The cognitive cost of being a twin: evidence from comparisons within families in the Aberdeen children of the 1950s cohort study, BMJ Online First
Social and economic circumstances do not explain why twins have significantly lower IQ in childhood than single-born children, according to a study in this week’s BMJ.
Researchers studied 9,832 single-born children and 236 twins born in Aberdeen, Scotland between 1950 and 1956, using a previous child development survey as
Prevent bone loss, periodontal disease
Drugs that reverse and prevent bone loss due to osteoporosis also significantly ward off periodontal disease, according to a graduate of the Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine who reports in the current Menopause journal article, “Periodontal Assessments of Postmenopausal Women Receiving Risedronate.”
Leena Bahl Palomo, D.D.S and M.S.D., is the lead author on the study with Nabil Bissada, chair and professor
Better means of communicating risks needed
In a survey of approximately 930,000 ambulatory care patients, researchers from the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention (of Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care) and colleagues found that 42 percent received prescriptions for drugs with Black Box Warnings (BBW), the Food and Drug Administration’s strongest label for high-risk medication. Additionally, physicians’ compliance with the recommendations of
Through a series of theoretical calculations and supercomputer simulations, astrophysicists have determined that new stars form by gravitational collapse rather than the widely held belief that they come from the buildup of unbound gas.
In astronomy, there are two dominant models as to how stars form. In both scenarios, a star initially forms when a gravitationally bound gas core collapses. But what ensues after that is the crucial distinction between the two theories.
I
Using building blocks that make up ordinary plastics, but putting them together in a whole new way, University of Michigan researchers have created a class of lightweight, rigid polymers they predict will be useful for storing hydrogen fuel. The work is described in today’s (Nov. 17) issue of the journal Science.
The trick to making the new materials, called covalent organic frameworks (COFs), was coaxing them to assume predictable crystal structures—something that never had b
Reports that US ‘organic’ vegetable growers could be contaminating their produce with antibiotic-laden manure raises questions over the quality of the £40m of ‘organic’ produce imported into the UK from the US every year.
Certified organic farmers in the US are allowed to use raw manure from livestock regularly treated with antibiotics and drugs. Jennifer Rohn reports in Chemistry & Industry magazine that nearly 60% of US organics growers do just that. Plants grown using this manur
The discovery of a swarm of aggressive tiger mosquitoes, a type known to carry dengue fever, in the Netherlands has highlighted the lack of legislation for monitoring disease-carrying insects in the EU, reports Jennifer Rohn in Chemistry & Industry magazine.
A Dutch inspector was attacked and bitten by the swarm in a greenhouse during a routine inspection of imported bamboo. The bamboo and the insects originated in southeast China where the disease is rife. But it is not yet
Just five years ago Britain’s coffee houses were in a sorry state of decline. Today, and confounding many pundits’ expectations, coffee houses are springing up across the UK’s cities, towns and villages in the form of latte-serving cafes and coffee shop chains. But, what is everyday life like in these new public places in the city? And is Britain’s new cappuccino community livelier than the traditional pub crowd?
Researchers, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and b
Nearly a third of surveyed physicians do not keep a record when patients report domestic violence. Published today in the open access journal BMC Family Practice, a study of clinicians’ reports on patients who experienced domestic violence also reveals that 90% of the clinicians surveyed do not document domestic violence adequately. Their reports do not record whether they offered support and information about domestic violence to patients who might have needed it.
Megan Gerber, from Ha
Scientists at the Technische Universität Dresden/Germany are significantly involved in a European research project entitled “BioSim“ which aims at utilising biosimulation as a new tool in drug development. The use of computer simulations will provide more objective data which helps to develop drug compounds more effectively and to reduce investment in drug development drastically. Above all the number of animal tests as well as clinical studies with volunteers will decrease substantially.
Currently, the Institute of Aerospace Engineering at the Technische Universität Dresden (TU Dresden) is developing an innovative sensor system for human respiratory investigations which can also be applied in the space. Professor Stefanos Fasoulas and his expert team have created a high-performance miniaturised sensor which enables a simultaneous in-situ measurement of oxygen, carbon dioxide and volume flow rates.
In this regard, scientists of the Professorship for Space Systems and
The plans for construction of the Eastern Siberia – Pacific Ocean oil-pipe line not only threaten the existence of the last population of the Far Eastern leopard but also Lake Baikal. According to the latest project, the oil-pipe line will go along the route of the Baikal-Amur trank line, less than a kilometer from the northern extremity of the Lake –the town of Severobaikalsk.
“According to the designers’ estimates, in case of an emergency in the pipe line, up to four thousand
Scientists are concerned with commodization of mobile communications. Although the damage of cellular phones’ electromagnetic radiation has never been proved, their safety can not be warranted either. Chairman of the Russian National Committee for defense from nonionizing radiation, Doctor of Science (Medicine), Professor, Yuri Grigirievich Grigoriev advises that children and teenagers are particularly sensitive to electromagnetic radiation. Judging by some data, long child’s conversations o
Sensitive and durable sensors for determination of hydrogen sulfide concentration in the air were developed by chemists of the Voronezh State Technological Academy in collaboration with their colleagues from the Smolensk production association “Analitpribor”. Based on commercially available piesoelectric resonators, these sensors will reliably protect workers’ health by letting know that the poison concentration in the air has approached a dangerous boundary.
At first sight it
Latest advances in health psychology may help physicians implement improved HIV care
Initial results from the OpenMind study, the largest behavioural study to look at both patients’ and physicians’ perceptions of HIV care in treatment-experienced patients, were revealed today at EACS. The study’s findings are anticipated to help physicians implement improved care to HIV patients and help pave the way for better acceptance and integration of other new innovative drugs such as monocl
The dramatic rise in the number of Britons going broke has been partly caused by a dangerous addiction to reinvention and ‘want now’ consumerism, according to Professor Anthony Elliott of the University of Kent.
Elliott, Professor of Sociology in Kent’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, argues that consumers are so bewitched by seductive services, designer goods and hi-tech products that they become addicted to spending. This is an addiction that is blind
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