*Evidence of evolutionary protection against inbreeding in women?*
Through an innovative use of cell phone records, researchers at UCLA, the University of Miami and Cal State, Fullerton, have found that women appear to avoid contact with their fathers during ovulation.
“Women call their dads less frequently on these high-fertility days and they hang up with them sooner if their dads initiate a call,” said Martie Haselton, a UCLA associate professor of communication in whose lab the research was conducted.(more…)
*Study sheds light on what E. coli genes are doing inside the body during infection*
E. coli bacteria. Image credit: Amy Simms, Ph.D
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Urinary tract infections are a painful, recurring problem for millions of women. They are also getting more dangerous as bacteria develop resistance to the most common treatments.
Scientists from the University of Michigan have moved one step closer to a vaccine that could prevent a majority of urinary tract infections, which are caused by E. coli bacteria. Using a genetic technique rarely used to look at infections in human hosts, the researchers studied how the E. coli bacteria operate and discovered key differences between how the bacteria’s genes behave in women and how they behave in mice used in experiments.
Their findings, published online Nov. 11 in PLoS Pathogens, could lead to developments that would save billions in health care costs and millions of doctors’ visits and hospitalizations from urinary tract infections each year. (more…)
Women are significantly more likely than men to fall for Internet scams, a new piece of research has claimed after conducting an online test.
In six out of seven tests, women were less likely to detect a scam than men, with females in the supposedly tech-savvy 25-34 age group especially easy to fool, according to Nominet-backed website, Knowthenet. (more…)
COLUMBIA, Mo. – For some women, the effects of breast cancer, the most common cancer affecting women, do not end when they leave the hospital. Now, researchers in the University of Missouri School of Health Professions have studied the lives of breast cancer patients following chemotherapy and found that their environments and available support systems help determine the quality of their lives.
“A lot of times people get mentally and emotionally ready to deal with chemotherapy and they receive a lot of support during that time,” said Stephanie Reid-Arndt, an assistant professor of health psychology in the School of Health Professions. “Then they go home and everyone feels like it’s over, but the patients still have worries and fears about the changes they’ve been through and what it means for the future.” (more…)
An investigation published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine hasfound that male partners who express greater support, attention and sympathy to women’s chronic vulvovaginal pain may trigger more pain, but also increase sexual satisfaction in female partners.
ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Vitamin A and beta-carotene supplements are unsafe for HIV-positive women who breastfeed because they may boost the excretion of HIV in breast milk—thereby increasing the chances of transmitting the infection to the child, a pair of new studies suggest.
*After spending a summer working in Redmond, the junior class women of Brown University’s computer science department find new confidence.*
REDMOND, Wash. — This summer, all of the junior class women of Brown University’s computer science department found themselves interning at Microsoft.
They can field their own baseball team, with nine women in all — a group small enough to fit around a large lunch table at The Commons, but large enough to make for vibrant conversation. But baseball isn’t what these nine women all have in common – it’s computer science.
