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 ...

This news release is available in French. Montreal, 23 June, 2015 -- The United States Department of Defense (DOD) is widely reported to be the single largest consumer of petroleum in the world, spending billions of dollars on fuel every year. While the DOD provides Congress with yearly budget estimates, ongoing conflicts in the Middle East along with a volatile crude oil market have resulted in wide discrepancies between budgeted and actual fuel costs. New research from Concordia University in Montreal shows that while this perpetual overspending could have serious ...

(NEW YORK - June 23, 2015) An annual exam using a key imaging technology could spare patients with lung nodules from unnecessary tests and surgery, while identifying the cases where the nodules are likely to become cancerous, according to a new study by researchers at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) and published online today in journal Radiology. The study authors found the imaging technology, called low-dose computed tomography (LDCT), to be a safe and effective screening tool to monitor those with nonsolid lung nodules, which in some cases are precursors ...

With the implementation of an on-site attending-level physician supervising the overnight medical residents, the Penn State Hershey Medical Center has not seen any significant impact on important clinical outcomes, according to medical researchers. "Over the past 10 to 15 years, academic hospitals have utilized hospitalists during the day," said Jed Gonzalo, associate dean for health systems education and assistant professor of medicine and public health sciences, Penn State College of Medicine. "Ours is the first study to look at the impact of an overnight academic hospitalist ...

Generic medications used frequently in the management of heart disease patients also have the potential to bolster the immune systems of patients with Ebola virus and some other life-threatening illnesses, researchers report this week in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology. Unlike other medications in development for Ebola, which attack the virus, statins and angiotensin receptor blockers typically used for heart disease work on the host response, or a person's biological reaction to the virus, said lead study author David ...

URBANA, Ill. -- When grain and other commodity prices experienced explosive episodes between 2004 and 2013, the finger pointed toward index traders as the cause. University of Illinois researchers identified and date-stamped both upward and downward price bubbles for grain during that time period. They found that not only were index traders not to blame but that the bubbles didn't last nearly as long as many thought they did. "To an economist, a bubble is a period when the price is either above or below its true economic fundamental value, which is determined by the ...

This news release is available in French. Montreal, 23 June, 2015 -- The United States Department of Defense (DOD) is widely reported to be the single largest consumer of petroleum in the world, spending billions of dollars on fuel every year. While the DOD provides Congress with yearly budget estimates, ongoing conflicts in the Middle East along with a volatile crude oil market have resulted in wide discrepancies between budgeted and actual fuel costs. New research from Concordia University in Montreal shows that while this perpetual overspending could have serious ...

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a new approach for forming 3D shapes from flat, 2D sheets of graphene, paving the way for future integrated systems of graphene-MEMS hybrid devices and flexible electronics. "To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to demonstrate graphene integration to a variety of different microstructured geometries, including pyramids, pillars, domes, inverted pyramids, and the 3D integration of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs)/graphene hybrid structures," explained SungWoo Nam, an assistant professor ...

Consciousness -- the internal dialogue that seems to govern one's thoughts and actions -- is far less powerful than people believe, serving as a passive conduit rather than an active force that exerts control, according to a new theory proposed by an SF State researcher. Associate Professor of Psychology Ezequiel Morsella's "Passive Frame Theory" suggests that the conscious mind is like an interpreter helping speakers of different languages communicate. "The interpreter presents the information but is not the one making any arguments or acting upon the knowledge that ...

Scientists are expecting that this year's Chesapeake Bay hypoxic low-oxygen zone, also called the "dead zone," will be approximately 1.37 cubic miles - about the volume of 2.3 million Olympic-size swimming pools. While still large, this is 10 percent lower than the long-term average as measured since 1950. The anoxic portion of the zone, which contains no oxygen at all, is predicted to be 0.27 cubic miles in early summer, growing to 0.28 cubic miles by late summer. Low river flow and low nutrient loading from the Susquehanna River this spring account for the smaller ...