Stanford University scientists have breathed new life into the nickel-iron battery, a rechargeable technology developed by Thomas Edison more than a century ago. Designed in the early 1900s to power electric vehicles, the Edison battery largely went out of favor in the mid-1970s. Today only a handful of companies manufacture nickel-iron batteries, primarily to store surplus electricity from solar panels and wind turbines. "The Edison battery is very durable, but it has a number of drawbacks," said Hongjie Dai, a professor of chemistry at Stanford. "A typical battery ...

"There is significant penetration by multinational processed food manufacturers such as Nestle, Kraft, PepsiCo, and Danone into food environments in low-and-middle income countries, where consumption of unhealthy commodities is reaching—and in some cases exceeding—a level presently observed in high income countries", according to international researchers writing in this week's PLoS Medicine. The authors from the UK, US, and India (led by David Stuckler from the University of Cambridge), analysed trends in unhealthy food and beverages (sugary drinks and processed foods ...

Addressing the twin crises of malnutrition around the world—hunger and obesity— demands that we ask who has power over food, rather than question just the mere presence or absence of food. This is the argument of Raj Patel, activist, author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System and fellow at the University of KwaZulu-Natal's School of Development Studies, in a new Essay in PLoS Medicine this week, which says that "understanding hunger and malnutrition requires an examination of what systems and institutions hold power over food," including ...

Prenatal exposure to a ubiquitous household chemical called butylbenzyl phthalate (BBzP) can increase a child's risk for developing eczema, according to research conducted at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health at the Mailman School of Public Health. Widely used in vinyl flooring, artificial leather and other materials, BBzB can be slowly released into air in homes. Details are published in the advance online edition of Environmental Health Perspectives, a journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Eczema, which is characterized ...

Boston, Mass., June 26, 2012 – A new study published today in the Journal of American Medical Association challenges the notion that "a calorie is a calorie." The study, led by Cara Ebbeling, PhD, associate director and David Ludwig, MD, director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center Boston Children's Hospital, finds diets that reduce the surge in blood sugar after a meal--either low-glycemic index or very-low carbohydrate–may be preferable to a low-fat diet for those trying to achieve lasting weight loss. Furthermore, the study finds that the low-glycemic ...

DURHAM, N.C.— The clot-busting medicine, tPA (tissue plasminogen activator), is safe to use in acute stroke patients already on the home blood thinner warfarin, according to researchers from Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI). This study helps allay previous concerns that tPA was too dangerous to use in patients on home anticoagulation and would lead to high risk for potentially fatal intracranial bleeding. "To date, we have no randomized trials or large cohort studies to guide us," says Ying Xian, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine at Duke, and first ...

CHICAGO – Although a standard behavioral weight loss intervention among overweight and obese adults resulted in greater average weight loss over 18 months, a stepped care intervention resulted in clinically meaningful weight loss that cost less to implement, according to a study in the June 27 issue of JAMA. "Most weight loss programs are intensive during the initial weeks of treatment, become less intensive over time, and maintain a fixed contact schedule for participants irrespective of treatment success or failure. Intensive weight loss programs are costly and require ...

CHICAGO – In an examination of the effect on energy expenditure and components of the metabolic syndrome of 3 types of commonly consumed diets following weight loss, decreases in resting energy expenditure and total energy expenditure were greatest with a low-fat diet, intermediate with a low-glycemic index diet, and least with a very low-carbohydrate diet, suggesting that a low-fat diet may increase the risk for weight regain compared to the other diets, according to preliminary research published in the June 27 issue of JAMA. "Many people can lose weight for a few ...

PASADENA, Calif., June 26, 2012 – Programs to promote healthy eating can substantially reduce the amount of unhealthy foods and beverages on school grounds if the programs focus on a school's specific needs and involve teachers, parents, staff, and administrators, according to a Kaiser Permanente Southern California study published in BioMed Central's open access journal International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. The Healthy Options for Nutrition Environments in Schools (Healthy ONES) study used a public health approach to change nutrition environments ...

The inexorable spread of Alzheimer's disease through the brain leaves dead neurons and forgotten thoughts in its wake. Researchers at Linköping University in Sweden are the first to show how toxic proteins are transferred from neuron to neuron. Through experiments on stained neurons, the research team – under the leadership of Martin Hallbeck, associate professor of Pathology – has been able to depict the process of neurons being invaded by diseased proteins that are then passed on to nearby cells. "The spread of Alzheimer's, which can be studied in the brains of diseased ...

CHICAGO – An analysis that included 1.2 million veterans enrolled in the Veterans Affairs health care system and Medicare Advantage plan finds that the federal government spends a substantial and increasing amount of potentially duplicative funds in these separate managed care programs for the care of same individuals, according to a study appearing in JAMA. This study is being published early online to coincide with its presentation at the Annual Research Meeting of AcademyHealth. "In the United States, some adults may be eligible to enroll simultaneously in 2 federally ...

Madrid, 26 June 2012: Preliminary findings from the EVINCI study show that the prevalence of "significant" coronary artery disease in patients with chest pain symptoms is lower than expected in Europe. In as much as 75% of this population an accurate non-invasive screening could avoid unnecessary and costly invasive procedures. The three year multicentre European trial will define the most cost effective strategy for diagnosing patients with suspected coronary artery disease. The EValuation of INtegrated Cardiac Imaging (EVINCI) study was completed on 15 June. Preliminary ...

Charlottesville, VA (June 26, 2012). Researchers from the Department of Neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine and the Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology at UCLA have found that a diet enriched with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), an omega-3 fatty acid, and curcumin, a component of the Indian spice turmeric, can protect the injured spinal cord and minimize the clinical and biochemical effects of spinal cord myelopathy in rats. This finding is fleshed out in the article "Dietary therapy to promote neuroprotection in chronic spinal cord injury. Laboratory ...

Patients with a gland disorder that causes excessive calcium in their blood who also have vitamin D deficiency can safely receive vitamin D treatment without it raising their calcium levels, a new study has determined. The results with one-year follow-up will be presented Tuesday at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston. Doctors often fear that raising vitamin D levels will further raise calcium blood levels in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism—in which glands in the neck produce too much of the parathyroid hormone, which controls calcium levels. ...

Prenatal exposure to bisphenol A, or BPA, a chemical found in many common plastic household items, can cause numerous genes in the uterus to respond differently to estrogen in adulthood, according to a study using a mouse model. The results will be presented Tuesday at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston. The study, led by Hugh Taylor, MD, professor and chief of the reproductive endocrinology section at Yale University School of Medicine, observed "major and permanent changes in gene expression" in female mice exposed to BPA as a fetus. Taylor said ...

Obese children show greater exposure than nonobese children to a phthalate, a chemical used to soften plastics in some children's toys and many household products, according to a new study, which found that the obesity risk increases according to the level of the chemical found in the bloodstream. The study will be presented Saturday at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston. The chemical, di-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), is a common type of phthalate, a group of industrial chemicals that are suspected endocrine disruptors, or hormone-altering agents. In ...

Prenatal exposure to the environmental contaminants polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, causes long-term changes to the developing brain that have adverse effects on reproductive function later in life, a new study finds. Results will be presented Saturday at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston. The study used rats, whose genes and molecules in the hypothalamus—the region of the brain important for reproductive function—are virtually identical to those in humans, according to co-author Andrea Gore, PhD, professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the ...

A large study in people at risk of diabetes has found a direct association between the presence of a small genetic alteration in a hormone receptor and increased body fat and insulin resistance. The results, to be presented Tuesday at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston, suggest an adverse role for a previously described genetic variant, the BclI polymorphism. "Our findings support the idea that even small variations in hormone receptor sensitivity can have metabolic implications, such as obesity or diabetes," said co-author Bastiaan Havekes, MD, PhD, ...

A picture may be worth a thousand calories, a new study suggests. Looking at images of high-calorie foods stimulates the brain's appetite control center and results in an increased desire for food, according to the study, which will be presented Monday at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston. "This stimulation of the brain's reward areas may contribute to overeating and obesity," said the study's senior author, Kathleen Page, MD, assistant professor at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. "We thought this was a striking finding, because ...

Calcium and vitamin D supplements are associated with high calcium levels in the blood and urine, which could increase the risk of kidney stones, a new study finds. The results will be presented Tuesday at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston. "The use of calcium and vitamin D supplementation may not be as benign as previously thought," said principal investigator J. Christopher Gallagher, M.D., professor and director of the Bone Metabolism Unit at Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, NE. "Pending further information, people should not exceed ...

Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) who also have obstructive sleep apnea have at least three times the risk of having prediabetes compared with women who do not have PCOS, according to a new study. The results will be presented Tuesday at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston. "In the last few years, sleep apnea has been found to be a frequent comorbidity [coexisting condition] with PCOS, and our study shows that women who have both conditions are at greatest risk of metabolic disturbances such as prediabetes," said the study's senior author, ...

A more accurate, faster diagnostic test for Group B Streptococcal infection in babies has been reported in the Journal of Medical Microbiology. The new test could allow better treatment and management of the disease and reduce the risk of mortality among newborns. Group B streptococcus (GBS) infections, caused by the bacterium Streptococcus agalactiae, are the most common cause of meningitis, septicaemia and pneumonia in newborns. In 2010 there were 506 cases of GBS infections in infants across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Health Protection Agency (HPA) researchers ...

A rare kind of mineral which scientists hope could be used to remove toxic metals and radioactive species from the environment played a similar, crucial role early in Earth's history. Research carried out by an international team of leading biogeochemists suggests for the first time that 'green rust' was likely widespread in ancient oceans and may have played a vital role in the creation of our early atmosphere. Led by Newcastle University, UK, the study shows that during the Precambrian period, green rust 'scavenged' heavy metals such as nickel out of the water. Nickel ...

Women who have a fear of childbirth spend longer in labour than women who have no such fear, suggests new research published today (27 June) in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Between 5 and 20% of pregnant women have a fear of childbirth. Various factors have been associated with increased prevalence of fear of childbirth, including young maternal age, being a first-time mother, pre-existing psychological problems, lack of social support and a history of abuse or adverse obstetric events. This Norwegian study looked at 2206 women with ...

Women who regularly eat a low carbohydrate, high protein diet are at greater risk of cardiovascular disease (such as heart disease and stroke) than those who do not, a study published on bmj.com today suggests. Although the actual numbers are small (an extra 4-5 cases of cardiovascular disease per 10,000 women per year) the authors say that this is a 28% increase in the number of cases and that these results are worrying in a population of young women who may be exposed to these dietary patterns and face the excess risk for many years. Low carbohydrate-high protein ...