Patterns of brain development in the first two years of life are distinct in children who are later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), according to researchers in a network funded by the National Institutes of Health. The study results show differences in brain structure at 6 months of age, the earliest such structural changes have been recorded in ASDs. "The difference in the trajectory of brain development between the two groups was dramatic between 6 and 24 months," said senior author Joseph Piven, M.D., of the University of North Carolina, Chapel ...

The Massachusetts-based law firm of Cushing and Dolan, P.C. is pleased to announce a new timeslot for its long-running radio program, "Money Matters." New Time The radio program will be held every Wednesday between 12:00 p.m and 1:00 p.m. Eastern on the following channels: - 830AM--WCRN - 1390AM--WPLM - 970AM--WESO - 1120--WBNW Call-In Information Todd E. Lutsky, Esq., LLM of the firm will provide advice on tax and estate planning issues. Listeners with questions about tax and estate planning matters should call in at 888-759-5109. Todd will ...

Someday, your doctor may turn to you and say, "Take two surgeons and call me in the morning." If that day arrives, you may just have Ada Poon to thank. Yesterday, at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) before an audience of her peers, electrical engineer Poon demonstrated a tiny, wirelessly powered, self-propelled medical device capable of controlled motion through a fluid—blood more specifically. The era of swallow-the-surgeon medical care may no longer be the stuff of science fiction. Poon is an assistant professor at the Stanford School of Engineering. ...

Unexpected illnesses, accidents and other health problems are a primary reason why many Americans are faced with the reality of a medical bankruptcy. Overwhelming medical debt is a primary cause of Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy filings in Arizona and throughout the U.S. Recent survey results released by the Center for Studying Health System Change and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation show that financial problems related to health care costs have increased over the past decade. The proportion of Americans who have experienced difficulty paying medical bills increased ...

RENO, Nev. – Just what does it mean to get a green card? To some applicants, about $1,000 each month. A recent study by a University of Nevada, Reno economist and a graduate student found that employer-sponsored workers in the United States on temporary visas who acquire their green cards and become permanent residents increase their annual incomes by about $11,860. They studied data from The New Immigrant Survey, a collaborative study of new legal immigrants funded in 2003 by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and other public and private partners. The ...

Deep-diving ocean "gliders" have revealed the journey of Bass Strait water from the Tasman Sea to the Indian Ocean. Deployed in 2010 and 2011, the gliders have also profiled a 200-metre tall wall of water at the core of long-lived ocean eddies formed from the East Australian Current.The study, by University of Technology Sydney and CSIRO oceanographers, revealed the value of new sensors being deployed by Australia's Integrated Marine Observing System. "We're getting a terrific amount of data that is opening up a very big window on Australia's oceans," UTS scientist ...

NEW ORLEANS – New research suggests women who have migraine or have had them in the past are at an increased risk for developing depression compared to women who have never had migraine. The study was released today and will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 64th Annual Meeting in New Orleans April 21 to April 28, 2012. For the study, researchers classified 36,154 women without depression who were enrolled in the Women's Health Study and had provided information about migraine. Women were classified as either having active migraine with aura, active ...

Scientists have recently described the deepest terrestrial animal ever found, together with 4 new species for science. These animals are springtails (Arthropoda, Insecta, Collembola), a minute primitive wingless insect with six-legs and without eyes that live in total darkness. Described by Rafael Jordana and Enrique Baquero from University of Navarra (Spain), they are known for science as: Anurida stereoodorata, Deuteraphorura kruberaensis, Schaefferia profundissima and Plutomurus ortobalaganensis. The last one is the deepest arthropod ever found, at the remarkable ...

WASHINGTON, DC, February 15, 2012 — Highly educated whites and minorities are no more likely to support workplace affirmative action programs than are their less educated peers, according to a new study in the March issue of Social Psychology Quarterly, which casts some doubt on the view that an advanced education is profoundly transformative when it comes to racial attitudes. "I think this study is important because there's a common view that education is uniformly liberalizing, and this study shows—in a number of cases—that it's not," said study author Geoffrey T. Wodtke, ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – Based on a study of nearly 2,000 breast cancer patients, researchers at the Swedish Cancer Institute in Seattle say that, in women between the ages of 40 and 49, breast cancers detected by mammography have a better prognosis. The study appears in the March issue of Radiology. "In our study, women aged 40 to 49 whose breast cancer was detected by mammography were easier to treat and had less recurring disease and mortality, because their cancer was found at an earlier stage," said Judith A. Malmgren, Ph.D., president of HealthStat Consulting, Inc. Dr. ...

A recent ruling from the Social Security Administration (SSA) clarifies the types of information that can be used to determine whether young adult applicants have a physical or mental disability. The SSA's policy interpretation ruling is now in effect for the processes that govern Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) applications. The ruling applies specifically to people who are "young adults" for SSA purposes, meaning those from 18 to 25 years of age. Under current SSA procedures, the same definition of disability applies for both young adults and ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – In a new study published in the March issue of Radiology, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) shows that cognitive rehabilitation changes brain function and improves cognitive performance in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS). "These results prompt the use of specific computer-based rehabilitation programs to treat deficits in selected neuropsychological domains in patients with relapsing-remitting MS," said the study's lead author, Massimo Filippi, M.D., professor of neurology at the San Raffaele Vita-Salute University ...

If people see news coverage of alcohol's role in violent crime and fatal injuries, they may give more support to alcohol-control laws, according to a study in the March issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. It's estimated that drinking is involved in almost one third of deaths from accidents and violent crime. But the news reports on those deaths often make no mention of alcohol. "People have some awareness of the social cost that alcohol can have," said the study's lead author, Michael D. Slater, Ph.D., of Ohio State University in Columbus. "But only ...

A pioneering new study finds that a specific type of computerized cognitive training can lead to significant neural and behavioral improvements in individuals with schizophrenia. The research, published by Cell Press in the February 23 issue of the journal Neuron, reveals that 16 weeks of intensive cognitive training is also associated with improved social functioning several months later and may have far-reaching implications for improving the quality of life for patients suffering from neuropsychiatric illness. Schizophrenia is a debilitating psychiatric illness that ...

What: NIH-supported scientists will be presenting their latest research findings at the 2012 Midwinter Meeting of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology (ARO). When: February 25-29, 2012 Where: The Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel, San Diego, California, USA Additional Information: Research topics to be presented by NIDCD-funded scientists will include: Bilateral ≠ Binaural: Can the Ability to Localize Sounds Be Regained After Bilateral Cochlear Implantation? Ruth Litovsky, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison Bilateral cochlear implants—one implant ...

PHILADELPHIA - The infamous BRCA genes do not act alone in causing cancer; there is a molecular syndicate at work preventing the way cells normally repair breaks in DNA that is at the root of breast cancer. But finding all of the BRCA molecular collaborators has been elusive. Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Oulu, Finland, published their discovery of a mutation in the Abraxas gene, which interacts with the well-known breast-cancer gene BRCA1, in Science Translational Medicine this week. The mutation ...

STANFORD, Calif. — When aortic walls buckle, the body's main blood pipe forms an ever-growing bulge. To thwart a deadly rupture, a team of Stanford University School of Medicine researchers has found two tiny molecules that may be able to orchestrate an aortic defense. A team led by cardiovascular scientists Philip Tsao, PhD, and Joshua Spin, MD, PhD, identified two microRNAs — small molecules that usually block proteins from being made — that work to strengthen the aorta during bulge growth. By tweaking the activity of each molecule, they could reduce abdominal aortic ...

Recently, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) called for every state in the nation and Washington, D.C., to ban all non-emergency cellphone use while driving a motor vehicle. This recommendation follows various studies that have concluded cellphone use while driving can be extremely distracting - often leading to severe or even deadly accidents. One tragic trucking accident illustrating the NTSB's concerns was an accident in which a truck driver, while using his cellphone, crossed the median and hit a van, killing 11 people in the process. It remains to be ...

Two independent groups of researchers — one led by Adrian Clark, at Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom; and the other led by Jean-Laurent Casanova, at The Rockefeller University, New York — have now identified the disease-causing gene in patients with a complex inherited syndrome most commonly observed in the Irish Traveller community. As noted by Jordan Orange, at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, in an accompanying commentary, the new data provide deep mechanistic insight into a complex human condition and expand our understanding ...

Children with Down syndrome (DS) have an increased risk of developing leukemia, in particular acute megakaryoblastic leukemia (AMKL) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Through their studies in a mouse model of DS, a team of researchers led by John Crispino, at Northwestern University, Chicago, has now identified a potential explanation as to why children with DS are at increased risk of AMKL. In doing so, they have also identified a candidate therapeutic target. DS is a genetic condition in which a person has an extra copy of chromosome 21 (they have 3 copies rather ...

EDITOR'S PICK: Unraveling why children with Down syndrome have increased leukemia risk Children with Down syndrome (DS) have an increased risk of developing leukemia, in particular acute megakaryoblastic leukemia (AMKL) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Through their studies in a mouse model of DS, a team of researchers led by John Crispino, at Northwestern University, Chicago, has now identified a potential explanation as to why children with DS are at increased risk of AMKL. In doing so, they have also identified a candidate therapeutic target. DS is a genetic ...

Researchers from UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, together with scientists from 12 other sites in the United States and Australia, report for the first time that a newly approved drug for patients with metastatic melanoma nearly doubles median survival times, a finding that will change the way this deadly form of skin cancer is treated. The data comes from an international Phase II study of Zelboraf that included 132 patients followed for at least one year. Patients with this advanced form of melanoma that has spread to other organs typically survive about ...

The Virginia Tech – Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences (SBES) announces the first ever publication with data on head impacts from youth football players. The paper is published in the Annals of Biomedical Engineering and is available online for free download. The manuscript includes the details of over 700 head impacts measured on 7 and 8 year old youth football players. Based on the importance of this initial publication, the School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences is also announcing today a new study to instrument and map the ...

Nursing homes are supposed to provide quality care, but recent studies raise concerns that some of these homes put our elderly population at increased risk of injury and death. The studies, conducted by both the Government Accountability Office and Health Services Research, found well-known nursing home chains often violate federal regulations in ways that can lead to increased risk of nursing home injuries. Connection Between For-Profit Facilities and Poor Care The Government Accountability Office published a study in July of 2011, reviewing complaints that for-profit ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (February 22, 2012) – If you were to discover that a fundamental component of human biology has survived virtually intact for the past 25 million years, you'd be quite confident in saying that it is here to stay. Such is the case for a team of Whitehead Institute scientists, whose latest research on the evolution of the human Y chromosome confirms that the Y—despite arguments to the contrary—has a long, healthy future ahead of it. Proponents of the so-called rotting Y theory have been predicting the eventual extinction of the Y chromosome since it was ...