AGA journals publish important studies during Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

Colorectal cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death in the United States. In 2006, an estimated 148,610 people will be diagnosed with the disease and more than 55,000 are expected to die. However, colorectal cancer can be prevented with proper and timely screening and removal of potentially cancerous polyps. In efforts to promote screening for prevention and early detection of colorect

Obese people may be more sensitive to pain than people who aren’t obese, a new study suggests.

All of the older adults who completed the study had osteoarthritis of the knee, a disease that causes inflammation and extreme pain in the knees.

Participants were given a mild electrical stimulation on their left ankle to measure their pain reflex. The stimulus was given before and after the participants took part in a 45-minute coping skills training session that included

Catheter ablation for chronic atrial fibrillation returns 74 percent of patients to normal rhythm

People who have endured the effects and risks of an irregular heartbeat for years can get long-lasting relief from a procedure that takes less than two hours, a definitive new study shows.

In the March 2 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers from the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center and the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, Italy report the resul

New evidence on chronic fatigue causation: The ’Dubbo Infection Outcomes Study’

A seven-year tracking study has prompted scientists to suggest that chronic fatigue syndrome could be the result of brain injuries inflicted during the early stages of glandular fever.

Australian researchers have put the suggestion in this week’s Journal of Infectious Diseases, which reveals new findings from the ’Dubbo Infection Outcomes Study’. Since 1999, a t

A study by University of Virginia sociologists W. Bradford Wilcox and Steven L. Nock finds that the single most important factor in women’s marital happiness is the level of their husbands’ emotional engagement — not money, the division of household chores or other factors. The study also finds that women whose husbands earn the lion’s share of income, who don’t work outside the home, or who share a strong commitment to lifelong marriage with their husbands report the highest levels of marital happin

Role of body mass index (BMI) and other factors in driver deaths occurring w/in 30 days of motor vehicle crashes

A team at the Injury Research Center of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee has found that being obese increases male drivers’ risk of dying in a car crash, as does being very slim. However, being moderately overweight might help cushion the blow.
They also found that obesity did not affect women’s risk of death from such crashes. Their study

Study One Day May Lead to Ways to Reduce Heart Attacks in Diabetes Patients

For people with type 2 diabetes, the death rate from a first heart attack is two to three times the death rate of patients without the disease. Similarly, patients with diabetes and ischemic (reduced blood flow) heart disease have a much higher mortality rate than the general population.

Now, a team of researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center led by George L. King, M.D., Director of Research and

Scientists have completed an extensive study of more than 3,000 patients who received a promising anti-inflammatory drug, natalizumab, that was linked to three cases of a serious brain infection in large clinical trials halted in early 2005.

The new study found no new cases of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) and confirmed the three previously identified cases of PML associated with use of the drug. One fatal and one nonfatal case of PML occurred in a trial us

The University of Helsinki engages in international top-level research across a broad front. Nearly two-thirds of the 75 units engaged in research received the highest or second-highest grade on a scale of 1 to 7 when compared with other comparable European research institutions.

Peer reviews reveal the University of Helsinki’s research to be of even higher quality than in the first evaluation carried out in 1999. This was the conclusion of the international experts, who evaluat

Education and training are the linchpins that will give the nation’s Hispanic workers and their children important tools to contribute to and share in U.S. prosperity, says a new report from the National Academies’ National Research Council that examines the Hispanic experience in the United States. Targeted investments in these areas would benefit not only Hispanics, but also the country as a whole by enhancing U.S. productivity as baby boomers shift into retirement.

The childr

In West Africa, matters involving development and security are affected to a considerable extent by domestic, traditional knowledge of the occult. This knowledge is safeguarded by so-called secret societies, which play a major role in society.

This anthropological study from Göteborg University in Sweden, deals with two such societies among the Sénoufo people of northern Ivory Coast and southern Mali.

One of the societies, Poro, initiates local adolescents in this knowle

As parents in Wales teach their children about the symbolism of daffodils and dragons on St David’s day, how many of them will do it speaking in Welsh? A recent study shows that the future of Welsh language is threatened by the fact that many parents are not speaking in their own language to their children. “We found that many Welsh-speaking parents were not transmitting the language to their children,” says Dr Delyth Morris, who led the study on behalf of the University of Wales, Bangor. “Thi

Scientists at The University of Manchester and the Manchester Metropolitan University have carried out the first comparative scientific study of ancient spiders trapped in amber more than 30 millions years ago.

The study of fossilised spiders from the Baltic (Poland) and the Dominican (Caribbean) regions has revealed new insights into the ecologies of spiders dating back to the Cenozoic period.

It is the first time ancient spiders from different parts of the world have b

Researchers to question whether treatment is necessary for mild thyroid problems, based on study findings

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that leaving a mildly underactive thyroid gland (subclinical hypothyroidism) untreated does not lead to increased cardiovascular risk. The study results, to be published in the March 1st issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, may lead to changes in the clinical treatment of this c

New study compares handedness of medieval English villagers to modern-day sample

A study from the April issue of Current Anthropology explores the evolution of handedness, one of few firm behavioral boundaries separating humans from other animals. As researchers find new cultural behaviors among chimpanzees and other primates, language is the only other characteristic accepted to be unique to humans, and both language and handedness appear to relate to the separation of functions

The University of Kent is launching a unique cross-disciplinary degree course that explores artificial intelligence (AI) from the combined perspectives of computer science, philosophy, psychology, biology and electronics.

Championed by technology experts and visionaries ranging from Bill Gates to film-maker George Lucas, AI is about making computers behave intelligently – for instance, by performing tasks requiring the ability to learn, to reason and to cope with unpredicted si