Reflection News and Research

RSS

Swiss hospital to permit assisted suicide

A hospital in Switzerland has announced it will allow assisted suicide on its premises for terminally ill patients.

19 Dec 2005

Australian society's obsession with looking younger is set to collide with the reality of an ageing population

According to researcher Mair Underwood, who will present her work at the Emerging Researchers in Ageing (ERA) 2005 conference in Brisbane this week, the current fixation with trying to postpone ageing is increasing and the current older generation may be the last to age gracefully.

14 Nov 2005

Mirrors to trick the brain could help people with persistent pain

Looking in a mirror at a reflection of their healthy hand could help people with persistent pain ease their symptoms and eventually overcome their problem, say scientists in the latest edition of the journal Clinical Medicine.

1 Nov 2005

Novel methodology that can be used to investigate choice and introspection

When evaluating facial attractiveness, participants may fail to notice a radical change to the outcome of their choice, according to a study by researchers at Lund University, Sweden, and New York University. Equally surprising, the study shows that participants may produce confabulatory reports when asked to describe the reasons behind their choices.

9 Oct 2005

State-of-the-art portable biosensing device based on micro and nanotechnologies

A state-of-the-art portable biosensing device based on micro- and nanotechnologies will empower doctors to rapidly and accurately forewarn patients of their genetic risk of developing diseases such as cancer.

23 Aug 2005

Psychiatric disorders represent an independent risk factor for delay in cancer diagnosis

Patients with psychiatric disorders are diagnosed with esophageal cancer much later and at a more advanced stage than patients with no psychiatric diagnosis, according to a study conducted by researchers in the Oregon Health & Science University Digestive Health Center.

15 Aug 2005

Experts discuss use of human stem cells in ape and monkey brains

An expert panel of stem cell scientists, primatologists, philosophers and lawyers has concluded that experiments implanting, or grafting, human stem cells into non-human primate brains could unintentionally shift the moral ground between humans and other primates.

14 Jul 2005

Children generally negative about smoking

One-third of children enrolled in a family smoking prevention program believed they could smoke without becoming addicted, according to a new study. Yet, overall, the researchers found most of the children generally had negative attitudes about smoking.

30 Jun 2005

Service learning improves the social skills of students with mental impairments

Previous studies on the effectiveness of service learning programs on social skills of students with moderate cognitive impairments were primarily anecdotal.

16 Jun 2005

A million Americans now living with the AIDS virus and blacks account for 47 percent of HIV cases

According to the U.S. Government more than a million Americans are currently living with the AIDS virus.

14 Jun 2005

Hypertension, diabetes and obesity are important independent predictors of increased complications for patients undergoing major joint replacement surgery

Using a database of nearly 1 million Americans who underwent major joint replacement surgery, a team led by researchers at Duke University Medical Center have determined those surgical patients with diabetes, hypertension or obesity were significantly more likely to suffer post-operative complications.

1 Jun 2005

Brains of both black and white people have been programmed by racist stereotyping

Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, carried out brain scans of black and white Americans, focusing on a part of the brain called the amygdala, the area that reacts to threat and novelty, and, because the region responds in different ways, exactly what goes on in that area was unclear.

10 May 2005

Vitamin C may help unborn of mothers who smoke

Thousands of babies born to mothers who continue to smoke throughout pregnancy despite physician warnings may benefit from new research which suggests that high doses of vitamin C may have the potential to counteract some negative impacts of smoking in unborn babies.

2 May 2005

Patronizing behavior of male bosses undermines the performance of female

"Positions of power remain a male prerogative. Women make up 46 percent of the U.S. labor force, but are extremely underrepresented in high level positions of power," says Theresa Vescio, Penn State University assistant professor of psychology who led the study. "Therefore, it is important to understand how the behaviors of male bosses affect female subordinates."

27 Apr 2005

HIV epidemic among young men unabated because many are unaware they are infected

U.S. health officials say many young gay and bisexual men who are HIV-positive are unaware they have the virus.

26 Apr 2005

Natural killer cells could lead to new Hepatitis treatments

Researchers have discovered that natural killer T (NKT) cells, the immune system's sentinels, patrol the labyrinthine blood vessels of the liver for invaders or signs of tissue damage and demonstrate a dogged behavior not seen before in other T cells.

4 Apr 2005

Clinical study of mirror neurons provides insights into autism and other disorders

Seeing is doing – at least it is when mirror neurons are working normally. But in autistic individuals, say researchers from the University of California, San Diego, the brain circuits that enable people to perceive and understand the actions of others do not behave in the usual way.

29 Mar 2005

Time for ethical reflection is before experimentation begins

The time for ethical reflection is before experimentation begins, especially in the case of potential new methods for creating human embryos for research, according to bioethicists from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and the Mayo Clinic in the spring issue of Ethics & Medicine.

16 Mar 2005

Lung cancer rates among men are on the decline

Results of the most comprehensive analysis to date of the impact of gender differences in lung cancer incidence in the United States indicate that lung cancer rates among men are on the decline, while the rate in women remains steady.

8 Mar 2005

Patient drawings important diagnostic tool for heart attack recovery

Simple drawings by heart attack victims of what they believe has happened to their heart may be an important diagnostic tool to aid their recovery, research at The University of Auckland has shown.

17 Jan 2005