MANHASSET, NY --Having a child is a life event that is equal parts magic and fear. Will the baby be healthy? Will labor and delivery pose challenges? Are there ways to reduce the risk for adverse events? Hospital obstetrical units face these questions round-the-clock. To increase the chances of a safe labor and delivery, and make way for a memorable birthing experience, the North Shore-LIJ Health System has launched a new prenatal quality initiative, led by Adiel Fleischer, MD, of obstetrics and gynecology at North Shore University Hospital and Long Island Jewish (LIJ) ...

A summary paper on the effects of alcohol consumption on biologic mechanisms associated with coronary heart disease provides an excellent review of a large number of intervention studies in humans. Appropriate analyses were done and the results are presented in a very clear fashion, although there was little discussion of the separate, independent effects of alcohol and polyphenols on risk factors. The trials the authors reviewed have demonstrated that the moderate intake of alcoholic beverages leads to increases in HDL-cholesterol (good cholesterol), apolipoprotein ...

3202 German individuals (75+) attending general practitioners , who were free of dementia were studied at baseline, were followed up 1.5 years and 3 years later by means of structured clinical interviews including detailed assessment of current alcohol consumption and DSM-IV dementia diagnoses. Associations between alcohol consumption (in grams of ethanol), type of alcohol (wine, beer, mixed alcohol beverages) and incident dementia were examined using Cox proportional hazard models, controlling for several confounders. There was good ascertainment of the development of ...

PHILADELPHIA – It has been thought that the quality of the physician-patient relationship is integral to positive outcomes but until now, data to confirm such beliefs has been hard to find. Through a landmark study, a research team from Jefferson Medical College (JMC) of Thomas Jefferson University has been able to quantify a relationship between physicians' empathy and their patients' positive clinical outcomes, suggesting that a physician's empathy is an important factor associated with clinical competence. The study is available in the March 2011 issue of Academic ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- In a new study published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, University at Buffalo researcher Michael A. Stefanone, PhD, and colleagues found that females who base their self worth on their appearance tend to share more photos online and maintain larger networks on online social networking sites. He says the results suggest that females identify more strongly with their image and appearance, and use Facebook as a platform to compete for attention. Stefanone describes the study results in a video interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1GQHoLyS5Q&feature=relmfu. ...

A study published in the March 2011 Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine shows that Massachusetts' new court-ordered mental health screening and intervention program led to more children being identified as behaviorally and emotionally at risk. The program is called the Children's Behavioral Health Initiative (CBHI). The study, led by researchers from MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHfC), looked at Medicaid well-child visits that included behavioral screens from 2008-2009. They found that, under the new mandate, the number of screens completed in the state ...

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., March 7, 2011 – In the quest for inexpensive biofuels, cellulose proved no match for a bioprocessing strategy and genetically engineered microbe developed by researchers at the Department of Energy's BioEnergy Science Center. Using consolidated bioprocessing, a team led by James Liao of the University of California at Los Angeles for the first time produced isobutanol directly from cellulose. The team's work, published online in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, represents across-the-board savings in processing costs and time, plus isobutanol is ...

An international team of researchers including professor Emmett Duffy of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science has published a comprehensive new analysis showing that loss of plant biodiversity disrupts the fundamental services that ecosystems provide to humanity. Plant communities—threatened by development, invasive species, climate change, and other factors—provide humans with food, help purify water supplies, generate oxygen, and supply raw materials for building, clothing, paper, and other products. The 9-member research team, led by professor Brad Cardinale ...

Researchers at the Institute for Genome Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and collaborators at the FBI, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and Northern Arizona University have published the first scientific paper based on their investigation into the anthrax attacks of 2001. The case was groundbreaking in its use of genomics and microbiology in a criminal investigation. More than 20 people contracted anthrax from Bacillus anthracis spores mailed through the U.S. Postal Service in 2001, and five people died as a result ...

Laminin, long thought to be only a structural support protein in the microenvironment of breast and other epithelial tissues, is "famous" for its cross-like shape. However, laminin is far more than just a support player with a "pretty face." Two studies led by one of the world's foremost breast cancer scientists have shown how laminin plays a central role in the development of breast cancer, the second most common cancer and second leading cause of cancer death among women in the United States. In one study it was shown how laminin influences the genetic information ...

INDIANAPOLIS – A review of 35 years of scientific medical studies confirms that the social and emotional context of the doctor–patient relationship have yet to be incorporated into the equation when it comes to health care. In spite of its strong endorsement over a decade ago by the influential Institute of Medicine report, "Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century," which highlighted the benefits of care that is respectful of and responsive to patients' needs, values and concerns, patient-centered medicine has not become part of the mainstream. ...

Research continues to show that the controversial abortion drug mifepristone might have another use, as a therapeutic option besides hysterectomy for women who suffer from severe symptoms associated with uterine fibroids. The University of Rochester Medical Center in 2004 began investigating mifepristone, in a class of drugs known as progesterone receptor modulators (PRMs), to treat fibroids, which affect roughly half of all women younger than 50. Results showed the drug shrank the fibroids and greatly improved the quality of life for the women involved in the clinical ...

LA JOLLA, CA, AND JUPITER, FL – March 7, 2011 – Embargoed by the journal PNAS until March 7, 2011, 3 PM, Eastern time –Working as part of a public program to screen compounds to find potential medicines and other biologically useful molecules, scientists from The Scripps Research Institute and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have discovered an extremely potent class of potential anti-cancer and anti-neurodegenerative disorder compounds. The scientists hope their findings will one day lead to new therapies for cancer and Alzheimer's disease patients. The research—scheduled ...

Tampa, Fla. (Mar. 07, 2011) – Transplanting stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood cells and menstrual blood cells may offer future therapeutic benefit for those suffering from stroke, Alzheimer's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), says a team of neuroscience researchers from the University of South Florida's Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair and collaborators from three private-sector research groups, Saneron CCEL Therapeutics, Inc., Tampa, FL, Cryo-Cell International, Inc., Oldsmar, FL, and Cryopraxis, Cell Praxis, BioRio, Rio de Janeiro, ...

Producers and feed companies add fat to swine diets to increase energy, but recent research from the University of Illinois suggests that measurements currently used for fat digestibility need to be updated. "It's critical that we gain a better understanding of the energy value of fat," said Hans H. Stein, U of I professor in the Department of Animal Sciences. "If we don't know the true energy value of fat, we can't determine if it's economical to add to the diet." In a recent experiment, Stein and his team of researchers studied how different types of diets affect ...

An important discovery in mice may make a big difference in people's waistlines thanks to a team of Harvard scientists who found that reducing the function of a transmembrane protein, called Klotho, in obese mice with high blood sugar levels produced lean mice with reduced blood sugar levels. This protein also exists in humans, suggesting that selectively targeting Klotho could lead to a new class of drugs to reduce obesity and possibly Type 2 diabetes for people. This finding was recently published online in The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org). "Our study is a ...

This release is available in German. Carbon nanotubes have a multitude of unusual properties which make them promising candidates for optoelectronic components. However, so far it has proven extremely difficult to analyze or influence their optic and electronic properties. A team of researchers headed by Professor Alexander Holleitner, a physicist at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen and member of the Cluster of Excellence Nanosystems Munich (NIM), has now succeeded in developing a measurement method allowing a time-based resolution of the so-called photocurrent ...

Scientists have blocked harmful immune cells from entering the brain in mice with a condition similar to multiple sclerosis (MS). According to researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, this is important because MS is believed to be caused by misdirected immune cells that enter the brain and damage myelin, an insulating material on the branches of neurons that conduct nerve impulses. New insights into how the brain regulates immune cell entry made the accomplishment possible. Washington University scientists had borrowed an anti-cancer drug ...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- A University of Florida study demonstrates extinction's ripple effect through the animal kingdom, including how the demise of large mammals 20,000 years ago led to the disappearance of one species of cowbird. The study shows the trickle-down effect the loss of large mammals has on other species, and researchers say it is a lesson from the past that should be remembered when making conservation, game and land-use decisions today. "There's nothing worse for a terrestrial ecosystem than the loss of large mammals – and the loss of apex predators like ...

Columbia, MO -- It's a corn plant only a geneticist could love, but an MU researcher has found a way to help scientists love it. Instead of the characteristic fan-like tassel that waves majestically atop the stalk, this corn plant sends up a cartoonishly skinny stick. Its ears -- if it makes them at all -- resemble small, chubby, lime-green caterpillars, not exactly something you want to dig your teeth into. To top it off, the corn plant stands only about three feet tall, at full maturity, and has few leaves. "A farmer would say this corn plant looks terrible," said ...

If you can't stop the beta-amyloid protein plaques from forming in Alzheimer's disease patients, then maybe you can help the body rid itself of them instead. At least that's what scientists from New York were hoping for when they found a drug candidate to do just that. Their work appears in a research report online in The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), and shows that a new compound, called "SMER28" stimulated autophagy in rat and mice cells. Autophagy is a process cells use to "clean out" the debris from their interior, including unwanted materials such as the protein ...

GALVESTON, Texas — Researchers have identified a critical part of the process by which one of the world's most common and dangerous early childhood infections, respiratory syncytial virus, causes disease. The discovery could lead to badly needed new therapies for RSV, which in 2005 was estimated to have caused at least 3.4 million hospitalizations and 199,000 deaths among children under five worldwide. By analyzing samples taken from infected infants and data from laboratory-mouse experiments, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston scientists determined that ...

Troy, N.Y. – Steel walls are no match for Tristan Lawry. The doctoral student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has developed and demonstrated an innovative new system that uses ultrasound to simultaneously transmit large quantities of data and power wirelessly through thick metal walls, like the hulls of ships and submarines. Lawry, a student in the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering at Rensselaer, is one of three finalists for the 2011 $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize. A public ceremony announcing this year's winner will be held ...

For the past few years, one of the most common questions facing the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) hasn't been over contentious water rights or proposed water projects; it's been from homeowners wanting to know what type of roofing material is most suitable for collecting rainwater for indoor domestic use. "Rainwater harvesting is becoming fairly widespread, at least in Central Texas. There's interest born out of necessity because people are simply running out of water in rural areas or they're interested in conserving water supplies and it's good for the environment," ...

Boston, Ma – Fainting, or syncope, is quite common. About 50% of people will experience fainting at some point during their lifetime. The most common type of fainting is vasovagal syncope (VVS) that is caused by a sudden drop in blood pressure resulting in reduced blood flow to the brain. VVS can occur in healthy people due to inappropriate cardiovascular responses to certain behavioral or emotional triggers such as fear, needle prick or even standing up. VVS has a daily pattern with more occurrences during the morning. This daily pattern is possibly due to the daily distribution ...