Body

Diabetes Checks & Balances, a unique program launched locally to help people manage the disease, helped decrease emergency room visits and hospital admissions among participants.

LIVERMORE, Calif. - Certain sizes of nanostructures may be more susceptible to failure by fracture than others.

That is the result of new research by LLNL's Michael Manley and colleagues from Los Alamos National Laboratory that appears as a Rapid Communication in the journal Physical Review B.

As the size of a structure gets to the nanoscale, atomic vibrations (also known as phonons) begin to feel its size and shape in an effect called phonon confinement.

Arlington, VA—The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is expected soon to increase the estimate of new HIV infections in the United States by 40 percent. This highlights the need to make HIV testing a routine part of medical care and provide better funding to care for those who test positive, according to the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA).

Your immune system may have more in common with a Corvette than you thought.

When a virus or bacteria enters a human body, the immune system revs up to fight and expel the invader. Once the invader is gone, the body puts on the brakes to stop the immune response.

But a new study by Patrick Gaffney, M.D., and Kathy Moser, Ph.D., of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation shows that variation of a particular gene—known as TNFAIP3—may cause the immune system to keep going at full speed long after the threat is gone, causing damage to the body.

PHILADELPHIA – Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered that a protein called FOXA2 controls genes that maintain the proper level of bile in the liver. FOXA2 may become the focus for new therapies to treat diseases that involve the regulation of bile salts. The study was published online this week in Nature Medicine.

New knowledge points to the fact that a genetically induced lack of filaggrin, a key protein of the skin barrier, plays a decisive role in the origin of allergies. In a large study on more than 3000 school-children scientists of the Helmholtz Zentrum München and the Technische Universität München found that about 8% of the German population carry variations of the filaggrin gene, which raise the risk to develop atopic dermatitis more than threefold. In addition, these genetic variations predispose to hay fever and asthma in those with atopic dermatitis.

NEW YORK (July 31, 2008) -- With the recent endorsement by the World Health Organization (WHO) and scientists worldwide of adult male circumcision as an important strategy for HIV prevention, there is increased urgency to develop safe and cost-effective circumcision services. This is especially the case in Africa where HIV/AIDS continues to spread at an epidemic rate.

This release is also available in German.

July 30, 2008. A scientific project funded by the BBVA Foundation and conducted by a team from the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) explored around 100 kilometers of practically uncharted Atlantic beach in the north of Colombia and south of Panama between the years 2006 and 2007. In the course of their work, they came across extensive nesting grounds that bring new hope for the survival of the leatherback turtle.

(Boston) -- In the history of science and technology, there is an infrequent combination of empirical discoveries, theories and technology developments converge that make it possible to recognize a new discipline. Past examples include marine biology, biomechanics and astrobiology with more recent developments of nanotechnology and bioinformatics – all disciplines that are now well established in the lexicon of modern science and technology.

BOSTON — Working overtime has a disproportionate impact on women in dual-earner households, exacerbating gender inequality and supporting the "separate sphere" phenomenon in which men are the breadwinners while women tend to the home, according to research to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.

The standard regimens to treat tuberculosis (TB) are inadequate in countries with high rates of multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB. In countries with high rates of MDR-TB, patients are nearly twice as likely to fail their initial treatment than those in countries with low rates, according to a new analysis of World Health Organization (WHO) data. This finding suggests strongly that current TB treatment regimens need to updated and revised to address the shifting landscape of public health in the face of MDR-TB.

A new study by researchers at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston could help experts better decide whether to continue the current practice of retesting women during their second pregnancies for a common bacterial infection if they had tested positive for the infection previously.

WESTCHESTER, Ill. – A study in the August 1 issue of the journal Sleep shows that people with severe sleep apnea have a much higher mortality risk than people without sleep apnea, and this risk increases when sleep apnea is untreated.

WESTCHESTER, Ill. – Moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is an independent risk factor for all-cause mortality, according to a study in the August 1 issue of the journal Sleep.