New research led by scientists from King's College London and the University of Bristol has found that a high-fat, high-sugar diet during pregnancy may be linked to symptoms of ADHD in children who show conduct problems early in life.

Published today in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, this study is the first to indicate that epigenetic changes evident at birth may explain the link between unhealthy diet, conduct problems and ADHD.

A number of competitors at the Rio Olympics have reported stomach problems. Team GB officials have denied that athletes have fallen victim to food poisoning at the Olympic athletes' village in Rio, despite a number complaining of upset stomachs.

Professor Raymond Playford, a gastro-intestinal expert and Professor of Medicine from Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry, suggests that the culprit may, in some cases, be 'leaky gut' syndrome.

'Leaky gut' is a condition where the thin mucosal barrier of the gut, which plays a role in absorbing nutrients and preventing large molecules and germs from the gut entering the blood stream, becomes less effective.

Contrary to earlier reports, giving acetaminophen (Tylenol, etc.) for pain and fever does not worsen asthma in young children with the condition, concludes a randomized trial in the August 18 New England Journal of Medicine.

The Acetaminophen Versus Ibuprofen in Children with Asthma (AVICA) trial, led by researchers at Boston Children's Hospital for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's Asthma Network (AsthmaNet), is the only blinded, randomized, controlled trial to date to prospectively compare acetaminophen head-to-head with ibuprofen (Motrin, etc.) in children with asthma.

Testing for the activity of two genes could pick out women who are at increased risk of dying from their breast cancers, suggests a new study of almost 2,000 patients.

Women whose tumours had a specific pattern of activity in the two genes were three times as likely to die within 10 years as others with a different pattern of activity.

Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, spotted the pattern of gene activity among breast cancer cells with a particular ability to escape from the glue that normally holds them in place.

They believe the genes could play a key role in releasing cells from this glue - known as the extracellular matrix - so they can spread round the body.

An analysis of about 1,300 peer-reviewed research articles found that few studies included men and women equally, less than one-third performed data analysis by sex, and there was wide variation in inclusion and matching of the sexes among the specialties and the journals reviewed, according to a paper JAMA Surgery.

Males and females can have different postoperative outcomes, complication rates, and readmission rates, so it is important to know if sex bias is pervasive in surgery. Adequately controlling for sex as a variable with inclusion, data reporting, and data analysis is important because data derived from clinical research are the foundation for evidence-based medicine.

The number of microbes in, on, and around the planet - on the order of a nonillion, or 10^³⁰ - is estimated to outnumber the stars in the Milky Way. Microbes are known to play crucial roles in regulating carbon fixation, as well as maintaining global cycles involving nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus and other nutrients, but the majority of them remain uncultured and unknown. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is targeting this "microbial dark matter" to better understand the planet's microbial diversity and glean from nature lessons that can be applied toward energy and environmental challenges.