Prolonged paracetamol use by pregnant women may reduce testosterone production in unborn baby boys, research has found. Researchers say their findings could help to explain reported links between paracetamol use in pregnancy and reproductive health problems in young boys. Paracetamol is the primary medicine used for managing pain and fever during pregnancy. The authors recommend that expectant mothers should follow existing guidelines that the painkiller be taken at the lowest effective dose for the shortest possible time. Testosterone, produced in the testicles, ...

A national survey reveals that only one in ten Australians report being told about the risk of overdiagnosis by their doctors, according to research published today in the scientific journal PLOS ONE. The increasingly recognised problem of overdiagnosis happens when someone is diagnosed with a disease that will never cause them any harm, often as a result of healthy people being screened for diseases such as breast or prostate cancer. Overdiagnosis can be harmful due to unnecessary labelling and treatment. The telephone survey (mobile and landline) of 500 Australians ...

WASHINGTON (May 20, 2015) - Despite challenges, it is feasible to collect and study the quality of outpatient cardiovascular care in a resource-limited environment like India, according to a pilot study published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association. Researchers used the American College of Cardiology's PINNACLE India Quality Improvement Program registry to examine performance measures and outline areas for further improvement in cardiovascular care delivery. There is a growing burden of cardiovascular disease in India, but only limited data is available ...

(MEMPHIS, Tenn. - May 20, 2015) Researchers led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have developed a second-generation antibiotic that shows early effectiveness against common bacterial infections that pose a serious health threat to children and adults. The findings appear today in the scientific journal Science Translational Medicine. The study marks the second time in recent years that St. Jude researchers have created promising antibiotics by changing the chemical structure of an old antibiotic named spectinomycin. Spectinomycin is a safe, but weak ...

TORONTO, May 20, 2015 - The use of personalized music playlists with tempo-pace synchronization increases adherence to cardiac rehab by almost 70 per cent--according to a study published in Sports Medicine -Open. "Cardiac rehab has been proven to improve long-term survival for someone who's had a heart event by 20 per cent," said Dr. David Alter, Senior Scientist, Toronto Rehab, University Health Network, and Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences. "Our challenge is there is a high drop-out rate for these programs and suboptimal adherence to the self-management of ...

Independent reproduction of other scientists' results is a cornerstone of solid research, but scientists are rarely recognized for successfully reproducing published findings, much less for demonstrating that scientific findings cannot be reproduced. However, failure to reproduce a finding may suggest doubt about the robustness of the original work, which carries implications for anyone looking to build on those findings. University of Iowa neuroscientist Andrew Pieper unexpectedly found himself in the position of contradicting seemingly promising results published in ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. - A false tweet from a hacked account owned by the Associated Press (AP) in 2013 sent financial markets into a tailspin. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 143.5 points and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost more than $136 billion of its value in the seconds that immediately followed the post. Once the nature of the tweet was discovered, the markets corrected themselves almost as quickly as they were skewed by the bogus information, but the event, known as Hack Crash, demonstrates the need to better understand how social media data is linked to decision ...

Washington, DC--An unborn child's gender can affect the mother's risk of developing gestational diabetes or Type 2 diabetes later in life, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. Gestational diabetes occurs when a pregnant woman has higher levels of glucose, or blood sugar, in the bloodstream than normal. Women who have been diagnosed with gestational diabetes face a greater risk of developing Type 2 diabetes in the future. As many as 9 percent of pregnant women develop gestational diabetes, according ...

Washington, DC--People who have metabolic syndrome are more likely to die from cardiovascular disease than people who do not have the condition, and having diabetes or high blood pressure worsens the risk, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of risk factors that raise the chances of developing heart disease, stroke and diabetes, according to the Hormone Health Network. The risk factors include abdominal obesity, high levels of fats in the blood called triglycerides, ...

Scientists have captured the early death throes of supernovae for the first time and found that the universe's benchmark explosions are much more varied than expected. The scientists used the Kepler space telescope to photograph three type 1a supernovae in the earliest stages of ignition. They then tracked the explosions in detail to full brightness around three weeks later, and the subsequent decline over the next few months. They found the initial stages of a supernova explosion did not fit with the existing theories. "The stars all blow up uniquely. It doesn't ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Gamers might one day be able to enjoy the same graphics-intensive fast-action video games they play on their gaming consoles or personal computers from mobile devices without guzzling gigabytes, thanks to a new tool developed by researchers at Duke University and Microsoft Research. Named "Kahawai" after the Hawaiian word for stream, the tool delivers graphics and gameplay on par with conventional cloud-gaming setups for a fraction of the bandwidth. "That's a huge win, especially if your cellphone plan has a data cap," said Duke computer scientist Landon ...

Scientists at the University of Alberta's Institute for Stuttering Treatment and Research (ISTAR) want Albertans to give a spit -- five millilitres to be precise -- to help find the cause and a cure for stuttering.Scientists at the University of Alberta's Institute for Stuttering Treatment and Research (ISTAR) want Albertans to give a spit -- five millilitres to be precise -- to help find the cause and a cure for stuttering. ISTAR researchers have collected saliva samples from 150 people who stutter and their family members, part of a first-of-its-kind DNA repository ...

Women who choose not to participate in a clinical trial may be significantly more likely to later regret that decision than women who choose to participate in the study, according to a team of Penn State researchers. The finding may help hospitals and health researchers attract more recruits for clinical trials, a task which many physicians consider the biggest obstacle to conducting these trials, according to the researchers. Typically, as many as 20 percent of a given population of patients are eligible to participate in clinical research. However, of those, only 2 ...

In a state known for its dramatic weather and climate, Colorado's history of extreme precipitation varies considerably by season and location, according to a new study led by the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science, a partnership between the University of Colorado Boulder and NOAA. Decision makers -- often facing increased pressure to consider climate change information -- typically turn to historical averages to understand when and where extreme rain, hail and snow happen in the state. But those averages often are not reliable because they're ...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Researchers with the Indiana University School of Medicine have identified a molecule that promotes metastasis of advanced prostate cancer to the bone, an incurable condition that significantly decreases quality of life. The research, published online in the journal Cancer Cell, may offer new targets for diagnosing and treating this common disease. The researchers homed in on a protein that is essential in multiple cell functions such as cell growth and proliferation and, in some cases, natural cell death. The protein, TGF-beta, also has been found to ...

ATS 2015, DENVER -- Treatment of COPD with inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) may decrease the risk of dying from pneumonia and from other causes despite being associated with an increase in the occurrence of pneumonia, according to a new meta-analysis presented at the 2015 American Thoracic Society International Conference. "Our systematic review and meta-analysis of 38 studies echoes individual studies which have shown that while ICS use may increase the risk of pneumonia in COPD patients, it lowers the risk of both pneumonia-associated and overall mortality," said lead ...

Few local government organizations in Colorado had policies on environmental controls, such as the provision of outdoor shade, or administrative procedures, including training and resource allocation, to improve sun protection for their workers and most policies addressed employees' use of personal protection practices, according to an article published online by JAMA Dermatology. Outdoor workers are exposed to large amounts of UV radiation, often during the course of many years, and are at increased risk for skin cancer and ocular (eye) damage. Sun-safety policies have ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Researchers at Duke Medicine have determined that kidney function plays a critical role in the fate of patients being treated for sepsis, a potentially life-threatening complication of an infection. In a study published May 20, 2015, in the journal Kidney International, Duke researchers and their colleagues identified physiological changes at the molecular level that might be affected by acute kidney injury. The findings could help physicians improve hemodialysis practices, increasing patient survival rates after kidney failure. Acute kidney injury ...

DENVER, CO -- Most people associate osteoporosis with women. But the truth is, one in four men over the age of 50 will break a bone as a result of this condition. That's more men than will have prostate cancer, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation. Now a leading researcher at National Jewish Health is calling for men to be included in the screening guidelines for osteoporosis. Elizabeth Regan, MD, PhD, a researcher at National Jewish Health, studied more than 3,000 smokers and former smokers ages 45 to 80 and tested their bone density. What she found was ...

Is ovulation related to higher racial bias? Though recent research, from Michigan State University, suggested that there was a link, new research from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business was unable to replicate those findings. In four studies, documented in their paper "In Search of an Association Between Conception Risk and Prejudice," Carlee Beth Hawkins, a doctoral student, and her co-authors were unable to find any evidence that there is an increase in racial bias related to conception risk. Hawkins, along with Cailey Fitzgerald of the University ...

Some major trucking companies are turning to natural gas to fuel their fleets -- and to earn "green" credit among customers. But celebrating lower emissions could be premature, according to an analysis in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology. Researchers have found that converting heavy-duty trucks to run on natural gas could lead to negative climate impacts if steps are not taken to improve engine efficiency and reduce methane emissions from the fuel's supply chain. Burning natural gas emits less carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere than other fossil ...

May 20, 2015 -- Available research does not support the contention that athletes are uniquely at risk of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) or other neurodegenerative disorders, according to a review in the June issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer. Widely reported and publicized cases of CTE in retired athletes overlap with other neurodegenerative disorders, while the observed symptoms could result from a wide range of other factors, suggests the review by Dr. Gavin A. Davis of ...

Americans' energy use continued to grow slowly in 2014, fueled by increases in the use of natural gas, wind and solar, according to the most recent energy flow charts released by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Each year, the Laboratory releases charts that illustrate the nation's consumption and use of energy. Overall, Americans used 0.9 quadrillion (quads) British thermal units (BTUs) more in 2014 than the previous year, an increase of about 1 percent. The Laboratory also released a companion chart illustrating the nation's energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. ...

New evidence has linked Arctic warming with severe weather in countries including the UK and US. Professor Edward Hanna and PhD student Richard Hall, from the University of Sheffield's Department of Geography, are part of a select group of international climate scientists investigating links between Arctic climate change and extreme weather in the northern mid-latitudes. They have found that while it is too soon to know for certain whether the Arctic played a role in persistent cold events during the extreme wet UK winter of 2013/14 and recent USA East Coast winters, ...

New Haven, Conn. -- Yale researchers found a close association between acute hospitalizations and the development and progression of disability among older adults at the end of life. Their findings may have profound implications for medical decision-making for older people and those who care for them. The research was published May 20 in The BMJ (British Medical Journal). In an earlier study, Thomas M. Gill, M.D., professor of medicine, and his co-authors at Yale School of Medicine had shown that the course of disability for older adults at the end of life was varied ...