An effort to detect patterns of chemical changes in histones and their impact on gene expression Although every cell of our bodies contains the same genetic instructions, specific genes typically act only in specific cells at particular times. Other genes are "silenced" in a variety of ways.

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Center (BMC) found that sexual behavior counseling during drug addiction treatment should be considered an important component among Russian substance-dependent individuals, in order to decrease risky sexual behavior in the HIV at-risk population. This study appears in the journal Addiction.

Researchers at Robarts Research Institute at The University of Western Ontario in London, Canada have found clear evidence that increases in the size of the brain ventricles are directly associated with cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. Ventricles are fluid-filled cavities in the brain.

With more new mothers in the workplace than ever before, there has been a corresponding increase in the number of child-care facilities in the United States. At the same time, data from a variety of sources point to a growing prevalence of overweight infants and toddlers.

Heavy alcohol use, or binge drinking, among college students in the United States is tied to conditions in the college environment. That is one of the key findings from research conducted by researchers with the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study (CAS), a landmark study that surveyed more than 50,000 students at 120 colleges from 1993 to 2001.

A study presented at Digestive Disease Week® 2008 examined the American College of Radiology's (ACR) CT colonography guidelines recommending that polyps â?¤ 5mm in size not be reported on CT colonography by applying them to an endoscopic database that collected information about polyps that had been removed and processed.

In treating malaria in schoolchildren in Africa, the use of intermittent preventive treatment (IPT) not only lowers the prevalence of anemia but also improves attention span in the children. These conclusions, published in an Article released on July 11, 2008 in The Lancet, could help guide future interventions in this and similar settings.

Learning from Past Emergency Response In a special session running all day Wednesday, July 16, 2008, presenters will share lessons learned during past incidents involving emergency evacuations, including some involving radiation releases, and the ensuing emergency response (some involving radiation). Presenters use these lessons to model future event responses.

Common genetic variations affecting nicotine receptors in the nervous system can significantly increase the chance that European Americans who begin smoking by age 17 will struggle with lifelong nicotine addiction, according to researchers at the University of Utah and their colleagues at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Malaria is one of the most devastating diseases afflicting humanity. It infects and debilitates about 600 million people and kills up to three million people every year, mainly in the wet tropical regions of the world. Children and pregnant women are at particularly high risk. The malaria parasite is injected into humans by an infected mosquito.

A questionnaire of Swiss schoolchildren has revealed the extent of truancy and school fear. The research, published in BioMed Central's open access journal Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, links truancy and school fear to life events, parental behaviour and school environment.

Getting a feel for what we see Psychologists at Washington University in St. Louis, led by Richard A. Abrams, Ph.D., professor of psychology in Arts & Sciences, have shown that to see objects better, you should take the matter into your own hands. They have demonstrated that humans more thoroughly inspect objects when their hands are near the object rather than farther away from it.

The American Society of Neuroradiology (ASNR) recently awarded Robert Lukin, MD, the organization's highest honor: the Gold Medal. The University of Cincinnati (UC) professor of radiology and former chair accepted the award at the society's annual meeting in New Orleans.

Children between the ages of seven and 12 appear to be naturally inclined to feel empathy for others in pain, according to researchers at the University of Chicago, who used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scans to study responses in children. The responses on the scans were similar to those found in studies of adults.

The nation's fourth and eighth graders scored higher in reading and mathematics than they did during their last national assessment, according to the federal government's latest annual statistical report on the well-being of the nation's children.

Dr. Yuri Lvov, a professor of chemistry and T. Pipes endowed chair in micro and nanosystems at Louisiana Tech University, and Anshul Agarwal, a Louisiana Tech doctoral candidate in biomedical engineering feature their cancer drug reformulation work in the most recent issue of Pharma Focus Asia, one of the largest and most respected pharmaceutical science journals in the world.

Sounding the chest with a cold stethoscope is probably one of the most commonly used diagnostics in the medical room after peering down the back of the throat while the patient says, "Aaaah". But, research published in the inaugural issue of the International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics looks set to add an information-age approach to diagnosing heart problems.

A typical symptom of Parkinson's disease is tremor in patients. A group of scientists, including Professor Peter Tass from Forschungszentrum Julich have succeeded in demonstrating the mechanisms which cause the so-called tremor: neuron clusters in the depths of the brain drive the tremor. This discovery supports Tass' research activities aiming at developing a therapy for Parkinson's disease.

A natural compound from magnolia cones blocks a pathway for cancer growth that was previously considered "undruggable," researchers have found. A laboratory led by Jack Arbiser, MD, PhD, at Emory University School of Medicine, has been studying the compound honokiol, found in Japanese and Chinese herbal medicines, since discovering its ability to inhibit tumor growth in mice in 2003.

Due to demographic changes, there will be a marked increase in strokes in the coming years. Even in 2004, the medical costs for the care of stroke patients in Germany came to 7.1 billion euros.