Body

DURHAM, N.C. – In a cost-effectiveness analysis of commercial diet programs and pills, the Weight Watchers program and the drug Qsymia showed the best value for the money. The Jenny Craig regimen generated the greatest weight loss, but was also the most expensive option tested, according to researchers at Duke-National University of Singapore (NUS) Graduate Medical School.

Say you are out clothes shopping and you spot something that brings you back to a special time from your childhood when you were surrounded by friends and family. Suddenly, you find yourself purchasing an expensive shirt that makes you feel like a kid again. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, we're more likely to spend money when we're feeling nostalgic.

Graduating from college is an important life event often attributed to being smart and working hard. Many people celebrate this milestone achievement by buying themselves an expensive gift or taking a dream vacation. A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research shows that consumers who attribute their successes to internal character traits rather than hard work are more likely to select unique products.

BOSTON -- Open a child's lunch box and you're likely to find that the lunches and snacks inside fall short of federal guidelines. Those are the findings of a study conducted by researchers at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University and in the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. The findings are published online ahead of print in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

New Orleans, LA -- Nancy Buccola, MSN, APRN, PMHCNS-BC, CNE, Assistant Professor of Clinical Nursing at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Nursing, contributed samples used in a study reporting new locations of genetic material associated with schizophrenia and also suggesting a possible link between the immune system and schizophrenia.

Playing in schoolyards that feature natural habitats and trees and not just asphalt and recreation equipment reduces children's stress and inattention, according to a University of Colorado Boulder study.

Working on class assignments or gardening in such settings also provide stress-reducing benefits for youth, according to a paper published in the journal Health & Place. The study is one of the first of its kind to focus on the relationship between student access to green settings and stress.

A pilot study by HIV researchers from Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark has shown that an anti-cancer drug can activate hidden HIV. The researchers found that the anti-cancer drug romidepsin increased the virus production in HIV-infected cells between 2.1 and 3.9 times above normal and that the viral load in the blood increased to measurable levels in five out of six patients with HIV infection.

A pilot study

Mixed genes appear to drive hybrid birds to select more difficult routes than their parent species, according to new research from University of British Columbia zoologists.

"Instead of taking well-trodden paths through fertile areas, these birds choose to scale mountains and cross deserts," says UBC researcher Kira Delmore.

Delmore harnessed a flock of B.C. Swainson's thrushes with tiny geolocating backpacks to map their routes as they migrated south through the U.S. to Central and South America.

Curtin University-led research has shown squirrels have adapted to New York City's human behaviour, allowing them to thrive just as well, if not better, than their fellow squirrels in the woods.

Dr Bill Bateman, Senior Lecturer at Curtin's Department of Environment & Agriculture, led the study that proved eastern grey squirrels were able to modify their behaviour in urban environments and prevent unnecessary responses when humans acted in a predictable manner, such as staying on the footpath.

LOS ANGELES (July 21, 2014) – Investigators at the Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute are developing a novel, multistep investigational treatment for one of the most complex and difficult-to-treat forms of the disease, locally advanced pancreatic cancer.

A Vanderbilt University-led research team has identified protein "signatures" of genetic mutations that drive colorectal cancer, the nation's second leading cause of cancer deaths after lung cancer.

The technological tour de force, described in the current issue of the journal Nature as the first integrated "proteogenomic" characterization of human cancer, "will enable new advances" in diagnosing and treating the disease, the scientists concluded.

A new UCLA-led study suggests that a higher quality educational environment may help improve health outcomes

Low-income minority adolescents who were admitted to high-performing public charter high schools in Los Angeles were significantly less likely to engage in risky health behaviors than their peers who were not admitted to those schools, according to a new UCLA-led study.

These students also scored significantly better on California state standardized math and English tests.

AURORA, Colo. (July 22, 2014) – With over 170,000 students now playing high school lacrosse, more and more are being exposed to injuries during practice and competition, according to a new study from the Colorado School of Public Health and the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

Not much is known about the the genus of planthopper known as Conosimus, which now includes six species after a new one was recently discovered in the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula in the Spanish city of Jaen. A description of it appears in the open-access Journal of Insect Science (see http://www.insectscience.org/14.92/).

The new species, Conosimus baenai, has been named after Manuel Baena, a Spanish hemipterologist, for his contributions to the taxonomy of Iberian Hemiptera.

Saudi Arabian researchers have detected genetic fragments of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in the air of a barn holding a camel infected with the virus. The work, published this week in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, indicates that further studies are needed to see if the disease can be transmitted through the air.