elderly," according to a guest editorial by Drs. James Ellison of Christiana Care Health System, Wilmington, Del., and Brent Forester ...

September 9, 2015 - Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is a severe form of premenstrual syndrome that causes major disruption in several areas of life for many women. Many treatment options have been proposed, but which are most effective? A comprehensive review of the evidence, including specific treatment guidelines, is presented in the September Journal of Psychiatric Practice, published by Wolters Kluwer. "Given the debilitating symptoms and impact associated with PMDD, health care professionals need to be able to identify and effectively treat patients with ...

A team of physicists has taken pictures of a theorized but previously undetected magnetic wave, the discovery of which offers the potential to be an energy-efficient means to transfer data in consumer electronics. The research, which appears in the journal Physical Review Letters, was conducted by scientists at New York University, Stanford University, and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. "This is an exciting discovery because it shows that small magnetic waves--known as spin-waves--can add up to a large one in a magnet, a wave that can maintain its shape as ...

Patients with liver failure could benefit from a treatment that helps the immune system to combat infections linked to the condition, research suggests. A study in mice has revealed that treatment with an immune-boosting molecule called CSF-1 helps to trigger the body's natural defence mechanisms in the liver. Researchers say that if the therapy proves successful in patients, it could help those who are unsuitable for a liver transplant. Patients with liver failure are highly prone to serious infections that can lead to sepsis, a potentially life-threatening condition ...

Brain plasticity is the ability of the brain to change both anatomically and functionally in response to changes in the body or in the environment. For many years, researchers believed that the brain did not suffer major changes after childhood. Although brain plasticity predominates in the first years of life, research done in the last 30 years has shown that it may also occur in adulthood, continuing to change through learning. Brain plasticity may also occur following injury, amputation or nerve damage. Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, can be traced back ...

In a deception that likely has evolved over thousands of years, a caterpillar that feeds on corn leaves induces the plant to turn off its defenses against insect predators, allowing the caterpillar to eat more and grow faster, according to chemical ecologists in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. The finding is one more revelation about the myriad of chemical signals that pass between plants and insects that scientists at Penn State and around the world have been discovering in recent years. In this case, the agent of deceit is the caterpillar's feces, or ...

Organic electronics has many advantages: it is inexpensive, flexible and lightweight. In terms of applications, we are only limited by our imaginations. There has been a lot of development in polymers since the phenomenon of conducting and semi-conducting plastics was discovered and in 2000 awarded a Nobel Prize. Their weakness is still speed; plastics conduct a charge slowly, compared to silicon, for instance. A polymer consists of long chains of hydrocarbon, where other elements are bound, which give the particular plastic its properties. Research is underway, and researchers ...

An effective smart phone application should make data collection easy, but not so easy that the user forgets to access and reflect on that information, according to a team of researchers. People who accessed a sleep monitoring app through a small display window -- often called a widget -- on an Android smart phone were more likely to manually enter their diary information, as well as interact with that data than users who monitored their sleep without the feature, according to Eun Kyoung Choe, assistant professor of information sciences and technology, Penn State. "As ...

Amsterdam, September 9, 2015 - A bioelectronic nose that mimics the human nose can detect traces of bacteria in water by smelling it, without the need for complex equipment and testing. According to a study published in Biosensors and Bioelectronics the technology works by using the smell receptors in the human nose. The sensor is simple to use and it can detect tiny amounts of contamination in water, making it more sensitive than existing detection methods. The authors of the study, from Seoul National University, say this could make the technology even more useful in ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Booster seat-aged children are twice as likely to suffer serious injury or death in a car crash than younger children but a new study shows they may be less likely to have car seats inspected for proper use. Less than a quarter of car seat and booster checks analyzed in the new University of Michigan Health System study were conducted in children ages four and older at car seat inspection stations in Michigan. Just 1 in 10, or 11 percent of inspections, covered booster seat-age children ages 4-7 while half were for rear-facing car seats. The findings, ...