AUDIO: By making clean drinking water easily accessible to the over 30 million children participating in the National School Lunch Program, schools are taking the first steps towards decreasing the amount... Click here for more information. Philadelphia, PA, April 9, 2014 – A new USDA mandate calling for access to free drinking water during lunchtime at schools participating in the National School Lunch Program went into effect at the start of the 2011-12 school year. Researchers ...

The expansion of health insurance accomplished under the Affordable Care Act may alter costs for several major types of liability insurance, although any such changes are likely to be modest, according to a new RAND Corporation report. Automobile, workers' compensation and general business liability insurance costs may fall under the Affordable Care Act, while costs for medical malpractice coverage could be higher, according to the study. Researchers say the changes could be as much as 5 percent of costs in some states, but caution there is considerable uncertainty ...

One of the world's most contentious food issues - Genetically Modified (GM) crops – will be debated by some of the world's leading authorities on the subject at Queen's University Belfast today (Wednesday day 9 April). A panel of international food experts will argue the pros and cons or GM crops at a special debate as part of the Food Integrity and Traceability Conference (ASSET 2014). The conference, which highlights current and emerging threats to the integrity of the food chain, is being attended by over 350 scientists, regulators and agri-food producers from over ...

Northern sea otters living off the coast of Washington state were infected with the same H1N1 flu virus that caused the world-wide pandemic in 2009, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study. During an August 2011 health monitoring project, USGS and CDC scientists found evidence that the Washington sea otters were infected with the pandemic 2009 H1N1 virus, although the exact date and source of exposure could not be determined. The findings suggest that human flu can infect sea otters. "Our study shows that sea otters ...

VIDEO: It's not often that we get a chance to see our planet's shadow, but a lunar eclipse gives us a fleeting glimpse. During these rare events, the full Moon rapidly... Click here for more information. When people in North America look up at the sky in the early morning hours of April 15, they can expect the moon to look a little different. A total lunar eclipse is expected at this time, a phenomenon that occurs when the Earth, moon and sun are in perfect alignment, blanketing ...

Comprehensive genomic analysis of low-grade brain tumors sorts them into three categories, one of which has the molecular hallmarks and shortened survival of glioblastoma multiforme, the most lethal of brain tumors, researchers reported at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2014. "The immediate clinical implication is that a group of patients with tumors previously categorized as lower grade should actually be treated as glioblastoma patients and receive that standard of care -- temozolomide chemotherapy and irradiation," said lead author Roel ...

(Lebanon, 04/08/2014)— Binge drinking by teenagers and young adults is strongly associated with liking, owning, and correctly identifying music that references alcohol by brand name according to a study by the University of Pittsburgh and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center. These findings, based on a national randomized survey of more than 2,500 people ages 15 to 23, suggests that policy and educational interventions designed to limit the influence of alcohol brand references in popular music could be important in reducing alcohol consumption in teens and ...

Recently, dark matter hunters from around the world gathered at the University of California, Los Angeles for "Dark Matter 2014." The annual conference is one of the largest of its kind aimed at discussing the latest progress in the quest to identify dark matter, the unknown stuff that makes up more than a quarter of the universe yet remains a mystery. So where does the hunt stand? Between sessions, three leading physicists at the conference spent an hour discussing the search for dark matter on several fronts. "This conference has highlighted the progression of larger ...

LEBANON, NH – To address the burgeoning demands of Alzheimer's disease that will affect generations, new policies will have to be adopted to acknowledge the complex and unique needs of people with dementia. The aging of the U.S. population has turned the prism to focus on the increasing number of families facing the challenge of providing care for people with dementia, said Julie P.W. Bynum, associate professor at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice. Writing in the April issue of Health Affairs, she says the "long reach" of Alzheimer's will ...

Research in mice and human cell lines has identified an experimental compound dubbed TTT-3002 as potentially one of the most potent drugs available to block genetic mutations in cancer cells blamed for some forms of treatment-resistant leukemia. Results of the research by Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center investigators, described March 6 in the journal Blood, show that two doses a day of TTT-3002 eliminated leukemia cells in a group of mice within 10 days. The treatment performed as well as or better than similar drugs in head-to-head comparisons. More than 35 percent ...

Toronto – Even six-year-olds know who you sit beside matters, whether you're in first grade or at a high-powered dinner. But now a new study, using the U.S. Senate Chamber as its laboratory, provides documented evidence of that phenomenon. It shows that where a person is located influences who they interact with and who they will turn to in order to build support for their own agenda. For the powerful however, seating arrangements don't make much of a difference. That's because the people they need support from usually come to them. The study's researchers chose ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Researchers from Brown University and universities in China have found a simple technique that can strengthen steel without sacrificing ductility. The new technique, described in Nature Communications, could produce steel that performs better in a number of structural applications. Strength and ductility are both crucial material properties, especially in materials used in structural applications. Strength is a measure of how much force is required to cause a material to bend or deform. Ductility is a measure of how much a material ...

Tropical Cyclone Ita's maximum sustained winds have increased over the last day and NASA's Aqua satellite provided forecasters at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center with a visible look at the storm on April 8. NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Ita at 3:30 UTC/11:30 p.m. EDT on April 7, and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer provided a visible image of Tropical Cyclone Ita. The MODIS image showed a large area of strong thunderstorms south and northeast of the center of circulation. At the same time, the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument aboard ...

VIDEO: Scientists at the Salk Institute have uncovered details into a surprising -- and crucial -- link between brain development and BCRA1, a gene whose mutation is tied to breast and ovarian cancer. Click here for more information. LA JOLLA—Scientists at the Salk Institute have uncovered details into a surprising—and crucial—link between brain development and a gene whose mutation is tied to breast and ovarian cancer. Aside from better understanding neurological damage associated ...

MAYWOOD, Ill. – People who are injured while binge drinking are much slower to heal from wounds suffered in car accidents, shootings, fires, etc. Now a new study is providing insights into why alcohol has such a negative effect on wound healing. Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine researchers report that binge alcohol exposure significantly reduced levels of key components of the immune system involved in healing. The study by senior author Katherine A. Radek, PhD, and colleagues from Loyola's Alcohol Research Program and the Infectious Disease and ...

Washington, D.C.—Global health funding hit an all-time high of $31.3 billion in 2013, five times greater than in 1990. Yet with 3.9% growth from 2012 to 2013, the year-over-year increase falls short of the rapid rates seen over the previous decade, according to new research by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington being published online in a web first edition on April 8 by Health Affairs. As funding from many bilateral donors and development banks has declined, growth in funding from the GAVI Alliance, the Global Fund ...

April 8, 2014 CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Researchers at UNC School of Medicine have pinpointed a viral protein that plays a major role in making respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) the most common cause of hospitalization in children under one year of age. The discovery, published April 8 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, is the first step toward identifying better diagnostics and potential treatments for an infection that strikes nearly all children before they reach the age of three and causing severe disease in 3 percent of infected children. RSV infection leads to ...

PHILADELPHIA (April 8, 2014) – The cartoon character Homer J. Simpson once said "Alcohol: The source of, and solution to, all of life's problems." The sage of the ubiquitous and fictional town of Springfield may have hit the nail on the head when it comes to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) counseling and prevention. The more you drink and/or the more sex partners you have, the less likely you are to engage in HIV-prevention programs. This rather grim assessment came about from the study, "Barriers to accessing HIV-prevention ...

Humans are unique in their ability to acquire language. But how? A new study published in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences shows that we are in fact born with the basic fundamental knowledge of language, thus shedding light on the age-old linguistic "nature vs. nurture" debate. THE STUDY While languages differ from each other in many ways, certain aspects appear to be shared across languages. These aspects might stem from linguistic principles that are active in all human brains. A natural question then arises: are infants born with knowledge of how ...

Most drivers have experienced a traffic signal that turns yellow just as they approach an intersection, which makes it difficult for them to decide whether to stop or proceed through it. The wrong choice in this situation, known as the "dilemma zone," may lead to crashes, especially at high-speed intersections. A major factor making driving difficult is hazards that are sudden and hard to predict. Roadside and in-vehicle display warning systems may help drivers handle these hazards by predicting their occurrence and providing advanced warning to the driver, according ...

In a groundbreaking York University study, researchers have found that abnormal levels of lipid molecules in the brain can affect the interaction between two key neural pathways in early prenatal brain development, which can trigger autism. And, environmental causes such as exposure to chemicals in some cosmetics and common over-the-counter medication can affect the levels of these lipids, according to the researchers. "We have found that the abnormal level of a lipid molecule called Prostaglandin E2 in the brain can affect the function of Wnt proteins. It is important ...

VIDEO: Kinesin-5 plays a crucial role in cell division by allow microfilaments to slide past each other. The kinesin-5 structure shows a central rod connecting two motor units that walk along... Click here for more information. The structure of a key part of the machinery that allows cells to divide has been identified by researchers at the University of California, Davis -- opening new possibilities for throwing a wrench in the machine and blocking runaway cell division in cancer. "The ...

Work at the University of Colorado Cancer Center led to phase II trial of efatutazone with erlotinib in patients with refractory non-small cell lung cancer. Results are reported today at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2014. While efatutazone did not improve the efficacy of erlotinib in this trial, researchers hope lessons from the trial will allow them to make better future use of the drug or other drugs in its class. "In oncology and especially in lung cancer, everything is personalized. We're exploring different molecular markers ...

Glucosamine has been freely available in drugstores for many decades. It is widely used to treat arthritis and to prevent joint degeneration. Moreover, glucosamine is known to delay cancer growth. In addition, glucosamine reduces metabolism of nutritive sugars, as was already shown some 50 years ago. In 2007, Michael Ristow showed that too much nutritive sugar shortens the lifespan of roundworms, a widely studied model organism in ageing research. Conversely, impairing carbohydrate metabolism in these worms was capable of extending lifespan [reference 1]. Unfortunately, ...

WASHINGTON D.C., April 8, 2014 -- If a research team in Japan gets its wish, "normally off" computers may one day soon be replacing present computers in a move that would both eliminate volatile memory, which requires power to maintain stored data, and reduce the gigantic energy losses associated with it. Most parts of present computers are made with volatile devices such as transistors and dynamic random access memory (DRAM), which loses information when powered off. So computers are designed on the premise that power is "normally on." Back in 2000, the concept of ...