July 16, 2015, Shenzhen, China--The CONVERGE Consortium identifies two robust genetic variants for major depressive disorder (MDD). The findings, published online today in Nature, help enhance our understandings of the genetic basis of MDD. The CONVERGE Consortium is comprised of international research organizations, including BGI, University of Oxford, Virginia Commonwealth University, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, etc. Major depressive disorder, one of the most frequently encountered forms of mental illness and a leading cause ...

Scientists at VIB and KU Leuven have discovered that the protein APP plays a significant role in the development of fragile X syndrome (FXS) at young stages. They identified an unexpected biological pathway as a promising target to ameliorate deficits associated with FXS and autism. The results have recently been published in Neuron, one of the most influential journals in the field of neuroscience. FXS is the most common inherited cause of intellectual disability worldwide, and the most frequent cause of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). The syndrome is a consequence ...

uman-induced carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to the atmosphere are projected to rise to up to 30 gigatonnes of carbon per year by 2100, assuming a "business-as-usual" scenario. As a result, global mean temperatures are projected to increase by almost five degrees Celsius. According to a team of scientists from the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia, the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science and GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, these changes might have the power to shift ...

To achieve public support for a transformation to a low carbon society, politicians would be advised to implement a quantity-based energy quota system, with a fixed and decreasing cap on total use, rather than relying on carbon pricing and taxation mechanisms, according to a new study. In a wide-ranging paper published in the Carbon Management journal, researchers from the Fleming Policy Centre - including Dr Victoria Hurth from Plymouth University - set out the potential of a policy framework termed Tradable Energy Quotas (TEQs) for meeting the ambitious carbon emissions ...

The research carried out at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) in collaboration with scientists at the University of Otago in New Zealand, tested the effects of lithium chloride on cartilage and found that it slowed the degradation associated with osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis results in degradation of cartilage in joints leading to pain and immobility. It currently affects a third of over 45s in the UK and there are currently no treatments that can prevent it. The study used bovine cartilage samples exposed to inflammatory molecules to mimic the effects of arthritis ...

Rudeness in the workplace isn't just unpleasant: it's also contagious. Encountering rude behavior at work makes people more likely to perceive rudeness in later interactions, a University of Florida study shows. That perception makes them more likely to be impolite in return, spreading rudeness like a virus. "When you experience rudeness, it makes rudeness more noticeable," said lead author Trevor Foulk, a doctoral student in management at UF's Warrington College of Business Administration. "You'll see more rudeness even if it's not there." The findings, published ...

Amsterdam, July 16, 2015 - A tax on sugary drinks that depends on the number of calories or amount of sugar per liter could help fight obesity, suggests new research published in Social Science & Medicine. While a few countries are already trialing a tax on sugary drinks, taxing the dose would encourage drinks companies to offer low-calorie alternatives. Worldwide, an estimated 1.9 billion adults are overweight, and of these 600 million are obese. Obesity increases the risk of diseases like type 2 diabetes; in the US alone, obesity-related healthcare costs around $200 ...

Like most health professionals, David Olson has known for some time of the dangers posed by excessive stress. His latest research, though, is giving surprising new insight into how chronic stress in childhood can have an impact years after it occurred in women giving birth. "Chronic stress is one of the better predictors of preterm birth," says Olson, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the University of Alberta's Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry. "In fact, if women are exposed to two or more adverse childhood experiences while growing up, their risk of preterm ...

Air pollution from wildfires may increase risk of cardiac arrests, and other sudden acute heart problems, researchers have found. Lead author, Dr Anjali Haikerwal, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at Monash University, said while breathing wildfire smoke was linked to respiratory problems such as asthma - evidence of an association between wildfire smoke exposure and heart problems has been inconsistent. In the new study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, researchers examined the association between exposure to tiny particulate ...

Researchers have discovered a new technique to enhance brain excitability that could improve physical performance in healthy individuals such as athletes and musicians. The technique could also improve treatments for neurological and neuropsychological conditions such as stroke, depression and chronic pain. The idea of stimulating different parts of the brain with electricity may sound futuristic, but these types of treatments have a remarkably long history. Early physicians and scientists such as Claudius Galen (the Roman physician) and Avicenna (the Persian physician) ...

A simple, lower-cost new method for DNA profiling of human hairs developed by the University of Adelaide should improve opportunities to link criminals to serious crimes. The researchers have modified existing laboratory methods and been able to produce accurate DNA profiles from trace amounts at a much higher success rate. "Technological advancements over the last 10 years have allowed police and forensic scientists to profile crime-scene DNA from ever smaller and more challenging samples collected from fingerprints, skin cells, saliva and hairs," says Associate Professor ...

Scientists, including SFU professor Peter Ruben, have found that sudden death caused by cardiac arrhythmia can be triggered by changes in body temperature. The study is published in the Journal of Physiology. The soccer player who drops dead in the middle of a game, or the infant who dies during sleep is often a victim of arrhythmia. Sudden cardiac death has several causes, including inheritable mutations in our DNA affecting structure and function of proteins in the heart. Simon Fraser University professor Peter Ruben found when studying the proteins that underlie electrical ...

A recent study looks at why some children put on weight faster than others. The study's goal is to identify factors that can lead to obesity. Assistant Professor Silje Steinsbekk and Professor Lars Wichstrøm at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's Department of Psychology are conducting the survey. "We've looked to see if physical activity, television time and appetite traits can explain why some children's body mass index (BMI) increases more than others' do," says Steinsbekk. At the clinic, most parents have seen the percentile curves on the ...

PHOENIX, Ariz. -- July 15, 2015 -- Researchers at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) have identified a genetic mutation associated with the appearance of premature aging and severe loss of body fat in children. TGen's Center for Rare Childhood Disorders found that the appearance of premature aging, a neonatal form of Progeroid syndrome, in a 3-year-old girl was caused by a mutation in the gene CAV1, according to a study published today in the scientific journal PLOS ONE. The Center for Rare Childhood Disorders was established in 2010 to examine the ...

15 July, 2015, Hoffman Estates, IL - Sodium intake in the U.S. exceeds dietary recommendations and has been identified as a nutrient of public health concern in the Scientific Report of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee1 due to its link to increased risk of hypertension, heart disease, and stroke2. While authorities continue to call for people to lower their sodium intake, much progress still needs to be made and multiple solutions are necessary to meet the recommended maximum intake of 2,300 milligrams per day for the general population and 1,500 milligrams ...

Mainz/Barcelona. A team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P) discovered that electrical conduction in graphene on the picosecond timescale - a picosecond being one thousandth of one billionth of a second - is governed by the same basic laws that describe the thermal properties of gases. This much simpler thermodynamic approach to the electrical conduction in graphene will allow scientists and engineers not only to better understand but also to improve the performance of graphene-based nanoelectronic devices. The researchers found that ...

Researchers at Harvard University and the University of California, San Diego, have developed a new user-friendly resource to accompany the powerful gene editing tool called CRISPR/Cas9, which has been widely adopted to make precise, targeted changes in DNA. This breakthrough has the potential to facilitate new discoveries in gene therapies and basic genetics research. The research was published in the July 13 issue of Nature Methods. The study describes an approach to simplify a laborious part of the gene editing process using the CRISPR/Cas9 system: choosing the best ...

Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) is becoming increasingly recognized as a very real and devastating problem in which impaired breathing is thought to play a critical role. Researchers believe breathing may be impaired during and after seizures, without the patient's knowledge. By using electrical stimulation to activate the amygdala, a group of University of Iowa researchers has identified areas of the human brain in which breathing is controlled and, in some cases, impaired, providing an important insight into SUDEP. Their study - which marks the first time ...

NASA's Aqua satellite flew over Typhoon Halola in the northwestern Pacific Ocean and captured temperature data on the storm. Satellite data showed that wind shear is affecting the stubborn storm. NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Halola on July 14 at 20:20 UTC (4:20 p.m. EDT/1:20 p.m. PDT) infrared data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument that also flies aboard Aqua showed cloud top temperatures were as cold as -63F/-52C. Cloud top temperatures that cold have the ability to drop heavy rainfall. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center noted that animated ...

High school students who take part in pre-college programs that focus on science are much more likely to pursue higher education and, eventually, careers in science, technology, engineering and medicine - the STEM disciplines. In a paper published in the Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, Michigan State University researchers from the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics and the College of Education used an MSU program as a case study for why these programs are key to training tomorrow's generation ...

PHILADELPHIA, PA - July 15, 2015 - Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) remains under-recognized in hospitalized patients, despite being associated with cardiovascular complications and sudden death. A multi-disciplinary group of researchers and physicians at Thomas Jefferson University and Hospitals have created a clinical pathway, or screening process, to identify the disorder in higher-risk, hospitalized patients and recently published the results in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. "The results showed that our screening process identified sleep disordered breathing ...

New York, NY, July 15, 2015--Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) have found that key parts of the human brain network that give us the power to control and redirect our attention--a core cognitive ability--may be unique to humans. The research, which was published in the July 13 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that the network may have evolved in response to increasingly complex social cues. "The human brain is powerful, but even it cannot make sense of the entire sum of stimuli that bombard our senses," ...

ROSEMONT, Ill.--Patients who received rehabilitation instructions via video teleconference, or "telerehabilitation," following total knee replacement (TKR) surgery had comparable outcomes to patients who received in-person physical therapy, according to a study appearing in the July 15 issue of The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery (JBJS). "This study is the first to provide strong evidence for use of telerehabilitation as an alternative to conventional face-to-face care following total knee replacement surgery," said Hélène Moffet, PhD, lead study author, physical ...

JUPITER, FL, July 15, 2015 - As early as 1943, when autism was first described by psychiatrist Leo Kanner, reports were made that some, but not all, children with autism spectrum disorder have relatively enlarged heads. But even today, more than half a century later, the exact cause of this early abnormal growth of the head and brain has remained unclear. Now, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have uncovered how mutations in a specific autism risk gene alter the basic trajectory of early brain development in animal models. The ...

Montreal, July 15, 2015 - A Canadian research team at the IRCM in Montreal, led by molecular virologist Eric A. Cohen, PhD, made a significant discovery on how HIV escapes the body's antiviral responses. The team uncovered how an HIV viral protein known as Vpu tricks the immune system by using its own regulatory process to evade the host's first line of defence. This breakthrough was published yesterday in the scientific journal PLOS Pathogens and will be presented at the upcoming IAS 2015 conference in Vancouver. The findings pave the way for future HIV prevention or cure ...