July 15, 2014 – Inorganic arsenic in rice and rice-based foods poses health concerns in infants and young children, and steps should be taken to minimize exposure, according to a commentary in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, official journal of the European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN) and the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. The inorganic arsenic levels ...

Much of what we know about Oetzi – for example what he looked like or that he suffered from lactose intolerance – stems from a tiny bone sample which allowed the decoding of his genetic make-up. Now, however, the team of scientists have examined more closely the part of the sample consisting of non-human DNA. "What is new is that we did not carry out a directed DNA analysis but rather investigated the whole spectrum of DNA to better understand which organisms are in this sample and what is their potential function", is how Frank Maixner, from the EURAC Institute for Mummies ...

During a recent survey of organisms collected from Bajo de Sico, a mesophotic coral reef ecosystem in Mona Passage off Puerto Rico, one pontarachnid mite species new to science was discovered. The new species was named after the famous Puerto Rican singer Jennifer Lopez. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys. "The reason behind the unusual choice of name for the new species", explains the lead author Vladimir Pešić, Department of Biology, University of Montenegro, "is that J.Lo's songs and videos kept the team in a continuous good mood when writing ...

ATLANTA–A team of researchers at the Neuroscience Institute at Georgia State University has discovered that hidden differences in the properties of neural circuits can account for whether animals are behaviorally susceptible to brain injury. These results could have implications for the treatment of brain trauma. People vary in their responses to stroke and trauma, which impedes the ability of physicians to predict patient outcomes. Damage to the brain and nervous system can lead to severe disabilities, including epilepsy and cognitive impairment. If doctors could ...

A team of researchers at the Neuroscience Institute at Georgia State University has discovered that hidden differences in the properties of neural circuits can account for whether animals are behaviorally susceptible to brain injury. These results could have implications for the treatment of brain trauma. People vary in their responses to stroke and trauma, which impedes the ability of physicians to predict patient outcomes. Damage to the brain and nervous system can lead to severe disabilities, including epilepsy and cognitive impairment. If doctors could predict ...

A novel study reveals that more than half of liver transplant patients want to be informed of donor risk at the time a liver is offered for transplantation. Nearly 80% of those patients want to be involved in the decision of whether or not to accept the organ according to findings published in Liver Transplantation, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society. There is a shortage of available donor organs, which leaves many on the liver transplant waiting list. Currently, there are more than ...

TORONTO, July 15, 2014 — Rehabilitation programs must become an integral part of cardiac care to significantly reduce the burden of living with heart disease, one of the most common chronic diseases and causes of death globally, according to York University Professor Sherry Grace. "Cardiac rehabilitation is a cost-effective program offering heart patients exercise, education and risk reduction," says Grace, noting that participation results in 25 per cent less death, lower re-hospitalization rates and better quality of life. Despite these benefits, cardiac rehabilitation ...

Neuropeptide Y exhibits neuroprotective effects. Whether the neuroprotective effects are mediated by the pathways including regulating the immunological activity of reactive microglia and reducing cytokines remains unclear. Prof. Wenqing Zhao, Graduate School, Heibei Medical University, China and his team confirmed that neuropeptide Y prevented excessive production of interleukin-1β and tumor necrosis factor-α by inhibiting microglial reactivity, reduced N-methyl-D-aspartate current in rat cortical neurons, preventing excitotoxicity, and thereby protecting neurons. ...

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) causes gene expression changes in different brain regions. Cyclooxygenase-2, glutamate receptor-2, and platelet activating factor receptor expression levels are related to the occurrence and development of TBI. However, the precise relationship between the expression levels of these three factors and neuronal injury after TBI remains poorly understood. Zhiqiang Li, Inner Mongolia Corps Hospital, Chinese People's Armed Police Forces, China performed a study and showed that sequential expression of cyclooxygenase-2, glutamate receptor-2, and platelet ...

The main pathological changes of Alzheimer's disease (AD) include amyloid-beta protein-induced hippocampal neuronal injury and neurite outgrowth impairment. Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathway and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway are the important signaling pathways respectively responsible for regulating synaptic plasticity and neuronal survival. In view of the fact that ginsenoside Rb1 exhibits anti-aging and anti-dementia effects, Prof. Qionglan Yuan and her team, Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology, Tongji University School of Medicine, ...

It is currently difficult to treat traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the clinic. There are abundant neural network connections and humoral regulation mechanisms between the cerebral hemispheres. Brain tissue on the uninjured side after TBI may also undergo abnormal changes, but these changes remain poorly understood. Hong Lu and her team, Affiliated Haikou Hospital, Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, in China performed a study to investigate whether apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) measurements can reflect cytotoxic edema on the uninjured side using ...

The over-expression of α-synuclein is a major factor in the death of dopaminergic neurons in a methamphetamine-induced model of Parkinson's disease (PD). Dr. Huijun Wang, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Southern Medical University, China and his team injected α-synuclein-shRNA lentivirus stereotaxically into the right striatum of experimental rats to inhibit α-synuclein mRNA and protein expression. Results showed that after α-synuclein knockdown, the depression manifestations of PD rats were reduced, striatal dopamine and tyrosine hydroxylase levels ...

The molecular scale behavior of water at a solid/liquid interface holds fundamental significance in a diverse set of technical and scientific contexts, ranging from the efficiency of oil mining to the activity of biological molecules. Recently, it has become recognized that both the physical interactions and the surface morphology have significant impact on the behavior of interfacial water, including the water structures and wetting properties of the surface. In a new review, Chunlei Wang, Yizhou Yang and Haiping Fang of the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics report ...

Acute hemorrhagic anemia can decrease blood flow and oxygen supply to brain, and affect its physiological function. Detecting changes in brain function in patients with acute hemorrhagic anemia is helpful for preventing neurological complications and evaluating therapeutic effects. Susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) imaging is a novel, non-invasive method for detecting changes in cerebral oxygen levels that may provide more detailed information regarding cerebral blood flow in patients with hemorrhage. Dr. Jun Xia, Second People's Hospital of Shenzhen City, First Affiliated ...

Taking B vitamins doesn't slow mental decline as we age, nor is it likely to prevent Alzheimer's disease, conclude Oxford University researchers who have assembled all the best clinical trial data involving 22,000 people to offer a final answer on this debate. High levels in the blood of a compound called homocysteine have been found in people with Alzheimer's disease, and people with higher levels of homocysteine have been shown to be at increased risk of Alzheimer's disease. Taking folic acid and vitamin B-12 are known to lower levels of homocysteine in the body, so ...

Irradiation with heavy ions is suitable in particular for patients suffering from cancer with tumours which are difficult to access, for example in the brain. These particles hardly damage the penetrated tissue, but can be used in such a way that they deliver their maximum energy only directly at the target: the tumour. Research in this relatively new therapy method is focussed again and again on the exact dosing: how must the radiation parameters be set in order to destroy the cancerous cells "on the spot" with as low a damage as possible to the surrounding tissue? The ...

Montreal, July 15 2014 - Judes Poirier, PhD, C.Q., from the Douglas Mental Health Institute and McGill University in Montréal (Canada) and his team have discovered that a relatively frequent genetic variant actually conveys significant protection against the common form of Alzheimer's disease and can delay the onset of the disease by as much as 4 years. This discovery opens new avenues for treatment against this devastating disease. Dr. Poirier announced his findings as the annual Alzheimer's Association International Conference was taking place in Copenhagen. This large-scale ...

The manipulation of atoms has reached a new level: Together with teams from Finland and Japan, physicists from the University of Basel were able to place 20 single atoms on a fully insulated surface at room temperature to form the smallest "Swiss cross", thus taking a big step towards next generation atomic-scale storage devices. The academic journal Nature Communications has published their results. Ever since the 1990s, physicists have been able to directly control surface structures by moving and positioning single atoms to certain atomic sites. A number of atomic ...

Everyone knows that cholesterol, at least the bad kind, can cause heart disease and hardening of the arteries. Now, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago describe a new role for cholesterol in the activation of a cellular signaling pathway that has been linked to cancer. The finding is reported in Nature Communications. Cells employ thousands of signaling pathways to conduct their functions. Canonical Wnt signaling is a pathway that promotes cell growth and division and is most active in embryonic cells during development. Overactivity of this signaling ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – An after-action review of the Brigham and Women's Hospital emergency radiology response to the Boston Marathon bombings highlights the crucial role medical imaging plays in emergency situations and ways in which radiology departments can improve their preparedness for mass casualty events. The new study is published online in the journal Radiology. "It's important to analyze our response to events like the Boston Marathon bombing to identify opportunities for improvement in our institutional emergency operations plan," said senior author Aaron Sodickson ...

Blood clots occur so rarely in children undergoing spine operations that most patients require nothing more than vigilant monitoring after surgery and should be spared risky and costly anti-clotting medications, according to a new Johns Hopkins Children's Center study. Because clotting risk in children is poorly understood, treatment guidelines are largely absent, leaving doctors caring for pediatric patients at a loss on whom to treat and when. The Johns Hopkins' team findings, published online July 15 in the journal Spine, narrow down the pool of high-risk patients ...

European researchers have recovered a genome of the bacterium Brucella melitensis from a 700-year-old skeleton found in the ruins of a Medieval Italian village. Reporting this week in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, the authors describe using a technique called shotgun metagenomics to sequence DNA from a calcified nodule in the pelvic region of a middle-aged male skeleton excavated from the settlement of Geridu in Sardinia, an island off the coast of Italy. Geridu is thought to have been abandoned in the late 14th century. ...

A new study has revealed that gardens in care homes could provide promising therapeutic benefits for patients suffering from dementia. The research is published in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association and by critically reviewing the findings from 17 different pieces of research, has found that outdoor spaces can offer environments that promote relaxation, encourage activity and reduce residents' agitation. Conducted by a team at the University of Exeter Medical School and supported by the National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for ...

Crop spraying on British farms could be aiding a life-threatening fungus suffered by tens of thousand of people in the UK each year. New research by British and Dutch scientists has found that Aspergillus – a common fungus that attacks the lungs and is found in soil and other organic matter – has become resistant to life - saving drugs in parts of rural Yorkshire. It's the first time a link has been made in the UK between drug resistance in Aspergillus and fungicide used on crops. Experts warn their findings, now published, are significant and raise serious implications ...

Labelling people with moderately high blood sugar as pre-diabetic is a drastically premature measure with no medical value and huge financial and social costs, say researchers from UCL and the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota. The analysis, published in the BMJ, considered whether a diagnosis of pre-diabetes carried any health benefits such as improved diabetes prevention. The authors showed that treatments to reduce blood sugar only delayed the onset of type 2 diabetes by a few years, and found no evidence of long-term health benefits. Type 2 diabetes is typically diagnosed ...