TORONTO -- The brains of people with epilepsy appear to react to music differently from the brains of those who do not have the disorder, a finding that could lead to new therapies to prevent seizures, according to research presented at the American Psychological Association's 123rd Annual Convention. "We believe that music could potentially be used as an intervention to help people with epilepsy," said Christine Charyton, PhD, adjunct assistant professor and visiting assistant professor of neurology at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, who presented the ...

SEATTLE, WA, AUGUST 9, 2015 - A new statistical method for analyzing next-generation sequencing (NGS) data that helps researchers study the genome of various organisms such as human tumors and could help bring about personalized cancer treatments was presented today at a session of the 2015 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM 2015) in Seattle. Yuan Ji, director of the Program for Computational Genomics and Medicine Research Institute at NorthShore University HealthSystem and associate professor of biostatistics at The University of Chicago, described the new technique--called ...

SEATTLE, WA, AUGUST 9, 2015 - Linking survey data with administrative records will enable the federal government to better gauge the effectiveness of social welfare programs such as food stamps and federal housing assistance, as well as the overall reach of federal antipoverty initiatives, Bruce D. Meyer today told a session audience at the 2015 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM 2015) in Seattle. During a presentation titled "Using Linked Survey and Administrative Data to Better Measure Income: Implications for Poverty, Program Effectiveness, and Holes in the Safety Net," ...

TORONTO -- The practice of sexting may be more common than generally thought among adults. More than eight out of 10 people surveyed online admitted to sexting in the prior year, according to research presented at the American Psychological Association's 123rd Annual Convention. "Given the possible implications, both positive and negative, for sexual health, it is important to continue investigating the role sexting plays in current romantic and sexual relationships," said Emily Stasko, MS, MPH, of Drexel University, who presented the research. Stasko and her co-author, ...

Researchers shed light on why some plants thrive in different environments while others become extinct Plants with C4 photosynthesis can thrive in a range of ecological conditions Discovery could be key in helping improve vital food security A team of international researchers, led by the University of Sheffield, has moved one step closer to discovering how physiological attributes allow some plants to thrive in a variety of conditions - something that could be the key to future food sustainability. Climate change strongly impacts on biodiversity, putting some ...

DOWNERS GROVE, Ill, August 7, 2015 -The FDA recently approved two new endoscopic bariatric therapies (EBT) for the treatment of obesity. According to the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE), this development provides important new, minimally invasive tools for combating the obesity epidemic and offers many patients an alternative to surgery. The ReShape™ Integrated Dual Balloon System (ReShape™ Dual Balloon) was approved by the FDA on July 29. The ORBERA™ Intragastric Balloon was approved by the FDA on August 6. Many new and emerging ...

Athens, Ga. - Recent research published in the journal Microsystems & Nanoengineering could eventually change the way people living with prosthetics and spinal cord injury lead their lives. Instead of using neural prosthetic devices--which suffer from immune-system rejection and are believed to fail due to a material and mechanical mismatch--a multi-institutional team, including Lohitash Karumbaiah of the University of Georgia's Regenerative Bioscience Center, has developed a brain-friendly extracellular matrix environment of neuronal cells that contain very little foreign ...

When the right gene is expressed in the right manner in the right population of stem cells, the developing mouse brain can exhibit primate-like features. In a paper publishing August 7th in the Open Access journal PLOS Biology, researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) succeeded in mimicking the sustained expression of the transcription factor Pax6 as seen in the developing human brain, in mouse cortical progenitor cells. This altered the behavior of these cells to one that is akin to that of progenitors in the developing primate ...

The common baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is used to make bread, wine and beer, and is the laboratory workhorse for a substantial proportion of research into molecular and cell biology. It was also the first non-bacterial living thing to have its genome sequenced, back in 1996. However, when the sequence of that genome emerged it appeared that the scientists were seeing double - the organism seemed to have two very different versions of many of its genes. How could this have happened? Researchers from the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) Barcelona, Spain, ...

Berkeley -- While the eyes may be a window into one's soul, new research led by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that the pupils could also reveal whether one is a hunter or hunted. An analysis of 214 species of land animals shows that a creature's ecological niche is a strong predictor of pupil shape. Species with pupils that are vertical slits are more likely to be ambush predators that are active both day and night. In contrast, those with horizontally elongated pupils are extremely likely to be plant-eating prey species with eyes on ...

This news release is available in French and German. Every year, more than a million fish are used for toxicity testing and scientific research in the EU alone, and around 400 fish are needed for a single fish early-life stage test. Such toxicity tests are often required by regulatory authorities for new chemical substances, as fish are particularly sensitive to contaminants in water at early developmental stages. However, the increasing use of experimental animals is ethically questionable. In addition, conventional tests are complex, expensive and take ...

Coral Gables, FL (August 7, 2015)--Two new studies show that the tone of a candidate's voice can influence whether he or she wins office. "Our analyses of both real-life elections and data from experiments show that candidates with lower-pitched voices are generally more successful at the polls," explains Casey Klofstad, associate professor of political science at the University of Miami College of Arts and Sciences, who is corresponding author on both studies. The first study, published online in Political Psychology, shows that candidates who ran in the 2012 U.S. ...

CRG researchers have proposed a new theory to explain the origin of whole genome duplication at the beginning of the yeast lineage. Yeasts are single-celled fungi that originated over 100 million years ago. The ability of these organisms to ferment carbohydrates is widely used for food and drink fermentation. Yeasts are also one of the most commonly used model organisms in research. For example, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is used to make bread, wine and beer, was the first eukaryotic organism to be sequenced (in 1996) and is a key model organism for studying ...

Medulloblastoma, the most commonly occurring malignant brain tumor in children, can be classified into four subgroups--each with a different risk profile requiring subgroup-specific therapy. Currently, subgroup determination is done after surgical removal of the tumor. Investigators at Children's Hospital Los Angeles have now discovered that these subgroups can be determined non-invasively, using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). The paper will be published online by the journal Neuro-Oncology (Oxford Press) on August 7. "By identification of the tumor subgroup ...

TORONTO - Hearing loss in adults is under treated despite evidence that hearing aid technology can significantly lessen depression and anxiety and improve cognitive functioning, according to a presentation at the American Psychological Association's 123rd Annual Convention. "Many hard of hearing people battle silently with their invisible hearing difficulties, straining to stay connected to the world around them, reluctant to seek help," said David Myers, PhD, a psychology professor and textbook writer at Hope College in Michigan who lives with hearing loss. In a ...

Philadelphia - A large randomized clinical trial of an emergency department (ED)-based program aimed at reducing incidents of excessive drinking and partner violence in women did not result in significant improvements in either risk factor, according to a new study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Contrary to previous studies which found brief interventions in the ED setting to be effective for reducing alcohol consumption to safe levels and preventing subsequent injury among patients with hazardous drinking, the new ...

Capture and convert--this is the motto of carbon dioxide reduction, a process that stops the greenhouse gas before it escapes from chimneys and power plants into the atmosphere and instead turns it into a useful product. One possible end product is methanol, a liquid fuel and the focus of a recent study conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory. The chemical reactions that make methanol from carbon dioxide rely on a catalyst to speed up the conversion, and Argonne scientists identified a new material that could fill this role. With ...

For years chemotherapy has been one of most common methods of treating cancer, but it comes with the substantial drawback of effecting healthy cells in the same way that it effects cancerous cells. This means that a subject of chemotherapy can experience great pain and sickness as a side effect of the potentially lifesaving treatment. A solution to this problem is targeted therapy, or the use of drugs, which more specifically targets cancer cells while ignoring nearby healthy cells. Targeted therapy is dependent on drugs which are tailored to inhibited cancer cell growth, ...

A new test developed by UBC researchers allows physicians to measure the effects of gene silencing therapy in Huntington's disease and will support the first human clinical trial of a drug that targets the genetic cause of the disease. The gene silencing therapy being tested by UBC researchers aims to reduce the levels of a toxic protein in the brain that causes Huntington's disease. The test was developed by Amber Southwell, Michael Hayden, and Blair Leavitt of UBC's Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics and the Centre for Huntington Disease in collaboration ...

This news release is available in Japanese. There are no magic bullets for global energy needs. But fuel cells in which electrical energy is harnessed directly from live, self-sustaining chemical reactions promise cheaper alternatives to fossil fuels. To facilitate faster energy conversion in these cells, scientists disperse nanoparticles made from special metals called 'noble' metals, for example gold, silver and platinum along the surface of an electrode. These metals are not as chemically responsive as other metals at the macroscale but their atoms become more ...

Scientists searched the chromosomes of more than 4,000 Huntington's disease patients and found that DNA repair genes may determine when the neurological symptoms begin. Partially funded by the National Institutes of Health, the results may provide a guide for discovering new treatments for Huntington's disease and a roadmap for studying other neurological disorders. "Our hope is to find ways that we can slow or delay the onset of Huntington's devastating symptoms," said James Gusella, Ph.D., director of the Center for Human Genetic Research at Massachusetts General ...

Scientists on the NOvA experiment saw their first evidence of oscillating neutrinos, confirming that the extraordinary detector built for the project not only functions as planned but is also making great progress toward its goal of a major leap in our understanding of these ghostly particles. NOvA is on a quest to learn more about the abundant yet mysterious particles called neutrinos, which flit through ordinary matter as though it weren't there. The first NOvA results, released this week at the American Physical Society's Division of Particles and Fields conference ...

WORCESTER, MA -- Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School have found that Google Glass, a head-mounted streaming audio/video device, may be used to effectively extend bed-side toxicology consults to distant health care facilities such as community and rural hospitals to diagnose and manage poisoned patients. Published in the Journal of Medical Toxicology, the study also showed preliminary data that suggests the hands-free device helps physicians in diagnosing specific poisonings and can enhance patient care. "In the present era of value-based care, ...

Health care organizations have been implementing health information technology at increasing rates in an effort to engage patients and caregivers improve patient satisfaction, and favorably impact outcomes. A new study led by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) finds that a novel web-based, patient-centered toolkit (PCTK) used by patients and/or their healthcare proxys in the hospital setting helped them to engage in understanding and developing their plan of care, and has the potential to improve communication with providers. The results of the study are ...

Australian scientists have discovered many tropical, mountaintop plants won't survive global warming, even under the best-case climate scenario. James Cook University and Australian Tropical Herbarium researchers say their climate change modelling of mountaintop plants in the tropics has produced an "alarming" finding. They found many of the species they studied will likely not be able to survive in their current locations past 2080 as their high-altitude climate changes. The Wet Tropics World Heritage Area in Queensland, Australia is predicted to almost completely ...