Body

Foreign body ingestion is a frequent gastrointestinal emergency. However, long spoon swallowing is a rare event. Most swallowed spoons have been found in the stomach. Previously, there has been no reported case of a long spoon reaching the jejunum.

Offspring whose mothers had been supplemented with iron-folic acid during pregnancy had dramatically reduced mortality through age 7, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Researchers found that other supplement combinations, including the multiple micronutrient supplement, did not confer the same benefit. Nearly 40 percent of pregnant women worldwide are estimated to be anemic.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Pregnant women with significant symptoms of depression tend to have a stronger biological reaction to the seasonal flu vaccine than do women with lower depression levels, according to a new study.

The finding provides an argument in favor of flu vaccination during pregnancy, researchers say, because it suggests that the immune systems in depressed pregnant women are not functioning typically. This immune dysregulation could affect symptom severity among women who become infected with influenza.

Since the isolation and culture of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) in 1983, this bacterium has become accepted as an important human pathogen for the development of gastritis, peptic ulcer, and gastric cancer. Cyclooxgenase-2 (COX-2) is a prostaglandin-synthesizing enzyme. Elevated expression of COX-2 is observed in a wide variety of human malignancies, including gastric cancer. Long-term high dose COX-2 inhibitors can inhibit gastric carcinogenesis in animal models, but the possible life-threatening cardiovascular adverse events limit its popular application.

Blood glucose levels in a lot of patients fed normal liquid food (NLF) and a high calorie diet (HCD) were high. There was no significant difference in the blood prealbumin levels. There was a significant increase in the blood cortisol levels in some patients. The stress of surgery may be tolerated by children by feeding up to 2 h before elective surgery.

Although Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) has been classified as a class I (or definite) carcinogen by World Health Organization (WHO), the controversy as to why only a minority of infected patients develop gastric cancer still remains. Moreover, in Asian countries such as Indonesia, Japan, China, and Thailand, where the H. pylori infection rates are similar, there is a significant difference regarding the outcome of gastric cancer. That fact has been termed the "Asian paradox".

MADISON, WI, OCTOBER 27, 2009 -- Worldwide demand for a safe and secure food supply is growing with plant breeding at the forefront of sustainability discussions; however many research programs have seen their funding decrease due to the erosion of traditional public or formula grants. Researchers are now turning to other sources for funding for their domestic and international plant breeding programs.

Hospitals that make greater use of inpatient diagnostic imaging exams achieve lower in-hospital mortality rates with little or no impact on costs, according to a peer-reviewed study of more than 1 million patient outcomes in more than 100 hospitals nationwide published in the November issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology (JACR).

Spain holds position number 16 in the world ranking of countries where people live happier for more years, according to the last update of the World Database of Happiness (WDB Hap) in whose preparation have collaborated researchers of different Spanish universities, such as the University of Granada.

Edmonton – Several new guidelines and position papers offering the most up to date information to ensure that clinicians practice evidence-based medicine were released at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2009 this week.

Among them are the following:

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Gossip in the workplace can be a weapon in reputational warfare or a gift and can offer clues to power and influence not found on organizational charts. New research from Indiana University details how the weapon is wielded -- and its influence muted -- in a rare study that catches this national pastime on video.

The North Pacific Ocean is now commonly referred to as the world's largest garbage dump with an area the size of the continental United States covered in plastic debris. The highly mobile Laysan albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis), which forages throughout the North Pacific, is quickly becoming the poster child for the effects of plastic ingestion on marine animals due to their tendency to ingest large amounts of plastic.

Two Penn State University researchers have carried out one of the first-ever analyses of the effects of global warming on endangered primates. This innovative work by Graduate Student Ruscena Wiederholt and Associate Professor of Biology Eric Post examined how El Niño warming affected the abundance of four New World monkeys over decades. The research will be published on 28 October 2009 in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, a fast-track journal of the Royal Society of London.

The population of brown bears (Ursus arctos) in France is now so small that the species might become extinct in the near future. However, there is new hope in the form of new research published October 28 in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE, which suggests that relocating new bears doesn't just boost the population size but can also reverse some of the causes of the population decline.

Berkeley – Experiments led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have demonstrated that normally friendly ants can turn against each other by exploiting the chemical cues they use to distinguish colony-mates from rivals.

The new study, to be published Wednesday, Oct. 28, in the open-access journal BMC Biology, sheds light on the factors influencing the social behavior of the Argentine ant, Linepithema humile, and provides hope for a new tactic in controlling the spread of this invasive species.