In many areas of the world, including California's Mojave Desert, rain is a precious and rare resource. To encourage rainfall, scientists use "cloud seeding," a weather modification process designed to increase precipitation amounts by dispersing chemicals into the clouds. But research now reveals that the common practice of cloud seeding with materials such as silver iodide and frozen carbon dioxide may not be as effective as it had been hoped. In the most comprehensive reassessment of the effects of cloud seeding over the past fifty years, new findings from Prof. Pinhas ...

STANFORD, Calif. — A newly approved drug may be a cost-effective way to prevent stroke in patients with an irregular heart rhythm — and may also offer patients better health outcomes than the commonly prescribed, but potentially risky, blood thinner warfarin. That's according to a new analysis from researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. "Dabigatran is the first new drug in 20 years to be approved for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation, and we wanted to see if it could be cost-effective even ...

STANFORD, Calif. — An approach that attempted to prevent childhood obesity in African-American girls produced beneficial changes in cholesterol, diabetes risk and depressive symptoms but had little effect on youths' weight, in a trial conducted by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. Although researchers had hoped to see a change in body mass index across the entire study population from the program — culturally-tailored dance classes and screen time reduction for African-American girls in low-income neighborhoods ...

Most depressed teens who receive treatment appear to recover, but the condition recurs in almost half of adolescent patients and even more often among females, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the March 2011 print issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Major depressive disorder affects approximately 5.9 percent of teen females and 4.6 percent of teen males, according to background information in the article. "It is associated with functional impairment, risk of suicide and risk of adult depression," the ...

An Australian study suggests that children who are sexually abused, especially if it involves penetration, appear to be at higher risk for developing schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Previous studies have established that abused children are more likely to develop depression, anxiety, substance abuse, borderline personality disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder and suicidal behavior, according to background information in the article. "The possibility ...

Veterans diagnosed with any psychiatric illness appear to have an elevated risk of suicide, and men with bipolar disorder and women with substance abuse disorders may have a particularly high risk, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. An estimated 90 percent to 98 percent of individuals who die from suicide meet criteria for at least one psychiatric disorder, according to background information in the article. "Prior research has consistently found associations between psychiatric conditions ...

High-calorie beverages not allowed by national guidelines are still available in a majority of U.S. elementary schools, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the March 2011 print issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "The U.S. Department of Agriculture National School Lunch Program has a broad reach, serving meals to more than 31 million students in 2008," the authors write as background information in the article. However, "different regulations address meals and competitive foods," such as those ...

Male worms plug females after copulation as a form of 'gift', rather than to prevent them from mating again, as had previously been thought. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Frontiers in Zoology found that plugged females mated just as often and were just as attractive as those who were unplugged, and that plugging ultimately improved female fitness. Nadine Timmermeyer worked with a team of researchers from the University of Tuebingen, Germany, to investigate the effects of copulatory plugs in the nematode worm Caenorhabditis remanei. She said, ...

People who are physically fit and active have fewer and milder colds, indicates research published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. The US researchers base their findings on 1,000 adults up to the age of 85 whose respiratory health was tracked for 12 weeks during the autumn and winter of 2008. Six out of 10 participants were women, and four out of 10 were aged between 18 and 39; 40% were middle aged, and one in four were aged 60 and older. All the participants reported back on how frequently they took aerobic exercise and rated their fitness levels ...

Imposing statutory limits on the salt content of processed foods could be 20 times more effective than voluntary curbs by industry, finds research published online in the journal Heart. The Australian researchers assessed the public health benefits and cost effectiveness of different strategies for reducing dietary salt content - a factor known to have a key role in the increased risk of heart disease and stroke. They looked at the current Australian 'Tick' programme. This enables food manufacturers to buy an endorsed logo for use on product packaging to achieve higher ...

A tool, widely regarded as the "gold standard," but often deemed to be too expensive, cuts needless referrals for suspected glaucoma, indicates preliminary research published online in the British Journal of Ophthalmology. Since the publication of new guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), new referrals for suspected glaucoma have increased substantially. And this is likely to go on rising as the population ages, warn the authors. If left untreated, glaucoma causes blindness. This sharp rise in referrals is putting a strain on ...

LAWRENCE, Kan. – A little self-awareness can help people struggling in the world of relationships, says Jeffrey Hall, assistant professor of communication studies at the University of Kansas. Hall recently completed a study into styles of flirting among dating adults, surveying more than 5,100 people regarding their methods of communicating romantic interest. "Knowing something about the way you communicate attraction says something about challenges you might have had in your past dating life," Hall said. "Hopefully, this awareness can help people avoid those mistakes ...

Rural teens appear more likely than their urban peers to use prescription drugs for non-medical purposes, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the March 2011 print issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. The non-medical use of prescription drugs is common among U.S. adolescents, with about one in eight reporting lifetime non-medical use of prescription opioids, according to background information in the article. "During adolescence, non-medical prescription drug use is particularly problematic ...

Poor, minority and special needs children are more likely to be affected by toothache, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "Toothache is a source of chronic and often severe pain that interferes with a child's ability to play, eat and pay attention in school," the authors write as background information in the study. The authors also note that "the most common cause of toothache is dental decay" and the "process of dental decay is one that optimally would be prevented or, at the ...

More than one-fourth of children hospitalized with 2009 novel influenza A(H1N1) in California required intensive care or died, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. A second report assessing children in Israel found that those with underlying illnesses and infants born prematurely were at greater risk of severe complications following 2009 novel influenza A(H1N1) infection. "Following the detection of the first cases of 2009 novel influenza A(H1N1) in California in April 2009, the ...

After a three-year implementation period, home visits by nurses to high-risk mothers appear to increase their likelihood of waiting at least two years to have a second child, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the March 2011 print issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "The Nurse-Family Partnership, a program of prenatal, infancy and toddler home vistitation by nurses for low-income mothers bearing their first children, is designed to improve the outcomes of pregnancy, children's health and ...

London, ON - Three leading physicians have published a review in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology warning about the danger of dietary cholesterol for those at risk of a heart attack or stroke. And they say one of the worst offenders is the egg yolk which, depending on size, can contain 215 to 275 mg of cholesterol. The Double Down from Kentucky Fried Chicken contains 150 mg of cholesterol. Patients at risk of cardiovascular disease are advised to limit their total dietary cholesterol to less than 200 mg per day. The review of studies was authored by stroke prevention ...

DURHAM, N.C. – A study of adolescents who had a major depressive disorder found that nearly all recovered from their episode after treatment. But within five years, nearly half of them had relapsed, and females were at much higher risk of another major episode, researchers at Duke University Medical Center found. "We need to learn why females in this age range have higher chances of descending into another major depression after they have made a recovery," said John Curry, Ph.D., lead author of the study and professor in the Duke Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral ...

Half of teens who have oral sex during the ninth grade will have intercourse by the end of the 11th grade, and most sexually active teenagers will begin engaging in oral sex and sexual intercourse within the same six-month period, according to findings from a new survey conducted by researchers at UCSF and UC Merced. The study is the first to track teens' sexual behavior over time to determine whether oral sex increases the likelihood of having sexual intercourse or acts as a protective measure delaying the onset of further sexual activity. The data, explain the researchers, ...

VIDEO: How adiponectin protects the hearts of healthy people has long been a mystery, and now a team led by Barbara Ranscht, Ph.D. and Pilar Ruiz-Lozano, Ph.D. at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research... Click here for more information. LA JOLLA, Calif., November 1, 2010 – One of the many advantages of maintaining a normal body weight is having healthy fat, which in turn supports a healthy heart. Fat tissue is increasingly seen as more than just a storage depot – it's also an active ...

An overwhelming majority of Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC) facilities performing breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the U.S. are up-to-par with American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN) and European Society of Breast Imaging (EUSOBI) technical standards and requirements, according to a study in the November issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology (www.jacr.org). The BCSC is a collaborative effort to improve breast cancer research. It consists of five mammography registries and two affiliated sites with linkages to pathology ...

Full-term babies are born with a key collection of networks already formed in their brains, according to new research that challenges some previous theories about the brain's activity and how the brain develops. The study is published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers led by a team from the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre at Imperial College London used functional MRI scanning to look at 'resting state' networks in the brains of 70 babies, born at between 29 and 43 weeks of development, who were receiving treatment at Imperial ...

Anti-inflammatory drugs currently used to treat diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis may also help prevent cognitive decline after surgery, according to a new study led by researchers at UCSF and colleagues at Imperial College, London. The research explains for the first time why many patients experience memory loss or other forms of cognitive dysfunction after surgery or critical illness, a process the researchers traced to a specific inflammatory response in the brain. The findings could lead directly to human clinical trials in as short as 12 months, the authors ...

A drug in testing to treat atherosclerosis significantly inhibited growth of ovarian cancer in both human cell lines and mouse models, the first such report of a peptide being used to fight malignancies, according to a study by researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. The study follows previous discovery by the same group showing that a protein called apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) in patients may be used as a biomarker to diagnose early stage ovarian cancer, when it typically is asymptomatic and is much easier to treat. These earlier findings could be ...

Boulder, CO, USA - The meters-long, carnivorous "shrimp" from hell that once ruled the seas of Earth a half billion years ago may have been a real softy, it turns out. A new 3-D modeling of the mouth parts of the Anomalocaris, along with evidence that these parts were not hard like teeth, but flexible, shows that the famed predator could not have been munching on the hard shells of trilobites and other such creatures of the early seas. What's more, there is no evidence from fossilized stomach contents or feces that Anomalocaris' ate anything hard enough to leave a fossilized ...