1. Scientists at A*STAR's Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) have identified the precise role of the protein, SNX27, in the pathway leading to memory and learning impairment. The study broadens the understanding of the brain's memory function and could be used to explain defects in the cognitive development of those with Down's syndrome. The newly established knowledge could potentially facilitate exploration of strategies to improve memory and learning abilities in Down's syndrome. 2. Down's syndrome is a genetic condition characterized by the presence ...

VIDEO: The Kuehner lab demonstrates their drug-screening technique in JoVE's peer-reviewed video format to aid other researchers in the field. Click here for more information. February 19—Researchers from the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio are exploring a possible link between metabolic defects and seizures. They determined that diet could influence susceptibility to seizures, and they have identified a common diabetes drug that could be useful in treating disorders ...

BOSTON — A new bioprinting method developed at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) creates intricately patterned 3D tissue constructs with multiple types of cells and tiny blood vessels. The work represents a major step toward a longstanding goal of tissue engineers: creating human tissue constructs realistic enough to test drug safety and effectiveness. The method also represents an early but important step toward building fully functional replacements for injured ...

Feb. 19, 2014 (Toronto) - An antidepressant medication has shown potential in treating symptoms of agitation that occur with Alzheimer's disease and in alleviating caregivers' stress, according to a multi-site U.S.- Canada study. "Up to 90 per cent of people with dementia experience symptoms of agitation such as emotional distress, restlessness, aggression or irritability, which is upsetting for patients and places a huge burden on their caregivers," said Dr. Bruce G. Pollock, Vice President of Research at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), who directed ...

New research from psychologists at the universities of Kent and Limerick has found that music that is felt to be 'beautiful but sad' can help people feel better when they're feeling blue. The research investigated the effects of what the researchers described as Self-Identified Sad Music (SISM) on people's moods, paying particular attention to their reasons for choosing a particular piece of music when they were experiencing sadness - and the effect it had on them. The study identified a number of motives for sad people to select a particular piece of music they perceive ...

With its narrow connection to the North Sea, strong currents, a large number of river estuaries and a bottom profile marked by ridges, basins and troughs, the Baltic represents an inland sea with highly different water qualities. The fact that these morphological and hydrographic conditions can also influence the fate of fish stocks has now been shown by a team of fisheries biologists from GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and the National Institute of Aquatic Resources (DTU Aqua) at the Technical University of Denmark. For their publication in the international ...

New research from the University of Adelaide has delved into the reasons why some people are unable to break free of their delusions, despite overwhelming evidence explaining the delusion isn't real. In a new paper published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, University of Adelaide philosopher Professor Philip Gerrans says dreams and delusions have a common link – they are associated with faulty "reality testing" in the brain's higher order cognitive systems. "Normally this 'reality testing' in the brain monitors a 'story telling' system which generates a narrative ...

A proposal for reformulating the foundations of biology, based on the 2nd law of thermodynamics and which is in sharp contrast to the prevailing genetic view, is published today in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface under the title "Genes without prominence: a reappraisal of the foundations of biology". The authors, Arto Annila, Professor of physics at Helsinki University and Keith Baverstock, Docent and former professor at the University of Eastern Finland, assert that the prominent emphasis currently given to the gene in biology is based on a flawed interpretation ...

Butterflies are probably best-loved insects. As such, they are relatively well studied, especially in the United States. Eastern parts of the country are explored most thoroughly. First eastern US butterfly species were described by the father of modern taxonomy Carl Linnaeus himself, over 250 years ago. For the last two and a half centuries, naturalists have been cataloguing species diversity of eastern butterflies, and every nook and cranny has been searched. Some even say that we learned everything there is to know about taxonomy of these butterflies. Discovery of ...

Researchers at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island have developed a biologic drug that would prevent the production of a protein known to allow ovarian cancer cells to grow aggressively while being resistant to chemotherapy. This would improve treatment and survival rates for some women. The work coming out of the molecular therapeutic laboratory directed by Richard G. Moore, MD, entitled "HE4 (WFDC2) gene overexpression promotes ovarian tumor growth" was recently published in the international science journal Scientific Reports, a Nature publishing group. "We ...

DURHAM, N.H. – By the time most people are 25, they have made the most important memories of their lives, according to new research from the University of New Hampshire. Researchers at UNH have found that when older adults were asked to tell their life stories, they overwhelmingly highlighted the central influence of life transitions in their memories. Many of these transitions, such as marriage and having children, occurred early in life. "When people look back over their lives and recount their most important memories, most divide their life stories into chapters ...

When they're not hanging upside down, stick insects don't need to stick. In fact, when moving upright, sticking would be a hindrance: so much extra effort required to 'unstick' again with every step. Latest research from Cambridge's Department of Zoology shows that stick insects have specialised pads on their legs designed to produce large amounts of friction with very little pressure. When upright, stick insects aren't sticking at all, but harnessing powerful friction to ensure they grip firmly without the need to unglue themselves from the ground when they move. ...

BOWLING GREEN, O.—They keep tanning, even after turning a deep brown and experiencing some of the negative consequences. Skin cancer is among the most common, preventable types of the disease, yet many continue to tan to excess. Research from Lisham Ashrafioun, a Bowling Green State University Ph.D. student in psychology, and Dr. Erin Bonar, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan Addiction Research Center and a BGSU alumna, shows that some who engage in excessive tanning may also be suffering from obsessive-compulsive (OCD) and body dysmorphic ...

A paper published in EPJ H provides the first English translation and an analysis of one of Albert Einstein's little-known papers, "On the cosmological problem of the general theory of relativity." Published in 1931, it features a forgotten model of the universe, while refuting Einstein's own earlier static model of 1917. In this paper, Einstein introduces a cosmic model in which the universe undergoes an expansion followed by a contraction. This interpretation contrasts with the monotonically expanding universe of the widely known Einstein-de Sitter model of 1932. The ...

New research has revealed that exposure to common family problems during childhood and early adolescence affects brain development, which could lead to mental health issues in later life. The study led by Dr Nicholas Walsh, lecturer in developmental psychology at the University of East Anglia (UEA), used brain imaging technology to scan teenagers aged 17-19. It found that those who experienced mild to moderate family difficulties between birth and 11 years of age had developed a smaller cerebellum, an area of the brain associated with skill learning, stress regulation ...

The drug combination indacaterol/glycopyrronium (trade name: Ultibro Breezhaler, Xoterna Breezhaler) has been approved since September 2013 for adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In an early benefit assessment pursuant to the Act on the Reform of the Market for Medicinal Products (AMNOG), the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined whether this drug combination offers an added benefit over the appropriate comparator therapy. According to the findings, the drug combination is better at relieving breathing difficulties ...

Afatinib (trade name: GIOTRIF) has been approved in Germany since September 2013 for the treatment of adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with activating EGF receptor mutations who have not been treated with an EGF receptor tyrosine-kinase inhibitor (EGFR TKI). In an early benefit assessment pursuant to the Act on the Reform of the Market for Medicinal Products (AMNOG), the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined whether this new drug offers an added benefit over the appropriate comparator ...

Scientists at the University of Bristol have discovered that a mechanism for preventing mutation within important genes involves long distance scanning of DNA by a molecular motor protein. The results, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), show that the method for detecting DNA damage within active genes is more sophisticated than previously thought. The research team hope that the mechanistic insights provided by this study will help to explain the complicated genome-wide patterns of mutation that underlie the evolution of new species, ...

It has become increasingly clear in recent years that asthma comes in several variations, with different causes, different pathologies and different responses to therapy. These subtypes of asthma can be identified by knowing which genes are expressed at higher and lower levels in patients' airways. That information can, in turn, help guide personalized treatment to more effectively manage asthma and inspire research to better understand, manage, and possibly prevent asthma. The difficulty is that tissue samples necessary for this kind of genetic profiling are currently ...

Messier 7, also known as NGC 6475, is a brilliant cluster of about 100 stars located some 800 light-years from Earth. In this new picture from the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope it stands out against a very rich background of hundreds of thousands of fainter stars, in the direction of the centre of the Milky Way. At about 200 million years old, Messier 7 is a typical middle-aged open cluster, spanning a region of space about 25 light-years across. As they age, the brightest stars in the picture — a population of up to a tenth of the total stars in ...

Duckweed is a tiny floating plant that's been known to drive people daffy. It's one of the smallest and fastest-growing flowering plants that often becomes a hard-to-control weed in ponds and small lakes. But it's also been exploited to clean contaminated water and as a source to produce pharmaceuticals. Now, the genome of Greater Duckweed (Spirodela polyrhiza) has given this miniscule plant's potential as a biofuel source a big boost. In a paper published February 19, 2014 in the journal Nature Communications, researchers from Rutgers University, the Department of Energy ...

Providing secure wireless connections and improving the efficiency of communication devices could be another application for graphene, as demonstrated by scientists at Queen Mary University of London and the Cambridge Graphene Centre. Often touted as a wonder material, graphene is a one-atom thick layer of carbon with remarkable, record breaking properties. Until now its ability to absorb electromagnetic radiation – energy from across the radio frequency spectrum – was not known. Publishing in the journal Scientific Reports, the scientists demonstrated that the transparent ...

Chexx Inc. provides convenient international payout services by check, electronic payments and prepaid credit cards. With over 19 years of experience in outbound payments for international beneficiaries, Chexx Inc. offers the ability to send fast payment to beneficiaries in locations around the globe. Chexx will be co-located at the PacNet Services booth, ID6, located in the International Direct Marketing Expo section of TFM&A. The IDMX is the show dedicated to all aspects of direct marketing and provides a highly sought-after dedicated marketplace for response-based ...

According to the Canadian Cancer Society, there are an average of 187,000 new cases of cancer around the country each year, and 75,000 deaths per year. Cancer is the leading cause of death in Canada, accounting for 30 percent of all deaths. Every donation to the organization is considered a gift of life, as it helps with their ongoing life-saving work. Digital Lion has made its first charitable donation of the year to the Canadian Cancer Society, in an effort to help support their ongoing vital work. "Just about everyone has been impacted by cancer in some way, ...

B2B Soft, a business-to-business software company specializing in retail management for the wireless/cellular retail industry, is pleased to announce a new partnership with Phobio, a mobile trade-in provider to the wireless industry. Phobio's Salepoint trade-in service is now integrated with B2B Soft's Wireless Standard Retail Management Platform. Wireless dealers can now instantly access and offer their customers Phobio's full range of device trade-in services including Backspace Data Wiping for immediate in-store credit. B2B Soft's Wireless Standard Retail Management ...