VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA – Conventional wisdom holds that when the risk of catching a disease is high, people are more likely to get vaccinated to protect themselves. This may not be the case, however, according to a study to be presented Monday, May 5, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Researchers, led by Elizabeth R. Wolf, MD, FAAP, compared rates of infant vaccination with the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine (DTaP) before and during an epidemic of pertussis (whooping cough) in Washington ...

TORONTO, May 5, 2014—Less than one per cent of healthy urban children surveyed in Toronto had received dental care by the recommended age of 12 months and less than two per cent had seen a dentist by the age of 24 months. Children most susceptible to cavities were least likely to receive early dental care, according to the study by Dr. Jonathon Maguire, a pediatrician and researcher at St. Michael's Hospital. Of the 2,505 children around 4 years of age who were surveyed from 2011-13, 39 per cent had never been to a dentist. The children were part of TARGet Kids! (The ...

Farmers are used to optimizing crop production on their own lands. They do soil tests to choose the right amount of fertilizers to apply, and they sometimes plant row crops on some fields while keeping others in pasture. But is it possible to optimize production across a much bigger area—say, the whole East Coast of the United States? That's the question a team of USDA-ARS scientists in Beltsville, MD, has begun to tackle by developing a sophisticated new modeling tool. Known as the Geospatial Agricultural Management and Crop Assessment Framework (GAMCAF), the tool ...

A new study exposes the risk of nutritional deficiencies in severely obese teens – both those who had weight loss surgery and those who did not. At least five years after undergoing gastric bypass surgery, teens and young adults maintained significant weight loss but were at risk of nutritional deficiencies, particularly low iron, mild anemia and low vitamin D. The study also found low iron and low vitamin D in severely obese teens who did not undergo weight loss surgery. Those who didn't have surgery also had low levels of protein in their blood. The Cincinnati Children's ...

Chicago, IL (May 4, 2014) — Despite being of a healthier weight, lean patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) have a higher overall mortality rate than patients with NAFLD who are overweight or obese, according to new research presented today at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW). In addition to finding higher mortality rates, an international team of researchers found that lean patients [a body mass index (BMI) less than 25] with NAFLD were more likely to be male, non-Caucasian and to have lower rates of chronic conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension. ...

ASU scientists, together with collaborators from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai, have published today, in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, a first of its kind atomic level look at the enzyme telomerase that may unlock the secrets to the fountain of youth. Telomeres and the enzyme telomerase have been in the medical news a lot recently due to their connection with aging and cancer. Telomeres are found at the ends of our chromosomes and are stretches of DNA which protect our genetic data, make it possible for cells to divide, and hold some secrets as ...

HOUSTON – (May 4, 2014) – Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have identified a new approach to treating brittle bone disease, a congenital disorder that results in fragile bones that break easily. The study, published in the current issue of the journal Nature Medicine, showed that excessive activity of an important signaling protein in the matrix of the bone called transforming growth factor beta is associated with the cause of the disease. "There are many genetic causes of brittle bone disease in children and adults," said Dr. Brendan Lee, professor of molecular ...

Temperature measurements in our daily life are typically performed by bringing a thermometer in contact with the object to be measured. However, measuring the temperature of nanoscale objects is a much more tricky task due to their size - up to a thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair. Pioneering research, published in Nature Nanotechnology, has now developed a method to accurately measure the surface temperature of nanoscale objects when they have a different temperature than their environment. A team led by Dr Janet Anders at the University of Exeter ...

VIDEO: Using friction experiments University of Liverpool scientists have shown that frictional melting plays a role in determining how a volcano will erupt. Click here for more information. A new discovery in the study of how lava dome volcanoes erupt may help in the development of methods to predict how a volcanic eruption will behave, say scientists at the University of Liverpool. Volcanologists at the University have discovered that a process called frictional melting plays ...

Cambridge, MA, May 4 - Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers have shown that a protein they previously demonstrated can make the failing hearts in aging mice appear more like those of young health mice, similarly improves brain and skeletal muscle function in aging mice. In two separate papers given early online release today by the journal Science – which is publishing the papers this coming Friday, Professors Amy Wagers and Lee Rubin, of Harvard's Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology (HSCRB), report that injections of a protein known as GDF11, which ...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — New research by a team of Florida State University scientists shows the first detailed look at global land surface warming trends over the last 100 years, illustrating precisely when and where different areas of the world started to warm up or cool down. The research indicates that the world is indeed getting warmer, but historical records show that it hasn't happened everywhere at the same rate. And that new information even took scientists by surprise. "Global warming was not as understood as we thought," said Zhaohua Wu, an assistant professor ...

Skilled motor movements of the sort tennis players employ while serving a tennis ball or pianists use in playing a concerto, require precise interactions between the motor cortex and the rest of the brain. Neuroscientists had long assumed that the motor cortex functioned something like a piano keyboard. "Every time you wanted to hear a specific note, there was a specific key to press," says Andrew Peters, a neurobiologist at UC San Diego's Center for Neural Circuits and Behavior. "In other words, every specific movement of a muscle required the activation of specific ...

Northwestern University researchers are the first to develop a new solar cell with good efficiency that uses tin instead of lead perovskite as the harvester of light. The low-cost, environmentally friendly solar cell can be made easily using "bench" chemistry -- no fancy equipment or hazardous materials. "This is a breakthrough in taking the lead out of a very promising type of solar cell, called a perovskite," said Mercouri G. Kanatzidis, an inorganic chemist with expertise in dealing with tin. "Tin is a very viable material, and we have shown the material does work ...

Chicago, IL (May 4, 2014) — The current standard of care for managing patients who receive endoscopic treatment for bleeding ulcers should be replaced by an equally safe and less costly alternative that is more comfortable for patients, according to new research presented today at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW). Researchers at the Yale University School of Medicine compared the current recommended care plan — delivering an initial dose of proton pump inhibitor (PPI) followed by continuous PPI infusion — to a regimen using only intermittent PPI therapy, which was found to ...

Chicago, IL (May 4, 2014) — Bariatric surgery, which is best known for its ability to help patients lose substantial weight, can also result in significant improvement in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), according to new research presented today at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW). Researchers at the University of South Florida-Tampa found that bariatric surgery resolved liver inflammation and reversed early-stage liver fibrosis, the thickening and scarring of liver tissue, by reducing fat deposits in the liver. "About 30 percent of the U.S. population suffers ...

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA – Pediatric leaders and researchers will tackle the complex subject of gun violence and critical gaps in research during a symposium on Saturday, May 4, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia. The symposium, "Firearm Injury Prevention in Children: Setting the Research Agenda" will focus attention among child health researchers about the public health and social consequences of firearm injury in children, and to identify gaps in knowledge to inform a research agenda -- and ultimately prevention ...

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA – Children diagnosed with vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) following a urinary tract infection (UTI) are at risk for kidney scarring with subsequent UTIs. New research shows that children receiving antimicrobials over a two-year period to prevent infections (antimicrobial prophylaxis) had a substantially reduced risk of UTI recurrences compared with children receiving a placebo. The study will be presented Sunday, May 4, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The study also is published ...

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA – Pediatricians and dietitians who used motivational interviewing techniques to counsel families about their young child's weight were successful in reducing children's body mass index (BMI) percentile 3.1 more points than comparison children over a 2-year period, according to a study to be presented Sunday, May 4, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia. Motivational interviewing is a patient-centered communication style that uses techniques such as reflective listening and shared decision-making ...

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA – An estimated 200,000 high school students who are bullied bring weapons to school, according to research to be presented Sunday, May 4, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Researchers also found that youths who have been victimized in multiple ways are up to 31 times more likely to carry a weapon to school than those who have not been bullied. "Victims of bullying who have been threatened, engaged in a fight, injured, or had property stolen or damaged are much more likely to ...

Long-term use of a drug combination reduces the risk of recurrent urinary tract infection by up to 80 percent in children with the urinary condition vesicoureteral reflux compared to placebo, according to research funded by the National Institutes of Health. Results were published online May 4 in the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with presentation at the Pediatric Academic Societies Annual Meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia. In vesicoureteral reflux (VUR), developmental abnormalities in one or both ureters -- tubes connecting the kidneys with the bladder ...

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA – Many young parents are using electronic cigarettes, and despite any evidence for safety, the vast majority of young adults who have used the devices believe they are less harmful than regular cigarettes, according to research to be presented Sunday, May 4, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that heat a liquid nicotine solution. The user inhales the vapor created and ingests the nicotine. Some e-cigarettes are flavored, and some have been ...

Approximately three of every four Cincinnati infants heavily breastfeed after the age of six months is not obtaining the level of dietary diversity recommended by the World Health Organization, according to a new Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center study. The study raises the question of whether better education is needed about the importance of introducing at least four food groups a day after six months until the age of 2. "Much of the previous work in the area of dietary diversity has focused on developing nations, where access to healthy and sufficient ...

CINCINNATI – A multi-center study concludes that treating infants with high doses of steroids fails to improve medical outcomes in the end-stage pediatric liver disease biliary atresia and leads to earlier onset of serious adverse events. Researchers say the clinical trial involving 14 sites provides new evidence on a growing controversy in the medical community – whether treating infants with steroids to augment surgery improves outcomes. Results for the study will be published May 7 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The data are being released early ...

In a study that included data from more than three million children and adolescents from diverse geographic regions of the United States, researchers found that the prevalence of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes increased significantly between 2001 and 2009, according to the study in the May 7 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on child health. This issue is being released early to coincide with the Pediatric Academic Societies Annual Meeting. Dana Dabelea, M.D., Ph.D., of the Colorado School of Public Health, Aurora, Colo., and Elizabeth J. Mayer-Davis, Ph.D., of the University ...

The risk of autism may be influenced equally by genetic and environmental factors; in addition, a sibling of a family member with autism has a much higher risk for the disorder, according to a study in the May 7 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on child health. This issue is being released early to coincide with the Pediatric Academic Societies Annual Meeting. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects almost 1 percent of all children born in the United States and is defined as impairment in social interaction and communication and the presence of restricted interests and repetitive ...