Just as an outbreak of one type of gastrointestinal illness in Dane County seems to be declining, another is on the rise - among University of Wisconsin students.
More than 100 students have been reported ill the past week with vomiting and diarrhea in an outbreak thought to be caused by norovirus, Dr. Sarah Van Orman, executive director of University Health Services, said Friday.
At least 63 of the cases are students living in Sellery Hall, where crews have been cleaning the bathrooms at least seven times a day to stop the spread of the illness, Van Orman said. Most of the other cases have been in fraternity and sorority houses, with a few among students in off-campus housing.
Health & Wellness
A new study suggests that all most all fast foods contain chemical elements or ingredients derived from corn either in forms of meat, oil or others.
The study led by A. Hope Jahren, a professor of geography and geophysics at the University of Hawaii and Rebecca A. Kraft found that of the hundreds of servings of fast-fast meals purchased nationwide, only about 12 servings of food could potentially be traced back to something besides corn.
For the study, the researchers sampled 480 servings of hamburgers, chicken sandwiches and fries from McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's chains in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Detroit, Boston, and Baltimore.
Results of the study suggested that 100 percent and 93 percent of the cows responsible for the hamburgers and chicken sandwiches were fed exclusively corn-based diets. And only 12 Burger King burgers bought on the West Coast used meat from cows that did not exclusively eat corn-based diets.
The study led by A. Hope Jahren, a professor of geography and geophysics at the University of Hawaii and Rebecca A. Kraft found that of the hundreds of servings of fast-fast meals purchased nationwide, only about 12 servings of food could potentially be traced back to something besides corn.
For the study, the researchers sampled 480 servings of hamburgers, chicken sandwiches and fries from McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's chains in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Detroit, Boston, and Baltimore.
Results of the study suggested that 100 percent and 93 percent of the cows responsible for the hamburgers and chicken sandwiches were fed exclusively corn-based diets. And only 12 Burger King burgers bought on the West Coast used meat from cows that did not exclusively eat corn-based diets.
For millions of people, medicines are a little-known, major source of the compounds, which are linked to reproductive abnormalities. Scientists warn "of the potential for high delivered doses of phthalates to vulnerable segments of the population, particularly pregnant women or young children."
Tomorrow, a few hundred very concerned citizens of Minnesota will gather to discuss a baffling and heartbreaking riddle: Why is the reported rate of autism among children of Somali refugees so alarmingly high (now an estimated 1-in-28 schoolchildren)?
© ABC
Stigmata might first come to mind, but there are many terms for the spontaneous bleeding -- psychogenic purpura, autoerythrocyte sensitization, Gardner-Diamond syndrome -- and just as many different reactions to the claims.
Skeptics, the religious, psychoanalysts and the medical profession have all vied to explain the condition. And those who claim to have the symptoms often report they are mystified and stigmatized and unable to get help.
Take the family of Twinkle Dwivedi, a 13-year-old girl from Lucknow, India, who has spent the better part of a year asking doctors for a physical explanation to her unusual bleeding.
Two scientists, drawing on their own powers of observation and a creative reading of recent genetic findings, have published a sweeping theory of brain development that would change the way mental disorders like autism and schizophrenia are understood.
LITI VILLAGE - Li Xiaokai died of kidney failure on the old wooden bed in the family farmhouse, just before dawn on a drizzly Sept. 10.
Her grandmother wrapped the 9-month-old in a wool blanket. Her father handed the body to village men for burial by a muddy creek. The doctors and family never knew why she got sick. A day later, state media reported that the type of infant formula she drank had been adulterated with an industrial chemical.
Her grandmother wrapped the 9-month-old in a wool blanket. Her father handed the body to village men for burial by a muddy creek. The doctors and family never knew why she got sick. A day later, state media reported that the type of infant formula she drank had been adulterated with an industrial chemical.
A drug extracted from a plant used in Chinese medicine has helped immune cells fight HIV and raises the possibility of slowing the ageing process in other parts of our bodies.
The method hinges upon telomeres - caps of repetitive DNA found at the ends of chromosomes. These get shorter as cells age and are thought to affect the cell's lifespan.
The caps can be rebuilt with an enzyme called telomerase, and some people have suggested it might be possible to extend human life by boosting telomerase production - though this has never been tested.
Now Rita Effros at the University of California in Los Angeles has used a drug that boosts telomerase to enhance the immune response to viruses.
The method hinges upon telomeres - caps of repetitive DNA found at the ends of chromosomes. These get shorter as cells age and are thought to affect the cell's lifespan.
© US National Cancer Institute
Electron microscopic image of a single human "killer" T-cell.
Electron microscopic image of a single human "killer" T-cell.
The caps can be rebuilt with an enzyme called telomerase, and some people have suggested it might be possible to extend human life by boosting telomerase production - though this has never been tested.
Now Rita Effros at the University of California in Los Angeles has used a drug that boosts telomerase to enhance the immune response to viruses.
How do psychopaths find their victims? A new study by Dalhousie researchers suggests they are deeply attuned to vulnerable people.
"It's like what you'd see on Animal Planet - the lion goes after the most vulnerable, the one they have the best chance of getting," says Kevin Wilson, a fourth-year science student who was the lead researcher on the paper, "A pawn by any other name? Social information processing as a function of psychopathic traits," published in the Journal of Research in Personality.
"This type of aggression is referred to as predatory ... it's a perceptual system geared to getting the easiest prey."
"It's like what you'd see on Animal Planet - the lion goes after the most vulnerable, the one they have the best chance of getting," says Kevin Wilson, a fourth-year science student who was the lead researcher on the paper, "A pawn by any other name? Social information processing as a function of psychopathic traits," published in the Journal of Research in Personality.
"This type of aggression is referred to as predatory ... it's a perceptual system geared to getting the easiest prey."
Almost human.
However, I wonder if Fersch really "gets it". While he talks about the importance of psychopathy quite eloquently and identifies the problems inherent in the conflation of psychopathy with antisocial personality disorder, there is a question and answer in the first chapter that is puzzling. (It is possible one of his colleagues answered this question, as the individual author is not listed for each section.)
In this question on the debate between psychopathy as either categorical (i.e. you either have it or you don't, like Turner's syndrome) or continuous (the extreme end of traits shared by everyone, as in someone with very high intelligence), he firmly takes the "continuous" side. However, I get the impression that he does so without understanding the crux of the matter, or the implications of such a position.
