Study of energy and health in Africa focuses spotlight on charcoal and forest management
...in African nations. Using this as a baseline, they defined multiple scenarios for future fuel use by varying the mix of wood, charcoal and petroleum-based fuels used in households and improving the sustainability of wood harvesting and charcoal production techniques. The best situation in Africa would be to...Charcoal and forest management could reduce greenhouse gas levels & save lives in Africa
...in African nations. Using this as a baseline, they defined multiple scenarios for future fuel use by varying the mix of wood, charcoal and petroleum-based fuels used in households and improving the sustainability of wood harvesting and charcoal production techniques. Robert Bailis, graduate student at the E...Unexpected benefit seen in treating HER-2 breast cancer with new preoperative drug combo
...p, rates of pathological complete remission (pcr), defined as the complete disappearance of cancer in breast ...tion in patients with earlier stage breast cancer, defined as stage II to IIIa. In order to immediately see if it had an effect on cancer, they sought to use i...NYU College of Dentistry study equates poor oral health with preterm birth risk
...h to occur. Preterm low birth weight is generally defined as delivery before 37 complete weeks of pregnancy with a birth weight of less than 2,500 grams. PLBW babies have a greater risk of morbidity, mortality, and disability. Preterm deliveries rose 27 percent between 1982 and 2002, to a total of 480,812, ...Use of inhaled corticosteroid led to fewer hospitalizations for young children with asthma
...ion prescription. In this study, exacerbation was defined as one or more ED visits or hospitalizations during the study period. Parents who recognize the symptoms of asthma in their children coughing, wheezing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath should inform their doctor or healthcare provider and ...New generation contact lenses cut risk of severe eye infection
...ting severe keratitis. Eighty were scored below 8, defined as 'non-severe keratitis,' and 38 were scored above. Among the 80 who scored below 8, 18 slept in their lenses. Among the 38 with severe keratitis, 9 did so. Four types of lenses were studied - rigid, hydrogel daily disposable, hydrogel, and silicon...Boston University team finds link between high cholesterol and better cognitive performance
... on tests of mental ability. High cholesterol was defined as > 240 mg/dL as measured in blood samples. Less than two percent of the participants were being treated with anti-cholesterol medication. Anti-cholesterol medications and diets as well as risk factors such as smoking and alcohol consumption w...Aspirin's potential ability to prevent colon polyps may not apply equally to all
...icantly lower in those who took aspirin regularly defined as two or more tablets per week that benefit was primarily seen in participants with variant forms of the enzyme known as UGT1A6. Among participants with the most common form of the enzyme, the improvement in risk was not statistically significant....Minorities, poor, uneducated bear the burden
... in health indicators of population groups whether defined by race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status or geography. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed national health surveys to assess the prevalence of cardiovascular disease and overall quality of life of U.S....Health care report cards may increase racial/ethnic disparities in bypass operations
...he study period from 1988-95. Control states were defined by data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP-3), a data set that includes hospital discharge information nation-wide. Researchers only used data from the 12 states in HCUP-3 that reported patient race, which were California, Colora...American Thoracic Society Journal news tips for March 2005 (second issue)
...EZING AND ASTHMA Researchers showed that obesity, defined as body mass index (BMI) at the 95th percentile or higher for age and sex, was significantly associated with asthma and wheezing in a large group of 8- to 11-year-old children. The investigators studied the relationship between obesity, wheeze, and ...Neuronal death and processing of Tau protein in Alzheimer's disease
...major hallmark of the human dementias collectively defined as tauopathies, including Alzheimer's disease (AD). In Fronto-Temporal Dementia with Parkinsonism linked to Chromosome 17 (FTDP-17), several mutations in the tau gene were identified showing that primary malfunction of tau can lead to neurodegenerati...Obesity among African-American stroke survivors increases risk factors for recurrent stroke
...men, but not for women. In this study, the authors defined metabolic syndrome as the presence of obesity, hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia, and found that the three risk factors (hypertension, dyslipidemia and diabetes) were present in 26.1 percent of men and 34.7 percent of women with class one obesi...HIV-1 spread through six transmission lines in the UK
...emic is composed of smaller, independent epidemics defined by risk group, where we have found evidence for at least six larger sub-epidemics, which HIV monitoring, prevention and treatment programmes may want to take into account when developing new initiatives." More than 57,700 people in Britain have been ...Rasagiline reduces disability for patients with advanced Parkinson's disease
... levodopa will eventually have motor fluctuations, defined as periods of the day with poor or absent motor response to their medication (off-time) alternating with periods of clearly improved motor function (on-time). Several drugs (pergolide, pramipexole, ropinirole, entacapone and tolcapone) when added to ...Two years after gene therapy treatments, severe angina patients showed prolonged clinical benefit
...DNA (a non-viral delivery vector) was delivered in defined doses by direct injection into the heart muscle. ...roughout the United States. In the GENASIS trial, defined doses of VEGF-2 in the form of "naked" plasmid DNA are delivered to diseased heart muscle tissue via...Cognitive behavioral therapy and medication is effective in the treatment of panic disorder
...rs state. The proportion of patients who remitted, defined as patients who had had no panic attacks in the pa...percent. The proportion of patients who responded, defined by a low score on a test for anxiety level, was also significantly higher than those receiving usual...Non-invasive and invasive breast cancers share the same genetic mutations
...s of the inherited breast/ovarian cancer syndromes defined by BRCA1 and BRCA2," said Claus. "As such, this subset of DCIS patients should be screened and followed according to highrisk protocols as are similar women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer."...Ten-minute emergency room intervention for problem drinkers
...d for hazardous and harmful drinking. Hazardous is defined as more than 14 drinks per week and four per occasion for men; seven drinks per week or more than three per occasion for women, and seven drinks per week and more than one drink per occasion for persons over age 65. Harmful drinkers are those patient......xchange program or pharmacies. "Safe disposal" was defined as discarding used syringes at syringe exchange programs, breaking the needle off before discarding or placing the syringe in a hard container before throwing it away. According to the study, 10 percent of study participants cited the Baltimore syrin...