Feature Channels: All Journal News

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Maria Fitzpatrick, and Michael Lovenheim, both assistant professors of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University, researched the impact of early retirement initiatives in public education. Their findings indicate that although early retirement incentives lead to the replacement of experienced educators with novice teachers, they do not result in reduced test scores. These results are surprising given the evidence that inexperienced teachers tend to be lower-performing than their more experienced colleagues.

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While children of all ages will be heading back to school in a few days, a new study from the Université de Montréal may encourage their parents to return to the classroom themselves ... at least for a few evenings! The results of a study in developmental psychology published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies show that the How-to Parenting Program improves the mental health of children.

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Neurologists report a unique case of a woman who hears music, as if a radio were playing in the back of her head. The case raises “intriguing questions regarding memory, forgetting and access to lost memories.”

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In patients with early Alzheimer’s disease, disruptions in brain networks emerge about the same time as chemical markers of the disease appear in the spinal fluid, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown.

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Both Aß and tau pathology appear to be associated with default mode network integrity before clinical onset of Alzheimer disease (AD), according to a study by Liang Wang, M.D., and colleagues at Washington University in St. Louis.

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A Danish study of siblings suggests the recurrence risks for autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) varied from 4.5 percent to 10.5 percent depending on the birth years, which is higher than the ASD risk of 1.18 percent in the overall Danish population, according to a study published by JAMA Pediatrics, a JAMA Network publication.

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Indoor tanning appears to be common among non-Hispanic white female high school students and adults ages 18 to 34 years, according to a research letter by Gery P. Guy Jr., Ph.D., M.P.H., and colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta.

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A new study suggests that pilots who fly at high altitudes may be at an increased risk for brain lesions. The study is published in the August 20, 2013, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Children who have higher levels of Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical previously used in many products for kids, like baby bottle and plastic toys, had a higher odds of obesity and adverse levels of body fat, according to a new study from University of Michigan researchers.

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Reservoirs of silica-rich magma – the kind that causes the most explosive volcanic eruptions – can persist in Earth's upper crust for hundreds of thousands of years without triggering an eruption, according to new University of Washington research.

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By directly altering the gene coding for the prion protein (PrP), Whitehead Institute researchers have created mouse models of two neurodegenerative prion diseases, each of which manifests in different regions of the brain. These new models for fatal familial insomnia (FFI) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) accurately reflect the distinct patterns of destruction caused by the these diseases in humans. Remarkably, as different as each disease is, they both spontaneously generate infectious prions.

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A fungus and E. coli bacteria have joined forces to turn tough, waste plant material into isobutanol, a biofuel that matches gasoline's properties better than ethanol.

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California’s rich diversity of Native American ethnic-and-language groups took shape during the past 12,000 years as migrating tribes settled first on the lush Pacific coast and then in progressively drier, less-vegetated habitats, says a new University of Utah study.

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Dunking in a tub of ice water after exercise – a surprisingly popular post-workout regimen used by athletes to reduce inflammation and speed recovery – is time consuming and bone-achingly painful. New research finds that it may not be effective, either.

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Researchers at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, who are studying the underlying mechanisms that cause invasive tumor growth have identified a key transcription factor, a protein which regulates the flow of information from DNA, that is over-produced in treatment-resistant prostate cancer, as well as the two protein kinases that trigger the process.

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For the two-thirds of lung cancer patients with locally advanced or metastatic disease, tumor size is not used currently to predict overall survival times. A new study, however, led by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers has shown that even in advanced stages total tumor size can have a major impact on survival.

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The newly expanded role that pharmacists in Canada now have in helping manage the health of patients can benefit both patients and physicians, according to an article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

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When enough raindrops fall over land instead of the ocean, they begin to add up. New research led by NCAR shows that three atmospheric patterns drove so much precipitation over Australia in 2010 and 2011 that the world’s ocean levels dropped measurably.

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Researchers at Wayne State University received a $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop an undergraduate certificate program geared toward training the next generation of nanoengineers.

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Biomedical engineers have created a new drug-delivery strategy for a type of central vision loss caused by blood vessel growth at the back of the eye, where such growth should not occur. The team gave the drug a biodegradable coating to keep it in the eye longer. If effective in humans, monthly needle sticks to the eye, which are the current standard of care, could be replaced with only two or three injections per year.

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By determining the three-dimensional structure of proteins at the atomic level, researchers at the National Institutes of Health have discovered how some commonly used flame retardants, called brominated flame retardants (BFRs), can mimic estrogen hormones and possibly disrupt the body’s endocrine system. BFRs are chemicals added or applied to materials to slow or prevent the start or growth of fire.

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A new population-based study has found that patients with glioblastoma who died in 2010, after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of bevacizumab, had lived significantly longer than patients who died of the disease in 2008, prior to the conditional approval of the drug for the treatment of the deadly brain cancer. Bevacizumab is used to treat patients with certain cancers whose cancer has spread. The study appears in the journal Cancer.

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By carefully adjusting the function of crucial immune cells called Tregs, scientists may have developed a completely new type of cancer immunotherapy—harnessing the body’s immune system to attack tumors.

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UC San Francisco scientists working in the lab used a chemical found in an anti-wrinkle cream to prevent the death of nerve cells damaged by mutations that cause an inherited form of Parkinson’s disease. A similar approach might ward off cell death in the brains of people afflicted with Parkinson’s disease..

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An international team of researchers led by Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School (Duke-NUS) and the Duke University School of Medicine suggest that increased caffeine intake may reduce fatty liver in people with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

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An advance team of molecules produced by the primary tumor sets off a series of events that create a network of nurturing blood vessels for arriving primary tumor cells to set up shop.

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Play preferences of children with autism spectrum disorder were observed in a community-based museum designed to enable children to choose their preferred play activity. In this naturalistic setting, children with ASD preferred play options with a strong sensory component.

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A phase I clinical trial showed diffuse, large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCLs) resistant to chemotherapy can be reprogrammed to respond to treatment using the drug azacitidine, according to a study published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

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Older heart patients present unique challenges for determining the optimal dosages of medications, so a new study from researchers at Duke Medicine offers some rare clarity about the use of drugs that are used to treat patients with heart attacks.

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As part of the largest international research effort ever made to combat tuberculosis, a team of Johns Hopkins and Brazilian experts has found that preventive antibiotic therapy for people with HIV lowers this group’s chances of developing TB or dying.

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Primary results from a new clinical trial show that a discrete subset of patients with type 1 diabetes treated with the monoclonal antibody teplizumab (MacroGenics, Inc.) demonstrated especially robust response with greater preservation of C-peptide, a biomarker of islet cell function, compared to controls, suggesting that these patients could be identified prior to treatment.

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University of Utah and George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center researchers have developed a mathematical model to help answer critical questions and guide the response to an anthrax exposure.

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New research by Fred Easton, professor of supply chain management and director of the Robert H. Brethen Operations Management Institute at the Martin J. Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, suggests that workforce scheduling based on convolution estimates may be more profitable.

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Man, a mouse or a microbe, stress is bad. Experiments in bacteria by molecular biologists have uncovered the mechanism that translates stress, such as exposure to extreme temperature, into temporarily blocked cell growth. Bacteria deal with stress by destroying proteins needed for replication.

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In this month’s release, find new research about the beer industry’s self-regulation advertising process, HIV risk for teens with STI’s and obesity’s mortality risk with aging.

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A smoking-cessation intervention delivered through mobile phones to HIV/AIDS-positive smokers increased cessation rates compared to standard care, according to research published online in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

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New UAB faculty hopes to implement her successful Ohio HIV/AIDS research, education/prevention program in Birmingham’s African-American churches.

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Scientists have discovered that an active ingredient in an over-the-counter skin cream slows or stops the effects of Parkinson’s disease on brain cells. Scientists identified the link through biochemical and cellular studies, and the research team is now testing the drug in animal models of Parkinson’s. In 2004, researchers studying an Italian family with a high prevalence of early-onset Parkinson’s disease discovered mutations in a protein called PINK1 associated with the inherited form of the disease. The HHMI research team began their studies with an eye toward developing a way to turn on or crank up PINK1 activity, therefore preventing excess cell death in those with inherited Parkinson’s disease.

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The ability to control nanoscale imperfections in superconducting wires results in materials with unparalleled and customized performance, according to a new study from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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New research from Tufts University scientists shows that feral cats that undergo a vasectomy or hysterectomy could reduce a feral colony's numbers more effectively than the traditional approach of neutering. This may be because vasectomized cats retain reproductive hormones, in addition to not being able to reproduce, and therefore protect their turf from sexually intact competitors.

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A survey of older rural adults found a high degree of medical skepticism, the belief that one knows and can control their own health better than a medical professional can, reports a recent study in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved.

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A natural form of sugar could offer a new, noninvasive way to precisely image tumors and potentially see whether cancer medication is effective, by means of a new imaging technology developed at UC San Francisco in collaboration with GE Healthcare.

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Placentas support the fetus and mother, but those organs grow according to blueprints from dad, according to new research at Cornell University. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in June, shows that the genes in a fetus that come from the father dominate in building the fetal side of the placenta.

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Sympathetic neurons “cross-talk” -- or engage in reciprocal signaling -- with the tissues they connect to. And when they don't, there's trouble.

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Despite taking a tailored risk assessment tool that factors in family history and personal habits, nearly 20 percent of women did not believe their breast cancer risk, according to a new study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

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Investigators at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have described another link in the chain of events that connect acute viral infections to the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

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By studying the planarian flatworm, a master of regenerating missing tissue and repairing wounds, the lab of Whitehead Institute Member Peter Reddien has identified an unexpected source of position instruction: the muscle cells in the planarian body wall. This is the first time that such a positional control system has been identified in adult regenerative animals.

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Research led by scientists from the University of California, San Diego has decoded the genetic basis of chronic mountain sickness (CMS) or Monge’s disease. Their study provides important information that validates the genetic basis of adaptation to high altitudes, and provides potential targets for CMS treatment.

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Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have discovered the molecular mechanism by which the deadly Ebola virus assembles, providing potential new drug targets. Surprisingly, the study showed that the same molecule that assembles and releases new viruses also rearranges itself into different shapes, with each shape controlling a different step of the virus’s life cycle.

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A study spearheaded by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of Minnesota has shown that the world's largest owl – and one of the rarest – is also a key indicator of the health of some of old-growth Russian forests.