A new study analyses the survival rates in Spain of newborns with a gestational age under 26 weeks. The results show that survival under 23 weeks is 'exceptional', although other factors such as birth weight and sex also have an influence. Experts from the Spanish Society of Neonatology have studied the survival rates in Spain of newborns with a gestational age under 26 weeks, taking into account that a newborn carried to term is between 37 and 42 weeks. The data have been drawn from the national database that gathers information on all babies born weighing less than ...

New research led by Queen's University professor Robert Campbell (Ophthalmology) has revealed using anti-inflammatory medications after glaucoma laser surgery is not helpful or necessary. Glaucoma is the most common cause of irreversible blindness in the world and about 400,000 Canadians are afflicted with the disease, which is mainly caused by pressure within the eye being high enough to damage the optic nerve. The optic nerve is responsible for sending messages from the eye to the brain and is a vital part of vision. "The use of strong anti-inflammatory therapies after ...

The tropical rabbitfish which have devastated algal forests in the eastern Mediterranean Sea pose a major threat to the entire Mediterranean basin if their distribution continues to expand as the climate warms, a new study warns. The study, by an international team of researchers led by Dr Adriana Vergés of UNSW Australia and Dr Fiona Tomas of the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies in Spain, is published in the Journal of Ecology. Members of the team surveyed more than 1000 kilometres of coastline in Turkey and Greece, where two species of rabbitfish have become ...

LEXINGTON, Ky (Sept. 17, 2014) -- Two independent groups of researchers led by Sidney (Wally) Whiteheart, PhD, of the University of Kentucky, and Charles Lowenstein, MD, of the University of Rochester, have published important studies exploring the role that a gene called STXBP5 plays in the development of cardiovascular disease. According to Whiteheart, previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) identified a gene called STXBP5 as a factor that regulates a protein called Von Willebrand factor (VWF). VWF is an important contributor to normal blood clotting. When ...

As a result of outbreaks of violence in the nation's schools, concerns have grown about school safety and the overall well-being of students. In a new study, UT Dallas criminology researchers have found that certain factors affect students' willingness to report weapons at school. "A big part of adolescent development is figuring out your identity, and that does not always mean talking to grown-ups about what is going on," said Dr. Nadine Connell, assistant professor of criminology in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences. "We can't stop students from ...

Ottawa (September 18, 2014) – A new expert panel report, Improving Medicines for Children in Canada, released today by the Council of Canadian Academies, addresses the importance of developing safe and effective medicines for children. Each year about half of Canada's seven million children use at least one prescription drug. Much of this prescribing is done off-label (i.e. the prescription differs from the authorized use), creating potential health risks. Children have historically been excluded in drug research and development, including clinical trials. As a result, ...

Los Angeles, CA (September 18, 2014) Cardiovascular disease is the leading causes of death worldwide and high cholesterol plays a major role in accelerating its progression. Medical practitioners have turned to statins as a treatment to decrease cholesterol-carrying lipoproteins such as small dense lipoproteins (sdLDL), considered to be especially harmful. A new study, out today in the Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology and Therapeutics finds that rosuvastatin may be more effective among prediabetic patients than patients with normal glucose levels. Study author ...

Los Angeles, CA (September 18, 2014) The media is highly criticized for contributing to body image issues in adolescents. However, a study out today in Psychology of Women Quarterly finds a different source for body dissatisfaction among young girls: older girls at school. A research team led by Jaine Strauss, Professor of Psychology at Macalester College, surveyed 1,536 5th through 8th-grade female students attending schools with different grade groupings. Some 5th and 6th graders attended school with older students (i.e. in districts that follow the "middle school" ...

Why is it that when people are too stressed they are often grouchy, grumpy, nasty, distracted or forgetful? Researchers from the Brain Mind Institute (BMI) at EPFL have just highlighted a fundamental synaptic mechanism that explains the relationship between chronic stress and the loss of social skills and cognitive impairment. When triggered by stress, an enzyme attacks a synaptic regulatory molecule in the brain. This was revealed by a work published in Nature Communications. Carmen Sandi's team went to look for answers in a region of the hippocampus known for its involvement ...

Scientists at USC have developed a new microscopy technology that allows them to view single molecules in living animals at higher-than-ever resolution. Dubbed "Complementation Activated Light Microscopy" (CALM), the new technology allows imaging resolutions that are an order of magnitude finer than conventional optical microscopy, providing new insights into the behavior of biomolecules at the nanometer scale. In a paper published on Sept. 18 by Nature Communications, the researchers behind CALM used it to study dystrophin – a key structural protein of muscle cells ...

The most common type of hospital-associated infection may be preventable with a vaccine, new research in mice suggests. The experimental vaccine, developed by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, prevented urinary tract infections associated with catheters, the tubes used in hospitals and other care facilities to drain urine from a patient's bladder. Each day a catheter is present in the urethra and the bladder, the risk of urinary tract infection increases. Nearly every patient who has a catheter for more than 30 days acquires a urinary ...

MINNEAPOLIS – A new study suggests that people who experience migraine in middle age may be more likely to develop Parkinson's disease, or other movement disorders later in life. Those who have migraine with aura may be at double the risk of developing Parkinson's, according to the study published in the September 17, 2014, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. "Migraine is the most common brain disorder in both men and women," said study author Ann I. Scher, PhD, with Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, MD, and ...

(September 17, 2014, San Francisco) – Patients with early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who are otherwise healthy fare better over time if they undergo conventional surgery versus less-invasive radiosurgery to remove their cancer, according to a Yale study. The findings are scheduled to be presented at the 56th annual conference of the American Society for Radiation Oncology in San Francisco. (Abstract # 302; Comparative Effectiveness of Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy versus Surgery for Stage I Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer.) The study used Medicare billing records ...

NEW YORK, NY, September 17, 2014 - In a novel brain-imaging study among trauma victims, researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center have linked an opioid receptor in the brain -- associated with emotions -- to a narrow cluster of trauma symptoms, including sadness, emotional detachment and listlessness. The study, published online today in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, holds important implications for targeted, personalized treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, a psychiatric condition affecting more than 8 million Americans that can cause a wide range of debilitating ...

Bottom Line: Symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were associated with increased food addiction, especially when individuals had more symptoms or the symptoms occurred earlier in life. Authors: Susan M. Mason, Ph.D., of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and colleagues. Background: PTSD is a potentially severe psychiatric condition. A growing body of evidence suggests that PTSD is a risk factor for obesity and obesity-related diseases. Food addiction is not established as a psychiatric diagnosis but may indicate use of food to cope with psychological ...

VIDEO: Henry Lim, M.D., chair of Dermatology, Henry Ford Hospital, highlights the study. Click here for more information. DETROIT – A treatment regimen is safe and effective for restoring skin pigmentation in vitiligo patients, according to a Henry Ford Hospital study. "Our findings offer patients with vitiligo worldwide a renewed hope for a bright future in the treatment of this disfiguring disease," says Henry Lim, M.D., chair of Dermatology at Henry Ford and the study's ...

Bottom Line: Patients with the skin depigmentation disease known as vitiligo had faster and better repigmentation after a combination therapy of the implantable drug afamelanotide and narrowband UV-B (NB-UV-B) phototherapy as part of a clinical trial. Author: Henry W. Lim, M.D., of Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, Mich., and colleagues. Background: Vitiligo is characterized by white patches of skin and affects 1 percent to 2 percent of the population. The authors report the results of a multicenter randomized clinical trial comparing the safety and effectiveness of the ...

Buffers that guard against damage to the ends of chromosomes could hold the key to a better understanding of malignant melanoma – the deadliest form of skin cancer – according to new research from the University of Leeds. The study has uncovered an important new genetic risk factor for melanoma. It is well known that pigmentation and mole count are the strongest indicators of those most at risk of developing melanoma. For example, paler people should take more care in the sun, as they burn more easily. It now appears that another risk factor is the length of telomeres, ...

Tropical storm warnings now issued for a portion of the Southwestern coast of Mexico as Polo continues to strengthen. Infrared imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite showed powerful thunderstorms around the center of the storm. A Tropical Storm Warning is in force for the southwest coast of Mexico from Punta San Telmo to Playa Perula. A Tropical Storm Watch is in force from Punta San Telmo to Zihuatanejo and from Playa Perula to Cabo Corrientes. Rainfall totals of 5 to 10, locally up to 15 inches, can be expected over coastal areas of Michoacan, Colima and Jalisco states ...

Although NASA's Aqua satellite showed that Hurricane Edouard is far from U.S. soil, it is powerful enough that it is creating dangerous swells along the U.S. East Coast. On Sept. 17, the National Hurricane Center noted "Swells from Edouard will affect portions of the east coast of the United States north of Florida beginning today. These swells will likely cause life-threatening rip current conditions along most of the United States east coast for the next couple of days." When NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Hurricane Edouard on Sept. 16 the MODIS instrument captured ...

A UT Arlington engineering professor and his doctoral student have designed a device based on a shorebird's beak that can accumulate water collected from fog and dew. The device could provide water in drought-stricken areas of the world or deserts around the globe. Cheng Luo, professor in the Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Department, and Xin Heng, PhD candidate in the same College of Engineering department, published "Bioinspired Plate-Based Fog Collectors" in the Aug. 25 edition of ACS' (American Chemical Society) Applied Materials & Interfaces journal. ACS also ...

LA JOLLA, CA—September 17, 2014—Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have devised a new antibiotic based on vancomycin that is powerfully effective against vancomycin-resistant strains of MRSA and other disease-causing bacteria. The new vancomycin analog appears to have not one but two distinct mechanisms of anti-microbial action, against which bacteria probably cannot evolve resistance quickly. "This is the prototype of analogues that once introduced will still be in clinical use a generation or maybe even two generations from now," said Dale L. Boger, ...

Washington, DC (September 17, 2014) – Receiving an email that claims you are the recipient of a large sum of money from an unknown deceased relative immediately raises a red flag. These email scams are often trashed or filtered through spam folders. But what about on social networks where there is no filter? Where people can learn about your personal life with a few clicks? A recent study published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication by a researcher at the University at Buffalo – State University of New York found that people who habitually use Facebook were ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — As Congress adjourns this month for the November elections, one of the killed bills senators will step over on their way out the chamber door will be the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2014. In a new commentary in the journal JAMA Surgery, Dr. Eli Adashi recounts what he and other advocates saw as the merits of the originally bipartisan bill. The perennial trouble with how Medicare pays doctors will return for the next Congress, Adashi said, and broader trends in health care practice ...

A team of researchers, including an astronomer from Michigan State University, has discovered a huge black hole at the center of an ultra-compact galaxy – the smallest galaxy known to contain one. The galaxy, known as M60-UCD1, was discovered last year by a team led by Jay Strader, MSU assistant professor of physics and astronomy. Strader was a member of the team that found the black hole. The findings are detailed in the recent edition of the journal Nature. The finding suggests that other ultra-compact galaxies also may contain massive black holes. And that those ...