(Boston) - Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine's (BUSM) Slone Epidemiology Center have found that African-American women who live in more densely populated urban areas gain less weight than those in more sprawling auto-oriented areas. The results, which appear in the current issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, were based on data collected in the Black Women's Health Study, an ongoing study of the health of 59,000 African American women conducted by the researchers since 1995.
Body
North Grafton, Mass., March 16, 2011 – The nutritional content of dog foods marketed for old dogs varies as widely as owner's perceptions about them, according to a study published this month by veterinary nutritionists at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University.
The study, which has been published in Trends in Plant Science, provides an overview of plants' molecular and genetic mechanisms, which is important for ecologists, physiologists and molecular biologists, since it covers the prime requirements for anticipating plants' response to global change.
Wealthy, well educated people who choose to drink bottled water rather than water from public supplies may be no less exposed to potentially cancer-causing water contaminants, according to new research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Environmental Health.
Choosing the appropriate way to present risk statistics is key to helping people make well-informed decisions. A new Cochrane Systematic Review found that health professionals and consumers may change their perceptions when the same risks and risk reductions are presented using alternative statistical formats.
Risk statistics can be used persuasively to present health interventions in different lights. The different ways of expressing risk can prove confusing and there has been much debate about how to improve the communication of health statistics.
University of Manchester scientists have led an international team to discover new treatments for a rare and potentially lethal childhood disease that is the clinical opposite of diabetes mellitus.
Congenital hyperinsulinism (CHI) is a condition where the body's pancreas produces too much insulin – rather than too little as in diabetes – so understanding the disease has led to breakthroughs in diabetes treatment.
Current projections regarding the eventual size and extent of the cholera epidemic in Haiti may greatly underestimate the potential number of cases, according to a report that will appear in The Lancet and has been released online. A mathematical model based on current knowledge about the transmission and course of the diarrheal disease arrives at estimates of new cases through November 2011 that almost double those currently projected by the United Nations. The model also reflects the probable impact of public health measures designed to combat the epidemic.
Researchers have identified 93 seminal fluid proteins and 52 sperm male-derived proteins that include candidates likely to affect the behavior and physiology of female mosquitoes of the species, Aedes aegypti. The results of this research, conducted by Laura Sirot (now at the College of Wooster) and fellow researchers in the labs of Laura Harrington and Mariana Wolfner at Cornell University and José Ribeiro at the National Institutes of Health, will be published on March 15th in the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.
There may be a link between receiving industry funding for speaking, consulting, or research, and the publication of apparently promotional opinion pieces on menopausal hormone therapy. Furthermore, such publications may encourage physicians to continue prescribing these therapies to women of menopausal age. These are the key findings of a study by Adriane Fugh-Berman from Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington D.C., USA, and colleagues, published in this week's PLoS Medicine.
This week PLoS Medicine publishes the Genetic RIsk Prediction Studies (GRIPS) Statement, a checklist and guidance to help strengthen the reporting of genetic risk prediction studies.
The standard approach to re-treating tuberculosis (TB) in low and middle income settings is failing, according to research funded by the Wellcome Trust. In a study published today in the open access journal PLoS Medicine, researchers call for improved access to rapid diagnostics for drug resistant TB, second-line TB treatment and antiretroviral HIV therapy.
Its head looks like a turkey, its body resembles a chicken – now scientists can explain why one of the poultry world's most curious specimens has developed such a distinctive look in next week's issue of the online, open access journal PLoS Biology.. The Transylvanian naked neck chicken – once dubbed a Churkey or a Turken because of its hybrid appearance – has developed its defining feature because of a complex genetic mutation.
Enzymes are proteins that speed up chemical reactions, such as laundry detergent digesting protein stains, which are otherwise very difficult to remove. A research team led by Professor Kam-bo Wong of the Centre for Protein Science and Crystallography, School of Life Sciences at The Chinese University of Hong Kong demonstrated a fundamental principle in changing the activity of enzymes by means of protein engineering.
Its head looks like a turkey's, its body resembles a chicken's – now scientists can explain why one of the poultry world's most curious specimens has developed such a distinctive look.
The Transylvanian naked neck chicken – once dubbed a Churkey or a Turken because of its hybrid appearance – has developed its defining feature because of a complex genetic mutation.
Researchers at The Roslin Institute at The University of Edinburgh found that a vitamin A-derived substance produced around the bird's neck enhanced the effects of the genetic mutation.
Johns Hopkins researchers believe they have uncovered the molecular switch for the secretion of insulin — the hormone that regulates blood sugar — providing for the first time an explanation of this process. In a report published online March 1 in Cell Metabolism, the researchers say the work solves a longtime mystery and may lead to better treatments for type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease.