The mysterious condition once known as "water on the brain" became just a bit less murky this week thanks to a global research group led in part by a Case Western Reserve researcher. Professor Anthony Wynshaw-Boris, MD, PhD, is the co-principal investigator on a study that illustrates how the domino effect of one genetic error can contribute to excessive cerebrospinal fluid surrounding the brains of mice — a disorder known as hydrocephalus. The findings appear online July 17 in the journal Neuron. Cerebrospinal fluid provides a cushion between the organ and the skull, ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (July 17, 2014) – A signaling pathway once thought to have little if any role during embryogenesis is a key player in the formation of the front-most portion of developing vertebrate embryos. Moreover, signals emanating from this region—referred to as the "extreme anterior domain" (EAD)—orchestrate the complex choreography that gives rise to proper facial structure. The surprising findings, reported by Whitehead Institute scientists this week in the journal Cell Reports, shed new light on a key process of vertebrate embryonic development. "The results ...

(TORONTO, Canada – July 17, 2014) – The journal Cancer Cell today published research led by Dr. Tak Mak mapping the path of discovery to developing a potential anticancer agent. "What began with the question 'what makes a particular aggressive form of breast cancer cells keep growing?' turned into 10 years of systematic research to identify the enzyme PLK4 as a promising therapeutic target and develop a small molecule inhibitor to block it," says Dr. Mak, Director of The Campbell Family Institute for Breast Cancer Research at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University ...

Toronto – Quotas probably won't get more women into the boardroom in places like the U.S. and Canada. They have a better chance however in countries such as China or Germany where people place a higher value on obeying authority and conforming to cultural norms, say a pair of researchers at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. Their conclusions are published in the journal Organizational Dynamics and in a blog for the Harvard Business Review. It all comes down to a culture's "tightness" or "looseness" -- the degree to which a culture maintains social ...

New research out of Queen's University has shed light on how exercise and relaxation activities like yoga can positively impact people with social anxiety disorders. Adam Heenan, a Ph.D. candidate in the Clinical Psychology, has found that exercise and relaxation activities literally change the way people perceive the world, altering their perception so that they view the environment in a less threatening, less negative way. For people with mood and anxiety disorders, this is an important breakthrough. For his research, Mr. Heenan used point-light displays, a depiction ...

(PHILADELPHIA) – Research derived from early national experience of liver transplantation has shown that deceased donor liver transplants offered recipients better survival rates than living donor liver transplants, making them the preferred method of transplantation for most physicians. Now, the first data-driven study in over a decade disputes this notion. Penn Medicine researchers found that living donor transplant outcomes are superior to those found with deceased donors with appropriate donor selection and when surgeries are performed at an experienced center. The ...

WASHINGTON (July 17, 2014) — The road to finding a cure for HIV-1 is not without obstacles. However, thanks to cutting-edge research by Douglas Nixon, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues, performed at the George Washington University (GW), Oregon Health & Science University, the University of Rochester, and UC San Francisco, the scientific community is one step closer to finding a viable immunotherapy option for HIV-1, using an immune attack against a fossil virus buried in the genome. A major hurdle in eradicating HIV-1 has been outsmarting the frequent mutations, or changing ...

EUGENE, Ore. -- Soil deep in a crater dating to some 3.7 billion years ago contains evidence that Mars was once much warmer and wetter, says University of Oregon geologist Gregory Retallack, based on images and data captured by the rover Curiosity. NASA rovers have shown Martian landscapes littered with loose rocks from impacts or layered by catastrophic floods, rather than the smooth contours of soils that soften landscapes on Earth. However, recent images from Curiosity from the impact Gale Crater, Retallack said, reveal Earth-like soil profiles with cracked surfaces ...

Never mind the big bang; in the beginning was the vacuum. The vacuum simmered with energy (variously called dark energy, vacuum energy, the inflation field, or the Higgs field). Like water in a pot, this high energy began to evaporate – bubbles formed. Each bubble contained another vacuum, whose energy was lower, but still not nothing. This energy drove the bubbles to expand. Inevitably, some bubbles bumped into each other. It's possible some produced secondary bubbles. Maybe the bubbles were rare and far apart; maybe they were packed close as foam. But here's the thing: ...

ROSEMONT, Ill.─Over the past decade, a greater number of patients, age 80 and older, are having elective orthopaedic surgery. A new study appearing in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS) found that these surgeries are generally safe with mortality rates decreasing for total hip (THR) and total knee (TKR) replacement and spinal fusion surgeries, and complication rates decreasing for total knee replacement and spinal fusion in patients with few or no comorbidities (other conditions or diseases). "Based on the results of this study, I think very elderly patients, ...

A novel, First Nations-led research collaboration has revealed a previously undocumented grizzly bear aggregation in coastal British Columbia, one of the most southerly aggregations of salmon-feeding grizzlies in North America. Using non-invasive DNA analysis, the authors describe a grizzly bear "highway," identifying nearly 60 individual bears, many who travelled hundreds of miles from surrounding areas to feed on autumn-spawning salmon in the Koeye River. The research was guided by the customary law and cultural practices of the Heiltsuk First Nation and recently published ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Researchers have discovered a possible explanation for the surprisingly large range of biological effects that are linked to a micronutrient called lipoic acid: It appears to reset and synchronize circadian rhythms, or the "biological clock" found in most life forms. The ability of lipoic acid to help restore a more normal circadian rhythm to aging animals could explain its apparent value in so many important biological functions, ranging from stress resistance to cardiac function, hormonal balance, muscle performance, glucose metabolism and the aging ...

Throughout our lives, our brains adapt to what we learn and memorise. The brain is indeed made up of complex networks of neurons and synapses that are constantly re-configured. However, in order for learning to leave a trace, connections must be stabilized. A team at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) discovered a new cellular mechanism involved in the long-term stabilization of neuron connections, in which non-neuronal cells, called astrocytes, play a role unidentified until now. These results, published in Current Biology, will lead to a better understanding of neurodegenerative ...

The tenth tropical depression of the Northwestern Pacific Ocean was born as NASA's Aqua satellite passed overhead. NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Depression 10W on July 17, as it came together northwest of the island of Yap. As Aqua passed overhead the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument aboard captured infrared data that showed powerful thunderstorms developed around the storm's center. When AIRS gathered the data on the cloud tops, the temperatures were already as cold as -63F/-52C, indicating strong uplift has pushed them to the top of the troposphere. At ...

Typhoon Rammasun dropped large amounts of rainfall over the Philippines, and the TRMM satellite was used to measure it from space. Rammasun is now making its way toward Hainan Island, China. NASA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency partner on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite. As TRMM orbits the Earth it has the ability to calculate rainfall occurring in storms and a rainfall analysis using TRMM and other data helps scientists calculate total rainfall. A preliminary analysis of rainfall during the period when typhoon Rammasun was moving ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Many beekeepers feed their honey bees sucrose or high-fructose corn syrup when times are lean inside the hive. This practice has come under scrutiny, however, in response to colony collapse disorder, the massive -- and as yet not fully explained -- annual die-off of honey bees in the U.S. and Europe. Some suspect that inadequate nutrition plays a role in honey bee declines. In a new study, described in Scientific Reports, researchers took a broad look at changes in gene activity in response to diet in the Western honey bee (Apis mellifera), and found ...

By carefully watching nearly a hundred hours of video showing mother rats protecting, warming, and feeding their young pups, and then matching up what they saw to real-time electrical readings from the pups' brains, researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center have found that the mother's presence and social interactions — her nurturing role — directly molds the early neural activity and growth of her offsprings' brain. Reporting in the July 21 edition of the journal Current Biology, the NYU Langone team showed that the mother's presence in the nest regulated and controlled ...

JUPITER, FL, July 17, 2014 – It is something of an eternal question: Can we slow or even reverse the aging process? Even though genetic manipulations can, in fact, alter some cellular dynamics, little is known about the mechanisms of the aging process in living organisms. Now scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found in animal models that a single gene plays a surprising role in aging that can be detected early on in development, a discovery that could point toward the possibility of one day using therapeutics, even some commonly ...

University of Delaware researchers have identified a protein, hiding in plain sight, that acts like a bodyguard to help protect and stabilize another key protein, that when unstable, is involved in Crohn's disease. The fundamental research points to a possible pathway for developing an effective therapy for the inflammatory bowel disease. The research, by Catherine Leimkuhler Grimes, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UD, and Vishnu Mohanan, doctoral student in biological sciences, is published in the July 4 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry. ...

PITTSBURGH—Carnegie Mellon University researchers have developed techniques for combining the views of 480 video cameras mounted in a two-story geodesic dome to perform large-scale 3D motion reconstruction, including volleyball games, the swirl of air currents and even a cascade of confetti. Though the research was performed in a specialized, heavily instrumented video laboratory, Yaser Sheikh, an assistant research professor of robotics who led the research team, said the techniques might eventually be applied to large-scale reconstructions of sporting events or performances ...

Philadelphia, PA, July 17, 2014 – A new analysis of data from 1988-2008 has revealed a 40% decrease in the incidence of stroke in Medicare patients 65 years of age and older. This decline is greater than anticipated considering this population's risk factors for stroke, and applies to both ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes. Investigators also found death resulting from stroke declined during the same period. Their findings are published in the July issue of The American Journal of Medicine. Preventable but deadly, stroke is the fourth leading cause of mortality in the ...

(New York, NY, July 12, 2014) - Researchers from the Center for Cognitive Neurology (CCN) at NYU Langone Medical Center, NYU School of Medicine, and the Nathan S. Kline Research Institute will present new findings at the 2014 Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, July 12 – 17, 2014. The Center for Cognitive Neurology is a multidisciplinary, integrated center devoted to research, clinical care and clinical advances toward the treatment and cure of neurological diseases affecting cognition -- focused on memory, language, attention, auditory, ...

FRANKFURT.In what parts of the world and to what degree have groundwater reservoirs been depleted over the past 50 years? The Frankfurt hydrologist Prof. Petra Döll has been researching this using the global water model WaterGAP. She has arrived at the most reliable estimate to date by taking into consideration processes which are important in dry regions of the world. The values calculated were compared with monitoring data from many different wells and data from the GRACE satellites. These satellites measure changes in the Earth's gravity field. Döll has come to the conclusion ...

This news release is available in French. Many patients continue to suffer from symptoms (headaches, pain) several months after an accident, which can pose a real handicap to their lives. The team of Emmanuel Lagarde, research director at Inserm's Research Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics (Inserm/University of Bordeaux) has studied the subsequent development of 1,300 people who were admitted to A&R between 2007 and 2009 for trauma. The researchers demonstrate that it is possible to identify people who will develop post-traumatic stress disorder, which generally ...

Genetics could be the key to explaining nation's levels of happiness, according to research from the University of Warwick. Economists at the University's Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE) have looked at why certain countries top the world happiness rankings. In particular they have found the closer a nation is to the genetic makeup of Denmark, the happier that country is. The research could help to solve the puzzle of why a country like Denmark so regularly tops the world happiness rankings. Dr Eugenio Proto and Professor Andrew Oswald ...