Health News

Study supports new safety rule for truck drivers

Date: Feb-04-2014
The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has released the findings of a field study conducted by the Washington State University (WSU) Sleep and Performance Research Center. The study provides evidence that a revised provision in new hours-of-service regulations for truck drivers is more effective at combating fatigue than the previous version. The new trucking regulations took effect last July.Hours-of service safety regulations prescribe that truck drivers may not drive more than 60/70 hours on duty in the most recent 7/8 days.

New assessment tool designed to improve care provided at hospitals

Date: Feb-04-2014
A new assessment tool published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine can help hospital medicine groups across the country improve their patient care and make their operations more effective.Published as "The Key Principles and Characteristics of an Effective HMG," the self-assessment tool is comprised of 47 different characteristics of effective hospital medicine groups (HMGs) sorted into ten different principles.

Researchers pinpoint neural circuitry that promotes stress-induced anxiety

Date: Feb-04-2014
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, over 18 percent of American adults suffer from anxiety disorders, characterized as excessive worry or tension that often leads to other physical symptoms. Previous studies of anxiety in the brain have focused on the amygdala, an area known to play a role in fear. But a team of researchers led by biologists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) had a hunch that understanding a different brain area, the lateral septum (LS), could provide more clues into how the brain processes anxiety.

How neurons control fine motor behavior of the arm

Date: Feb-04-2014
Motor commands issued by the brain to activate arm muscles take two different routes. As the research group led by Professor Silvia Arber at the University of Basel's Biozentrum and the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research has now discovered, many neurons in the spinal cord send their instructions not only towards the musculature, but at the same time also back to the brain via an exquisitely organized network. This dual information stream provides the neural basis for accurate control of arm and hand movements. These findings have now been published in Cell.

Vibrations influence the circadian clock of a fruit fly

Date: Feb-04-2014
The internal circadian clock of a Drosophila (fruit fly) can be synchronised using vibrations, according to research published in the journal Science. The results suggest that an animal's own movements can influence its clock.The circadian clock, which underlies the daily rhythms characterising most of our bodily functions including the sleep cycle, is mainly set by diurnal changes in light and temperature.

Vibrations influence the circadian clock of a fruit fly

Date: Feb-04-2014
The internal circadian clock of a Drosophila (fruit fly) can be synchronised using vibrations, according to research published in the journal Science. The results suggest that an animal's own movements can influence its clock.The circadian clock, which underlies the daily rhythms characterising most of our bodily functions including the sleep cycle, is mainly set by diurnal changes in light and temperature.

Guide on how to identify child abuse, starvation, compiled by forensic experts

Date: Feb-04-2014
Forensic science experts from North Carolina State University are publishing a comprehensive overview of forensic research that can be used to identify child abuse and starvation."By pulling all of this information together in one place, we hope that we can save the lives of some children and find justice for others," says Dr. Ann Ross, a professor of anthropology at NC State and lead author of the paper. Ross is also co-editor of the book "The Juvenile Skeleton in Forensic Abuse Investigations.

Success reported in targeted therapy for common form of lung cancer

Date: Feb-04-2014
The most common genetic subtype of lung cancer, which has long defied treatment with targeted therapies, has had its growth halted by a combination of two already-in-use drugs in laboratory and animal studies, setting the stage for clinical trials of the drugs in patients, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and other scientists report in a new study.The study, published in the journal Cancer Discovery, describes a new tack in the treatment of lung adenocarcinomas - which account for about 40 percent of all lung cancers - that carry mutations in the gene KRAS.

New assessment tool designed to improve care provided at hospitals

Date: Feb-04-2014
A new assessment tool published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine can help hospital medicine groups across the country improve their patient care and make their operations more effective.Published as "The Key Principles and Characteristics of an Effective HMG," the self-assessment tool is comprised of 47 different characteristics of effective hospital medicine groups (HMGs) sorted into ten different principles.

Success reported in targeted therapy for common form of lung cancer

Date: Feb-04-2014
The most common genetic subtype of lung cancer, which has long defied treatment with targeted therapies, has had its growth halted by a combination of two already-in-use drugs in laboratory and animal studies, setting the stage for clinical trials of the drugs in patients, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and other scientists report in a new study.The study, published in the journal Cancer Discovery, describes a new tack in the treatment of lung adenocarcinomas - which account for about 40 percent of all lung cancers - that carry mutations in the gene KRAS.