New Rochelle, NY, November 9, 2010—The link between maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) may relate to the negative effects of nicotine on the development of brain centers that regulate breathing, according to an article in the recent issue of Pediatric Allergy, Immunology, and Pulmonology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (www.liebertpub.com). The article is available free online at www.liebertpub.com/ped SIDS is the leading cause of death during the first year of an infant's life. The link between ...

The benefits of collaborative, multidisciplinary care of patients with complex autoimmune diseases like lupus and multiple sclerosis are just beginning to be appreciated by physicians. Hospital for Special Surgery in New York will present evidence of the advantages of such a specialized disease center dedicated to comprehensive lupus care at the 74th Annual Meeting of the American College of Rheumatology in Atlanta. "Every time a patient comes in for an appointment, I am able to greet them personally, to find out what is going on in their lives and what may be bothering ...

A new study using a pig model of cystic fibrosis (CF) suggests that low levels of a growth promoting hormone at or before birth may contribute to growth defects in patients with CF. The study, led by University of Iowa researchers and published online the week of Nov. 8 in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could help predict the severity of the disease in patients and may lead to new therapies for growth defects in people with CF. Growth defects are common in people with CF and have been blamed, in part, on low levels of the growth-promoting ...

Charles Darwin's theory of gradual evolution is not supported by geological history, New York University Geologist Michael Rampino concludes in an essay in the journal Historical Biology. In fact, Rampino notes that a more accurate theory of gradual evolution, positing that long periods of evolutionary stability are disrupted by catastrophic mass extinctions of life, was put forth by Scottish horticulturalist Patrick Matthew prior to Darwin's published work on the topic. "Matthew discovered and clearly stated the idea of natural selection, applied it to the origin of ...

Children who have hypertension are much more likely to have learning disabilities than children with normal blood pressure, according to a new University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) study published this week in the journal, Pediatrics. In fact, when variables such as socio-economic levels are evened out, children with hypertension were four times more likely to have cognitive problems. "This study also found that children with hypertension are more likely to have ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder)," said Heather R. Adams, Ph.D., an assistant professor ...

Boston, MA—A comprehensive review of national opinion polls shows that Americans have conflicting views about the nation's public health system and are divided along partisan lines in their support of additional spending on public health programs. A majority supports increased spending on public health in general and sees public health interventions as saving money in the long term. At the same time, however, many do not favor increased spending on a number of areas that public health officials deem important and do not see their state health department as doing a good ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Rural and small town libraries are one of the newest forces being tapped to improve the science literacy of Americans through lifelong, "free-choice learning" opportunities in which people learn scientific, engineering and technical information somewhere other than school. A new initiative, supported by a $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, will help rural librarians tap into scientific expertise in their local communities, organize local events, provide video and other supporting materials, and essentially create adult "science ...

Montreal November 9, 2010 – Potential investors might wish to examine the fingers of their financial advisor prior to signing over any savings. A new study from Concordia University has found the length between the second and fourth finger is an indicator of high levels of prenatal testosterone, risk-taking and potential financial success in men. The findings, published in the journal of Personality and Individual Differences, suggest that alpha males may take greater risks in relationships, on the squash court and in the financial market. "Previous studies have linked ...

Infrared and visible imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite today hinted that the low pressure area formerly known as Cyclone Jal may have new life soon. Jal has emerged into the warm waters of the Arabian Sea after crossing India this past weekend. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument that flies onboard Aqua captured infrared and visible images of Jal's remnants on Nov. 9 at 1:30 p.m. local time/India. Today's AIRS imagery hints that circulation is still occurring in Jal's remnants. The circulation was particularly apparent in the AIRS visible image. The ...

The amount of time parents spend talking about numbers has a much bigger impact on how young children learn mathematics than was previously known, researchers at the University of Chicago have found. For example, children whose parents talked more about numbers were much more likely to understand the cardinal number principle--which states that the size of a set of objects is determined by the last number reached when counting the set (e.g., a set of 10 items is larger than a set of seven items). "By the time children enter preschool, there are marked individual differences ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Depression affects approximately 30 to 40 percent of nursing home residents, but it often goes unrecognized, according to American Geriatrics Society, which can lead to lower quality of life or even suicide. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have found a series of indicators, other than changes in mood that are associated with the development of depression in nursing home residents. "Prompt diagnosis and treatment of depression is essential to improve the quality of life for nursing home residents," said Lorraine Phillips, assistant professor ...

AURORA, Colo. (Nov. 9, 2010) – As dog bites become an increasingly major public health concern, a new study shows that unsupervised children are most at risk for bites, that the culprits are usually family pets and if they bite once, they will bite again with the second attack often more brutal than the first. The study, the largest of its kind, was done by Vikram Durairaj, MD, of the University of Colorado School of Medicine, who found that dogs usually target a child's face and eyes and most often it's a breed considered `good' with children, like a Labrador retriever. "People ...

Killing microorganisms has become a national obsession. A pair of antimicrobial compounds known as triclosan and triclocarban are lately the weapons of choice in our war of attrition against the microbial world. Both chemicals are found in an array of personal care products like antimicrobial soaps, and triclosan also is formulated into everyday items ranging from plastics and toys to articles of clothing. But are these antimicrobial chemicals, as commonly used by people across the nation, really safe for human health and the environment? More pointedly, do they even ...

Between 20 and 30 percent of women who undergo in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures suffer from significant symptoms of depression. Many practitioners believe that the hormone therapy involved in IVF procedures is primarily responsible for this. But new research from Tel Aviv University shows that, while this is true, other factors are even more influential. According to Dr. Miki Bloch of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv, stress, pre-existing depression, and anxiety are more likely than hormone therapy ...

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists in West Virginia are finding ways to improve soil on degraded land so it can be used for sports fields and other uses. Researchers with USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) at the agency's Appalachian Farming Systems Research Center (AFSRC) in Beaver, W.Va., are developing constructed or replacement subsoils and topsoils to build better and less-costly sports fields, raingardens and lawns on former landfills, mine lands and other degraded land. ARS is USDA's principal intramural scientific research agency. The constructed ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Some scholars estimate that presenteeism, a relatively recent buzzword that applies to people who are less productive at work because of health issues, costs employers as much as three times the dollar amount as absenteeism in terms of lost productivity. But researchers at University of Michigan believe those numbers may be inaccurate. A new opinion paper suggests that the tools for measuring and quantifying hours of lost productivity and translating those hours to dollars are unreliable and don't capture the entire presenteeism picture, said Susan ...

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has unveiled a previously unseen structure centered in the Milky Way. The feature spans 50,000 light-years and may be the remnant of an eruption from a supersized black hole at the center of our galaxy. "What we see are two gamma-ray-emitting bubbles that extend 25,000 light-years north and south of the galactic center," said Doug Finkbeiner, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., who first recognized the feature. "We don't fully understand their nature or origin." The ...

DALLAS – Nov. 9, 2010 – A hormone already responsible for increasing blood pressure by prompting the kidneys to retain salt appears to moonlight as a major stimulator of the brain centers that control the vascular system and blood pressure. Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center studied patients who overproduce aldosterone to see whether the hormone had any effect on sympathetic nerve activity responsible for blood pressure increases. "Between 10 percent and 20 percent of patients with high blood pressure who are resistant to treatment have elevated aldosterone ...

NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has unveiled a previously unseen structure centered in the Milky Way -- a finding likened in terms of scale to the discovery of a new continent on Earth. The feature, which spans 50,000 light-years, may be the remnant of an eruption from a supersized black hole at the center of our galaxy. "What we see are two gamma-ray-emitting bubbles that extend 25,000 light-years north and south of the galactic center," said Doug Finkbeiner, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Mass., who first ...

BOSTON—Dementia and cognitive impairment are widespread among elderly individuals in the United States, affecting more than 8 million people to some degree. The Sweet 16, a new screening test developed by a team of geriatricians and neurologists at the Institute for Aging Research of Hebrew SeniorLife and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, could help clinicians more rapidly detect dementia in elderly patients. The Sweet 16 will be available without charge to any nonprofit organization, and may provide an alternative to the Mini-Mental State Examination. The findings ...

One of America's favorite seafood is shrimp. Did you know that they fossilize as well? Rodney Feldmann, professor emeritus, and Carrie Schweitzer, associate professor, from Kent State University's Department of Geology report on the oldest fossil shrimp known to date in the world. The creature in stone is as much as 360 million years old and was found in Oklahoma. Even the muscles of the fossil are preserved. Their study will be published in Journal of Crustacean Biology. "The oldest known shrimp prior to this discovery came from Madagascar," Feldmann said. "This one ...

MAYWOOD, Ill. -- The clot-busting drug rt-PA remains the most beneficial proven emergency treatment for strokes caused by blood clots, according to an editorial in the November issue of Archives of Neurology by Dr. José Biller. "The benefits of treatment outweigh the risks in patients treated with intravenous rt-PA within 4.5 hours of symptom onset," Biller wrote. Biller is chairman of the Department of Neurology at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine and an internationally recognized expert on stroke care. Most strokes are ischemic, meaning they are ...

During college years, students become more sedentary and as their physical activity levels decrease, Body Mass Index and weight increase. "Basically, students came out of college significantly less active and heavier compared to the start of their freshman year," said Jeanne Johnston, assistant professor in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation. "But it is a gradual process." She and her colleagues conducted a survey that asked a sample population of undergraduate students questions about physical activity. No matter what their year, college students ...

Couples who score well on a simple test of numeracy ability accumulate more wealth by middle age than couples who score poorly on such a test, according to a new study of married couples in the United States. Researchers found that when both spouses answered three numeracy-related questions correctly, family wealth averaged $1.7 million, while among couples where neither spouse answered any questions correctly the average household wealth was $200,000. Numeracy is the ability to reason with numbers and other mathematical concepts, and are skills typically learned during ...

A multi-tiered effort designed to stem binge drinking at a large university and to change the drinking culture among its students produced notable results during the 2.5 years of an Indiana University study. Freshmen living on campus showed significant drops in the average number of drinks consumed in a week; in the percentage who drank at least once a week in the last year; and in the proportion of students who engaged in binge drinking in the previous week. Heavy drinking by college students and the associated consequences -- poor health and academic performance, ...