University of Florida researchers say patients who received a DBS device that delivers a constant current to control the shaking, shuffling, and other effects of the disabling condition, experience longer periods of “on-time,” a time when symptoms of the disease are completely or mostly controlled. Researchers say patients experienced additional hours of “on-time” compared to a group that didn’t have the implanted DBS device delivering the electrical impulses.

Dr. Michael Okun/Neurologist: “So for a select group of patients, 10 to 20 percent of patients who have Parkinson’s disease, this really provides a tremendous improvement in their quality of life.”

Deep brain stimulation has become the most important symptomatic advancement in treating Parkinson’s disease since the drug dopamine was introduced more than 30 years ago. Researchers say the study results will help advance future DBS treatment technologies.

Dr. Michael Okun/Neurologist: “One of the most important parts of this study is that it is going to move the field past the hardware that has been deployed and so the field will now begin to take the results of a well done perspective randomized study on constant current and say okay now it is time to start moving towards this improvement, but this improvement will lead to the next improvement.”

Parkinson’s most often develops in people after the age of 50 and there is no cure for the disease.

Most soldiers exercise to help prevent lower back pain that can sideline them from active duty. Now a new study from the University of Florida says exercise alone isn’t the best way to prevent lower back pain in soldiers. Researchers say core strengthening exercises or traditional sit-ups, when combined with a brief educational session on back pain strategies, lowered the number of soldiers seeking treatment for lower back pain.

Dr. Steven George/Physical Therapist: “The education component did have a small preventive effect. It reduced the back pain incidence by about 3% and that was surprising, but a good result, because it did indicate that maybe we can limit some of the disability of back pain.”

The soldiers educational sessions offered positive coping strategies and factual information about the threat and fear of lower back pain. Researchers say this study shows that educating people about lower back pain and letting them know the consequences can result in changes in health care behaviors.

Dr. Steven George/Physical Therapist: “This data and data from other studies suggest that doing some activities is better than doing no activity. We don’t see a lot of evidence that specific exercise approaches are definitely better for reducing back pain.”

People suffering from lower back pain spend over 50 billion dollars each year on treatments for the condition.

Most people suffer from stress around the holidays more than any other time of the year. Holiday activities like shopping, parties, and family gatherings can all trigger unwanted stress. University of Florida health experts say some simple things can reduce stress around the jubilee and help make the holiday season worry-free.

Dr. Lisa Merlo/UF Psychologist: “The most important thing is to keep your expectations manageable and try to minimize the amount of stress that you are adding unnecessarily into your lives. So, you don’t necessarily have to have the most decorated front porch or the most gifts under the tree or attend all the parties you receive invitations to.”

Health experts also suggest making a holiday budget and sticking to it. Spending a lot of money on gifts and entertaining can lead to stress during the holidays and after when the bills are due. Instead, spending time together or making gifts can save money and be rewarding.

Dr. Lisa Merlo/UF Psychologist: “That actually can decrease stress in two ways. One because there is not the financial aspect to it and also it is a more enjoyable kind of relaxing experience that you can have together.”

Health experts say making a few changes can prevent holiday stress from becoming a holiday tradition.

Timothy Becker/UF real estate researcher: “Jobs are really the key. Until we start growing jobs in a significant fashion, things aren’t really going to get a whole lot better. They will stabilize, as they have, and we’ll kind of go along the bottom. But until we start getting meaningful job growth in the state and in the country, things aren’t going to get a whole lot better.”

The quarterly survey tracks the views of more than two hundred real estate brokers; investors and analysts across the Sunshine State. They see little to be sunny about in the single-family home market.

Timothy Becker/UF real estate researcher: “It’s going to be down in doldrums for a long period of time. I mean we have foreclosure issues that are going to go on for the next 2, 3, maybe even 4 years. They’re going to keep that market really depressed I think.”

Experts say the apartment market’s doing well as young people move to urban areas without buying a home.

According to University of Florida researchers, children who go through puberty at different times then most of their peers, can react more violently to stressful events. Previous studies have already shown that those early or late maturing kids often have more emotional issues than their peers, but they can also react more aggressively to peer pressure and stress in general.

Julia Graber/UF Psychology Researcher: “The early maturing girls who also had high rates of peer stress were the ones who were more aggressive; both in terms of indirect methods like spreading rumors about other children, or things like that, and also threats and physical aggression, as well as late maturing boys. So those off-time boys who were sort of slow to get started on puberty when they experience peer stress they really, really didn’t deal with it well.”

Experts say parents with kids who get picked on, should help their sons and daughters learn better ways of dealing with these experiences, rather then getting worked up or aggressive and acting out just like their own kids.

Julia Graber/UF Psychology Researcher: “Simple emotion kind of regulation activities, learning how to take a deep breath and calm down and think about the situation a little bit more clearly are often really helpful. If there seems to be a persistent problem certainly working with local schools is very important to find out what teachers and principals are doing within your school to deal with problems where kids may be harassed.”

UF psychologists say often time kids are not having more stress, it’s the way they respond that is more aggressive. Early maturing girls often have poor coping skills, while late maturing boys build extra defense mechanisms.

Experts used to worry only about salmonella contamination through cuts in the fruit’s skin or near a stem. Now University of Florida research shows, for the first time, that it’s possible for salmonella bacteria to enter a tomato plant through the leaves. Results show it can then travel through the entire plant and end up inside the fruit itself. But researchers say consumers shouldn’t worry that much; salmonella contamination’s still extremely unlikely.

Ariena Van Bruggen/UF Plant Pathology Researcher: “We found that it is possible that salmonella travels from an inoculated leaf internally through the stem all the way into the fruit. But it is a very rare occurrence.”

Experts say consumers can’t wash away salmonella inside the fruit, so you shouldn’t keep fruits and vegetables longer than a week and instead, buy fresh produce.

Ariena Van Bruggen/UF Plant Pathology Researcher: “In general, don’t keep tomatoes for too long; it is better to buy frequently rather than keeping them long because salmonella can grow inside the fruit. It’s not just that they are there, if they are there, but they can actually multiply inside of the fruit. ”

UF scientists also advise tomato growers to use organic soil, as it appears to have more mechanisms to resist the bacteria than what’s found in conventional soil.

Dr. Lennox Archibald/UF epidemiologist: “Basically, you are recontaminating your hands. It doesn’t necessarily mean the person is going to get ill, but it is just an issue of transmission. The whole idea of all of this is to prevent transmission.”

In some cases, the microbes detected in these high-touch areas of a restroom were too large to measure. Health experts say hand washing can prevent most people from getting sick, but researchers say if you have to use a public restroom, avoid touching any surfaces after washing your hands.

Dr. Lennox Archibald/UF epidemiologist: “Individuals need to be scrupulous when they wash their hands and they need to be careful after when they dry their hands.”

Researchers suggest using electric hand dryers in public restroom when possible.

Doctors often warn patients who take heart and blood pressure medication not to eat grapefruit, but the fruit’s image could be changing. Now researchers have created a grapefruit hybrid that won’t interfere with medicine. Experts say the key lies in controlling for a family of chemicals in the fruit called “furanocoumarin.”

Fred Gmitter/UF citrus genetics researcher: “There are certain relatives of grapefruit that we call Pomelo, some of which are very, very low or have no furanocoumarins in them at all. And we’ve crossed these with ordinary grapefruit. And learned that it’s a trait under simple genetic control. There’s a single gene that appears to control this characteristic and so we can select in the hybrid families that we make, we can select individuals that do not have this chemical.”

The furanocoumarin levels in these new hybrid fruits are actually lower than what you would find in foods such as lemons and celery, which naturally carry the chemical.

Fred Gmitter/UF citrus genetics researcher: “Doctors don’t generally tell their patients not to drink lemonade or not to eat celery. So these should be safer, as safe or safer than lemons or celery.”

It’ll still take time to get the new hybrids to market, so consumers can eat grapefruit free of worries about drug interactions or warning labels.

With a two-million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation, University of Florida researchers are developing better assessment tools for middle and high school students’ progress in statistics. Researchers say schools need a new testing model because of how much statistical thinking differs from standard mathematical thinking.

Tim Jacobbe/UF statistics researcher: “One of the common thing that happens in education is that we’re teaching at a too high of a level for students. And if we’re teaching at that level, they may be able to imitate and memorize, and regurgitate what you’re hoping to get out of an answer, but if you’re not teaching it to their level, they’re not going to learn it in depth.”

The new assessment tool will help teachers target where students begin the school year so they can better plan instruction. Researchers are basing their testing instrument on the American Statistical Association guidelines that identify three developmental levels for learning statistics.

Tim Jacobbe/UF statistics researcher: “And so they identify level A, level B and level C but just because your dealing with high school students does not mean they’re re not at level A, which would be considered an elementary level. So if that’s where they are in their thinking, especially in light of there not being very many standards in grades K-5 now, we really need to see where the students are at before we begin instructing them.”

Initial pilot testing will start in several school districts in Florida and Georgia, then districts in four other states will join the study for larger-scale testing.

Dr. Julie Levy/UF Veterinarian: “This is a very exciting discovery for cats because it is the first time that a single treatment has ever been shown to cause multi-year infertility. This is very important because cats in the wild typically can be handled only once.”

Feral cats are the offspring of lost or abandoned cats. Researchers say the vaccine works for up to five years, about the average lifespan of a feral cat. Veterinarians currently use surgical procedures such as spay or neutering to control feral cat populations, but these procedures are more complicated.

Dr. Julie Levy/UF Veterinarian: “Developing a less technical and less expensive alternative contraceptive such as a vaccine for cats will be very powerful in increasing our ability to control their numbers.”

The vaccine works in male and female cats but it is not intended for use in household pets.

Kenneth Krysko/UF herpetology researcher: “We have a lot of small little native tree frogs but when the introduced Cuban Tree Frog came in, and that species is much larger by the way, it seems that where the Cuban Tree Frog is now found, the smaller native tree frogs no longer exist or they have declined considerably.

When these exotic animals escape or are illegally released, they may cling on to travelling luggage or moving cars and end up in Florida, where they have a very good chance of surviving in our warm climate. These unfamiliar species cannot only have unfavorable effects on the environment but on the economy and human health as well. The Cuban Tree Frog can be a danger for those who do not recognize them.

Kenneth Krysko/UF herpetology researcher: “One of the things us residents have to be cautious about is that if we pick them up they are quite toxic and that means that they have a saliva on them and if we touch any part of our membranes ourselves, it actually can cause really serious rashes and burning. So you have to be really, really careful; just wash your hands really well.”

Florida does have a law that prevents people from illegally releasing introduced species in the state, but so far, researchers say no one has been prosecuted.

New University of Florida research show that parents who drink increase the risks that those kids will eventually drive under the influence of alcohol. Researchers say kids might have more access to alcohol around the house when a parent drinks. Experts warn that kids don’t stop learning from their parents even when they are teenagers.

Dr. Mildred Maldonado-Molina/UF Researcher: “Their behaviors are being observed by their kids. It is important to monitor the home access to alcohol, either with their parental permission or without, and understand that those behaviors are influencing their kids risky behaviors later in life when they are young adults.”

Researchers say kids with parents and peers that drink face the greatest risk for driving under the influence. Researchers say educating children about the dangers of drinking and driving is very important for prevention of the behavior.

Dr. Mildred Maldonado-Molina/UF Researcher: “It definitely has to begin when they are adolescents. We cannot wait until they are 21.”

Traffic crashes have become the leading cause of death among young people in the United States.

Jiangeng Xue/UF material science researcher: “The specific LED devices we have been making, the maximum brightness can be about 70,000. So at least one other magnitude brighter than the fluorescent light lamps we are using.”

Since these LED devices can achieve at least ten times more light emission compared to a fluorescent fixture, less space is needed to emit the same amount of light on one given spot. Researchers say their work could pave the way for the manufacture of efficient and stable quantum dot-based LEDs at a low cost.

Jiangeng Xue/UF material science researcher: “So, I imagine that in the future the cost for these nanoparticle synthesis will be coming down dramatically and that’ll get to the level that we can actually use large quantity to do mass production.“

Researchers say these new devices will be efficient, inexpensive and have a lifetime of about 50,000 hours.

Ira Longini/UF biostatistics researcher: “So there’s certainly quite a danger because of the shared N1, the shared neuraminidase, that the new pandemic strain which is spreading and is our new influenza threat right now will also acquire a resistance quite rapidly with time. It’s not a certainty but it’s a distinct possibility. What we’ve done is shown what to look for and how this can happen on a global scale.”

Researchers say new anti-viral drugs don’t come along everyday, meaning a Tamiflu-resistant strain of influenza could pose a serious problem.

Ira Longini/UF biostatistics researcher: “Influenza is not treatable by any over-the-counter drugs. You can treat the symptoms, but you can’t treat, prevent or mitigate the virus. In order to do that, you have to have a prescription for either Tamiflu or Relenza, two common antiviral drugs.”

Anti-virals remain a last defense in controlling the spread and severity of the virus.

The University of Florida’s latest quarterly report on real estate shows the impact of mixed signals from Washington. The commercial real estate sentiment index declined for the first time in seven quarters. The report surveys real estate experts, from brokers to investors. They cite job growth and government spending as key factors for a confused market.

Timothy Becker/UF real estate researcher: “It really has a wide ranging effect on the industry and so that’s why, in most cases, jobs is the number one thing that our respondents talk about and until we get some meaningful job growth things aren’t going to get better.”

And experts say Florida could benefit from an improving tourism market.

Timothy Becker/UF real estate researcher: “If you look at the numbers, tourism really didn’t take a big hit during the recession and in fact we’re improving every quarter. And that’s a good thing for the state of Florida, that’s a good thing for the hotel market, and we’re seeing that in the numbers for the hotel properties.”

Researchers say capital is growing in Florida, but for now, it can’t find a good deal.