Culture

Drinking water with a relatively high concentration of magnesium protects against hip fractures, according to results of a study from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.

In Uganda the prescription of three antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, which aim to suppress the virus to prevent disease progression, have resulted in huge reductions in HIV mortality rates. However, disease is not the only scourge in Uganda, and a new study in The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology explores the impact food insecurity may have on treating pregnant women.

A U.S-Ugandan research team explored the affect pregnancy and malnutrition can have on the administration of lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r) and efavirenz (EFV) drugs among HIV-infected women in Tororo, Uganda.

Boys are at greater risk for delayed language development than girls, according to a new study using data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study. The researchers also found that reading and writing difficulties in the family gave an increased risk.

"We show for the first time that reading and writing difficulties in the family can be the main reason why a child has a speech delay that first begins between three to five years of age," says Eivind Ystrøm, senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.

CHICAGO – Larry Ambrose woke up one night, wandered into his kitchen but couldn't completely read the time on his microwave. A few days later when he noticed his blood pressure was unusually high, he went to the hospital and was diagnosed as having a stroke. Ambrose, like 25 percent of all stroke patients, experienced a cryptogenic stroke, meaning despite numerous tests, physicians were unable to determine a cause.

"There were no warning signs and I felt there was nothing I could do to stop it from happening again," said Ambrose, who is 75 years old. "It's a scary feeling."

Although trauma, heart and stroke patients benefit from being transferred from a local hospital to a higher-level care facility, it's unclear why patients transferred with non-urgent medical conditions show at least a 30 percent higher death rate than had they stayed put, according to researchers from Case Western Reserve University's nursing school.

The Federal shutdown may be the most striking evidence to support claims that America's political system is broken, but it is far from the only example. Writing in Governance, acclaimed political scientists Norman Ornstein and Jared Diamond explore if tribalism is at the heart of the problem, or if the U.S. is facing a far greater political crisis.

Many mothers with children on life-sustaining medical devices, such as ventilators and breathing or feeding tubes, suffer physical and psychological distress from the stress of juggling treatments, appointments, therapies and daily family pressures.

But researchers from the Case Western Reserve University nursing school found that an intervention, called "Resourcefulness," which teaches moms how to better cope, bolsters the mother's wellbeing and, in turn, benefits the whole family.

Archaeological data indicate modern herring management needs to take a longer look into the past to manage fisheries for the future says a new study involving Simon Fraser University researchers.

That is one of the key findings in the study, just published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). SFU researchers Iain McKechnie, Dana Lepofsky and Ken Lertzman, and scientists in Ontario, Alberta and the United States are its co-authors.

One of the largest surveys of American views on religion and science suggests that the religious and scientific communities may be less combative than is commonly portrayed in the media and in politics.

CHICAGO --- Three anthropology professors from the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University will highlight recent research in biological anthropology Sunday, Feb. 16 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago.

The presentations, part of the symposium "Comparative Advantage: Global Perspectives on Human Biology and Health" will be held from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. in Crystal Ballroom A at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.

STANFORD, Calif. — Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have pinpointed why normal aging is accompanied by a diminished ability to regain strength and mobility after muscle injury: Over time, stem cells within muscle tissues dedicated to repairing damage become less able to generate new muscle fibers and struggle to self-renew.

The public's view that science and religion can't work in collaboration is a misconception that stunts progress, according to a new survey of more than 10,000 Americans, scientists and evangelical Protestants. The study by Rice University also found that scientists and the general public are surprisingly similar in their religious practices.

Mashed, smashed and fried, Americans love potatoes, but only a few varieties are grown in much of North American agriculture. In South America, where potatoes originated, more than 5,000 varieties continue to exist. A Penn State geographer is gathering all the information he can about the agrobiodiversity of these uniquely adapted tubers with an eye toward sustainability of this fourth largest food crop worldwide.

CHICAGO --- Robert Gordon, the Stanley G. Harris Professor in the department of economics in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University, will present "Long-Term Unemployment, Shrinking Participation and Future Economic Growth" at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago.

His presentation is part of the symposium "Will the Workplace of Tomorrow Have Any Workers? Computing, Productivity and Jobs" to be held from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 15 in the Water Tower room at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.

Missouri's 2007 repeal of its permit-to-purchase (PTP) handgun law, which required all handgun purchasers to obtain a license verifying that they have passed a background check, contributed to a sixteen percent increase in Missouri's murder rate, according to a new study from researchers with the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research.