Culture

COLUMBIA, Mo. – In 2001, riots in Argentina protesting President Fernando de la Rúa's economic decisions overthrew him from office and killed almost 30 people. Latin American protests have resulted in numerous deaths and national crises since the 1970s, but also democratic reforms. Now, a MU researcher has found that although political protests can be violent, they can lead to stronger political parties and more responsive policies.

(Boston) – Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have discovered that Sfrp5, which refers to secreted frizzled-related protein 5, is an anti-inflammatory adipokine whose expression is disrupted in animal models of obesity and type 2 diabetes. The findings, which currently appear on-line in Science, may provide a new way of targeting metabolic disease, specifically obesity.

Attention college grads: Your degree may be the key to both a career and better health coverage. According to a new study of women's health insurance from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, women without a high school diploma were nearly four times more likely to be uninsured as women with a college degree.

In an effort to protect children from harmful tobacco smoke exposure, health and medical professionals are pushing for a ban on smoking in public housing in a report appearing in this week's New England Journal of Medicine.

EVANSTON, Ill. --- As a young boy growing up in Portugal, Luís Amaral loved playing, watching and talking soccer. Amaral and his friends passionately debated about which players were "the best." But, it was just a matter of opinion. Unlike baseball and basketball, there isn't a lot of statistical information detailing how each soccer player contributes to a match.

Rome, Italy, Thursday 17 June 2010: Biologics-naïve Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) patients may have an increased risk of cancer compared with the general Swedish population, according to research presented today at EULAR 2010, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism in Rome, Italy. Results of an additional study, which researched a small cohort of patients showed an increased frequency of cancer in those receiving the biologic etanercept, however, results were deemed not statistically significant by researchers.

Rome, Italy, Thursday 17 June 2010: Italian postmenopausal women who have a low calcium intake show a higher risk of developing both osteoporosis and hypertension (a chronic medical condition in which arterial blood pressure is elevated) than those who consume higher levels of calcium according to research presented today at EULAR 2010, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism in Rome, Italy.

Just as President Barack Obama called for in his address to the nation last night, Americans are demanding that BP and all other companies be responsible to both their shareholders and society, according to a new report from Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business.

Rome, Italy, Wednesday 16 June 2010: Almost three quarters (72%) of women with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) suffer pain daily, despite the fact that three quarters (75%) receive pain relief medication, according to a new study presented today at EULAR 2010, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism in Rome, Italy. Furthermore the physical pain appears to affect women to such an extent that it impacts negatively on emotional and social aspects of their lives.

Television screens are becoming increasingly flatter - some have even become almost as thin as a sheet of paper. Their size takes impressive dimensions, much to the delight of home cinema fans. Cellphones and laptops also have ever brighter and more brilliant displays. All of these developments owe their thanks to miniature light-emitting diodes – LEDs – that beam background lighting into a multitude of devices.

ATLANTA—June 16, 2010—A new consensus statement of experts assembled by the American Diabetes Association and the American Cancer Society reviews emerging evidence that suggests cancer incidence is associated with diabetes as well as certain diabetes risk factors and treatments. The new report reviews the state of science concerning the association between diabetes and cancer incidence/prognosis; risk factors common to both diseases; possible biologic links between diabetes and cancer risk; and whether diabetes treatments influence the risk of cancer or cancer prognosis.

The ATS 2010 International Conference in New Orleans will feature a special section of late-breaking clinical trials, to be presented Tuesday, May 18 at 1:30 p.m. Results are summarized below.

The BUILD-3 Trial: A Prospective, Randomized, Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Study of Bosentan in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF).http://www.thoracic.org/newsroom/press-releases/resources/king.pdf

In contrast to clinical guidelines, new research finds that the vast major­ity of patients hospitalized for severe symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were initially treated with higher doses of corticoste­roids administered intravenously, with analysis indicating that these patients had outcomes comparable to patients who received the recommended and lower-cost, less-invasive treatment of low doses of steroids administered orally, according to a study in the June 16 issue of JAMA.

Nordicom, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, conducts a yearly survey of Swedes' media use called Mediebarometern, which started in 1979. The results for the 2009 survey are now complete and show that Net media are increasingly strong, but interest in 'traditional' news is decreasing.