In a groundbreaking national study, Brown University researchers have traced the connections between state nursing home policies and resident hospitalization rates. The team found that state policies unwittingly create financial incentives for nursing homes to hospitalize their frail elderly residents, even though hospital stays can be disorienting or dangerous. Results are published in Health Services Research.
Could low-level heavy metal pollution be combining with warm water temperatures to fatally weaken sea life? A study examining the joint effects of cadmium and temperature on mitochondrial metabolism in oysters finds a combined effect that is potentially lethal and could be a significant contributor to recent oyster declines. The research has broad implications for cold-blooded marine organisms.
Kids with dyslexia can’t block out distractions, say a group of new studies. The results cast doubt on an influential neurological model of dyslexia developed in the 1970s.
Every year there are potentially more than 500 sudden unexplained deaths in England, reveals a nationwide study published ahead of print in the journal Heart. This figure is around eight times higher than previously thought, the data suggest.
Research at the University of Liverpool into a large fault zone in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile has produced new insight into how fluid pressure can cause earthquakes.
A new, easy-to-read booklet ? Stay Safe in Cold Weather! ? offers older adults tips on avoiding a dangerous condition called hypothermia. This free 12-page publication is now available from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Science may be one step closer to understanding how a limb can be grown or a spinal cord can be repaired. Scientists at The Forsyth Institute have discovered that some cells have to die for regeneration to occur.
The infrared-sensitive camera on NASA’s Cassini spacecraft photographed a 93-mile unbroken range of nearly mile-high mountains on Saturn’s moon Titan last Oct. 25.
An international group of researchers has discovered that the mutated form of a gene called Palladin causes familial pancreatic cancer. The findings, published online today, Dec. 12, in the peer-reviewed journal PLoS-Medicine, may help explain why the disease is so deadly. The research project was led by Dr. Teri Brentnall, University of Washington associate professor of medicine, and supported by the Lustgarten Foundation, Canary Foundation and other private sources.
How does an organism know when it must produce a protein and in what amount? Clever control mechanisms are responsible for the regulation of protein biosynthesis. One such type of mechanism, discovered only a few years ago, is riboswitches, which function as a sort of “off” switch for the production of certain proteins.