Benefits of non-drug techniques top most popular sleeping pill, Ambien
A study by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Harvard Medical School has found cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is more effective than sleeping pills in treating chronic sleep-onset insomnia. The findings, which appear in the Sept. 27 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, show non-drug techniques yield better short and long-term results than the most widely prescribed sleeping
First study in early-stage patients provides additional insight into how psychosocial interventions impact disease management
A new study shows that cognitive-existential group therapy (CEGT), a psychosocial intervention designed to improve the mood and attitude of patients with breast cancer, does not improve survival of women with early-stage disease. The study, to be published online September 27 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, is the first to evaluate the impact of CEGT on
CBEN pioneers method of mitigating nanoparticle toxicity via surface enhancement
Researchers at Rice University’s Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology (CBEN) have demonstrated a simple way to reduce the toxicity of water-soluble buckyballs by a factor of more than ten million. The research will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Nano Letters, published by the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society. One of the first toxi
A new study finds chemotherapy improves survival and reduces the risk of recurrence in women with stage I ovarian cancer (cancer that has not spread beyond the ovary). But it remains unclear which patients would most benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy and what the optimal treatment regimen would entail. The findings come from an analytical review of data from 13 randomized control trials (RCTs), which will be published in the November 1, 2004 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American
Scientists track male animal over a three-state, 550-mile walk-about
Scientists from the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) may have referred to the wolverine they were tracking as simply “M304,” but “Lance Armstrong” may be more descriptive as the young male embarked on a six-week journey that covered some 550 miles within three western states. The results of the study are published in the latest issue of the journal Northwest Science.
The WCS scientists had e
Mounds built by highly-evolved African termites could inspire new types of building that are self-sufficient, environmentally friendly and cheap to run. The mounds provide a self-regulating living environment that responds to changing internal and external conditions.
A multidisciplinary team of engineers and entomologists* is looking at whether similar principles could be used to design buildings that need few or no mechanical services (e.g. heating and ventilation) and so use less
A new report concludes that wood is one of the most environmentally-sensitive building materials for home construction – it uses less overall energy than other products, causes fewer air and water impacts and does a better job of the carbon “sequestration” that can help address global warming.
The research showed that wood framing used 17 percent less energy than steel construction for a typical house built in Minnesota, and 16 percent less energy than a house using concrete constr
Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have discovered that otherwise healthy people who are prone to anger, hostility and mild to moderate depressive symptoms produce higher levels of a substance that promotes cardiovascular disease and stroke.
The substance, C-reactive protein (CRP), has garnered considerable attention for its role in both promoting and predicting cardiovascular disease and stroke in initially healthy people. It is produced by the liver in response to infl
Question of Convergence: Carriers Look for New Ways to Gain Market Share
In the increasingly saturated European telecommunications market, converged devices and services offer network operators and service providers a chance to enter new markets and differentiate themselves from the competition. Troubled telecom carriers are realising that focusing on these emerging areas can help them increase market share and customer loyalty, to cross-sell and offer cost-effective competitive bund
You’ve seen it in horror movies, or even in real-life at the local museum: a painting in which the eyes of the person portrayed seem to follow you around the room, no matter where you go.
People have described the effect as creepy or eerie, and some have thought it supernatural. But now researchers have demonstrated the very natural cause for this visual effect.
All it takes for the effect to work is to have the person in the painting, or photograph, look straight ahead, said
New mothers with fibromyalgia (FM) face multiple barriers to breast-feeding their babies, according to a study published recently in the American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing.
For the study, “Breast-feeding in Chronic Illness–The Voices of Women with Fibromyalgia,” Karen M. Schaefer, D.N.Sc., R.N., assistant professor of nursing at Temple University’s College of Health Professions, analyzed the written stories and tape-recorded interviews of nine mothers with FM, ranging i
New technique that uses gene therapy delivers nerve growth factor into regions of the brain where neurons are degenerating, in order to prevent cell death and reverse cell atrophy.
Investigators at Rush University Medical Center have successfully initiated a new technique that uses gene therapy to deliver nerve growth factor into regions of the brain where neurons are degenerating, in order to prevent cell death and reverse cell atrophy, two hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease. If succ
When the Ariane 5 ECA qualification flight lifts off in October, one of the ‘passengers’ will be 33.5 litres of water. Onboard will be the experimental Sloshsat-FLEVO satellite, designed to help European scientists find out more about the movement of water in microgravity and its effects on satellites.
Sloshsat-FLEVO is aptly named: slosh for the movement of water, sat for satellite and FLEVO, the project’s acronym: Facility for Liquid Experimentation and Verification in Orbit. Flev
One of the simpler ways to curtail the obesity epidemic could be to cut the volume of sweetened soft drinks and fruit drinks Americans are increasingly consuming, authors of new study say.
The study, conducted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, showed that energy intake from such drinks in the United States increased 135 percent between about 1977 and 2001. Over the same span, energy intake from milk — a far more nutritious beverage — dropped 38 percent.
Adults eat around twice the amount of fruit and vegetables and less fat and sugar than they did as children, a new study suggests.
Contrary to popular opinion, nutritionists at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne found that most people’s diets get healthier from childhood to young adulthood. However, the research team, who were funded by the Wellcome Trust and who have published their results in the academic journal, Appetite*, also discovered that many people perceive barriers
Why do some older people experience a rapid decline in their physical and functional health while some of their peers remain healthy and active? While your genes and overall physical health play a role, new research shows how psychosocial factors can also play an important role. Two studies report on this in the September issue of Psychology and Aging, a journal published by the American Psychological Association (APA).
In the first study, researchers at the University of Texas Medi
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