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A technique for reducing the number of infectious malaria parasites in whole blood could significantly reduce the number of cases of transmission of malaria through blood transfusion, according to a collaboration between researchers in Cambridge, UK, and Kumasi, Ghana.

Researcher Alex Wood calls on new DWP Minister Stephen Crabb to acknowledge distinction between flexible scheduling controlled by managers to maximise profit, damaging lives of the low-paid in the process, and high-end professionals who set their own schedules – an issue he says was publicly fudged by Ian Duncan-Smith to justify zero-hour contracts.

̽��ֱ��UK has seen a 20% fall in the incidence of dementia over the past two decades, according to new research from England, led by the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, leading to an estimated 40,000 fewer cases of dementia than previously predicted. However, the study, published today in Nature Communications, suggests that the dramatic change has been observed mainly in men.

A study of over 380,000 people, published today in the journal Nature Genetics, has identified gene differences that influence the age of puberty, sexual intercourse and first birth.

Overweight people make unhealthier food choices than lean people when presented with real food, even though both make similar selections when presented with hypothetical choices, according to research led by the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and published today in the journal eNeuro.

̽��ֱ��Chancellor's recent announcement about a tax on sugary drinks is a step in the right direction towards fighting obesity, but we will need to use lot of different approaches simultaneously to make big changes, writes from the Centre for Diet & Activity Research, Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit.

‘Invisible impairments’ can make it difficult for stroke survivors to maintain a job, according to a study from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Queen Mary ̽��ֱ�� of London (QMUL). ̽��ֱ��findings, published today in the journal BMJ Open, suggest that more needs to be done to make survivors, their GPs and employers aware of the difficulties that they may face.

Death is a part of life for people over 95 years old, who mainly live day-to-day, concludes a rare study of attitudes to death and dying amongst the very old. ̽��ֱ��research, from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and published today in the journal PLOS ONE, finds that this group is willing to discuss dying and their end-of-life care, but is seldom asked.

Major epidemics such as the recent Ebola outbreak or the emerging Zika epidemic may be difficult to forecast because of our inability to determine whether individuals are uninfected or infected but not showing symptoms, according to a new study from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. ̽��ֱ��finding emphasises the need to develop and deploy reliable diagnostic tests to detect infected individuals whether or not they are showing symptoms, say the researchers.

Genetic tests that provide an estimate of an individual’s risk of developing diseases such as lung cancer and heart disease do not appear to motivate a change in behaviour to reduce the risk, according to a study led by the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and published in ̽��ֱ��BMJ today.