WASHINGTON, DC, March 11, 2013 — Research has long linked high socioeconomic status with better health and lower mortality. But what's remained unclear is whether this association has more to do with access to resources (education, wealth, career opportunity, etc.) or the glow of high social status relative to others. Scholars call the latter "relative deprivation." To tease apart these factors, a team of investigators at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health led by Dr. Bruce Link, studied Baseball Hall of Fame inductees, Emmy Award winners, and former ...

SAN FRANCISCO — Heart patients who can't tolerate the side effects of cholesterol-lowering drugs may have a new option, according to a new study by researchers from the Intermountain Heart Institute at Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City. Researchers found that pitavastatin, a newer cholesterol-lowering drug, may reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke and even death in up to 68 percent of patients with high cholesterol who can't tolerate other cholesterol-lowering medications due to side effects. Researchers are presenting the results of this study today ...

All living organisms rely on iron as an essential nutrient. In the ocean, iron's abundance or scarcity means all the difference as it fuels the growth of plankton, the base of the ocean's food web. A new study by biogeochemists and glaciologists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) identifies a unexpectedly large source of iron to the North Atlantic – meltwater from glaciers and ice sheets, which may stimulate plankton growth during spring and summer. This source is likely to increase as melting of the Greenland ice sheet escalates under a warming climate. The ...

Their warning comes as the Chief Medical Officer launches the UK's Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy and Action Plan, reflecting the need for a clear change in our understanding of and response to antimicrobial resistance by the public, NHS and government. Current estimates suggest that antibiotic resistance is a relatively cheap problem, they write, but such estimates do not take account of the fact that antimicrobial medicines are integral to modern healthcare. For example, antibiotics are given as standard to patients undergoing surgery, to women delivering by caesarean ...

March 11, 2013 -- Research has long linked high socioeconomic status with better health and lower mortality. But what's remained unclear is whether this association has more to do with access to resources (education, wealth, career opportunity, etc.) or the glow of high social status relative to others. Scholars call the latter "relative deprivation." To tease apart these factors, a team of investigators at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health led by Dr. Bruce Link, studied Baseball Hall of Fame inductees, Emmy Award winners, and former Presidents and ...

It had been suggested that the origin of pumpkins and cucumbers can be traced back to India. This has now been confirmed on the basis of genetic analyses performed by German and Indian botanists. The study was published in the open access journal PhytoKeys. Vegetables are essential components of a healthy daily diet, not just in India but around the globe. Compared to grains and pulses, however, vegetables are under-investigated taxonomically, and information on their genome is scarce. The cucumber family, Cucurbitaceae, includes many of our favorite foods: pumpkins, ...

The temptation to steal or cheat is sometimes great — especially when the risk of being caught is low. A new study suggests that denying people the opportunity to engage in these taboo behaviors may lead them to seek out violent video games as a way of managing their frustration. The study, led by researcher Brad Bushman of Ohio State University, is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Bushman and his colleagues want to understand what attracts people to violent media. In a previous study, they found that people ...

Worcester, Mass. – Damage to building structural elements, elevators, stairs, and fire protection systems caused by the shaking from a major earthquake can play a critical role in the spread of fire, hamper the ability of occupants to evacuate, and impede fire departments in their emergency response operations. These are among the conclusions of a groundbreaking study of post-earthquake building fire performance conducted in 2012 by researchers in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). "When the ground stops shaking after ...

A team of USC scientists has identified a protein that can change DNA topology, making DNA twist up into a so-called "supercoil." The finding provides new insight about the role of the protein—known as mini-chromosome maintenance (MCM)—in cancer cells, which have high levels of MCM. Think about twisting one end of a rubber band while holding the other end still. After a few turns, it forms a neatly twisted rope. But if you keep on turning, the twisted band will twist back upon itself into an increasingly coiled-up knot. Similarly, a DNA molecule can be twisted and ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (March 11, 2013) – For HIV-infected patients whose disease is well-controlled by modern treatment, the risk of death is not significantly higher than in the general population, according to a study published in AIDS, official journal of the International AIDS Society. AIDS is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. The study suggests that patients with undetectable viral loads and near-normal levels of immune cells on state-of-the art antiretroviral therapy (ART) can expect to have about the same risk of death as ...

People with multiple sclerosis (MS) who were treated with combination therapy did not see significant clinical benefit over those treated with single drug therapy, but combination therapy did reduce the development of new lesions, according to an international research team led by The Mount Sinai Medical Center. The findings, part of the largest-ever MS trial sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, are published in the March 11 issue of Annals of Neurology. In the Phase III CombiRx trial, researchers led by Fred Lublin, MD, of The Mount Sinai Medical Center, sought ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Fitness DVDs are a multimillion-dollar business, and those targeting adults over the age of 55 are a major part of the market. With names like "Boomers on the Move," "Stronger Seniors" and "Ageless Yoga," the programs promise much, but few have ever been rigorously tested. "There are tons of DVDs out there, 20 percent of them are purchased by older adults, and with few exceptions there is no evidence that they work," said University of Illinois kinesiology and community health professor Edward McAuley, who led a new study testing the efficacy of a home-based ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – New research shows that a tiny piece of RNA has an essential role in ensuring that embryonic tissue segments form properly. The study, conducted in chicken embryos, determined that this piece of RNA regulates cyclical gene activity that defines the timing of the formation of tissue segments that later become muscle and vertebrae. Genes involved in this activity are turned on and off in an oscillating pattern that matches the formation of each tissue segment. If the timing of these genes' activity doesn't remain tightly regulated, the tissue either won't ...

Scientists and policymakers from around the world will gather March 20-22 at the University of California, Davis, to grapple with the threats of climate change for global agriculture and recommend science-based actions to slow its effects while meeting the world's need for food, livelihood and sustainability. The Climate-Smart Agriculture Global Science Conference, planned in coordination with the World Bank, builds on a 2011 international meeting on this theme in the Netherlands. "Climate change, which brings severe weather events and more subtle but equally menacing ...

A new study conducted by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Adelaide, Australia, has produced the strongest evidence yet that fluoride in drinking water provides dental health benefits to adults, even those who had not received fluoridated drinking water as children. In the first population-level study of its kind, the study shows that fluoridated drinking water prevents tooth decay for all adults regardless of age, and whether or not they consumed fluoridated water during childhood. Led by UNC School of Dentistry faculty ...

A new report from the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies reveals that nonprofit organizations are major employers and major sources of employment growth in countries throughout the world. The report draws on new data generated by statistical offices in 16 countries that have implemented a new United Nations Handbook on Nonprofit Institutions. This Handbook calls on national statistical offices to report on the economic scale and composition of nonprofit organizations in their countries for the first time. Key findings to date from implementation of this Handbook, ...

This press release is available in French. A single dose of an investigational anti-inflammatory drug called inclacumab considerably reduces damage to heart muscle during angioplasty (the opening of a blocked artery), according to a recent international clinical trial spearheaded by Dr. Jean-Claude Tardif, Director of the Research Centre at the Montreal Heart Institute, affiliated with the University of Montreal. Presented today in San Francisco at the prestigious American cardiology conference, these findings show great promise. "Inclacumab could indeed become an ...

An international team of authors from 17 institutions in seven countries, including the Woods Hole Research Center, published a study in the journal Nature Climate Change on the 10 March 2013 (10.1038/NCLIMATE1836: http://www.nature.com/nclimate). The study shows that, as the cover of snow and ice in the northern latitudes has diminished in recent years, the temperature over the northern land mass has increased at different rates during the four seasons, causing a reduction in temperature and vegetation seasonality in this area. The temperature and vegetation at northern ...

SAN DIEGO – A new study suggests that treatment with adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) may be helpful for people whose multiple sclerosis (MS) is not well-controlled through their regular treatment. The study was released today and will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 65th Annual Meeting in San Diego, March 16 to 23, 2013. The study involved 23 people with MS who were taking beta-interferon treatment and had at least one relapse or brain scan showing new disease activity within the previous year. They were considered to have "breakthrough" MS, which ...

SAN DIEGO – The drug natalizumab is effective for treating multiple sclerosis (MS), but it increases the risk of a rare but potentially fatal brain infection called progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML). A study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 65th Annual Meeting in San Diego, March 16 to 23, 2013, suggests that early detection of PML may help improve survival and disability levels. The study examined 319 people with MS who were treated with natalizumab and diagnosed with PML. Because of the risk of PML, people ...

BOSTON—An international team of 21 authors from 17 institutions in seven countries has just published a study in the journal Natural Climate Change showing that, as the cover of snow and ice in the northern latitudes has diminished in recent years, the temperature over the northern land mass has increased at different rates during the four seasons, causing a reduction in temperature and vegetation seasonality in this area. In other words, the temperature and vegetation at northern latitudes increasingly resembles those found several degrees of latitude farther south as ...

Even though young athletes are required to receive health screens to be cleared to play sports, those tests failed to detect important cardiovascular abnormalities in cleared players, and many were allowed to play despite suspicions of dangerous cardiovascular conditions, according to a large registry study of patients who died from sudden death, being presented March 10 by Kevin Harris, MD, research cardiologist at the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation (MHIF). The data is being presented at the annual American College of Cardiology Scientific Sessions in San Francisco. ...

This press release is available in German. Protein activity is strictly regulated. Incorrect or poor protein regulation can lead to uncontrolled growth and thus cancer or chronic inflammation. Members of the Institute of Veterinary Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Zurich have identified enzymes that can regulate the activity of medically important proteins. Their discovery enables these proteins to be manipulated very selectively, opening up new treatment methods for inflammations and cancer. For a healthy organism, it is crucial for proteins ...

Tropical forests are less likely to lose biomass – plants and plant material - in response to greenhouse gas emissions over the twenty-first century than may previously have been thought, suggests a study published online this week in Nature Geoscience. In the most comprehensive assessment yet of the risk of tropical forest dieback due to climate change, the results have important implications for the future evolution of tropical rainforests including the role they play in the global climate system and carbon cycle. To remain effective, programmes such as the United ...

The risk of cardiovascular sudden death was very small and only about 30% of the incidence were due to diseases that could be reliably detected by pre-participation screening, even with 12-lead ECGs, according to research in a U.S. high school athlete population presented March 10 at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) Scientific Sessions. Sudden death in young competitive athletes due to cardiovascular disease is an important community issue, which could impact the design of population-based screening initiatives. The frequency with which these tragic events ...