Over the past decade, parents, educators and policy makers have become increasingly concerned about verbal and physical harassment in schools and the subsequent effects of peer victimization on teens. A recent study by Julie C. Rusby and colleagues from the Oregon Research Institute, published in the November 2005 issue of the Journal of Early Adolescence by SAGE Publications, found significant associations between peer harassment of students in middle school and a variety of problem behaviors, such
A new procedure for the imaging of coronary veins proves to be “less invasive, have less complications, and improves the quality of diagnosis and treatment ” for individuals undergoing surgical procedures on the heart and particularly the coronary veins, a recent study found.
The study, the first of its kind, compared ECG-gated cardiac MDCT angiography to conventional angiography. “MDCT angiography is a reliable alternative to invasive conventional coronary angiography, and sho
A Mayo Clinic study has found patients report less back pain at rest and while active following vertebroplasty, a procedure in which medical cement is injected into painful compression fractures in the spinal vertebrae due to osteoporosis. Patients also reported improved function in their daily activities, such as walking, housework and getting dressed. The findings are published in the November/December issue of American Journal of Neuroradiology.
“These findings give us as good eviden
Stopping regular blood transfusions in children with sickle cell disease who are at risk for a stroke means their stroke risk likely will return, researchers have found.
A study of children whose stroke risk was reduced by blood transfusions found that within a few months of halting transfusion, 14 of the 41 children resumed at-risk status and two children had strokes, says Dr. Robert J. Adams, neurologist and stroke specialist at the Medical College of Georgia who authored the ar
When pouring liquor, even professional bartenders unintentionally pour 20 to 30 percent more into short, squat glasses than into tall, thin ones, according to a new Cornell University study.
“Yet, people who pour into short, wide glasses consistently believe that they pour less than those who pour into tall, narrow glasses,” said Brian Wansink, the John S. Dyson Professor of Marketing, Applied Economics and of Nutritional Science at Cornell. “And education, practice, concentration a
Climate change, human factors likely culprits
The tiny rabbit-like American pika, an animal species considered to be one of the best canaries in a coal mine for detecting global warming in the western United States, appears to be veering toward the brink of extinction in the Great Basin.
New research indicates the small mammals, which are very sensitive to high temperatures, are being pushed upward in their mountain habitat and are running out of places to live. Climate
In an unusual observation, a team of scientists has scanned the northern polar region of Earth with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The results show that the aurora borealis, or “northern lights,” also dance in X-ray light, creating changing bright arcs of X-ray energy above the Earth’s surface.
While other satellite observations had previously detected high-energy X-rays from the Earth auroras, the latest Chandra observations reveal low-energy X-rays generated for the fir
Recovery of injured and diseased tissue the ultimate goal
According to a study to be published in the American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulation Physiology, a typical course of hyperbaric oxygen treatments increases by eight-fold the number of stem cells circulating in a patient’s body. Stem cells, also called progenitor cells are crucial to injury repair. The study currently appears on-line and is scheduled for publication in the April 2006 edition of the American Jou
Findings provide potential strategy to improve therapeutic vaccines, T cell immunotherapy
Like boxers wearied by a 15-round bout, the immune system’s CD8 T cells eventually become “exhausted” in their battle against persistent viral infection, and less effective in fighting the disease.
In a study to be published Dec. 28 on the journal Nature’s website, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Emory University have traced the problem to a gene that turns off the
The abortion drug mifepristone (Mifeprex,TM RU-486), initially touted as a more convenient alternative to surgical abortion, has been linked to serious adverse reactions, including several deaths in otherwise healthy women. In “Analysis of Severe Adverse Events Related to the Use of Mifepristone as an Abortifacient,” researchers Margaret M Gary MD and Donna J Harrison MD provide an in-depth study of mifepristone adverse event data gathered through the FDA’s Adverse Event Reporting System. Their
The University of Colorado at Boulder’s long heritage with NASA planetary missions will continue Jan. 17 with the launch of a student space dust instrument on the New Horizons Mission to Pluto from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center.
As the first student-built instrument ever selected by the space agency to fly on a planetary mission, the CU-Boulder Student Dust Counter, or SDC, will monitor the density of dust grains in space as New Horizons buzzes to Pluto and beyond.
Researchers have demonstrated a technique that has the potential to reduce the toxicity of vaccines and to make smaller doses more effective, according to a study published in PLoS Pathogens.
Developing vaccines is fraught with challenges, particularly because many candidates carry a high risk of toxic side effects. For example, twenty percent of people immunized against smallpox will suffer side effects.
Wilfred Jefferies, a researcher at the University of British Colum
Raw starch replaces mineral raw materials
VTT, Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed natural materials from raw starch, which helps to make very high-quality paper that is fully recyclable. Due to the materials used for filling, adhesive and coating purposes, paper developed from starch is 20 to 30 per cent lighter, which means a reduction in transport costs too. The new raw materials of starch paper and their manufacturing methods are expected to be a success.
The world’s deadliest malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, sneaks past the human immune system with the help of a wardrobe of invisibility cloaks. If a person’s immune cells learn to recognize one of the parasite’s many camouflage proteins, the surviving invaders can swap disguises and slip away again to cause more damage. Malaria kills an estimated 2.7 million people annually worldwide, 75 percent of them children in Africa.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) i
A perspective article by Stephen Soumerai, professor in the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention (of Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care), suggests that the new Medicare Drug Benefit may be harmful to the health of the poor, elderly, and disabled, the so-called “dually eligible” beneficiaries enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid. This article appears in the Dec. 29 New England Journal of Medicine, and was lead by Rachel Elliott, a Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellow at
One in five teens needing inpatient psychiatric care may be manic-depressive
Clinicians at Bradley Hospital, the nation’s first psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents, have found that bipolar disorder is more common than expected in teens in a psychiatric inpatient setting.
“In the past, mental health professionals thought that about one percent of teens was bipolar – our research indicates that if a strict definition of the illness is applied, up to twen
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