Hamilton, ON (Feb. 6, 2012) - Closing elementary and secondary schools can help slow the spread of infectious disease and should be considered as a control measure during pandemic outbreaks, according to a McMaster University led study.
Using high-quality data about the incidence of influenza infections in Alberta during the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic, the researchers show that when schools closed for the summer, the transmission of infection from person to person was sharply reduced.
Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have, for the first time, described the genetic basis of endometriosis, a condition affecting millions of women that is marked by chronic pelvic pain and infertility. The researchers' discovery of a new gene mutation provides hope for new screening methods.
CHICAGO – About half of all public and private elementary school students could buy food in one or more competitive venues on campus (vending machines, school stores, snack bars or a la carte lines) by the 2009-2010 school year and sugary foods were available to almost all students with access to these options, according to a report published in the February issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
CHICAGO – A widely used universal behavioral prevention model in schools appears to be associated with lower rates of teacher-reported bullying and peer rejection, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
CHICAGO – A study of children and adolescents who had been infected perinatally (around the time of their birth) with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) suggests little evidence of an association between specific antiretroviral therapy and the severity of psychiatric disorders, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Domestic cats, wild bobcats and pumas that live in the same area share the same diseases.
And domestic cats may bring them into human homes, according to results of a study of what happens when big and small cats cross paths.
Initial results of the multi-year study are published today in the scientific journal PLoS One by a group of 14 authors.
MADISON – The future of disease diagnosis may lie in a "breathalyzer"-like technology currently under development at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
New research published online in February in the peer-reviewed journal Metabolism demonstrates a simple but sensitive method that can distinguish normal and disease-state glucose metabolism by a quick assay of blood or exhaled air.
A new UCSF analysis has found that a state ballot initiative to increase the cigarette tax would create about 12,000 jobs and nearly $2 billion in new economic activity in California.
The study found that the new tax would have a significant effect on the state's overall economy because Californians would smoke less and spend their money in other ways.
CHESTNUT HILL, MA -- Preventing violent outbreaks of "spectator rage", similar to the deadly riots that broke out following a soccer game in Egypt, requires assessment and action by sports team owners and stadium managers, according to a report in the forthcoming issue of the Journal of Service Research.
SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 6, 2012 – University of Utah biologists found new evidence why mice, people and other vertebrate animals carry thousands of varieties of genes to make immune-system proteins named MHCs – even though some of those genes make us susceptible to infections and to autoimmune diseases.
STANFORD, Calif. — Susceptibility to anthrax toxin is a heritable genetic trait that may vary tremendously among individuals, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
Among 234 people studied, the cells of three people were virtually insensitive to the toxin, while the cells of some people were hundreds of times more sensitive than those of others. The findings may have important implications for national security, as people known to be more resistant to anthrax exposure could be effective first-line responders in times of crises.
ORLANDO, Fla., February 6, 2012 – Taste receptors on the tongue help us distinguish between safe food and food that's spoiled or toxic. But taste receptors are now being found in other organs, too. In a study published online the week of February 6 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) discovered that beta cells in the pancreas use taste receptors to sense fructose, a type of sugar.
Some 165 million years ago, the world was host to a diversity of sounds. Primitive bushcrickets and croaking amphibians were among the first animals to produce loud sounds by stridulation (rubbing certain body parts together). Modern-day bushcrickets – also known as katydids – produce mating calls by rubbing a row of teeth on one wing against a plectrum on the other wing but how their primitive ancestors produced sound and what their songs actually sounded like was unknown – until now.
New Orleans, LA – Research led by Wanguo Liu, PhD, Associate Professor of Genetics at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, has identified a new protein critical to the development and growth of prostate cancer. The findings are published online in the Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, available the week of February 6, 2012.
Researchers at MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHfC), The Jackson Laboratory and other institutes have uncovered 27 new candidate genes for congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH), a common and often deadly birth defect.
Their sophisticated data-filtering strategy, which uses gene expression during normal development as a starting point, offers a new, efficient and potentially game-changing approach to gene discovery.