Feature Channels: All Journal News

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A Vanderbilt Ph.D. student uncovered a 'brain drain' of physicians trained in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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A new study provides evidence that one important part of memory undergoes substantial development even after the age of 7.

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With advances in neurofeedback techniques, the signal-to-noise ratio of the brain activity underlying our thoughts can be remastered, according to a recent discovery by a research team led by Stephen LaConte of the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute.

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Members of an educational organization contribute to its leadership and can blend personal and social needs to help leaders encourage cooperation, a Wayne State University researcher has found.

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Mixed-income neighborhoods help improve the safety and wellbeing of low-income residents, but cannot relieve deeply entrenched poverty or provide upward mobility without additional social services and supports, say Peabody and University of Chicago researchers.

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Half of those in nursing homes fear falling, which can turn into a self-fulfilling prophesy, a Saint Louis University nursing faculty member writes in a review article.

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Women in group prenatal care had improved birth outcomes, a finding that could inform future policy decisions.

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Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have identified a cellular switch that potentially can be turned off and on to slow down, and eventually inhibit the growth of the most commonly diagnosed and aggressive malignant brain tumor.

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Researchers have determined that fingerstick cardiac troponin I assay testing using thepoint-of-care i-STAT device is not accurate enough to determine the exact troponin level without the application of a corrective term.

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Carbon nanotubes’ outstanding mechanical, electrical and thermal properties make them an alluring material to electronics manufacturers. However, until recently scientists believed that growing the high density of tiny graphene cylinders needed for many microelectronics applications would be difficult. Now a team from Cambridge University in England has devised a simple technique to increase the density of nanotube forests grown on conductive supports about five times over previous methods.

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Scientists at UAB have identified a molecular pathway that seems to contribute to the ability of malignant glioma cells in a brain tumor to spread and invade previously healthy brain tissue.

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Researchers have tested a number of oxide materials for their promise in resistive switching memories, and now a team of researchers in Singapore have demonstrated how conductive nano-filaments in amorphous titanium dioxide (TiO2) thin films could be utilized for resistive switching device applications.

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When we’re born, our brains aren’t very organized, but as we grow and learn, things get a bit more stable. How and why does this happen -- and what happens when it doesn’t go normally? Researchers have made a major stride in understanding this process, called synapse maturation.

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A new study confirms the lasting legacy of smoking. In the study, researchers exposed animal mothers to nicotine during pregnancy—a proxy for smoking—and found the grandchildren were also at an increased risk for asthma, despite the grandchildren never having been exposed to nicotine themselves.

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Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) discovered that an antibody that binds and neutralizes HIV likely also targets the body’s own “self” proteins. This finding could complicate the development of HIV vaccines designed to elicit this protective antibody, called 4E10, and others like it, as doing so might be dangerous or inefficient.

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Researchers from Virginia Tech, the Georg-August University of Gottingen, Germany, and the Jackson Laboratory of Bar Harbor, Maine, have used a special type of microscope to discover how “check valves” in wood cells control sap flow and protect trees when they are injured.

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Higher calorie diets produce twice the rate of weight gain compared to the lower calorie diets that currently are recommended for adolescents hospitalized with anorexia nervosa, according to a study by researchers at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital.

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The findings of a comprehensive review of the placebo phenomenon and its consequences for clinical medicine are contained in a new article by neuroscientist Fabrizio Benedetti. The Review article provides an in-depth biological and evolutionary approach to examining the placebo effect in relationship to the doctor-patient relationship.

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Mayo Clinic researchers have shown that a specific protein pair may be a successful prognostic biomarker for identifying smoking-related lung cancers. The protein — ASCL1 — is associated with increased expression of the RET oncogene, a particular cancer-causing gene called RET. The findings appear in the online issue of the journal Oncogene.

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New study provides evidence for the effects of carbon monoxide in pregnancy, and the role it might have in attenuating the signs of preeclampsia (PE). The study, conducted using an animal model, is published in the American Journal of Physiology–Regulatory, Integrative, and Comparative Physiology.

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The latest approach to islet transplantation has produced substantially improved results for patients with type 1 diabetes, and may offer a more durable alternative to a whole pancreas transplant. Participants received islet cells isolated from the pancreas of organ donors to help their bodies produce insulin. The new approach, which allowed the harvested cells a short period of rest prior to transplant, resulted in increased levels of insulin production to the degree that patients were able to discontinue daily insulin injections.

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When it comes to sticking to an exercise plan, we're all looking for solutions to ensure that new healthy habits transform into long-term lifestyle changes. PhD candidate Marc Mitchell has published findings in the September online issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine suggesting that receiving coupons and vouchers for as little as five dollars can help people stick to new fitness regimes.

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A team of scientists from Canada and Australia has discovered that a decline in shark populations is detrimental to coral reefs. “Where shark numbers are reduced due to commercial fishing, there is also a decrease in the herbivorous fishes which play a key role in promoting reef health,” said Jonathan Ruppert, a recent University of Toronto PhD graduate. Ruppert was part of a team engaged in long-term monitoring of reefs off Australia's northwest coast.

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A team of astronomers has discovered enormous arms of hot gas in the Coma cluster of galaxies by using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton. These features, which span at least half a million light years, provide insight into how the Coma cluster has grown through mergers of smaller groups and clusters of galaxies to become one of the largest structures in the Universe held together by gravity.

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Adding mood management strategies to smoking cessation programs helped people with depression or a history of depression quit smoking for longer periods than a standard program, finds a new review in The Cochrane Library.

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Working with cells in test tubes and in mice, researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered that a chemical commonly used as a dog food preservative may prevent the kind of painful nerve damage found in the hands and feet of four out of five cancer patients taking the chemotherapy drug Taxol.

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Pinning down an effective way to combat the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus, the viral precursor to AIDS, has long been challenge task for scientists and physicians, because the virus is an elusive one that mutates frequently and, as a result, quickly becomes immune to medication. A team of Drexel University researchers is trying to get one step ahead of the virus with a microbicide they’ve created that can trick HIV into “popping” itself into oblivion.

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Prostate cancer kills more African-American and black men than any other group. Yet, according to a new review published by Moffitt Cancer Center researchers, there is a significant lack of clear and consistent screening and early detection guidelines or prevention strategies. Their review concluded that focus on blacks is urgently needed in order to reduce their risk of developing or dying of prostate cancer.

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Breast cancer that spreads to other organs is extremely difficult to treat. Doctors can buy patients time, but a cure remains elusive. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown that human breast tumors transplanted into mice are excellent models of metastatic cancer and could be valuable tools in the search for better treatments.

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Several studies have shown that hospitalized patients still have unacceptably high rates of harm and injury due in part to limited access for quality staff to obtain primary care data from electronic medical records. As a result, hospital incident reports do not capture most harm that occurs in hospitals. A new study published in the September special issue “Emerging Models of Care and Payment Delivery” of the Journal for Healthcare Quality showed that using administrative data, such as discharge abstracts, can gauge the quality of care and identify opportunities for improvement.

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Regular reminders for health care providers and patients to schedule preventative health screening tests and procedures resulted in improved provider performance in ordering overdue preventative screening for primary care patients, according to research published in the September special issue “Emerging Models of Care and Payment Delivery” of the Journal for Healthcare Quality, the peer-reviewed publication of the National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ), www.nahq.org.

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In an editorial published in Endocrinology, a journal of The Endocrine Society, endocrine experts agreed that endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) pose a threat to human health and to the ecosystems of the earth. The editorial comes in response to a commentary (Dietrich et al. Chem Biol Interact) signed by a number of editors of toxicology journals that dismisses the state-of-the-science on EDCs and argues for the status quo in the regulation of these hazardous substances.

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While researchers expected that the pond turtle’s eyes would operate like other animals with eyes on the side of their heads, this particular species of turtle appears to have characteristics of both front and side-eyed animals.

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New UT-Austin psychology study shows even preschool children are quick to conform to ritualistic behavior while learning.

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University of Adelaide researchers have made a major discovery that highlights the important role played by immune cells in the risk of developing breast cancer.

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Study suggests earthworms could be established in drought-prone dryland soils to improve soil quality.

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New research from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center shows that physical activity and weight loss conducted together for older, overweight and obese adults results in improved body composition, translating into lower cardiovascular disease risk (CVD) and improved mobility.

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Some overweight older adults don’t need to lose weight to extend their lives, but they could risk an earlier death if they pack on more pounds.

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Water pours into a cup at about the same rate regardless of whether the water bottle is made of glass or plastic. But at nanometer-size scales for water and potentially other fluids, whether the container is made of glass or plastic does make a significant difference.

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Researchers from the University of Montreal and their colleagues have found brain activity beyond a flat line EEG, which they have called Nu-complexes (from the Greek letter).

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In an article published on Wednesday, September 18, 2013, in the journal PLOS ONE, researchers at Cornell University’s Laboratory of Ornithology report that in some environments, songbirds exhibit inconsistency in their songs which may be caused by non-lethal levels of contaminants that persist in the sediments of the Hudson River region.

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Pioneering new research from a team of Indiana University Bloomington biologists has shown for the first time that a protein which has been long known to be critical for the initiation of protein synthesis in all organisms can also play a role in the regulation of gene expression in some bacteria, and probably land plants as well.

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Microscopic, bottle-like structures with corks that melt at precisely-controlled temperatures could potentially release drugs inside the body or fragrances onto the skin, according to a recently published study.

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KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:KBIO) today announced the publication of Phase 1 study results for KB001, a first generation, anti-Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Pa) type III secretion system (TTSS) antibody, for use in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Data from this initial single dose clinical study supports the continuation of KaloBios' ongoing Phase 2 study of KB001-A, a second generation, anti-TTSS antibody in CF patients with chronic Pa infections.

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Having the right tool to estimate surgical risk in patients at high risk for complications and death during and after surgery is crucially important, according to a study in the October issue of Anesthesiology.

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New evidence suggests that taking vitamin B supplements may help reduce the risk of stroke. The research appears in the September 18, 2013, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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The extra demands on parents of chronically ill children cause stress that affects the whole family, according to a systematic review conducted by Case Western Reserve University researchers that also explored what factors in the child’s care most contribute to the added strain.

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A first-ever study of air trapped in the deep snowpack of Greenland shows that atmospheric levels of carbon monoxide (CO) in the 1950s were actually slightly higher than what we have today. This is a surprise because current computer models predict much higher CO concentrations over Greenland today than in 1950. And it appears that improved combustion technology is linked to the lower CO levels.

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A genetic mutation, known as GBA, that leads to early onset of Parkinson’s disease and severe cognitive impairment (in about 4 to 7 percent of all patients with the disease) also alters how specific lipids, ceramides and glucosylceramides are metabolized. Mayo Clinic researchers have found that Parkinson’s patients who do not carry the genetic mutation also have higher levels of these lipids in the blood. Further, those who had Parkinson’s and high blood levels were also more likely to have cognitive impairment and dementia. The research was recently published online in the journal PLOS ONE.

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A blood test developed by researchers at Duke Medicine showed more than 90-percent accuracy in distinguishing between viral and bacterial infections when tested in people with respiratory illnesses.