Research News and Research

RSS

Poll: Democrats hold political advantage on contraception, Medicare debates

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation's February poll, opinions tracked more closely with party affiliation than gender. Meanwhile, the public remains skeptical of the health law.

2 Mar 2012

Volunteers wanted for chronic pain research

A professor studying the subject of chronic pain is inviting people from all walks of life to help with her research.

2 Mar 2012

Cities, states balancing health costs amid continuing economic problems

Some 29 states are dealing with a total budget deficit of $47 billion for fiscal 2013, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Unlike the federal government, nearly all states must balance their budgets every year. Though tax revenues are slowly recovering after bottoming out in 2010, they're still not back to pre-recession levels.

2 Mar 2012

Desflurane may be safer anesthetic option for patients with AD

In a study that will appear in Annals of Neurology and has received early online release, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers report that administration of isoflurane impaired the performance of mice on a standard test of learning and memory - a result not seen when another anesthetic, desflurane, was administered.

2 Mar 2012

WHO, PAHO release new guidelines on mosquito-borne chikungunya virus

The Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), a regional arm of the World Health Organization (WHO), on Tuesday "unveiled new guidelines to help countries throughout the Americas detect and prevent transmission of the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus -- a disease which has already infected more than two million people around the world," the U.N. News Centre reports.

2 Mar 2012

Scientists determine chemical features of DHPS enzyme's active site

More than 70 years after the first sulfa drugs helped to revolutionize medical care and save millions of lives, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have determined at an atomic level the mechanism these medications use to kill bacteria. The discovery provides the basis for a new generation of antibiotics that would likely be harder for bacteria to resist and cause fewer side effects.

2 Mar 2012

GOP presidential candidates look to health policies to highlight differences

Mr. Romney and Mr. Santorum both support the repeal of President Obama's national health care law. Mr. Santorum has criticized Mr. Romney for creating the Massachusetts plan that served as the federal model.

2 Mar 2012

MDG safe-water progress in developing countries could be overstated

The researchers show that the current methods oversimplify the measure by not accounting for water quality; the key measure of safety. In four of the five developing countries studied, the reduction in reported progress would be substantial. It is likely that MDG safe-water progress in other developing countries is similarly overstated.

2 Mar 2012

Researchers confirm how food poisoning bacteria hijack cell's sense of direction

Working in the emerging field of systems biology, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers mathematically predicted how bacteria that cause food poisoning hijack a cell's sense of direction and then confirmed those predictions in living cells.

2 Mar 2012

F-DOPA PET/CT imaging alters management plans for patients with brain cancer

Imaging amino acid transporters with positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) has been shown to significantly alter intended management plans for patients with brain tumors, according to research in the March issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

2 Mar 2012

RUB experiment: Consequences of light stimulation

Whenever we are doing something, one of our brain hemispheres is more active than the other one. However, some tasks are only solvable with both sides working together. PD Dr. Martina Manns and Juliane R-mling of the Ruhr-Universit-t Bochum are investigating, how such specializations and co-operations arise.

2 Mar 2012

Europe conference to discuss on new HIV indicator diseases

Today, heterosexuals in Europe are at particular risk of carrying HIV for so long that they remain undiagnosed until their immune system starts to fail and they become ill. An international study under the leadership of the HIV in Europe initiative has now revealed that a number of diseases, including herpes zoster and certain forms of cancer, should be on the list of indicators for having HIV - and thus serve to prompt health care professionals to suggest an HIV-test to their patients.

2 Mar 2012

Researchers discover critical placental niche cell and signaling pathway

UCLA stem cell researchers have discovered a critical placental niche cell and signaling pathway that prevent blood precursors from premature differentiation in the placenta, a process necessary for ensuring proper blood supply for an individual's lifetime.

2 Mar 2012

CDC official speaks about HIV, TB work in Africa, Haiti

As part of its series of interviews with CDC staff working on global HIV and tuberculosis (TB) research and development, the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog spoke with Jordan Tappero, "who is currently serving as director for the Health Systems Reconstruction Office in the Center for Global Health, an office opened in response to the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti."

2 Mar 2012

Leicester study to focus on impact of food-based culture on children's life

They will examine the social and behavioural aspects of dining and their potential impact on school attendance and attitudes to learning.

2 Mar 2012

Longer looks: Romney's evolution on abortion; The birth of the HIV epidemic

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney began his political career as a pro-choicer. In the story he tells, he had an epiphany, a flash of insight, and committed himself thereafter to protecting life. But that isn't what happened. The real story of Romney's conversion-;a series of tentative, equivocal, and confused shifts, accompanied by a constant rewriting of his past-;paints a more accurate picture of who he is.

2 Mar 2012

Sanders: Dental care crisis is 'next health problem' that needs attention

A report released Wednesday by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., noted that more than 47 million people live in places where it is difficult to access dental care.

2 Mar 2012

Pharmacological antagonist can inhibit body's response to cold

Researchers at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, in collaboration with Amgen Inc. and several academic institutions, have discovered a way to block the body's response to cold using a drug. This finding could have significant implications in treating conditions such as stroke and cardiac arrest.

2 Mar 2012

Bob Kerrey jumps into Nebraska Senate race

Bob Kerrey, the former Nebraska governor and U.S. senator, said on Wednesday he will run for his old Senate seat, raising the hopes of Democrats that they can keep control of the chamber this election year. ... Kerrey is the Democrat's best hope of keeping the Nebraska Senate seat because he is well known and can raise money, Jennifer Duffy, a senior editor at nonpartisan Cook Political Report, told Reuters earlier in the week. But Duffy predicted that some of Kerrey's positions, including his belief "that health care reform didn't go far enough, will not be popular in Nebraska."

2 Mar 2012

Memory training strategy can help patients with MCI

If someone has trouble remembering where the car keys or the cheese grater are, new research shows that a memory training strategy can help. Memory training can even re-engage the hippocampus, part of the brain critical for memory formation, the results suggest.

2 Mar 2012