New Rochelle, NY, March 4, 2014—Only about 37% of babies around the world are exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months of life, as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). The benefits of breastfeeding for both infants and mothers are well-established. The effectiveness of different types of interventions for promoting exclusive breastfeeding in high-income countries is the focus of a Review article published in Breastfeeding Medicine, the official journal of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – Crops genetically modified with the bacterium Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) produce proteins that kill pest insects. Steady exposure has prompted concern that pests will develop resistance to these proteins, making Bt plants ineffective. Cornell research shows that the combination of natural enemies, such as ladybeetles, with Bt crops delays a pest's ability to evolve resistance to these insecticidal proteins. "This is the first demonstrated example of a predator being able to delay the evolution of resistance in an insect pest to a Bt crop," said Anthony ...

Taiwanese teenagers – and especially females – who become sexually active at a very young age are more likely to be rule-breakers and be more aggressive than their peers. These are the findings of a national study of Taiwanese youth led by Wei J. Chen of the National Taiwan University, with Chia-Hua Chan as first author. It is published in Springer's journal Archives of Sexual Behavior. Nearly 19,000 sixteen- to nineteen-year-old Taiwanese adolescents took part in a national survey which was conducted through a self-administered web-based questionnaire. Sociodemographic ...

(Boston)--A recent analysis conducted by investigators from the Slone Epidemiology Center at Boston University has found that frequent experiences of racism were associated with a higher risk of obesity among African American women. The findings, which currently appear online in the American Journal of Epidemiology, found the relationship between racism and obesity was strongest among women who reported consistently high experiences of racism over a 12-year period. The research was based on data from the Black Women's Health Study, a longitudinal study that enrolled 59,000 ...

Nyon, Switzerland – March 4, 2014 A new study by an International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) and International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC) scientific working group summarizes the clinical performance of serum procollagen type I N propeptide (s-PINP) and serum C-terminal cross-linking telopeptide of type I collagen (s-CTX) in fracture risk prediction in untreated individuals in prospective cohort studies. The current study follows a position paper published in 2011 by the IOF-IFCC Bone Marker Standards Working Group recommending ...

According to Pierre-Marie David of the University of Montreal's Faculty of Pharmacy, stock-outs of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs in recent years in the Central African Republic have had a dramatic impact on the health of HIV-infected people. These shortages have also created mistrust among patients toward the political and medical actors responsible for the fight against HIV/AIDS. And their wariness is likely to reduce their chances of getting better. David lived in the Central African Republic from 2005 to 2008, where he worked as Access to Antiretroviral Treatment Coordinator ...

A stroke can cause permanent damage to important parts of the brain, with the result that many stroke survivors require lifelong care and support. 'It is not uncommon for stroke patients to suffer from an awareness deficit or a reduced response to stimuli on one side of their body. This condition, known as hemispatial neglect, can mean that patients are unable to properly perceive people, images or sounds on that side,' explains Professor Georg Kerkhoff from the Department of Clinical Neuropsychology at Saarland University. 'These phenomena tend to be observed when the ...

Outbursts of anger may trigger heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular problems in the two hours immediately afterwards, according to the first study to systematically evaluate previous research into the link between the extreme emotion and all cardiovascular outcomes. The study – a systematic review and meta-analysis – published online today (Tuesday) in the European Heart Journal [1], found that in the two hours immediately after an angry outburst, a person's risk of a heart attack (myocardial infarction (MI) or acute coronary syndrome (ACS)) increased nearly ...

A combination of iron-oxide nanoparticles and an alternating magnetic field, which together generate heat, have activated an immune system response to tumors in mice according to an accepted manuscript by Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Center researchers in the journal Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine released online on February 24, 2014. "The study demonstrates that controlled heating of one tumor can stimulate an immune response that attacks another tumor that has not had the heat treatment," said Steve Fiering, PhD, Norris Cotton Cancer Center ...

Their study is published today (3rd March 2014) in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The research team have found that a plant pigment called quercetin – present in some fruits, vegetables, herbs and grains – could help to prevent damage to the nerves associated with the childhood form of motor neurone disease, spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). SMA, also known as 'floppy baby syndrome', is a leading genetic cause of death in children. It affects approximately one in 6,000 to 10,000 children and around half of children with the most severe form will die before the ...

Researchers at Norris Cotton Cancer Center have found an antibody that may be used in future treatments for recurrent small-cell lung cancer, which currently has no effective therapy. The mouse monoclonal antibody they have developed, MAG-1, targets the ProAVP surface marker. When given alone, it significantly slows the growth of tumor xenografts of human recurrent small-cell lung cancer in mice. The study, "Growth Impairment of Small-Cell Cancer by Targeting Pro-Vasopressin with MAG-1 Antibody," was recently published online in Frontiers in Oncology. "We are developing ...

Identification of factors that influence breast cancer metastasis to bone One of the more serious and frequent complications of advanced breast cancer is bone metastasis, which is exacerbated by TGF-β signaling; however, it is not clear how TGF-β production is regulated prior to and during metastasis. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Guohong Hu and colleagues at the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences evaluated murine models of invasive breast cancer and determined that cancer cells lacking the putative tumor suppressor DLC1 have ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- For some parents, the decision of when to enroll their children into kindergarten can result in costly consequences such as another year of daycare expenses. In general, children must be five years old to be eligible to be enrolled in kindergarten. However, the developmental differences between a young kindergartener who barely qualifies for the state-mandated age cutoff date compared to a child who is almost year older, may have implications. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has found that the youngest kindergartners are about five times more likely ...

In current research related to improving cancer treatments, one promising area of research is the effort to find ways to selectively pinpoint and target cancer cells while minimizing effects on healthy cells. In that effort, it's already been found in lab experiments that iron-oxide nanoparticles, when heated and then applied specifically to cancer cells, can kill those cells because cancer cells are particularly susceptible to changes in temperature. Increasing the temperature of cancer cells to over 43 degrees Celsius (about 109 degrees Fahrenheit) for a sufficient ...

WASHINGTON, March 3, 2014 — Pepper is one of the most plentiful condiments in the world today, but it used to be more valuable than gold. In the American Chemical Society's (ACS') latest Reactions video, we examine how pepper's delectable chemistry made it a key player in the global spice trade. The sought-after spice helped usher in the "Age of Discovery," which bridged the gap between the Middle Ages and the Modern era. And because we're celebrating our second month of existence, it's a Reactions double feature this week. In our second video, we examine the science behind ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Teaching crop plants to concentrate carbon dioxide in their leaves could increase photosynthetic efficiency by 60 percent and yields by as much as 40 percent, researchers report in a new study. The team used a computer model to simulate how adding genes from a type of photosynthetic algae known as cyanobacteria might influence photosynthetic efficiency in plants. Cyanobacteria contain small structures, called carboxysomes, which concentrate carbon dioxide at the site of photosynthesis. "Photosynthesis is the most studied of all plant processes, so ...

Quebec City, March 3rd, 2014—A team of researchers from Université Laval and CHU de Québec identified unusually high levels of a certain protein in the brains of people suffering from essential tremor (ET), a movement disorder that affects 4% of the adult population. The discovery, the details of which were published in the most recent edition of the journal Movement Disorders, could lead to an effective treatment for this neurological condition, which is 10 times more prevalent than Parkinson's disease. As its name suggests, ET causes tremors in various parts of the ...

Naturally occurring electricity in our cells is key to how our bodies function, and that includes the healing of wounds. And externally applied low-amplitude electric fields have been shown to help hard-to-heal chronic wounds, like those associated with diabetes, where there is insufficient blood supply and drug treatments are not effective. The externally applied electric field manipulates the body's naturally occurring electricity, such that the new vessels are formed, and blood supply to the wound is increased. University of Cincinnati physics and biomedical engineering ...

The young, it turns out, smoke more than any other age group in America. Unfortunately, the period of life ranging from late adolescence to early adulthood is also a time when the brain is still developing. Now, a small study from UCLA suggests a disturbing effect: Young adult smokers may experience changes in the structures of their brains due to cigarette smoking, dependence and craving. Even worse, these changes can occur in those who have been smoking for relatively short time. Finally, the study suggests that neurobiological changes that may result from smoking ...

PITTSBURGH, March 3, 2014 – A new analysis led by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health offers insights for nonprofit hospitals in implementing community health improvement programs. In a special issue of the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved that focuses on the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a multidisciplinary team of Pitt researchers explore published research on existing community benefit programs at U.S. hospitals and explain how rigorous implementation of such programs could help hospitals both meet federal requirements and ...

The Earth's outer layer is made up of a series of moving, interacting plates whose motion at the surface generates earthquakes, creates volcanoes and builds mountains. Geoscientists have long sought to understand the plates' fundamental properties and the mechanisms that cause them to move and drift, and the questions have become the subjects of lively debate. A study published online Feb. 27 by the journal Science is a significant step toward answering those questions. Researchers led by Caroline Beghein, assistant professor of earth, planetary and space sciences ...

For the first time, scientists have demonstrated the effectiveness of a small-molecule drug in protecting nonhuman primates from the lethal Marburg virus. Their work, published online in the journal Nature, is the result of a continuing collaboration between Army scientists and industry partners that also shows promise for treating a broad range of other viral diseases. According to senior author Sina Bavari, the drug, known as BCX4430, protected cynomolgous macaques from Marburg virus infection when administered by injection as long as 48 hours post-infection. Bavari ...

Researchers at Harvard's Wyss Institute have developed a method to carry out large-scale manufacturing of everyday objects – from cell phones to food containers and toys – using a fully degradable bioplastic isolated from shrimp shells. The objects exhibit many of the same properties as those created with synthetic plastics, but without the environmental threat. It also trumps most bioplastics on the market today in posing absolutely no threat to trees or competition with the food supply. The advance was reported online last week in Macromolecular Materials & Engineering. ...

Chicago (March 3, 2014): The American College of Surgeons (ACS) has published new comprehensive guidelines that define the resources the nation's surgical facilities need to perform operations effectively and safely in infants and children. The standards—published in the March issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons—also have the approval of the American Pediatric Surgical Association and the Society of Pediatric Anesthesia. Representatives of these organizations as well as invited leaders in other pediatric medical specialties, known as the Task Force ...

The HPV vaccine offers significant protection against cervical abnormalities in young women, suggests a paper published on bmj.com today. The human papillomavirus (HPV) can cause warts, with some strains causing cervical cancer. Australia was the first country to implement a publicly funded national vaccination programme in April 2007 and a 'catch-up' programme that ran until December 2009. Studies have shown that the two HPV vaccines used to vaccinate young women prevent cervical lesions associated with HPV types including vulval and vaginal lesions and genital ...