Concerns among health care analysts that the majority of pediatricians in training are now women and that that might cause shortages in the future in pediatric subspecialties appear to be almost entirely unfounded, a new University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study concludes.

Unlike in the past, women pediatricians are increasingly likely to enter subspecialties, researchers discovered, saying that the news is reassuring.

“This shows that women are breaking into t

New reports document dramatic changes in the ownership of southern forestland

Two new research studies document dramatic changes in the ownership of Southern forestland and declining markets for its forest products. The Southern Group of State Foresters (SGSF), with the help of scientists from the USDA Forest Service and their university cooperators, recently reviewed the findings of two year-long research projects aimed at understanding trends crucial to the future of southern fo

New research has shown that the immune-stimulating hormone known as interleukin-12 (IL-12) can safely be administered with interferon, another immune-system protein, as an experimental therapy for some cancers.

Normally, interferon is used alone to stimulate the immune system to attack certain cancers. This strategy, a form of immunotherapy, is sometimes used to treat melanoma, advanced kidney cancer and other tumors that respond poorly to chemotherapy or radiation therapy. But int

Academic medical centers and not-for-profit hospitals take the lead for-profit hospitals lag behind

A study released today in the Journal of Palliative Medicine confirmed that palliative care programs continue to be a rapidly growing trend in U.S. hospitals – a trend widely regarded to be an improvement in the quality of care of advanced, chronic illness. Researchers at the Mount Sinai Medical Center and the American Hospital Association (AHA) report that the number of palliative

A new study finds significant disparities by race and gender in the enrollment of patients into lung cancer clinical trials. Published in the January 15, 2006 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study indicates that women and African-Americans were least likely to enroll in treatment trials for lung cancer, and identifies a need to improve educational and outreach efforts to make clinical trials available to a wider range of patients.

While clini

An inflamed injury may increase levels of a protein responsible for persistent pain, causing the brain to mimic pain long after source has disappeared, says U of T researchers. The findings could have serious implications for the millions of Canadians who suffer from chronic pain.

The study, published in the current issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, shows how inflammation in mice increases NR2B proteins – proteins that facilitate nerve cell communication – and imprint a pai

Forest productivity may be significantly greater in an atmosphere enriched with carbon dioxide, according to findings released today that challenge recent reports that question the importance of carbon dioxide fertilization.

The study, performed by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and 10 other institutions in the United States and Europe, revealed a strong relationship between productivity of forest plots in the current atmosphere

By 2025 the number of people in Britain over the age of 60 will outnumber those under 25. Pressure on both pensions and pensioner spending power will increase. Answers to problems, old and new, will have to be sought.

In a move to address the issues of ageing – one of the most significant aspects of change in our lives, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is highlighting the impact of ageing on society, and offering expanded research funding to provide leading edge th

Seeking to bring clarity to the debate on mobile phone use, researchers from the University of Essex have published the results of an investigation into the effects of mobiles on attention.

Arising from recent concerns over the physical effects of mobile phone use, the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme awarded an Essex team funding to investigate if radio frequency electromagnetic fields emitted by phones have a significant effect on attention performance.

Patients with mental health problems may not be receiving the appropriate screening or treatments for illnesses including heart disease and stroke, a report from The University of Nottingham has shown.

The research, led by Professor Julia Hippisley-Cox in the University’s Division of General Practice and commissioned by the Disability Rights Commission, found some evidence that patients with mental health problems, such as schizophrenia, were also more likely to suffer fr

A new study has shown for the first time that giving two chemotherapy drugs to women with advanced endometrial cancer after surgery reduced the risk of recurrence by 29% and extended survival by 32% compared with women who received whole abdominal irradiation. The findings could improve the care for the 15% to 20% of patients with endometrial cancer who have advanced disease. The study will be published online December 5 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO).

Endometrial cancer is t

Product and system prototyping can be as sophisticated and complex as the final products they seek to model. But to model the capabilities of advanced factories and sophisticated vehicles calls for the tools developed by European researchers.

The FLEXICON project addressed the need to reduce the timescales required for producing open and distributed fault-tolerant control and monitoring systems. It developed two integrated suites of tools to support the different development p

A person is in trouble in a crowded place, but no-one steps over to help. The situation is called the bystander effect, and it appears that the more people watching, the less likely it is that anyone will respond.

But new research shows that even when accompanied by another person, individuals are much more likely to intervene if the situation is dangerous or violent, and when they feel empathy for the victim. The findings are published in the latest edition of the European J

Research in monkeys suggests that the perimenopause – the five to 10 years before a woman’s menopause – is a critical time for preventing heart disease and osteoporosis.

“Research in animals suggests that the five years before menopause are when bone is lost and when heart vessel disease begins to accelerate,” according to Jay Kaplan, Ph.D., from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, who spoke today at the annual meeting of the American College of Veterinary Patholog

As long as children have carried their books and belongings in backpacks they have complained of shoulder and back pain. A University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine-led team found that how loads are distributed under backpack straps may help identify the source of shoulder and back pain in children.

The study, published in the December 5, 2005 issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, concludes that the average backpack load that children a

Researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London have identified a molecule that could be targeted to treat the cognitive impairment in people with Down syndrome. The study, published in Archives of General Psychiatry found that people with Down syndrome have higher levels of myo-inositol in their brains than people without the condition, and that increased levels of this molecule are associated with reduced intellectual ability.

The researchers also suspect