A recent study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry reports that following military parents' return from combat deployment, their children show increased visits for mental healthcare, physical injury, and child maltreatment consults, compared to children whose parents have not been deployed. The same types of healthcare visits were also found to be significantly higher for children of combat-injured parents. Children of deployed parents are known to have increased mental healthcare needs, and be at increased risk for child ...

When cancer strikes, it may be possible for patients to fight back with their own defenses, using a strategy known as immunotherapy. According to a new study published in Nature, researchers have found a way to enhance the effects of this therapeutic approach in glioblastoma, a deadly type of brain cancer, and possibly improve patient outcomes. The research was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) as well as the National Cancer Institute (NCI), which are part of the National Institutes of Health. "The promise of dendritic cell-based ...

Boulder, Colo., USA - Unaweep Canyon is a puzzling landscape -- the only canyon on Earth with two mouths. First formally documented by western explorers mapping the Colorado Territory in the 1800s, Unaweep Canyon has inspired numerous hypotheses for its origin. This new paper for Geosphere by Gerilyn S. Soreghan and colleagues brings together old and new geologic data of this region to further the hypothesis that Unaweep Canyon was formed in multiple stages. The inner gorge originated ~300 million years ago, was buried, was then revealed about five million years ago when ...

Latinos are the largest ethnic minority group in the United States, and it's expected that by 2050 they will comprise almost 30 percent of the U.S. population. Yet they are also the most underserved by health care and health insurance providers. Latinos' low rates of insurance coverage and poor access to health care strongly suggest a need for better outreach by health care providers and an improvement in insurance coverage. Although the implementation of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 seems to have helped (approximately 25 percent of those eligible for coverage under ...

Could our reaction to an image of an overweight or obese person affect how we perceive odor? A trio of researchers, including two from UCLA, says yes. The researchers discovered that visual cues associated with overweight or obese people can influence one's sense of smell, and that the perceiver's body mass index matters, too. Participants with higher BMI tended to be more critical of heavier people, with higher-BMI participants giving scents a lower rating when scent samples were matched with an obese or overweight individual. The findings, published online in the ...

COLLEGE STATION -- Researchers at Texas A&M AgriLife Research have developed a new technology to determine sensitivity or resistance to rabies virus. "We were able to create a novel platform such that we could look at how pathogens, such as bacteria or virus or even drugs or radiation, interact with specific human genes," said lead researcher Dr. Deeann Wallis, AgriLife Research assistant professor of biochemistry and biophysics. "It allows us a new way to profile the genes involved in sensitivity or resistance to certain agents." The rabies work is being reported in ...

SAVANNAH, Ga., March 19, 2015 - Bad news for relentless power-seekers the likes of Frank Underwood on House of Cards: Climbing the ladder of social status through aggressive, competitive striving might shorten your life as a result of increased vulnerability to cardiovascular disease. That's according to new research by psychologist Timothy W. Smith and colleagues at the University of Utah. And good news for successful types who are friendlier: Attaining higher social status as the result of prestige and freely given respect may have protective effects, the researchers ...

PORTLAND, Ore. - March 19, 2015 - A new in vitro (test tube) study, "Dietary functional benefits of Bartlett and Starkrimson pears for potential management of hyperglycemia, hypertension and ulcer bacteria Helicobacter pylori while supporting beneficial probiotic bacterial response," was published in the March issue of Food Research International.1 In a laboratory in vitro setting, Kalidas Shetty, PhD, currently a professor of plant science at North Dakota State University, and the research's lead author, Dr. Dipayan Sarkar, studied the compounds found in two pear varieties, ...

Researchers at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch and Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Berlin-Buch, have succeeded in generating cells of the immune system to specifically target and destroy cancer cells. The research findings of Matthias Obenaus, Professor Thomas Blankenstein (MDC and Charité), Dr. Matthias Leisegang (MDC) and Professor Wolfgang Uckert (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and MDC) as well as Professor Dolores Schendel (Medigene AG, Planegg/Martinsried) have now been published in Nature Biotechnology ...

Sensing pain is extremely unpleasant and sometimes hard to bear - and pain can even become chronic. The perception of pain varies a lot depending on the context in which it is experienced. 50 years ago, neurobiologist Patrick Wall and psychologist Ronald Melzack formulated the so-called "Gate Control Theory" of pain. The two researchers proposed that inhibitory nerve cells in the spinal cord determine whether a pain impulse coming from the periphery, such as the foot, is relayed to the brain or not. A team headed by Hanns Ulrich Zeilhofer from the Institute of Pharmacology ...

The kidney carries out vital functions by continuously filtering the blood and excreting waste products into the urine. This is achieved by a complex system of tubules which transports the urine and regulates its composition. PhD student Annekatrin Aue, Dr. Christian Hinze and Professor Kai Schmidt-Ott of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) have now discovered how parts of these kidney tubules establish an inner space (lumen) and form a tight barrier against adjacent structures. The epithelial cells which line the tubules coordinate these processes ...

What does hair styling have in common with quantum computing? The braiding pattern has inspired scientists as a potential new approach to quantum calculation. The idea is to rely on a network of intersecting chains, or nanowires, containing two-dimensional quasi-particles. The way these quasi-particles evolve in space time produces a braid-like pattern. These braids could then be used as the logic gate that provides the logical function required for calculations in computers. Due to their tight assembly, such braids are much more difficult to destabilise and less error-prone. ...

A newly discovered crocodilian ancestor may have filled one of North America's top predator roles before dinosaurs arrived on the continent. Carnufex carolinensis, or the "Carolina Butcher," was a 9-foot long, land-dwelling crocodylomorph that walked on its hind legs and likely preyed upon smaller inhabitants of North Carolina ecosystems such as armored reptiles and early mammal relatives. Paleontologists from North Carolina State University and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences recovered parts of Carnufex's skull, spine and upper forelimb from the Pekin ...

"Despite all the talk about globalisation and the trend towards the expansion of the international trade space, the world is still far from frictionless or flat. There are still large national differences between countries. And these differences can greatly influence the companies' earning potential when they seek to expand." So says Associate Professor Ingo Kleindienst from the School of Business and Social Sciences at Aarhus University. He has recently concluded a major study of 91 German-owned multinational companies and their ability to make money in foreign markets. ...

This news release is available in French. A research group at the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine has been using a rat model to see how maternal intake of above-requirement vitamins (A, D, E, and K) impact offspring's brain development and behaviour. Some of their findings were published today in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism. Much research on vitamins focuses on prevention of deficiencies and the toxicity of very high intakes. However, little has been done on the effect of intakes above ...

Scientists at The University of Manchester have created an enhanced surface for silicone breast implants which could reduce complications and make them less likely to be rejected by the body. In the US alone almost 400,000 cosmetic breast augmentations and reconstructions are carried out each year, and the number is growing. Some of these cases are for reconstruction after surgery for breast cancer and can have important psychological benefits. However, around one in five people who has a breast implant suffers from capsular contracture where scar tissue forms and ...

A new research project from the University of Copenhagen has established an effective model for the fight against the escalating burden of tooth decay among children in Asia. The model is an important tool in breaking the social inequity in oral health of children. In developing countries, the number of children who suffer pain and discomfort in addition to missing out on school lessons is increasing. This project demonstrates that the school is a vital key to better oral health. The project also shows how it is possible to organize school oral health intervention, including ...

(March 19, 2015, Abu Dhabi, UAE) -The Tobacco Atlas, Fifth Edition ("The Atlas"), and its companion mobile app and website TobaccoAtlas.org, were unveiled today by the American Cancer Society and World Lung Foundation at the 16th World Conference on Tobacco or Health. The Atlas graphically details the scale of the tobacco epidemic; the harmful influence of tobacco on health, poverty, social justice, and the environment; the progress being made in tobacco control; and the latest products and tactics being used by the industry to protect its profits and delay and derail tobacco ...

When patients develop acute liver failure, severe complications arise rapidly after the first signs of liver disease, and patients' health can deteriorate rapidly. New research published in the American Journal of Transplantation indicates that emergency evaluations of living liver donors can be conducted safely to allow acute liver failure patients to undergo transplantation before their condition worsens. If untreated, acute liver failure results in coma and death in more than 80 percent of cases. The only effective therapy is liver transplantation, but the deceased ...

A Los Angeles ordinance designed to curb obesity in low-income areas by restricting the opening of new fast-food restaurants has failed to reduce fast-food consumption or reduce obesity rates in the targeted neighborhoods, according to a new RAND Corporation study. Since the fast-food restrictions were passed in 2008, overweight and obesity rates in South Los Angeles and other neighborhoods targeted by the law have increased faster than in other parts of the city or other parts of the county, according to findings published online by the journal Social Science & Medicine. "The ...

Using melatonin could provide more and better quality sleep compared to using an eye mask and earplugs in a simulated noisy and illuminated environment, according to research published in open access journal Critical Care. This study was carried out on healthy subjects but could have future implications for intensive care unit (ICU) patients. Melatonin is the hormone secreted by the body to regulate sleep, usually in periods of darkness. Synthetically produced melatonin is used to boost the body's own melatonin levels to treat some sleep disorders, and sometimes as a ...

The number of people living with cystic fibrosis into adulthood is expected to increase dramatically by 2025, prompting calls for the development of adult cystic fibrosis services to meet the demand. People living with cystic fibrosis have previously had low life expectancy, but improvements in treatments and care in the last three decades have led to an increase in survival with almost all children now living to around 40 years. In the first study of its kind, published in the European Respiratory Journal today (19 March 2015), researchers have provided forecasts ...

Introduction of standardised packaging for tobacco products in Australia prompted more smokers to think about quitting and to attempt to quit, show findings of surveys of adults smokers published in Tobacco Control. In introducing standardised tobacco packaging with large graphic health warnings in December 2012, the Australian government's main aim was to reduce the attractiveness and appeal of tobacco products to young people and so reduce the likelihood of them taking up smoking. In other studies the researchers from Melbourne in Victoria found that standardised ...

New research published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes) shows that in women who have developed gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) during pregnancy, being obese before the pregnancy and putting on more weight after it massively increases the risk of later developing type 2 diabetes (T2D). For women who are obese before pregnancy (BMI 30 or higher) and put on 5 kg or more after giving birth, the risk of developing T2D is 43 times higher than for women who remain lean before pregnancy and gain 5 kg or less. The research, ...

A phase 3 trial of brentuximab vedotin (BV), the first new drug for Hodgkin lymphoma in over 30 years, shows that adults with hard-to-treat Hodgkin lymphoma given BV immediately after stem cell transplant survived without the disease progressing for twice as long as those given placebo (43 months vs 24 months). The findings, published in The Lancet, are potentially practice changing for this young cancer population who have exhausted other treatment options and for whom prognosis is poor. "No medication available today has had such dramatic results in patients with ...