ANN ARBOR—The majority of gay men in relationships say they establish a "sexual agreement" with their partner, primarily to prevent the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, according to a University of Michigan study. Sexual agreements show promise for HIV prevention, but the down side is that only 57 percent of couples actually concur that they have agreements, says Jason Mitchell, assistant professor at the U-M School of Nursing. Further, among nearly half of the couples one or both men break their agreement, which outlines allowable sex-related behaviors ...

Pediatric researchers, investigating the biology of brain tumors in children, are finding that crucial differences in how the same gene is mutated may call for different treatments. A new study offers glimpses into how scientists will be using the ongoing flood of gene-sequencing data to customize treatments based on very specific mutations in a child's tumor. "By better understanding the basic biology of these tumors, such as how particular mutations in the same gene may respond differently to targeted drugs, we are moving closer to personalized medicine for children ...

DETROIT — Restaurant servers are more likely to give better service to patron types they believe are more inclined to tip well, a Wayne State University researcher has found, a principle that has significant consequences when African-Americans are at the table. In an effort to determine whether servers based their service levels on perceived tipping differences across customer demographics, Zachary Brewster, Ph.D., assistant professor of sociology in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, analyzed data derived from a survey of 200 servers in 18 restaurants in a southeastern ...

Mindfulness training may help to boost standardized test scores and improve working memory, according to a new study in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Every year, millions of college and graduate-school applicants take standardized tests, such as the SAT and GRE. The tests supposedly provide a way to gauge students' cognitive abilities and predict how they'll perform in school and, eventually, the workplace. A multibillion-dollar test-prep industry has emerged out of the idea that boosting performance on these tests is ...

Pasadena, CA— Supernovae were always thought to occur in two main varieties. But a team of astronomers including Carnegie's Wendy Freedman, Mark Phillips and Eric Persson is reporting the discovery of a new type of supernova called Type Iax. This research has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal and is available online. Previously, supernovae were divided into either core-collapse or Type Ia categories. Core-collapse supernovae are the explosion of a star about 10 to 100 times as massive as our sun. Type Ia supernovae are the complete disruption ...

URBANA – In the United States, only species listed on state or federal noxious weed lists are regulated, and those lists are often biased toward species that affect agricultural crops. Conversely, invasive plant council lists include species that affect natural landscapes but have no regulatory clout. After comparing the lists and how they are created, researchers at the University of Illinois's Energy Biosciences Institute have developed some suggestions on how to improve the regulation of all invasive plant species, including new biofuels plants. "We're hoping to reform ...

In what promises to be an eye-opener for many doctors and patients who routinely depend on cholesterol testing, a study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found that the standard formula used for decades to calculate low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels is often inaccurate. Of most concern, the researchers say, is their finding that the widely used formula underestimates LDL where accuracy matters most — in the range considered desirable for high-risk patients. Results of the study are published in an online article, ahead ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– If you think your inability to concentrate is a hopeless condition, think again –– and breathe, and focus. According to a study by researchers at the UC Santa Barbara, as little as two weeks of mindfulness training can significantly improve one's reading comprehension, working memory capacity, and ability to focus. Their findings were recently published online in the empirical psychology journal Psychological Science. "What surprised me the most was actually the clarity of the results," said Michael Mrazek, graduate student researcher in psychology ...

MINNEAPOLIS – The virus that causes cold sores, along with other viral or bacterial infections, may be associated with cognitive problems, according to a new study published in the March 26, 2013, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study found that people who have had higher levels of infection in their blood (measured by antibody levels), meaning they had been exposed over the years to various pathogens such as the herpes simplex type 1 virus that causes cold sores, were more likely to have cognitive problems than ...

Up until now, the invisibility cloaks put forward by scientists have been fairly bulky contraptions – an obvious flaw for those interested in Harry Potter-style applications. However, researchers from the US have now developed a cloak that is just micrometres thick and can hide three-dimensional objects from microwaves in their natural environment, in all directions and from all of the observers' positions. Presenting their study today, 26 March, in the Institute of Physics and German Physical Society's New Journal of Physics, the researchers, from the University of ...

For the first time, the complete genomes of three separate populations of aye-ayes -- a type of lemur -- have been sequenced and analyzed in an effort to help guide conservation efforts. The results of the genome-sequence analyses will be published in an early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences online during the week of 25 March 2013. The team of scientists is led by George H. Perry, an assistant professor of anthropology and biology at Penn State University; Webb Miller, a professor of biology and of computer science and engineering at Penn State; ...

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego Moores Cancer Center have identified a humanized monoclonal antibody that targets and directly kills chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells. The findings, published in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on March 25, 2013 represent a potential new therapy for treating at least some patients with CLL, the most common type of blood cancer in the United States. CLL cells express high levels of a cell-surface glycoprotein receptor called CD44. Principal investigator Thomas ...

Limiting the number of continuous hours worked by medical trainees failed to increase the amount of sleep each intern got per week, but dramatically increased the number of potentially dangerous handoffs of patients from one trainee to another, new research from Johns Hopkins suggests. The reductions in work hours also decreased training time, the researchers found. In 2011, stricter national regulations, reducing the continuous-duty hours of first-year resident physicians from 30 to 16, were put in place with the theory that limiting trainees' work hours would lead them ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — At hospitals around the country, young doctors fresh out of medical school help care for patients of all kinds – and work intense, long hours as part of their residency training. Traditionally, residents were allowed to work more than 24 hours without a break. In 2011, new rules cut back the number of hours they can work consecutively to 16, in the name of protecting patients from errors by sleepy physicians. But a new study of more than 2,300 doctors in their first year of residency at over a dozen hospital systems across the country raises questions ...

Mild cognitive impairment at the time of Parkinson disease (PD) diagnosis appears to be associated with an increased risk for early dementia in a Norwegian study, according to a report published Online First by JAMA Neurology, a JAMA Network publication. Patients with PD have an increased risk for dementia (PDD) compared with healthy individuals and researchers sought to examine the course of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and its progression to dementia in a group of patients with PD. The Norwegian ParkWest study is an ongoing population-based study of the incidence, ...

A review of the available medical literature suggests that data on experience-related outcomes in children's surgery are limited and vary widely in methodologic quality, according to a report published Online First by JAMA Pediatrics, a JAMA Network publication. Hospital and surgeon characteristics are often examined in terms of outcomes. Studies in adults have been numerous but the quality and quantity of similar data in children are less consistent, according to the study background. Jarod P. McAteer, M.D., of Seattle Children's Hospital, Washington, and colleagues ...

Long term treatment by carmustine, a chemical relative of mustard gas and already used to treat some types of brain cancer, can decrease the amount of amyloid β and number of amyloid plaques in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. The research is published in Biomed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine. Alzheimer's disease progressively destroys memory, language, and judgement of affected people. While deaths due to heart disease, stroke and cancer may be decreasing, the number of deaths each year due to Alzheimer's disease is on the increase. Accumulation ...

Taking a long time to get pregnant may be linked to minor neurodevelopmental problems in the child, suggests a small study published online in the Fetal & Neonatal Edition of Archives of Disease in Childhood. This suggests that impaired fertility itself - defined as failing to become pregnant after 12 months - rather than fertility treatment, may be a key factor in any subsequent developmental problems in the child, say the authors. It is well known that children conceived as a result of fertility treatment are at a higher risk of premature birth and low birthweight, ...

Five year-olds who watch TV for three or more hours a day are increasingly likely to develop antisocial behaviours, such as fighting or stealing by the age of seven, indicates research published online in Archives of Disease in Childhood. But the risk is very small, say the authors, who additionally found that time spent playing computer/electronic games had no impact on behaviour. Prolonged screen viewing time has been linked to various behavioural and emotional problems in children, say the authors, but most research has focused exclusively on television, and almost ...

Research carried out by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and collaborators reveals that the last region on earth to be colonised by humans was home to more than 1,000 species of birds that went extinct soon after people reached their island homes. The paper was published today (25th) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. Almost 4,000 years ago, tropical Pacific Islands were an untouched paradise, but the arrival of the first people in places like Hawaii and Fiji caused irreversible damage to these natural havens, due to overhunting ...

More than half of lower-back MRIs ordered at two Canadian hospitals were either inappropriate or of questionable value for patients. And family doctors were more apt to order these unnecessary tests compared to other specialists, demonstrates newly published medical research from Alberta and Ontario teams. The findings are important because in some parts of the country, MRI tests for the lower back account for about one-third of all MRI requests. Across the country, wait times for MRIs are long and patient access is limited. The findings were published online in the peer-reviewed ...

We have shown in our first clinical study of our novel prototype cigarettes that it is possible to reduce smokers' exposure to certain smoke toxicants. The only way to be certain of avoiding the risks of smoking is not to smoke. And reducing the health risks of smoking has been the overriding aim of tobacco research for many years. It is known that the risk of developing smoking-related disease is greater in people who smoke more cigarettes per day and for longer periods. We have spent several decades researching the nature of tobacco smoke, identifying key toxicants ...

Neurons that control hunger in the central nervous system also regulate immune cell functions, implicating eating behavior as a defense against infections and autoimmune disease development, Yale School of Medicine researchers have found in a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Autoimmune diseases have been on a steady rise in the United States. These illnesses develop when the body's immune system turns on itself and begins attacking its own tissues. The interactions between different kinds of T cells are at the heart of ...

VIDEO: This video is a real-time look at red blood cells moving through the capillaries taken using a technique called photoacoustic flowoxigraphy. Click here for more information. In an engineering breakthrough, a Washington University in St. Louis biomedical researcher has discovered a way to use light and color to measure oxygen in individual red blood cells in real time. The technology, developed by Lihong Wang, PhD, the Gene K. Beare Distinguished Professor of Biomedical ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Think new discoveries are the bee's knees? This one is even better -- this research out of Rhode Island Hospital is the mice's knees. Researchers have found that adding lubricin, a protein that our bodies naturally produce, to the fluid in our joints may reduce the risk of or even prevent osteoarthritis (OA). The findings, in a paper by Gregory D. Jay, M.D., Ph.D., of the department of emergency medicine, is published online in advance of print in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The discoveries were made in part by studying ...