According to a study of seven U.S. healthcare systems, the use of computed tomography (CT) scans of the head, abdomen/pelvis, chest or spine, in children younger than age 14 more than doubled from 1996 to 2005, and this associated radiation is projected to potentially increase the risk of radiation-induced cancer in these children in the future, according to a study published Online First by JAMA Pediatrics, a JAMA Network publication. The use of CT in pediatrics has increased over the last two decades. The ionizing radiation doses delivered by the tests are higher than ...

The association between district and state policies or legal requirements regarding competitive food and beverages (food and beverages sold outside the school meal program) and public elementary school availability of foods and beverages high in fats, sugars, or sodium was examined in a study Jamie F. Chriqui, Ph.D., M.H.S., and colleagues at the University of Illinois at Chicago. (Online First) Survey respondents at 1,814 elementary schools (1,485 unique) in 957 districts in 45 states (food analysis) and 1,830 elementary schools (1,497 unique) in 962 districts and 45 ...

Preschool children who have been neglected or emotionally abused exhibit a range of emotional and behavioral difficulties and adverse mother-child interactions that indicate these children require prompt evaluation and interventions, according to a systematic review by Aideen Mary Naughton, M.B., B.Ch., B.A.O., D.C.H., F.R.C.P.C.H., of Public Health Wales, Pontypool, England, and colleagues. (Online First) A total of 42 studies of children age 0 to 6 years with confirmed neglect or emotional abuse who had emotional, behavioral, and developmental features recorded or for ...

Replacing carbohydrates and animal fat with vegetable fat may be associated with a lower risk of death in men with nonmetastatic prostate cancer, according to a report published Online First by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication. "Nearly 2.5 million men currently live with prostate cancer in the United States, yet little is known about the association between diet after diagnosis and prostate cancer progression and overall mortality," according to the study background. Erin L. Richman, Sc.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues ...

A study of older adults with diabetes mellitus (DM) suggests a bidirectional association between hypoglycemic (low blood glucose) events and dementia, according to a report published Online First by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication. There is a growing body of evidence that DM may increase the risk for developing cognitive impairment, including Alzheimer disease and vascular dementia, and there is research interest in whether DM treatment can prevent cognitive decline. When blood glucose declines to low levels, cognitive function is impaired and severe ...

Low baseline diastolic blood pressure (DBP) appears to be associated with brain atrophy in patients with arterial disease, whenever declining levels of blood pressure (BP) over time among patients who had a higher baseline BP were associated with less progression of atrophy, according to a report published Online First by JAMA Neurology, a JAMA Network publication. "Studies have shown that both high and low blood pressure (BP) may play a role in the etiology of brain atrophy. High BP in midlife has been associated with more brain atrophy later in life, whereas studies ...

Paris, France: Low levels of vitamin D can trigger hypertension, according to the world's largest study to examine the causal association between the two. Although observational studies have already shown this link, a large-scale genetic study was necessary before the cause and effect could be proven, the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) will hear today (Tuesday). Dr. Vimal Karani S, from the Institute of Child Health, University College London, London, UK, will tell the meeting that data from the D-CarDia collaboration, involving 35 ...

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- In the wake of concerns over climate change and other emergent environmental issues, both individuals and governments are examining the impact of consumer and producer behavior and policies. In two new studies, three researchers from the University of Maryland's Department of Geographical Sciences publish groundbreaking findings on the environmental impact of globalization, production and trade at both regional and international scales, and anticipate that their research will inform key environmental policies and consumer and corporate attitudes in ...

PITTSBURGH, June 10, 2013 – Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes are two to three times more likely to use expensive brand-name drugs than a comparable group of patients treated within the VA Healthcare System, according to a nationwide study by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System and Dartmouth College. Spending in Medicare Part D would have been an estimated $1.4 billion less in 2008 if brand-name and generic drug use matched that of the VA for the medications studied. The report, the first large-scale comparison of prescription ...

Washington, D.C.—Using revolutionary new techniques, a team led by Carnegie's Malcolm Guthrie has made a striking discovery about how ice behaves under pressure, changing ideas that date back almost 50 years. Their findings could alter our understanding of how the water molecule responds to conditions found deep within planets and could have implications for energy science. Their work is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. When water freezes into ice, its molecules are bound together in a crystalline lattice held together by hydrogen bonds. ...

Men with prostate cancer may significantly improve their survival chances with a simple change in their diet, a new study led by UC San Francisco has found. By substituting healthy vegetable fats – such as olive and canola oils, nuts, seeds and avocados – for animal fats and carbohydrates, men with the disease had a markedly lower risk of developing lethal prostate cancer and dying from other causes, according to the study. The research, involving nearly 4,600 men with non-metastatic prostate cancer, could help with the development of dietary guidelines for men with ...

Scientists at the University of York have uncovered new insights into the way seeds use gene networks to control when they germinate in response to environmental signals. Timing of seed germination is crucial for survival of plants in the wild and is also important for commercial seed production where there is a need to ensure uniform growth. A cold environment can signal an imminent winter so the mother plant produces dormant seeds that will not grow until the following spring. A warmer environment can signal an early summer with the mother plant producing seeds that ...

Whether it's an effort to increase recycling rates, reduce energy usage or cut carbon emissions, the conventional wisdom says that the best way to get people to do the right thing is to make it worth their while with cold, hard cash. But Harvard researchers say there may be an easier, cheaper way – by appealing to people's reputation, not their wallets. Using enrollment of thousands of people in a California blackout prevention program as an experimental test bed, a team of researchers that included Erez Yoeli, a researcher at the Federal Trade Commission, Moshe Hoffman, ...

LA JOLLA, Calif., June 10, 2013 — Conventional treatments for diseases such as cancer can carry harmful side effects—and the primary reason is that such treatments are not targeted specifically to the cells of the body where they're needed. What if drugs for cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other diseases can be targeted specifically and only to cells that need the medicine, and leave normal tissues untouched? A new study involving Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute's Erkki Ruoslahti, M.D., Ph.D., contributing to work by Samir Mitragotri, Ph.D., at the University ...

What started as an experiment to probe brain circuits involved in compulsive behavior has revealed a surprising connection with obesity. The University of Iowa-led researchers bred mice missing a gene known to cause obesity, and suspected to also be involved in compulsive behavior, with a genetic mouse model of compulsive grooming. The unexpected result was offspring that were neither compulsive groomers nor obese. The study, published the week of June 10 in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), suggests that the ...

(Memphis, Tenn. – June 10, 2013) Changes in an epigenetic mechanism that turns expression of genes on and off may be as important as genetic alterations in causing pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), according to a study led by scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and published in the June 10 online edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The results suggest the mechanism called cytosine methylation plays a previously under-appreciated role in the development of leukemia. Cytosine methylation involves adding or removing methyl groups ...

Most of the matter in the universe may be made out of particles that possess an unusual, donut-shaped electromagnetic field called an anapole. This proposal, which endows dark matter particles with a rare form of electromagnetism, has been strengthened by a detailed analysis performed by a pair of theoretical physicists at Vanderbilt University: Professor Robert Scherrer and post-doctoral fellow Chiu Man Ho. An article about the research was published online last month by the journal Physics Letters B. "There are a great many different theories about the nature of dark ...

EUGENE, Ore. -- (June 10, 2013) -- An analysis of recent data from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of 97 adolescents who were part of study begun with very low birth weight babies born in 1982-1986 in a Cleveland neonatal intensive care unit has tied smaller brain volumes to poor academic achievement. More than half of the babies that weighed less than 1.66 pounds and more than 30 percent of those less than 3.31 pounds at birth later had academic deficits. (Less than 1.66 pounds is considered extremely low birth weight; less than 3.31 pounds is labeled very low birth ...

Researchers at the University of Southampton have proposed an answer to the long-running debate as to how stable the Earth system is. The Earth, with its core-driven magnetic field, oceans of liquid water, dynamic climate and abundant life is arguably the most complex system in the known Universe. Life arose on Earth over three and a half billion years ago and it would appear that despite planetary scale calamities such as the impacts of massive meteorites, runaway climate change and increases in brightness of the Sun, it has continued to grow, reproduce and evolve ever ...

Elderly mice suffering from age-related heart disease saw a significant improvement in cardiac function after being treated with the FDA-approved drug rapamycin for just three months. The research, led by a team of scientists at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, shows how rapamycin impacts mammalian tissues, providing functional insights and possible benefits for a drug that has been shown to extend the lifespan of mice as much as 14 percent. There are implications for human health in the research appearing online in Aging Cell: heart disease is the leading cause ...

Boulder, Colo., USA – Studies in this latest batch of GEOLOGY postings cover tiny Ediacara organisms, CO2 gas following seismic swarms, the growth of Mount Everest, methane seeps, the remarkably modern character of Cretaceous seawater composition, geodynamic models of the assembly of Rodinia and Gondwana, and whether subduction zones are invading the Atlantic. Other studies cover the Danube Basin, the Andes, the Central Range of Taiwan; and the seafloor near Costa Rica. All article abstracts are open access online. Highlights are provided below. GEOLOGY articles published ...

LIVERMORE, Calif. -- Using data derived from nuclear weapons testing of the 1950s and '60s, Lawrence Livermore scientists have found that a small portion of the human brain involved in memory makes new neurons well into adulthood. The research may have profound impacts on human behavior and mental health. The study supports the importance of investigating the therapeutic potential of applying adult neurogenesis to the treatment of age-related cognitive disorders. Neurogenesis is the process by which neurons are generated from neural stem and progenitor cells, and, until ...

Several years ago, Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center became the first center in the United States to test an Israeli-invented device designed to increase the space between the prostate and the rectum in prostate cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy. Now, results from the international Phase I clinical trial show that the device has the potential to significantly reduce rectal injury, a side effect caused by unwanted radiation exposure that can leave men with compromised bowel function following treatment. Results of the 27-patient prospective ...

Inbreeding is generally deleterious, even in flowering plants. Since inbreeding raises the risk that bad copies of a gene will be expressed, inbred progeny suffer from reduced viability. Many flowering plants are able to recognize and reject their own pollen, thereby preventing inbreeding despite the plants' hermaphroditic nature. This mechanism is a complex trait that involves the interaction of a gene that tags the pollen with an identifier molecule, and a gene that produces a molecule capable of detecting pollen produced by the same plant. Evolutionary biologists ...

Biofuels developed from plant biomass and purpose-grown crops can substantially move California toward its ambitious energy goals, a new report says, but only through the wise allocation of feedstocks and the success of energy efficiency measures throughout the state. That's the conclusion of "California Energy Future: the Potential for Biofuels," a report of the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) co-authored by Energy Biosciences Institute scientists Heather Youngs and Chris Somerville. The study is one of seven produced by the CCST's California's Energy ...