PHILADELPHIA — New research by a team of University of Pennsylvania psychologists is helping to overturn the dominant theory of how children learn their first words, suggesting that it occurs more in moments of insight than gradually through repeated exposure. The research was conducted by postdoctoral fellow Tamara Nicol Medina and professors John Trueswell, and Lila Gleitman, all of the Department of Psychology in Penn's School of Arts and Sciences and the University's Institute for Research in Cognitive Science, and Jesse Snedeker, a professor at Harvard University. Their ...

INDIANAPOLIS – The lists of potential side effects that accompany prescription drugs have ballooned in size, averaging 70 reactions per drug, a number that can overwhelm physicians trying to select suitable treatments for their patients, according to a new study of drug labels. Long lists of drug side effects—whether found in magazine advertisements or in package inserts—are a familiar sight to patients and doctors. Now researchers from the Regenstrief Institute and the Indiana University School of Medicine have quantified just how complex drug labels have become. In ...

NEW YORK, May 23, 2011—More than eight of 10 leaders in health and health care policy (82%) believe states should be allowed to implement key provisions of the Affordable Care Act early with full federal support, ahead of the timeline outlined in the law. Such key provisions include expanding Medicaid eligibility to cover more low-income families and creating insurance exchanges with premium subsidies. Findings are from the latest Commonwealth Fund/Modern Healthcare Health Care Opinion Leaders Survey, which asked respondents about the relative authority states and the federal ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Game-worn football faceshields are more susceptible to breaking when subjected to high-velocity impact than are new faceshields, according to recent research. In the study, researchers used an air cannon to hurl baseballs at new and used polycarbonate faceshields. All of the new shields withstood the strongest impact tested, which was designed to match the force of a kick to the face. More than a third of the game-worn faceshields fractured in response to the testing, which included lower forces of impact as well. In a related survey of college football ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– Laboratory studies by chemical engineers at UC Santa Barbara may lead to new experimental methods for early detection and diagnosis –– and to possible treatments –– for pathological tissues that are precursors to multiple sclerosis and similar diseases. Achieving a new method of nanoscopic imaging, the scientific team studied the myelin sheath, the membrane surrounding nerves that is compromised in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). The study is published in this week's online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ...

HOUSTON — An antibody packaged with a potent chemotherapy drug to selectively destroy acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells eradicated or greatly reduced the disease for 61 percent of 46 patients in a phase II study. It will be presented at the 47th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago June 3-7. Patients enrolled in the trial led by investigators at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center had ALL that resisted other therapies or recurred after treatment. "A response rate of more than 50 percent in this patient population ...

ATLANTA – May 23, 2011 – A new study from American Cancer Society researchers finds use of 30 tablets a month or more of acetaminophen for five or more years was associated with an estimated 38% lower risk of prostate cancer. The study appears in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention and is one of only two studies of prostate cancer to date that have examined the association with acetaminophen use that was both long-term and regular. Use of aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), particularly long-term use, has been associated with modestly ...

Farmers using a cover crop seeder developed by Penn State agricultural scientists may eventually need only a single trip across the field to accomplish what takes most farmers three passes and several pieces of equipment to do. Pennsylvania farmers are increasingly interested in growing cover crops, but the time, cost and late fall harvest of corn and other crops often limit their use, said Gregory Roth, professor of agronomy. The seeder can help farmers, especially small operations, save time and money by condensing multiple tasks into one trip through a no-till field. ...

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have devised a new technique, which helps couples that are affected by or are carriers of genetic diseases have in vitro fertilized babies free of both the disease in question and other chromosomal abnormalities. The results were reported in the April issue of Fertility and Sterility. Because embryos are so small and cells contain too little DNA to do extensive testing, researchers have in the past had to limit genetic testing of IVF embryos to either looking for a specific gene mutation that is known to exist ...

A team led by Thomas B. Nutman, M.D., of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has completed a large-scale analysis of most of the proteins produced by Brugia malayi, one kind of parasitic worm that causes lymphatic filariasis, or elephantiasis. The greatly swollen lower limbs that can result from chronic infection with this mosquito-borne parasite can be severely disabling. The investigators characterized 7,103 proteins produced in various stages of the worm's lifecycle, including male and female ...

PHILADELPHIA -- A physician panel in the primary care specialty of internal medicine has identified common clinical activities where changes in practice could lead to higher quality care and better use of finite clinical resources. The study identifying the Top 5 list of internal medicine activities appears online in the Archives of Internal Medicine. "Our aim was to come up with a list of best practices via consensus from actual practitioners, said Jeffrey R. Jaeger, MD, FACP, associate professor of Internal Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University ...

Sweden and the US are two countries in which increased leisure use of computers by children leads to poorer reading ability. This is the conclusion from research carried out at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Professor Monica Rosén of the Department of Education and Special Education has analysed differences between different countries over time in order to explain change in reading achievement among 9-10-year olds. Within the framework of the research project she and her colleagues have studied how pupils' reading skills have changed since 1970. Hungary, Italy, ...

Los Angeles, CA (May 23, 2011) With teen moms being debated heavily in popular culture today, it's easy to neglect the effects of fatherhood. However, recent research shows that young, disadvantaged men also affect a family and society. In fact, by age 30, between 68 and 75 percent of young men with a high school degree or less are fathers. A new issue of The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (published by SAGE) called "Young Disadvantaged Men: Fathers, Family, Poverty, and Policy," examines how poverty and lack of education are creating ...

Often, the goal of science is to show that things are not what they seem to be. But now, in an article which will be published in an upcoming issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, a veteran cognitive psychologist exhorts his colleagues in memory research to consult the truth of their own experience. "Cognitive psychologists are trying to be like physicists and chemists, which means doing controlled laboratory experiments, getting numbers out of them and explaining the numbers," says Douglas L. Hintzman, ...

Scientists have long known that people who have a close relative with alcohol problems themselves run an increased risk of starting to abuse alcohol. The reason for this has not been known, but a new study from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, provides part of the answer. The study shows that people who have a close relative who is an alcoholic react more positively to alcohol than other people. The study has been published in the scientific journal Alcohol: Clinical & Experimental Research, and is the first to have investigated a large group of people who have a ...

Though the universe is filled with billions upon billions of stars, the discovery of a single variable star in 1923 altered the course of modern astronomy. And, at least one famous astronomer of the time lamented that the discovery had shattered his world view. The star goes by the inauspicious name of Hubble variable number one, or V1, and resides in the outer regions of the neighboring Andromeda galaxy, or M31. But in the early 1900s, most astronomers considered the Milky Way a single "island universe" of stars, with nothing observable beyond its boundaries. Andromeda ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---If a gay or bisexual man seeks sex or dating online, the type of partner or relationship he wants is a good indicator of whether he'll engage in safe sex, a new study suggests. Gay men seeking long-term romance online are more likely to engage in safe sex than men who want a sexual encounter only, the study shows. This is valuable information because it helps HIV-prevention counselors design more effective sexual health interventions, says Jose Bauermeister, assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and director of the ...

"Rainy days and Mondays" is the song that the residents of the northern Philippines do not want to hear if it involves the approaching Tropical Storm Songda. The Carpenters song was a hit, but a hit from Songda is making residents of the Philippines nervous as NASA's Aqua satellite has been watching the progression and intensification of the storm over the last several days. In a series of three infrared images from the period of May 19-22, 2011, NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument revealed the strengthening of Tropical Storm Songda. The area with strongest ...

With this year debuting as part of the Race to the Toyota Cup, the 21st Annual Capital of Texas Triathlon (CapTexTri), announces, that they are expected to have a full field of amateur, elite and professional triathletes appearing in Austin, Texas this Memorial Day. Last year's event attracted over 3,000 athletes from 33 states and 8 countries, who competed in the swim - bike - run events staged in downtown Austin at Auditorium Shores. This year's participants also include 17 disabled service members, some fought in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Capital of Texas ...

Male disability applicants rejected for federal benefits tend to have lower earnings and labor force participation rates over the decade prior to applying for federal disability benefits, a new study finds. Rejected applicants also work less despite being in better health than accepted applicants, according to the research led by economist Seth Giertz of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. On average, the study found, those rejected for benefits made 8.5 percent less than beneficiaries six years before applying – and nearly 22 percent less just prior to application. ...

HOUSTON-(May 23, 2011)-People with diabetes have a three to five times higher risk of contracting tuberculosis (TB) than non-diabetics, according to researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). Results of the study, which included 233 patients with TB who live in Texas and Mexico along the border, are published in the May issue of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization. It was funded by the National Institutes of Health. "With the increase in diabetes patients in TB-endemic areas, our findings highlight the re-emerging impact ...

PASADENA, Calif.—There's a wealth of health information hiding in the human immune system. Accessing it, however, can be very challenging, as the many and complex roles that the immune system plays can mask the critical information that is relevant to addressing specific health issues. Now, research led by scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has shown that a new generation of microchips developed by the team can quickly and inexpensively assess immune function by examining biomarkers—proteins that can reflect the response of the immune system ...

A Monash student has made a breakthrough in the field of astrophysics, discovering what has until now been described as the Universe's 'missing mass'. Amelia Fraser-McKelvie, working within a team at the Monash School of Physics, conducted a targeted X-ray search for the matter and within just three months found it – or at least some of it. What makes the discovery all the more noteworthy is the fact that Ms Fraser-McKelvie is not a career researcher, or even studying at a postgraduate level. She is a 22-year-old undergraduate Aerospace Engineering/Science student who ...

Too many admissions at a hospital at one time can put patients at risk. A new study published today in the Journal of Hospital Medicine suggests that "smoothing" occupancy over the course of a week could help hospitals reduce crowding and protect patients from crowded conditions. The strategy involves controlling the entry of patients, when possible, to achieve more even levels of occupancy instead of the peaks and troughs that are commonly encountered. Researchers gathered inpatient information from 39 children's hospitals during 2007, using it to compare weekday versus ...

WASHINGTON, DC––MAY 24, 2011––Two-thirds of small medical device and diagnostic companies––the drivers of innovation in the sector––are obtaining clearance for new products in Europe first, suggesting delayed market entry in the U.S., according to a comprehensive industrywide survey about FDA's 510(k) product review process by researchers at Northwestern University. Large and small companies reported that unclear guidelines, inconsistent implementation, and lead reviewer turnover are contributing to increasing unpredictability of the process. Only 8% of survey respondents ...