Estimates of malaria incidence derived from routine surveillance data suggest that 225 million episodes of malaria occurred worldwide in 2009. This estimate is lower than other published figures, such as those from the Malaria Atlas Project (MAP), particularly for estimates of malaria incidence outside Africa. Richard Cibulskis and colleagues at the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland present a critique of different estimation methods of the worldwide incidence of malaria in this week's PLoS Medicine. Knowing the burden of malaria in any country is an essential component of public ...

In this week's PLoS Medicine, Johannes Bogaards of VU University, the Netherlands and colleagues use mathematical models to investigate whether vaccinating females only, males only, or both sexes is the best way to achieve the most effective reduction in the population prevalence of sexually-transmitted infections. Specifically for human papillomavirus (HPV), the authors found that single-sex vaccination was the most effective strategy for prevention of disease and that it was preferable to vaccinate the sex with the highest prevaccine prevalence of HPV infection which ...

Dr. Jodi Guttenberg has now been selected and honored by peer-review to be included in the 2012 listing of Top Dentists for her skill and ability in the field of Pediatric Dentistry. Since 1987, Dr. Guttenberg has been serving Long Island, New York children from infancy to adolescence. Top Dentists (www.usatopdentists.com) selects and grants honors based on an exhaustive peer-review survey in which dentists and specialists throughout the Long Island area cast thousands of votes regarding the skill and ability of other dentists and specialists. Inclusion in Top Dentists ...

A novel analytical framework could help to strengthen health systems in post-conflict countries An analytical framework that gives equal focus to the production, deployment, and retention of health workers could help to strengthen and develop health systems in post-conflict countries, such as Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Cambodia. These are the conclusions of a Policy Forum article in this week's PLoS Medicine. Noriko Fujita, Mari Nagai, and Hidechika Akashi from the National Center for Global Health and Medicine in Tokyo, Japan and Anthony Zwi ...

Glaciers are retreating at an unexpectedly fast rate according to research done in Peru's Cordillera Blanca by McGill doctoral student Michel Baraer. They are currently shrinking by about one per cent a year, and that percentage is increasing steadily, according to his calculations. But despite this accelerated glacial shrinking, for the first time, the volume of water draining from the glacier into the Rio Santa in Northern Peru has started to decrease significantly. Baraer, and collaborators Prof. Bryan Mark, at the Ohio State University, and Prof. Jeffrey McKenzie, ...

CHICAGO – A survey of police officers indicated that about 40 percent have a sleep disorder, which was associated with an increased risk of adverse health, safety and performance outcomes, according to a study in the December 21 issue of JAMA. Sleep disorders, such as obstructive sleep apnea, insomnia, and shift work disorder, affect 50 to 70 million U.S. residents. Most are undiagnosed and remain untreated. "Police officers frequently work extended shifts and long work weeks, which in other occupations are associated with increased risk of errors, unintended injuries, ...

CHICAGO – In a study that enrolled nearly 30,000 apparently healthy men and women, those who had an increase in their resting heart rate over a 10-year period had an increased risk of death from all causes and from ischemic heart disease, according to a study in the December 21 issue of JAMA. Some evidence indicates that a high resting heart rate (RHR) is associated with increased cardiovascular disease and death in the general population, independent of conventional risk factors. However, whether changes in RHR over time influence the risk of death from ischemic heart ...

CHICAGO – Patients with systolic hypertension who were treated with the diuretic chlorthalidone for 4.5 years as part of a clinical trial had a significantly lower rate of death and a gain in life expectancy free from cardiovascular death about 20 years later compared to patients who received placebo, according to a study in the December 21 issue of JAMA. "Antihypertensive drug therapy has been shown to decrease nonfatal and fatal cardiovascular events in controlled clinical trials and meta-analyses. However, long-term data on gain in life expectancy are not available," ...

CHICAGO – An analysis of lung and spleen tissue from patients who died of sepsis revealed certain biochemical, cellular and histological findings that were consistent with immunosuppression, according to a study in the December 21 issue of JAMA. "Sepsis is responsible for more than 225,000 deaths annually in the United States. Developing new therapies for sepsis has been particularly challenging, with more than 25 unsuccessful drug trials. Characterized by an initial intense inflammatory response or 'cytokine storm,' patients with sepsis may present with fever, shock, ...

Biologists have learned in recent years that wild chilies develop their trademark pungency, or heat, as a defense against a fungus that could destroy their seeds. But that doesn't explain why some chilies are hot and others are not. New research provides an answer: Hot chilies growing in dry areas need more water to produce as many seeds as non-pungent plants, but the Fusarium fungus is less of a threat in dryer environments so chilies in those areas are less likely to turn up the heat. In wetter regions, where Fusarium thrives, wild chilies build up their reserves ...

Kyoto, Japan -- Researchers at Kyoto University have announced a breakthrough with broad implications for semiconductor-based devices. The findings, announced in the December 20 issue of the journal Nature Communications, may lead to the development of ultra-high-speed transistors and high-efficiency photovoltaic cells. Working with standard semiconductor material (gallium arsenide, GaAs), the team observed that exposing the sample to a terahertz (1,000 gigahertz) range electric field pulse caused an avalanche of electron-hole pairs (excitons) to burst forth. This single-cycle ...

Jackson Design & Remodeling (JDR) announced today it has won a 2011 Better Business Bureau (BBB) Torch Award for marketplace ethics in the category for San Diego businesses with 25-99 employees. The company won BBB awards in 2007 and 2009. Winning companies are only eligible to submit entries every two years, making this JDR's third consecutive win. The Torch Awards are the BBB's annual awards program honoring outstanding local for-profit companies and nonprofit charitable organizations that have demonstrated a commitment to ethical business practices, both in operations ...

Trees that produce frankincense – used in incense and perfumes across the world and a key part of the Christmas story – are declining so dramatically that production of the fragrant resin could be halved over the next 15 years, according to a new study published in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology. Ecologists from the Netherlands and Ethiopia say tree numbers could decline by 90% in the next 50 years. If fire, grazing and insect attack – the most likely causes of the decline – remain unchecked frankincense production could be doomed, they warn. ...

Every cloud has a silver lining: weather forecasting models could predict brain tumor growth Ever wondered how meteorologists can accurately predict the weather? They use complex spatiotemporal weather models, i.e. mathematical equations that track the motions of the atmosphere through time and space, and combine them with incoming data streams from weather stations and satellites. Now, an innovative new study published in BioMed Central's open access journal Biology Direct has determined that the mathematical methodology used to assimilate data for weather forecasting ...

Hay fever (runny nose, sneezing, itchy eyes) is caused by an allergy to pollen, and most commonly to grass pollen. These tiny grains bring misery to sufferers through spring and summer and pollen levels are often included as part of weather reports to help sufferers prepare. However new research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Clinical and Translational Allergy shows that, regardless of medication and other allergies, for the same grass pollen levels, hay fever symptoms are worse in the first half of the season than later on. Worldwide there are over ...

A new candidate malaria vaccine with the potential to neutralise all strains of the most deadly species of malaria parasite has been developed by a team led by scientists at the University of Oxford. The results of this new vaccine independently confirm the utility of a key discovery reported last month from scientists at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute who had identified this target within the parasite as a potential 'Achilles' heel' that could hold significant promise for vaccine development. According to the World Malaria Report 2010, malaria killed an estimated ...

Diabetes is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and can reduce blood supply to the heart tissue and damage cardiac cells, resulting in heart failure. New research has investigated if nerve growth factor (NGF) gene therapy can prevent diabetic heart failure and small vascular disease in mice. The study by Professor Costanza Emanueli, British Heart Foundation Senior Research Fellow and colleagues of the Bristol Heart Institute in the Regenerative Medicine Section of the School of Clinical Sciences at the University of Bristol is published online in Diabetes, ...

The list of well known musicians who have died at age 27 may look like more than a coincidence – Amy Winehouse, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, and Brian Jones to name a few – but their age is unlikely to have been the cause of their demise, according to research in the Christmas issue published on bmj.com today. While fame may increase the risk of death for musicians, probably due to their rock and roll lifestyle, this risk is not limited to age 27, say the authors led by Adrian Barnett from Queensland University of Technology in Australia. To ...

Salt policy makers in the Netherlands are consuming more than the average daily recommended salt intake of 6 grams in one hot meal at their work canteens, finds a study in the Christmas issue published on bmj.com today. The authors, led by Dr Lizzy Brewster at the University of Amsterdam, say the policy makers eating at their staff canteens were consuming around 15.4 grams of salt a day. They warn that this amount of salt, compared to the recommended intake, translates to up to a 36% increase in premature death. Excess salt intake is estimated to cause 30% of all high ...

The phrase "obs stable" in hospital notes is ambiguous and does not reliably indicate a patient's health status, concludes a study in the Christmas issue published on bmj.com today. Dr Gregory Scott and colleagues argue that the phrase is potentially misleading and advise doctors to stop using it and write the observations in full. The expression "obs stable" is written daily in hospital notes to indicate that there are no alarming problems with a patient's bedside nursing observations. Abnormalities in these observations act as an alarm for doctors when assessing ...

A review of a historical study from 1848 reveals that cod liver oil was an effective treatment for tuberculosis, says Professor Sir Malcolm Green in the Christmas issue published on bmj.com today. In the study, carried out by physicians at the Hospital for Consumption, Chelsea (now the Royal Brompton Hospital), 542 patients with consumption (tuberculosis) received standard treatment with cod liver oil. These patients were compared with 535 'control' patients who received standard treatment alone (without cod liver oil). While improvement rates were similar in the two ...

The history of evolution is periodically marked by explosions in biodiversity, as groups of species try out a wide range of shapes and sizes. With a new analysis of two such adaptive radiations in the fossil record, researchers have discovered that these diversifications proceeded head-first. By analyzing the physical features of fossil fish that diversified around the time of two separate extinction events, scientists from the University of Chicago and the University of Oxford found that head features diversified before body shapes and types. The discovery disputes previous ...

After the gifts have been unwrapped and the turkey is reduced to leftovers, Intertops Poker has a full schedule of Christmas poker tournaments to keep the festivities going. Bounty, free roll and guaranteed tournaments begin Christmas day and continue throughout the week. A 50% (up to $300) reload bonus is also available until next Wednesday. Intertops Christmas Poker Tournament Schedule: Sunday, December 25th -- NL Hold'em $500 Added Bounty Tourney Monday, December 26th -- NL Hold'em $1500 Guaranteed Double-Chance Deepstack Tourney Tuesday, December 27th -- PL Omaha ...

PASADENA, Calif. -- Identifying the composition of the earth's core is key to understanding how our planet formed and the current behavior of its interior. While it has been known for many years that iron is the main element in the core, many questions have remained about just how iron behaves under the conditions found deep in the earth. Now, a team led by mineral-physics researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has honed in on those behaviors by conducting extremely high-pressure experiments on the element. "Pinpointing the properties of iron ...

This press release is available in German. Progress of metamaterials in nanotechnologies has made the invisibility cloak, a subject of mythology and science fiction, become reality: Light waves can be guided around an object to be hidden, in such a way that this object appears to be non-existent. This concept applied to electromagnetic light waves may also be transferred to other types of waves, such as sound waves. Researchers from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have now succeeded in demonstrating for the first time an invisibility cloak for elastic waves. Such ...