Two out of three severely obese kids already have at least one risk factor for heart disease, suggests research published online in Archives of Disease in Childhood. The prevalence and severity of childhood obesity has been rising worldwide, but little research has been carried out on the underlying health problems that children with severe weight problems have, say the authors. They base their findings on data supplied by paediatricians to the Dutch Paediatric Surveillance Unit between 2005 and 2007. During this period, doctors treating all new cases of severe obesity ...

(Boston, Mass.)—Severe psychological and physical neglect produces measurable changes in children's brains, finds a study led by Boston Children's Hospital. But the study also suggests that positive interventions can partially reverse these changes. Researchers led by Margaret Sheridan, PhD, and Charles Nelson, PhD, of the Labs of Cognitive Neuroscience at Boston Children's Hospital, analyzed brain MRI scans from Romanian children in the ongoing Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP), which has transferred some children reared in orphanages into quality foster care ...

Most children exposed to high levels of alcohol in the womb do not develop the distinct facial features seen in fetal alcohol syndrome, but instead show signs of abnormal intellectual or behavioral development, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and researchers in Chile. These abnormalities of the nervous system involved language delays, hyperactivity, attention deficits or intellectual delays. The researchers used the term s functional neurologic impairment to describe these abnormalities.. The study authors documented an abnormality ...

CHICAGO – Total hip replacement (THR) and total knee replacement (TKR) surgeries were associated with increased risk of acute myocardial infarction (AMI, heart attack) in the first two weeks after the surgical procedures, according to report published Online First by Archives of Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication. THR and TKR are effective for treating patients with moderate to severe osteoarthritis. These surgical procedures are commonly performed, with an estimated 1.8 million procedures performed annually worldwide, according to the study background. "This ...

CHICAGO – A study of adolescents with hypertension enrolled in the Michigan Medicaid program suggests that guideline-recommended diagnostic tests – echocardiograms and renal ultrasonography – were poorly used, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, a JAMA Network publication. Hypertension is a growing problem for adolescents because of the association between obesity and hypertension. Current pediatric guidelines recommend laboratory tests and renal ultrasonography for all pediatric patients with hypertension to rule ...

BOSTON – July 23, 2012 – Scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center have identified biological mechanisms by which glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), a gut hormone, protects against kidney disease, and also mechanisms that inhibit its actions in diabetes. The findings, which are reported today online by Diabetes, may lead to the development of new therapeutic agents that harness the actions of GLP-1 to prevent the harmful effects of hyperglycemia on renal endothelial cells. Renal complications, also known as diabetic nephropathy, are one of the most life-threatening complications ...

Researchers at ICAP's Harlem Prevention Center (HPC) joined the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) today to announce study results that showed disturbing rates of new HIV infections occurring among black gay and bisexual men in the U.S. (also known as men who have sex with men, or MSM), particularly young black MSM. The HPTN 061 study showed that the overall rate of new HIV infection among black MSM in this study was 2.8% per year, a rate that is nearly 50% higher than in white MSM in the U.S. Even more alarming, HPTN 061 found that young black MSM—those 30 years of ...

In a leap forward for laser technology, a team at University of California, Santa Barbara, has developed the first violet nonpolar vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) based on m-plane gallium nitride semiconductors. This recent discovery by LED pioneer Shuji Nakamura and his research team at UCSB is an achievement in VCSEL technology that opens doors for higher optical efficiency lasers at greatly reduced manufacturing costs for a variety of applications. "We have demonstrated working, electrically-injected nonpolar m-plane nitride VCSELs lasing at room ...

Your inappropriate Facebook profile, posts and photos could lose you your next job, according to an in-depth study of employers from six different industries. The conclusion of a paper to be published in the International Journal of Work Innovation this month reveals that many employers are using the Facebook profiles of job candidates to filter out weaker applicants based on perception of lifestyle, attitudes and personal appearance. Vanessa A. de la Llama, Isabel Trueba, Carola Voges, Claudia Barreto and David J. Park of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, ...

As sulfur cycles through Earth's atmosphere, oceans and land, it undergoes chemical changes that are often coupled to changes in other such elements as carbon and oxygen. Although this affects the concentration of free oxygen, sulfur has traditionally been portrayed as a secondary factor in regulating atmospheric oxygen, with most of the heavy lifting done by carbon. However, new findings that appeared this week in Science suggest that sulfur's role may have been underestimated. Drs. Itay Halevy of the Weizmann Institute's Environmental Science and Energy Research Department ...

Stem cells hold great promise for the medicine of the future, but they can also be a cause of disease. When these self-renewing, unspecialized cells fail to differentiate into diverse cell types, they can start dividing uncontrollably, leading to cancer. Already several decades ago, Weizmann Institute scientists were among the first to demonstrate the link between cancer and the faulty differentiation of stem cells. Now a new Weizmann Institute-led study, published in Molecular Cell, reveals a potential molecular mechanism behind this link. The scientists managed to ...

An extended trial of a drug for people with type 2 diabetes has confirmed that the oral DPP-4 inhibitor linagliptin is a safe and effective means of lowering glucose levels for up to 102 weeks, either on its own or in combination with other selected oral anti-diabetic medication. The 32-country study, published in the August issue of IJCP, the International Journal of Clinical Practice, followed 2,121 individuals who had taken part in four previous 24-week randomised, double-blind, placebo controlled trials, in order to monitor them for a further 78 weeks. Those ...

Mating at night does not necessarily lead to offspring, at least in flies: males produce a buzzing sound with their wings that can be perceived by bats. Stefan Greif from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, and colleagues, observed this in a long-term study on wild Natterer's bats that eat the copulating flies in a double-sized meal. Flies that were just sitting or walking on the ceiling did not elicit a predatory response by the bats. This is the first experimental evidence how mating itself can be risky. Mating activities are a dangerous business because the attention ...

Snack consumption and BMI are linked to both brain activity and self-control, new research has found. The research, carried out by academics from the Universities of Exeter, Cardiff, Bristol, and Bangor, discovered that an individual's brain 'reward centre' response to pictures of food predicted how much they subsequently ate. This had a greater effect on the amount they ate than their conscious feelings of hunger or how much they wanted the food, A strong brain response was also associated with increased weight (BMI), but only in individuals reporting low levels of ...

The number of basking sharks recorded in Britain's seas could be increasing, decades after being protected from commercial hunting in the late 20th century. The most comprehensive analysis ever undertaken of basking shark sightings in UK waters, by the University of Exeter, the Marine Conservation Society (MCS), Cornwall Wildlife Trust (CWT) and Wave Action, is published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series. The northeast Atlantic hosted an extensive commercial fishery for basking sharks, mainly in Norway, Ireland and Scotland, where more than 81,000 were killed ...

​A melanoma is a malignant form of skin cancer and is one of the most aggressive types of tumors there is. Treatment is particularly difficult, because melanomas are usually resistant against conventional chemotherapy treatments. Agnieszka Gembarska and Chris Marine (VIB/KU Leuven) have found a new line of approach in which to treat these aggressive skin cancers, namely by combating the interaction between the protein MDM4 and the tumor suppressor p53. Their research offers a new angle for the development of medication and confirms that combination therapies – including ...

Philadelphia, PA, July 23, 2012 – Anxiety disorders affect approximately 40 million American adults each year, and although they are treatable, they often cause significant distress. The excessive fear and dread that accompanies anxiety disorders clearly influences the everyday decision-making processes of anxious individuals. Despite its importance, "there is surprisingly little research on how anxiety disorders influence decisions," commented neuroscientist Dr. Elizabeth Phelps, who co-authored this new review with Dr. Catherine Hartley, both of New York University. ...

The world's largest review of all the evidence on the best way of managing and treating common pre-cancerous and cancerous conditions of the oesophagus (gullet) has found that good endoscopy equipment, more endoscopic surgery, and more tissue sampling are required to improve care for patients. The multi-national team of researchers led by Professor Janusz Jankowski of the Blizard Institute of Cell and Molecular Science at Queen Mary, University of London (UK), reviewed nearly 12,000 papers on the care and treatment of Barrett's Dysplasia and early-stage oesophageal adenocarcinoma. ...

The volcanic region of La Garrotxa, with some forty volcanic cones and some twenty lava flows, is considered to be the best conserved region in the Iberian Peninsula. It is also the youngest volcanic area. Although the approximate age of some of these volcanic constructions is known, one of the main problems when studying volcanoes is to pinpoint the chronology of each of their eruptions. Several geochronological studies have been conducted, but existing data is scarce and imprecise. With regard to the chronology of the Croscat Volcano, considered one of the most recent ...

TAMPA, Fla. (Jul. 23, 2012) – In an article published in the current issue of Technology and Innovation- Proceedings of the National Academy of Inventors® (https://www.cognizantcommunication.com/journal-titles/technology-a-innovation?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=56&category_id=16), Janet Gongola, Patent Reform Coordinator for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), describes the process of implementing the America Invents Act (2011, H,R. 1249), the first patent law reform in 60 years. "The America Invents Act is the foundation for a 21st ...

How much ash will be injected into the atmosphere during Earth's next volcanic eruption? Recent eruptions have demonstrated our continued vulnerability to ash dispersal, which can disrupt the aviation industry and cause billions of dollars in economic loss. Scientists widely believe that volcanic particle size is determined by the initial fragmentation process, when bubbly magma deep in the volcano changes into gas-particle flows. But new Georgia Tech research indicates a more dynamic process where the amount and size of volcanic ash actually depend on what happens afterward, ...

AUGUSTA, Ga. – A new and powerful class of antioxidants could one day be a potent treatment for Parkinson's disease, researchers report. A class of antioxidants called synthetic triterpenoids blocked development of Parkinson's in an animal model that develops the disease in a handful of days, said Dr. Bobby Thomas, neuroscientist at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Health Sciences University and corresponding author of the study in the journal Antioxidants & Redox Signaling. Thomas and his colleagues were able to block the death of dopamine-producing brain ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Public health crises of the past decade — such as the 2003 SARS outbreak, which spread to 37 countries and caused about 1,000 deaths, and the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic that killed about 300,000 people worldwide — have heightened awareness that new viruses or bacteria could spread quickly across the globe, aided by air travel. While epidemiologists and scientists who study complex network systems — such as contagion patterns and information spread in social networks — are working to create mathematical models that describe the worldwide spread of disease, ...

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, July 23, 2012 – American ginseng is reported to have neurocognitive effects, and research has shown benefits in aging, central nervous system disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases. The challenges of incorporating ginseng into food are twofold: it has a bitter taste, and food processing can eliminate its healthful benefits. Reporting in the August issue of the Journal of Dairy Science®, a group of scientists has formulated low-lactose functional milk that maintained beneficial levels of American ginseng after processing. An exploratory ...

WASHINGTON, DC/LONDON (July 23, 2012) – A novel approach to discover the first new tuberculosis (TB) combination drug regimen cleared a major hurdle when Phase II clinical trial results found it could kill more than 99 percent of patients' TB bacteria within two weeks and could be more effective than existing treatments, according to a study published today in the Lancet. These results add to a growing body of evidence that the new regimen could reduce treatment by more than a year for some patients. The findings from researchers and the non-profit TB Alliance raise hope ...