Could sleep be a critical component to maintaining a healthy body weight?    Studies on subjects like this tend to have correlation arrows that point in all kinds of directions but new research presented on Sunday, May 17, at the American Thoracic Society's 105th International Conference in San Diego, says body mass index (BMI) is linked to length and quality of sleep in a surprisingly consistent fashion. 

As part of the Integrative Cardiac Health Project at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, researchers analyzed the sleep, activity and energy expenditures of 14 nurses who had volunteered for a heart-health program at the Walter Reed, where the nurses were employed. The program included nutritional counseling, exercise training, stress management and sleep improvement. 

A clinical study, led by researchers from University College Dublin, Ireland, and Stanford University, California, USA, with international collaborators, demonstrates that mortality rates of HIV patients can be almost halved when early antiretroviral (ARV) therapy is added to the treatment of AIDS-related opportunistic infections (OIs) such as pneumonia, meningitis or other serious bacterial infections.

The researchers are part of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group, the world’s largest clinical trial organization, and their scientific findings, published in PLosONE, recommend changes in the treatment regimes for HIV patients worldwide.

A new study using advanced cardiac imaging technology indicates that cardiac abnormalities experienced by some marathon runners following competition are temporary, and do not result in damage to the heart muscle. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Manitoba, marked the first use of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, or CMR, in a post-marathon setting.

Our genome is a patchwork of neighborhoods that couldn't be more different: Some areas are hustling and bustling with gene activity, while others are sparsely populated and in perpetual lock-down. Breaking down just a few of the molecular fences that separate them blurs the lines and leads to the inactivation of at least two tumor suppressor genes, according to researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. 

Their findings published in the May 15, 2009 issue of Molecular Cell explain how a single event can put a cell well ahead on the road to becoming a tumor cell.

According to a Time magazine article, “The Male Minority,” women make up almost 60 percent of undergraduate students nationwide.   Science, technology and math are one of the few areas where men have superior numbers but the women are winning there too.

The Spelman College robotics team, SpelBots, tied for first place in the RoboCup Japan 2009 Standard Platform League Nao League humanoid soccer championship on May 10, 2009, in Osaka, Japan.

In today's connected world, networking know-how can be a key resource in finding jobs and business opportunities, but a series of new studies by Dr. Yuval Kalish of the Leon Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration at Tel Aviv University suggests that, in some cases, networking can do more harm than good.

"If you're at the intersection of two previously unconnected niches of a network, you're occupying what I call a 'structural hole,'" says Dr. Kalish. Filling that space can lead to prestige, opportunities and power ― or it may have quite the opposite effect.