MAYWOOD, Il. -- Fifteen percent of the most common type of strokes occur in adolescents and young adults, and more young people are showing risk factors for such strokes, according to a report in the journal Neurology. Neurologist Jose Biller of Loyola University Medical Center is a co-author of the report, a consensus statement developed by the American Academy of Neurology. Between 532,000 and 852,000 persons ages 18 to 44 in the United States have had a stroke. U.S. hospital discharges for stroke among persons ages 15 to 44 increased 23-to-53 percent between 1995-1996 ...

WASHINGTON, DC -- Medicaid paid for nearly half of the 3.8 million births in the United States in 2010 -- an amount that has been rising over time, according to a report out today. The study, published in the September 2013 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Women's Health Issues, offers the most comprehensive information to date on Medicaid financing of births in each of the 50 states and nationally. The new data will help researchers gauge the impact of health reform on maternal and child health, the authors say. Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), some states are ...

Scientists from the Institute of Health Economics and Health Care Management (IGM) and from the Institute of Epidemiology II (EPI II) discovered that weight gain leads to deterioration in physical health. Female study participants, however, experienced improved mental quality of life as their weight increased, a result that was observed even in women who were already overweight when the study began. For this study, Professor Dr Rolf Holle, Michael Laxy and their team evaluated data from the population-based longitudinal KORA study on the association between body weight ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Social networking sites have become incredibly popular in recent years, with Facebook now ranking as the third most popular website in the U.S. With so many people spending so much time on Facebook, public relations professionals are using the site more and more to communicate to the public. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri School of Journalism have found that posting public relations information on Facebook during a time of crisis can improve the overall image of the organization that is experiencing the crisis. Seoyeon Hong, a doctoral ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Like naked mole-rats (Heterocephalus gaber), blind mole-rats (of the genus Spalax) live underground in low-oxygen environments, are long-lived and resistant to cancer. A new study demonstrates just how cancer-resistant Spalax are, and suggests that the adaptations that help these rodents survive in low-oxygen environments also play a role in their longevity and cancer resistance. The findings are reported in the journal Biomed Central: Biology. "We've shown that, compared to mice and rats, blind mole-rats are highly resistant to carcinogens," said ...

Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2013, Cleveland: Patients with clogged and hardened arteries who already have their blood pressure under control may benefit from an additional blood pressure-lowering medication, according to research from the Cleveland Clinic Coordinating Center for Clinical Research (C5Research). The researchers found that the renin-inhibitor aliskiren tended to slow coronary disease progression and reduced the risk of death, stroke and heart attack in these patients by about 50 percent, compared to placebo, suggesting that patients with prehypertension may benefit ...

People with epilepsy could be helped by new research into the way a key molecule controls brain activity during a seizure. Researchers have identified the role played by of a protein – called BDNF – and say the discovery could lead to new drugs that calm the symptoms of epileptic seizures. Scientists analysed the way cells communicate when the brain is most active – such as in epileptic seizures – when electrical signalling by the brain's neurons is increased. They found that the BDNF molecule – which is known to be released in the brain during seizures – blocks a ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- For most animals, scent is the instant messenger of choice for quickly exchanging personal profiles. Scientists, however, have long dismissed birds as odor-eschewing luddites that don't take advantage of scent-based communications. In a first-of-its-kind study, however, a Michigan State University researcher has demonstrated that birds do indeed communicate via scents, and that odor reliably predicts their reproductive success. The study appears in the current issue of Animal Behaviour and focuses on volatile compounds in avian preen secretions. Birds' ...

The hepatitis C virus hijacks the body's immune system, leaving T cells unable to function. A new study in animal models suggests that blocking a protein that helps the virus thrive could restore immune function, allowing the body to fight infection. The work, led by teams at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital and Emory University, was published online Aug. 26 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Previous studies show that antibody treatments that inhibit the protein, called programmed cell death 1 (PD-1), can shrink tumors in ...

For many firms, losing significant revenue and profit to employee theft has been a cost of doing business. But a new study from Washington University in St. Louis finds that information technology monitoring is strikingly effective in reducing theft and fraud, especially in the restaurant industry. "Cleaning House: The Impact of Information Technology Monitoring on Employee Theft and Productivity," by Lamar Pierce, PhD, associate professor of strategy at Olin Business School, finds that mining sales data of employees increased restaurant revenue about 7 percent. The ...

If you're poor and aging in America, the golden years may not be pretty, especially if you are black. University of Central Florida assistant professor Latarsha Chisholm and colleagues conducted a study, which found that nursing homes that serve predominantly black residents tend to struggle financially and provide lower quality care than nursing homes with no black residents. Results were recently published in the Health Services Research journal. "There is no simple fix," Chisholm said. "It is a complex issue, but we need to address it because disparities are everyone's ...

Despite widespread adoption by hospitals of surgical robot technology over the past decade, a "slapdash" system of reporting complications paints an unclear picture of its safety, according to Johns Hopkins researchers. In a report published online in the Journal for Healthcare Quality, the Johns Hopkins team says that of the 1 million or so robotic surgeries performed since 2000, only 245 complications -- including 71 deaths -- were reported to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. When an adverse event or device malfunction occurs, hospitals are required to report ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Women are two to eight times more likely than men to suffer a debilitating tear of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the knee and a new study suggests that a combination of body type and landing techniques may be to blame. In two new studies published online this week in the Journal of Athletic Training, lead author Marc Norcross of Oregon State University documents how women who were asked to undergo a series of jumping exercises landed more often than men in a way associated with elevated risk of ACL injuries. Both men and women tended to ...

New findings from an archaeological excavation led this winter by Dr. Erez Ben-Yosef of Tel Aviv University's Jacob M. Alkow Department of Archaeology and Near Eastern Cultures prove that copper mines in Israel thought to have been built by the ancient Egyptians in the 13th century BCE actually originated three centuries later, during the reign of the legendary King Solomon. Based on the radiocarbon dating of material unearthed at a new site in Timna Valley in Israel's Aravah Desert, the findings overturn the archaeological consensus of the last several decades. Scholarly ...

New Rochelle, NY, September 3, 2013—A new recombinant antibody can detect and isolate mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), a nonembryonic source of stem cells with promising applications in tissue engineering, blood stem cell transplantation, and treatments for immune-mediated disorders. The antibody recognizes an i blood group antigen present on MSCs in umbilical cord blood, as described in a study published in BioResearch Open Access, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the BioResearch Open Access website. Tia ...

1. Facebook intervention leads to increased HIV testing among high-risk men Peer-led Facebook groups are an acceptable and effective tool for increasing home-based HIV testing among at-risk populations. HIV infection is a major health concern for men who have sex with men (MSM), especially among African Americans and Latinos who have high rates of incident cases and new diagnoses. Online social networking has grown exponentially in this population, suggesting that social media platforms could be used to relay HIV prevention messages. This is important because those who ...

Krasiejów, Poland was a vastly different place 230 million years ago during the Triassic Period. It was part of a giant continent called Pangea, had a warm climate throughout the year, and was populated by giant amphibians that weighed half a ton and were 10 feet long. Metoposaurus diagnosticus was one of these giant amphibians, and its environment had only two seasons: wet and dry. Like modern amphibians, Metoposaurus needed water for its lifestyle, but the extremely long dry season in Triassic Krasiejów drove this species to burrow underground and go dormant when water ...

Boston –Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have developed a risk score calculation that can help predict which patients with rhabdomyolysis (a condition that occurs due to muscle damage) may be at risk for the severe complication of kidney failure or death. This research will publish online September 2, 2013 in JAMA Internal Medicine. Rhabdomyolysis occurs when muscles are crushed and rupture, leaking toxic compounds into the circulation and can be caused by any condition that damages skeletal muscle and causes injury. Risk factors include crush injuries, ...

For the first time, a dramatic global climate shift has been linked to the impact in Quebec of an asteroid or comet, Dartmouth researchers and their colleagues report in a new study. The cataclysmic event wiped out many of the planet's large mammals and may have prompted humans to start gathering and growing some of their food rather than solely hunting big game. The findings appear next week in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A preprint of the article is available to journalists starting Wednesday, Aug. 28, at http://www.eurekalert.org/account.php. The ...

Sydney, Australia: The amount of raw materials needed to sustain the economies of developed countries is significantly greater than presently used indicators suggest, a new Australian study has revealed. Using a new modelling tool and more comprehensive indicators, researchers were able to map the flow of raw materials across the world economy with unprecedented accuracy to determine the true "material footprint" of 186 countries over a two-decade period (from 1990 to 2008). The study, involving researchers from the University of New South Wales, CSIRO, the University ...

The idea that men and women are fundamentally different from each other is widely accepted. And throughout the world, this has created distinct ideas about which social and physical characteristics are necessary in each gender to maintain healthy human development. However, social revolutions throughout the last century have challenged traditional ideas about not only which traits are normal and necessary for survival, but also how humans acquire them. Thanks to a new study from researchers at Case Western Reserve University, science is continuing the charge. By studying ...

ANN ARBOR—Darwin referred to the origin of species as "that mystery of mysteries," and even today, more than 150 years later, evolutionary biologists cannot fully explain how new animals and plants arise. For decades, nearly all research in the field has been based on the assumption that the main cause of the emergence of new species, a process called speciation, is the formation of barriers to reproduction between populations. Those barriers can be geographic—such as a new mountain, river or glacier that physically separates two populations of animals or plants—or ...

Gardiner's frogs from the Seychelles islands, one of the smallest frogs in the world, do not possess a middle ear with an eardrum yet can croak themselves, and hear other frogs. An international team of scientists using X-rays has now solved this mystery and established that these frogs are using their mouth cavity and tissue to transmit sound to their inner ears. The results are published in PNAS on September 2, 2013. The team led by Renaud Boistel from CNRS and University of Poitiers, comprised also scientists from Institut Langevin of ESPCI ParisTech, the Laboratoire ...

Candida albicans is a common fungus found living in, and on, many parts of the human body. Usually this species causes no harm to humans unless it can breach the body's immune defences, where can lead to serious illness or death. It is known as an opportunistic pathogen that can colonise and infect individuals with a compromised immune system. New research, presented today at the Society for General Microbiology's Autumn Conference, gives us a greater understanding of how mucosal surfaces in the body respond to C. albicans to prevent damage being done during infection. Researchers ...

A new species of fungus that eats amphibians' skin has ravaged the fire salamander population in the Netherlands, bringing it close to regional extinction. Fire salamanders, recognisable by their distinctive yellow and black skin patterns, have been found dead in the country's forests since 2010. The population has fallen to around 10 individuals, less than four per cent of its original level, but what has been killing them has been a mystery until now. Scientists from Ghent University, Imperial College London, Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the Dutch conservation group ...