Overweight toddlers and those not enrolled in day care are at high risk for iron deficiency, according to a new study. Based on data from a national survey of 1,641 toddlers, the study found that 20 percent of overweight toddlers were iron-deficient, compared to 8 percent of those at risk for being overweight, and 7 percent of normal-weight toddlers.

Researchers have new insight into why only half of all prescribed preventive asthma medications are actually taken daily as directed and so many kids needlessly suffer symptoms. Turns out, parents' beliefs about their children's medicines (fear of side effects or dependency, even doubt that the medicines are necessary) influence how consistently they administered the drugs.

Teacher performance pay is a frequently discussed and controversial topic among kindergarten through 12th-grade educators. Recent findings by economics professors suggest that states and school districts in the United States begin developing programs that examine the effects of linking teacher pay to student achievement.

Inexpensive pill box organizers are an easy, successful, and cost-effective tool to help patients take their medications as prescribed, according to a new study of low-income urban residents living with HIV infection. Incomplete adherence to HIV therapy is the most common cause of incomplete viral suppression, drug resistance, disease progression, and death among people living with HIV/AIDS.

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope have joined forces to discover nine of the smallest, faintest, most compact galaxies ever observed in the distant universe. Blazing with the brilliance of millions of stars, each of the newly discovered galaxies is a 100 to 1,000 times smaller than our Milky Way Galaxy.

Paleontologists have long theorized that miniaturization was one of the last stages in the long series of changes required in order for dinosaurs to make the evolutionary "leap" to take flight and so become what we call birds. New evidence from a tiny Mongolian dinosaur, however, may leave some current theories about the evolution of flight up in the air.

Women who are obese, have type 2 diabetes or a family history of type 2 diabetes could one day have more successful pregnancies because of a new study. This study, performed in mice, suggests that Metformin, the most commonly prescribed anti-diabetes drug, could potentially improve pregnancy outcomes in women with insulin resistance.

Bioengineers have developed a new method for growing cartilage from human embryonic stem cells -- a technique that offers a novel approach for growing replacement cartilage for the surgical repair of the knee, jaw, hip and other joints. Results indicate the method can generate cartilage that mimics different types of cartilage in the human body.

Australian parents need to be educated about managing fever in young children because many give medication incorrectly and often unnecessarily, according to a researcher.

The human genome has now been thoroughly screened in the hunt for the genetic causes of rheumatoid arthritis. The results both confirm previous hypotheses and turn the spotlight on entirely new genes.

Congestive heart failure rarely occurs among leukemia patients who take imatinib, researchers have found after an exhaustive review of the detailed medical histories of 1,276 patients who enrolled in clinical trials for the drug.

Summer heat stress is a main factor related to low conception rates in high producing dairy herds in warm areas worldwide. A research group studied the impact of several climate variables on conception rates in high producing dairy cows in northeastern Spain by examining 10,964 inseminations.

Apes bite and try to break a tube to retrieve the food inside while children follow the experimenter's example to get inside the tube to retrieve the prize, showing that even before preschool, toddlers are more sophisticated in their social learning skills than their closest primate relatives, according to a new report.

Scientists have uncovered the first evidence that an HIV antibody is most effective when it binds not only to the virus, but also to host immune cells. The findings suggest that antibody efficiency depends on both directly neutralizing the virus and activating the host immune response.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryo Authority, the body which oversees human embryo research in Britain, has approved the creation of part-human, part-animal hybrid embryos for research purposes. The Authority decided that there is no fundamental reason to prevent cytoplasmic hybrid research, according to their statement.

The impactor believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs and other life forms on Earth some 65 million years ago has been traced back to a breakup event in the main asteroid belt. A joint U.S.-Czech team from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and Charles University in Prague suggests that the parent object of asteroid (298) Baptistina disrupted when it was hit by another large asteroid, creating...

Researchers have genetically engineered mice that harbor the same genetic mutation found in some people with autism and Asperger syndrome. Mice with this mutation show a similar type of social impairment and cognitive enhancement as the type seen in some people with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). ASDs are enigmatic cognitive disorders that impair a patient's social interactions, but do not...

An innovative liquid crystal technology that offers the promise of new drugs which may more effectively manage cancer and other diseases has been developed. The most recent research involving Liquid Crystal Pharmaceuticals has yielded a new investigational anti-tumor drug called Tolecine™, a compound that also has antiviral and antibacterial applications. It has been shown to be even more...

Scientists have what could be some very bad news for disease-causing bacteria. All three major classes of antibiotics that kill infectious bacteria do so in part by ramping up the production of harmful free radicals, researchers report. Because those different types of antibiotics each initially hit different targets, it had been believed they worked by independent means.

A new technique to diagnose hearing loss will more accurately reflects real-world situations.

Sleep-disordered breathing was common when chronic pain patients took prescribed opioids. A direct dose-response relationship was found between central sleep apnea and methadone and benzodiazepines, an association which had not been previously reported.

Parents with bipolar disorder are taking part in a study that will give them the chance to follow a highly successful parenting skills program. Recent research suggests that children of parents with bipolar disorder are at increased risk of behavioural and emotional disturbance, which are risk factors both for their own development and for parental mental health.

Pregnancy may open a window of vulnerability for developing binge eating disorder, especially for women from lower socioeconomic situations, according to a new study. In a long-term study of 100,000 pregnant Norwegian women, the researchers saw an unexpected increase in new incidences of binge eating disorder that began during pregnancy. The research is the largest population-based study of eating...

Beta blockers should be the first line of prevention against variceal bleeding in patients with cirrhosis and portal hypertension. While banding is similarly effective in reducing the incidence of such bleeding, it can have fatal complications and is more expensive. Patients with liver disease often develop portal hypertension from a blockage in the blood flow through the liver.