Feature Channels: All Journal News

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The power of the brain lies in its trillions of intercellular connections, called synapses that together form complex neural "networks." While neuroscientists have long sought to map these individual connections to see how they influence specific brain functions, traditional techniques have been unsuccessful. Now, scientists at the Salk Institute and the Gladstone Institutes, using an innovative brain- tracing technique, have found a way to untangle these networks. These findings offer new insight into how specific brain regions connect to each other, while also revealing clues as to what may happen, neuron by neuron, when these connections are disrupted.

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• Elderly kidney failure patients using catheters to access the blood for dialysis have the highest risks of dying prematurely compared with patients using other types of vascular access. • Two other types of vascular access—arteriovenous fistulas and arteriovenous grafts—provide similar survival advantages for elderly dialysis patients.

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Higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids in the blood may reduce the risk for hip fractures in postmenopausal women, recent research suggests.

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ADHD drug helps improve brain functional connectivity in cocaine addiction.

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It is likely some of the most widespread and oldest art in the United States. Pieces of rock art dot the Appalachian Mountains, and research by University of Tennessee, Knoxville, anthropology professor Jan Simek finds each engraving or drawing is strategically placed to reveal a cosmological puzzle.

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Data from NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft continues to provide new insight on the outskirts of our solar system, a frontier thought to be the last that Voyager will cross before becoming the first man-made object to reach interstellar space.

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Scientists have identified a gene that gives wheat plants resistance to one of the most deadly races of the wheat stem rust pathogen, called Ug99.

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A series of studies conducted by Randy Bruno, PhD, and Christine Constantinople, PhD, of Columbia University’s Department of Neuroscience, topples convention by showing that sensory information travels to two places at once: not only to the brain’s mid-layer (where most axons lead), but also directly to its deeper layers. The study appears in the June 28, 2013, edition of the journal Science.

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Arizona State University researchers have discovered for the first time that temperature determines where key soil microbes can thrive — microbes that are critical to forming topsoil crusts in arid lands. And of concern, the scientists predict that in as little as 50 years, global warming may push some of these microbes out of their present stronghold with unknown consequences to soil fertility and erosion.

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Using colorful world maps, a North Carolina State University study maps out priority areas for protection to save species and preserve biodiversity. The scale is 100 times finer than previous assessments.

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"Thermoelectric materials," used in wine refrigerators and spacecraft, promise to help deliver greener energy in the future.

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A durable, multilayered thin film is a possible replacement for expensive indium-based electrodes in devices such as liquid crystal displays and solar cells.

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A team led by UC San Francisco researchers has discovered a sensory system in the foreleg of the fruit fly that tells male flies whether a potential mate is from a different species. The work addresses a central problem in evolution that is poorly understood: how animals of one species know not to mate with animals of other species.

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Research focused on the regulation of the adult stem cells that line the gastrointestinal tract of Drosophila suggests new models for the study of Barrett’s esophagus. Barrett’s esophagus is a condition in which the cells of the lower esophagus transform into stomach-like cells. In most cases this transformation has been thought to occur directly from chronic acid indigestion. A new study suggests a change in stem cell function for this transformation.

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Ever wondered what's going on inside young children's brains when they're looking at things? Researchers at the University of Iowa have used optical neuroimaging for the first time on 3-and 4-year-olds to determine which areas of the brain are activated in "visual working memory."

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A new study shows that hospitals with specialized units combining the compassionate care of hospice and the level of care offered in medical-surgical units may provide efficient, cost effective assistance to patients with advanced chronic illness or terminal disease.

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Researchers discover way to use iron as catalyst for widely used chemical process, replacing heavy metals.

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Hispanic cancer patients rarely participate in clinical trials, but researchers want to tailor a Spanish DVD to help change this. To create a relevant educational tool, Moffitt Cancer Center researchers investigated why awareness of and participation in trials are so low in this population.

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People punish generous group members by rejecting them socially — even though the generosity benefits everyone — because the “big givers” are nonconformists, according to a Baylor University study.

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A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has identified a family of tiny RNA molecules that work as powerful regulators of the immune response in mammals. Mice who lack these RNA molecules lose their normal infection-fighting ability, whereas mice that overproduce them develop a fatal autoimmune syndrome.

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Virginia Tech wildlife researchers have found that tigers in central Sumatra live at very low densities, lower than previously believed.

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Adults with a disability are more likely to be obese or extremely obese than those without a disability according to a study led by researchers at The University of Texas School of Public Health, which is part of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

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A new study in PLOS ONE that examined food poisoning infection as-it-happens in mice revealed harmful bacteria, such as a common type of Salmonella, takes over beneficial bacteria within the gut amid previously unseen changes to the gut environment. The results provide new insights into the course of infection and could lead to better prevention or new treatments.

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New research from Johns Hopkins suggests that bits of genetic material from plants eaten by mice can NOT enter the bloodstream intact as previous research from another institution had indicated.

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Study suggests that care for older patients with chronic geriatric conditions such as dementia and depression was significantly improved when co-managed by both a primary care physician and a nurse practitioner, highlighting the crucial role these nurses can play in treating these conditions.

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People who have a traumatic brain injury (TBI) may be more likely to have a future stroke, according to research that appears in the June 26, 2013, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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A new UC San Francisco study highlights the potential importance of the vast majority of human DNA that lies outside of genes within the cell.

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It’s been known for more than two centuries that pneumonia cases increase during flu epidemics.

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George Washington University researcher, in upcoming Nature study, collected motion data from baseball players to uncover why humans are such good throwers.

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Using biochemistry and mass spectrometry, researchers “trapped” scores of new candidate substrates of the protease ClpXP to reveal how protein degradation is critical to cell cycle progression and bacterial development. The new understanding could lead to identifying new antibiotic targets.

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A special supplement to the June 2013 issue of the Journal of Food Science highlights new studies and research that show the health benefits of consuming raisins.

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Demand has grown recently to find more natural ways to reduce the adverse effects of the two major methods for cancer treatment, ionizing radiation and chemotherapy. A new study in the Journal of Food Science, published by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), found that garlic oil reduced the decrease of white blood cells affected by chemotherapy and radiation treatment in mice with cancerous tumors.

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A Wayne State University researcher has found that sleep apnea severity is higher among African-American men in certain age ranges, even after controlling for body mass index (BMI).

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Diagnostic error in medicine can be prevented and reduced if the rate of error is measured properly, according to a new article by RTI International researcher Mark Graber, M.D.

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State policymakers' attention to teacher quality -- an issue education research shows is essential to improving schooling outcomes for racial minority students -- is highly responsive to low graduation rates among white students, but not among black students, according to a Baylor University study.

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BGSU psychologist Dr. Eric Dubow is part of an international, multidisciplinary team studying the long-term effects of violence on children and, perhaps more importantly, looking for factors that may confer a degree of protection from its impact so that parents, communities and social agencies can provide effective support to the most vulnerable victims of circumstance.

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In an analysis of data from the first two school years of the Shape Up Somerville: Eat Smart Play Hard™ intervention, Tufts University researchers showed that schoolchildren in Somerville, Massachusetts gained less weight and were less likely to be obese or overweight than schoolchildren in two similar control communities.

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For the first time, researchers have restored significant bladder function through nerve regeneration in rats with the most severe spinal cord injuries (SCI). The breakthrough paired a traditional nerve bridge graft with a novel combination of scar degrading and growth factor treatments to grow new nerve cells from the thoracic level to the lower spinal cord region.

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The media often portray computer scientists as nerdy males with poor social skills. But a UW psychologist found women will want to study computer science if they don't buy into the stereotypes.

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UCLA researchers have found that older adults who regularly used a brain-fitness program on a computer demonstrated significantly improved memory and language skills.

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A team of scientists with the Wildlife Conservation Society, BirdLife International, and other groups have discovered a new species of bird with distinct plumage and a loud call living not in some remote jungle, but in a capital city of 1.5 million people.

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A new approach to teaching pre-kindergarten could take a bite out of the achievement gap and level the playing field for America’s growing population of English language learners, according to a recently published study by researchers at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of education and human development.

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Nearly 30 female materials scientists and engineers tell their stories in "United in Our Differences: Changing the Face of MSE," an extensive feature package in the July 2013 issue of JOM.

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Gabriela Ilie, Ph.D., of St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Canada, and colleagues, examined the prevalence of TBI, mechanisms of injury, and adverse correlates in a large representative sample of adolescents living in Ontario, Canada.

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In 2 large studies, the association between aspirin use and risk of colorectal cancer was affected by mutation of the gene BRAF, with regular aspirin use associated with a lower risk of BRAF-wild-type colorectal cancer but not with risk of BRAF-mutated cancer, findings that suggest that BRAF-mutant colon tumor cells may be less sensitive to the effect of aspirin, according to a study in the June 26 issue of JAMA.

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Use of advanced treatment technologies for prostate cancer, such as intensity-modulated radiotherapy and robotic prostatectomy, has increased among men with low-risk disease, high risk of noncancer mortality, or both, a population of patients who are unlikely to benefit from these treatments, according to a study in the June 26 issue of JAMA.

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Researchers at Boston University College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences: Sargent College have identified a combinatorial therapeutic approach that has proven effective in treating muscular dystrophy in a mouse model.

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According to a study of physicians’ attitudes about pain drugs published in The Journal of Pain, negative physician attitudes about opioid medications are closely associated with lower rates of prescribing and more favorable attitudes are linked with higher prescribing levels.

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For treating the estimated 100 million Americans with chronic pain -- a population larger than those with heart disease, cancer and diabetes combined -- researched reported in The Journal of Pain shows that primary care physicians overwhelmingly prefer to prescribe non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDS), in accordance with published clinical practice guidelines.

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A Johns Hopkins study of more than 1,800 men ages 52 to 62 suggests that African-Americans diagnosed with very-low-risk prostate cancers are much more likely than white men to actually have aggressive disease that goes unrecognized with current diagnostic approaches. Although prior studies have found it safe to delay treatment and monitor some presumably slow-growing or low-risk prostate cancers, such “active surveillance” (AS) does not appear to be a good idea for black men, the study concludes.