Discovery could lead to new direction for prevention, treatment research

Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have found that women with a common thyroid gland disorder appear to have a reduced chance of developing invasive breast cancer, according to a study published in the March 15 issue of Cancer, out online Feb. 14.

In a retrospective case-control study of 2,226 females, researchers found that women with primary hypothyroidism (under-a

In defending her PhD thesis, Teresa Garde Cerdán, Doctor in Chemical Sciences at the Public University of Navarre, stated that the maximum concentrations of compounds transferred to wine from wood is reached after 10 to 12 months of the wine being stored in wooden casks.

Moreover, it has been shown that, after a year, the concentration of these compounds, positive for the aroma of the wine, not only do they not increase but, in some cases, they begin to decrease. This is an importa

Nottingham researchers have found a way to treat children with cystic fibrosis (CF), which could reduce their side effects and see more young patients treated at home.

Experts at The University of Nottingham organised the largest successful clinical trial in the UK looking at cystic fibrosis in an attempt to discover whether a common antibiotic used to treat the condition could be administered just once a day instead of the usual three daily doses.

The recommendations f

Poor forecasting is more evident for time than money

If your appointment book runneth over, it could mean one of two things: Either you are enviably popular or you make the same faulty assumptions about the future as everyone else. Psychological research points to the latter explanation. Research by two business-school professors reveals that people over-commit because we expect to have more time in the future than we have in the present. Of course, when tomorrow turns into today

A great deal of public policy advocacy has been influenced by the notion that the United States is becoming an “increasingly mobile society” – that the population is changing residence at increasing levels. However, a new study provides empirical evidence in favor of an opposite trend.

In fact, overall mobility has generally declined since about 1950, and interstate mobility has generally not increased during the same period. The data supporting this is reported in the February

Benefits and problems are related to developmental stages, family context

A consortium of researchers has reported that very young children’s interactions with TV and computers are a mixed bag of opportunities and cautions, while teenagers’ Internet use has changed so much that the myths of several years ago need to be debunked. Said Amy Sussman, program manager for the National Science Foundation (NSF), which funds the five-site Children’s Digital Media Center (CDMC), “Reaping

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have discovered why people are attracted to certain facial types when in pursuit of romance.

Academics have discovered a large majority of women prefer men with feminine facial features when in pursuit of a stable long-term relationship, as feminine looking men are not so likely to stray.

Dr Tony Little, from the University’s School of Biological Sciences, launched his study on the Internet, asking participants to rate the attract

Researchers at New York University have determined the location in the brain where involuntary attention enhances visual processing. The researchers, from NYU’s Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science, found that attending to, or selectively processing information from a given location without directing our eyes to that location, enhances performance in visual tasks as well as the neural activity underlying the processing of ensuing images. The results are published in the lat

Alan List, M.D., leader of the Hematologic Malignancies Program at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, recently conducted a phase I/II trial of the experimental drug Revlimid showing promise as an innovative way to treat patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a form of pre-leukemia. Given in pill form, Revlimid simultaneously blocks the growth of new blood vessels that nourish tumors (anti-angiogenesis) and stimulates the immune system to fight cancer cells. The study

Although most parents, educators, and researchers believe that children can’t learn specific words until well into their second year, children younger than 1 year can, in fact, learn certain words for things that are not a regular part of their daily lives, according to new research being published in the January/February 2005 issue of the journal, Child Development.

The findings, based on research by Graham Schafer, D.Phil., of the University of Reading in Reading in the Uni

Study of dialysis patients yields surprising findings

Despite what able-bodied healthy people might think, people with severe illnesses and disabilities don’t wallow in misery and self-pity all the time. In fact, a new study finds, such patients on the whole may be just as happy as those without major medical conditions. The finding adds to the growing body of evidence that ill and disabled people adapt to their condition and show a resilience of spirit that many healthy people ca

Raises potential for new prenatal test

For the first time, researchers have successfully profiled the amniotic fluid metabolome (the sum of all metabolic processes occurring in the amniotic fluid), in order to identify which women who have experienced preterm labor are also at risk for delivering a premature baby. With nearly one in eight babies in the U.S. born prematurely every year, and the problem of premature birth increasing, the need for tools that can identify preterm de

Effect pronounced when caregivers experience own health problems or care for especially needy spouses

When elderly people need assistance with the activities of daily life, one might assume that the best people to care for them would be the ones who know them best–their spouses. But, as a team of researchers at the University of Pittsburgh report in this month’s issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, being married to one’s caregiver could be a prescr

A new study has shown a stroke-prevention drug designed to be an improvement over prior treatments is less cost-effective for most patients than warfarin, the blood thinner with a 50-year history of helping prevent blood clots and strokes. The study, conducted by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found, however, that the new drug would be cost-effective for those atrial fibrillation patients whose risk of bleeding is high. The findings are reported in the Februa

I got rhythm,
I got music.
I got my guy,
Who could ask for anything more?
George Gershwin/Ira Gershwin

North American adults have problems perceiving and reproducing irregular rhythms. That’s what past studies have shown, and some new research has addressed the question of whether our seeming inability to dance to a different tune should be chalked up to nature or culture. New findings point to a harmonious blend of both.

Music has a communal quality

People who smoked marijuana had changes in the blood flow in their brains even after a month of not smoking, according to a study published in the February 8 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
The findings could explain in part the problems with thinking or remembering found in other studies of marijuana users, according to study authors Ronald Herning, PhD, and Jean Lud Cadet, MD, of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Baltimore, Md.