A study published in this week's PLoS Medicine suggests that there might be an association between maternal immunization with inactivated influenza vaccine during pregnancy and reduced likelihood of prematurity and the baby being small for gestational age. The study, led by Saad B. Omer from the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta, Georgia, used a large surveillance dataset (the Georgia Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System) to analyze the relationship between receipt of inactivated influenza vaccine during any trimester of pregnancy by mothers ...

In this week's PLoS Medicine, Anoop Shah of University College London and colleagues report that, in people with stable coronary disease, there were threshold haemoglobin values below which mortality increased in a graded, continuous fashion. As well as a systematic review and statistical analysis of previous studies, the researchers conducted a retrospective analysis of patients from a prospective observational cohort. Their findings suggest that there are thresholds of haemoglobin that are associated with increased risk of mortality in patients with angina or myocardial ...

Reporting the findings of a cluster randomized trial carried out in rural Kenya, Beth Kangwana and colleagues find that provision of packs of the malaria therapy artemether-lumefantrine in shops at a subsidized price more than doubled the proportion of children with fever who received drugs promptly. Importantly, whilst enabling cheap and easy purchase of malaria treatment in shops enabled treatment of about 44% of children with fever, this is still much lower than the target of treating 80% of children with fever set by the Roll Back Malaria Partnership. So in addition ...

The influence of "Big Alcohol" in the health arena deserves as much scrutiny as Big Pharma and Big Tobacco, especially in light of evidence of bias in funded research, unsupported claims of benefit, and inappropriate promotion and marketing by the alcohol industry, says a new editorial in this week's PLoS Medicine. The PLoS Medicine editors argue that the statistics about problem drinking are troubling enough, but what also demands more attention and research is the influence of the alcohol industry on health research, government policy, and public perceptions of the harms ...

Deerfield, IL (May 31, 2011) With recent deadly cholera outbreaks in Haiti and Cameroon providing the latest indication of a menacingly resurgent disease, scientists have discovered rain and temperature fluctuations in at-risk areas could predict epidemics months in advance, according to a new study published today in the June 2011 issue of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. After analyzing several years of disease and environmental data from cholera-endemic areas of Zanzibar, Tanzania, scientists from the International Vaccine Institute in Seoul, ...

Debate about the public health response to Haiti's cholera epidemic continues as the crisis enters its ninth month, with some experts arguing that a vaccination campaign in Haiti would be neither feasible nor cost-effective, and advocating putting forth other measures. In a viewpoint article published on May 31st in the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, a coalition of medical and public health researchers, policymakers, and practitioners, led by Paul Farmer, cofounder of Partners In Health and United Nations Deputy Special Envoy to Haiti, argue that ...

In this month's Physics World, Jason Reese, Weir Professor of Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics at the University of Strathclyde, describes the role that carbon nanotubes (CNTs) could play in the desalination of water, providing a possible solution to the problem of the world's ever-growing population demanding more and more fresh drinking water. Global population projections suggest that worldwide demand for water will increase by a third before 2030. But with more than a billion people already experiencing drinking-water shortages, and with a potential 3𔃄 ...

An analysis of data on heart and lung transplant recipients indicates that patients who had transplant surgery performed at nighttime did not have a significantly different rate of survival up to one year after organ transplantation, according to a study in the June 1 issue of JAMA. "Since the Institute of Medicine published a report suggesting that medical errors result in more than 98,000 deaths annually, increasing emphasis is being placed on systems-based approaches to improve patient safety," according to background information in the article. "Although the causes ...

Use of established fracture prediction methods in older patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) found that scores from these methods were associated with hip and nonspine fracture risk, and a certain score associated with higher risk of fracture compared to persons without DM, according to a study in the June 1 issue of JAMA. Because patients with type 2 DM often have higher levels of bone mineral density (BMD), it has been uncertain the applicability of fracture risk screening methods typically used for patients with lower levels of BMD. "It is increasingly recognized ...

Frequently cited studies involving associations of biomarkers report effect sizes that are often larger when compared to summary estimates from meta-analyses evaluating the same associations, according to a study in the June 1 issue of JAMA. "Many new biomarkers are continuously proposed as potential determinants of disease risk, prognosis, or response to treatment. The plethora of statistically significant associations increases expectations for improvements in risk appraisal. However, many markers get evaluated only in 1 or a few studies. Among those evaluated more ...

Despite concerns that surgeon fatigue is leading to dangerous complications for patients and data showing worse outcomes for many patients who undergo surgery at night, new Johns Hopkins research suggests that — in the case of heart and lung transplants — time of day has no affect on patient survival. "We aren't suggesting that fatigue is good," says Ashish S. Shah, an assistant professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the study's lead author. "But what is important is that, at least in this specialty, it seems we're able to deal with ...

A cloud-based environment offers convenient and cost-effective access to technology. However, it also increases the security risk and need for appropriate authentication and authorization processes--particularly as enterprise information extends from in-house systems to popular software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings, such Salesforce.com and Google Apps. A cloud-based approach to centralized identity management provides a robust alternative to server-based solutions for enabling secure access to diverse applications, whether on-premise or running as SaaS. IT architects ...

New research from the University of Leicester raises concerns about higher than expected mortality following acute coronary events such as heart attack in those with significant mental ill health. Researchers from the University of Leicester in the UK and Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute in Australia examined 22 previous studies involving 825,754 individuals, comparing care given to those with and without serious mental disorders. They discovered that there was higher than expected mortality following acute coronary events such as heart attack in those ...

Since the Industrial Revolution, over half of all the CO2 produced by burning fossil fuels has been absorbed by the ocean, making pH drop faster than any time in the last 650,000 years and resulting in ocean acidification. Recent studies have shown that this causes fish to lose their sense of smell, but a new study published today in Biology Letters shows that fish hearing is also compromised. Working with Professor Philip Munday at James Cook University, lead author Dr Steve Simpson of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Bristol reared larvae straight ...

Irvine, Calif. — Environmental and inherited risk factors associated with multiple sclerosis – previously poorly understood and not known to be connected – converge to alter a critical cellular function linked to the chronic neurologic disease, researchers with the UC Irvine Multiple Sclerosis Research Center have discovered. The findings, which appear in the online, open-access journal Nature Communications, suggest that a unifying mechanism may be responsible for multiple sclerosis and point to therapies personalized according to genetic factors. "MS results from ...

Long-term relationships make the commonly abused drug amphetamine less appealing, according to a new animal study in the June 1 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The findings suggest that social bonds formed during adulthood lead to changes in the brain that may protect against drug abuse. Prairie voles are rodents that form lifelong bonds with mating partners. In the new study, researchers directed by Zuoxin Wang, PhD, of Florida State University, found that male voles in established relationships displayed less interest ...

STANFORD, Calif. — More than two dozen widely cited studies linking genes or other "biomarkers" to specific diseases vastly overstate the association, according to new research from an expert in scientific study design at the Stanford University School of Medicine. As a result, clinicians may be making decisions for their patients based on inaccurate conclusions not supported by other, larger studies. The widely cited studies include one linking the BRCA1 mutation with colon cancer, another that links levels of C-reactive protein in the blood with cardiovascular disease ...

The creation of a new quasiparticle called the "hybrid plasmon polariton" may throw open the doors to integrated photonic circuits and optical computing for the 21st century. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have demonstrated the first true nanoscale waveguides for next generation on-chip optical communication systems. "We have directly demonstrated the nanoscale waveguiding of light at visible and near infrared frequencies in a metal-insulator-semiconductor device featuring low loss and broadband ...

Two years ago, a widely publicized scientific report plucked an old mouse virus out of obscurity and held it up as a possible cause of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. According to a new study published today by a group of researchers in California, Wisconsin and Illinois, that report was wrong. The mouse virus is not the culprit in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, said University of California, San Francisco Professor Jay A. Levy, MD, the senior author on the study, published this week by the journal Science. "There is no evidence of this mouse virus in human blood," said Levy, ...

A cell phone-sized, wireless near-infrared device is as reliable as the current "gold standard" invasive tests in determining bladder disease, according to a study by researchers at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver Coastal Health and the Child & Family Research Institute (CFRI). The new physiologic information gathered through near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) could also advance treatment that tackles the root causes of urinary incontinence, says the research team. Published in the current issue of the International Journal of Spectroscopy, the study is ...

Although known for over a century, cryptosporidiosis was believed to be an extremely rare condition and it only gained attention with the discovery that it can affect humans, especially immune-compromised individuals. It is caused by a single-cell parasite, one of a family known as cryptosporidia. Some cryptosporidia also infect reptiles, where after a sometimes lengthy incubation period they cause gastrointestinal problems even in otherwise healthy individuals. The condition is usually persistent and is presently impossible to cure. It is therefore important to minimize ...

A prior fracture at least doubles a patient's future fracture risk – yet numerous studies from across the world have found that healthcare systems fail to respond to the first fracture to prevent future fractures. Professor Cyrus Cooper, chair of the Committee of Scientific Advisors of the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) and director of the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton in the UK stated, "Studies from the UK, USA and Australia have reported that 45% or more of today's hip fracture patients have a prior fracture history. Healthcare ...

Decorative white silk crosses are an ingenious tactic used by orb-weaving spiders to protect their webs from damage, a new study from the University of Melbourne has revealed. The team, led by Dr Andre Walter and Professor Mark Elgar from the University of Melbourne's Department of Zoology, found that orb-weaving spiders respond to severe damage to their webs by building bigger silk crosses, but if the damage is mild they don't bother adding extra decoration. Professor Mark Elgar said web damage is costly for spiders as a lot of nutritional resources are required to ...

A large number of illnesses stem from misfolded proteins, molecules composed of amino acids. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now studied protein misfolding using a special spectroscopic technique. Misfolding, as they report in Nature, is more frequent if the sequence of the amino acids in the neighboring protein domains is very similar. Proteins are the main molecular machines in our bodies. They perform a wide range of functions, from digesting and processing nutrients, converting energy and aiding cell structure to transmitting signals in cells and the ...

The strength of sun cream recently recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to stave off sunburn is far too low and "not in the interests of public health," warns the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin (DTB). NICE should rethink its advice, and soon, it says. NICE recommends sunscreens with a sun protection factor, or SPF, of 15 as sufficient to prevent sunburn and the subsequent potential risk of skin cancer. But DTB says that this is based on standard test conditions in which manufacturers apply 2 mg/cm2 of product to the skin. "In ...