CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — By studying the injuries and aptitudes of Vietnam War veterans who suffered penetrating head wounds during the war, scientists are tackling -- and beginning to answer -- longstanding questions about how the brain works. The researchers found that brain regions that contribute to optimal social functioning also are vital to general intelligence and to emotional intelligence. This finding bolsters the view that general intelligence emerges from the emotional and social context of one's life. The findings are reported in the journal Brain. "We are ...

Ocean acidification is driving changes in waters vital to Alaska's valuable commercial fisheries and subsistence way of life, according to new NOAA-led research that will be published online in Progress in Oceanography. Many of Alaska's nutritionally and economically valuable marine fisheries are located in waters that are already experiencing ocean acidification, and will see more in the near future, the study shows. Communities in southeast and southwest Alaska face the highest risk from ocean acidification because they rely heavily on fisheries that are expected to ...

There's some good news for parents of preterm babies – latest research from the University of Adelaide shows that by the time they become teenagers, the brains of many preterm children can perform almost as well as those born at term. A study conducted by the University's Robinson Research Institute has found that as long as the preterm child experiences no brain injury in early life, their cognitive abilities as a teenager can potentially be as good as their term-born peers. However, the results of the study, published in this month's issue of The Journal of Pediatrics, ...

July 29, 2014 – A simplified anesthesia procedure may enable more widespread use of preoperative testing to demonstrate the cause of airway obstruction in patients with severe sleep apnea, suggests a study in Anesthesia & Analgesia. Dr. Joshua H. Atkins and Dr. Jeff E. Mandel of the University of Pennsylvania and their colleagues have developed a new "ramp control" anesthetic technique for putting patients to sleep briefly-just enough to show the "obstructive anatomy" responsible for sleep apnea. The simplified technique requires no special expertise and limits drops ...

Achalasia is a rare disease – it affects 1 in 100,000 people – characterized by a loss of nerve cells in the esophageal wall. While its cause remains unknown, a new study by a team of researchers at KU Leuven in Belgium, the University of Bonn in Germany and other European institutions confirms for the first time that achalasia is autoimmune in origin. The study, published on 6 July in Nature Genetics, is an important step towards unraveling the mysterious disease. When we swallow, a sphincter in the lower esophagus opens, allowing food to enter the stomach. Nerve cells ...

Two new reports that focus on the global electricity water nexus have just been published. Three years of research show that by the year 2040 there will not be enough water in the world to quench the thirst of the world population and keep the current energy and power solutions going if we continue doing what we are doing today. It is a clash of competing necessities, between drinking water and energy demand. Behind the research is a group of researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark, Vermont Law School and CNA Corporation in the US. In most countries, electricity ...

Epidemiological studies have repeatedly shown that death rates rise in association with extremely hot weather. The heat wave in Western Europe in the summer of 2003, for example, resulted in about 22,000 extra deaths. A team of researchers led by Dr. Alex-andra Schneider at the Institute of Epidemiology II at the Helmholtz Zentrum München examined the impact of extreme temperatures on the number of deaths caused by cardiovascular disease in three Bavarian cities and included both high and low temperatures in the study. "Our findings confirm the results of our previous ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Some people can handle stressful situations better than others, and it's not all in their genes: Even identical twins show differences in how they respond. Researchers have identified a specific electrical pattern in the brains of genetically identical mice that predicts how well individual animals will fare in stressful situations. The findings, published July 29 in Nature Communications, may eventually help researchers prevent potential consequences of chronic stress -- such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and other psychiatric disorders ...

A groundbreaking study from the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) has found that African-American students in first grade experience smaller gains in reading when they attend segregated schools—but the students' backgrounds likely are not the cause of the differences. According to the Center for Civil Rights, although the United States is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse, segregation is still on the rise. To better understand segregation's impact on student performance, FPG scientists looked at nearly 4000 first graders in public schools ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. --- Teach for America, known for recruiting teachers, is also setting its sights on capturing school board seats across the nation. Surprisingly, however, political candidates from the program aren't just pushing its national education agenda, they're advancing local issues as well, according to a new study. The findings, said Michigan State University's Rebecca Jacobsen, refute the argument that school boards have become ineffective and obsolete in the wake of national education reform. Teach for America, a nonprofit that enlists high-achieving college ...

The wildfires that have been plaguing the Northern Territories in Canada and have sent smoke drifting down to the Great Lakes in the U.S. continue on. NASA's Aqua satellite collected this natural-color image with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, MODIS, instrument on July 26, 2014. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS's thermal bands, are outlined in red. Copious amount of smoke are drifting northward in this image. Smoke is also creating havoc for residents of Yellowknife. Fire has caused power outages in the area and because of the smoke, line ...

A new stem-cell discovery might one day lead to a more streamlined process for obtaining stem cells, which in turn could be used in the development of replacement tissue for failing body parts, according to UC San Francisco scientists who reported the findings in the current edition of Cell. The work builds on a strategy that involves reprogramming adult cells back to an embryonic state in which they again have the potential to become any type of cell. The efficiency of this process may soon increase thanks to the scientists' identification of biochemical pathways ...

One might assume that a tropical storm moving through volcanic smog (vog) would sweep up the tainted air and march on, unchanged. However, a recent study from atmospheric scientists at the University of Hawai'i – Mānoa (UHM) revealed that, though microscopic, gasses and particles from Kilauea volcano exerted an influence on Tropical Storm Flossie – affecting the formation of thunderstorms and lightning in the sizeable storm. In July 2013, as Flossie approached the Hawaiian Islands, satellites steadily monitored lightning, rainfall, cloud cover, temperature and ...

Scientists investigating the herpes virus have been surprised to find an ongoing conflict in the cells of sufferers, even when the virus is apparently dormant. Herpes Simplex Type 1 is a virus that causes cold sores. It remains in the body's nervous system indefinitely after infection. Around 80 per cent of Australians carry the virus, although it is usually in a dormant state. "We thought when the disease was dormant, it was a truce," said Associate Professor David Tscharke from The Australian National University Research School of Biology. "It turns out that the virus ...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an important regulatory role in the self-renewal and differentiation of stem cells. Dr. Defeng Zou and co-workers from the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, China focuses on the effect of miRNA overexpression on the differentiation of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells into neurons. In the study released on the Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 9, No. 12, 2014), researchers used GeneChip technology to analyze the expression of miRNAs in bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells, neural stem cells and neurons. They constructed ...

Previous studies have shown that, anode block electrical stimulation of the sacral nerve root can produce physiological urination and reconstruct urinary bladder function in rabbits. However, whether long-term anode block electrical stimulation causes damage to the sacral nerve root remains unclear, and needs further investigation. In a recent study reported on the Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 9, No. 12, 2014), Dr. Peng Yan and co-workers from Jilin University, China established a complete spinal cord injury model in New Zealand white rabbits through T9-10 segment ...

Scientists believe some tropical species may be able to evolve and adapt to the effects of climate change. The new findings published in the journal, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggests some sensitive rainforest-restricted species may survive climate change and avoid extinction. But only if the change is not too abrupt and dramatically beyond the conditions that a species currently experiences. Previous research offered a bleak prospect for tropical species' adaptation to climate change, now researchers from Monash University believe the situation may not be ...

Giving parents access to a dedicated website on the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is the most cost-effective way to increase uptake, say experts. The study published in the British Journal of General Practice, recommends that a dedicated website be developed as part of guidelines on the MMR vaccine. Led by Dr Swati Shourie from Monash University and Dr Sandy Tubeuf from the University of Leeds in the UK, the research is the first to look at the economics of providing information about the MMR vaccine. As well as reducing parents' concern about immunising ...

Many different types of cell, including sperm, bacteria and algae, propel themselves using whip-like appendages known as flagella. These protrusions, about one-hundredth of a millimetre long, function like tiny oars, helping cells move through fluid. Similar, shorter structures called cilia are found on the surfaces of many cells, where they perform roles such as moving liquids over the cell. Flagella and cilia are remarkably versatile: they transport mucus and expel pathogens from our airways, they establish the left-right asymmetry in developing vertebrate embryos, ...

Denmark attracted international attention in 2012 when archaeological excavations revealed the bones of an entire army, whose warriors had been thrown into the bogs near the Alken Enge wetlands in East Jutland after losing a major engagement in the era around the birth of Christ. Work has continued in the area since then and archaeologists and experts from Aarhus University, Skanderborg Museum and Moesgaard Museum have now made sensational new findings. "We have found a wooden stick bearing the pelvic bones of four different men. In addition, we have unearthed bundles ...

Aarhus University researchers have developed an easier method to create DNA–protein conjugates. The method can potentially strengthen the work involved in diagnosing diseases. DNA linked to proteins – including antibodies – provides a strong partnership that can be used in diagnostic techniques, nanotechnology and other disciplines. DNA–protein conjugates – which tag proteins with DNA – can be used for purposes such as the sensitive detection and visualisation of biological material. The method also provides easier access to handling proteins in nanotechnology, where ...

People who are blind can now read more than just words, such as graphs and graphics, following the development of an affordable digital reading system by Curtin University researchers. Opening up new career paths and educational opportunities for people with vision impairment, the system combines a number of pattern recognition technologies into a single platform and, for the first time, allows mathematics and graphical material to be extracted and described without sighted intervention. Senior Lecturer Dr Iain Murray and PhD student Azadeh Nazemi of Curtin's Department ...

LOS ANGELES (July 28, 2014) – A new technique for repairing the most common cardiac birth defect in newborns, commonly referred to as "a hole in the heart," has been used successfully to mend the condition in six premature infants without subjecting the tiny patients to open-heart surgery. The technique for repairing the condition, patent ductus arteriosus, also called PDA, was published online by the peer-reviewed medical journal Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions, the official journal of The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions. The ...

New research from scientists at the University of Kent has shown for the first time how the structures inside cells are regulated – a breakthrough that could have a major impact on cancer therapy development. A team from Kent's School of Biosciences uncovered the mechanism whereby the physical properties of the internal structures within cells – known as actin filaments – are 'fine-tuned' to undertake different functions. While some of these actin filaments appear to completely stable, providing a framework for the cell, others are more dynamic, allowing the cell to ...

The Conjoint Analysis (CA) method is in principle suitable to find out which preferences patients have regarding treatment goals. However, to widely use it in health economic evaluations, some (primarily methodological) issues still need to be clarified. This is the result of a pilot project by the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG). Following the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), CA is the second method tested by the Institute together with external experts. Summarize outcome-specific results to an overall value In its health economic ...