Tobacco smoking and high blood pressure are biggest killers of Japanese adults The life expectancy of a person born in Japan is among the highest in the world (82.9 years) yet tobacco smoking and high blood pressure are still the major risk factors for death among adults in Japan, emphasizing the need to reduce tobacco smoking and to improve ongoing programs designed to help people manage multiple cardiovascular risk factors, including high blood pressure, according to a study published in this week's PLoS Medicine. In an analysis of available data led by Nayu Ikeda ...

Availability and use of sanitation reduces by half the likelihood of parasitic worm infections Access to sanitation facilities, such as latrines, reduces by half the risk of becoming infected by parasitic worms that are transmitted via soil (soil-transmitted helminths) according to a study published in this week's PLoS Medicine. These findings are important as infection with parasitic worms can cause diarrhea, weakness, and malnutrition, which in turn can impair physical and mental development in children; they reinforce the importance of increased access to sanitation ...

In an Essay that expands on a previous proposal to use the courts to prosecute those involved in ghostwriting on the basis of it being legal fraud, Xavier Bosch from the University of Barcelona, Spain and colleagues lay out three outline specific areas of legal liability in this week's PLoS Medicine. First, when an injured patient's physician directly or indirectly relies upon a journal article containing false or manipulated safety and efficacy data, the authors (including "guest" authors), can be held legally liable for patient injuries, says the article. Second, guest ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – Preoperative MRI helps surgeons make more informed decisions about nerve-sparing procedures in men with prostate cancer, according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology. Excluding skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in American men, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Open radical prostatectomy, or removal of the prostate, is a common treatment for the disease, but it carries substantial risks, including incontinence and impotence. "I think preoperative MRI will be useful for ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Since its discovery 150 years ago, scientists have puzzled over whether the winged dinosaur Archaeopteryx represents the missing link in birds' evolution to powered flight. Much of the debate has focused on the iconic creature's wings and the mystery of whether — and how well — it could fly. Some secrets have been revealed by an international team of researchers led by Brown University. Through a novel analytic approach, the researchers have determined that a well-preserved feather on the raven-sized dinosaur's wing was black. The ...

Brown adipose tissue (often known as brown fat) is a specialized tissue that burns calories to generate body heat in rodents and newborn humans, neither of which shiver. Recently, adult humans have also been found to possess brown fat. This fact piqued the interest of researchers seeking to combat the obesity epidemic, the thought being that if they could develop ways to increase the amount of brown fat a person has that person will become slimmer. One hitch to this idea is it has never actually been shown definitively that brown fat in adult humans can burn energy. Now, ...

Human stem cells capable of giving rise to any fetal or adult cell type are known as pluripotent stem cells. It is hoped that such cells, the most well known being human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), can be used to generate cell populations with therapeutic utility. In this context, neural derivatives of hESCs are being tested in clinical trials. However, Natalie Lefort and colleagues, at the Institute for Stem cell Therapy and Exploration of Monogenic diseases, France, have now generated cautionary data that suggest that additional quality controls need to be put in place ...

PHILADELPHIA -- Glioblastoma, a lethal brain cancer, is one of the most resistant to available therapies and patients typically live approximately 15 months. Previous research has focused on the activation of the apoptosis, or cell death, pathway using therapeutic agents such as tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL); however, the vast majority of these experiments have been stymied by resistance. "Scientists in this field have been hoping to treat this cancer with this new type of apoptosis pathway-targeted therapeutic drug, and this new information ...

EDITOR'S PICK: Brown fat burns calories in adult humans Brown adipose tissue (often known as brown fat) is a specialized tissue that burns calories to generate body heat in rodents and newborn humans, neither of which shiver. Recently, adult humans have also been found to possess brown fat. This fact piqued the interest of researchers seeking to combat the obesity epidemic, the thought being that if they could develop ways to increase the amount of brown fat a person has that person will become slimmer. One hitch to this idea is it has never actually been shown definitively ...

North Carolina Wedding Venues, SC wedding photographers, wedding planners in North Carolina and so much more for brides planning their wedding can be found on Wedding Carolina. For the next 2 months brides can takes advantage of special offers and deals from affiliated Wedding Carolina partners as they celebrate the launch of their Carolina wedding planning site. Wedding Carolina is the new wedding planning website that just launched for brides in North Carolina and South Carolina as they work on their wedding plans with Charlotte wedding planners in North Carolina or without ...

CHICAGO – Children without symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux whose asthma was being poorly controlled with anti-inflammatory treatment did not have an improvement in symptoms or lung function with the added treatment of the proton pump inhibitor lansoprazole, compared to patients who received placebo, according to a study in the January 25 issue of JAMA. Use of lansoprazole was associated with increased adverse events. "Asthma and gastroesophageal reflux (GER) disease are both common disorders in children, and symptoms of GER are frequently reported among children with ...

CHICAGO – Among women with invasive epithelial ovarian cancer, patients having a germline (gene change in a reproductive cell that could be passed to offspring) mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes was associated with improved 5-year overall survival, with BRCA2 carriers having the best prognosis, according to a study in the January 25 issue of JAMA. "Germline mutations in the tumor suppressor genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 are the strongest known genetic risk factors for both breast and epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) and are found in 6 percent to 15 percent of women with EOC," ...

CHICAGO – Elevated exposures in children to perfluorinated compounds, which are widely used in manufacturing and food packaging, were associated with lower antibody responses to routine childhood immunizations, according to a study in the January 25 issue of JAMA. "Fluorine-substituted organic compounds have thousands of important industrial and manufacturing applications and occur widely in surfactants and repellants in food packaging and textile impregnation. The perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) are highly persistent and cause contamination of drinking water, food, ...

Boston, MA—A new study finds that perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), widely used in manufactured products such as non-stick cookware, waterproof clothing, and fast-food packaging, were associated with lowered immune response to vaccinations in children. It is the first study to document how PFCs, which can be transferred to children prenatally (via the mother) and postnatally from exposure in the environment, can adversely affect vaccine response. The study appears in the January 25, 2012 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). "Routine childhood ...

Wetland restoration is a billion-dollar-a-year industry in the United States that aims to create ecosystems similar to those that disappeared over the past century. But a new analysis of restoration projects shows that restored wetlands seldom reach the quality of a natural wetland. "Once you degrade a wetland, it doesn't recover its normal assemblage of plants or its rich stores of organic soil carbon, which both affect natural cycles of water and nutrients, for many years," said David Moreno-Mateos, a University of California, Berkeley, postdoctoral fellow. "Even after ...

TeamSupport.com (http://www.TeamSupport.com) - the popular provider of web-based customer support and help desk software solutions - today announced the release of a powerful new screen capture capability. It gives users the ability to record audio and video of a discrepancy and embed it in tickets submitted to a TeamSupport-enabled customer portal. Available to users of both TeamSupport's basic and advanced ticket submission portals, the option offers an "Add Screen Recording" button below the description box when filling-out a new support request. Users ...

Asthma and gastroesophageal reflux (GER) are both common illnesses in children. GER in children often occurs without the typical symptoms of heartburn, and physicians frequently prescribe the acid reflux drug lansoprazole to supplement the standard inhaled steroid treatment for children with uncontrolled asthma regardless of GER symptoms. However, a randomized clinic trial conducted by the American Lung Association's Asthma Clinical Group found that the addition of lansoprazole does not improve asthma symptoms or the control of asthma in children and may increase the risk ...

A new method for identifying bacteria that cause urinary tract infections (UTIs) will lead to much faster, more effective treatment as well as a reduction in costs. The procedure, described in the Journal of Medical Microbiology, could eventually be used for the identification of micro-organisms in other bodily fluids, including blood and spinal fluid. Scientists at the University Hospital Essen in Germany tested urine samples from in-house patients and were able to effectively separate and accurately identify bacteria using a technique called Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption ...

Teaching children with autism to 'talk things through in their head' may help them to solve complex day-to-day tasks, which could increase the chances of independent, flexible living later in life, according to new research. The study, led by Durham University, found that the mechanism for using 'inner speech' or 'talking things through in their head' is intact in children with autism but not always used in the same way as typically developing children do. The psychologists found that the use, or lack of, thinking in words is strongly linked to the extent of someone's ...

The mating habits of marine turtle may help to protect them against the effects of climate change, according to new research led by the University of Exeter. Published today (25 January 2012) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the study shows how the mating patterns of a population of endangered green turtles may be helping them deal with the fact that global warming is leading to a disproportionate number of females being born. The gender of baby turtles is determined by the temperature of the eggs during incubation, with warmer temperatures leading to ...

New Jersey families continue to suffer through the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression. Many unemployed workers still cannot find work and their debt only "snow-balls" - often to the point where it is impossible to get out from underneath it. For many of these struggling families, the only option they can turn to for assistance during these dire times is bankruptcy. Often individuals consider bankruptcy as a response to mounting credit card debt. Generally, credit card debt is one of the largest unsecured debts held by most people filing for ...

Los Angeles, CA – Experts from the International Headache Society (IHS) have developed new recommendations for conduct of acute and preventive migraine clinical trials. The third edition of Migraine Clinical Trials Guidelines is now available in the IHS journal Cephalalgia, which is published by SAGE. The new guidelines represent an expert consensus summary, and recommend a contemporary, standardized, and evidence-based approach to investigators conducting and reporting randomised, controlled migraine clinical trials. Migraine clinical research has increased exponentially ...

– A pair of studies by The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and State Farm® identify factors that may lead teens to drive with multiple peer passengers and, then, how those passengers may affect their driver's behavior just before a serious crash. The studies were published today in the Journal of Adolescent Health. Experts have long known that peer passengers increase teen driver crash risk. What hasn't been well understood was how they increase crash risk. "These studies help us understand the factors that may predispose teens to drive with multiple friends ...

New software has significant benefits for primary school children and their understanding of elementary physics, research shows. Studies funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) focused on what primary school children know when they begin studying physics, and how much they still have to learn. The studies looked at how much children understand about the movement of objects such as direction and speed. The studies show that the tasks used in schools to assess how children understand the movement of objects seriously underestimate how much they know already. ...

Eating food fried in olive or sunflower oil is not linked to heart disease or premature death, finds a paper published on bmj.com today. The authors stress, however, that their study took place in Spain, a Mediterranean country where olive or sunflower oil is used for frying and their results would probably not be the same in another country where solid and re-used oils were used for frying. In Western countries, frying is one of the most common methods of cooking. When food is fried it becomes more calorific because the food absorbs the fat of the oils. While ...