New data released by the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) to coincide with World Spirometry Day today has revealed a worrying lack of understanding and concern among the public about the world's biggest killer - lung disease, which now claims the lives of almost 4 million people a year. Despite the high incidence of lung disease, research conducted by YouGov across four continents revealed that people are far more worried about cancer, heart disease and stroke . This lack of concern is even more striking as data shows that while the other major diseases ...

Test performance can improve dramatically if students are offered rewards just before they are given standardized tests and if they receive the incentive immediately afterward, new research at the University of Chicago shows. Educators have long debated the value of financial and other rewards as incentives, but a series of experiments in Chicago-area schools showed that with the right kind of rewards, students achievement improved by as much as six months beyond what would be expected. The rewards apparently provide students with an incentive to take tests more seriously. ...

URBANA -- When D.K. Lee and Lane Rayburn, faculty members in the crop sciences department at the University of Illinois, talk about prairie cordgrass (Spartina pectinata) they have difficulty containing their enthusiasm. They are among the very few people doing research on this grass as a potential energy crop. According to Lee, switchgrass has been studied extensively as a forage crop and a dedicated energy crop. Recently this research has been extended to big bluestem, indiangrass, and other native grasses. Prairie cordgrass has received comparatively little attention ...

An automated lung nodule matching program can improve radiologists' efficiency almost two-fold, a first of its kind study shows. The study found that the time required for manual nodule matching ranged from 1 second to about 11.4 minutes, whereas automated nodule matching ranged from less than one second to about 6.6 minutes, said Chi Wan Koo, MD, the lead author of the study. The study conducted at New York University Langone Medical Center in New York, included 57 patients, yielding a total of 325 pulmonary nodules identified on CT. Four thoracic radiologists manually ...

June 26, 2012 – Scientists from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) have released comprehensive reviews of the most effective treatments for alcohol dependence, one of the most prevalent addictions in Canada. Published in the latest edition of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, the reviews explore the most effective treatments and interventions for problem alcohol use and concurrent disorders. Almost 40 per cent of people with an alcohol use problem also have a concurrent mental illness, particularly schizophrenia, mood or anxiety disorders. The reviews ...

Tropical Storm Debby continues to be a big rainmaker in Florida and southern Georgia and NASA's TRMM satellite has measured those rainfall rates from space, showing where heavy rain has fallen. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite is basically a flying rain gauge in space. Scientists use TRMM data to calculate rainfall rates and rain totals from space. TRMM imagery from June 25 showed Debby's heaviest rains were falling at a rate of over 2 inches (50 mm) per hour, and to the southeast of the center. Debby has been a huge rainmaker. For example, Debby ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Rhode Island Hospital researcher Suzanne de la Monte, M.D., has found a link between brain insulin resistance (diabetes) and two other key mediators of neuronal injury that help Alzheimer's disease (AD) to propagate. The research found that once AD is established, therapeutic efforts must also work to reduce toxin production in the brain. The study, Dysfunctional Pro-Ceramide, ER Stress, and Insulin/IGF Signaling Networks with Progression of Alzheimer's Disease, is published in the June 22, 2012, supplement of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. Alzheimer's ...

The MacArthur Research Network on Youth and Participatory Politics (YPP), under the direction of co-principal investigators University of Chicago political scientist Cathy Cohen, and Joseph Kahne, professor of education at Mills College, has unveiled the findings of the largest nationally representative study to date of new media and politics among young people. The national survey questioned 3,000 young people, ages 15-25 on how they use the Internet, social media and engage in politics. Unlike any prior study on the topic, the YPP survey included large numbers of black, ...

WASHINGTON — Nuclear physics is a discovery-driven enterprise aimed at understanding the fundamental nature of visible matter in the universe. For the past hundred years, new knowledge of the nuclear world has also directly benefited society through many innovative applications. In its fourth decadal survey of nuclear physics, the National Research Council outlines the impressive accomplishments of the field in the last decade and recommends a long-term strategy for the future. The report builds on the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee's 2007 five-year plan and commends ...

BOSTON – While current American Heart Association heart failure prevention guidelines warn against habitual coffee consumption, some studies propose a protective benefit, and still others find no association at all. Amidst this conflicting information, research from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center attempts to shift the conversation from a definitive yes or no, to a question of how much. "Our results did show a possible benefit, but like with so many other things we consume, it really depends on how much coffee you drink," says lead author Elizabeth Mostofsky, MPH, ...

Compared to normal cells, cancer cells have a prodigious appetite for glucose, the result of a shift in cell metabolism known as aerobic glycolysis or the "Warburg effect." Researchers focusing on this effect as a possible target for cancer therapies have examined how biochemical signals present in cancer cells regulate the altered metabolic state. Now, in a unique study, a UCLA research team led by Thomas Graeber, a professor of molecular and medical pharmacology, has investigated the reverse aspect: how the metabolism of glucose affects the biochemical signals present ...

When we turn on the A/C in the summer, our first thought is probably one of relief. If it's 100 degrees in the shade, we're probably not thinking about how our decision might influence the environmental legacy we leave for future generations. It's not that we don't care, it's just that we typically don't think about our behavior in terms of long-term, inter-generational tradeoffs. But new research suggests that reminders of our own mortality may encourage us to keep future generations in mind as we make decisions. In a study published in Psychological Science, a publication ...

PASADENA, Calif.—In 1969, an exploding fireball tore through the sky over Mexico, scattering thousands of pieces of meteorite across the state of Chihuahua. More than 40 years later, the Allende meteorite is still serving the scientific community as a rich source of information about the early stages of our solar system's evolution. Recently, scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) discovered a new mineral embedded in the space rock—one they believe to be among the oldest minerals formed in the solar system. Dubbed panguite, the new titanium oxide ...

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — A new study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that the federal government made about $13 billion in duplicative payments to provide health-care services to veterans who were simultaneously enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans from 2004-2009. The study was conducted by researchers at Brown University, VA Palo Alto Medical Center and the Institute for Population Health Improvement at UC Davis Health System. Some veterans are entitled to health-care coverage through both the U.S. Department of Veterans ...

As the Supreme Court prepares to issue its ruling on Thursday, Americans are divided along party, ideology and gender lines on a key provision of the healthcare law. A new National Agenda Opinion Poll by the University of Delaware's Center for Political Communication reveals women are significantly more likely to support health insurance requirements than men. Additionally, Democrats and liberals overwhelmingly favor insurance mandates, whereas large majorities of Republicans and conservatives oppose them. The national telephone survey of 906 Americans was conducted ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Drug traffickers who want to leave the "game" behind often struggle to do so because they fear loss of power and status, a new study shows. Those who do leave the illegal drug trade often do so because of a complex mixture of issues including fatherhood, drug use and abuse, and threat of punishment by authorities or fear of retaliation. Researchers concluded that traffickers need ways that allow them to leave the drug business without surrendering their entire identity. The new article, now online in the International Journal of Drug Policy, is one ...

Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center have conducted a clinical trial aimed at preventing graft vs. host disease (GVHD) in patients who have received hematopoietic (blood) cell transplants (HCT). The study, comparing the drug tacrolimus (TAC) in combination with either methotrexate (MTX ) or sirolimus (SIR), found that the sirolimus/tacrolimus (SIR/TAC) combination was more effective in preventing grades II-IV acute GVHD and moderate-severe chronic GVHD after allogeneic blood cell transplantation. The study randomized 74 patients, ages 16 to 70, to receive either SIR/TAC ...

A patient registry is proving invaluable in cataloging the clinical features, symptoms, severity, and outcomes of fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD), a non-inflammatory vascular disease that can cause narrowing of arteries in the carotid (neck) and renal (kidney) arteries, which can result in headache, strokes, and aneurysms. Registry data revealed that 91 percent of patients are women diagnosed in the prime of their lives. As a result, physicians are developing best practices that can lead to early diagnosis and treatment with the goal of improved outcomes and fewer adverse ...

How do denser neighborhoods affect property values? And what's the economic value of walkable neighborhoods? A study conducted by researchers at the University of Washington College of Built Environments and a South Korean university shows that, contrary to popular belief, there's a positive association between higher neighborhood density and the value of single-family residential properties. Researchers modeled the values of single-family homes, multifamily rental buildings, commercial spaces and offices in King County, Wash., which includes Seattle. They used ...

(Boston) – Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found that the incidence of gout and hyperuricemia (high uric acid levels) in the U.S. has risen significantly over the last 20 years and is associated with major medical disorders like hypertension and chronic kidney disease. The study, which is published in the American Journal of Medicine, was led by Hyon Choi, MD, DrPH, professor of medicine in the section of rheumatology and the clinical epidemiology unit at BUSM and rheumatologist at Boston Medical Center (BMC). Gout is a common inflammatory ...

Modern research tools like supercomputers, particle colliders, and telescopes are generating so much data, so quickly, many scientists fear that soon they will not be able to keep up with the deluge. "These instruments are capable of answering some of our most fundamental scientific questions, but it is all for nothing if we can't get a handle on the data and make sense of it," says Surendra Byna of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's (Berkeley Lab's) Scientific Data Management Group. That's why Byna and several of his colleagues from the Berkeley Lab's Computational ...

Putnam Valley, NY. (June 26 , 2012) – Optimal stem cell therapy delivery to damaged areas of the heart after myocardial infarction has been hampered by inefficient homing of cells to the damaged site. However, using rat models, researchers in France have used a magnet to guide cells loaded with iron oxide nanoparticles to key sites, enhancing the myocardial retention of intravascularly delivered endothelial progenitor cells. The study is published in a recent issue of Cell Transplantation (21:4), now freely available on-line at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/, ...

Putnam Valley, NY. (June 26 , 2012) –Researchers in Japan who evaluated the risks and efficacy of transplanting two varieties of stem cells into mouse cochlea have concluded that both adult-derived induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells and mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells demonstrate similar survival and neural differentiation capabilities. However, there is a risk of tumor growth associated with transplanting iPS cells into mouse cochleae. Given the potential for tumorigenesis, they concluded that the source of iPS cells is a critical issue for iPS cell-based therapy. Their ...

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 26, 2012) — A new study by the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center shows that patients reported significant improvement in side effects of cancer treatment following just one Jin Shin Jyutsu session. Jin Shin Jyutsu is an ancient form of touch therapy similar to acupuncture in philosophy. Presented at the 2012 Markey Cancer Center Research Day by Jennifer Bradley who is the Jin Shin Jyutsu integrative practitioner at Markey, the study included 159 current cancer patients. Before and after each Jin Shin Jyutsu session, Bradley asked patients ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Preventive mammography rates in women in their 40s have dropped nearly 6 percent nationwide since the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommended against routine mammograms for women in this age group, a Mayo Clinic analysis shows. That represents a small but significant decrease since the controversial guidelines were released, the researchers say. Their findings are being presented at the Academy Health Annual Research Meeting, June 24-26, in Orlando, Fla. "The 2009 USPSTF guidelines resulted in significant backlash among patients, physicians ...