New position statement identifies the hot research topics in Central and Eastern Europe

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• New position statement identifies the hot research topics in Central and Eastern Europe
• Immediate rewards for good scores can boost student performance
• Overweight men can boost low testosterone levels by losing weight
• Hormonal treatment associated with better test performance after stroke
• Low vitamin D level is linked to greater chance of risk factors for Type 2 diabetes
• Treating vitamin D deficiency may improve depression
• Computer program aids blood-sugar control among critically ill
• GW announces creation of Computational Biology Institute to conduct integrated research
• Genetic heart diseases may be responsible for unexplained stillbirths
• Stillbirth rate twice as high among least well off in England

New position statement identifies the hot research topics in Central and Eastern Europe Posted: 26 Jun 2012 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Strasbourg, 26 June 2012 - A new forward looking report, 'Central and Eastern Europe Beyond Transition: Convergence and Divergence in Europe', has been published today by the European Science Foundation. The report aims to identify new themes for social science research in and on CEE, which can be promoted and endorsed by national and European funding institutions. In this forward looking exercise, three interdisciplinary thematic clusters have been identified: Populations in change; New Geographies of Europe; and Social Cohesion. Populations in change aims at looking into how out/in migration, regional population change, ethnic minorities and integration all affect the basic structure of CEE populations. New Geographies of Europe focuses on the 'return to Europe', overcoming the West-East divide, on the influence of cohesion funds on local governance and on the expanding borders of Europe eastwards. Social Cohesion focuses on the degree of socio-economic transformation that post-communist Europe has undergone over the last 20 years, especially in terms of social mobility and social trust. Peter Weiss, ambassador of the Slovak Republic in Hungary commented: Rethinking of social science research in and on Central and Eastern Europe, setting new frontiers in social sciences and identifying main research challenges and subjects of cooperation between academics from Western and Eastern European countries is, without a discussion, one of the basic preconditions for overcoming the recent crisis in the EU. The last 25 years have witnessed some of the most profound political, social and economic changes in Europe's history. The fall of communism at the end of the 1980s not only reshaped relationships within the continent, but also provided fascinating insights into the potential for, and limitations of, the large-scale reshaping of society. Social sciences in Central and Eastern Europe were seriously distorted during the communist... http://www.rxpgnews.com

Immediate rewards for good scores can boost student performance Posted: 26 Jun 2012 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Test performance can improve dramatically if students are offered rewards just before they are given standardized tests and if they receive the incentive immediately afterward, new research at the University of Chicago shows. Educators have long debated the value of financial and other rewards as incentives, but a series of experiments in Chicago-area schools showed that with the right kind of rewards, students achievement improved by as much as six months beyond what would be expected. The rewards apparently provide students with an incentive to take tests more seriously. One implication is that policymakers may underestimate students' ability in otherwise low-performing schools, according to the research team that conducted the experiments. Researchers used financial rewards to boost performance for older students and non-financial rewards, such as trophies, to improve performance among younger students. The prospect of losing a reward created a stronger desire to perform than the possibility of receiving a reward after a test, the research showed. Students who were given money or a trophy to look at while they tested performed better. Most importantly, all motivating power of the incentives vanishes when rewards are handed out with a delay, said lead author Sally Sadoff, a 2010 PhD graduate in economics, who did the research as a Griffin Postdoctoral Scholar at UChicago from 2010-11. Sadoff, now an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego, was part a team that conducted a series of experiments involving 7,000 students in the Chicago Public Schools as well as in elementary and high school districts in south-suburban Chicago Heights. The team studied the impact of incentives on students taking relatively short, standardized diagnostic tests given three times a year to determine their grasp of mathematics and English skills. Unlike other tests on incentives, the students were not told ahead of time... http://www.rxpgnews.com

Overweight men can boost low testosterone levels by losing weight Posted: 25 Jun 2012 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Weight loss can reduce the prevalence of low testosterone levels in overweight, middle-aged men with prediabetes by almost 50 percent, a new study finds. Results will be presented Monday at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston. Doctors should first encourage overweight men with low testosterone levels to try to lose weight through diet and exercise before resorting to testosterone therapy to raise their hormone levels, said study co-author Frances Hayes, MD, professor at St. Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin. The new study involved nearly 900 men with prediabetes (also called impaired glucose tolerance) who had participated in the Diabetes Prevention Program. That now-completed U.S. study showed that people at high risk of Type 2 diabetes could delay or avoid developing the disease through weight loss. Because overweight men are more likely to have low testosterone levels, Hayes and her colleagues studied the effect of weight loss on men's testosterone levels. The investigators excluded men from the study who had a known diagnosis of hypogonadism or were taking medications that could interfere with testosterone levels. Hypogonadism is a condition characterized by low testosterone levels with symptoms of male hormone deficiency. Symptoms can include reduced sex drive, poor erections, enlarged breasts and low sperm counts. The study population had 891 middle-aged men, with an average age of 54 years. The men were randomly assigned to receive one of three treatments: 293 men to lifestyle modification, 305 to the diabetes drug metformin and 293 to inactive placebo pills. Lifestyle modifications consisted of exercising for 150 minutes a week and eating less fat and fewer calories. The results showed that low testosterone levels are common in overweight men with prediabetes, Hayes said. At the beginning of the study, nearly one in four men had low testosterone levels, considered to be below 300 nanograms per... http://www.rxpgnews.com

Hormonal treatment associated with better test performance after stroke Posted: 25 Jun 2012 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Stroke patients treated who received hormonal treatment, combined with rehabilitation, performed better on functioning and reasoning tests than patients who received rehabilitative therapy alone, a new clinical study from Italy shows. The results will be presented Monday at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston. In the United States, stroke is the fourth-leading cause of death. The disease occurs when a blood vessel to the brain either ruptures (hemorrhagic stroke), or is obstructed by a clot during an ischemic stroke, which is the most common type. Inadequate blood flow prevents oxygen from reaching parts of the brain, which can lead to tissue death and serious long-term disability. The hormone, relaxin, or RLX, is a naturally occurring protein produced by the reproductive organs in men and women, although only women have circulating hormone in the blood, both during ovulation and pregnancy. For years after its discovery in 1926 by the renowned zoologist and reproductive endocrinologist Frederick Hisaw, the hormone's primary role was thought to be that of relaxing the uterus and pelvis for childbirth. More recently, however, research from this study's investigators, as well as others, has demonstrated that the hormone also helps many different organs and bodily processes prepare for pregnancy. These include the heart and blood vessels, or cardiovascular system; lungs; kidneys; mammary glands; as well as the immune system. Considering the present clinical results and our previous experimental studies, we believe that RLX is a very important, if not the most important, cardiovascular hormone, said study author Mario Bigazzi, M.D. an internist at Prosperius Institute, in Florence, Italy. We believe that the presence of relaxin in women's blood at each ovulation represents the still-undiscovered factor protecting them from cardiovascular diseases during the fertile span of life until the menopause. This may assure... http://www.rxpgnews.com

Low vitamin D level is linked to greater chance of risk factors for Type 2 diabetes Posted: 25 Jun 2012 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) A new study presents more evidence of a possible link between low vitamin D levels and a higher risk of Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. The results will be presented Saturday at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston. The study found an inverse relationship between the level of vitamin D in the blood and the presence of the metabolic syndrome, which is a group of risk factors that increases the risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. People with the highest blood levels of vitamin D had a 48 percent lower risk of having the metabolic syndrome than did those with the lowest vitamin D levels, the authors reported. This association has been documented before, but our study expands the association to people of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, said the lead author, Joanna Mitri, MD, a research fellow at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. These include minority groups that are already at higher risk of diabetes. Furthermore, all study participants were at risk of developing diabetes because they had prediabetes, abnormally high blood sugar levels that are not yet high enough to be classified as diabetes. Prediabetes affects an estimated 79 million Americans ages 20 or older, according to 2010 statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mitri and her co-investigators conducted the study using data from participants of the Diabetes Prevention Program, a large, now-completed study funded by the National Institutes of Health. They divided study subjects into three groups based on plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D level, which is the most common way used to measure vitamin D status in the body, according to Mitri. The Institute of Medicine recommends a 25-hydroxyvitamin D level of 20 to 30 ng/mL as adequate for healthy people. In the new study, the group with the highest levels of vitamin D had a median vitamin D concentration of 30.6 nanograms per milliliter, or ng/mL, and those in the lowest group... http://www.rxpgnews.com

Treating vitamin D deficiency may improve depression Posted: 25 Jun 2012 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Women with moderate to severe depression had substantial improvement in their symptoms of depression after they received treatment for their vitamin D deficiency, a new study finds. The case report series will be presented Saturday at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston. Because the women did not change their antidepressant medications or other environmental factors that relate to depression, the authors concluded that correction of the patients' underlying shortage of vitamin D might be responsible for the beneficial effect on depression. Vitamin D may have an as-yet-unproven effect on mood, and its deficiency may exacerbate depression, said Sonal Pathak, MD, an endocrinologist at Bayhealth Medical Center in Dover, Del. If this association is confirmed, it may improve how we treat depression. Pathak presented the research findings in three women, who ranged in age from 42 to 66. All had previously diagnosed major depressive disorder, also called clinical depression, and were receiving antidepressant therapy. The patients also were being treated for either Type 2 diabetes or an underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism). Because the women had risk factors for vitamin D deficiency, such as low vitamin D intake and poor sun exposure, they each underwent a 25-hydroxyvitamin D blood test. For all three women, the test found low levels of vitamin D, ranging from 8.9 to 14.5 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL), Pathak reported. Levels below 21 ng/mL are considered vitamin D deficiency, and normal vitamin D levels are above 30 ng/mL, according to The Endocrine Society. Over eight to 12 weeks, oral vitamin D replacement therapy restored the women's vitamin D status to normal. Their levels after treatment ranged from 32 to 38 ng/mL according to the study abstract. After treatment, all three women reported significant improvement in their depression, as found using the Beck Depression Inventory. This 21-item questionnaire... http://www.rxpgnews.com

Computer program aids blood-sugar control among critically ill Posted: 25 Jun 2012 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) A computer-software program more effectively controlled blood-sugar levels among critically ill patients than nurse-directed care did, according to the first large clinical trial of its kind. The results will be presented at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston. The computer program, known as LOGIC-Insulin, was designed to assist healthcare providers in closely controlling patients' blood sugar, or glucose, with the hormone insulin. While insulin treatment is effective, it can be extremely difficult to determine the correct dosage. Excessive amounts of the hormone can cause blood sugar to drop to dangerously low levels, which can cause a serious condition called hypoglycemia. If left untreated, hypoglycemia can result in loss of consciousness, and even death. Although high blood sugar typically is associated with diabetes, it is also a common complication among the critically ill. When it occurs among these patients, who usually have normal levels, it is called the diabetes of injury. In this study, both groups of patients had similar average blood-sugar levels, but those in the LOGIC-Insulin group scored better on specific measures. For example, patients in this group were less likely to develop the critically low levels that are associated with hypoglycemia. They also spent more time in the study's targeted level of 80-110 mg/dL, and exhibited a smaller difference between minimum and maximum blood-sugar readings on a daily basis, indicating less blood-glucose variability. Computer-directed algorithms, such as LOGIC-Insulin, that are approved by experts and clinically validated in large studies, will allow safe and effective blood-glucose control, said study director Dieter Mesotten, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor at KU Leuven (Catholic University Leuven) in Belgium. This is essential to improve the outcome of critically ill patients in general practice. Mesotten and his co-investigators randomly assigned... http://www.rxpgnews.com

GW announces creation of Computational Biology Institute to conduct integrated research Posted: 25 Jun 2012 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Keith Crandall, a renowned biologist and population geneticist, has been named founding director of the George Washington University Computational Biology Institute. This newly created position will further strengthen GW's role as a leader in science and research in the region and nationally. As director, Dr. Crandall will define the scientific vision of the Computational Biology Institute and direct the development and implementation of research plans and organizational structures, with the goal of hiring new faculty as well as integrating existing faculty and resources across the university. He will also serve as professor of biology. This is the beginning of a true interdisciplinary initiative at George Washington that I expect will positively impact virtually all colleges and schools, said Leo Chalupa, vice president of research at GW. I believe that Dr. Crandall's recruitment as the founding director of the Computational Biology Institute will be the driving force towards more cross-campus research in many fields including computer science, evolutionary biology and personalized medicine. Personalized medicine is a medical model in healthcare that allows practitioners to tailor medical decisions to the individual patient using genetic or other information. The George Washington University is one of the first universities to establish an institute dedicated to computational biology. The institute will focus on large-scale integrative bioinformatics and genomics. Informatics are used to answer important biological questions using massive amounts of data, including genetic and molecular data. Many disciplines are becoming more data-intensive, creating a need for the development of new computational tools and approaches that aid in the integration, interpretation and understanding of complex datasets. To meet this challenge, the institute will foster creation of new positions in computational biology research, enhancing... http://www.rxpgnews.com

Genetic heart diseases may be responsible for unexplained stillbirths Posted: 25 Jun 2012 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Nuremberg, Germany: Genetic researchers have made an important step towards resolving the mystery of the causes of intrauterine fetal demise (IUFD), or stillbirth, where a baby dies in the womb after the 14th week of gestation. IUFD is responsible for 60% of perinatal mortality and occurs in about one in every two hundred pregnancies in Europe. Up to half of these stillbirths are unexplained. Now scientists from Italy, Germany, and the US have found that up to 8% [1] of these unexplained deaths may be caused by specific genetic heart conditions. Ms Alice Ghidoni, a PhD student at the University of Pavia, Italy, will tell the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics today (Tuesday) that the group's research shows for the first time that cardiac channelopathies, hereditary diseases in which the heartbeat rhythm is disturbed, were likely to have played a causative role in some IUFD deaths . Since we knew that 10-15% of sudden infant death syndrome cases carry genetic variants associated with long QT syndrome or Brugada syndrome[2], we decided to investigate whether sudden death due to malignant arrhythmias could underlie some cases of IUFD as well, she will explain. The researchers carried out molecular screening of stillborn fetuses where the cause of death remained unexplained after extensive post-mortem investigation. Informed consent was obtained from the parents. They looked for mutations of three genes, two of them involved in long QT and one in both long QT and Brugada syndromes, and found three disease-causing variants that were present in the IUFD cases, but absent in more than 1000 ethnically-matched controls. Genetic testing is still quite rare in IUFD, but it is an important tool for uncovering the causes of unexplained death, says Ms Ghidoni. The most common causes of fetal death are chromosomal abnormalities, infections, fetal-maternal haemorrhages, and maternal diseases, she says. Most of these are... http://www.rxpgnews.com

Stillbirth rate twice as high among least well off in England Posted: 25 Jun 2012 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) [Socioeconomc inequalities in the rate of stillbirths by cause: a population based study doi 10.1136/bmjopen-2012-001100] The rate of stillbirths in England is twice as high among the least well off as it is among the most affluent, shows research published in the online journal BMJ Open. What is more, this inequality gap is evident across all causes of stillbirth, and has not changed in eight years, the findings show. The authors assessed the number of singleton stillbirths occurring in England between 2000 to 2007, inclusive. They looked in particular at the specific causes of stillbirth per 10,000 births, in light of deprivation levels and year of birth. Deprivation was measured at area level, using the UK index of multiple deprivation, and the most deprived 10ths were compared with the least deprived, to assess the extent of any inequality gap. For every 10,000 births during the eight year period, 44 were stillborn babies, a rate that remained constant throughout. Rates were twice as high among the most deprived 10th of England as they were among the least deprived - a disparity that remained constant throughout the study period. This inequality gap was evident for all specific causes other than mechanical events, such as breech presentation, with the widest gap of all seen for bleeding before birth (antepartum haemorrhage). Women living in the most deprived 10th of England were three times as likely to give birth to a stillborn baby following a bleed before their due date (antepartum haemorrhage), as those living in the least deprived 10th. Risk factors for this condition include previous pregnancies, several pregnancies close together, smoking, and being at the extreme ends of the reproductive age spectrum, say the authors. Similarly, stillbirths attributable to congenital abnormalities were nearly three times more likely among women from the areas of greatest deprivation. Over half of stillbirths (59%) were deaths... http://www.rxpgnews.com

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