Claudia Hilton, PhD, has found that games used for exercising have the potential to serve as a valuable addition to therapies for children with autism spectrum disorders who have motor and cognitive function impairments. As a way to combat the low levels of physical activity seen in these children, researchers investigated the use of the Makoto Arena, a game involving a triangular shaped arena with pillars at each point and lights and sounds at various levels of the pillars. Those playing the game must hit the correct spots as they light up on different pillars. The data showed improvement in response speed, executive function and motor skills among children with ASD. Hilton said the exertion of participating in this type of game may help improve the neural connections in the brains of these children. The study was recently published in The International Journal for Sports and Exercise Medicine.
Nikos Vasilakis, PhD, was part of an international consortium of scientists who worked to map the differences in various strains of dengue virus. Previously, scientists have described four distinct variants, but in a paper published recently in Science, researchers reported that, while the viruses clustered around the four genetically distinct types, the way a body’s immunesystem recognizes and responds to the virus indicates an overlap among the four dengue types not previously described. While several dengue vaccine candidates are under development, currently there are no licensed vaccines against dengue virus, which infects up to 390 million people a year with about 500,000 patients experiencing potentially life-threatening complications.
Wei-Chen Lee, PhD, compared hospital readmission rates between women who delivered their babies in rural and urban 
hospitals. Results indicated that women who delivered in rural hospitals were more likely to be readmitted within a month compared to women who delivered in urban hospitals. Lee said that several factors might contribute to this finding, including less family support after delivery in rural areas and that there are fewer newborns and more elders in rural areas compared to urban areas, which makes the recruitment of physicians who specialize in obstetrics and gynecology more difficult. The findings are currently available in the journal Rural and Remote Health.
RESEARCH BRIEFS were written by Donna Ramirez, Christopher Smith Gonazalez and Johnston Farrow. Find out more at www.utmb.edu/newsroom.