It’s one of those unavoidable facts of life — kids get sick and have fevers. Usually, those elevated internal temperatures cause only temporary discomfort, but in some small children they spark convulsions called “febrile seizures.”
These convulsions are “scary and very upsetting to parents,” said Robert L. Macdonald, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chair of Neurology.
They’ve also been something of an enigma, he said. The epilepsy research community has struggle
Finding Supports Theory that Single Collision Created Ninth Planet’s Three Satellites
Using new Hubble Space Telescope observations, a research team led by Dr. Hal Weaver of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and Dr. Alan Stern of Southwest Research Institute has found that Pluto’s three moons are essentially the same color – boosting the theory that the Pluto system formed in a single, giant collision.
Publishing their findings in an Inter
As scientists learn more about the potentially harmful effects of indoor air pollution, nations around the world are imposing increasingly strict regulations on chemical emissions from furnishings, paints and building materials.
Using a new room-sized environmental test chamber, more than a dozen smaller chambers and a mass spectrometric center able to measure ultra-trace concentrations of airborne chemicals being emitted from products, scientists at the Georgia Tech Research In
First-of-its-kind clinical trial will explore safety, preliminary efficacy of injecting human stem cells directly into the brain to treat fatal pediatric neurodegenerative disorder
Researchers in Doernbecher Children’s Hospital at Oregon Health & Science University will begin a Phase I clinical trial using stem cells in infants and children with a rare neurodegenerative disorder that affects infants and children. The groundbreaking trial will test whether HuCNS-SC(TM), a pro
A recently published study in the Canadian Journal of Forest Research indicates that fuel reduction treatments should simultaneously take place in the overstory, understory, and on the ground to adequately reduce fire severity. Thinning trees without treating surface fuels does not reduce mortality adequately because mortality can occur from hot fires on the ground, as well as fires that burn through the tree crowns.
The study, “Fuel Treatments Alter the Effects of Wildfire in a M
Researchers at the University at Buffalo have identified two components of saliva that may serve as the basis for novel tests to determine the risk for future loss of the bone that holds teeth in place.
By comparing dental X-rays of 100 patients with analyses of their saliva, the researchers found that higher-than-normal levels of a salivary protein called IL-1-beta were associated with increased bone loss.
The level of another protein, osteonectin, was inversely pro
Transplanting a pair of kidneys with limited function into one patient can be just as successful as the standard procedure in which a patient receives a single kidney, according to new research at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
“Performing double transplants using kidneys that would otherwise be discarded may be one viable solution to the growing shortage of organs for transplantation,” said Robert Stratta, M.D., co-author of a study being presented today at a meetin
Preeclampsia, the development of high blood pressure and protein in the urine during pregnancy and its more severe complications such as eclampsia, can threaten the lives of both mother and child. While there is no therapy to prevent preeclampsia, a link to calcium deficiency has been suggested. In a study published in the March issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, researchers across the globe, under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO), investigated whether a
Researchers are finding that components found in red wine can help in preventing and treating inflammatory periodontal diseases. Periodontitis is a progressive infectious disease affecting the gums and bone that surround and support teeth, often causing tooth movement and leading to permanent tooth loss. About 15% of adults between 21 and 50 years of age and 65% of adults over 50 are affected by this disease.
In recent years, the benefits of consuming fresh fruits and yellow-green vegetab
It’ll be a snap to identify gemstones once Robert Downs finishes his library of spectral fingerprints for all the Earth’s minerals.
Downs is almost halfway there. So far, the associate professor of geosciences at The University of Arizona in Tucson has cataloged about 1,500 of the approximately 4,000 known minerals using a technique called Raman spectroscopy. The effort is known as the RRUFF Project.
“We’re developing a tricorder,” Downs said, referri
Images returned from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft have yielded evidence that the geologically young south polar region of Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus may possess reservoirs of near-surface liquid water that erupt to form geysers of the kind found in Yellowstone National Park.
This finding and others are being reported today by the Cassini Imaging Science Team in the journal Science.
“We realize that this is a radical conclusion – that we may have evidence for liqu
Studies have shown that over the last 40 years, a warming climate has been accompanied by fewer rain- and snow-producing storms in mid-latitudes around the world, but the storms that are happening are a little stronger with more precipitation. A new analysis of global satellite data suggests that these storm changes are affecting strongly the Earth’s water cycle and air temperatures and creating contrasting cooling and warming effects in the atmosphere.
The mid-latitudes extend f
Biologists at New York University have identified a key factor that enables photoreceptor cells to decide their color sensitivity. The findings, which were uncovered by researchers in Professor Claude Desplan’s laboratory in NYU’s Center for Developmental Genetics, were published in the March 9th issue of the journal Nature.
The researchers used the fruit fly Drosophila as a genetic model system to study stochastic events like color sensitivity in photoreceptor cell
Like an armada of small rototillers, female salmon can industriously churn up entire stream beds from end to end, sometimes more than once, using just their tails.
For decades ecologists have believed that salmon nest-digging triggered only local effects. But a University of Washington researcher writes in this month’s BioScience journal that the silt, minerals and nutrients that are unleashed have ecosystemwide effects, causing changes in rivers and lakes far from the nests.
Effects of tight glucose control seen years later in diabetic neuropathy study
People with diabetes who keep their blood sugar in check today will probably have a far lower chance of developing foot pain or other nerve damage tomorrow, according to new research results from a national study.
In fact, the study shows that the positive effects of tight blood glucose control can be seen more than a decade later. At the end of the study period, patients who had controlled
The behavior of a massive ice sheet that existed in northern Europe at the end of the last Ice Age has been outlined for the first time, and researchers believe it may provide a sneak preview of how major ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica will act in the face of global warming.
The study, which will be published Friday in the journal Science by researchers from Oregon State University, shows that ice sheets can react quite differently depending on the climatic conditions
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