Body

A recent study has shown that cognitive impairment is evident early on in preschool children with epilepsy, consistent with results of similar studies in older children. Age of onset of first seizure is a significant predictor of cognitive impairment according to this study—the first to evaluate cognitive impairment in children age three to six. The report is available in Epilepsia, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE).

WASHINGTON (June 2, 2011) – New research suggests an effective recovery drink may already be in your refrigerator: lowfat chocolate milk. Grabbing lowfat chocolate milk after a tough workout helped give both trained and amateur athletes a post-exercise training advantage, according to three new studies presented at the American College of Sports Medicine and published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research this month.

NEW YORK CITY —Scientists have identified a drug combination, when used in advanced lung cancer patients, shows a survival advantage in patients who no longer respond to existing therapies. They found that bexarotene and erlotinib can each repress the critical cell cycle regulator: cyclin D1. The drug combination also broadened the reach to include a specific subset of patients, such as those resistant due to the presence of a ras mutation in their cancer. The study was published in the June issue of Cancer Prevention Research.

While it is already known that breast cancer cells create the conditions for their own survival by communicating their needs to the healthy cells that surround them, Australian researchers have identified a new way of turning off that cellular cross talk.

They have shown that a molecule known as 'hedgehog' sits at the centre of the switchboard in breast cancer, transmitting biochemical signals between the cancer cells and healthy cells.

When this conversation is blocked – or hedgehog is 'silenced' – tumours shrink and stop their spread.

June 2nd, Shenzhen, China – The recent outbreak of an E. coli infection in Germany has resulted in serious concerns about the potential appearance of a new deadly strain of bacteria. In response to this situation, and immediately after the reports of deaths, the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf and BGI-Shenzhen began working together to sequence the bacterium and assess its human health risk. BGI-Shenzhen has just completed the sequence and carried out a preliminary analysis that shows the current infection is caused by an entirely new super-toxic E.

HOUSTON ― A vaccine for one of the most lethal cancers, advanced melanoma, has improved response rate and progression-free survival for patients when combined with the immunotherapy drug Interleukin-2, according to research led by scientists from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Indiana University Health Goshen Center for Cancer Care.

New research into drag reduction has the potential to help industries such shipping to reduce energy use and carbon emissions.

Professor Derek Chan from the University of Melbourne's Department of Mathematics and Statistics said the research demonstrates a new way to minimise drag of fast moving projectiles in water.

A collaboration between the University of Melbourne and the King Abdulla University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, the research was based on the 255 year-old Leidenfrost effect.

DALLAS – June 2, 2011 – In a multicenter clinical trial, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found that higher doses of stereotactic radiation therapy requiring fewer treatments are safe and effective for patients with low-to-intermediate-risk prostate cancer.

WASHINGTON, DC, May 24, 2011 — Children whose parents get divorced generally don't experience detrimental setbacks in the pre-divorce period, but often fall behind their peers—and don't catch up—when it comes to math and interpersonal social skills after their parents begin the divorce process, according to a new study.

MADISON — Divorce is a drag on the academic and emotional development of young children, but only once the breakup is under way, according to a study of elementary school students and their families.

"Children of divorce experience setbacks in math test scores and show problems with interpersonal skills and internalizing behavior during the divorce period," says Hyun Sik Kim, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "They are more prone to feelings of anxiety, loneliness, low self-esteem and sadness."

Until a decade, it was believed that differences between people were due solely to the existence of genetic changes, which are alterations in the sequence of our genes. The discoveries made during these last ten years show that beings with the same genetics like the twins and cloned animals may have different characteristics and disease due to epigenetic changes.

NEW YORK — June 2, 2011 — A new study by Columbia Business School Professor Paul Ingram, Kravis Professor Business, Management and senior scholar at the Jerome A. Chazen Institute for International Business at Columbia Business School; Hayagreeva Rao, Atholl McBean Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resources, Stanford Graduate School of Business; and Qingyuan (Lori) Yue, Assistant Professor of Management and Organization, USC Marshall School of Business, found evidence of how firms engage in regulatory arbitrage and make decisions based on a state's regulatory policies.

Sufferers of the sleep disorder obstructive sleep apnoea could benefit from following a low energy diet to lose weight, finds research published on bmj.com today.

Sleep apnoea is a common disorder caused by abnormal pauses in breathing during sleep. Sufferers rarely feel refreshed after a night's sleep and the disease is linked to negative health effects such as increased risk of accidents, decreased quality of life and a higher chance of premature death.

Excessive use of antimicrobials in livestock promotes resistance and risks the future health of both animals and humans, warn experts in an editorial published by Student BMJ today.

Jørgen Schlundt and colleagues at the National Food Institute in Denmark argue that the routine use of antimicrobials can be reduced substantially, while maintaining profitable animal production, and call for their use to be monitored in all countries.

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — June 1, 2011 — Deadly bacteria may be evolving antibiotic resistance by mimicking human proteins, according to a new study by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen).

This process of "molecular mimicry" may help explain why bacterial human pathogens, many of which were at one time easily treatable with antibiotics, have re-emerged in recent years as highly infectious public health threats, according to a study published in PLoS One.