DARIEN, IL – A new study of older men found a link between poor sleep quality and the development of cognitive decline over three to four years. Results show that higher levels of fragmented sleep and lower sleep efficiency were associated with a 40 to 50 percent increase in the odds of clinically significant decline in executive function, which was similar in magnitude to the effect of a five-year increase in age. In contrast, sleep duration was not related to subsequent cognitive decline. "It was the quality of sleep that predicted future cognitive decline in this ...

PHILADELPHIA (March 31, 2014) – Keeping young people in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention programs is a major goal in reducing the incidence of HIV, and multi-session interventions are often more effective than single-sessions. But according to a new study from the Annenberg School for Communication, the way these programs are designed and implemented may turn off the very people they are trying to help. The study, "Motivational barriers to retention of at-risk young adults in HIV-prevention interventions: perceived pressure and efficacy," is published in ...

One state's citizens are collectively more agreeable and another's are more conscientious. Could that influence how each state is governed? A recently published study suggests it could. Jeffery Mondak and Damarys Canache, political science professors at the University of Illinois, analyzed personality data from more than 600,000 Americans, identified by state, who had responded to an online survey for another research study. They then matched that data with state-level measures of political culture, as identified by other, unrelated research. The results were striking. ...

Increasing heat is expected to extend dry conditions to far more farmland and cities by the end of the century than changes in rainfall alone, says a new study. Much of the concern about future drought under global warming has focused on rainfall projections, but higher evaporation rates may also play an important role as warmer temperatures wring more moisture from the soil, even in some places where rainfall is forecasted to increase, say the researchers. The study is one of the first to use the latest climate simulations to model the effects of both changing rainfall ...

The presence of African-American police officers has been shown to increase the perceived legitimacy of police departments; however, their depiction in film may play a role in delegitimizing African-American officers in real life, both in the eyes of the general public and the African-American community. In their recently released study, Sam Houston State University associate professor of criminal justice Howard Henderson and Indiana State University assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice Franklin T. Wilson found that African-American city police officers ...

Tropical Cyclone Hellen made landfall in west central Madagascar as NASA's Aqua satellite passed overhead capturing temperature data on its towering thunderstorms. When NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Madagascar on March 31 at 10:47 UTC/6:47 a.m. EDT and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument aboard captured infrared data on Hellen. AIRS data showed powerful thunderstorms circling the center of circulation with cloud top temperatures in excess of -63F/-52C indicating they were high into the troposphere. Thunderstorms reaching those heights also have the ...

Consuming foods grown in urban gardens may offer a variety of health benefits, but a lack of knowledge about the soil used for planting, could pose a health threat for both consumers and gardeners. In a new study from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF), researchers identified a range of factors and challenges related to the perceived risk of soil contamination among urban community gardeners and found a need for clear and concise information on how best to prevent and manage soil contamination. The results are featured online in PLOS ONE . "While the ...

DNA is the molecule that encodes the genetic instructions enabling a cell to produce the thousands of proteins it typically needs. The linear sequence of the A, T, C, and G bases in what is called coding DNA determines the particular protein that a short segment of DNA, known as a gene, will encode. But in many organisms, there is much more DNA in a cell than is needed to code for all the necessary proteins. This non-coding DNA was often referred to as "junk" DNA because it seemed unnecessary. But in retrospect, we did not yet understand the function of these seemingly ...

What makes cities in India and China so frustrating to drive in—heavy traffic, aggressive driving style, few freeways—makes them ideal for saving fuel with hybrid vehicles, according to new research by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). In a pair of studies using real-world driving conditions, they found that hybrid cars are significantly more fuel-efficient in India and China than they are in the United States. These findings could have an important impact in countries that are on the brink of experiencing ...

In the summer of 2009, Stanford Professor Chris Field embarked on a task of urgent global importance. Field had been tapped to assemble hundreds of climate scientists to dig through 12,000 scientific papers concerning the current impacts of climate change and its causes. The team, Working Group II, would ultimately produce a 2,000-page report as part of a massive, three-part U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report, which details a consensus view on the current state and fate of the world's climate. The job would take nearly five ...

Researchers at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering have improved the performance and capacity of lithium batteries by developing better-performing, cheaper materials for use in anodes and cathodes (negative and positive electrodes, respectively). Lithium-ion batteries are a popular type of rechargeable battery commonly found in portable electronics and electric or hybrid cars. Traditionally, lithium-ion batteries contain a graphite anode, but silicon has recently emerged as a promising anode substitute because it is the second most abundant element on earth and has ...

Baltimore, MD, 31 March 2014. – A new report reveals a potential breakthrough in the treatment of a common eye ailment known as pterygium (Surfer's eye) that impacts the vision, eye health, and cosmetic appearance of countless sufferers. The newly published report shows that eye drops containing the anti-anginal drug dipyridamole (Persantin®, Cardoxin®) led to almost total disappearance of an inflamed pterygium in a 35 year old otherwise healthy woman. Dipyridamole is a drug in use over the past 55 years to treat other disorders, but now found to have this remarkable ...

A new Rutgers study is giving hope to older men concerned about the effects of cholesterol-lowering medications on their sexual health. The research, conducted at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, found that statin medication prescribed to lower cholesterol and decrease the chance of heart attack and stroke, also improves a man's erectile function. The researchers reported their findings at the American College of Cardiology's annual scientific session in Washington DC March 29 and in the April issue of The Journal of Sexual Medicine. "Older men who have poor ...

Heart valve defects are a common cause of death in newborns. Scientists at the University of Bonn and the caesar research center have discovered "Creld1" is a key gene for the development of heart valves in mice. The researchers were able to show that a similar Creld1 gene found in humans functions via the same signaling pathway as in the mouse. This discovery is an important step forward in the molecular understanding of the pathogenesis of heart valve defects. The findings have been published in the journal "Developmental Cell". Atrioventricular septal defect (AVSD) ...

Data from satellite sensors show that during the Northern Hemisphere's growing season, the Midwest region of the United States boasts more photosynthetic activity than any other spot on Earth, according to NASA and university scientists. Healthy plants convert light to energy via photosynthesis, but chlorophyll also emits a fraction of absorbed light as fluorescent glow that is invisible to the naked eye. The magnitude of the glow is an excellent indicator of the amount of photosynthesis, or gross productivity, of plants in a given region. Research in 2013 led by Joanna ...

TORONTO, ON, March 31, 2014 -- Improving hand hygiene compliance by healthcare professionals is no easy task, but a first-of-its-kind Canadian study by researchers at Women's College Hospital shows simply asking patients to audit their healthcare professional is yielding high marks. The study, published in the April edition of the American Journal of Infection Control, details the findings of an 11-month pilot project looking at an alternative method of hand hygiene auditing using the patient-as-observer approach. In this method, patients observe and record hand hygiene ...

Researchers at Western University (London, Canada) have found youth living in rural areas are more likely to sustain concussions from injuries involving motorized vehicles such as all-terrain vehicles and dirt bikes, whereas youth living in urban areas suffer concussions mostly as a result of sports. Hockey accounts for 40 per cent of those injuries. The study which reveals where and how children are receiving concussions is published in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery. Dr. Doug Fraser, a scientist with the Children's Health Research Institute at Lawson ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Researchers at Oregon State University have discovered novel proteins in, or on the surface of the bacteria that causes gonorrhea, which offer a promising new avenue of attack against a venereal disease that is showing increased resistance to the antibiotics used to treat it. Only a single, third-generation cephalosporin antibiotic still shows good efficacy against gonorrhea, creating a race against time to find some alternative way to treat this disease that can have serious health effects. It's the second most commonly reported infectious disease in ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Do you want information on Viagra or ibuprofen? Check out general social networks such as Twitter and Pinterest. Interested in sleep disorders or depression? You're better off going to specialized health social networks such as WebMD or drugs.com. That is one of the findings of a just published paper, "Pharmaceutical Drugs Chatter on Online Social Networks," based on an analysis of more than 1 million drug-related posts, by a team of researchers at the University of California, Riverside's Bourns College of Engineering and Zhejiang University in China. The ...

WASHINGTON (March 31, 2014) — A new stent covered with biodegradable coating continues to show statistical equivalence to Japan's market leader in cumulative second-year data and subgroup analyses, according to research from the NEXT trial presented at the American College of Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session. NEXT is the largest head-to-head randomized study of these two stents – the novel biolimus-releasing model with the degradable coating (BES) and the everolimus-releasing standard with a durable polymer (EES). Polymer coatings contain the drugs in drug-eluting ...

Scientists from the University of Granada have taken part, alongside the Esteve laboratory, in the development of a new drug that multiplies the analgesic effect of opioids (drugs for treating intense pain), without increasing constipation, one of the most common side-effects of these drugs, among which is morphine. This important scientific breakthrough has been published in The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, and has been chosen as its outstanding article in the month of January. So far, the University of Granada researchers have published the ...

A breakthrough in drug testing developed by a University of Huddersfield lecturer could lead to cheaper, more effective medicines. Dr Hamid Merchant is a member of the team that has created a device which accurately simulates the gastro-intestinal tract and how it absorbs medication. This means that the cost of clinical trials could be greatly reduced, with savings passed on to customers. Dr Merchant has joined the University as a Senior Lecturer in Pharmaceutics. Previously a postdoctoral fellow at University College London (UCL), he has extensive research experience, ...

While patients diagnosed with bladder cancer usually face a favorable prognosis, many experience recurrence after treatment. Because frequent, painful screenings are needed to identify recurrences, the ablility to identify patients at high risk of recurrent cancer could help to improve quality of life for all bladder cancer patients. A new study published in BJU International, "Genetic polymorphisms modify bladder cancer recurrence and survival in a U.S. population-based prognostic study," suggests that certain inherited DNA sequences may affect a bladder cancer patient's ...

WASHINGTON (March 31, 2014) — In a comparison of two blood-thinning medications, heparin was associated with significantly fewer major cardiovascular events at 28 days than bivalirudin in patients receiving primary percutaneous coronary intervention after a heart attack, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session. The single-center, open label trial enrolled 1,829 patients with suspected heart attack who received a coronary angiography, an imaging test to see how blood flows through the heart. Patients were randomized ...

Anti-anxiety drugs and sleeping pills have been linked to an increased risk of death, according to new research from the University of Warwick. The large study, published in BMJ, shows that several anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) drugs or hypnotic drugs (sleeping pills) are associated with a doubling in the risk of mortality. Although these findings are based on routine data and need to be interpreted cautiously, the researchers recommended that a greater understanding of their impact is essential. Professor Scott Weich, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of ...