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Socioeconomic status (SES) is determined by a number of factors such as wealth, occupation and schools attended. SES influences the food we eat, hobbies we participate in and can even have an impact on our health. People with an upper SES background can often be accused of flaunting their status, such as by the types of cars they drive or how many pairs of Manolo Blahniks they have in their closet. It is easy to guess someone's SES based on their clothing and the size of their home, but what about more subtle clues? Psychologists Michael W.

A new study has shown there is an urgent need for more children to take part in clinical trials to make sure medicines can be licensed for their safe and effective use.

The study has been carried out by Professor James McElnay, a leading academic at Queen's University Belfast.

Professor of Pharmacy Practice as well as Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Postgraduates at Queen's, Professor McElnay led a study which showed many people in Northern Ireland do not know medicines are being used outside their license to treat children.

AUGUSTA, Ga. - The idea is to teach the immune system of children at high risk for type 1 diabetes not to attack the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas.

"We want to create a no-go zone," said Dr. Andrew Mellor, immunologist who directs the Medical College of Georgia Immunotherapy Center. Type 1 diabetes is classified as an autoimmune disease because the immune system targets healthy islet cells for destruction, leaving young patients unable to use glucose, a major fuel source for the body.

A new study shows that osteoporotic fractures increase a person's risk of dying, even after relatively minor fractures if that person is elderly. With hip fractures, there is double the risk of death for women, three times the risk for men.

The premature mortality lasts for about 5 years post-fracture, except for hip fractures when it lasts for around 10 years. It then declines towards the background population level. If there's a subsequent fracture, mortality risk will rise again for the next 5 years.

Researchers at the Centenary Institute in Sydney have discovered a molecule on the surface of immune cells which plays a critical role in cancer rejection.

Using advanced multi-photon microscopy, the scientists have tracked the migration of immune cells called T cells within tumours in experimental models, and found that the surface molecule (CD44) directly impacts whether a tumour progresses or is rejected by T cells.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — University of Michigan scientists report highly encouraging evidence that a super-fine oil-and-water emulsion, already shown to kill many other microbes, may be able to quell the ravaging, often drug-resistant infections that cause nearly all cystic fibrosis deaths.

Cystic fibrosis is an inherited chronic lung disease that affects 30,000 children and adults in the United States. Patients have mucus-clogged lungs that leave them vulnerable to repeated, ever more serious respiratory infections.

CHICAGO – The American Dietetic Association has released an updated position statement on weight management calling for people to make a "lifelong commitment to healthful lifestyle behaviors" that includes the prevention of weight gain.

The statement also urges ADA members – primarily registered dietitians and dietetic technicians, registered – to take an active role in addressing the country's obesity epidemic through partnerships among health professionals, government, schools and other organizations.

WASHINGTON -- The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule does not adequately protect the privacy of people's personal health information and hinders important health research discoveries, concludes a new report from the Institute of Medicine.

MADISON, WI, FEBRUARY 2, 2009--Phosphorus is one of the key nutrients that can cause algal blooms and related water quality problems in lakes, rivers, and estuaries worldwide. Phosphorus entering waters originates from a variety of sources. Agricultural land receiving long term applications of organic by-products such as animal manure is one of the major contributors. Such soils often become enriched with P, leading to elevated P loss through erosion and runoff.

Inuit trails are more than merely means to get from A to B. In reality, they represent a complex social network spanning the Canadian Arctic and are a distinctive aspect of the Inuit cultural identity. And what is remarkable is that the Inuit's vast geographic knowledge has been passed through many generations by oral means, without the use of maps or any other written documentation. These findings, by Dr. Claudio Aporta from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, were just published in Springer's journal Human Ecology.

BATON ROUGE – A recent study by LSU engineers suggests that Katrina-flooded homes may contain harmful levels of contaminants, particularly aerosols and gases, which could expose first-responders, residents and any others entering such homes to serious and lasting health risks. The results could also be applied to similar flooding events that might occur in the future.

Urban children with asthma engage in an average of an hour more of screen time daily than the maximum amount American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends. This is the first study to examine screen time among children with asthma.

Scientists have recovered fossils of a 60-million-year-old South American snake whose length and weight might make today's anacondas and reticulated pythons seem a bit cuter and more cuddly.

Named Titanoboa cerrejonensis by its discoverers, the size of the snake's vertebrae suggest it weighed 1140 kg (2,500 pounds) and measured 13 metres (42.7 feet) nose to tail tip. A report describing the find appears in this week's Nature.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Scientists have recovered fossils from a 60-million-year-old South American snake whose length and weight might make today's anacondas and reticulated pythons seem a bit cuter and more cuddly.

Named Titanoboa cerrejonensis by its discoverers, the size of the snake's vertebrae suggest it weighed 1,140 kilograms (2,500 pounds) and measured 13 meters (42.7 feet) nose to tail tip -- and that's a conservative estimate. A report describing the find appears in this week's Nature.

The bacterium Escherichia coli, one of the best-studied single-celled organisms around, is a master of industrial efficiency. This bacterium can be thought of as a factory with just one product: itself. It exists to make copies of itself, and its business plan is to make them at the lowest possible cost, with the greatest possible efficiency. Efficiency, in the case of a bacterium, can be defined by the energy and resources it uses to maintain its plant and produce new cells, versus the time it expends on the task.