A study of how people can quickly spot animals by sight is helping uncover the workings of the human brain. Scientists examined why volunteers who were shown hundreds of pictures - some with animals and some without - were able to detect animals in as little as one-tenth of a second. They found that one of the first parts of the brain to process visual information - the primary visual cortex - can control this fast response, rather than more complex parts of the brain being required, as previously thought. The findings suggest that when people look at a scene for ...

South African and Argentinian palaeontologists have discovered a new 200 million year old dinosaur from South Africa, and named it Sefapanosaurus, from the Sesotho word "sefapano". The researchers from South Africa's University of Cape Town (UCT) and the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University), and from the Argentinian Museo de La Plata and Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio made the announcement in the scientific journal, Zoological Journal of the Linnaean Society. The paper, titled: A new basal sauropodiform from South Africa and the phylogenetic relationships ...

Boulder, Colo. -- The 26 December 2004 Mw ~9.2 Indian Ocean earthquake (also known as the Sumatra-Andaman or Aceh-Andaman earthquake), which generated massive, destructive tsunamis, especially along the Aceh coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia, clearly demonstrated the need for a better understanding of how frequently subduction zone earthquakes and tsunamis occur. Toward that end, Harvey M. Kelsey of Humboldt State University and colleagues present a study of earthquake history in the area. Using subsidence stratigraphy, the team traced the different modes of coastal ...

The tooth plate of just some millimeters in size had been in a box for more than 40 years, without being recognized after the discovery and preparation of the fish it belonged to. Palaeontologists from Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Netherlands and the University of Bristol, United Kingdom, studied the fossil using high energy X-rays at the Swiss Light Source at the Paul Scherrer Institut in Switzerland, revealing the structure and development of teeth and bones. Their findings are published today in Biology Letters. Teeth are important in our daily life, they are crucial ...

A digital map of the ageing brain could aid the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders in older people, a study suggests. The atlas created using images from MRI scans of older people could aid diagnosis by comparing the patients' scans with a detailed map of the healthy ageing brain. Most existing MRI atlases are based on the brains of young and middle-aged people, which don't reflect the normal changes that take place in the brain as we age, the team says. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh constructed a detailed atlas of ...

Various diagnostic imaging techniques are currently used for clinical imaging/disease diagnosis. The accuracy of diagnosis is mainly based on the type of energy used (such as X-ray, sound waves, photons and positrons) to derive the visual information, as well as the degree of spatial resolution (mesoscopic or microscopic) and the level of information that can be obtained (physiological, anatomical or molecular). Based on potential health hazards imposed by type of energy used, clinical imaging modalities can be broadly categorized as ionizing and non-ionizing modalities. ...

Milan, Italy - 24 June 2015: Uninterrupted treatment with novel oral anticoagulants (NOACs) during catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF) is safe, reveals research presented today at EHRA EUROPACE - CARDIOSTIM 2015 by Dr Carsten Wunderlich, senior consultant in the Department of Invasive Electrophysiology, Heart Centre Dresden, Germany.1 Continuation of NOAC therapy was not associated with periprocedural bleeding or thromboembolic complications. The joint meeting of the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and Cardiostim ...

TORONTO, ON - Adults who were exposed to childhood adversity, including witnessing parental domestic violence, childhood physical and sexual abuse have higher odds of experiencing migraine headaches in adulthood, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Toronto. "We found the more types of violence the individual had been exposed to during their childhood, the greater the odds of migraine. For those who reported all three types of adversities--parental domestic violence, childhood physical and sexual abuse--the odds of migraine were a little over ...

Scientists have demonstrated for the first time the ability to rapidly, reliably and simultaneously identify the 'handedness' of different molecules in a mixture. The research, led by chemists at The University of Nottingham and the VU University Amsterdam, and published in the academic journal Nature Communications, could offer a new technique to easily distinguish whether a molecule is present in a left- or right-handed form. The breakthrough could be important in developing effective molecules for use in a wide range of industries -- everything from the development ...

Piscataway, N.J. -- A form of 'virtual-reality' therapy may help people with alcohol dependence reduce their craving for alcohol, a new study suggests. The findings, published in the July issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, come from a small study of just 10 patients. But researchers said they are optimistic about the potential for virtual reality as a therapy for alcohol use disorders. 'This technology is already popular in the fields of psychology and psychiatry,' said senior researcher Doug Hyun Han, M.D., Ph.D., of Chung-Ang University Hospital ...

Changes in the gut bacteria of colon cancer patients indicate that some virulent bacteria could be linked to the progression of the disease, according to research published in the open access journal Genome Medicine. The findings could eventually be used to identify a virulence signature in these cancers and help doctors predict how bacterial changes in patients' guts could affect their prognosis. The human gut microbiome, the collection of microorganisms, their genomes and habitat that contributes to maintaining a healthy intestine, is thought to play an active role ...

Despite a general consensus among scientists and in the racing industry that racehorse speed has plateaued, a new study from the University of Exeter has found that racehorses are getting quicker. Further research is required to determine whether the increased speeds have a genetic basis or are the result of improved training, jockey tactics or other environmental factors. It had appeared that racehorse speeds were not improving and previous studies concluded that thoroughbred racehorses may have reached the limits of their abilities. However these studies only analysed ...

A single gene called Angiopoietin-1 (Ang-1) drives brain size and intelligence in fish according to a new study by researchers at UCL, Stockholm University and University of Helsinki. Fish with larger brains and higher intelligence had higher expression of Ang-1, and when expression levels of Ang-1 were experimentally reduced, brains shrunk. These trends were seen in two unrelated species of fish - guppies (Poecilia reticulata) and zebra fish (Danio rerio) - indicating expression of Ang-1 is important for brain growth and development in fish generally. The study, published ...

Living in an area with noisy road traffic may reduce life expectancy, according to new research published in the European Heart Journal. The findings suggest a link between long-term exposure to road traffic noise and deaths, as well as a greater risk of stroke, particularly in the elderly. The research was led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in partnership with Imperial College London and King's College London. Researchers analysed data for 8.6 million people living in London between 2003 and 2010. They looked at levels of road traffic noise during ...

Drinking 3-5 cups of coffee per day could cut an individual's cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality risk by up to 21%, according to research highlighted in a EuroPRevent session report published by the Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee (ISIC), a not-for-profit organisation devoted to the study and disclosure of science related to coffee and health1. The finding is significant given that coronary heart disease and stroke remain the primary cause of death across Europe, responsible for 51% of all deaths in women and 42% of all deaths in men.2 Over four million ...

Physicists have found a way to control the length and strength of waves of atomic motion that have promising potential uses such as fine-scale imaging and the transmission of information within tight spaces. The researchers measured waves called polaritons that can emerge when light interacts with matter. By combining two materials, they produced hybrid polaritons that propagate throughout many layers of a crystalline material and can be controlled with a simple electrical gate. The team, led by Dimitri Basov and Michael Fogler, professors of physics at the University ...

Afghan security forces, like their fellow citizens more generally, do not view the US-led war in Afghanistan as "their war." This is a primary policy-relevant conclusion reached in one of two new reports issued today by the Costs of War Project at Brown's University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. "Not Their War to Fight: The Afghan Police, Families of their Dead and the American War," by Harvard University Visiting Assistant Professor Anila Daulatzai, draws on four years of anthropologic fieldwork in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan, and ...

A new drug may treat epilepsy and prevent tinnitus by selectively affecting potassium channels in the brain, UConn neurophysiologist Anastasios Tzingounis and colleagues report in the 10 June Journal of Neuroscience. Epilepsy and tinnitus are both caused by overly excitable nerve cells. Healthy nerves have a built-in system that slams on the brakes when they get too excited. But in some people this braking system doesn't work, and the nerves run amok, signaling so much that the brain gets overloaded and has a seizure (epilepsy) or hears phantom ringing (tinnitus). About ...

In a genome-wide association study believed to be the largest of its kind, Johns Hopkins researchers have uncovered four regions in the human genome where changes may increase the risk of pancreatic cancer. The researchers say newly identified genetic variants are located at several positions on human chromosomes, including position 17q25.1, which may increase cancer risk by 38 percent for each copy that is present in the genome; position 7p13, which may increase the risk by 12 percent; and position 3q29, which may increase the risk by 16 percent. Position 2p13.3, another ...

Putnam Valley, NY. (June 23, 2015) - Diabetic neuropathy (DN) is a condition in which perpetually high blood sugar causes nerve damage, resulting in a myriad of symptoms such as numbness, reduced ability to detect painful stimuli, muscle weakness, pain, and muscle spasms. DN affects up to 60 percent of patients with diabetes, is often the cause of foot ulcers, and can ultimately result in amputations. There is no curative therapy for DN, but a recent study carried out by a team of researchers in the U.S. and Korea has found that laboratory animals modeled with DN can experience ...

In what may be a major leap forward in the quest for new treatments of the most common form of cardiovascular disease, scientists at Johns Hopkins report they have found a way to halt and reverse the progression of atherosclerosis in rodents by loading microscopic nanoparticles with a chemical that restores the animals' ability to properly handle cholesterol. Cholesterol is a fatty substance that clogs, stiffens and narrows the blood vessels, greatly diminishing their ability to deliver blood to the heart muscle and the brain. The condition, known as atherosclerotic ...

The test has produced encouraging results in a clinical study, and will now be tested in a larger trial involving three hospitals in London. Researchers analysed breath samples of 210 patients using the test. They found that the test can discriminate between malignant and benign oesophageal cancer in patients for the first time. The test is 90 per cent accurate and provides results in minutes, which can take up to four to six hours to process using other methods. The test can also be applied to detect gastric (stomach) cancer tumours. According to the researchers, ...

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (June 23, 2015) - Many of us are familiar with bell-shaped curves that describe the distributions of school grades and total annual rainfall, among many other quantities. This ubiquitous distribution results when many points for individual non-correlated quantities are added to produce an outcome. Interestingly, a very differently-shaped, highly skewed pattern, often called a power law distribution, is also ubiquitous. This skewed distribution is often considered a signature of complex systems, but its origin has never been adequately explained. A ...

Some strains of multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDRTB) may have a lower fitness (be less capable of spreading) than drug-susceptible tuberculosis bacteria, according to a study published this week in PLOS Medicine. The study, conducted by Louis Grandjean of Imperial College London, and colleagues, compared new tuberculosis cases among household contacts of tuberculosis patients in South Lima and Callao, Peru to determine the relative fitness of MDRTB versus drug-susceptible tuberculosis. The study followed 1,055 household contacts of 213 individuals with MDRTB infection ...

Just because more men pursue careers in science and engineering does not mean they are actually better at math than women are. The difference is that men think they are much better at math than they really are. Women, on the other hand, tend to accurately estimate their arithmetic prowess, says Shane Bench of Washington State University in the U.S., leader of a study in Springer's journal Sex Roles. There is a sizeable gap between the number of men and women who choose to study and follow careers in the so-called STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics ...