LOS ANGELES—(April 19, 2011)—Stepping outside to smoke a cigarette may not be enough to protect the lungs and life of a pregnant woman's unborn child, according to a new study in the American Journal of Physiology. The study, by researchers at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed), found prenatal exposure to toxic components of a newly recognized category of tobacco smoke—known as "thirdhand smoke"—can have as serious or an even more negative impact on an infants' lung development as postnatal or childhood exposure to ...

University of Adelaide researchers have shown for the first time how peppermint helps to relieve Irritable Bowel Syndrome, which affects up to 20% of the population. In a paper published this week in the international journal Pain, researchers from the University's Nerve-Gut Research Laboratory explain how peppermint activates an "anti-pain" channel in the colon, soothing inflammatory pain in the gastrointestinal tract. Dr Stuart Brierley says while peppermint has been commonly prescribed by naturopaths for many years, there has been no clinical evidence until now to ...

The fisheries sector Trade Fair in Spain —Sinaval-Eurofishing 2011— was the scenario chosen by Azti-Tecnalia (the technological centre specialising in marine and food research) to present two technologies employed by its researchers aimed at enhancing energy efficiency in the sector. In concrete, it involves a system for the management of fuel consumption on board vessels and a system of monitoring and computer-simulation of fishing gears. The commercial fisheries sector is having to face up to the challenge of undertaking responsible fishing practices that guarantee ...

Patients admitted to hospital with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) face a sixfold greater risk of death if they become infected with Clostridium difficile, a new study has found. The researchers say IBD patients should be screened on admission to protect them from serious illness. IBD, consisting of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, affects around 240,000 people in the UK and its symptoms include abdominal pain and diarrhoea. When sufferers experience a bout of severe symptoms, they often need to be admitted to hospital. C. difficile bacteria are present naturally ...

Just a month after Beta release, AdoreStudio Ltd is launching a full-featured version of Adore Puzzle. This logical game features an intriguing game plot which allows users to take a fascinating tour of the most popular places in Europe without leaving their PC. This new free game with its carefully designed plot will bring enjoyment to all casual game lovers, like Shooting Blocks, AdoreStudio's first game. The game has two modes - Puzzle and Slide. After solving one level the user gets an opportunity to explore more countries and solve more puzzles/slides. Within each ...

It is not that adolescent students should stop using the television or Internet, but that they should learn how to use them. This is one of the premises of the UNESCO Cathedra in Communication and Educational Values, based at the Faculty of Philosophy and Educational Sciences of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). A premise that responds to the results arising from the research since the Cathedra began in December 2009. "Our objective is the communication media —mainly new technologies and television— as agents of socialisation. We are convinced that, in the ...

"Information alone is not good enough", Dr Karina Weichold of the Jena University (Germany) knows. Because even children know that alcohol consumption and smoking can cause health damage. "Therefore prevention needs to start somewhere else." This is what the developmental scientists, together with colleagues from the Institute of Psychology and the Center for Applied Developmental Science of the Jena University, are trying to achieve with their specially developed prevention programme IPSY. In a new study based on about 1700 school children, aged between 10 and 15 years ...

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April 19, 2011 – (BRONX, NY) – The brain's hypothalamus plays a key role in obesity and one of its major complications – type 2 diabetes. Nerve cells in the hypothalamus detect nutrients and hormones circulating in the blood and then coordinate a complex series of behavioral and physiological responses to maintain a balance between calories eaten and calories burned. Obesity and diabetes can result when this regulatory mechanism goes awry. Now, research by postdoctoral fellow Clémence Blouet, Ph.D., and Gary Schwartz, Ph.D., professor in the Dominick P. Purpura Department ...

New research published on bmj.com today adds to mounting evidence that calcium supplements increase the risk of cardiovascular events, particularly heart attacks, in older women. The findings suggest that their use in managing osteoporosis should be re-assessed. Calcium supplements are often prescribed to older (postmenopausal) women to maintain bone health. Sometimes they are combined with vitamin D, but it's still unclear whether taking calcium supplements, with or without vitamin D, can affect the heart. The Women's Health Initiative (WHI) study - a seven-year ...

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Experts today challenge the view that popular drugs to prevent disease - like statins and antihypertensives to prevent heart disease and stroke, or bisphosphonates to prevent fractures – represent value for money. In a paper published on bmj.com today, Teppo Järvinen and colleagues argue that the benefits seen when these drugs are tested in clinical trials may not apply in the real world. They argue that value for money in real life clinical practice is likely to be much lower than in a clinical trial, where patients are carefully selected and receive special attention ...

A major culture shift is needed to address the problems of long term sickness absence in the police service, says an expert on bmj.com today. Dr Derek Summerfield reviewed 300 cases of officers retiring on mental health grounds during his time as consultant occupational psychiatrist to the Metropolitan Police Service from 2001 to 2004. During this time, 4.8% of the workforce was not doing full operational duties - a loss of the equivalent of 180 police officers monthly - because of stress related absence. Furthermore, retirement on mental health grounds as a proportion ...

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DURHAM, N.H. – Most Americans now agree that climate change is occurring, but still disagree on why, with opinions about the cause of climate change defined by political party, not scientific understanding, according to new research from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. Republicans most often point to natural causes of climate change while Democrats most often believe that human activities are the cause. The greatest polarization occurs among people who believe they have the best understanding. "Although there remains active discussion among ...

A large group of distinguished scientists published a very detailed and rather complex paper describing the association between alcohol consumption and cancer in the BMJ. It is based on data from the EPIC study in Europe, with a mean follow up of 8.8 years for more than 300,000 subjects. The authors describe an increase in risk of many cancers from alcohol intake, but do not give data permitting the detection of a threshold of intake for an adverse effect on cancer risk. The investigators conclude that "In western Europe, an important proportion of cases of cancer can ...

Neiker-Tecnalia (the Basque Institute for Agricultural Research and Development) is working on the development of new biotechnological tools to produce in vitro selected trees of the Pinus genus. Scientists at this technological centre have developed various techniques for propagation of Pinus radiata, Pinus pinea, Pinus pinaster and Pinus sylvestris by using tissue culture. These methodologies enable obtaining a great quantity of clonal material, which can be used both in genetic improve programmes and experimentation, and in programmes of reforestation according to market ...

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EAST LANSING, Mich. — Despite the growing scientific consensus that global warming is real, Americans have become increasingly polarized on the environmental problem, according to a first-of-its-kind study led by a Michigan State University researcher. The gap between Democrats and Republicans who believe global warming is happening increased 30 percent between 2001 and 2010 – a "depressing" trend that's essentially keeping meaningful national energy policies from being considered, argues sociologist Aaron M. McCright. "Instead of a public debate about different policies ...

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A little information can go a long way when it comes to understanding rodent-borne infectious disease, as shown by a new study led by scientist John Orrock of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues. The researchers studied wild deer mouse populations on the Channel Islands off the southern coast of California. The mice carry a variant of hantavirus--a disease spread by rodents--called Sin Nombre virus. Results of the study appear in the May issue of the journal American Naturalist. They show that just three ecological factors--rainfall, predator diversity ...

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A new study by researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science shows that turbulence from boat propellers can and does kill large numbers of copepods—tiny crustaceans that are an important part of marine food webs. The study—by VIMS graduate student Samantha Bickel, VIMS professor Kam Tang, and Hampton University undergraduate Joseph Malloy Hammond—appears in the March issue of the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology. The researchers don't expect their findings to lead to any new "No Wake" signs in local waterways; their interest instead is to ...

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A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research explains why consumers often indicate they are willing to pay more for a product that is not yet available—but are reluctant to pay that price when the product is ultimately launched. The answer lies in the consumers' distance from the purchase. "In many product evaluations, a purchase is somehow removed from one's direct experience," write authors Torsten Bornemann and Christian Homburg (both University of Mannheim, Germany). For example, consumers may evaluate a preannounced new product long before it is available for ...