An innovative programme of activities used in Ugandan primary schools has succeeded in reducing violence by teachers against children by 42%, according to new research published in The Lancet Global Health. The study is published on 16 June, the Day of the African Child. The Good School Toolkit is a behavioural intervention designed by Ugandan NGO Raising Voices, which aims to foster change in operational culture at the school level. Its materials include t-shirts, books, booklets, posters and guides for around 60 different activities. [1] To evaluate the Toolkit's effectiveness, ...

Eating up to 100 g of chocolate every day is linked to lowered heart disease and stroke risk, finds research published online in the journal Heart. There doesn't seem to be any evidence for cutting out chocolate to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, conclude the researchers. They base their findings on almost 21,000 adults taking part in the EPIC-Norfolk study, which is tracking the impact of diet on the long term health of 25,000 men and women in Norfolk, England, using food frequency and lifestyle questionnaires. The researchers also carried out a systematic ...

The UK hospital post mortem is on the verge of extinction, having already disappeared completely in around a quarter of NHS trusts, reveals a survey published online in the Journal of Clinical Pathology. Post mortems are carried out in only just over half of one per cent of all UK hospital deaths, the responses show. The practice of post mortem examination or autopsy dates back to mummification and human dissection in 3000 BC, but is thought to have entered medical practice in its current form in the 1800s. The researchers base their findings on Freedom of Information ...

PITTSBURGH, June 15, 2015 - Gene therapy to reduce production of a brain protein successfully prevented development of Parkinson's disease in an animal study, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The findings, published online today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, could lead to new understanding of how genetic and environmental factors converge to cause the disease, and the development of effective treatments to prevent disease progression. Scientists have observed dysfunction of mitochondria, which make energy for cells, ...

MAYWOOD, IL - About 20 percent of Americans spend time in an intensive care unit around the time of their death, and most deaths follow a decision to limit life-sustaining therapies. Physicians have a responsibility to provide recommendations to families of dying patients, a Loyola University Medical Center critical care physician writes in the journal Chest. "A physician has a responsibility to present surrogates with the plan of care he or she believes to be in the best application of a patient's authentic values and interests to a specific clinical situation," Paul ...

Higher supermarket prices for eco-friendly palm oil could help save endangered species - according to University of East Anglia (UEA) research. Palm oil is used by the food industry as a cheap substitute for butter. But the conversion of tropical forests to oil palm plantations has had a devastating impact on a huge number of plant and animal species including tigers, elephants, rhinos and orang-utans. New research published today reveals that a willingness among consumers to pay more for sustainably-grown palm oil would incentivise producers to engage with conservation ...

Consumers will pay higher prices for palm oil made by companies that help to protect endangered species, finds a new study by North American and U.K. researchers. Palm oil is widely used in processed food and cosmetics. But the conversion of tropical forests to oil palm plantations has devastated a huge number of plant and animal species, including tigers, elephants, rhinos and orangutans. The study, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that shoppers' willingness to pay more for sustainably grown palm oil could create profitable ...

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have determined that toothed whales lack functional Mx genes -- a surprising discovery, since all 56 other sequenced mammals in the study possess these genes to fight off viruses like HIV, measles and flu. Modern toothed whales, including dolphins, orcas and sperm whales, have inherited defunct copies of the Mx1 and Mx2 genes, profoundly altering their immune systems. The basic role of these Mx genes is to make proteins that fight viral infections. The researchers hope that understanding this newly discovered mysterious ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Measures taken to protect ecosystems and the environment could also deliver public health benefits, according to a study published today. While research has shown that nearly one quarter of the global burden of disease can be attributed to poor environmental quality, very little scientific evidence supports the claim that the conservation of ecosystems benefits human health. To address this knowledge gap, Subhrendu Pattanayak, a Duke professor of global health, environment and public policy, and his colleagues analyzed an extensive set of data consisting ...

Washington, DC-- The matter that makes up distant planets and even-more-distant stars exists under extreme pressure and temperature conditions. This matter includes members of a family of seven elements called the noble gases, some of which--such as helium and neon--are household names. New work from a team of scientists led by Carnegie's Alexander Goncharov used laboratory techniques to mimic stellar and planetary conditions, and observe how noble gases behave under these conditions, in order to better understand the atmospheric and internal chemistry of these celestial ...

In a study that twists nature's arm to gain clues into the varied functions of the bacterial genome, North Carolina State University researchers utilize a precision scalpel to excise target genomic regions that are expendable. This strategy can also elucidate gene regions that are essential for bacterial survival. The approach offers a rapid and effective way to identify core and essential genomic regions, eliminate non-essential regions and leads to greater understanding of bacterial evolution in a chaotic pool of gene loss and gene acquisition. In a paper published ...

This news release is available in Portuguese. Many animal species, including humans, live and breed in groups with complex social organizations. The impact of this social structure on the genetic diversity of animals has been a source of disagreement between scientists. In a new study now published in the latest edition of the scientific journal PNAS*, Barbara Parreira and Lounes Chikhi from Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia (IGC; Portugal) show that social structure is important to maintain the genetic diversity within species. The researchers provide a new mathematical ...

Belonging to multiple groups that are important to you boosts self-esteem much more than having friends alone, new research has found. CIFAR fellows Nyla Branscombe (University of Kansas), Alexander Haslam and Catherine Haslam (both University of Queensland) recently collaborated with lead author Jolanda Jetten on experiments to explore the importance of group memberships for self-esteem. Working with groups of school children, the elderly, and former homeless people in the United Kingdom, China and Australia, their studies showed consistently that people who belong ...

The environmental movement is making a difference - nudging greenhouse gas emissions down in states with strong green voices, according to a Michigan State University (MSU) study. Social scientist Thomas Dietz and Kenneth Frank, MSU Foundation professor of sociometrics, have teamed up to find a way to tell if a state jumping on the environmental bandwagon can mitigate other human factors - population growth and economic affluence - known to hurt the environment. "We've used new methods developed over the years and new innovations Ken has developed to add in the politics ...

Using Twitter and Google search trend data in the wake of the very limited U.S. Ebola outbreak of October 2014, a team of researchers from Arizona State University, Purdue University and Oregon State University have found that news media is extraordinarily effective in creating public panic. Because only five people were ultimately infected yet Ebola dominated the U.S. media in the weeks after the first imported case, the researchers set out to determine mass media's impact on people's behavior on social media. "Social media data have been suggested as a way to track ...

Vitamin D plays an important part in the human immune response and deficiency can leave individuals less able to fight infections like HIV-1. Now an international team of researchers has found that high-dose vitamin D supplementation can reverse the deficiency and also improve immune response. "Vitamin D may be a simple, cost-effective intervention, particularly in resource-poor settings, to reduce HIV-1 risk and disease progression," the researchers report in today's (June 15) online issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers looked at ...

MAYWOOD, IL - Poverty is known to be a strong risk factor for end-stage kidney disease. Now, a first of-its-kind study has found that the association between poverty and kidney disease changes over time. The percentage of adults beginning kidney dialysis who lived in zip codes with high poverty rates increased from 27.4 percent during the 1995-2004 time period to 34 percent in 2005-2010. The study, by corresponding author Holly Kramer, MD, MPH and colleagues at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, is published in the journal Hemodialysis International. Researchers ...

For the last decade, astronomers have observed curious "hotspots" on Saturn's poles. In 2008, NASA's Cassini spacecraft beamed back close-up images of these hotspots, revealing them to be immense cyclones, each as wide as the Earth. Scientists estimate that Saturn's cyclones may whip up 300 mph winds, and likely have been churning for years. While cyclones on Earth are fueled by the heat and moisture of the oceans, no such bodies of water exist on Saturn. What, then, could be causing such powerful, long-lasting storms? In a paper published today in the journal Nature ...

New research by NOAA, University of Alaska, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the journal Oceanography shows that surface waters of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas could reach levels of acidity that threaten the ability of animals to build and maintain their shells by 2030, with the Bering Sea reaching this level of acidity by 2044. "Our research shows that within 15 years, the chemistry of these waters may no longer be saturated with enough calcium carbonate for a number of animals from tiny sea snails to Alaska King crabs to construct and maintain their shells ...

AUSTIN, Texas -- Researchers in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a groundbreaking new energy-absorbing structure to better withstand blunt and ballistic impact. The technology, called negative stiffness (NS) honeycombs, can be integrated into car bumpers, military and athletic helmets and other protective hardware. The technology could have major implications for the design and production of future vehicles and military gear to improve safety. The new NS honeycomb structures are able to provide repeated protection ...

ALEXANDRIA VA, JUNE 15, 2015 - A statistical analysis of poll performance in battleground states over the last three presidential elections shows polling firms produced estimates that were fairly accurate in 2004 and 2008, but underestimated support for President Obama in 2012, a new article reports. The article's authors--Ole J. Forsberg and Mark E. Payton, professors in the department of statistics at Oklahoma State University--believe the culprit for bad polling in the 2012 election may have roots in "outdated and possibly flawed sampling methodology" that resulted ...

SAN FRANCISCO--For many generations, Bedouin people living in the Abu Dabbab area on the Egyptian Red Sea coast have heard distinct noises--like the rumbling of a quarry blast or cannon shot--accompanying small earthquakes in the region. Now, a new study published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America offers an explanation for this uniquely noisy seismic event. Seismic activity in the area of the Egyptian seaside resort Abu Dabbab may be caused by an active fault that lays below a 10-kilometer thick block of old, now rigid igneous rock. The surface of ...

(Philadelphia, PA) - It's long been known that scratching evokes a rewarding and pleasurable sensation in patients with chronic itch. Now, researchers in the Department of Dermatology and Temple Itch Center at Temple University School of Medicine (TUSM) may be closer to understanding why. Using advanced fMRI imaging, the researchers looked at activity in the brain while 10 chronic itch patients and 10 healthy subjects scratched an itch. They found that areas of the brain involved in motor control and reward processing were more activated in chronic itch patients while ...

There is little information about bee populations in Alaska, where native bee pollination is critical to the maintenance of subarctic ecosystems. A team from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the USDA have now completed a two-year study on bumble bees in agricultural areas in the region. The research was published in the Biodiversity Data Journal. Pollination is one of the most fundamental processes sustaining agricultural production and natural ecosystems. While decrease in bee populations is a common concern, most press coverage has been directed towards Colony ...

Recent genomic research has prompted a petition that calls for the reclassification of African elephants from one threatened species to two endangered species to protect both from imminent extinction. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FSW) has 90 days to respond to a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity at http://www.biologicaldiversity.org, a public interest environmental organization dedicated to the protection of native species and their habitats. The Center requests that the FWS recognize the forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) and savannah elephant ...