CLEVELAND, Ohio (March 5, 2014)—Calcium and vitamin D supplements after menopause can improve women's cholesterol profiles. And much of that effect is tied to raising vitamin D levels, finds a new study from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) just published online in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS). Whether calcium or vitamin D can indeed improve cholesterol levels has been debated. And studies of women taking the combination could not separate the effects of calcium from those of vitamin D on cholesterol. But this study, led by NAMS ...

An inflammatory protein that triggers a pregnant mouse's immune response to an infection or other disease appears to cause brain injury in her fetus, but not the premature birth that was long believed to be linked with such neurologic damage in both rodents and humans, new Johns Hopkins-led research suggests. The researchers, reporting online March 5 in the American Journal of Reproductive Immunology, also say they found that an anti-inflammatory drug that is FDA-approved for rheumatoid arthritis and is believed to be safe for humans to take during pregnancy halted the ...

An innovative program from UNC's Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) and 6 partner universities is preparing students with autism for life after high school. "Public high schools may be one of the last best hopes for adolescents with autism—and for their families," said FPG director Samuel L. Odom. "Many of these students will face unemployment and few social ties after school ends." According to Odom, teachers and other professionals in the schools work hard to achieve beneficial results for students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). But positive ...

Since the days of Darwin, scientists have considered bird song to be an exclusively male trait, resulting from sexual selection. Now a team of researchers from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), the University of Melbourne in Australia, Leiden University in the Netherlands and The Australian National University says that's not the whole story. The team used information from several sources, including the Handbook of the Birds of the World. Their survey included birds from all over the globe, but focused on early-diverging Australasian lineages, which ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – In one of the first experiments to explore the influence of fashion dolls, an Oregon State University researcher has found that girls who play with Barbie dolls see fewer career options for themselves than for boys. "Playing with Barbie has an effect on girls' ideas about their place in the world," said Aurora M. Sherman, an associate professor in the School of Psychological Science at OSU. "It creates a limit on the sense of what's possible for their future. While it's not a massive effect, it is a measurable and statistically significant effect." Findings ...

Although the "programmable material" still only works in a one-dimensional model construction, it has already demonstrated it unusual capabilities: The research project entitled Phononic Crystal with Adaptive Connectivity has just been published in the journal Advanced Materials. The first step towards mechanical components with freely programmable properties has thus been achieved. The working model used by the researchers consists of a one-meter by one-centimeter aluminum plate that is one millimeter thick. This sheet-metal strip can vibrate at different frequencies. ...

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – March 4, 2013 – The Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation (MHIF) today announced the results of survey research aimed at discovering patient and family satisfaction with acute care transfers for patients with STEMI (ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction), a severe heart attack best treated quickly with specialized care. The results, based on 98 patient and 80 family surveys, suggest that patient satisfaction with care decisions and communication can be high, even in emergency care situations that require rapid and complex decision making and, in ...

A disease-causing bacterium found in the mouth needs manganese, a trace mineral, in order to cause a serious heart infection, according to a preclinical study led by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University Philips Institute for Oral Health Research in the School of Dentistry. The findings, which may solve a longstanding mystery of why some bacteria need manganese to cause disease, provide possible new targets for antibiotics. Researchers from VCU and MIT have been studying the bacterium Streptococcus sanguinis, which lives in the mouth, to understand its role ...

VIDEO: When the temperature rises to just below body temperature, this biocompatible gel shrinks dramatically within minutes, compressing tooth-precursor cells (green) enclosed within it. Click here for more information. BOSTON, March 5, 2014 — A bit of pressure from a new shrinking, sponge-like gel is all it takes to turn transplanted unspecialized cells into cells that lay down minerals and begin to form teeth. The bioinspired gel material could one day help repair or replace ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (March 4, 2014) – Prehospital stroke alerts by emergency medical services (EMS) personnel can shorten the time to effective treatment with "clot-busting" drugs for patients with stroke, according to a report in the March issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. Dr. Mandy J. Binning and colleagues at the Capital Institute for Neurosciences (CIN) at Capital Health, Trenton and Pennington, N.J., implemented a prehospital stroke ...

It's a concept that had become universally understood: humans experience six basic emotions—happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, and surprise—and use the same set of facial movements to express them. What's more, we can recognize emotions on another's face, whether that person hails from Boston or Borneo. The only problem with this concept, according to Northeastern University Distinguished Professor of Psychology Lisa Feldman Barrett, is that it isn't true at all. For nearly two decades, Barrett has been tracking down the research that established this misconception ...

This news release is available in German. Scientists in Freiburg may have discovered a fundamental aggravating factor in autoimmune diseases. If B-lymphocytes lack the protein PTP1B, the cells will become hyperactive for stimulatory signals and can thus promote an autoimmune attack. This study offers an additional explanation to how B-cells regulate an immune response. In Germany, approximately 800,000 people suffer from rheumatoid arthritis. In this progressive disease, a person's own immune system attacks and destroys connective tissue. However, the most important ...

FAIRFAX, Va.—Interventional radiologists have devised a new way to access a woman's fibroids—by flipping her wrist and treating via an arm not groin artery—to nonsurgically shrink noncancerous growths in the muscular wall of the uterus. Researchers found this to be less painful and traumatic for women, allowing them to immediately sit up and move after uterine fibroid embolization (UFE)—with no overnight stay, according to a March article in the Society of Interventional Radiology's flagship publication, the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology. "Improving ...

WASHINGTON, March 5, 2014–Disasters both natural and human-caused can damage or destroy data and communications networks. Several presentations at the 2014 OFC Conference and Exposition, being held March 9-13 in San Francisco, Calif., USA will present new information on strategies that can mitigate the impacts of these disasters. New Algorithm Finds Safe Refuge for Cloud Data Much of our computing these days, from browsing websites and watching online videos to checking email and following social networks, relies on the cloud. The cloud lives in data centers – massive ...

From "Livestrong" to "Purple Paws," trendy wristbands have come to represent causes from cancer to ending cruelty to animals. Add a new wristband of a different sort: one that could close the loop on determining the potential disease risks of exposure to substances like pesticides. Scientists reported the development in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology. Kim Anderson and colleagues note that people breathe, touch and ingest a mix of many substances at low levels every day. But figuring out if natural and synthetic compounds can lead to disease is difficult. ...

Beer drinkers know that hops are what gives the drink its bitterness and aroma. Recently, scientists reported that the part of hops that isn't used for making beer contains healthful antioxidants and could be used to battle cavities and gum disease. In a new study in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, they say that they've identified some of the substances that could be responsible for these healthful effects. Yoshihisa Tanaka and colleagues note that their earlier research found that antioxidant polyphenols, contained in the hop leaves (called bracts) ...

WASHINGTON, DC, March 5, 2014 — Described by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as "physical, sexual, or psychological harm by a current or former partner or spouse," intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious public health issue affecting millions of people in the United States. New research from sociologists at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) shows that adolescents and young adults who perpetrate or fall victim to IPV are more likely to experience an increase in symptoms of depression. Titled, "Intimate Partner Violence and Depressive Symptoms During ...

Paleontologists studying fossilized feathers have proposed that the shapes of certain microscopic structures inside the feathers can tell us the color of ancient birds. But new research from North Carolina State University demonstrates that it is not yet possible to tell if these structures – thought to be melanosomes – are what they seem, or if they are merely the remnants of ancient bacteria. Melanosomes are small, pigment-filled sacs located inside the cells of feathers and other pigmented tissues of vertebrates. They contain melanin, which can give feathers colors ...

When a piece of gift-wrapping tape sticks to itself, it's frustrating, but when small parts in a microgear or micromotor stick together, an electronic device may not work well, if at all. Scientists now report in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces that rough zinc oxide coatings can prevent tiny silicon parts from adhering to each other. The study could accelerate the development of even more advanced, high-performance electronics and small sensors. Xinchun Lu and colleagues explain that adhesion is a big concern when designing very small silicon-based machines ...

Spider silk of fantastical, superhero strength is finally speeding toward commercial reality — at least a synthetic version of it is. The material, which is five times stronger than steel, could be used in products from bulletproof vests to medical implants, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN). C&EN is the weekly news magazine of the American Chemical Society. Alex Scott, a senior editor at C&EN, notes that spider silk's impressive strength has been studied for years, and scientists have been trying to make a synthetic version of the super-strong ...

In the past five years, the number of lung transplantations carried out has increased by about 20%. In the end stage of various lung diseases, transplantation is the last remaining option for treatment, and it can both prolong life and improve its quality. Marc Hartert and colleagues have studied how patients do after a lung transplant, and their review appears in the current edition of the Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2014; 111(7): 107–16). What they found is that deaths in the 90 days after an operation for lung transplantation have gone down ...

Child abuse is a reliable predictor of post-traumatic stress disorder, but not all maltreated children suffer from it, according to Chad Shenk, assistant professor of human development and family studies, Penn State, who examined why some maltreated children develop PTSD and some do not. Shenk and his research team found that adolescent girls who experienced maltreatment in the past year and were willing to talk about their painful experiences and their thoughts and emotions, were less likely to have PTSD symptoms one year later. Those who tried to avoid painful thoughts ...

New Rochelle, NY, March 5, 2014—Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection can lead to serious diseases such as cirrhosis and cancer of the liver, so viral clearance and prevention of relapse are important treatment goals. Low-dose oral interferon may reduce the risk of HCV relapse in patients with mild liver fibrosis according to a study published in Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research website. In "A Double-Blind Randomized ...

Fairfax, Va., March 5, 2014— The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has issued a new white paper, "A review of safety, quality management, and practice guidelines for high-dose-rate brachytherapy," that recommends specific guidance to follow in the delivery of high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy to improve quality and patient safety, according to the manuscript published in the March-April 2014 print issue of Practical Radiation Oncology (PRO), the official clinical practice journal of ASTRO. The executive summary and supplemental material are also available ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – Like mobsters following strict orders, newly engineered molecules called "ubiquibodies" can mark specific proteins inside a cell for destruction – a molecular kiss of death that is paving the way for new drug therapies and powerful research tools. Led by professor Matthew DeLisa, chemical engineers at Cornell University have developed a new type of antibody, called a "ubiquibody," which is an antibody fragment they have inserted into the natural process known as the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway (UPP). Their work appears in the March 16 issue of the Journal ...