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Medicine18 Aug 2015

Long-term brain changes persist years after drug abuse and recovery

It's known that brain changes are present in drug addicts even when they have been abstinent for a short period of time. Now new research shows that alterations persist in long-term abstinent heroin-depended individuals as well. Through the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging, investigators analyzed the brains of 30 heroin-addicted individuals after a long period of abstinence (more than 3 years) and compared the results with those of 30 healthy controls. The team found that in the former heroin users, there was significant dysfunctional activity in the nucleus ...

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Space18 Aug 2015

NASA's Terra satellite sees birth of Atlantic Tropical Depression 4

The fourth tropical depression of the Atlantic Ocean hurricane season formed today, August 18, 2015 as NASA's Terra satellite passed overhead. On Aug. 18 at 8:45 a.m. EDT the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite captured a visible image of newborn Tropical Depression 4 in the central Atlantic Ocean. The image showed thunderstorms banding around the center of circulation in all quadrants except the northwest. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) also uses measurements from the Advanced Scatterometer or ASCAT instrument ...

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Space18 Aug 2015

Suomi NPP satellite sees Typhoon Goni's strongest sides

NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite passed over Typhoon Goni and gathered infrared data that helped identify the strongest part of the storm as the south and eastern quadrants. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard NASA-NOAA's Suomi satellite captured an infrared image of Goni on August 18 at 4:18 UTC (12:18 a.m. EDT) that showed the strongest thunderstorms with the coldest cloud top temperatures (near -63F/-53C) were in the eastern and southern quadrants. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center noted that animated enhanced infrared satellite ...

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Environment18 Aug 2015

UCI, NASA researchers find link between Amazon fire risk, devastating hurricanes

Irvine, Calif., Aug. 18, 2015 - Researchers from the University of California, Irvine and NASA have uncovered a remarkably strong link between high wildfire risk in the Amazon basin and the devastating hurricanes that ravage North Atlantic shorelines. The climate scientists' findings appear in the journal Geophysical Research Letters near the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's calamitous August 2005 landfall at New Orleans. "Hurricane Katrina is indeed part of this story," said James Randerson, Chancellor's Professor of Earth system science at UCI and senior author ...

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Science18 Aug 2015

Five reasons why sugar is added to food

CHICAGO--From a food science and technology perspective, sugar (sucrose) plays several roles when it comes to the functional properties in food. In the September issue of Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety published by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), authors from the University of Minnesota write about the functional properties of sugar and why they are often added to foods. 1. Taste: Sweetness improves the palatability of many foods. Adding sugar to foods with high nutrient quality may increase the chance they are consumed. In addition, ...

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Science18 Aug 2015

Edible coatings may increase quality and shelf life of strawberries

Strawberries are one of the most economically important fruits worldwide but are easily susceptible to bruising and are highly perishable. A new study in the August issue of the Journal of Food Science, published by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) found that edible active coatings (EACs) based on pectin, pullulan and chitosan may improve quality and shelf life of strawberries. Edible coatings protect perishable food products from deterioration and act as a protective cover (Atress, 2010). Pectin is present in the cell walls of many fruits and vegetables; chitosan ...

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Physics18 Aug 2015

Biophysics: Formation of swarms in nanosystems

One of the striking features of self-organization in biomolecular systems is the capacity of assemblies of filamentous particles for synchronous motion. Physicists of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich now provide new insights into how such movements are coordinated. Living matter, which consists largely of diverse polymeric structures assembled from various types of subunits, often exhibits striking behaviors, such as a capacity for self-organization and active motion. On an organismic scale, this type of collective motion is exemplified by the synchronous ...

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Environment18 Aug 2015

Fossil study: Dogs evolved with climate change

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Old dogs can teach humans new things about evolution. In Nature Communications a new study of North American dog fossils as old as 40 million years suggests that the evolutionary path of whole groups of predators can be a direct consequence of climate change. "It's reinforcing the idea that predators may be as directly sensitive to climate and habitat as herbivores," said Christine Janis, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Brown University, who worked with lead author Borja Figueirido, a former Brown Fulbright postdoctoral ...

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Medicine18 Aug 2015

Stanford scientists say e-cigarettes could have health impacts in developing world

Most of the debate around e-cigarettes has focused on the developed world, but the devices are becoming more widely available in some low- and middle-income countries, where there is even greater potential for impact on public health, say two Stanford University School of Medicine researchers. "People don't think e-cigarettes will reach the developing world. But they are already being produced in developing countries, and they are cheap. People know they are available," said Andrew Chang, MD, a resident in internal medicine who focuses on global health. Chang and Michele ...

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Science18 Aug 2015

Teens who use e-cigarettes may be more likely to begin smoking

Among high school students in Los Angeles, those who had ever used electronic cigarettes were more likely to report initiation of smokable ("combustible") tobacco (such as cigarettes, cigars, and hookah) use over the next year compared with nonusers, according to a study in the August 18 issue of JAMA. Combustible tobacco, which has well-known health consequences, has long been the most common nicotine-delivering product used. Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), which are devices that deliver inhaled aerosol usually containing nicotine, are becoming increasingly popular, ...

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Medicine18 Aug 2015

Drug helps patients with diabetes lose weight

Among overweight and obese patients with type 2 diabetes, daily injection of the diabetes drug liraglutide with a modified insulin pen device, in addition to diet and exercise, resulted in greater weight loss over 56 weeks compared with placebo, according to a study in the August 18 issue of JAMA. Obesity is a chronic disease and a significant global health challenge. Weight loss is recommended for patients with type 2 diabetes. Moderate weight loss (5 percent-10 percent) can improve glycemic control and other cardiometabolic risk factors and disorders. Weight loss is ...

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Medicine18 Aug 2015

Study compares heparin to warfarin for treatment of blood clots in patients with cancer

Among patients with active cancer and acute symptomatic venous thromboembolism (VTE; blood clots in the deep veins), the use of the low molecular-weight heparin tinzaparin daily for 6 months compared with warfarin did not significantly reduce recurrent VTE and was not associated with reductions in overall death or major bleeding, but was associated with a lower rate of clinically relevant nonmajor bleeding, according to a study in the August 18 issue of JAMA. Venous thromboembolism is a major cause of illness and death in patients with cancer. Treatment with low-molecular-weight ...

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Medicine18 Aug 2015

MRI scanners can steer tumor busting viruses to specific target sites within the body

Scientists from the University of Sheffield have discovered MRI scanners, normally used to produce images, can steer cell-based, tumour busting therapies to specific target sites in the body. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners have been used since the 1980s to take detailed images inside the body - helping doctors to make a medical diagnosis and investigate the staging of a disease. An international team of researchers, led by Dr Munitta Muthana from the University of Sheffield's Department of Oncology, have now found MRI scanners can non-invasively steer cells, ...

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Medicine18 Aug 2015

Increased risk of depression for mothers undergoing fertility treatment

Women giving birth after undergoing fertility treatment face an increased risk of depression compared to women ending up not having a child following fertility treatment, according to new research from the University of Copenhagen. According to the researchers, this has key implications for fertility treatment in future. Danish researchers are among the first worldwide to study the risk of developing a clinical depression for women undergoing fertility treatment. The new study shows that women who give birth after receiving fertility treatment are five times more likely ...

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Space18 Aug 2015

Satellite sees the end of Tropical Depression 11E

Tropical Depression 11E came to an end early today, Tuesday, August 18 when the National Hurricane Center noted that the storm degenerated into a remnant low pressure area. NOAA's GOES-West satellite caught an infrared image of the fizzling system. At 5 a.m. EDT (2 a.m. PDT/0900 UTC) the National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued the final bulletin on Post-Tropical depression 11E. At that time, the center of Post-Tropical cyclone 11E was located near latitude 24.9 North and longitude 125.6 West. It had fizzled about 1,000 miles (1,610 km) west of the southern tip of Baja ...

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Technology18 Aug 2015

Chengjiang biota: Bringing fossils into focus

Researchers from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich have used computed microtomography (micro-CT) to identify to the species level an exceptionally wellpreserved fossil arthropod from the famous Chengjiang Lagerstätte in China. Modern imaging methods make it possible to perform detailed, non-invasive studies on the internal structures of irreplaceable fossil specimens. Researchers led by Dr. Yu Liu of LMU's Department of Biology II now demonstrate the power of this approach by using computed microtomography (micro-CT) to investigate a specimen recovered ...

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Science18 Aug 2015

Researchers produce first demonstration of matter wave technique that could cool molecules

Researchers from the University of Southampton have demonstrated for the first time a new laser cooling method, based upon the interference of matter waves, that could be used to cool molecules. Our ability to produce samples of ultra-cold atoms has revolutionised experimental atomic physics, giving us devices from atomic clocks (the core of GPS) and enabling a range of quantum devices, including the possibility of a quantum computer. However, the current technique of cooling atoms down from room temperature to the ultra-cold regime using optical molasses (the preferential ...

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Environment18 Aug 2015

The dynamics of mercury toxins in the oceans' food web

Methylmercury, a toxic form of mercury that is readily absorbed from the gastro-intestinal tract and can cause in a variety of health issues, poses a significant threat to marine animals at the top of the food web. A new study confirms that Artic species of these animals have higher concentrations of methylmercury in their tissues compared with animals lower in the food web; however, it also shows similar trends in selenium, which could help play a protective role against the toxic effects of mercury. "Methylmercury concentrations increased through the food web at greater ...

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Medicine18 Aug 2015

Patients with immediate medical needs tend to perceive doctors as emotionless, study finds

When a patient is in urgent need of a doctor for illness or injury, expecting that doctor to help is natural. But a new study , published in Social Psychological and Personality Science, finds that the greater patients' need for medical care, the more likely patients will view their doctors as "empty vessels," devoid of emotions or personal lives of their own; at the same time, those patients expect their physicians to be able to contain the patients' emotions and experiences. The study is unusual in that most research focuses on the reverse--how physicians view patients. In ...

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Science18 Aug 2015

Teens using e-cigarettes may be more likely to start smoking tobacco

Students who have used electronic cigarettes by the time they start ninth grade are more likely than others to start smoking traditional cigarettes and other combustible tobacco products within the next year, according to a new study funded by the National Institutes of Health. E-cigarettes deliver nicotine to the lungs by heating a liquid solution that contains nicotine and other chemicals to produce an aerosol that the user inhales, a process often called "vaping." The study compared tobacco use initiation among 222 students who had used e-cigarettes, but not combustible ...

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Science18 Aug 2015

Anxious? Depressed? Blame it on your middle-management position

August 18, 2015--Individuals near the middle of the social hierarchy suffer higher rates of depression and anxiety than those at the top or bottom, according to researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Nearly twice the number of supervisors and managers reported they suffered from anxiety compared to workers. Symptoms of depression were reported by 18 percent of supervisors and managers compared to 12 percent for workers. Findings are online in the journal Sociology of Health & Illness. While social disadvantage related to income and educational ...

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Social Science18 Aug 2015

Weight levels dropped in Greek children during the economic crisis

A new study indicates that for a 2.5 year period shortly before and during the early years of the Greek economic crisis, the prevalence of overweight and obesity decreased in Greek schoolchildren. This was accompanied by an increase in the prevalence of normal weight children and a slight increase in the prevalence of underweight children. Because this study coincided with the eruption of the Greek economic crisis, it suggests that the changes may be related to the suboptimal conditions that a significant percentage of the Greek population lived in during that period. Additional ...

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Medicine18 Aug 2015

Diabetes drug metformin's primary effect is in the gut, not the bloodstream

CHAPEL HILL NC - Although metformin was introduced as a treatment for type 2 diabetes nearly 60 years ago and is now the recommended first-line treatment for newly diagnosed patients, researchers still debate precisely how the drug works. Now, a study published online today in Diabetes Care by researchers at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Elcelyx Therapeutics, and other leading endocrinologists provides strong evidence that metformin's primary effect occurs in the gut, not the bloodstream. The paper outlines results from phase 1 and phase 2 studies ...

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Science18 Aug 2015

Accuracy of sexual assault testimonies not affected by alcohol intoxication, study finds

Research suggests intoxicated victims of sexual assault could accurately retain information from events Findings are being applied to develop National Guidelines for how the police could interview sexual assault victims who were intoxicated during the crime Challenges misconception that intoxicated victims and witnesses are unreliable People are often concerned about the accuracy of testimony given by victims who were intoxicated during a sexual assault- but a new study by University of Leicester researchers has found that while alcohol intoxicated participants ...

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Social Science18 Aug 2015

Foresight food security: From hunger and poverty to food system approach

Long considered in relation to malnutrition and humanitarian aid, food security policy should be moving towards a much broader landscape and focusing on regular access to food for a population nearing nine billion towards 2030-2050, while addressing food insecurity for a fraction of communities, according to a JRC foresight report. Due to a growing population, climate change, limiting expansion of agricultural land and increasing demand of high-energy food input, achieving global food security will be one of the most critical challenges in the coming years. Traditionally ...

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