Health News

News from the Personality and Social Psychology journals

Date: Aug-27-2013
Hostile sexism hurts intimate relationships Men who generally believe that women who challenge men's power are manipulative and subversive - so-called hostile sexism - carry over those antagonistic attitudes into their intimate relationships. In two studies, researchers gathered behavior data from committed heterosexual couples either five times across a year or daily for three weeks. They found that men who endorse hostile sexism perceived their female partners to behave more negatively than they actually did...

Cry4B-BT-R3 complex will allow the design of custom proteins and peptides to help control the spread of malaria by mosquitoes

Date: Aug-27-2013
Researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), led by Dr. Lee Bulla, have demonstrated for the first time the selective cytotoxicity of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis Cry4B toxin is mediated by BT-R3. The Cry toxins produced by Bacillus thuringiensis exert their insecticidal activity by binding with high-affinity to their cognate cadherin receptors located on the surface of epithelial cells that line the midgut of susceptible insects...

Spinal cord injury patients to benefit from biphasic electrical stimulation

Date: Aug-27-2013
Researchers at the Beihang University School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, led by Dr. Yubo Fan, have discovered that Biphasic Electrical stimulation (BES), a non-chemical procedure, may be used as a strategy for preventing cell apoptosis in stem cell-based transplantation therapy. The article describing their studies is published in the August 2013 issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine. The scientists believe that their technique will be used for spinal cord injury patients in the future. Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a serious disease of the central nervous system...

Autistic traits in some children with ADHD

Date: Aug-27-2013
Children with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) are significantly more likely to have autism traits compared to other kids, researchers found in a study published in the journal Pediatrics. A team from Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and SUNY Upstate Medical University reported that 18% of kids with ADHD showed an autism trait profile in their study compared to 0.87% of the controls (kids without ADHD)...

Compounds found in red wine and green tea stick to anything, retain useful antibacterial properties

Date: Aug-27-2013
A simple kitchen sink experiment helped Northwestern University researchers discover that green tea leaves not only can be used to steep a good cup of tea, but they make an excellent antibacterial coating, too. And so can red wine, dark chocolate and cacao beans, they found. It's the powerful and healthful polyphenols at work in a new way. (Polyphenols are naturally occurring molecules found in plants whose functions include structural support and defense against bacteria and oxidative damage...

Weight control not weight loss strategy works better

Date: Aug-27-2013
An intervention that focuses on weight control rather than weight loss works better for socioeconomically disadvantaged black women in preventing weight gain, researchers from Duke University reported in JAMA Internal Medicine. The authors explained that encouraging African-American women to lose weight has generally been ineffective. As background information, the investigators wrote "black women have higher rates of body weight satisfaction, fewer social pressures to lose weight, and sociocultural norms that tolerate heavier body weights." Principal investigator, Gary G...

In a brain affected by Alzheimer's disease - what goes wrong?

Date: Aug-27-2013
The ability of different regions of the brain to communicate gradually breaks down with aging and in Alzheimer's disease, but there are key differences between these two processes. Some of these differences are reported in a study that compared neural networks, signaling efficiency, and disruptions in connectivity in the brains of healthy elderly subjects and patients with Alzheimer's disease. The article is published in Brain Connectivity, a bimonthly peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers, and is available on the Journal website...

Smart diaper technology is now available for incontinent adults and special needs children

Date: Aug-26-2013
Pixie Scientific has announced Pixie Briefs, the first adult incontinence product that screens for urinary tract infections and tracks hydration. The product consists of disposable briefs, smart phone or tablet application and an online service. The disposable briefs contain an indicator panel on the front, which performs urine analysis. The panel is then scanned by Pixie Scientific's smartphone or tablet application, which transfers the data to Pixie Scientific's secure online service for analysis and long-term monitoring. Pixie Briefs enable unobtrusive health monitoring...

Researchers figure out why gold nanoparticles can penetrate cell walls

Date: Aug-26-2013
Cells are very good at protecting their precious contents - and as a result, it's very difficult to penetrate their membrane walls to deliver drugs, nutrients or biosensors without damaging or destroying the cell. One effective way of doing so, discovered in 2008, is to use nanoparticles of pure gold, coated with a thin layer of a special polymer. But nobody knew exactly why this combination worked so well, or how it made it through the cell wall...

Single injection may revolutionize melanoma treatment

Date: Aug-26-2013
A new study at Moffitt Cancer Center could offer hope to people with melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. Researchers are investigating whether an injectable known as PV-10 can shrink tumors and reduce the spread of cancer. PV-10 is a solution developed from Rose Bengal, a water-soluble dye commonly used to stain damaged cells in the eye. Early clinical trials show PV-10 can boost immune response in melanoma tumors, as well as the blood stream...