Studies and Analyses

Swapping spectacles for contact lenses was once a right-of-passage for young teenagers. But new research suggests that 8- to 11-year-olds can handle the responsibility of contact lenses just as well as their older peers.

A three-month study included 10 nearsighted children who wore daily disposable contact lenses. By the end of the study, nine of the children had little to no problems with handling the lenses.

“Many parents don’t realize that their 8-year-old child can handle

A five-nation oceanographic team is taking the first steps in a $3.6 million project studying the major flow of ocean currents between Asia and Australia and how they influence rainfall across Southern Australia and Indonesia.

Scientists are investigating fluctuations in the flow of warm waters from the western Pacific Ocean draining through the Indonesian Archipelago into the Indian Ocean north of Australia.

“Our climate, and particularly the amount of rainfall across the

A study published in the July issue of the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society’s journal, Foot and Ankle International, found no significant difference in the incidence of stress fractures, ankle sprains or other foot problems between the users of expensive custom made foot orthoses and those who used prefabricated orthotic devices.

Foot orthoses are devices worn within shoes that allow the foot to function better. They are usually prescribed to treat specific existing foot condit

Results suggest the fluid could increase survival in trauma patients and wounded soldiers

A novel resuscitation fluid derived from aloe vera that was developed by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh’s McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine has the potential to save the lives of patients with massive blood loss, according to results of an animal study published in the August edition of the medical journal Shock. The findings could have a significant impact on the tr

The incidence of first stroke in children with sickle cell disease in California has taken a nose-dive since 1998 and the likely reason is a program developed at the Medical College of Georgia to identify and treat kids at risk, a new study says.

The study by the University of California, San Francisco published in the current issue of Blood, looked at nearly two-thirds of the state’s children at high risk for stroke. Researchers found better than an 80 percent reduction in first s

Babies as young as five months old make distinctions about categories of events that their parents do not, revealing new information about how language develops in humans. The research by Sue Hespos, assistant professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University, and Elizabeth Spelke, professor of psychology at Harvard University, was published in the July 22 issue of Nature in the article “Conceptual precursors to language.”

“It’s been shown in previous studies that adults actually categorize