news

Health - Life Sciences - 29.01.2012

Stealthy leprosy pathogen evades critical vitamin D-dependent immune response
A team of UCLA scientists has found that the pathogen that causes leprosy has a remarkable ability to avoid the human immune system by inhibiting the antimicrobial responses important to our defenses. In one of the first laboratory studies of its kind, researchers discovered that the leprosy pathogen Mycobacterium leprae was able to reduce and evade immune activity that is dependent on vitamin D, a natural hormone that plays an essential role in the body's fight against infections.

Health - Economics / Business - 27.01.2012

Lure of entertainment, work hard for people to resist
Trying to resist that late-night tweet or checking your work email again? The bad news is that desires for work and entertainment often win out in the daily struggle for self-control, according to a new study that measures various desires and their regulation in daily life. "Modern life is a welter of assorted desires marked by frequent conflict and resistance, the latter with uneven success," said Asst.

Life Sciences - Health - 27.01.2012

Tumour identification a matter of life and death
Cancer is not one disease but several. There are many different variants of each type of cancer, which cannot be differentiated with current methods but where the differences can still be a matter of life and death.“We must improve our ability to identify the special characteristics of individual tumours which show the likely development of the disease and how different treatments could work”, says Karin Jirström.

Health - 26.01.2012

New Research Study Identifies Why Some Young People Choose to Get Tested for STDs and Others Don’t
A recent study by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Maryland identified the reasons why college-age individuals would be tested for sexually transmitted diseases. These findings are valuable in developing public health awareness advertising campaigns. Researchers Ryan S. Paquin, a doctoral candidate from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, and Vanessa Boudewyns from the University of Maryland offer new answers about why young people choose to be tested or opt against it.

Health - Agronomy / Food Science - 26.01.2012

Heart attack deaths have halved
The death rate from heart attacks in England has halved in the last decade, according to Oxford University research. The study published in the British Medical Journal found that there were fewer heart attacks in the last decade - and fewer of these were fatal - compared with earlier years. 'These are big success stories for public health and for the NHS,' says Kate Smolina, first author on the study.

Health - 25.01.2012

Pairing masks and hand washing could drastically slow spread of pandemic flu
ANN ARBOR, Mich.-Masks and hand hygiene could cut the spread of flu-like symptoms up to 75 percent, a University of Michigan study found. A new report shows the second-year results (2007-2008) of the ground-breaking U-M M-Flu study found up to a 75 percent reduction in flu-like illness over the study period when using hand hygiene and wearing surgical masks in residence halls, said Allison Aiello, associate professor of epidemiology in the U-M School of Public Health.

Health - Administration - 25.01.2012

Nature: Kawaoka authors commentary on flu research
Here is a news release issued today by the journal Nature: The author of an upcoming Nature paper about H5N1 argues in a Nature Comment article today that research into deadly pathogenic viruses must continue if pandemics are to be prevented. Yoshihiro Kawaoka suggests, after reviewing many factors, that pursuing studies of highly pathogenic viruses must be done with urgency.

Health - Social Sciences - 25.01.2012

Dawn of Social Networks
Ancient humans may not have had the luxury of updating their Facebook status, but social networks were nevertheless an essential component of their lives, a new study suggests. The study's findings describe elements of social network structures that may have been present early in human history, suggesting how our ancestors may have formed ties with both kin and non-kin based on shared attributes, including the tendency to cooperate.

Health - Mechanical Engineering - 25.01.2012

Researchers Suggest a Proximate Cause of Cancer
AUSTIN, TX — Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin's Department of Chemical Engineering are the first to show that mechanical property changes in cells may be responsible for cancer progression - a discovery that could pave the way for new approaches to predict, treat and prevent cancer.

Health - Life Sciences - 25.01.2012

Researchers Induce Alzheimer’s Neurons From Pluripotent Stem Cells
Stem-cell-derived neurons, made from patients with Alzheimer's disease, provide a new tool for unraveling the mechanisms underlying the neurodegenerative disease. In this image, DNA is shown in blue, dendrites and cell bodies in red and endosomal markers Rab5 and EEA1 in green and orange, respectively.

Health - Life Sciences - 25.01.2012

Survey of pet dogs indicates Lyme disease risk much greater than previous estimates suggest
Ticks infected with the bacteria that cause Lyme disease may be considerably more prevalent in the UK than expected, according to new research from the University of Bristol that used pet dogs as 'sentinels' for human disease risk. Transmitted by ticks, Lyme disease is a debilitating chronic infection which affects a number of animals including humans and dogs.

Health - 24.01.2012

Saliva HIV test passes the grade
RI-MUHC-led study compares saliva self-test to blood test Montreal January 24, 2012 - A saliva test used to diagnose the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), is comparable in accuracy to the traditional blood test, according to a new study led by the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) and McGill University.

Health - Art and Design - 24.01.2012

Patients leave ER with poor understanding of how to care for themselves
In a new review article, researchers at the University of Toronto , The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and Children's Hospital Boston have found there frequently is a lack of patient-family comprehension at the time of discharge from the emergency department, leaving patients and families unable to report the diagnosis or understand instructions for at-home care, medication use or reasons to return to the hospital.

Health - Art and Design - 24.01.2012

Drug treatment delays progression of prostate cancer
Treatment with the drug dutasteride (Avodart) and regular monitoring delays the progression of low-risk, localized prostate cancer, according to the results of a three-year clinical trial conducted by the University of Toronto's Neil Fleshner . The research also shows that the treatment reduces anxiety, said Fleshner, a professor of surgery and head of the Division of Urology at the University Health Network.

Health - Chemistry - 24.01.2012

Methamphetamine Use Increasing Again, Researchers Find
AUSTIN, Texas — Use of methamphetamines is on the rise nationally after a decrease a few years ago, according to university researchers. Use of meth dropped significantly in 2007 and 2008 after laws limiting the availability of pseudoephedrine went into effect made it much harder to obtain key ingredients.

Health - Life Sciences - 24.01.2012

Window over mouse spinal cord allows imaging to aid trauma therapy
To study spinal cord injuries, researchers have had to conduct exploratory surgeries on mice to determine how nerves and other cells respond after trauma. But these approaches have only shown snapshots in time and have failed to provide key, game-changing information. But now, Cornell researchers have developed an imaging technique similar to one used to study the brain, in which a small portion of a mouse skull is replaced with glass so scientists can observe the brain to study Alzheimer's disease, strokes and brain cancers.

Life Sciences - Health - 24.01.2012

Magic mushrooms’ effects illuminated in brain imaging studies
Brain scans of people under the influence of the psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, have given scientists the most detailed picture to date of how psychedelic drugs work. The findings of two studies being published in scientific journals this week identify areas of the brain where activity is suppressed by psilocybin and suggest that it helps people to experience memories more vividly.

Health - Life Sciences - 23.01.2012

Painful egos: Narcissism may be harmful for men
ANN ARBOR, Mich.-The personality trait narcissism may have an especially negative effect on the health of men, according to a new study. "Narcissistic men may be paying a high price in terms of their physical health, in addition to the psychological cost to their relationships," said Sara Konrath, a University of Michigan psychologist who co-authored the study published in PLoS ONE.

Health - Life Sciences - 23.01.2012

Study identifies genes linked to menopause age
An international team of researchers has identified 13 new gene regions associated with the timing of menopause. The genes found in these DNA regions shed light on the biological pathways involved in determining when women go through menopause.

Life Sciences - Health - 23.01.2012

Lifelong brain-stimulating habits linked to lower Alzheimer’s protein levels
A new study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, provides even more reason for people to read a book or do a puzzle, and to make such activities a lifetime habit. Brain scans revealed that people with no symptoms of Alzheimer's who engaged in cognitively stimulating activities throughout their lives had fewer deposits of beta-amyloid, a destructive protein that is the hallmark of the disease.