Researchers have identified a previously unknown genetic locus (the place a gene occupies on a chromosome) significantly associated with increased coronary heart disease risk among patients with type 2 diabetes, but the association was not found in individuals without diabetes, according to a study in the August 28 issue of JAMA. The variant is functionally related to glutamic acid metabolism, suggesting a mechanistic link. "The prevalence of type 2 diabetes has been steadily increasing in the United States and other countries, with the total number of affected people ...

In an analysis of a procedure used to help prevent common duct injury during gallbladder removal surgery, use of intraoperative cholangiography (radiologic examination of the ducts during gallbladder surgery) was not associated with a reduced risk of common duct injury, according to a study in the August 28 issue of JAMA. "Biliary anatomy misidentification during cholecystectomy [gallbladder removal] can result in injury to the common hepatic duct or common bile duct. Common duct injuries cause significant short- and long-term morbidity including major operations, multiple ...

"Implementation of infant rotavirus vaccination in 2006 has substantially reduced the burden of severe gastroenteritis among U.S. children younger than 5 years," write Paul A. Gastanaduy, M.D., M.P.H., of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, and colleagues. "Whether indirect protection (due to reduced transmission of rotavirus) extends to adults remains unclear." As reported in a Research Letter, the authors assessed patterns of gastroenteritis hospitalizations among children 5 years of age or older and among adults before and after implementation ...

Chevy Chase, MD—Two treatments that slow the development of diabetes also may protect people from heart disease, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). Researchers examined the effect that making intensive lifestyle changes or taking the medication metformin had on cholesterol and triglyceride levels. The study, part of the National Institutes of Health's Diabetes Prevention Program, found that both treatments induced positive changes in the level of particles that carry cholesterol ...

Chevy Chase, MD—Reduced levels of inflammation may explain how some obese people are able to remain metabolically healthy, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). Obesity generally is linked to a higher risk of diabetes and heart disease. Some people who are obese, however, do not develop high blood pressure and unfavorable cholesterol profiles – factors that increase the risk of metabolic diseases. This phenomenon is described as metabolically healthy obesity. Although estimates ...

The type of particles which are most harmful to jet engines were the first to fall out of the Eyjafjallajökull ash plume following the volcano's eruption in 2010, delegates at the Goldschmidt conference will be told today (Wednesday 28th August). The research, led by Dr Bernard Grobety of the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, will help to mitigate the impact of future volcanic eruptions on air travel. Dr Grobety's team analysed samples of volcanic ash taken at different points in its journey from the volcano across Europe. They found that the two different forms ...

Contact: Vanessa Solomon solomon@wehi.edu.au 61-393-452-971 Walter and Eliza Hall Institute Pam Lord pam@canalecomm.com 619-849-6003 Canale Communications New approach to celiac testing identifies more Australians at risk Australian researchers have developed a new approach to detecting coeliac disease, revealing this immune disorder is far more common than previously recognised. In a study of more than 2500 Victorians the researchers combined traditional antibody testing (measuring the immune response to gluten) with an assessment of specific genetic ...

In a study of an all-oral drug regimen, a majority of volunteers with liver damage due to hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection were cured following a six-month course of therapy that combined an experimental drug, sofosbuvir, with the licensed antiviral drug ribavirin. The results showed that the regimen was highly effective in clearing the virus and well tolerated in a group of patients who historically have had unfavorable prognoses. Scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the NIH Clinical Center, parts of the National Institutes ...

Frontiers in Psychology Interesting and useful musings are associated with a happy mood Mind wandering can be a sign of mental wellbeing, provided that your off-task musings are interesting and useful even if not related to the task at hand, finds a new study in Frontiers in Psychology. The negative effects of mind wandering on performance and mood have recently received much attention, for example in the much-publicized study A wandering mind is an unhappy mind (Science 2010, 330:932). But Michael S. Franklin and colleagues here use a similar but more detailed experimental ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- An increasing gap between the incidence of thyroid cancer and deaths from the disease suggests that low-risk cancers are being overdiagnosed and overtreated, a study from the Mayo Clinic Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery finds. The study appears in the current issue of the British Medical Journal. "High tech imaging technologies such as ultrasound, CT and MRI can detect very small thyroid nodules many of which are slow growing papillary thyroid cancers, says the study's lead author Juan Pablo Brito, M.B.B.S. an endocrine fellow and health ...

European hunter-gatherers acquired domesticated pigs from nearby farmers as early as 4600BC, according to new evidence. The international team of scientists, including researchers at Durham and Aberdeen universities, showed there was interaction between the hunter-gatherer and farming communities and a 'sharing' of animals and knowledge. The interaction between the two groups eventually led to the hunter-gatherers incorporating farming and breeding of livestock into their culture, say the scientists. The research, published in Nature Communications today (27 August), ...

DETROIT — A Wayne State University researcher's innovative use of a new tool may make surgery a more viable option for sufferers of obstructive sleep apnea/hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS). Ho-Sheng Lin, M.D., a fellow with the American College of Surgeons and professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery in the School of Medicine and Karmanos Cancer Institute, reported promising results in the July issue of The Laryngoscope, for treating sleep apnea using transoral robotic surgery (TORS), a technique whose safety and tolerability have recently been established for removing ...

A commercial health insurer's large scale demonstration program designed to improve quality and lower costs for subscribers also lowered costs for Medicare patients who used the same health care providers but were not covered by the plan. "These findings suggest that provider groups are willing—and able—to make systemic changes that result in higher-value care for patients across the board," said author J. Michael McWilliams, assistant professor of health care policy and medicine at Harvard Medical School and a practicing general internist at Brigham and Women's Hospital. The ...

A simple pendulum has two equilibrium points: hanging in the "down" position and perfectly inverted in the "up" position. While the "down" position is a stable equilibrium, the inverted position is definitely not stable. Any infinitesimal deviation from perfectly inverted is enough to cause the pendulum to eventually swing down. It has been known for more than 100 years, though, that an inverted pendulum can be stabilized by vibrating the pivot point. This non-intuitive phenomenon is known as dynamic stabilization, and it has led to a broad range of applications including ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – New research suggests that getting depressed when it's cold and dreary outside may not be as common as is often believed. In a study recently published online in the Journal of Affective Disorders, researchers found that neither time of year nor weather conditions influenced depressive symptoms. However, lead author David Kerr of Oregon State University said this study does not negate the existence of clinically diagnosed seasonal affective disorder, also known as SAD, but instead shows that people may be overestimating the impact that seasons have on ...

HOUSTON – (Aug. 27, 2013) – Fifteen years ago, a hematologist came to Dianna Milewicz, M.D., Ph.D., with a puzzle: Multiple generations of an East Texas family suffered from a moderately severe bleeding disorder, but it wasn't hemophilia. "No surgeon would do elective surgery because they bled too much after surgery," said Milewicz, professor and director of the Division of Medical Genetics at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). "So we collected DNA and plasma from the family and were able to determine that a genetic variant in the Factor ...

An oil painting of a piece of wood with a sad face sitting on the ground or a pink pony with Disney Princess-like hair. Would people come to like these pieces, considered "bad art" by some websites, if they became more familiar with them? This was a question asked by an international team of scholars including a University of Tennessee, Knoxville, philosophy lecturer. Websites like Tumblr catalogue pieces of what are deemed "bad art." However, a well-accepted phenomenon called the "mere exposure effect"—supported by the works of psychologist James Cutting, among others—suggests ...

This news release is available in French. Montreal, August 27, 2013 — If 3 is greater than 2, then ⅓ must be bigger than ½ — right? Wrong. As thousands of students head back to school, many will use exactly that kind of thinking when faced with fractions for the first time. New research from Concordia University shows that for children to understand math, teachers must constantly make the connection between abstract numbers and real world examples. Helena Osana, associate professor in Concordia's Department of Education, and PhD candidate Nicole Pitsolantis ...

Submarine canyons play an important role in maintaining high levels of biodiversity of small invertebrates in the seafloor sediments of the main and northwestern Hawaiian Islands, according to research from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. What's more, scientists have used this data to draw new connections between the levels of faunal diversity and the heterogeneity of submarine canyon landscapes at various spatial scales. "Submarine canyons encompass myriad habitat types," said Fabio C. De Leo, a doctoral graduate from UH Manoa's department of oceanography and the ...

Baltimore, MD—Cells in the body wear down over time and die. In many organs, like the small intestine, adult stem cells play a vital role in maintaining function by replacing old cells with new ones. Learning about the nature of tissue stem cells can help scientists understand exactly how our organs are built, and why some organs generate cancer frequently, but others only rarely. New work from Carnegie's Alexis Marianes and Allan Spradling used some of the most experimentally accessible tissue stem cells, the adult stem cells in the midsection of the fruit fly gut, ...

SINGAPORE – Stomach cancer, one of the leading causes of cancer death worldwide, actually falls into three broad subtypes that respond differently to currently available therapies, according to researchers at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore. The finding could greatly improve patient care with the development of a genetic test to classify tumors and match them to the therapies that offer the best outcomes. "One of the features that makes gastric cancer so lethal is that it arises from many genetic alterations, creating differences in how the tumors respond ...

WEST ORANGE, N.J. August 27, 2013. —Denise Krch, Ph.D., research scientist for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Research at Kessler Foundation, presented "Pilot results from a virtual reality executive function task," at the International Conference on Virtual Rehabilitation (ICVR). In the pilot study, Dr. Krch evaluated the Assessim Office (AO), a virtual reality office task, in participants with multiple sclerosis (MS) and TBI. "Impairments in executive functions (EF), such as planning and problem solving, negatively impact a person's ability to live independently and ...

A greater focus on the role of microbiology in agriculture combined with new technologies can help mitigate potential food shortages associated with world population increases according to a new report from the American Academy of Microbiology. "Microbes are essential partners in all aspects of plant physiology, but human efforts to improve plant productivity have focused solely on the plant," says Ian Sanders of University of Lausanne, chair of the colloquium that produced the report. "Optimizing the microbial communities that live in, on and around plants, can substantially ...

A new Energy Department study conducted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) indicates that by 2025 wind and solar power electricity generation could become cost-competitive without federal subsidies, if new renewable energy development occurs in the most productive locations. The report, "Beyond Renewable Portfolio Standards: An Assessment of Regional Supply and Demand Conditions Affecting the Future of Renewable Energy in the WestPDF," compares the cost of renewable electricity generation (without federal subsidy) from the West's most productive renewable ...

PHILADELPHIA – Despite significant restraints that can include arrests, detentions, and imprisonment, Iranian journalists strive to achieve high standards of journalistic professionalism, according to a new report published by the Iran Media Program at the Center for Global Communication Studies (CGCS), Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. The report, Facing Boundaries, Finding Freedom: An In-Depth Report on Iranian Journalists Working in Iran, is based on a field survey of 304 Iranian journalists from both state-run and independent media ...