Study Of 'Ouzo Effect' May Lead To Design Of Improved Drugs, Cosmetics

February 20, 2008 — Scientists studying the cloudy emulsions produced by anise-flavored liquors such as Ouzo have discovered new molecular insights into their formation, findings that could lead to the design of better ... > full story

• Probiotic Cuts Respiratory Illness Rates In Endurance Athletes, Study Suggests
• February 20, 2008 — The probiotic Lactobacillus substantially cuts the rate and length of respiratory illness in professional long distance runners, reveals a small study. Intensive exercise can subdue the normal immune ... > full story
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• Insurance Status Linked To Advanced Stage In Multiple Cancers
  February 20, 2008 — A new American Cancer Society study of 12 types of cancer among more than 3.5 million cancer patients finds uninsured patients were significantly more likely to present with advanced stage cancer ... > full story
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• Antibiotics Do Not Appear Helpful In Preventing Fluid Buildup In Children With Ear Infections
  February 20, 2008 — When prescribed to children with middle ear infections, antibiotics are not associated with a significant reduction in fluid buildup in the ear, according to a meta-analysis of previously published ... > full story
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• Stress May Increase A Woman's Risk Of Developing Cervical Cancer
  February 20, 2008 — A woman's daily stress can reduce her ability to fight off a common sexually transmitted disease and increase her risk of developing the cancer it can cause, according to a new study. No such ... > full story
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• How To Minimize CT Radiation Doses: Report By American Association Of Physicists In Medicine
  February 20, 2008 — Aiming to promote the best medical imaging practices nationwide and help ensure the health and safety of the millions of people who undergo computed tomography scans each year in the United States, ... > full story
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• Sleep Apnea Doubles Car Crash Risk, Study Shows
  February 20, 2008 — People with sleep apnea -- a breathing disorder that disrupts sleep -- are at double the risk of being in a car crash, a new study finds. The study also found that patients with sleep apnea are three ... > full story
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• Protein Maintains Cross Talk Between Cells That Control Hair Growth
  February 20, 2008 — Researchers have identified a signaling molecule that is critical for a type of skin cell, called dermal papilla, to ratchet up or clamp down the activity of genes that give them their molecular ... > full story
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• Defining Cancer's Genetic 'Support Network'
  February 20, 2008 — Researchers have developed a new method that essentially does for the genetic pathways underlying cancer what social networking web sites can do for people: It finds the connections among them. The ... > full story
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• Mental Illness Is Subject To Biological And Sociocultural Factors, Bioethicist Says
  February 20, 2008 — Biology is crucial to understanding psychosis, "but there is more to psychosis than mere biology," says one bioethicist and philosopher of science. While he acknowledges that it's certainly the case ... > full story

Sex, Drugs And Alcohol: Parents Still Influence College Kids' Risky Behavior, Study Shows

ScienceDaily (Feb. 11, 2008) — New research shows that parents influence their child’s likelihood of involvement with drugs, alcohol and risky sexual activity even after their child leaves for college.

In an upcoming issue of the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Brigham Young University family scientist Laura Walker’s study found that parents’ knowledge or awareness of what’s going on in their child’s life at college is associated with fewer risky behaviors.

Specifically, students who said their fathers were in the loop had a lower likelihood of doing drugs or engaging in risky sexual behaviors. When mothers were in the know, students were less likely to drink alcohol.

The protective effect of mothers’ awareness was more pronounced when the students also felt close to their mom. Under those circumstances, the researchers found that students were less likely to be involved in any of the three risk behavior categories studied: drugs, alcohol and risky sexual activity.

“For parents, the fact that closeness plays a strong role is a message to not be overbearing,” Walker said. “Having a close relationship promotes the child wanting to open up and share what’s going on rather than the parent having to intrusively solicit the information from the child.”

Walker and her colleagues agree that delaying adulthood results in an extension of parents’ period of service to their children. The study’s findings show that the relationships between parents and children continue to be important during the transition to adulthood.

The study involved 200 undergraduate students ages 18 to 25 from two mid-Atlantic colleges, a Midwestern university and a West Coast university. The title of the paper is “The Role of Perceived Parental Knowledge on Emerging Adults’ Risk Behaviors.” Professor Larry Nelson, also from BYU’s School of Family Life, is a co-author on the study.

Delaying adulthood to find identity has bright side

Similar research by Walker and her colleagues finds that delaying the transition to adulthood involves experimentation of a positive nature, indicating this life stage is not simply a period of risk-taking and delinquency.

In an upcoming issue of the Journal of Adolescence, Walker compared the altruism and positive values of two types of emerging adults: those who were already committed to an identity and those still in the process of exploring their identity.

The research found the two groups had few differences when it came to outward behaviors like helping other people and inward personal values such as honesty, kindness and fairness.

“The assumption too often is that delaying adulthood is automatically a negative thing, dominated by exploration with risky drinking, drug use, and sex,” Walker said. “However, these findings suggest that young people are also exploring positive behaviors and participate in society to the same degree as those who have already established their identity.”

The study involved 491 students ages 18 to 25 from two private colleges in the mid-Atlantic, two public universities in the Midwest, and a public university on the West Coast. Each student took a questionnaire about exploration and commitment to an identity. Forty-three percent scored high on commitment to an identity. Another 23 percent scored low on commitment but high on identity exploration. The researchers compared these two groups and found few differences when it came to helping other people, ideas of fairness and honesty and the role of faith in their lives.

The title of the paper is “Looking on the Bright Side: The Role of Identity Status and Gender on Positive Orientations during Emerging Adulthood.” Nelson is also a co-author on this study along with Professor Jason Carroll of BYU’s School of Family Life.

Adapted from materials provided by Brigham Young University.

Changing Our Clocks: New Research Explores How Our Bodies Keep Time

February 11, 2008 — Our alarm clocks may spring forward on March 9, but our biological clocks may take longer to adjust. That's because our internal clocks are so tightly wound to many physiological and behavioral ... > full story

• HIV Drugs, Abacavir And Didanosine Increase The Risk Of Heart Attack, Study Suggests
• February 11, 2008 — A study to assess the adverse effects of anti-retroviral drugs shows that two widely-used HIV drugs are associated with an increased risk of heart attack/the formation of blood clots in the heart. ... > full story
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• New Therapy Possibilities For Lung Disease Patients
  February 11, 2008 — A new study may change current thinking about how best to treat patients in respiratory distress in hospital intensive care units. It has been commonly believed that high levels of carbon dioxide or ... > full story
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• How One Protein Binds To Genes And Regulates Human Genome
  February 11, 2008 — Out of chaos, control: Molecular biologists have discovered how a protein called PARP-1 binds to genes and regulates their expression across the human genome. Knowing where PARP-1 is located and how ... > full story
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• Discovery Of Good -- And Bad -- Liver Stem Cells Raises Possibility Of New Treatment
  February 11, 2008 — Many scientists believe up to 40 percent of liver cancer is caused by stem cells gone wild. Despite years spent looking, no one has ever found these liver "cancer stem cells." Now, researchers report ... > full story
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• Why Certain Ovarian Cancers Develop Resistance To Platinum-based Chemotherapy
  February 11, 2008 — Scientists have identified a new mechanism that explains why some recurrent ovarian tumors become resistant to treatment with commonly used platinum-based chemotherapy drugs such as cisplatin and ... > full story
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• Some 'Junk' DNA Is Important Guide For Nerve-cell Channel Production
  February 11, 2008 — Researchers have discovered that introns, or junk DNA to some, associated with RNA are an important molecular guide to making nerve-cell electrical channels. They hope to relate this knowledge to ... > full story
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• Drug-resistant E. Coli And Klebsiella Bacteria Found In Hospital Samples And Elsewhere In US
  February 11, 2008 — A research team examining bacterial isolates obtained in hospital and non-hospital clinical settings between 2000 and 2006, has identified drug-resistant strains of E. coli and Klebsiella bacteria in ... > full story
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• Artificial Sweeteners Linked To Weight Gain
  February 11, 2008 — Want to lose weight? It might help to pour that diet soda down the drain. Researchers have laboratory evidence that the widespread use of no-calorie sweeteners may actually make it harder for people ... > full story
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• New Virus Responsible For Deaths Of Transplant Recipients In Australia, Scientists Confirm
  February 11, 2008 — In the first application of high throughput DNA sequencing technology to investigate an infectious disease outbreak, scientists link the discovery of a new arenavirus to the deaths of three ... > full story