As you glance over a menu or peruse the shelves in a supermarket, you may be thinking about how each food will taste and whether it's nutritious, or you may be trying to decide what you're in the mood for. A new neuroimaging study suggests that while you're thinking all these things, an internal calorie counter of sorts is also evaluating each food based on its caloric density. The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. "Earlier studies found that children and adults tend to choose high-calorie food," ...

This news release is available in German. Leipzig. Artificial light increases foraging time in blackbirds. Birds in city centres are active not just considerably earlier, but also for longer than their relatives in darker parts of the city. That is the result of a study of around 200 blackbirds in Leipzig, which was carried out in the framework of the "Loss of the Night" research project. The study showed that artificial light has a considerable influence on the activity times of blackbirds in the city and therefore on their natural cycles, according to scientists of ...

New Rochelle, NY, October 20, 2014—Interleukin-27 (IL-27), a member of the interleukin family of cytokines that help regulate the immune system, has a mainly anti-inflammatory role in the body, and its dysfunction has been implicated in autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Crohn's disease. More recently, IL-27's proinflammatory activity and role in chronic inflammatory diseases is becoming increasingly clear, and a new Review article that explores the potential to target a range of diseases that share common IL-27-activated mechanisms is presented in ...

CHICAGO – Oct. 18, 2014 – A smartphone-based tool may be an effective alternative to traditional ophthalmic imaging equipment in evaluating and grading severity of a diabetic eye disease, according to a study released today at AAO 2014, the American Academy of Ophthalmology's 118th annual meeting. The results of the research indicate the lower-cost method could be useful for bringing the service to patients in isolated or underserved communities. Approximately 7.7 million Americans have diabetic retinopathy, which is caused by elevated blood glucose (sugar) ...

Boulder, CO, USA — Naturally occurring asbestos minerals may be more widespread than previously thought, with newly discovered sources now identified within the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The asbestos-rich areas are in locations not previously considered to be at risk, according to new report that will be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA) in Vancouver, Canada, on Sunday, 20 October. "These minerals were found where one wouldn't expect or think to look," said Rodney Metcalf, associate professor of geology at the University ...

Berlin, 20 October 2014 Fear of bright daylight is associated with panic disorder, according to new presented at the ECNP congress in Berlin. Panic disorder is where a person has recurring and regular panic attacks. In the UK, it affects about two in 100 people, and it's about twice as common in women as it is in men1. Previous studies have shown that there is a strong seasonal component in panic disorder, but this is the first study to look specifically at panic disorder patients' reactions to light. A group of researchers from the University of Siena (Italy) compared ...

Berlin, 20 October 2014 Up to half of patients who suffer from depression (Major Depressive Disorder, or MDD) do not respond to treatment with SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors). Now a group of Dutch researchers have carried out a study which shows that increasing fatty fish intake appears to increase the response rate in patients who do not respond to antidepressants. This work is being presented at the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology congress in Berlin. According to lead researcher, Roel Mocking (Amsterdam): "We were looking for biological ...

Berlin, 20 October 2014 A new study shows that some anti-inflammatory medicines, such as aspirin, estrogen, and Fluimucil, can improve the efficacy of existing schizophrenia treatments. This work is being presented at the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology conference in Berlin. For some time, doctors have believed that helping the immune system may benefit the treatment of schizophrenia, but until now there has been no conclusive evidence that this would be effective. Now a group of researchers at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands has carried out ...

CHICAGO – Oct. 19, 2014 – The results of the largest retrospective study of multiple sclerosis (MS) in uveitis patients has revealed that nearly 60 percent of patients with both diseases were diagnosed with each within a five-year span. The study is being presented today at AAO 2014, the 118th annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. While it has long been known that there is an association between the eye condition and MS, this is the first study to provide a detailed description of the relative onset of uveitis and MS and to calculate the ...

After conducting an investigation about the current state of the operation of medium voltage distribution grids and the integration of distributed generation (DG) of renewable resources across China, scientists at the Key Laboratory of Smart Grid, under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, at Tianjin University in the east coast city of Tianjin, set out an array of R&D opportunities to modernize these grids. Researchers Yu Yixin, Zeng Yuan, Liu Hong and Sun Bing state in a recent paper published on the Beijing-based journal SCIENCE CHINA Technological Sciences that ...

The excessive activity of repair cells in the early stages of tissue recovery sets the stage for fibrosis by priming the activation of an important growth factor, according to a study in The Journal of Cell Biology. Myofibroblasts are highly contractile cells that repair damaged tissues by replacing and reorganizing the extracellular matrix (ECM), the meshwork that fills the space around cells, in order to draw a wound closed. When myofibroblasts are not properly regulated, however, they continue to act on healed tissues and produce excessive amounts of ECM. Excessive ...

Crystallographic defects or irregularities (known as dislocations) are often found within crystalline materials. Two main types of dislocation exist: edge and screw type. However, dislocations found in real materials tend to be a mix of these two types, resulting in a complex atomic arrangement not found in bulk crystals. The study of these dislocations in semiconductors is probably as old as the science of semiconductors itself, and the technological importance of dislocations can hardly be overstated. From their roles in the way crystals form to their effects on a material's ...

Infection with herpes simplex virus increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease. Researchers at Umeå University, Sweden, claim this in two studies in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia. "Our results clearly show that there is a link between infections of herpes simplex virus and the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. This also means that we have new opportunities to develop treatment forms to stop the disease," says Hugo Lövheim, associate professor at the Department of Community Medicine and Rehabilitation, Geriatric Medicine, Umeå University, who is ...

A study by researchers of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich shows that infants fed on fresh rather than UHT cow's milk are less prone to infection. The authors recommend the use of alternative processing methods to preserve the protectants found in the natural product. A pan-European study, led by Professor Erika von Mutius, Professor of Pediatric Allergology at LMU and Head of the Asthma and Allergy Department at Dr. von Hauner's Children's Hospital, reports that fresh cow's milk protects young children from respiratory infections, febrile illness and inflammation ...

A desert at the bottom of the sea? Although the waters of the North Sea exchange about every two to three years, there is evidence of decreasing oxygen content. If lower amounts of this gas are dissolved in seawater, organisms on and in the seabed produce less energy – with implications for larger creatures and the biogeochemical cycling in the marine ecosystem. Since nutrients, carbon and oxygen circulate very well and are processed quickly in the permeable, sandy sediments that make up two-thirds of the North Sea, measurements of metabolic rates are especially difficult ...

To make a decision for or against adjuvant chemotherapy, a test to measure the concentrations of the biomarkers uPA and PAI-1 in the tumour tissue is available for breast cancer patients. However, as suitable studies are lacking, it remains unclear for patients with an intermediate risk of recurrence which benefit or harm a treatment strategy based on this test may have for them. This is the result of the final report published by the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) on 20 October 2014. Adjuvant systemic treatments aim to prolong survival Even ...

Individuals who are genetically predisposed to obesity may soon have a therapeutic solution to combat their condition. A research team led by scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has identified several potent inhibitors that selectively target FTO, the common fat mass and obesity-associated gene. These FTO-specific inhibitors pave the way for the development of novel anti-obesity drugs and treatments. The research, led by Assistant Professor Esther Woon from the Department of Pharmacy at the NUS Faculty of Science, along with colleagues from the ...

In a world of matinee idols and cover girls it's easy to assume that humans want their men to be manly and their women womanly. But a groundbreaking new study suggests that, rather than being a preference passed down through a long process of social and sexual selection, it's a relatively new habit that has only emerged in modern, urbanised societies. A team of psychologists, anthropologists and biologists, led by Brunel University London, surveyed 12 populations around the world, from the primitive to the highly developed. Surprisingly, only in the most industrialised ...

Iron is the most abundant trace element in humans. As a cofactor of certain proteins, it plays an essential role in oxygen transport and metabolism. Due to the major importance of iron in a wide variety of cellular processes, and the harm caused by its uncontrolled accumulation in the body, its uptake and storage is strictly regulated. In mammals, iron is imported into cells by the membrane transport protein DMT1. Mutations of DMT1, which affect its transport properties, lead to iron-related metabolic disorders such as anemia and the iron storage disease hemochromatosis. Ines ...

How did life originate? And can scientists create life? These questions not only occupy the minds of scientists interested in the origin of life, but also researchers working with technology of the future. If we can create artificial living systems, we may not only understand the origin of life - we can also revolutionize the future of technology. Protocells are the simplest, most primitive living systems, you can think of. The oldest ancestor of life on Earth was a protocell, and when we see, what it eventually managed to evolve into, we understand why science is so fascinated ...

The drug combination umeclidinium/vilanterol (trade name Anoro) has been approved since May 2014 for adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In an early benefit assessment pursuant to the Act on the Reform of the Market for Medicinal Products (AMNOG), the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined whether this drug combination offers an added benefit over the appropriate comparator therapy. According to the findings, an added benefit is not proven: For patients with moderate COPD severity and patients with fewer than ...

Scientists at Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore) have discovered a new molecule which can join together chains of amino acids – the building blocks of protein. Only three other known molecules have been discovered to be able to perform this function, which is an important process in the development of new drugs. A key difference is that the new molecule is able to do the same process 10,000 times faster than the other three and "cleanly" without leaving any residue behind. This new molecule, which is a type of catalyst or enzyme, was derived from ...

Researchers at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, the University of Turku and the University of Oslo have discovered a previously unknown molecular-level mechanism that may partly explain the increased growth of cancer cells. The study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, showed that high levels of miRNA-378a-5p molecule cause cell division anomalies. This renders the number of chromosomes in cancer cells abnormal, which is known to promote growth and the spread of cancer. In addition, the researchers discovered that elevated miRNA378a-5p levels in breast ...

Laser physicists have built a tractor beam that can repel and attract objects, using a hollow laser beam that is bright around the edges and dark in its centre. It is the first long-distance optical tractor beam and moved particles one fifth of a millimetre in diameter a distance of up to 20 centimetres, around 100 times further than previous experiments. "Demonstration of a large scale laser beam like this is a kind of holy grail for laser physicists," said Professor Wieslaw Krolikowski, from the Research School of Physics and Engineering at The Australian National ...

What does a 1980s experimental aircraft have to do with state-of-the art quantum technology? Lots, as shown by new research from the Quantum Control Laboratory at the University of Sydney, and published in Nature Physics today. Over several years a team of scientists has taken inspiration from aerospace research and development programs to make unusually shaped experimental aircraft fly. "It always amazed me that the X-29, an American airplane that was designed like a dart being thrown backwards, was able to fly. Achieving this, in 1984, came through major advances ...