A new Cochrane Review, published in the Cochrane Library today, suggests that yoga may have a beneficial effect on symptoms and quality of life in people with asthma, but effects on lung function and medication use are uncertain.

Asthma is a common chronic disease affecting about 300 million people worldwide. The many typical symptoms of asthma include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness and shortness of breath.

Yoga has gained global popularity as a form of exercise with general life-style benefits, and recent studies have investigated the potential of yoga to relieve asthma-related problems.

Researchers have created a programmable DNA thermometer that 20,000 times smaller than a human hair, using a discovery made 60 years ago - that DNA molecules that encode our genetic information can unfold when heated.

"In recent years, biochemists also discovered that biomolecules such as proteins or RNA (a molecule similar to DNA) are employed as nanothermometers in living organisms and report temperature variation by folding or unfolding," says senior author Prof. Alexis Vallée-Bélisle of the University of Montreal. "Inspired by those natural nanothermometers, which are typically 20,000x smaller than a human hair, we have created various DNA structures that can fold and unfold at specifically defined temperatures."

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) -- Whites with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in California receive more state funding than Hispanics, African Americans, Asians and others, new research from UC Davis Health System has found. The study also showed that state spending on ASD increases dramatically with age.

Previous evaluations of the state's investment in ASD services have not included adults, a major oversight, according to lead author Paul Leigh, professor of public health sciences and researcher with the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research at UC Davis.

Happiness. It's something we all strive for, but how do we measure it--as a country? A global community?

Researchers at the University of Iowa are turning to social media to answer these questions and more. In a study published in March in the journal PLOS One, UI computer scientists used two years of Twitter data to measure users' life satisfaction, a component of happiness.

Chao Yang, lead author on the study and a graduate of the UI Department of Computer Science, says this study is different from most social media research on happiness because it looks at how users feel about their lives over time, instead of how they feel in the moment.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Why does one person who tries cocaine get addicted, while another might use it and then leave it alone? Why do some people who kick a drug habit manage to stay clean, while others relapse? And why do some families seem more prone to addiction than others?

The road to answering these questions may have a lot to do with specific genetic factors that vary from individual to individual, a new study in rats suggests.

Of course, an animal study can't explain all the factors that contribute to differences in addiction among humans. But the findings reveal new information about the roles played by both inherited traits and addiction-related changes in the brain.

Confounding rather than causation may explain association between statin use and lower risk of colorectal cancer

Each year, norovirus causes over 200,000 deaths and a global economic burden of $60 billion. A highly contagious virus that most people will contract 5 times in their lifetime, the most serious outcomes of the disease - hospitalization and death - are far more common among children and the elderly, and in low and middle income countries. In a new PLOS Collection - "The Global Burden of Norovirus & Prospects for Vaccine Development" - global norovirus experts fill critical knowledge gaps and provide key information to further development of a much-needed vaccine.

Insights from the collection

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have identified a circuit between two brain regions that controls alcohol binge drinking, offering a more complete picture on what drives a behavior that costs the United States more than $170 billion annually and how it can be treated.

The discovery of brain pathology through autopsy in former National Football League (NFL) players called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) has raised substantial concern among players, medical professionals, and the general public about the impact of repetitive head trauma. Using sophisticated neuroimaging and analytics, researchers have now identified abnormal areas of low blood flow in living professional football players. These findings, published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, raises the potential for better diagnosis and treatment for persons with football related head trauma.