Studies and Analyses

A newly published study by a University of Wisconsin research team points the way to solving two of life’s seemingly eternal but unrelated mysteries: how birds that migrate thousands of miles every year accomplish the feat on very little sleep and what that ability means for humans who are seriously sleep-deprived or face significant sleep problems.

The study, published online in the July 13 issue of PloS (Public Library of Science) Biology, found that a group of sparrows studied in the l

Women with breast cancer who receive unwanted support have more trouble adjusting to the disease than those who receive no support at all, a new study suggests.

Researchers Julie S. Reynolds and Nancy A. Perrin of the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research and Oregon Health & Science University in Portland report in the journal Health Psychology that the negative effect of unwanted support was more substantial to the women’s psychosocial adjustment to their illness than was the positiv

In a study of 33 HIV+ couples who engaged in frequent, unprotected sex, Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology researchers found no evidence of superinfection, the sequential acquisition of multiple HIV variants.

HIV is a highly mutable virus encompassing two quite different types around the world, HIV-1 and HIV-2. Within those types there are variations known as “subclades” that are typically subdivided further into genetically differentiated strains. The epidemic in the U.S. cons

Carnivores around the world are more at risk of extinction due to their own intrinsic biological attributes than from an increasing human population with whom they share their space, say scientists in a study published this week. Researchers looking at all 280 carnivore species around the world estimated the risk of their extinction by 2030 based on a variety of different threats.

They found that while a high human population density is associated with a high extinction risk, its importanc

Don’t categorically reject hormone replacement therapy (HRT) just yet: When women begin HRT before age 60, their risk of death is 39 percent less than women not on hormones, according to a new survey.

The findings are based on a Cornell University-Stanford University meta-analysis (a study of other previously published studies), which pooled the results of 30 clinical trials of HRT with almost 27,000 women.

“The results of our analysis indicate that the benefits of HRT outwe

Study suggests women with vulvodynia process pain differently

Women who experience pain in the genital area have often been told it’s all in their head. New research shows it may well be in the shins, arms and thumbs. Women with a condition called vulvodynia process pain differently, and these women are more sensitive to pain at other points in their body, researchers at the University of Michigan Health System found. Results of their study appear in the July issue of the journ