Laboratory Equipment

Light Drinking During Pregnancy Does Not Cause Problems

Light drinking during pregnancy is not linked to adverse behavioral or cognitive outcomes in childhood, suggests a new study published today.

Authors of the study, from Univ. College London Epidemiology & Public Health, collated data from the Millennium Cohort Study, a national study of infants born in the UK between 2000-2002, to assess whether light drinking (up to two units of alcohol per week) in pregnancy was linked to unfavorable developmental outcomes in seven-year-old children.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/light-drinking-during-pregnancy-does-not-cause-problems

Prematurity, Low Birth Weight Impact Mortality Rates

A study by Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) researchers published today in the journal Pediatrics showed that increasing numbers of premature and other low birth weight infants are the leading cause for the leveling off of infant mortality and neonatal mortality rates in the U.S.

Infant mortality rate is defined as the number of infants who die before their first birthday. Neonatal mortality rate is defined as the number of infants who die before reaching 28 days old.

Read more: Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/prematurity-low-birth-weight-impact-mortality-rates

Early Consumption of Carbs Heightens Obesity Risk

Consumption of foods high in carbohydrates immediately after birth programs individuals for lifelong increased weight gain and obesity, a Univ. at Buffalo animal study has found, even if caloric intake is restricted in adulthood for a period of time.

“This is the first time that we have shown in our rat model of obesity that there is a resistance to the reversal of this programming effect in adult life,” explains Mulchand Patel, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry and associate dean for research and biomedical education in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/03/early-consumption-carbs-heightens-obesity-risk

Baby Apparently Cured of HIV

A baby born with the virus that causes AIDS appears to have been cured, scientists announced, describing the case of a child from Mississippi who’s now 2½ and has been off medication for about a year with no signs of infection.

There’s no guarantee the child will remain healthy, although sophisticated testing uncovered just traces of the virus’ genetic material still lingering. If so, it would mark only the world’s second reported cure.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/03/baby-apparently-cured-hiv

Babies Follow the Scientific Method

Laura Schulz, an associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT, has always been interested in learning and education. Starting in infancy, children are quickly able to learn a great deal about how the world works, based on a very limited amount of evidence.

Schulz’s research, much of which she does at a “Play Lab” at Boston Children’s Museum, reveals that children, and even babies, inherently use many of the same strategies employed in the scientific method — a systematic process of forming hypotheses and testing them based on observed evidence.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/02/babies-follow-scientific-method

Did Dinosaurs Lactate?

Did dinosaurs lactate? It’s a question physiology expert Prof. Paul Else, of the Univ. of Wollongong, has been pondering for years –15 years in fact.

But before you start imagining T-Rex in a bra, Else says dinosaur lactation, if it did in fact exist, would have involved secretions from the upper digestive tract that produce a ‘milk-like’ substance. “Pigeons, emperor penguins and flamingos all produce ‘milk-like’ substances from crop glands or glands of the esophagus that they feed to their young through their mouths,” he says. “Since birds and dinosaurs share much in common I proposed that some dinosaurs likely used this feeding strategy.”

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/02/did-dinosaurs-lactate

Mother’s Antidepressant Use Does Not Cause Stillbirth, Infant Death

In a study that included nearly 30,000 women from Nordic countries who had filled a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) prescription during pregnancy, researchers found no significant association between use of these medications during pregnancy and risk of stillbirth, neonatal death or postneonatal death, after accounting for factors including maternal psychiatric disease, according to a study in JAMA.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/01/mother%E2%80%99s-antidepressant-use-does-not-cause-stillbirth-infant-death

App Alerts Parents if Baby Stops Breathing

Every parent worries about their baby. They worry while it’s eating, while it’s playing — and especially while it’s sleeping. But a new device created by Brigham Young Univ. students may help parents rest easier while their baby sleeps. Student innovator Jacob Colvin and his team created a baby monitor that straps around an infant’s foot and uses pulse oximetry to monitor the heart rate and blood-oxygen levels. If the infant stops breathing or has a significant change in heart rate the monitor will notify parents by alerting them on their smartphone.

Colvin and his five colleagues hope the device, which is completely wireless and uses safe, non-invasive technology, will reduce the annual cases of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), which number around 2,500 in the U.S. each year. “Our hope is that we can give parents time to react and see that something’s wrong before it’s too late,” says Colvin, a father of two himself.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/videos/2012/11/app-alerts-parents-if-baby-stops-breathing

Method Improves Blood Transfusions for Preemies

Results of new research from the Univ. of Adelaide are a promising step forward in helping to improve the quality of life-saving blood transfusions for preterm babies, by reducing the likelihood of adverse inflammatory responses to the blood.

Blood transfusions are among the most common medical procedures experienced by preterm babies, who are often anemic and suffer blood loss.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2012/11/method-improves-blood-transfusions-preemies

Lack of Maternal Vitamin C Causes Fetus Brain Damage

Maternal vitamin C deficiency during pregnancy can have serious consequences for the fetal brain. And once brain damage has occurred, it cannot be reversed by vitamin C supplements after birth. This is shown through new research at the Univ. of Copenhagen just published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.

Population studies show that between 10 to 20 percent of all adults in the developed world suffer from vitamin C deficiency. Therefore, pregnant women should think twice about omitting the daily vitamin pill.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2012/11/lack-maternal-vitamin-c-causes-fetus-brain-damage