PRINCETON, N.J.--Double-blind clinical trials for new drugs are considered the "gold standard" of medical research because they're designed to determine the efficacy of a treatment free from doctor and participant bias. But one effect these trials fail to measure is how a medication's performance can vary based on patients' lifestyle choices, especially if patients change their habits because they are anticipating treatment, according to a new study published in PLOS ONE. A recent meta-analysis of six clinical trials, led by researchers from Princeton University, the ...

A key potential 'benefit' of global warming--namely, that plants at northern latitudes will thrive in a warmer world--is challenged by a new study released by University of Hawai'i scientists today. The prevailing assumption ignores the fact that plants in the North will remain limited by solar radiation, curbing positive effects of warming and additional CO2 availability. In addition, that same warming could surpass plant temperature tolerances in tropical areas around the world, and further be accompanied by drought. "Those that think climate change will benefit plants ...

DARIEN, Ill. -- A new study suggests that the risk for sleep disorders among college freshmen may be a predictor of retention and academic success. Results show that students at risk for a sleep disorder were more likely to leave the institution over the three-year period, although this association was weakened when covariates were included. Risk for sleep disorder also predicted grade point average (GPA) at the end of the first and second years. 'A survey that screens for sleep disorders administered when students first enter college may identify a potentially modifiable ...

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have launched a clinical trial to investigate the safety and efficacy of an unprecedented drug therapy for autism. The phase 1 clinical trial, which is recruiting 20 qualifying participants, will evaluate suramin -- a century-old drug still used for African sleeping sickness -- as a novel treatment for children with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Previous published research by Robert K. Naviaux, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine, pediatrics and pathology at UC San Diego School of ...

MADISON, Wis. -- Fragile X syndrome is the most common inherited intellectual disability and the greatest single genetic contributor to autism. Unlocking the mechanisms behind fragile X could make important revelations about the brain. In a new study published June 4 in the journal Cell Reports, researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Waisman Center and Department of Neuroscience show that two proteins implicated in fragile X play a crucial role in the proper development of neurons in mice. They also show that while the two proteins act through distinct mechanisms ...

Researchers at Children's Hospital Los Angeles have demonstrated that adolescents and young adults with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) have significantly increased amounts of abdominal fat tissue, placing them at greater risk for harmful conditions linked to obesity, including cardiovascular disease (CVD). Their study, which reveals new information about the role of abdominal fat in patients with CAH and points to a need for targeted prevention and therapeutics to avoid these adverse effects, will be published online June 10, 2015 by The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology ...

SAN FRANCISCO - Innovative vaccine and tumor research will be unveiled at the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists' (AAPS) National Biotechnology Conference (NBC). The meeting takes place Monday, June 8- Wednesday, June 10 at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis. This year's conference is organized into five meeting workstreams: Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls (CMC) including Formulation, Characterization, Stability and Biomanufacturing; Research and Discovery; Clinical Pharmacology, Pharmacokinetic/Pharmacodynamic (PK/PD), and Bioanalytics; Regulatory; ...

Was it a massive migration? Or was it rather a slow and persistent seeping of people, items and ideas that laid the foundation for the demographic map of Europe and Central Asia that we see today? The Bronze Age (about 5,000 - 3,000 years ago) was a period with large cultural upheavals. But just how these upheavals came to be have remained shrouded in mystery. Assistant Professor Morten Allentoft from the Centre for GeoGenetics at the Natural History Museum of Denmark at the University of Copenhagen is a geneticist and is first author on the paper in Nature. He says: - ...

An international team of scientists has found a dramatic ice sheet collapse at the end of the ice age before last caused widespread climate changes and led to a peak in the sea level well above its present height. The team found the events 135,000 years ago caused the planet to warm in a different way to the end of the most recent ice age about 20,000 to 10,000 years ago. The findings will help scientists understand the processes that control Earth's dramatic climate changes, said the leader of the study, Dr Gianluca Marino of The Australian National University (ANU). "We ...

Several neurodegenerative disorders are caused by aggregates of a single protein known as alpha-synuclein. In collaboration with CNRS and the University of Antwerp, KU Leuven neurobiologists have discovered that the shape of these aggregates - 'cylinders' or 'ribbons' - determines whether a patient develops Parkinson's disease or Multiple System Atrophy, respectively. Typical of neurodegenerative disorders is the disrupted communication between brain cells together with a loss of cells in specific brain regions. For some brain diseases this phenomenon is linked to a ...

The discovery of how a group of bacteria rapidly adapts to changing growth conditions could have implications for future antibiotic development, according to research at the University of Oxford and the University of York. Led by Professor Colin Kleanthous at Oxford and Dr Christoph Baumann at York, the research which also involved key collaborators Mark Sansom at Oxford and Jacob Piehler at the University of Osnabrück, is published in Nature. Gram-negative bacteria are a major cause of disease, in part because they have a robust outer membrane that protects ...

A University of Manchester led trial of a new psoriasis drug has resulted in 40 percent of people showing a complete clearance of psoriatic plaques after 12 weeks of treatment and over 90 percent showing improvement. The research tested 2,500 people with psoriasis. Half were given a new drug - ixekizumab - either once every two or four weeks. The other half were given a placebo or a widely used drug for psoriasis called etanercept. The ixekizumab groups showed quick and extensive improvements in their condition, outperforming the groups on placebo or etanercept. Around ...

wo NASA satellites provided a look inside and outside of Tropical Cyclone Ashobaa. NASA and JAXA's GPM satellite observed rainfall rates and cloud heights identifying powerful thunderstorms within the cyclone, and NASA's Aqua satellite provided an overall look at Ashobaa's cloud extent. The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) core observatory had an excellent view of Tropical Cyclone Ashobaa in the Arabian Sea over on June 8, 2015 at 2131 UTC (5:31 p.m. EDT). As expected, Tropical Cyclone Ashobaa was more powerful than when seen by GPM earlier in the day. GPM's Microwave ...

Genetically modified fish that overexpress growth hormone have been created for more than 25 years, but unlike many domesticated crops, transgenic fish have yet to enter commercial production. Because of the difficulty inherent in eradicating an established fish population, efforts are under way to model the threat posed by possible invasions. In an article for an upcoming issue of BioScience, a team of government and academic researchers, led by Robert Devlin of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, examined the possible outcomes of an accidental release of transgenic fish. Their ...

The air around us is a chaotic superhighway of molecules whizzing through space and constantly colliding with each other at speeds of hundreds of miles per hour. Such erratic molecular behavior is normal at ambient temperatures. But scientists have long suspected that if temperatures were to plunge to near absolute zero, molecules would come to a screeching halt, ceasing their individual chaotic motion and behaving as one collective body. This more orderly molecular behavior would begin to form very strange, exotic states of matter -- states that have never been observed ...

Most galaxies are clumped together in groups or clusters. A neighboring galaxy is never far away. But this galaxy, known as NGC 6503, has found itself in a lonely position, at the edge of a strangely empty patch of space called the Local Void. The Local Void is a huge stretch of space that is at least 150 million light-years across. It seems completely empty of stars or galaxies. The galaxy's odd location on the edge of this never-land led stargazer Stephen James O'Meara to dub it the "Lost-In-Space galaxy" in his 2007 book, Hidden Treasures. NGC 6503 is 18 million ...

New research from UBC and the Child & Family Research Institute at BC Children's Hospital shows that risky outdoor play is not only good for children's health but also encourages creativity, social skills and resilience. The findings, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, found that children who participated in physical activity such as climbing and jumping, rough and tumble play and exploring alone, displayed greater physical and social health. "We found that play environments where children could take risks promoted increased ...

Google searches for information on melanoma and skin cancer increased over the summer months during a five-year period, although the level of interest did not correlate with the melanoma mortality to incidence ratio, suggesting that increased search volumes may not be associated with early detection, according to a research letter published online by JAMA Dermatology. Researcher Kyle T. Amber, M.D., of MacNeal Hospital, Berwyn, Ill., and coauthors used Google Trends, a research tool which quantifies interest in topics at the population level by analyzing all search queries ...

For years, research on nuclear weapons has relied on old data, limited experiments and computer modeling. But this year, that pattern has changed. Scientists have run new experiments that simulate what happens to plutonium in a nuclear explosion, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society. The research will deepen scientists' understanding of the element -- and help them analyze a nuclear event should one occur. In the article, Jyllian Kemsley, a senior editor at C&EN, notes that six years ago, ...

Using the intestinal hormone GLP-1 in obesity treatment prevents the loss of bone mass otherwise frequently associated with major weight loss. This is the finding of a new study from the University of Copenhagen, Hvidovre and Glostrup Hospital. According to the researchers behind the study, the results may have a significant bearing on future obesity treatment. Rapid weight loss leads to a loss of bone mass and an increased risk of bone fractures. New research shows that treating obesity with the GLP-1 hormone helps prevent loss of bone mass in addition to having a number ...

June 10, 2015--Low-income families bear the brunt of high-energy costs and poor thermal comfort from poorly maintained apartment buildings. To study how energy efficiency upgrades could help these households, researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health surveyed residents in a low-income community in New York City. They found that while energy efficiency upgrades varied significantly by ownership status, low-income single-family homeowners reaped the greatest direct benefits. Results overall showed that respondents experienced improved thermal comfort, ...

WASHINGTON - While a 1980 reform law enabled the modernization and stabilization of the U.S. freight railroad industry, federal regulation has not kept pace with the industry's transformation and should be replaced with a system better-suited for today's freight rail system, says a new congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council's Transportation Research Board. Current policies designed to protect rail shippers who lack transportation options from excessive rates are not working for shippers of most commodities, including grain. More appropriate, ...

The way insects see and track their prey is being applied to a new robot under development at the University of Adelaide, in the hopes of improving robot visual systems. The project - which crosses the boundaries of neuroscience, mechanical engineering and computer science - builds on years of research into insect vision at the University. In a new paper published today in the Journal of The Royal Society Interface, researchers describe how the learnings from both insects and humans can be applied in a model virtual reality simulation, enabling an artificial intelligence ...

CHICAGO (June 10, 2015): As health insurers place more emphasis on paying for quality outcomes rather than for specific services provided by doctors and hospitals, several quality improvement programs have been developed as a way to help health care providers identify problem areas and share best practices. While some studies have evaluated how well these quality improvement programs achieve their goals, not many have focused on the area of trauma care. But now a team of trauma surgeons at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor have reported how data from a statewide ...

Origami, the Japanese art of paper folding, can be used to create beautiful birds, frogs and other small sculptures. Now a Binghamton University engineer says the technique can be applied to building batteries, too. Seokheun "Sean" Choi developed an inexpensive, bacteria-powered battery made from paper, he writes in the July edition of the journal Nano Energy. The battery generates power from microbial respiration, delivering enough energy to run a paper-based biosensor with nothing more than a drop of bacteria-containing liquid. "Dirty water has a lot of organic matter," ...