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Social Science23 Oct 2014

Children in high-quality early childhood education are buffered from changes in family income

While losses in family income predict increases in behavior problems for many children, attending high-quality early childhood education and care centers offers some protection against families' economic declines, according to a new study out of Norway. In Norway, publicly subsidized high-quality early childhood education and care is available to all children, from low-income to affluent, starting at age 1. The study found that children who don't take part in such programs have more early behavior problems when their families' income drops. The study was conducted by ...

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Medicine23 Oct 2014

'Breath test' shows promise for diagnosing fungal pneumonia

Many different microbes can cause pneumonia, and treatment may be delayed or off target if doctors cannot tell which bug is the culprit. A novel approach—analyzing a patient's breath for key chemical compounds made by the infecting microbe—may help detect invasive aspergillosis, a fungal infection that is a leading cause of mortality in patients with compromised immune systems, according to a proof-of-concept study now online in Clinical Infectious Diseases. Currently difficult to diagnose, this type of fungal pneumonia often requires a lung biopsy for definitive ...

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Medicine23 Oct 2014

New test could identify infants with rare insulin disease

A rare form of a devastating disease which causes low blood sugar levels in babies and infants may now be recognised earlier thanks to a new test developed by researchers from The University of Manchester. Congenital hyperinsulinism starves a baby's brain of blood sugar and can lead to lifelong brain damage or permanent disability according to previous research carried out by the Manchester team. The condition occurs when specialised cells in the pancreas release too much insulin which causes frequent low sugar episodes - the clinical opposite of diabetes. Treatment ...

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Medicine23 Oct 2014

Music therapy reduces depression in children and adolescents

Researchers at Queen's University Belfast have discovered that music therapy reduces depression in children and adolescents with behavioural and emotional problems. In the largest ever study of its kind, the researchers in partnership with the Northern Ireland Music Therapy Trust, found that children who received music therapy had significantly improved self-esteem and significantly reduced depression compared with those who received treatment without music therapy. The study, which was funded by the Big Lottery fund, also found that those who received music therapy had ...

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Science23 Oct 2014

New feather findings get scientists in a flap

Scientists from the University of Southampton have revealed that feather shafts are made of a multi-layered fibrous composite material, much like carbon fibre, which allows the feather to bend and twist to cope with the stresses of flight. Since their appearance over 150 million years ago, feather shafts (rachises) have evolved to be some of the lightest, strongest and most fatigue resistant natural structures. However, relatively little work has been done on their morphology, especially from a mechanical perspective and never at the nanoscale. The study, which is ...

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Medicine23 Oct 2014

100 days in Michigan: U-M team releases new analysis of state's Medicaid expansion

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Right out of the starting gate, Michigan's expansion of health coverage for the poor and near-poor holds lessons for other states that are still on the fence about expanding their own Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act, a new analysis shows. In an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, a team of University of Michigan Medical School researchers publish the first analysis of the initial results from the Healthy Michigan Plan, which launched this past April. In its first 100 days, the authors write, the plan enrolled 327,912 ...

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Science22 Oct 2014

Trans fats still weighing Americans down

Good news, bad news: The amount of trans fats we eat has declined over the last 30 years, but we're still consuming more than recommended. In a study reported in the Journal of the American Heart Association, researchers reviewed results from a series of six surveys as part of the Minnesota Heart Survey in 1980-2009. More than 12,000 adults 25-74 years old in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area revealed that: Trans fat intake dropped by about one-third in men (32 percent) and women (35 percent). Average intake of the omega-3 fatty acids (DHA and EPA) was steady, but ...

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Medicine22 Oct 2014

Can bariatric surgery lead to severe headache?

MINNEAPOLIS – Bariatric surgery may be a risk factor for a condition that causes severe headaches, according to a study published in the October 22, 2014, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. In the study, gastric bypass surgery and gastric banding surgery were associated with later developing a condition called spontaneous intracranial hypotension in a small percentage of people. Spontaneous intracranial hypotension is often caused by a leak of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) out of the spinal canal. The leak ...

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Medicine22 Oct 2014

Study examines readmission after colorectal cancer surgery as quality measure

No significant variation was found in hospital readmission rates after colorectal cancer surgery when the data was adjusted to account for patient characteristics, coexisting illnesses and operation types, which may prompt questions about the use of readmission rates as a measure of hospital quality. Hospital readmission after surgery can be common and it results in an increased cost of care. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has focused on reducing unplanned hospital readmissions and hospitals are penalized in reimbursement if there are excess readmissions ...

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Science22 Oct 2014

Online dermatologic follow-up for atopic dermatitis earns equivalent results

An online model for follow-up care of atopic dermatitis (eczema) that gave patients direct access to dermatologists resulted in equivalent clinical improvement compared to patients who received traditional in-person care writes author April W. Armstrong, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of Colorado, Denver, and colleagues. There are not enough dermatologists in the United States to meet the demand for services. Teledermatology is a chance to improve access to care. The authors conducted a one-year randomized controlled equivalency trial that included adults and children ...

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Medicine22 Oct 2014

Exposure therapy appears helpful in treating patients with prolonged grief

Cognitive behavioral therapy with exposure therapy (CBT/exposure), where patients relive the experience of a death of a loved one, resulted in greater reductions in measures of prolonged grief disorder (PGD) than CBT alone. PGD involves persistent yearning for the deceased and the associated emotional pain, difficulty in accepting the death, a sense of meaninglessness, bitterness about the death and difficulty in engaging in new activities. To diagnose PGD, the symptoms need to last at least six months. PGD is distinct from depression because of a person's preoccupation ...

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Physics22 Oct 2014

NIST offers electronics industry 2 ways to snoop on self-organizing molecules

A few short years ago, the idea of a practical manufacturing process based on getting molecules to organize themselves in useful nanoscale shapes seemed ... well, cool, sure, but also a little fantastic. Now the day isn't far off when your cell phone may depend on it. Two recent papers emphasize the point by demonstrating complementary approaches to fine-tuning the key step: depositing thin films of a uniquely designed polymer on a template so that it self-assembles into neat, precise, even rows of alternating composition just 10 or so nanometers wide. The work by researchers ...

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Science22 Oct 2014

Organic molecules in Titan's atmosphere are intriguingly skewed

While studying the atmosphere on Saturn's moon Titan, scientists discovered intriguing zones of organic molecules unexpectedly shifted away from its north and south poles. These misaligned features seem to defy conventional thinking about Titan's windy atmosphere, which should quickly smear out such off-axis concentrations. "This is an unexpected and potentially groundbreaking discovery," said Martin Cordiner, an astrochemist working at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and the lead author of a study published online today in the Astrophysical ...

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Science22 Oct 2014

If you're over 60, drink up: Alcohol associated with better memory

Researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, University of Kentucky, and University of Maryland found that for people 60 and older who do not have dementia, light alcohol consumption during late life is associated with higher episodic memory — the ability to recall memories of events. Moderate alcohol consumption was also linked with a larger volume in the hippocampus, a brain region critical for episodic memory. The relationship between light alcohol consumption and episodic memory goes away if hippocampal volume is factored in, providing ...

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Environment22 Oct 2014

Third substantial solar flare in 2 days

The sun erupted with another significant flare today, peaking at 10:28 a.m. EDT on Oct. 22, 2014. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured images of the event, which occurred in the lower half of the sun. This flare is classified as an X1.6 class flare. X-class flares denote the most extreme flares. This is the third substantial flare from the same region of the sun since Oct. 19. INFORMATION: To see how this event may affect Earth, please visit NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center at http://spaceweather.gov, the U.S. government's official source for space weather ...

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Engineering22 Oct 2014

Seaweed engineers build crustacean homes; old forests store new nitrogen

Invasive seaweed shelters native crustacean On the tidal mudflats of Georgia and South Carolina, the red Japanese seaweed Gracilaria vermiculophylla is gaining a foothold where no native seaweeds live. Only debris and straggles of dead marsh grass used to break the expanse of mud at low tide. Crabs, shrimp, and small crustaceans mob the seaweed in abundance. What makes it so popular? Not its food value. On mudflats near Savannah, Ga., Wright and colleagues found that the tiny native crustacean Gammarus mucronatus (one of the 9,500 species of amphipod, which includes sand ...

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Space22 Oct 2014

NASA-led study sees Titan glowing at dusk and dawn

New maps of Saturn's moon Titan reveal large patches of trace gases shining brightly near the north and south poles. These regions are curiously shifted off the poles, to the east or west, so that dawn is breaking over the southern region while dusk is falling over the northern one. The pair of patches was spotted by a NASA-led international team of researchers investigating the chemical make-up of Titan's atmosphere. "This is an unexpected and potentially groundbreaking discovery," said Martin Cordiner, an astrochemist working at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center ...

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Medicine22 Oct 2014

UTMB researchers uncover powerful new class of weapons in the war on cancer

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch, and Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University have identified small molecules that can represent a new class of anticancer drugs with a novel target for the treatment of lung cancer. These findings are detailed in Nature Communications. A PCT patent (WO 2013028543 A1) was jointly documented by these two Institutes for the invention. Survival outcomes remain poor for lung cancer patients in large part because of lung cancer's resistance to conventional therapies. Programmed cell death, ...

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Space22 Oct 2014

NASA-NOAA Suomi NPP Satellite team ward off recent space debris threat

While space debris was the uncontrolled adversary in the award-winning space thriller film "Gravity," space debris, also known as "space junk," is an ongoing real-life concern for teams managing satellites orbiting Earth, including NOAA-NASA's Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership, or Suomi NPP, satellite. It is not unusual for satellites that have the capability of maneuvering to be repositioned to avoid debris or to maintain the proper orbit. On an otherwise quiet Sunday on September 28, the Suomi NPP mission team was monitoring a possible close approach of a debris ...

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Medicine22 Oct 2014

Cancer patients should not hesitate to speak with their doctors about dietary supplements

Many cancer patients use dietary supplements such as vitamins, minerals and herbs or other botanicals but often don't tell their doctor. This gap in communication can happen when patients believe that their doctors are indifferent or negative toward their use of these supplements. As a result, patients may find information about dietary supplements from unreliable sources, exposing themselves to unneeded risks. Since information on these dietary supplements is limited, researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch describe a practical patient-centered approach ...

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Science22 Oct 2014

No silver bullet: ISU study identifies risk factors of youth charged with murder

AMES, Iowa – News of a school shooting or a homicide involving a teenage suspect always leads to the question of why? It is human nature to want an explanation or someone to blame, and policymakers try to pinpoint a cause in an effort to prevent it from happening again. But too often, the speculation or rush to judgment clouds reality, said Matt DeLisi, a professor of sociology and criminal justice at Iowa State University. "Anytime you have violence, such as a school shooting, people gravitate to single-item explanations that cite mental illness, guns, bullying ...

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Science22 Oct 2014

Bipolar disorder discovery at the nano level

CHICAGO --- A nano-sized discovery by Northwestern Medicine® scientists helps explain how bipolar disorder affects the brain and could one day lead to new drug therapies to treat the mental illness. Scientists used a new super-resolution imaging method -- the same method recognized with the 2014 Nobel Prize in chemistry -- to peer deep into brain tissue from mice with bipolar-like behaviors. In the synapses (where communication between brain cells occurs), they discovered tiny "nanodomain" structures with concentrated levels of ANK3 -- the gene most strongly associated ...

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Environment22 Oct 2014

NASA's TRMM Satellite calculates Hurricanes Fay and Gonzalo rainfall

VIDEO: This rainfall analysis showed that Gonzalo generated several areas over the Atlantic Ocean where rainfall totals topped 12 inches (red). Fay's maximum rainfall appeared between 4 and 8 inches (green).... Click here for more information. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite can estimate rainfall rates from its orbit in space and that data is used to create a rainfall analysis and calculate total rainfall for weather events in the tropics. NASA used ...

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Space22 Oct 2014

NASA's Terra Satellite sees wind shear affecting Tropical Storm Ana

Tropical Storm Ana was being battered by wind shear when NASA's Terra satellite passed overhead and saw the bulk of showers and thunderstorms pushed north and east of the center. NASA's Terra satellite flew over Tropical Storm Ana as it was moving past Hawaii on Oct. 21 at 21:30 UTC (5:30 p.m. EDT) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument took a visible picture of the storm. The MODIS image showed that the strong southwesterly wind shear that was affecting the storm on Oct. 20 continued through Oct. 21 as the bulk of clouds and showers ...

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Science22 Oct 2014

New ALS associated gene identified using innovative strategy

WORCESTER, MA –Using an innovative exome sequencing strategy, a team of international scientists led by John Landers, PhD, at the University of Massachusetts Medical School has shown that TUBA4A, the gene encoding the Tubulin Alpha 4A protein, is associated with familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a fatal neurological disorder also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. Details of the study were published today in Neuron. Exome sequencing, in contrast to whole genome sequencing, relies on sequencing only the protein-coding genes in a genome and has been an effective ...

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