New research led by the University of Southampton is paving the way to protect the endangered European eel as they migrate through rivers to the ocean. The European eel, a fish of high cultural, commercial and conservation concern, has suffered a dramatic decline over recent decades, with the number of juvenile fish returning to rivers down by over 90 per cent. While several explanations (including overfishing, pollution and climate change) have been proposed for the cause of this demise, one of the key factors is river infrastructure, such as hydropower stations, ...

This news release is available in Japanese. Researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) have identified a system that could store quantum information for longer times, which is critical for the future of quantum computing. This study was recently published in Physical Review Letters. Quantum computing -- which aims to use particles on the atomic scale to make calculations and store the results -- has the potential to solve some key problems much faster than current computers. To make quantum computing a reality, ...

(NEW YORK CITY - July 1, 2015) A novel synthetic hormone that makes certain skin cells produce more melanin significantly increases pain-free sun exposure in people with erythropoietic protoporphyria, a rare, genetic disorder resulting in excruciating pain within minutes of sun exposure. Two Phase III trials, conducted in Europe and in the United States by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and six other U.S. sites, showed that the duration of pain-free time in the sun and quality of life were significantly improved by treatment with afamelanotide, ...

Pregnancy and motherhood are both wonderful and worrisome times - could public health campaigns and social stereotypes be contributing to anxiety for mothers? Researchers from Monash University have identified links between perinatal anxiety and social and health messages that women are exposed to during the perinatal period, the period immediately before and after birth. In a paper recently published in Women's Studies International Forum, Dr Heather Rowe and Professor Jane Fisher from the Jean Hailes Research Unit within the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine ...

Unwanted, intrusive visual memories are a core feature of stress- and trauma-related clinical disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but they can also crop up in everyday life. New research shows that even once intrusive memories have been laid down, playing a visually-demanding computer game after reactivating the memories may reduce their occurrence over time. The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. "This work is the first to our knowledge to show that a 'simple cognitive blockade' ...

Spider-like cells inside the brain, spinal cord and eye hunt for invaders, capturing and then devouring them. These cells, called microglia, often play a beneficial role by helping to clear trash and protect the central nervous system against infection. But a new study by researchers at the National Eye Institute (NEI) shows that they also accelerate damage wrought by blinding eye disorders, such as retinitis pigmentosa. NEI is part of the National Institutes of Health. "These findings are important because they suggest that microglia may provide a target for entirely ...

A new method for calculating the exact time of death, even after as much as 10 days, has been developed by a group of researchers at the University of Salzburg. Currently, there are no reliable ways to determine the time since death after approximately 36 hours. Initial results suggest that this method can be applied in forensics to estimate the time elapsed since death in humans. By observing how muscle proteins and enzymes degrade in pigs, scientists at the University of Salzburg have developed a new way of estimating time since death that functions up to at least ...

When remembering something from our past, we often vividly re-experience the whole episode in which it occurred. New UCL research funded by the Medical Research Council and Wellcome Trust has now revealed how this might happen in the brain. The study, published in Nature Communications, shows that when someone tries to remember one aspect of an event, such as who they met yesterday, the representation of the entire event can be reactivated in the brain, including incidental information such as where they were and what they did. "When we recall a previous life event, ...

Classical Brownian motion theory was established over one hundred year ago, describing the stochastic collision behaviors between surrounding molecules. Recently, researchers from Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences discovered that the self-powered liquid metal motors in millimeter scale demonstrated similar Brownian like motion behaviors in alkaline solution. And the force comes from the hydrogen gas stream generated at the interface between liquid metal motor and its contacting substrate bottom. Ever since the irregular motions ...

A group of the world's top doctors and scientists working in cardiology and preventive medicine have issued a call to action to tackle the global problem of deaths from non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as heart problems, diabetes and cancer, through healthy lifestyle initiatives. They say that identifying the enormous burden caused by NCDs is not enough and it is time for "all hands on deck" to pursue strategies both within and outside traditional healthcare systems that will succeed in promoting healthier lifestyles in order to prevent or delay health conditions ...

Sophia Antipolis, 02 July 2015: Patients are experiencing significant delays in access to approved cardiovascular devices due to bureaucratic inefficiencies, reveals a Devices White Paper from the Cardiovascular Round Table (CRT) published today in European Heart Journal.1 There is a clear correlation between declining death rates from cardiovascular disease and the introduction of innovative techniques and devices.1 The CRT is an independent forum established by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and comprised of cardiologists and representatives of the pharmaceutical, ...

Birds that moult at the wrong time of the year could be disadvantaged, according to a study by scientists at Lund University, Sweden. Birds depend on a full set of feathers for maximum efficiency when flying long distances, but the study shows that moulting has a detrimental effect on their flight performance. The researchers trained a jackdaw to fly in a wind tunnel and measured different types of drag experienced by the bird. "We expected the bird not to be able to glide at the lowest speeds that it could glide at before moult and our results confirmed this", says ...

Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) may be successfully supported in classrooms through strategies that do not involve drugs, new research has indicated. These children are typically restless, act without thinking and struggle to concentrate, which causes particular problems for them and for others in school. A systematic review was led by the University of Exeter Medical School funded by NIHR's Health Research Technology Assessment programme and supported by the NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care South West ...

Being able to dive is what matters most for seal pups, but how do they learn to do it? Grey seal pups that can play in pools may have better diving skills once they make the move to the sea, and this could increase their chance of survival. Researchers at Plymouth University have found that spending time in pools of water helps seal pups hold their breath for longer. Many seal species stay on land after they have weaned before they go to sea to feed for the first time. "It is during this period of fasting that access to water can make a difference to diving ability," ...

New guidelines for diagnosing chronic lung disease (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD), should be modified because they over-diagnose COPD in older men and under-diagnose COPD in young women. Writing in The BMJ this week, Professor Martin Miller and Dr Mark Levy say up to 13% of people thought to have COPD under the new criteria have been found to be misdiagnosed. They argue that clinicians should use internationally agreed standards when assessing patients for COPD. This, they say, will help to improve patient care through more accurate diagnosis, as well ...

Evidence is lacking that having a category of drugs that can be sold only by pharmacists or under their supervision ("pharmacy medicines") has benefits, writes a pharmacy professor in The BMJ this week. Professor Paul Rutter at the School of Pharmacy, University of Wolverhampton, calls for an end to pharmacists' monopoly on selling some drugs and thinks that a two tier system of prescription or non-prescription drugs, like in the US, would be simpler. He mentions the recent case of the painkiller, oral diclofenac, that used to be available as a non-prescription drug ...

Diabetes research is dominated by a small group of prolific authors, raising questions about the imbalance of power and conflict of interests in this field, argue experts in The BMJ this week. In a new study, Frits Holleman and colleagues searched PubMed for all randomised controlled studies (RCTs) on glucose lowering treatments for diabetes from 1993 to 2013. In total, they identified 3,782 articles with 13,592 authors. The top 110 authors were named in a third (32.4%) of all articles, and they authored 991 RCTs, equivalent to 20 RCTs per author. Of these 110 ...

Philadelphia -- Elias S. Siraj, M.D., FACP, FACE, director of the Diabetes Program at Temple University Hospital (TUH), and Kevin J. Williams, M.D., FACP, chief of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism at TUH, co-authored an editorial piece published July 2 in the New England Journal of Medicine about a major weight loss study involving obese and overweight patients. Siraj and Williams offered their take on the significance of the randomized, double-blind clinical trial that showed a daily injection of 3.0 mg of the drug liraglutide, when given as an adjunct to diet ...

Scientists have identified a group of genetic mutations in patients with aplastic anemia, which likely will help doctors optimize treatment for this rare and deadly blood condition. The study, appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine, could lead to tailor-made treatment plans for aplastic anemia patients as part of the emerging precision medicine movement. It is the largest study of its kind to examine gene mutations in aplastic anemia, the scientists note. The work involved researchers from the National Institutes of Health, the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, ...

DALLAS, July 1, 2015 -- While menopause is commonly considered a risk factor for heart disease, menopausal women had a lower risk of dying from heart attack than men; however, this difference was less pronounced among blacks, according to research in the Journal of the American Heart Association. In the first study to compare men and women and how menopause types impact risk of heart attack, researchers studied 23,086 black and white adults over age 45 and found: White women who had surgical-induced menopause had a 35 percent reduced risk of non-fatal heart attacks ...

As we walk along a forest path, the soil beneath our feet seems like a uniform substance. However, it is an intricate network of soil particles, pores, minerals, soil microbes, and more. It is awash in variety. Soil is a living, dynamic substance, and the microbial life within it is crucial to providing plant life with the food they need to grow. The microbes can be bacteria or fungi, but both need space--the pores--for a good living environment. Soil particles that clump together are aggregates. These are the architectural building blocks of soil. Their presence ...

Alexandria, VA - Analyzing thousands of records, researchers have reinforced the claim that for marine life, bigger has been better for the last 542 million years. The study examined Cope's rule - the idea, named for paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope, that species evolve to larger sizes over time. With the help of undergraduate students and high-school interns, the researchers compiled information on five major marine phyla, including arthropods, brachiopods, chordates, echinoderms and mollusks. Find out how much bigger things got in the June issue of EARTH Magazine: ...

New research shows that the fearsome teeth of the saber-toothed cat Smilodon fatalis fully emerged at a later age than those of modern big cats, but grew at a rate about double that of their living relatives. The findings, published today in the journal PLOS ONE and based on a new technique that combines isotopic analysis and x-ray imaging, for the first time provide specific ages for developmental events in Smilodon, notably in their teeth. The study estimates that the eruption rate of S. fatalis's permanent upper canines was 6 millimeters per month--double the growth ...

Statins are a hugely popular drug class used to manage blood cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of heart disease. Previous studies had raised questions about adverse behavioral changes with statins, such as irritability or violence, but findings with statins have been inconsistent. In the first randomized trial to look at statin effects on behavior, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report that aggressive behavior typically declined among men placed on statins (compared to placebo), but typically increased among women placed on ...

A newly-discovered, 48-million-year-old fossil, known as a "Jesus lizard" for its ability to walk on water, may provide insight into how climate change may affect tropical species, according to a study published July 1 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Jack Conrad from American Museum of Natural History. Modern relatives of the Jesus lizard live in an area stretching from central Mexico to northern Colombia, flourishing in the higher temperatures found at the equator. Members of various animal, plant, fungal, and other clades currently confined to the tropics or ...