A ‘Noah’s Ark’ of historic buildings and monuments at risk from climate change is launched this month.

The three-year project brings together experts from 10 European countries including the UK, Italy, Sweden, Poland, the Czech Republic, Spain and Norway to investigate the effects of climate change and pollution on Europe’s historic built environment over the next 100 years. Representing the UK are the University of East Anglia, University College London and the Ecclesiastical Insuran

Results of a UK study in this week’s issue of THE LANCET highlight how the treatment of cytomegalovirus infection remains a priority in order to improve the prognosis for people with HIV-1 infection, including people already receiving antiretroviral therapy.
The advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) at the end of the 20th century dramatically improved treatment for people with HIV-1 infection. Before HAART, cytomegalovirus (CMV) was a major cause of opportunistic infection in HIV

Researchers at the Universitat Jaume I in Castellón, Spain, and McGill University in Montreal have found a relationship between the increased heartbeat some people experience after drinking a certain amount of alcohol and the risk of developing a personality that is sensitive to rewards and, hence, to addictions.
The study, which was published in the March edition of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, concludes that people who experience an increase in their heart rate a

Middle-aged and older Americans with heart disease who cut back on their prescribed medications because of cost were 50% more likely to suffer heart attacks, strokes, or angina than those who did not report cost-related medication underuse, according to a new study funded in part by the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health. Michele Heisler, M.D., M.P.A., at the Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ann Arbor, MI, and colleagues* conducted the study, which

New research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill indicates that treatment with anabolic steroids may improve surgical repair of massive or recurrent tears of the shoulder’s rotator cuff tendons. Such injuries extend well beyond the world of high-performance athletes, professional and collegiate – often occurring among older weekend athletes, including tennis and golf players. The study, which appears in the June issue of the American Journal of Sports Medicine, was led by Dr. Spero

Suggestions that genetic tests are taken more into account than a doctor’s clinical judgement are dismissed in new research sponsored by the ESRC and published as part of Social Science week.

And clinicians do not adopt a ‘blunderbuss’ or ‘grape-shot’ approach. Appropriate tests are ordered in the light of clinical decisions and differing diagnoses, according to the study led by Dr Joanna Latimer, of the School of Social Science, Cardiff University.

The findings are the result o

People with bad teeth can no longer blame childhood habits. A new study has found that, contrary to common perceptions, an unhealthy adult lifestyle is responsible for poor oral health in later years.

Researchers from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, studied data collected from over 300 people. They discovered that the relationship between family background and problems with the teeth and gums diminished with increasing age and eventually became almost insignificant.

A

Women who have been treated for anorexia nervosa remain at significant risk for relapse up to two years after their weight has been restored and they have been discharged from hospital, says a study from the University of Toronto and Toronto General Hospital.

Dr. Jacqueline Carter, a psychiatry professor at U of T and a staff psychologist in the hospital’s eating disorders program, led the follow-up study of 51 patients, published in the May issue of Psychological Medicine.

It foun

One billion people, a sixth of the world’s population, currently live in the path of potential major flood disasters, according to a recent report from the UN University in Tokyo. In Britain, dramatic flooding of rivers has become a regular feature of evening news programmes. And each time major flooding occurs in the UK, the public demands an immediate response from the authorities.

ESRC-funded research at the University of Middlesex has examined the process by which floods policy has ch

In this study of 45 families by the Division of Pediatric Neurology, Alberta Children’s Hospital, about 40 percent reported seizure-specific reaction from their dogs, and about 15 percent of the dogs overall showed the ability to anticipate a seizure among the children they lived with. Children in the study ranged in age from 6.8 years to 17.5 years. The most common response behavior was licking, often of the face, followed by decreased motor activity, “protective” behavior without aggression, and wh

More than half of head and neck cancer patients surveyed were disabled by their cancer or by cancer treatment, according to an article in the June issue of The Archives of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

According to information in the article, more than 40,000 new cases of head and neck cancer are diagnosed annually in the United States, with 12,000 deaths each year. Patients with head and neck cancer often experience problems with eating and communi

How low can you go…safely?

Thanks to a landmark study involving the UW Health Sports Medicine Center, physicians and coaches can evaluate the effectiveness of methods widely used to measure body composition and predict the minimum weight an athlete should maintain.

Using a four-component model that included independent assessment of bone, body fat, muscle and total body water, 53 Division-I collegiate athletes were measured, yielding a precise reading that allowed for th

An international team of researchers, with the participation of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona professor, Jordi Jordana, has published in Science magazine the results of their investigation into the origins of the domesticated donkey. The authors have discovered by using genetic analysis that the domesticated donkey originated in northeastern Africa approximately 5,000 years ago, quite probably due to the desertification of the Sahara. The conclusions of the study state that all domesticated donke

In a study published in Geophysical Research Letters (Vol. 31, No.18), University of South Florida College of Marine Science professor Boris Galperin and colleagues explain a link between the movement and appearance of ocean currents on Earth and the bands that characterize the surface of Jupiter and some other giant planets.

“The banded structure of Jupiter has long been a subject of fascination and intensive research,” says Galperin, a physical oceanographer who analyzes turbulence theo

SARS, the highly infectious respiratory virus, has been found in tears, reveals a small study in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.

The finding suggests that tear analysis could not only be an effective means of diagnosing the infection, but also an unrecognised source of its spread, if appropriate preventive measures are not taken, say the authors.

Tear samples were swabbed from the tear ducts of 36 patients in Singapore with suspected SARS over 12 days in April 2003. Mo

Scientists have induced a movement disorder in rats that closely resembles Parkinson’s disease in humans. The study, published June 21, 2004, in the online edition of the Annals of Neurology, suggests that natural toxins found in the environment could contribute to the development of this debilitating movement disorder.

The compounds, called proteasome inhibitors, can be produced by bacteria and fungi. Man-made proteasome inhibitors may also find their way into the environment.

“Th