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Monday, May 26, 2014

ScienceDaily: Top Health News

ScienceDaily: Top Health News


Science of school lunch: Pictures tell story about lunch policies, healthy consumption

Posted: 23 May 2014 04:23 PM PDT

Since Fall 2012, USDA regulations require students across the country to take a fruit or vegetable with their lunch, a good intention that might easily go to the garbage. To help assess what's really happening, researchers have developed state-of-the-art digital imaging to measure healthy food consumption.

New drug for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia passes early test

Posted: 23 May 2014 11:54 AM PDT

A new chemotherapy drug being investigated for its potency against two types of cancer was found by scientists to be effective in about one-third of the 58 patients who participated in a phase I study. The drug, alisertib or MLN8237, inhibits the enzyme aurora A kinase, which is known to be very active during cell division. The present study looks at the safety, tolerability, and preliminary success of alisertib in treating non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

Personal judgments swayed by group opinion, but only for three days

Posted: 23 May 2014 11:54 AM PDT

We all want to feel like we're free-thinking individuals, but there's nothing like the power of social pressure to sway an opinion. New research suggests that people do change their own personal judgments so that they fall in line with the group norm, but the change only seems to last about three days.

Breakthrough method for making Janus or patchy capsules

Posted: 23 May 2014 11:53 AM PDT

An easy method for making small hollow capsules with two or more patches with different chemical or physical properties has been found. These capsules, called Janus or patchy capsules, have potential applications in fields as varied as medicine and the food industry.

Measuring fine dust concentration via smartphone

Posted: 23 May 2014 11:52 AM PDT

Big cities in the smog: Photos from Beijing and, more recently, Paris clearly illustrate the extent of fine dust pollution. But what about our direct environment? What is the pollution concentration near our favorite jogging route? Scientists are developing a sensor that can be connected easily to smartphones. In the future, users are to take part in drawing up a pollution map via participatory sensing. The precision of the map will be the higher, the more people will take part.

How Alzheimer's blood test could be first step in developing treatments to halt or slow disease

Posted: 23 May 2014 11:52 AM PDT

A blood test has the potential to predict Alzheimer's disease before patients start showing symptoms, researchers have reported. Now they expand upon this groundbreaking research and discuss why it could be the key to curing this devastating illness. "This discovery is a potentially enormous breakthrough in the fight against Alzheimer's," said an expert. "If research aimed at a cure for Alzheimer's is to move forward, it is crucial that Alzheimer's clinical trials find a way to recruit patients who are still asymptomatic, since they are the ones most likely to respond to treatment."

Active genes in neurons profiled based on connections

Posted: 23 May 2014 11:51 AM PDT

When it comes to the brain, wiring isn't everything. Although neurobiologists often talk in electrical metaphors, the reality is that the brain is not nearly as simple as a series of wires and circuits. Unlike their copper counterparts, neurons can behave differently depending on the situation.

New glasses may increase risk of falls in older adults, suggests review

Posted: 23 May 2014 11:51 AM PDT

Blurred vision contributes to the risk of falling in older adults -— but getting new glasses with a big change in vision prescription may increase the risk rather than decreasing it, according to a new article. Unaccustomed magnification may cause objects to appear closer or farther than they really are, thus affecting the reflexes linking the vestibular (balance) system with eye movements. For older patients who aren't used to bifocals and "progressive" lenses, switching to these types of lenses may cause distortion in peripheral vision.

Disaster Planning: Risk assessment vital to development of mitigation plans

Posted: 23 May 2014 06:42 AM PDT

Wildfires and flooding affect many more people in the USA than earthquakes and landslide and yet the dread, the perceived risk, of the latter two is much greater than for those hazards that are more frequent and cause greater loss of life. Research suggests that a new paradigm for risk assessment is needed.

Eumelanin's secrets: Discovery of melanin structure may lead to better sun protection

Posted: 22 May 2014 08:57 AM PDT

Melanin -- and specifically, the form called eumelanin -- is the primary pigment that gives humans the coloring of their skin, hair, and eyes. It protects the body from the hazards of ultraviolet and other radiation that can damage cells and lead to skin cancer, but the exact reason why the compound is so effective at blocking such a broad spectrum of sunlight has remained something of a mystery. Now researchers at MIT and other institutions have solved that mystery, potentially opening the way for the development of synthetic materials that could have similar light-blocking properties.

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