A new UCLA-led study suggests that a higher quality educational environment may help improve health outcomes Low-income minority adolescents who were admitted to high-performing public charter high schools in Los Angeles were significantly less likely to engage in risky health behaviors than their peers who were not admitted to those schools, according to a new UCLA-led study. These students also scored significantly better on California state standardized math and English tests. While numerous previous studies have shown a link between health and K-12 education, ...

Researchers at the University of Western Australia, led by Associate Professor Melinda Fitzgerald, have discovered that preventing abnormalities in the insulating sheath surrounding nerve cells is associated with better function following neurotrauma. Following injury to the central nervous system, damage spreads away from the initial impact in a process known as secondary degeneration. Dr Fitzgerald emphasises that "In order to develop treatments for secondary degeneration, we need to understand the biochemical reactions that occur in tissue that succumbs to spreading ...

Led by Dr. Zahoor A. Shah, Dr. Shadia E. Nada and Jatin Tulsulkar (graduate student), researchers at the University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, have discovered that mice treated with Ginkgo biloba 4 hours after inducing experimental stroke and then daily for seven days had improved recovery and less brain damage than the control mice. It was also observed that Ginkgo biloba treated mice had enhanced neurogenesis, partly due to the increased protein expression of hemeoxygenase 1, an antioxidant gene that also has a role in neurogenesis. Pertinently, mice lacking the hemeoxygenase ...

*** UPDATE TO NEWS RELEASE: 'Fires are a major cause of wind farm failure, according to new research' *** Message to news release subscribers from Imperial College London Press Office: Following discussion with reporters we wish to draw attention to further information relating to the News Release issued under embargo for Thursday 17 July 2014: "Fires are a major cause of wind farm failure, according to new research". A version of this note will be appended to the online news release and news story and both will be updated accordingly. 1. The purpose of the research ...

July 22, 2014, Cleveland: A type of immune cell widely believed to exacerbate chronic adult brain diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis (MS), can actually protect the brain from traumatic brain injury (TBI) and may slow the progression of neurodegenerative diseases, according to Cleveland Clinic research published today in the online journal Nature Communications. The research team, led by Bruce Trapp, PhD, Chair of the Department of Neurosciences at Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute, found that microglia can help synchronize brain firing, ...

AURORA, Colo. (July 22, 2014) – With over 170,000 students now playing high school lacrosse, more and more are being exposed to injuries during practice and competition, according to a new study from the Colorado School of Public Health and the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. The study, published online today by The American Journal of Sports Medicine, found that high school lacrosse players experienced 1,406 injuries over the four academic years from 2008 through 2012. The overall injury rate was 20 per 10,000 ...

Not much is known about the the genus of planthopper known as Conosimus, which now includes six species after a new one was recently discovered in the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula in the Spanish city of Jaen. A description of it appears in the open-access Journal of Insect Science (see http://www.insectscience.org/14.92/). The new species, Conosimus baenai, has been named after Manuel Baena, a Spanish hemipterologist, for his contributions to the taxonomy of Iberian Hemiptera. Conosimus baenai differs in appearance from the other species in the Conosimus genus ...

Saudi Arabian researchers have detected genetic fragments of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in the air of a barn holding a camel infected with the virus. The work, published this week in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, indicates that further studies are needed to see if the disease can be transmitted through the air. MERS, a serious viral respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus, has been identified in 699 people as of June 11, according to the World Health Organization; 209 people have died ...

Viruses designed to target and kill cancer cells could boost the effectiveness of chemotherapy to the arms and legs and help avoid amputation, a new study reports. Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, tested the effectiveness of a genetically engineered version of the virus used to vaccinate against smallpox. They found use of the virus alongside isolated limb perfusion chemotherapy – given directly to blood vessels supplying the affected arm or leg as an alternative to amputation – was more effective in rats than either treatment on its own. The ...

Lacrosse is one of the fastest-growing high school sports in the United States, with more than 170,000 students now playing the sometimes hard-hitting game. The growing participation numbers, however, mean that more young people than ever are at risk of injury in lacrosse practice and competition. In a study published online today by The American Journal of Sports Medicine and available in an upcoming print issue, researchers from the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital and the Colorado School of Public Health found that high school ...

The largest genomic dragnet of any psychiatric disorder to date has unmasked 108 chromosomal sites harboring inherited variations in the genetic code linked to schizophrenia, 83 of which had not been previously reported. By contrast, the "skyline" of such suspect variants associated with the disorder contained only 5 significant peaks in 2011. By combining data from all available schizophrenia genetic samples, researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health powered the search for clues to the molecular basis of the disorder to a new level. "While the suspect ...

VIDEO: Largest gene discovery helps 'kick-start' new search for schizophrenia treatments - The discovery of over a hundred genetic risk factors linked to schizophrenia provides vital new clues in understanding what... Click here for more information. The discovery of over a hundred genetic risk factors linked to schizophrenia provides vital new clues in understanding what causes the condition and will kick-start the search for new treatments, according to leading UK scientists. ...

July 21, 2014 (Toronto) – As part of a multinational, collaborative effort, researchers from Canada's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) have helped identify over 100 locations in the human genome associated with the risk of developing schizophrenia, in what is the largest genomic study published on any psychiatric disorder to date. The findings, published online in Nature, point to biological mechanisms and pathways that may underlie schizophrenia, and could lead to new approaches to treating the disorder, which has seen little innovation in drug development ...

BATON ROUGE – LSU's Mark Batzer, Boyd Professor and Dr. Mary Lou Applewhite Distinguished Professor in Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Science, contributed to an article in the scientific journal Nature Genetics, titled "The Common Marmoset Genome Provides Insight into Primate Biology and Evolution," published on July 20. Batzer contributed analysis of "jumping genes," or mobile elements that move by a sort of "copy and paste" mechanism in the genome. The marmoset is important because it is the first "New World" monkey genome to be sequenced. An ...

(Philadelphia, PA) – Patients who have a clot in their legs and are considering whether to be treated with traditional blood-thinning medication or undergo a minimally-invasive catheter-based clot removal procedure should feel comfortable that there is no difference in death rates between the two treatments, although there are more bleeding risks with the catheter procedure, according to a study by Temple University School of Medicine researchers. The study involved a review of more than 90,000 cases nationwide. Riyaz Bashir, MD, a specialist in interventional cardiology ...

It's human nature to hate losing. Unfortunately, it's also human nature to overreact to a loss, potentially abandoning a solid strategy and thus increasing your chances of losing the next time around. That's one conclusion of a Brigham Young University study published this week by the journal Management Science. The finding is based on an analysis of two decades of data on NBA coaching decisions. The researchers focused on whether coaches adjusted their personnel following games where the margin of victory or defeat was small. After narrow wins, coaches changed their ...

Today's food production relies heavily on irrigation, but across sub-Saharan Africa only 4 percent of cultivated land is irrigated, compared with a global average of 18 percent. Small-scale farming is the main livelihood for many people in the region, who depend on rainfall to water their crops. To understand how climate change may affect the availability of water for agriculture, researchers at Princeton University analyzed trends in the water cycle in maize-growing areas of 21 African countries between 1979 and 2010. The team examined both levels of rainfall and the ...

Statistical analysis of average global temperatures between 1998 and 2013 shows that the slowdown in global warming during this period is consistent with natural variations in temperature, according to research by McGill University physics professor Shaun Lovejoy. In a paper published this month in Geophysical Research Letters, Lovejoy concludes that a natural cooling fluctuation during this period largely masked the warming effects of a continued increase in man-made emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The new study applies a statistical methodology ...

Their scruffy beards weren't ironic, but there are reasons mammoths and mastodons could have been the hipsters of the Ice Age. According to research from the University of Cincinnati, the famously fuzzy relatives of elephants liked living in Greater Cincinnati long before it was trendy – at the end of the last ice age. A study led by Brooke Crowley, an assistant professor of geology and anthropology, shows the ancient proboscideans enjoyed the area so much they likely were year-round residents and not nomadic migrants as previously thought. They even had their own ...

WHAT: Scientists have generally believed that HIV and its monkey equivalent, SIV, gain a permanent foothold in the body very early after infection, making it difficult to completely eliminate the virus even after antiretroviral therapy has controlled it. Now NIH-supported researchers report that SIV can become entrenched in tissues fewer than 3 days after infection, before the virus is detectable in blood plasma (the liquid part) or blood cells. Led by Dan H. Barouch, M.D., Ph.D., of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Ragon Institute, in collaboration with ...

Chicago, July 20, 2014—The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research has released the results of a major survey examining the public's opinions about what it means to be a quality health care provider in the United States. The survey, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, sheds new light on how American adults perceive the quality of their health care and doctors, as well as the information they use and trust when making health care decisions. The survey produces new and actionable data during a crucial period of Affordable Care Act (ACA) implementation. ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- When it comes to learning languages, adults and children have different strengths. Adults excel at absorbing the vocabulary needed to navigate a grocery store or order food in a restaurant, but children have an uncanny ability to pick up on subtle nuances of language that often elude adults. Within months of living in a foreign country, a young child may speak a second language like a native speaker. Brain structure plays an important role in this "sensitive period" for learning language, which is believed to end around adolescence. The young brain is ...

Environment Canada has issued a high health risk warning for Yellowknife and surrounding area because of heavy smoke in the region due to forest fires. Currently 160 wildfires are burning across the region. There are no plans for evacuation since these fires are endangering people or property. Weather that has been hitting the area recently comes with mixed results. The rains help to dampen the fires, but the lightning tends to start others. This year the Northern Territories have seen 855,000 hectares (over 2,100,000 acres) burned as opposed to the territories 10 ...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Want to conserve water and save on your utility bill? A paper co-written by an Indiana University researcher and published in the current issue of the journal Environment can help. "The Water Short List: The Most Effective Actions U.S. Households Can Take to Curb Water Use" describes how households can reduce water use substantially by simple actions such as installing more efficient appliances and changing day-to-day habits involving water consumption. While the suggestions may be familiar, the researchers are the first to put a comprehensive, quantitative ...

Graphene, a material that consists of a lattice of carbon atoms, one atom thick, is widely touted as being the most electrically conductive material ever studied. However, not all graphene is the same. With so few atoms comprising the entirety of the material, the arrangement of each one has an impact on its overall function. Now, for the first time, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have used a cutting-edge microscope to study the relationship between the atomic geometry of a ribbon of graphene and its electrical properties. A deeper understanding of ...