Archive | April, 2010

Lung cancer risk particularly high for heart and liver transplant recipients

Heart and liver transplant recipients are at particularly high risk of developing lung cancer after receiving the donated organ, researchers report at the 2nd European Lung Cancer Conference. They are advising doctors to screen for such cancers in these patients to maximize the chance of detecting the malignancy early.

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Children’s well-being another casualty of recession

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA — The incidence of abusive head trauma among children has skyrocketed since the beginning of the recession in late 2007, according to research that will be presented Saturday, May 1 at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

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Comprehensive asthma care keeps kids out of the hospital

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA — A comprehensive, patient-centered approach to asthma care that includes education, referrals to specialists and home visits not only improves patients’ health but also has tremendous potential to decrease health care costs, according to research to be presented Saturday, May 1 at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia

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Access to primary care may reduce surgeries among children

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA — The availability of surgeons may increase the likelihood that children will receive optional ear and throat surgeries, while the availability of primary care providers, such as pediatricians and family physicians, may decrease the likelihood of children undergoing these procedures, according to research to be presented Saturday, May 1 at the Pediatric Academic So

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Giving DHA supplements to breastfeeding mothers

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA — Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), an omega-3 fatty acid, is essential for the growth and development of infants’ brains. Very premature infants may be deficient in DHA because they miss out on the third trimester in utero when the fatty acid accumulates in tissues.

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AGA presents cutting-edge research during DDW

Clinicians, researchers and scientists from around the world will gather for Digestive Disease Week® 2010 (DDW), the largest and most prestigious gastroenterology meeting, from May 1 to May 5, 2010, at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, New Orleans, LA.

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Social networking sites may provide clues to teens’ sexual intentions

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA — For parents wondering when they should talk to their children about sex, the writing may be on the wall — or on their child’s Facebook page.

New research suggests that display of sexual references on teens’ Facebook profiles is associated with their intention to initiate intercourse.

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Reading level of Medicaid renewal applications often too high

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA — Simplifying Medicaid renewal applications may help families keep their children enrolled in the government health insurance program, resulting in better medical care, according to research to be presented Saturday, May 1 at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

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Brief treatment can ease depression in mothers

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA — When pediatricians see a child for a check-up, they may want to spend a few minutes checking out the mother’s well-being, too.

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Researchers recommend pregnant women take 4,000 IU vitamin D a day

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA — Taking vitamin D supplements during pregnancy is not only safe for mother and baby, but also can prevent preterm labor/births and infections, according to results of a randomized controlled study to be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

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Living in a high-crime neighborhood may worsen children’s asthma

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA — Exposure to violent crime may exacerbate asthma in children, according to a study to be presented Saturday, May 1 at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

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US Latinos have high rates of developing vision loss and certain eye conditions

Latinos have higher rates of developing visual impairment, blindness, diabetic eye disease, and cataracts than non-Hispanic whites, researchers found. These are the first estimates of visual impairment and eye disease development in Latinos, the largest and fastest growing minority population in the United States.

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Sleeping well at 100 years of age: Study searches for the secrets to healthy longevity

WESTCHESTER, Ill. — A study in the May 1 issue of the journal SLEEP is the first to examine sleep issues in a large sample of exceptionally old adults, including nearly 2,800 people who were 100 years of age and older.

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Fighting fungal infections with bacteria

A bacterial pathogen can communicate with yeast to block the development of drug-resistant yeast infections, say Irish scientists writing in the May issue of Microbiology. The research could be a step towards new strategies to prevent hospital-acquired infections associated with medical implants.

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Has Evolution Trained Our Brains to Gorge on Food and Sex?

Has Evolution Trained Our Brains to Gorge on Food and Sex?

Romeo Guinea Pig Causes Baby Boom:

A guinea pig called Sooty enjoyed a night of passion with twenty-four females after fooling his way into their cage in south Wales. Sooty wooed the lady guinea pigs, one by one, and has now become the proud father of forty-two baby guinea pigs. . . . “He was absolutely shattered. We put him back in his cage and he slept for two days.”

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Natural S-Equol suggested as critical component in SE5-OH for reducing menopausal hot flushes

Anaheim, Calif. (April 30, 2010) — Natural S-equol, a novel soy germ-based compound, is very likely the primary ingredient for reducing hot flushes in the dietary supplement SE5-OH, which is under development for reduction of menopause symptoms, according to pre-clinical efficacy data from studies using an animal model presented at the Experimental Biology (EB) 2010 annual meeting.

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New research by UCR physicists could help develop gamma ray lasers and produce fusion power

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Positronium is a short-lived system in which an electron and its anti-particle are bound together. In 2007, physicists at the University of California, Riverside created molecular positronium, a brand-new substance, in the laboratory.

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Global glaciation snowballed into giant change in carbon cycle

For insight into what can happen when the Earth’s carbon cycle is altered — a cause and consequence of climate change — scientists can look to an event that occurred some 720 million years ago.

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Spill Central at University of Miami

MIAMI – As Florida Governor Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency in parts of the Panhandle today, scientists at the Center for Southeastern Tropical Advanced Remote Sensing (CSTARS) at the University of Miami continue to actively collaborate with several international satellite data providers to acquire critical environmental imagery for the Gulf of Mexico.

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Adult mortality trends reveal massive rise in global inequalities

The most comprehensive assessment to date of global adult mortality appears today, April 30, in The Lancet . The study, “Worldwide mortality in men and women aged 15-59 years from 1970 to 2010: a systematic analysis”, shows that across countries, inequality in adult mortality has grown to the point where adult men in Swaziland — the country with the worst mortality rate — now have a probability of premature death that is nine times the mortality rate of the best country, Cyprus. The rates of mortality in southern Africa are now higher than mortality rates were in Sweden in 1751.

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