Home births lead to higher infant mortality than hospital births, at least for mothers living in poorer areas. This is the conclusion of a new study conducted by N. Meltem Daysal (University of Southern Denmark and IZA), Mircea Trandafir (University of Southern Denmark and IZA) and Reyn van Ewijk (VU University Amsterdam and University of Mainz) that examines 356,412 low-risk Dutch women who delivered between 2000 and 2008 and who were allowed to choose between a home and a hospital birth. The safety of home births for low-risk women is a hotly debated topic in the Western ...

A 20-year study by James Cook University scientists has found a strong link between diabetes and tuberculosis in tropical Australia. Despite massive improvements in sanitation and antibiotic coverage over the last century, TB still remains the leading bacterial cause of death worldwide. Previous studies conducted in developing countries where TB is endemic have demonstrated the connection between the two diseases. But the study by JCU and Townsville Hospital researchers, published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, has for the first time established ...

A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore's (NUS) Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine has demonstrated for the first time that hydrogen sulphide (H2S), when applied exogenously, could protect testicular germ cells, which are male reproductive cells, against heat-induced injury, which is one of the major causes of male infertility. The findings may provide a new approach to treating male infertility. H2S, a colorless gas with the characteristic foul odour of rotten eggs, has been shown to produce anti-oxidant effects in various systems including the ...

Scientists uncover a port of liver entry for malaria parasites in a report published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine. If these results hold up in humans, drugs that target this entry protein might help prevent the spread of disease. Malaria is caused by a parasite called Plasmodium falciparum, which is transmitted to humans via mosquito bite. Recent efforts to limit parasite transmission and increase treatment coverage has reduced the number of malaria-related deaths, but the parasite still causes roughly 200 million new infections and half a million deaths worldwide ...

Considering how many microorganisms we ingest each day, our gut has an extensive and well-developed immune system. This defense is involved in acute and chronic gut diseases, but it varies dramatically among people. A persistent question is how our genetic make-up affects our gut's ability to fight infections. EPFL scientists have found that gut immunity is not affected by single genes but by entire groups of genes. The study, which challenges simplistic views of gut disease, is published in Nature Communications. That gut feeling A healthy gut contains a multitude ...

Babies learn language best by interacting with people rather than passively through a video or audio recording. But it's been unclear what aspects of social interactions make them so important for learning. New findings by researchers at the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS) at the University of Washington demonstrate for the first time that an early social behavior called gaze shifting is linked to infants' ability to learn new language sounds. Babies about 10 months old who engaged in more gaze shifting during sessions with a foreign language tutor ...

Located in the South Atlantic, thousands of kilometers away from the nearest populated country, Tristan da Cunha is one of the remotest inhabited islands on earth. Together with the uninhabited neighboring island of Gough about 400 kilometers away, it is part of the British Overseas Territories. Both islands are active volcanoes, derived from the same volcanic hotspot. A team of marine scientists and volcanologists from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, from the University of Kiel and the University of London discovered that about 70 million years ago, ...

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a very aggressive form of pulmonary fibrosis and has a particularly poor prognosis. This fatal disease, for which so far no causal therapies exist, is characterized by a massive deposition of connective and scar tissue in the lung, which leads to a progressive loss of lung function and ultimately death. Connective tissue is mainly produced by myofibroblasts. The research group led by PD Dr. Silke Meiners of the Institute of Lung Biology and the CPC showed now for the first time that the activation of these myofibroblasts depends on increased ...

Doctors and researchers have long known that children who are missing about 60 genes on a certain chromosome are at a significantly elevated risk for developing either a disorder on the autism spectrum or psychosis -- that is, any mental disorder characterized by delusions and hallucinations, including schizophrenia. But there has been no way to predict which child with the abnormality might be at risk for which disorder. New findings by researchers at UCLA and the University of Pittsburgh are the first to suggest a potential way to make that determination. In a study ...

Low-dose lithium reduced involuntary motor movements - the troubling side effect of the medication most commonly used to treat Parkinson's disease (PD) - in a mouse model of the condition that is diagnosed in about 60,000 Americans each year. The third in a series of studies from the Andersen lab involving PD and low-dose lithium, the results add to mounting evidence that low-doses of the psychotropic drug could benefit patients suffering from the incurable, degenerative condition. This study, published online in Brain Research, involved Parkinsonian mice that were given ...

Cancer can be caused solely by protein imbalances within cells, a study of ovarian cancer has found. The discovery is a major breakthrough because, until now, genetic aberrations have been seen as the main cause of almost all cancer. The research, published today in the journal Oncogene, demonstrates that protein imbalance is a powerful prognostic tool, indicating whether or not patients are likely to respond to chemotherapy and whether a tumour is likely to spread to other sites. The findings also open the possibility of new therapies aimed at measuring and preventing ...

A new study points to the need for increased awareness of fertility preservation options for young patients with cancer. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study found that factors such as gender, education, and insurance status may impact whether patients and their physicians have discussions and take actions to preserve fertility during cancer treatment. Cancer and the therapies used to treat it can cause some patients to become infertile. Therefore, it's important for clinicians and young cancer patients to ...

This news release is available in Spanish. Many new mothers do not receive advice from physicians on aspects of infant care such as sleep position, breastfeeding, immunization and pacifier use, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. Health care practitioner groups have issued recommendations and guidelines on all these aspects of infant care, based on research which has found that certain practices can prevent disease and even save lives. The study authors surveyed a nationally representative sample of more than 1,000 new mothers, ...

The movies of Alfred Hitchcock have made palms sweat and pulses race for more than 65 years. Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have now learned how the Master of Suspense affects audiences' brains. Their study measured brain activity while people watched clips from Hitchcock and other suspenseful films. During high suspense moments, the brain narrows what people see and focuses their attention on the story. During less suspenseful moments of the film clips, viewers devote more attention to their surroundings. "Many people have a feeling that we get lost in ...

Sleeping not only protects memories from being forgotten, it also makes them easier to access, according to new research from the University of Exeter and the Basque Centre for Cognition, Brain and Language. The findings suggest that after sleep we are more likely to recall facts which we could not remember while still awake. In two situations where subjects forgot information over the course of 12 hours of wakefulness, a night's sleep was shown to promote access to memory traces that had initially been too weak to be retrieved. The research, published today in the ...

CHICAGO: Physicians at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, Penn., have developed an analytical tool to identify surgical patients at risk for costly respiratory complications. This tool may help hospitals avoid those complications and their related costs as Medicare and commercial payers exert increasing pressure on them by eliminating payment for patient complications that occur after operations and may extend hospital stays. The investigators developed a scoring system to identify risk factors for ventilator dependence after major operations by using ...

CHICAGO: Long waitlist times often lead to a higher risk of death for children awaiting heart transplantation. However, the team at Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, cut wait times by revising their waitlist protocols for donor heart size and patient severity status. Results from this intervention were presented today at the 2015 American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP®) Conference in Chicago. As of July 2, 2015, more than 320 children nationwide were listed as candidates for heart transplantation, according to the Organ ...

CHICAGO: Surgical teams at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, are decreasing the rate of urinary tract infection (UTI) in their institution by paying scrupulous attention to the use of catheters before and immediately after operations. Their efforts are believed to be among the first reported in the country to target UTI prevention in the operating room (OR) by decreasing catheter utilization, according to a study presented today at the 2015 American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP®) Conference. The study was initiated ...

CHICAGO (July 26, 2015, 5 pm ET): As patient-safety and quality improvement efforts continue to gain momentum throughout health care, the need for accurate sources of information is crucial, yet the question remains: Is one resource better than another? According to two new studies presented today by researchers at the 2015 American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP®) National Conference in Chicago, ACS NSQIP provides more accurate data than administrative data for driving surgical quality improvement in hospitals. Currently, ...

DENVER - New research suggests concussion may not significantly impair symptoms or cognitive skills for one gender over another, however, women may still experience greater symptoms and poorer cognitive performance at preseason testing. The study released today will be presented at the Sports Concussion Conference in Denver, July 24 to 26, hosted by the American Academy of Neurology, the world's leading authority on diagnosing and managing sports concussion. The conference will feature the latest scientific advances in diagnosing and treating sports concussion from leading ...

Lincoln, Neb., July 24th, 2015 -- If you've lived between the year 1560 and the present day, more power to you. Literally. That's one of several conclusions reached by University of Nebraska-Lincoln ecologist John DeLong, who has co-authored the first study to quantify the relationship between human population growth and energy use on an international scale. The study compiled several centuries' worth of data from Great Britain, the United States and Sweden to profile the dynamics between a skyrocketing population and its consumption of energy from fossil fuels and ...

Looking at measurements of the vertebrae - the series of small bones that make up the spinal column - in newborn children, investigators at Children's Hospital Los Angeles found that differences between the sexes are present at birth. Results of the study, now online in advance of publication in the August issue of the Journal of Pediatrics, suggest that this difference is evolutionary, allowing the female spine to adapt to the fetal load during pregnancy. Using magnetic resonance imagining (MRI), the researchers found that vertebral cross-sectional dimensions, a key ...

When disease-resistant rice is invaded by disease-causing bacteria, a small protein produced by the bacteria betrays the invader. Upon recognizing that protein, the rice plants sense that a microbial attack is underway and are able to mount an immune response to fend off bacterial infection, reports a research team led by the University of California, Davis. Identification of the tiny protein, called RaxX, holds promise for developing more disease-resistant crop varieties and therapeutic treatments for blocking microbial infections in both plants and animals, said the ...

Grand Rapids, Michigan (July 24, 2015)--Scientists at Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) have revealed an important molecular mechanism in plants that has significant similarities to certain signaling mechanisms in humans, which are closely linked to early embryonic development and to diseases such as cancer. In plants as in animals and humans, intricate molecular networks regulate key biological functions, such as development and stress responses. The system can be likened to a massive switchboard--when the wrong switches are flipped, genes can be inappropriately turned ...

ORLANDO, Fla. (July 21, 2015) - A new peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Mammalogy by the Oxford University Press adds important insights to the debate over how long killer whales in human care live. The study found no difference in life expectancy between killer whales born at SeaWorld and a well-studied population of wild killer whales. The study, "Comparisons of life-history parameters between free-ranging and captive killer whale (Orcinus orca) populations for application toward species management," compares current published data for survival and ...