In the film Contagion, a virus outbreak occurs, killing thousands of people all over the world. In the final scene we discover that the global outbreak started after a fruit bat infected a pig. Complete fiction? Actually, there may be some elements of truth to it.
Two Washington and Lee University economists leading a group of researchers have found that individuals who have suffered from long-term unemployment in the past year — those unemployed for longer than 25 weeks — are three times more likely than people employed throughout the past year to experience mental-health issues for the first time.
Young genes that appeared since the primates split from other mammal species are expressed in unique structures of the developing human brain, a new analysis finds. The correlation suggests that scientists studying the evolution of the human brain should look to genes considered recent by evolutionary standards and early stages of brain development.
A review and analysis of 26 validated hospital readmission risk prediction models finds that most, whether for hospital comparison or clinical purposes, have poor predictive ability, according to an article in the October 19 issue of JAMA.
Between 1998 and 2008, heart-failure related hospitalizations declined substantially among Medicare patients, but at a lower rate for black men, according to a study in the October 19 issue of JAMA. Also, 1-year mortality rates declined slightly during this period, but remain high.
Patients who had undergone hemodialysis using dialyzers that had been sterilized with the use of electron beams were more likely to develop thrombocytopenia (an abnormally low platelet count in the blood, associated with increased risk of bleeding), according to a study in the October 19 issue of JAMA.
Youth football helmets are currently designed to the same standards as adult helmets, even though little is known about how child football players impact their heads. This is the first study to investigate the head impact characteristics in youth football.
Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute have found strikingly high levels of a bacterium in colorectal cancers, a sign that it might contribute to the disease and potentially be a key to diagnosing, preventing, and treating it.
Scientists for the first time have identified and mapped the chemical structure of molecules used by certain species of marine seaweed to kill or inhibit the growth of reef-building coral.
Differences in the levels of two key metabolic enzymes may explain why some people are more susceptible to liver damage, according to a study in the October 17 issue of The Journal of Cell Biology (www.jcb.org).
A scholarly article on cell phone safety to be published online October 17 in the journal Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine reports the finding that cell phones used in the shirt or pants pocket exceed FCC exposure guidelines and that children absorb twice as much microwave radiation from phones as do adults.
A new global atlas charts prospects for malaria elimination by offering the first full-color, detailed depiction of a disease now declining in many parts of the globe. The “Atlas of Malaria-Eliminating Countries” spotlights countries successfully moving toward eliminating the disease and provides a visual tool to help focus resources where they are needed most.
In a paper published today in Diabetologia, a team at Joslin Diabetes Center, headed by Mary R. Loeken, PhD, has identified the enzyme AMP kinase (AMPK) as key to the molecular mechanism that significantly increases the risk of neural tube defects such as spina bifida and some heart defects among babies born to women with diabetes.
The perfect national candidate is often drawn taller and larger than average citizen, which could be a throwback to our caveman politics.
Autism researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing have found a link between low birthweight and children diagnosed with autism, reporting premature infants are five times more likely to have autism than children born at normal weights.
A groundbreaking study in the journal Nature Medicine suggests what could become the first effective treatment for a debilitating and fatal disease of the central nervous system called SCA1.
Knee injuries in children with tears of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and meniscus have increased dramatically over the past 12 years, say orthopaedic surgeons from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Presentation by leading expert in reproductive endocrinology among highlights at meeting sponsored by the American Physiological Society.
Study suggests exercise before conception and in the early stages of pregnancy may protect a mother-to-be by stimulating the expression of two proteins thought to play a role in blood vessel health.
Study of teens in rural California suggests that obesity has greater impact on girls.
After a heart attack, women’s hearts are more likely to maintain their systolic function—their ability to contract and pump blood from the chambers into the arteries. This suggests that heart disease manifests differently in women, affecting the small blood vessels, instead of the major blood vessels as it does in men.
Gene testing could help identify patients who need early treatment.
Symptoms of nasal congestion have been difficult to treat because patient reports of congestion often have little relationship to the actual physical obstruction of nasal airflow. Now, scientists from the Monell Center report that the annoying feeling of nasal obstruction is related to the temperature and humidity of inhaled air. This knowledge may help researchers design effective treatments for this common symptom of nasal sinus disease.
Researchers employing the latest techniques to study the diets of early hominins are challenging long-held assumptions about what our ancestors ate.
Ecologists have identified factors other than climate that affect whether grasslands or forests grow. In a Perspectives piece in the journal Science, a Michigan Tech researcher urges future studies to consider human activities and grazing patterns too.
In a study of 300 post-menopausal women, obese participants performed better on three cognitive tests than participants of normal weight, leading researchers to speculate about the role of sex hormones and cognition.
Cardiovascular disease and other gender-specific conditions – such as menopause, pregnancy, depression, and obesity – will be explored in depth at a two day conference being sponsored by the American Physiology Society
Itching is one of the most prevalent side effects of powerful, pain-killing drugs like morphine, oxycodone and other opioids. Now in mice, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown they can control opioid-induced itching without interfering with a drug’s ability to relieve pain.
This image of galaxy cluster MACS 1206 is part of the broad survey with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The apparently distorted shapes in the galaxy cluster are distant galaxies from which the light is bent by the gravitational pull of dark matter, an invisible material within the cluster of galaxies. MACS J1206 has been observed as part of the new CLASH survey of galaxy clusters.
In their article "Exploratory Experimentation and Computation", to appear in the November 2011 issue of the Notices of the American Mathematical Society, David H. Bailey and Jonathan M. Borwein describe how modern computer technology has vastly expanded our ability to discover new mathematical results.
Physicians who once only grappled with learning the language of medicine must now also cope with a health care world that has turned hospitals into factories and reduced clinical encounters to economic transactions, two Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center physicians lament.
New research suggests the growth rate of the brain’s cerebral cortex in babies born prematurely may predict how well they are able to think, speak, plan and pay attention later in childhood. The research is published in the October 12, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The cerebral cortex is the outer layer of the brain covering the cerebrum, and is responsible for cognitive functions, such as language, memory, attention and thought.
An international team—led by researchers at McMaster University and the University of Tubingen in Germany—has sequenced the entire genome of the Black Death, one of the most devastating epidemics in human history.
A team of scientists has found that vitamin D plays an essential role in the body’s fight against infections such as tuberculosis. Researchers found that the human immune system’s ability to kill or inhibit the bacteria causing TB is dependent on having sufficient levels of Vitamin D present. The finding could lead to a new treatment pathway.
Plans to develop the “smart” grid – a system that uses intelligent computer networks to manage electric power – cannot succeed without the creation of new “thinking machines” that can learn and adapt to new situations, from power outages along the grid to fluctuations in the power supply. So says Dr. Ganesh Kumar Venayagamoorthy, a power engineering expert at Missouri University of Science and Technology.
Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found that conflicts of interest (COI) are prevalent and potentially underreported among individuals participating in the development of clinical practice guidelines, which inform standards of patient care.
A long-held mantra suggests that you can't change your family, the genes they pass on, or the effect of these genes. Now, an international team of scientists, led by researchers at McMaster and McGill universities, is attacking that belief. The researchers discovered the gene that is the strongest marker for heart disease can actually be modified by generous amounts of fruit and raw vegetables. The results of their study are published in the current issue of the journal PLoS Medicine.
In a trial that included about 35,000 men, those who were randomized to receive daily supplementation with vitamin E had a significantly increased risk of prostate cancer, according to a study in the October 12 issue of JAMA.
Use of folic acid supplements by women in Norway in the period 4 weeks before to 8 weeks after conception was associated with a reduced risk of the child having severe language delay at age 3 years, according to a study in the October 12 issue of JAMA.
Among women with a certain type of high-grade ovarian cancer, having BRCA2 genetic mutations, but not BRCA1, was associated with improved overall survival and improved response to chemotherapy, compared to women with BRCA wild-type (genetic type used as a reference to compare genetic mutations), according to a study in the October 12 issue of JAMA.
Women with high-grade ovarian cancer live longer and respond better to platinum-based chemotherapy when their tumors have BRCA2 genetic mutations, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the Institute for Systems Biology report in the Oct. 12 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
1) Reductions of markers like PGE2 may be a biomarker for colon cancer prevention. 2) Phase II study conducted in humans requires validation. 3) Natural supplement use could be potential cancer prevention strategy.
A tiny piece of a critical receptor that fuels the brain and without which sentient beings cannot live has been discovered by University at Buffalo scientists as a promising new drug target for Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.
People who are able to cross their legs soon after having a severe stroke appear to be more likely to have a good recovery compared to people who can’t cross their legs. That’s according to new research published in the October 11, 2011, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine say that losing the ability to make a particular kind of sugar molecule boosted disease protection in early hominids, and may have directed the evolutionary emergence of our ancestors, the genus Homo.
University of Illinois at Chicago chemists led by Wonhwa Cho reports that they've developed a technique which successfully quantifies signaling lipids on live cell membranes in real time, opening up possible new routes for treating diseases. The finding is reported in Nature Chemistry.
An ongoing lack of sleep during adolescence could lead to more than dragging, foggy teens, a University of Wisconsin-Madison study suggests.
A new study presents the first evidence that a basic sense of fairness and altruism appears in infancy. Babies as young as 15 months perceived the difference between equal and unequal distribution of food, and their awareness of equal rations was linked to their willingness to share a toy.
Ten years of meticulous mouse breeding, screening, and record-keeping have finally paid off for Alan Attie and his lab members.
This is the first study to demonstrate active replication of HIV virus in a cell type other than immune T cells and which may help to predict patients at greatest risk for HIV dementia.
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