The Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, along with co-sponsors Swiss Re and the United Nations Development Programme, today released a study showing that climate change will significantly affect the health of humans and ecosystems and these impacts will have economic consequences. The study, entitled “Climate Change Futures: Health, Ecological and Economic Dimensions,” surveys existing and future costs associated with climate change and the growing potential

Nearly one-fourth of all dialysis patients have a close relative on dialysis, researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, and others, report in the current online edition of the American Journal of Nephrology. The researchers suggest screening other relatives for undetected kidney disease.

Barry I. Freedman, M.D., reports that many relatives in these families have silent kidney diseases that can be treated at early stages, leading to slowed progression or prevent

While the past fifteen years have seen a growth of support for school-aged children who have suffered bereavement, less attention has been paid to those under five years.

Now a researcher at the University of Leicester School of Education is redressing the balance in a two-year research programme called “Grief and Young Children”.

With a major grant of nearly £140,000 from the Parenting Fund, Rose Griffiths has been working with the Childhood Bereavement Network, L

Charities must be genuinely distinctive to stand out in an increasingly crowded market, according to new research funded by the ESRC.

If they seem identical to other charitable organisations, appeals they make are doomed from the outset, says a study led by Professor Adrian Sargeant of the University of the West of England.

Researchers found that few facets of charity brands were genuinely distinctive. On the contrary, donors take the core values of charitable bodies as

A new study of genetic changes in bacteria may ultimately help drug makers stay a step ahead of disease-causing bacteria that can become resistant to antibiotics.

The secret lies in understanding the function of the ribosome, a tiny protein-making factory residing inside most cells.

Many currently used antibiotics alter a ribosome’s ability to make proteins, said Kurt Fredrick, a study co-author and an assistant professor of microbiology at Ohio State University.

Breastfeeding does not raise the risk of mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis C virus (HCV), according to two new studies published in the December 1 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online.

One study found that infant girls are twice as likely to be infected as infant boys. Both studies provide new information with which to counsel pregnant women infected with HCV. Taken together, the two new studies expand upon preliminary data from smaller studies

Benjamin Franklin wrote in his 1750 Poor Richard’s Almanac that “There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.” The problem of achieving accurate self-knowledge hasn’t gotten any easier in 250 years; and, as shown in a new research report, there are major real-world consequences to this very human attribute.

In “Flawed Self-Evaluation: Implications for Health, Education, and the Workplace,” investigators David Dunning (Cornell), Chip Heath (Stanfo

From glaciers to caribou, rivers to roads, Arctic climate change is having a broad effect on almost every aspect of life in the North. That’s the conclusion University of Alaska Fairbanks researchers and others outline in a paper to be published in the October 2005 issue of the journal “Climatic Change.”

The paper is a result of decades of research by dozens of scientists in multiple disciplines, said Larry Hinzman, a research professor with UAF’s Water and Environmental Research

The risk of ischemic stroke – which results when a blood clot travels to the brain – increases with a rise in particulate air pollution, according to a study in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association. Led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), the findings are described in the October 27, 2005 on-line rapid access issue of the journal.

The study, which examined the air quality on a total of 37,0

A collaboration of researchers, led by Dr. Martine Roussel (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital), has developed a novel mouse model of medulloblastoma — the most prevalent malignant pediatric brain tumor — that the researchers hope will more accurately represent the genetic changes involved in human brain tumor development.

Their study will be published in the November 15th issue of Genes & Development, but will also be made available online ahead of print on 10/31.

Another study demonstrates benefits of colon cancer screening in elderly populations

A new study of gender and risk factors for colorectal cancer reveals that while both tobacco and alcohol increase risk for colorectal cancer, women who smoke are at higher risk. Researcher Anna L. Zisman, M.D. of Evanston Northwestern Health Care presented these findings at the 70th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology. Another study presented at ACG of patients

Copying the ideas of others is usually frowned upon, but when it comes to the work of Mother Nature, scientists are finding they can use nature as a template.

An interdisciplinary group of scientists and engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology recently formed the Center for Biologically Inspired Design (CBID) with the goal of capitalizing on the rich source of design solutions present in biological processes. The researchers believe nature can inspire design and en

Far from being a ‘throwaway society’, most of us go to considerable lengths to pass on unwanted household items to others, according to new research sponsored by the ESRC. And when it comes to making our mark in society, it is not just what we acquire but what we decide to get rid of that is important to us, says the study by researchers at Sheffield and Nottingham Universities.

The project examined how households in the Midlands and North-East got rid of ordinary, everyday consumer items

A study by a group of Belgian investigators assessed the effects of aerobic exercise on various psychological dimensions, including well-being.

The first objective of this study was to compare the changes in physical self-concept, global self-esteem, depression and anxiety after participation in one of two 16-week psychomotor therapy programs for nonpsychotic psychiatric inpatients. The second objective was to study the relationship between changes in these variables.

Specialists of the Institute of Comprehensive Social Studies (Modern University for the Humanities) have carried out detailed analysis of changes in the matrimonial relations structure in the world since 1950 to 2000. The researchers considered four types of matrimonial relations: monogamy (one man – one woman) and three types of polygamy – polygyny (one man – several women), polyandry (one woman – several men) and polygyandry (several women – several men). The fifth type of reproductive relatio

Published Oct. 20 in the online edition of the peer-reviewed journal Health Services Research, the study finds that the average $1,583 cost of substance abuse treatment is offset by monetary benefits such as reduced costs of crime and increased employment earnings totaling $11,487.

The researcher team used detailed data from 2,567 clients admitted to 43 treatment providers in 13 California counties during 2000 and 2001. The information was gathered via an automated system operated