Autism is the fastest growing developmental disorder in the world. With 1 child in 91 facing the disorder, the diagnosis is more common than pediatric cancer, diabetes, and AIDS combined…

The U.S.-funded Haitian Apparel Center, which aims to train about 2,000 workers per year, was opened in the capital of Port-au-Prince on Wednesday, the Associated Press reports. The new center will help Haitian companies evolve from making “simple things, like sheets and T-shirts, to more complex garments,” according to U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Merten.

A new study from Perth’s Telethon Institute for Child Health Research shows an association between ADHD and a ‘Western-style’ diet in adolescents. The research findings have just been published online in the international Journal of Attention Disorders.

Thinking about God may make you less upset about making errors, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The researchers measured brain waves for a particular kind of distress-response while participants made mistakes on a test.

The way the brain reacts differently to the sense of touch in people with Autism will be examined as part of an innovative Cardiff University study designed to create better understanding of the condition in Autism.

The National Autistic Society (NAS) has welcomed the establishment of the Commission on the Funding of Care and Support today, but urged that it must consider how to fund support for those with lifelong conditions, such as autism, who are less able to save and pay for their social care…

Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) reports that it performed nearly 20,000 surgical procedures with a death rate of just 0.2% in resource-limited settings between 2001 and 2008, showing that with appropriate minimal standards, surgical care can be provided safely and cheaply, says an article in Archives of Surgery, a JAMA/Archives journal.

The U.N. appealed for $459.7 million on Wednesday “to aid flood victims in Pakistan as the magnitude of the disaster widened, with about one-fifth of the country submerged and the annual monsoon season still potent,” the New York Times reports (MacFarquhar, 8/11). “Make no mistake, this is a major catastrophe,” said John Holmes, head of the U.N…

“You are in a conflict area. Your home is about to be searched by an armed soldier or an armed robot. Which would you prefer?” Human soldiers have emotions.

The incidence of premature babies has been stable or even increased over time. The phenomenon brings with it the possibility of neurological, sensorial, respiratory, cognitive or psychomotor consequences for the child, both in the short and the medium term…

Mount Sinai School of Medicine has announced that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has renewed its funding of the Consortium of Food Allergy Research (CoFAR), providing an additional $29.9 million toward genetic research and the prevention and treatment of food allergy. Mount Sinai is the primary research site for CoFAR, leading seven other institutions around the country…

Using a new type of “vocal signature” technology that focuses on sound patterns rather than words in child vocalizations and baby talk, researchers in the US say they have proved in principle that it is possible to screen for autism spectrum disorders in young children; they also hope the new method will greatly enhance the study of language development because it…

More than three-quarters of adults in the Central African Republic report witnessing or personally experiencing traumatic events during the most recent wave of violence, and more than half meet criteria for depression or anxiety, according to a report in the August 4 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on violence and human rights…

Chicago’s mold count is 49,789 just a few spores away from the 50,000 threshold that signals a dangerous air quality warning. Today’s mold count is the highest of the season, and the highest in five years. “Headaches, sinus congestion, runny noses and fatigue will be common among Chicagoans,” says Dr Joseph Leija, allergist at Loyola’s Gottlieb Memorial Hospital. Dr…

Abnormal eye movements and other sensorimotor and neurobehavioral impairments appear common in unaffected family members of individuals with autism, according to a report in the August issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

The study of epigenetics has undoubtedly emerged as one of the hottest fields of research over the past decade. Interest in epigenetics has arisen as researchers endeavor to reveal the underlying causes of phenotypic variation and common diseases despite technological advances allowing for the characterisation of genetic variants and their heritability…