Britain's post-war baby boomers, associated throughout their lives with social change, are failing to break new ground in their approach to growing old.
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An international study led by University of Leicester researchers has determined that vaccination will be the best way to protect people in the event of the next influenza pandemic – but that each person would need two doses.
In an article in the New England Journal of Medicine published on October 9, researchers from the University of Leicester and University Hospitals of Leicester report on a study carried out at the Leicester Royal Infirmary.
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Arthritis is the nation's most common cause of disability. The number of adults with doctor-diagnosed arthritis is projected to increase to 67 million by 2030, and a large proportion of U.S. adults will limit their activity as a result, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Now, in a new study, University of Missouri researchers found that adults with arthritis who received exercise interventions that included educational components significantly increased their physical activity levels and experienced improvements in pain and physical functioning.
A 30 percent increase in chronic kidney disease over the past decade has prompted the U.S. Renal Data System (USRDS) to issue for the first time a separate report documenting the magnitude of the disease, which affects an estimated 27 million Americans and accounts for more than 24 percent of Medicare costs. The USRDS is funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
CHICAGO -- What's the worst that could happen after eating a slice of pepperoni pizza? A little heartburn, for most people.
But for up to a million women in the U.S., enjoying that piece of pizza has painful consequences. They have a chronic bladder condition that causes pelvic pain. Spicy food -- as well as citrus, caffeine, tomatoes and alcohol-- can cause a flare in their symptoms and intensify the pain. It was thought that the spike in their symptoms was triggered when digesting the foods produced chemicals in the urine that irritated the bladder.
A normal developmental protein that sometimes goes awry has been implicated in breast cancer. This discovery indicates the mechanism by which inappropriate expression of the Notch pathway may contribute to breast cancer.
The breast cancer team at WEHI, led by Drs Jane Visvader and Geoff Lindeman from the Victorian Breast Cancer Research Consortium, have identified important roles for Notch genes in regulating breast development and function.
The 3-D structure of the virus, known as Seneca Valley Virus-001, reveals that it is unlike any other known member of the Picornaviridae viral family, and confirms its recent designation as a separate genus "Senecavirus." The new study reveals that the virus's outer protein shell looks like a craggy golf ball¬—one with uneven divets and raised spikes—and the RNA strand beneath it is arranged in a round mesh rather like a whiffleball.
Proteins found in sperm are central to understanding male infertility and could be used to determine new diagnostic methods and fertility treatments according to a paper published by the journal Molecular and Cellular Proteomics (MCP). The article demonstrates how proteomics, a relatively new field focusing on the function of proteins in a cell, can be successfully applied to infertility, helping identify which proteins in sperm cells are dysfunctional.
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Moderate physical activity during pregnancy does not contribute to low birth weight, premature birth or miscarriage and may actually reduce the risk of complications, according to a Michigan State University professor who contributed to the U.S. government's first-ever guidelines on physical activity.
CHICAGO – Northwestern Memorial's Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute is one of seven programs in the country participating in new study aimed at improving the heart's pumping action and helping to manage congestive heart failure symptoms. The US PARACHUTE trial tests the effectiveness of placing a small device in the left ventricle, or main pumping chamber of the heart. Northwestern Memorial physicians recently implanted the first study participant with the device; the individual is the sixth person in the United States to undergo the procedure.
UPTON, NY - One major goal on the path toward making useful superconducting devices has been engineering materials that act as superconductors at the nanoscale — the realm of billionths of a meter. Such nanoscale superconductors would be useful in devices such as superconductive transistors and eventually in ultrafast, power-saving electronics.
Institutions from around the world join forces in the Global Fight Against Malaria. While most research into controlling malaria has focused on the parasite Plasmodium falciparum, which is responsible for the most virulent form of the disease, there are other parasites of the same genus which, despite producing a milder form of malaria, are gaining notoriety. This is the case of Plasmodium vivax, to which is attributed almost 300 million cases of malaria each year, severe forms of the disease and resistance to some drugs.
As international health authorities step up efforts to fight malaria, leading scientists say the stealthy and increasingly debilitating Plasmodium vivax parasite deserves more attention.
The complete sequence of the P. vivax genome, reported in the Oct.9, 2008 journal Nature, could help scientists unlock its secrets.
P. vivax is responsible for at least 25 percent of the roughly 500 million cases of malaria worldwide and is the major cause of malaria outside Africa, mainly afflicting Asia and the Americas.
Professor Alan Cowman, Professor Brendan Crabb, Dr Paul Gilson and Dr Toby Sargeant are WEHI members of international research teams that have made significant discoveries about two deadly malaria parasites, Plasmodium knowlesi and Plasmodium vivax.
Scientists have deciphered the complete genetic sequence of the parasite Plasmodium vivax, the leading cause of relapsing malaria, and compared it with the genomes of other species of malaria parasites. The findings shed light on distinctive genetic features of P. vivax, and may lead to new tools to prevent and treat P. vivax malaria. Results of the study, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), appear in the Oct. 9 issue of Nature.