Tag: Work in Progress
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Health
Breast-feeding may limit teenage obesity
Infants who were breast-fed more than formula-fed, or who were breast-fed for longer periods, had approximately 20 percent lower risk of being overweight in their preteen and teen years, according…
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Science & Tech
What determines who goes to college and who does not?
More than ever, policymakers are adopting merit-based, rather than need-based, financial aid programs, a trend that disquiets Harvard Graduate School of Education Assistant Professor Bridget Terry Long. In Georgia, for…
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Science & Tech
Doctoral student developing Internet search tool
Harvard Graduate School of Education doctoral student Kathleen Guinee is developing a computer-based tool to make searching the Internet easier for all students. Her research so far has focused on…
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Health
New drug dissolves stomach tumors
Since July 2000, Harvard and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researcher George Demetri and his colleagues have treated 148 patients with a rare, lethal stomach cancer known as GIST (Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor).…
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Health
A potential new anthrax therapy
A vaccine to protect humans against anthrax already exists, but since infection is rare, a widespread vaccination program is not practical. To be effective against anthrax, antibiotics must be given…
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Health
Medicare rules restrict good care for dying patients
Many health care providers believe that Medicare regulations block them from providing good care to dying patients. Researchers from Harvard Medical School, the Harvard School of Public Health, and RAND…
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Health
Caffeine linked to protection from Parkinson’s disease
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive nervous disease occurring generally after age 50. It destroys brain cells that produce dopamine and is characterized by muscular tremor, slowing of movement, weakness and…
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Science & Tech
Handheld calculator measures risk of heart attack
When a patient goes to a hospital emergency room with worsening chest pain, doctors must quickly decide whether that person should be given medication and sent home, or whether he…
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Health
Women’s menstrual cycle holds clue to cocaine response
During the first half of their menstrual cycles, when their estrogen levels are high, women are protected from the brain-damaging effects of cocaine use, according to a research study conducted…
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Health
Circadian rhythms may distinguish Alzheimer’s disease
Researcher David Harper and his colleagues monitored two key components of the circadian system — the rise and fall of core body temperature and the waxing and waning of spontaneous…
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Health
First domino falls in research on sense of touch
Unlike the other four senses, touch is ubiquitous, involving sensory terminals dispersed over the outside and on the inside of the body. This system encodes a variety of sensations in…
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Health
Scientists look people in the ‘I’
Harvard researchers seek a scientific answer to a question posed by 16th century philosopher René Descartes: “What is this ‘I’ that I know?” “Understanding the brain essence of self-awareness helps…
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Science & Tech
Bolstering private environmental management
How can government agencies best regulate private firms’ impact on the environment? One popular new approach — advocated by state agencies and by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — is…
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Health
Pain promoter plays unexpected role in central nervous system
Despite all the attention it draws in patients, pain has only in recent years been deemed a subject worthy of scientific scrutiny.
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Health
Accomplice fingered in cholera toxicity
A study published in March 2001 revealed one of the ways that cholera toxin hijacks some of the cell’s own machinery. In uncovering part of the toxin’s trail, a team…
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Science & Tech
Harvard faculty press aggressive agenda for AIDS fight in Africa
A statement signed by more than 100 Harvard faculty members calls upon wealthy countries, in partnership with poor countries, to establish a global trust fund to make life-prolonging antiretroviral therapy…
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Science & Tech
Gamma-ray astronomers detect “extreme” galaxies
Gamma rays from X-ray emitting galaxies seem to signal the existence of what astronomers are calling “extreme” galaxies. An international team of astrophysicists made the discovery of very-high-energy gamma rays,…
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Health
Cancer cells’ immortality may depend on longevity protein
A team of Harvard Medical School researchers has identified a protein that 10 percent of tumor cells use to attain an immortal state. By blocking the molecule, it may be…
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Health
Human genome tally: Is recount in order?
The surprising finding that humans have fewer genes than expected led to endless speculations and editorial comments. Would biotech stocks be threatened? Should humans be more humble? Were entirely new…
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Health
Rules for music wired into the brain
“Music is in our genes,” says Mark Jude Tramo, a musician, prolific songwriter, and neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School. “Many researchers like myself are trying to understand melody, harmony, rhythm,…
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Health
Nonsmoking college students 40 percent less likely to take up smoking when they live in smoke-free dorms
Although 81 percent of colleges prohibit smoking in all public areas, only 27 percent prohibit smoking in students’ dormitories. Harvard School of Public Health researchers say the finding sends a…
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Health
Surgery without scalpels
Paul Simmons, a 29-year-old Maine farmer, suffered from a lung tumor. In February 2001, at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, a probe containing a long needle was inserted…
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Science & Tech
Study defines clear roles for parents of teenagers
A new study by the Center for Health Communication at the Harvard School of Public Health cuts through the confusion that parents of teenagers experience because of conflicting advice. The…
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Health
Medicare patients give higher overall marks to nonprofit health plans
The first large-scale national study that examines the relationship between health plan characteristics and patient ratings of their plan found that Medicare patients prefer not-for-profit or local plans over for-profit…
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Health
Majority of Alzheimer’s plaques cleared from brains of living mice
Harvard Medical School researchers, working with scientists at Elan Pharmaceuticals, cleared 70 percent of Alzheimer’s plaques from the brains of mice by applying anti-plaque antibodies directly to the mouse brains…
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Health
Brain hesitates in assembling mosaic of motion
Your brain must integrate information from many different neurons in the primary visual cortex to interpret movement. But how does this complicated process work? Richard Born and Christopher Pack of…
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Health
Lyme disease vaccine found cost-effective only for those at high risk
Lyme disease, a bacterial infection transmitted through deer tick bites, is rapidly emerging in the U.S. and currently affects about 15,000 people each year. But incidence varies widely according to…
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Health
Simulating disease trends with massive mathematical models
Researcher Karen Kuntz is currently developing a model to evaluate trends in colorectal cancer incidence and mortality. Nearly 50,000 Americans die each year from the disease, despite the fact that…
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Science & Tech
For billion-dollar deals, risk allocation is key
Not too long ago, when dot-com fever was at its peak, observers of the business world oohed and aahed over venture capital transactions involving millions of dollars. From researcher Benjamin…
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Science & Tech
Nine keys to a knowledge infrastructure
Yesha Y. Sivan, CEO of the K2K Knowledge Infrastructure Laboratory and a visiting scholar at Harvard, has outlined a strategy to allow knowledge-based organizations to plan, implement and evaluate the…