Body

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Predictive genetic testing may be able to identify children's risk for developing common, treatable, and possibly preventable disorders.

Using this knowledge, doctors may be able to help at-risk children learn to manage their conditions by making healthy lifestyle changes. Test results may also be the motivation children need to take their health seriously as they grow older.

Scientists at the University of York, using an 'amino acid time capsule', have led the largest ever programme to date the British Quaternary period, stretching back nearly three million years.

It is the first widespread application of refinements of the 40-year-old technique of amino acid geochronology. The refined method, developed at York's BioArCh laboratories, measures the breakdown of a closed system of protein in fossil snail shells, and provides a method of dating archaeological and geological sites.

Two new rodent fossils were discovered in the arid highlands of southern Bolivia by researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and Universidad Autónoma Tomás Frías.

The larger of the two rodents, named Mesoprocta hypsodus, probably looked something like a guinea pig on stilts, said Darin Croft, an anatomy professor at Case Western Reserve. The smaller, Quebradahondomys potosiensis, was a spiny rat.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists have developed a fully cooked food-aid product called Instant Corn Soy Blend that supplements meals, particularly for young children.

The work was led by food technologist Charles Onwulata at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Dairy Processing and Products Research Unit at the agency's Eastern Regional Research Center (ERRC) in Wyndmoor, Pa.

ARS is USDA's chief intramural scientific research agency, and this research supports the USDA priority of promoting international food security.

A little vibration can be a good thing for people who need a sensitive touch.

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a glove with a special fingertip designed to improve the wearer's sense of touch. Applying a small vibration to the side of the fingertip improves tactile sensitivity and motor performance, according to their research results.

Researchers demonstrate for the first time that programmed cell death - a process by which cells deliberately destroy themselves - is involved in mandibular regression in termites. And it appears this regression may be the price to pay for the formation of termites' defensive organs, according to Kouhei Toga and Kiyoto Maekawa from the University of Toyama, and Shinichi Yoda from the University of Tokyo, in Japan. Their findings have just been published online in Springer's journal Naturwissenschaften – The Science of Nature.

Drinking just one 4cl measure of spirits can increase the risk of an acute attack of pancreatitis, but wine or beer does not appear to have the same effect, according to a study published online by BJS, the British Journal of Surgery.

Researchers from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden followed 84,601 people from 46 to 84 years of age from the general population in Vastmanland and Uppsala for a median of ten years. During that time 513 developed acute pancreatitis.

Infants who live in "moldy" homes are three times more likely to develop asthma by age 7—an age that children can be accurately diagnosed with the condition.

Study results are published in the August issue of Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, the scientific journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI).

ITHACA, N.Y. — U.S. physicians spend nearly $61,000 more than their Canadian counterparts each year on administrative expenses related to health insurance, according to a new study by researchers at Cornell University and the University of Toronto.

The study, published in the August issue of the journal Health Affairs, found that per-physician costs in the U.S. averaged $82,975 annually, while Ontario-based physicians averaged $22,205 – primarily because Canada's single-payer health care system is simpler.

SEATTLE—Fatal overdoses involving prescribed opioids tripled in the United States between 1999 and 2006, climbing to almost 14,000 deaths annually—more than cocaine and heroin overdoses combined. Hospitalizations and emergency room visits related to prescription opioid pain medicines such as oxycodone (brand name Oxycontin) and hydrocodone (Vicodin) also increased dramatically in the same period.

The European Respiratory Journal is today (04 August 2011) publishing the updated guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO) that aim to help manage drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB).

The new document 'The WHO guidelines for the programmatic management of drug-resistant tuberculosis: 2011 update' focuses on priority areas for healthcare professionals in the diagnosis, treatment and care of drug-resistant TB. It also calls for more research to guide the management of the condition.

Tel Aviv — Eggs, one of the most commonly consumed breakfast foods in the United States, have long been a subject of controversy. Are they healthy or are they a high-cholesterol trap? The answer depends on what the hen eats, says a Tel Aviv University researcher.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- A new tick-borne bacterium infecting humans with ehrlichiosis has been discovered in Wisconsin and Minnesota. It was identified as a new strain of bacteria through DNA testing conducted at Mayo Clinic. The findings appear in the Aug. 4 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Anyone who follows science has read enthusiastic stories about medical breakthroughs that include the standard disclaimer that the results were obtained in mice and might not carry over to humans.

Much later, there might be reports that a drug has been abandoned because clinical trials turned up unforeseen side effects or responses in humans. Given the delay, most readers probably don't connect the initial success and the eventual failure.

Public awareness about the role and interaction of microbes is essential for promoting human and environmental health, say scientists presenting research at the Ecological Society of America's (ESA) 96th Annual Meeting from August 7-12, 2011. Researchers shed light on the healthy microbes of the human body and other research on microbial and disease ecology to be presented at ESA's 2011 meeting in Austin, Texas.

Bellybutton microbiomes