Body

TORONTO, June 26, 2014 – Women with chronic physical illnesses are more likely to use mental health services than men with similar illnesses; they also seek out mental health services six months earlier than those same men, according to new study from St. Michael's Hospital and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES).

PHILADELPHIA — The longer a person took low-dose aspirin, the lower his or her risk for developing pancreatic cancer, according to a study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Current guidelines to help prevent bloodstream infections during intravenous feeding may needrevisions to strengthen protections for patients, a new study finds.

On the heels of the 2014 hurricane season, researchers are calling for home parenteral and enteral nutrition (HPEN) consumers and their homecare providers to have a comprehensive emergency preparedness plan (EPP) to ensure that special needs are met during the time of a disaster.

COLLEGE STATION – Scientists with Texas A&M AgriLife Research have found a "Trojan horse" way to deliver proteins into live human cells without damaging them.

The finding, published in this month's Nature Methods, is expected to be easily adopted for use in medical research to find cures and treatments for a wide range of diseases, according to the team's lead scientist, Dr. Jean-Philippe Pellois, an associate professor of biochemistry at Texas A&M University.

Nearly 7 million babies in the first month of life (neonates) required treatment for severe bacterial infection in South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America in 2012, according to a new study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. The estimates, which are the first of their kind, indicate the high burden of neonatal bacterial infections, which include sepsis, meningitis and pneumonia. Researchers developed the estimates to help guide health-programme planning for clinical diagnosis and treatment.

Failure to protect patient safety and poor record keeping were among the most common violations picked up by the US regulator in the running of clinical trials over a period of seven years, reveals a study published online in the Journal of Medical Ethics.

The study authors reviewed the content of 84 first warning letters issued by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) following site visits to 46 trial sponsors, 20 lead researchers, and 18 institutional review boards, which assess and monitor safety, between 2005 and 2012.

New genetic research provides compelling evidence that low levels of vitamin D have a causal role in the development of high blood pressure (hypertension). The findings, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, suggest that vitamin D supplementation could be effective in combating some cases of hypertension.

Field surveys and satellites complement each other when studying remote penguin populations, according to research published June 25 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by André Ancel from the CNRS at Strasbourg and colleagues.

The neurotoxin tetrodotoxin (TTX) has been found for the first time in two species living out of water, according to a study published June 25 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Amber Stokes from California State University, Bakersfield, California and colleagues.

Neanderthals from Spain may have consumed more vegetables than previously thought, according to research published June 25 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Ainara Sistiaga from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of La Laguna and colleagues.

Bottom Line: Drinking alcohol has increased over a generation in a study of mothers and daughters in Australia.

Authors: Rosa Alati, Ph.D., M.Appl.Sc., of the University of Queensland, Australia, and colleagues.

Background: Previous research suggests drinking patterns have changed with more heavy drinking at younger ages.

Watersnakes, commonly seen in the lakes, rivers and streams of the eastern United States, are invading California waterways and may pose a threat to native and endangered species in the state, according to a University of California, Davis, study.

Genomic sequencing is supposed to reveal the entire genetic makeup of an organism. For infectious disease specialists, the technology can be used to analyze a disease-causing bacterium to determine how much harm it is capable of causing and whether or not it will be resistant to antibiotics. But new research at Rockefeller University suggests that current sequencing protocols overlook crucial bits of information: isolated pieces of DNA floating outside the bacterial chromosome, the core of a cell's genetic material.

Cambridge, Mass. – June 25, 2014 – In wind farms across North America and Europe, sleek turbines equipped with state-of-the-art technology convert wind energy into electric power. But tucked inside the blades of these feats of modern engineering is a decidedly low-tech core material: balsa wood.

Like other manufactured products that use sandwich panel construction to achieve a combination of light weight and strength, turbine blades contain carefully arrayed strips of balsa wood from Ecuador, which provides 95 percent of the world's supply.