PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- When the HOPE VI community revitalization project in the disadvantaged Birmingham, Ala., neighborhood of Ensley reached the phase of building walking and biking paths, green spaces, and improved lighting in 2010, two things happened, according to a new study: First, residents developed specific expectations that leisure exercise would become more plausible, and then they followed through and got out there. Before the neighborhood's revitalization, launched in 2006 with funding from the federal program Housing Opportunities for People ...

A vaccine that protects against a wide variety of influenza viruses (a so-called universal flu vaccine) is a critical public health goal given the significant rates of illness and death caused by seasonal influenza and the potentially devastating effects of a pandemic influenza strain. Now, researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, have devised a way to induce protective immunity in mice against a wide array of influenza viruses. Instead of trying to predict which influenza virus strains ...

This news release is available in German. In 2003, Europe experienced a record-breaking summer, and many people feel that this summer is headed the same way. In the midst of this heatwave, the scientific journal Nature Geoscience has published a study that can help us to understand such extreme weather conditions. For around two years, an ETH research team has analysed climate data from all over the world in a bid to explain the driving force behind stable high-pressure systems. It has long been known that extremely stable high-pressure systems in the upper troposphere, ...

Researchers at the Babraham Institute and Cambridge Systems Biology Centre, University of Cambridge have shown that yeast can modify their genomes to take advantage of an excess of calories in the environment and attain optimal growth. The ability to sense environmental nutrient availability and act accordingly is a critical process for all organisms. Changing behaviour in response to nutrients can occur at many levels: the activity of proteins can be varied or new genes can be activated to produce a different set of proteins. Research published in the latest issue of ...

A majority of men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women (TGW) at high risk for HIV infection took anti-HIV medication for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), most of the time, in a multi-site U.S. study examining use of this HIV prevention strategy outside of a clinical trial. The study, called the PrEP Demo Project, was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. The study findings will be presented by Albert Liu, M.D., of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, at the 8th International ...

Children born with ADNP-related autism syndrome suffer from a heart-breaking combination of ambiguous developmental problems injurious to both their physical health and cognitive functioning. For parents, the mystery surrounding their infants' suffering can be even more agonizing than the syndrome itself, which has no known cure. Recent research from Tel Aviv University and the University of Antwerp is easing some of that agony. Activity-dependent neuroprotective protein (ADNP), discovered by TAU's Prof. Illana Gozes 15 years ago, has now been shown by Prof. Frank Kooy ...

One of the enduring mysteries of the human experience is how and why humans moved from hunting and gathering to farming. From their beginnings humans, like other mammals, depended on wild resources for sustenance. Then between 8,000 and 12,000 years ago, in a transitional event known as the Neolithic Revolution, they began to create and tend domestic ecosystems in various locations around the world, and agriculture was born. Despite decades of research into this major human advancement, scientists still don't know what propelled it. The recent work of a research ...

WASHINGTON, DC - July 21, 2015 - Each year, scientists create an influenza (flu) vaccine that protects against a few specific influenza strains that researchers predict are going to be the most common during that year. Now, a new study shows that scientists may be able to create a 'universal' vaccine that can provide broad protection against numerous influenza strains, including those that could cause future pandemics. The study appears in mBio, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology. "The reason researchers change the vaccine every year ...

WASHINGTON -- Advertisers hoping to sway consumers might want to rethink running spots within media with violent or sexual themes, and might do better if the ads themselves have a G-rating, according to a study published by the American Psychological Association. Instead, violent and sexual media content may impair advertising's effectiveness and ultimately deter purchasing, the research found. "We found almost no evidence that violent and sexual programs and ads increased advertising effectiveness," said Brad J. Bushman, PhD, professor of communication and psychology ...

Believe it or not: X-ray works a lot better on rocks than on paper. This has been a problem for conservators trying to save historical books and letters from the ravages of time and fungi. They frankly did not know what they were up against once the telltale signs of vandals such as Dothidales or Pleosporales started to spot the surface of their priceless documents Now Diwaker Jha, an imaging specialist from Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, has managed to adapt methods developed to investigate interiors of rocks to work on paper too, thus getting a ...

HOUSTON -- (July 21, 2015) - Phosphates artificially added to dairy and cereal products appear to cause bigger spikes in blood phosphorus levels than naturally occurring phosphates, potentially putting harmful stress on kidneys. Too much dietary phosphate stiffens blood vessels, enlarges the heart and is bad for bones, but a new study by Houston Methodist researchers suggests it matters where the phosphates come from. The scientists' report will appear in the August 2015 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (early online). "The study suggests people should ...

The negative health effects of international air travel are well documented but now it seems that the common elderberry can provide some relief. Associate Professor Evelin Tiralongo and Dr Shirley Wee from Griffith's Menzies Health Institute Queensland (MHIQ) have completed a clinical trial showing that an elderberry supplement can provide some protection from cold and flu-like symptoms following long-haul flights. Intercontinental air travel can be stressful and affect a passenger's physical and psychological wellbeing. Whilst jet lag and fatigue remain the best known ...

A special type of synthetic sugar could be the latest weapon in the fight against superbugs. A team of scientists from The University of Queensland and Queensland biotechnology company Alchemia have discovered a potential new class of antibiotics inspired by sugar molecules produced by bacteria. New antibiotics to which bacteria are unlikely to develop resistance are urgently needed to combat the rise of superbugs - drug resistant bacteria. The research, led by Professor Matt Cooper and Dr Johannes Zuegg from UQ's Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) in partnership ...

Swedish researchers at Uppsala University and the Karolinska Institute have found that genes that control the biological clocks in cells throughout the body are altered after losing a single night of sleep, in a study that is to be published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. "Previous research has shown that our metabolism is negatively affected by sleep loss, and sleep loss has been linked to an increased risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Since ablation of clock genes in animals can cause these disease states, our current results indicate that ...

TORONTO, ON - When Julie compares her husband George to her friend's husband Sam, she can't help but notice that Sam is better is better at helping his children with homework. But rather than be upset about George's shortcomings in the children's homework arena, Julie reasons that since she enjoys doing homework with their children, it's not that important that George do it. What Julie has just done is protect her partner (and their relationship!) from the negative implications of her own comparison. But not all members of a couple engage in these justifying explanations ...

Information embedded within DNA has long contributed to biodiversity conservation, helping to reconstruct the past history of species, assess their current status, and guide strategies for their protection. A new study shows that the entire genome of hard to study species may now be available to scientists without the need to handle or even see their study organism, opening up the field of conservation genomics to the use of non-invasive sampling techniques. Endangered and elusive species by definition may be both rare and difficult to locate. As a result, conservation ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - If there's one thing advertisers think they know, it is that sex and violence sell. A new analysis, however, provides some of the best evidence to date that this widely accepted adage just isn't true. Researchers analyzed the results of 53 different experiments (a so-called meta-analysis) involving nearly 8,500 people, done over 44 years. All of these experiments examined some facet of the question of whether sexual or violent media content could help sell advertised products. When all the results are considered together, the overall conclusion, with ...

'Fatherhood effect' is average weight gain of 3.5 to 4.5 pounds Non-fathers lose weight during same time period Key time for pediatricians to counsel fathers, who often don't have their own doctors CHICAGO --- All those leftover pizza crusts you snatch from your kids' plates add up. Men gain weight after they become fathers for the first time whether or not they live with their children, reports a large, new Northwestern Medicine study that tracked the weight of more than 10,000 men from adolescence to young adulthood. The typical 6-foot-tall man who lives ...

Juvenile inmates are much more likely to be hospitalized for mental health problems than children and teenagers who are not incarcerated, according to a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine. In addition, the hospital stays of these inmates are longer, suggesting that their underlying mental health problems are worse. The new study, which will be published online July 21 in the Journal of Adolescent Health, examined almost 2 million hospitalizations of California boys and girls over a 15-year period. Mental health diagnoses were responsible for ...

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (JULY 21, 2015). French researchers used clinical examinations and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies to determine whether retired professional rugby players experience more serious symptoms of cervical spine degeneration than people in the general population. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the largest study of its kind covering any professional contact sport, and it confirms greater cervical spine degeneration in former rugby players. The research findings are reported and discussed in the article, "Clinical and radiological cervical ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- It's a tale of two tests: one for early signs of cervical cancer, the other for a sexually transmitted disease. But a new study suggests that a change in the recommended schedule for one may have dramatically lowered the chances that young women would get the other. Results published by a University of Michigan team shows the unintended consequences of changes to national health test guidelines: the potential for doctors to fall behind on ordering other tests that screen for serious health problems. In this case, the two tests are Pap smears and ...

What you're reading now secretly tells you whether your country will be skinnier or fatter in three years. After analyzing 50 years of all the food words mentioned in major newspapers like the New York Times and London Times, a new Cornell study shows that the food words trending today in 2015 will predict a country's obesity level in three years - in 2018. "The more sweet snacks are mentioned and the fewer fruits and vegetables that are mentioned in your newspaper, the fatter your country's population is going to be in 3 years, according to trends we found from the past ...

(PHILADELPHIA) -- African American men are more likely to develop prostate cancer than European American men, and are also more than twice as likely to die from it. Although there are many reasons that contribute to this health disparity, new research shows that African American men may have a distinctly different type of prostate cancer than European American men, according to new genomic fingerprinting results. "This study, this line of research, is about finding better and more appropriate therapies for African American men," says corresponding author of the study, ...

Both prescription and illegal drugs that are abused have been found in Canadian surface waters. New research shows that wastewater discharges flowing downstream have the potential to contaminate sources of drinking water with these drugs at relatively low concentrations. The concentrations of cocaine, morphine, and oxycodone did not decline with distance downstream from the wastewater treatment plant discharge, and many of the drugs were not removed effectively by drinking water treatment plants. The research is part of a special section on pharmaceuticals in the journal ...

Researchers are developing instruments and methods for measuring the ages of rocks encountered during space missions to the Moon or other planets. Many of the techniques used to date rocks on Earth are not practical in spaceflight, but a technique called laser ablation resonance ionization mass spectrometry can avoid the need for sophisticated sample preparation. A team led by Dr. F. Scott Anderson has now demonstrated that this technique can successfully date an Earth rock--the Duluth Gabbro--that is analogous to the rocks that cover one-third of the lunar nearside. ...