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Chinese Health Coverage Improves With Government Efforts

By Guest PostDecember 11, 2011Economy, Generalbrown university, China, chinese government, chinese provinces, government interventions, health care, health care coverage, health care in china, health insurance, hongwei xu, policy interventions, population, rates, reimbursement rates, rural areas, rural chinese, susan e short, university of michigan, villages

*A new study of health insurance in nine Chinese provinces shows that individual coverage surged within a two-year time frame, from 2004-2006, coinciding with new government interventions designed to improve access to health care. The changes were most dramatic in rural areas.*

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Health care coverage increased dramatically in parts of China between 1997 and 2006, a period when government interventions were implemented to improve access to health care, with particularly striking upswings in rural areas, according to new research by Brown University sociologist Susan E. Short and Hongwei Xu of the University of Michigan. The findings appear in the December issue of Health Affairs.

Led by Xu, a former Brown graduate student, the study analyzed data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey, which follows households in nine provinces that are home to more than 40 percent of China’s population. Xu and Short specifically focused on patterns of coverage among rural and urban residents. (more…)

Infectious Fungus, Thought to Be Asexual, Isn’t

By Guest PostDecember 6, 2011Scienceallison m porman, asexual, brown university, candida albicans, candida genus, candida tropicalis, drug resistance, fungi, genetic switch, genus, infections, kevin alby, mating, matthew hirakawa, richard bennett, sex, sex as a survival tactic, sexual nature, species, the mating habits, wor1

*Candida tropicalis turns out to have sex, making it the second medically important member of the genus to be capable of mating. Sex may improve the survival of the species, particularly when it’s under pressure. It may also mean the species can achieve greater virulence or drug resistance more quickly than previously thought.*

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The fungi of the Candida genus, known to millions of patients worldwide for their ability to cause serious infections, were once all thought to be asexual. Even after scientists discovered that the mating habits of Candida albicans were many and varied, they remained convinced that many of the more infectious ones did not mate. Now with the first report that Candida tropicalis can mate sexually as well, the chastity of the whole genus comes into further doubt. (more…)

New Study to Test Unusual Hypothesis on Beta Brainwaves

By Guest PostDecember 4, 2011Sciencebasal ganglia, beta, beta brainwaves, beta oscillations, brown university, christopher moore, cortex, david orenstein, hypothesis, key brain circuit, model, moore and jones, neurons, neuroscientists, optogenetics, parkinsonian symptoms, parkinsons disease, physical brain, predictions, sensory information, somatosensory system, stephanie jones, thalamocortical circuit, thalamus, touch, touch perception circuit

Beta oscillations are tightly linked to Parkinson’s disease and the ability to process sensory information, such as touch. Two neuroscientists have brought their collaboration to Brown University and won funding from the National Science Foundation to see if they can finally provide a definitive, if unorthodox, explanation for beta brainwaves.

Before she could seek to convince the world that her computer model of a key brain circuit explains a fundamental, 80-year-old mystery of neuroscience with potential relevance to Parkinson’s disease, Stephanie Jones sought to convince Christopher Moore. The new Brown neuroscience professors are now close collaborators, but when they first started talking about the beta oscillations of the cortex, Moore thought Jones was plain wrong, if not a bit nuts. (more…)

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Chinese Health Coverage Improves With Government Efforts

Infectious Fungus, Thought to Be Asexual, Isn’t

New Study to Test Unusual Hypothesis on Beta Brainwaves