Health-care costs for morbidly obese adults are nearly twice those of people considered to be of normal weight, says a study led by University of Cincinnati (UC) researchers.
The study found that medical expenditures for morbidly obese adults in the year 2000 were 81 percent more than for normal-weight adults, 65 percent more than overweight adults, and 47 percent more than obese adults. The excess costs among morbidly obese adults resulted from greater spending on visits to the
A team of scientists led by Peer Bork, Ph.D., Senior Bioinformatics Scientist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, report today in the journal Genome Research that they have identified a new primate-specific gene family that spans about 10% of human chromosome 2. Comprised of eight family members, the RGP gene cluster may help to explain what sets apart humans and other primates from the rest of the animal kingdom.
Human chromosome 2 has always intrigued primate biologist
Do people tend to select romantic partners that are similar to them or opposite to them? And does spouse similarity lead to marital happiness? In one of the most comprehensive studies ever undertaken on these questions, researchers at the University of Iowa find that people tend to marry those who are similar in attitudes, religion and values. However, it is similarity in personality that appears to be more important in having a happy marriage. The findings appear in the February issue of the J
Firefly protein illuminates virus’ hunt of metastasized melanoma cells in live mouse
Camouflaging an impotent AIDS virus in new clothes enables it to hunt down metastasized melanoma cells in living mice, reports a UCLA AIDS Institute study in the Feb. 13 online edition of Nature Medicine. The scientists added the protein that makes fireflies glow to the virus in order to track its journey from the bloodstream to new tumors in the animals’ lungs. “For the past 20 years, g
Women with a history of caesarean section deliveries do not have a higher risk of a subsequent stillbirth, according to researchers at Yale School of Medicine and Columbia University.
Yale Obstetrics and Gynecology scientist Mert Ozan Bahtiyar, M.D., presented the findings today at the annual meeting of the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine, held February 7-12 in Reno, Nevada. “Caesarean sections have been associated with some pregnancy complications, but when a physician consul
A behavioral neuroscientist at the University at Buffalo holds that the ingestion of afterbirth by a mother, a feature of pregnancy in nearly all non-human mammals, not only relieves postpartum pain, but optimizes the onset of maternal behavior by mediating the activity of specific opioid activity circuits in the brain.
Mark Kristal, Ph.D., professor of psychology at UB and director the graduate program in behavioral neuroscience, has received a two-year $200,000 grant from the Nat
New research is shedding light on why estrogenic hormones produce unintended results in women, giving hope to the idea that new drugs might reach their targets and work more effectively. Ultimately it could mean that postmenopausal women would know that hormone-replacement therapy would have only its intended result.
“It’s very difficult right now for women to make a choice about taking estrogen or other estrogen-like compounds, and, I think, it’s equally difficult for
Treatments for mood and anxiety disorders are thought to work, in part, by helping patients control the stresses in their lives. A new study in rats by National Institutes of Health (NIH) grantees provides insight into the brain mechanisms likely involved. When it deems a stressor controllable, an executive hub in the front of the brain quells an alarm center deep in the brainstem, preventing the adverse behavioral and physiological effects of uncontrollable stress.
“It’s a
An automatic sprinkler system significantly increases a person’s chances of surviving a dormitory fire, according to a report issued recently by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Three NIST experiments,* supported by a U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) initiative for fire safety in college housing, compared the hazards of fires in smoke detector-equipped dormitories with and without fire sprinklers in the room of fire origin. Researchers started fires
It seems that the heart wants what the heart wants — and it can figure it out fairly quickly, according to evolutionary psychologists at the University of Pennsylvania. The researchers studied dating data from 10,526 anonymous participants of HurryDate, a company that organizes “speed dating” sessions, and found rare behavioral data on how people genuinely act in dating situations.
“Some people say they’re looking for one kind of person, then choose another. Other peop
A meticulous diary kept by a mother of twins has revealed indicators of autistic behaviour in children as young as six months of age. The findings are published today in Neurocase.
Mel Rutherford, assistant professor of psychology at McMaster University, says the diary provides a rare and unprecedented opportunity to observe the early development of autism. She says the mother of fraternal twins recorded her observations almost daily for about five years, beginning before the twi
’Roast’ hardwood at relatively low temperatures and then gasify it. Dutch chemical engineer Mark Prins has shown that this is an efficient means of producing sustainable energy. The gas produced can be used for the production of electricity, fuels and/or chemicals.
Prins followed a thermodynamic approach to investigate how biomass could be gasified as efficiently as possible. He developed a concept which combines two techniques: torrefaction (’roasting’ a
Dutch researcher Bart de Graaf has developed a solid oxygen carrier, a sort of oxygen sponge. The oxygen from the sponge reacts with hydrogen to produce water. With De Graaf’s discovery a lot of energy can be saved during the production of raw materials for plastics.
Hydrogen is released during the conversion of ethane and propane to ethylene and propylene, raw materials for the production of plastics. Using oxygen from a so-called oxygen sponge to convert hydrogen into
Bei rund 20 Millionen Menschen in der Bundesrepublik, etwa einem Viertel der Bevölkerung, tickt eine Zeitbombe. Sie haben das, was Ärzte seit einigen Jahren als Stoffwechsel- bzw. metabolisches Syndrom bezeichnen. In den USA sind schätzungsweise 47 Millionen Menschen davon betroffen. Die Patienten haben eine Reihe verschiedener Erkrankungen, die sich gegenseitig hochschaukeln. Dazu zählen vor allem starkes Übergewicht (Adipositas), Bluthochdruck, Typ-2 Diabetes und Fettstoffwechselstörungen.
Patienten mit schweren Herzerkrankungen, die eine Transplantation benötigen würden, müssen häufig zu lange auf das lebensrettende Organ warten. Neue mechanische Unterstützungssysteme für den Herz-Kreislauf können nicht nur dabei helfen, die Wartezeit zu überbrücken, sondern auch die Transplantation überhaupt ersetzen, berichtete Prof. Dr. Christof Schmid bei der Jahreskonferenz der Herzchirurgen in Hamburg.
Geschätzte 1.200 bis 1.500 Menschen warten in Deutschland jährlich auf e
The Lychnis moth (Hadena bicruris) is laying more eggs on white campion (Silene latifolia), due to the increasing fragmentation of the countryside. Dutch researcher Jelmer Elzinga studied how many white campion seeds were eaten by Lychnis moth caterpillars at various locations along the River Waal.
Elzinga discovered that at small and isolated locations, Lychnis moth caterpillars consumed more white campion seeds. This increased consumption was thought to be due to a decrease i
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