A scientific collaboration, involving the Manchester Centre for Genomic Medicine (MCGM) at Saint Mary's Hospital, UK, and the Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine (TIGEM) in Naples, Italy, has pinpointed the genetic cause of a rare form of blindness, which can present itself as a key-hole shaped defect in the eye in newborn babies. The condition is known as inherited retinal dystrophy associated with ocular coloboma. Coloboma is one of a number of developmental genetic disorders that collectively represent important causes of visual disability affecting one ...

Weight-conscious consumers are often drawn to foods such as Clif Bars and Wheaties, whose packaging suggests that they promote fitness. But according to a new study in the Journal of Marketing Research, such "fitness branding" encourages consumers to eat more of those foods and to exercise less, potentially undermining their efforts to lose or control their weight. "Unless a food was forbidden by their diet, branding the product as 'fit' increased consumption for those trying to watch their weight," write authors Joerg Koenigstorfer (Technische Universität München) ...

Does your thirteen-year-old daughter rush headlong toward that Taylor Swift poster she sees in Target? Chances are, the thrill she feels at seeing the poster will carry over to the unrelated notebooks, protractors, and pencil boxes nearby, says a new study in the Journal of Marketing Research. "Marketers typically don't consider that the emotions produced in one marketing message may be influencing more than just our feelings toward the targeted product," write authors Jonathan Hasford (Florida International University), David M. Hardesty (University of Kentucky), and ...

Consumers might like variety when it comes to products to buy, but will using a product in a variety of circumstances and in a variety of ways lead consumers to like it more? Probably not, says a new study in the Journal of Marketing Research. According to the study, the more a consumer uses a product for different purposes or in different situations, the more likely he or she will report being unsatisfied with their purchase. "Consumers often use the same product in the same way in multiple situations, and these situations may differ in variety," write authors Jordan ...

Given that depression is characterized by intense and frequent negative feelings, like sadness, it might seem logical to develop interventions that target those negative feelings. But new research suggests that even when depressed people have the opportunity to decrease their sadness, they don't necessarily try to do so. The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. "Our findings show that, contrary to what we might expect, depressed people sometimes choose to behave in a manner that increases rather than ...

If the packaging has an appealing design, primary school children also reach for healthy foods. This was revealed in a study in cooperation with the Research Institute for Child Nutrition in Dortmund under the direction of scientists from the University of Bonn. The results are being published in advance online in the journal Frontiers in Psychology. The final version will be published shortly. Children are especially eager to reach for snacks if the packaging has an appealing design. 'The food industry has a lot of experience in using marketing effects to increase product ...

Positive customer feedback, to say nothing of positive sales, is always a good sign of a new product's potential success, right? Not necessarily, says a new study in the Journal of Marketing Research. According to the study, there is a small set of consumers who, time and again, purchase and rave about new products that consistently flop. Positive feedback from those customers, whom the study authors name "harbingers of failure," actually means that a product is likely to bomb. "Certain customers systematically purchase new products that prove unsuccessful," write authors ...

This news release is available in German. Patients with type 2 diabetes have a dysfunctional sugar metabolism because the essential hormone insulin does not work effectively. Once the disease reaches an advanced stage, the body stops producing insulin altogether, which means that it has to be administered externally. Type 2 diabetes most commonly occurs in late adulthood, and it has long been known that it can affect the patient's mental health: Patients have a greater risk of developing dementia than non-diabetics. However, how does antidiabetic medication influence ...

Obesity and excess weight, and their negative impact on health, have become a significant focus for physicians and other health-care experts in recent years. But new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that an escalation in the number of those considered obese or overweight in the United States continues, signaling an ongoing upward swing in chronic health conditions as well. The study is available online June 22 in JAMA Internal Medicine. Compared with a similar study published in 1999 that estimated 63 percent of men and 55 percent ...

A global taskforce of 174 scientists from leading research centres across 28 countries studied the link between mixtures of commonly encountered chemicals and the development of cancer. The study selected 85 chemicals not considered carcinogenic to humans and found 50 supported key cancer-related mechanisms at exposures found in the environment today. Longstanding concerns about the combined and additive effects of everyday chemicals prompted the organisation Getting To Know Cancer led by Leroy Lowe from Halifax Nova Scotia, to put the team together - pitching what ...

WASHINGTON -- Using a simple structure comprising a mirror and an absorbing layer to take advantage of the wave properties of light, researchers at Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, have developed a display technology that harnesses natural ambient light to produce an unprecedented range of colors and superior viewing experience. An article describing their innovative approach appears today in The Optical Society's new high-impact journal Optica. This display technology, which could greatly reduce the amount of power used in multiple ...

The test has produced encouraging results in a clinical study, and will now be tested in a larger trial involving three hospitals in London. Researchers analysed breath samples of 210 patients using the test. They found that the test can discriminate between malignant and benign oesophageal cancer in patients for the first time. The test is 90 per cent accurate and provides results in minutes, which can take up to four to six hours to process using other methods. The test can also be applied to detect gastric (stomach) cancer tumours. According to the researchers, ...

The chronic neurodegenerative Parkinson's disease affects an increasing number of people. However, scientists still do not know why some people develop Parkinson's disease. Now researchers from Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital have taken an important step towards a better understanding of the disease. New research indicates that Parkinson's disease may begin in the gastrointestinal tract and spread through the vagus nerve to the brain. "We have conducted a registry study of almost 15,000 patients who have had the vagus nerve in their stomach severed. ...

Since February 2015, aflibercept (trade name Eylea) has been available also for patients with impaired vision due to macular oedema that follows blockage of branch veins of the central retinal vein (branch retinal vein occlusion, BRVO). The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined in a dossier assessment whether this drug offers an added benefit over the appropriate comparator therapy. Such an added benefit cannot be derived from the dossier because it contained no data relevant for the assessment. Manufacturer considered only the comparison ...

The worldwide spreading of the whooping cough, also known as pertussis, has substantially increased since 2010. Researchers from the Biozentrum, University of Basel, have investigated structure and function of an important membrane protein of the bacterium causing pertussis. They discovered that the protein structure differs from a previously postulated model. Their findings, published in "Nature Communications", provide a basis for new treatment approaches for the infection. Many tiny protein pores are found in the outer membrane of the pertussis pathogen, the bacterium ...

TORONTO -- Alex C. Spyropoulos, M.D., system medical director of the Anticoagulation and Clinical Thrombosis Services at the North Shore-LIJ Health System is part of the steering committee that will discuss results of the BRIDGE study, a randomized trial on atrial fibrillation June 22 at The International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) 2015 Congress. The findings are published simultaneously in the June issue of New England Journal of Medicine. Atrial fibrillation is an irregular and often rapid heart rate that commonly causes poor blood flow to the body. ...

To find life in the universe, it helps to know what it might look like. If there are organisms on other planets that do not rely wholly on photosynthesis -- as some on Earth do not -- how might those worlds appear from light-years away? That's among the questions University of Washington doctoral student Edward Schwieterman and astronomer Victoria Meadows of the UW-based, interdisciplinary Virtual Planetary Laboratory sought to answer in research published in May in the journal Astrobiology. Using computer simulations, the researchers found that if organisms with nonphotosynthetic ...

Teenagers are very familiar with the risks of smoking cigarettes, but are much less sure whether marijuana or e-cigarettes are harmful, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. While adolescents get clear messages from their families, teachers, peers and the media about the harms of smoking cigarettes, they receive conflicting or sparse information about the harms of marijuana and e-cigarettes, the study showed. The findings will be published online June 23 in the Journal of Adolescent Health. "Kids were really good at ...

Stanford University researchers studying how the brain controls movement in people with paralysis, related to their diagnosis of Lou Gehrig's disease, have found that groups of neurons work together, firing in complex rhythms to signal muscles about when and where to move. "We hope to apply these findings to create prosthetic devices, such as robotic arms, that better understand and respond to a person's thoughts," said Jaimie Henderson, MD, professor of neurosurgery. A paper describing the study will be published online June 23 in eLife. Henderson, who holds the ...

A review of medical records for almost 200 patients with breast cancer suggests that more selective use of biomarker testing for such patients has the potential to save millions of dollars in health care spending without compromising care, according to Johns Hopkins researchers. Specifically, waiting to perform these tests until a patient has a full excisional biopsy instead of "reflexively" or automatically testing for them on initial small "core" biopsies could save as much as $117 million, according to a report on the study published in the July issue of The American ...

A global taskforce of 174 scientists from leading research centres across 28 countries studied the link between mixtures of commonly encountered chemicals and the development of cancer. The study selected 85 chemicals not considered carcinogenic to humans and found 50 supported key cancer-related mechanisms at exposures found in the environment today. Longstanding concerns about the combined and additive effects of everyday chemicals prompted the organisation Getting To Know Cancer led by Lowe Leroy from Halifax Nova Scotia, to put the team together - pitching what is ...

Researchers at University of California, Berkeley have taken inspiration from the cockroach to create a robot that can use its body shape to manoeuvre through a densely cluttered environment. Fitted with the characteristic rounded shell of the discoid cockroach, the running robot can perform a roll manoeuvre to slip through gaps between grass-like vertical beam obstacles without the need for additional sensors or motors. It is hoped the robot can inspire the design of future terrestrial robots to use in a wide variety of scenarios, from monitoring the environment to ...

The gut microbe Akkermansia muciniphila may hold the key to better metabolic health and healthier body fat distribution in people who are overweight or obese, reveals a small study published online in the journal Gut. The microbe seems to be linked to lower levels of fasting blood glucose and fats--key factors involved in the development of diabetes and heart disease--and healthier distribution of body fat, the findings indicate. In healthy people A. muciniphila makes up around 3-5% of the gut's bacterial ecosystem and is associated with a diet rich in insoluble fibre. The ...

Squatting in 'skinny' jeans for a protracted period of time can damage muscle and nerve fibres in the legs, making it difficult to walk, reveals a case study published online in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. Doctors describe a case of a 35 year old woman who arrived at hospital with severe weakness in both her ankles. The previous day she had been helping a relative move house, and had spent many hours squatting while emptying cupboards. She had been wearing tight 'skinny' jeans and recalled that these had felt increasingly tight and uncomfortable ...

New findings may help ease concerns for women with lupus who are interested in having a child. A new study concludes that most women with lupus whose disease is not very active will have a safe pregnancy. The results are to publish online June 22 in Annals of Internal Medicine. It was previously suggested that women with lupus avoid pregnancy because of serious complications to their own health and the health of the baby. As more knowledge became available, doctors told women with lupus to wait until symptoms were under control, but until now, it was still uncertain whether ...