More men than women develop Parkinson’s disease and new work presented at the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies says that it is do to sex differences in how brain cells change. Parkinson’s disease affects about 9 million people and becomes increasingly prevalent with age.
MADISON, Wis. -- During the 2014-15 flu season, the poor match between the virus used to make the world's vaccine stocks and the circulating seasonal virus yielded a vaccine that was less than 20 percent effective.
While this year's vaccine is a much better match to the circulating seasonal strains of influenza, the shifty nature of the virus and the need to pick the viruses used to make global vaccine stocks well before the onset of the flu season can make vaccine strain selection a shot in the dark.
Two new studies can't prove a link between childhood cancer and light therapy for newborn jaundice but the authors say it still raises enough questions that clinicians should exercise caution in prescribing the treatment for infants whose jaundice is likely to resolve on its own, though that should not deter use of the treatment, known as phototherapy, in babies who otherwise would be at risk of brain damage or hearing loss.
Whether it's paying the electric bill or taking the clothes out of the dryer, there are many daily tasks that we fully intend to complete and then promptly forget about. New research suggests that linking these tasks to distinctive cues that we'll encounter at the right place and the right time may help us remember to follow through. The research is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
There are many ways we can try to remind ourselves to do something in the future - we can set a calendar alert, jot down a quick note, or even use the old-fashioned string-around-the-finger trick. But the problem with many of these strategies is that they don't provide a reminder that will be noticed when we need it most.
Florence, Italy - 23 May 2016: Influenza vaccination is associated with a lower risk of dementia in patients with heart failure, according to a study in more than 20 000 patients presented today at Heart Failure 2016 and the 3rd World Congress on Acute Heart Failure by Dr Ju-Chi Liu, director of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine, Taipei Medical University - Shuang Ho Hospital, in New Taipei City, Taiwan.1
Florence, Italy - 23 May 2016: The flu jab is associated with a reduced risk of hospitalisation in patients with heart failure, according to research presented today in a late breaking trial session at Heart Failure 2016 and the 3rd World Congress on Acute Heart Failure.1
The study in about 60 000 patients ends the controversy over influenza vaccination in heart failure patients and provides more robust evidence for current recommendations.
Professor Kazem Rahimi, Deputy Director of The George Institute for Global Health, University of Oxford, UK, said: "Many guidelines recommend that elderly patients and those with co-morbidities including heart failure should have annual flu vaccinations to reduce the risk of adverse events."
Barcelona, Spain: Obesity is on the rise throughout the world, and in some developed countries two-third of the adult population is either overweight or obese. This brings with it an increased risk of serious conditions such as heart disease, stroke, cancer and osteoarthritis. Many of these conditions do not appear to affect the parts of the body where the excess fat accumulates, but rather to involve body systems that are remote from the fat accumulation. Now an international group of scientists has taken an important step towards understanding the links between obesity and the related, yet physically distant, diseases it causes, the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics will hear today.
Every day humans and animals face ambiguous circumstances. If we become sick after eating, we blame the food; however, if we then fall ill without having eaten that food, the causal link becomes ambiguous. New findings from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan and New York University reveal where and how such ambiguous associations are processed in the brains of rats.
In Japan, where the suicide rate is quite high but guns are banned, they use rope. So it is accurate to state that rope ownership is closely tied to suicide rates in that country.
Using that same methodology, it is easy to do the same with guns and suicide. States with higher estimated levels of gun ownership had higher incidents of gun-related suicides, according to a new paper in the American Journal of Public Health which covers 33 years, from 1981 to 2013, and the authors claims is the most comprehensive analysis of the association between gun ownership and gender-specific suicides rates among the 50 U.S. states.
Tempe, Ariz. -- Evolution can be an emotionally charged topic in education, given a wide range of perspectives on it. Two researchers from Arizona State University are taking an in-depth look at how college professors handle it.
In a first-of-its kind study, scientists from ASU School of Life Sciences have found that a majority of professors teaching biology in Arizona universities do not believe that helping students accept the theory of evolution is an instructional goal. In fact, a majority of study participants say their only goal is to help students understand evolution.
RICHLAND, Wash. - Like the poet, microbes that make methane are taking chemists on a road less traveled: Of two competing ideas for how microbes make the main component of natural gas, the winning chemical reaction involves a molecule less favored by previous research, something called a methyl radical.
Reported today in the journal Science, the work is important for understanding not only how methane is made, but also how to make things from it.
Climate scientists have long recognized the importance of forest conservation and forest regrowth in climate mitigation and carbon sequestration -- capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. But the detailed information required to make accurate estimates of this potential has remained elusive.
Now, an international team of 60 scientists, working together as the 2ndFOR Network, has completed studies on the effects of forest conservation and secondary forest regeneration across 43 regions in Latin America.
Why does delaying bedtime create chronic sleepiness?
We may be creeping a little closer to knowing, thanks to a paper on fruit flies in Cell. Fruit flies have sleep remarkably similar to people and researchers say they found a group of brain cells in charge of so-called sleep drive that becomes more active the longer flies are kept awake. The same mechanism, they say, also plays a role in putting the flies to sleep and keeping them that way.
