Channel 42
Science is the answer to everything.

Hospital-based smoking cessation programs, along with referrals to cardiac rehabilitation, appear to be associated with increased rates of quitting smoking following heart attack, according to a report in the Oct. 13, 2008, issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

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A majority of Parkinson’s patients in a clinical study had insufficient levels of vitamin D, significantly more than Alzheimer’s patients or healthy elderly people.The finding suggests that lack of vitamin D may contribute to the risk of developing Parkinson’s.

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Hospital-sponsored stop-smoking programs for inpatients that include follow-up counseling for longer than one month significantly improve patients’ ability to stay smoke-free. An analysis of clinical trials of programs offered at hospitals around the world finds that efforts featuring long-term support can increase participant’s chances of success by 65 percent.

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New research may help reveal why different parts of the brain can come under attack in patients with multiple sclerosis. According to a new study in mice with an MS-like disease, the brain’s response to a protein produced by invading T cells dictates whether it’s the spinal cord or cerebellum that comes under fire. The study will be published online on Oct. 13 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

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A new study demonstrates that the embryonic mouse heart has an astounding capacity to regenerate, a phenomenon previously observed only in non-mammalian species. The research, published by Cell Press in the Oct. 14 issue of the journal Developmental Cell, describes the previously unrecognized potential of the embryonic heart to replace diseased tissue through compensatory proliferation of healthy cells.

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When it comes to embryo formation in the lowly fruit fly, a little molecular messiness actually leads to enhanced developmental precision, according to a study in the Oct. 14 Developmental Cell from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. The study provides new information about how cells choose their own fates, especially in maintaining the size relationship and proportionality of body parts during embryonic development.

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Unlike the male-dominated societies of their chimpanzee relatives, bonobo society — in which females enjoy a higher social status than males — has a “make-love-not-war” kind of image. While chimpanzee males frequently band together to hunt and kill monkeys, the more peaceful bonobos were believed to restrict what meat they do eat to forest antelopes, squirrels and rodents.

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In a population survey of West African chimpanzees living in Côte d’Ivoire, researchers estimate that this endangered subspecies has dropped in numbers by a whopping 90 percent since the last survey was conducted 18 years ago. The few remaining chimpanzees are now highly fragmented, with only one viable population living in Taï National Park, according to a report in the Oct. 14 issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication.

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Night-traveling migratory moths may hitch a ride on the wind, but a new study in the Oct. 14 issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, confirms that they are anything but drifters.

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Mayo Clinic researchers, as part of a nine-site study, helped discover the best of three currently-used treatments for convergence insufficiency in children. Convergence refers to the natural ability of the eyes to focus and align while viewing objects up close.

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