Imagine a ballroom in which two dancers apparently keep in time to their own individual rhythm. The two partners suddenly find themselves moving to the same rhythm and, after a closer look, it is clear to see which one is leading. It was an image like this that researchers at Aarhus University were able to see when they compared studies of solar energy release and volcanic activity during the last 450 years, with reconstructions of ocean temperature fluctuations during the same period. The results actually showed that during the last approximately 250 years – since ...

A study in The Journal of General Physiology provides new evidence that the ubiquitous sodium pump is more complex—and more versatile—than we thought. The sodium pump is present in the surface membrane of all animal cells, using energy derived from ATP to transport sodium and potassium ions in opposite directions across the cell boundary. By setting up transmembrane gradients of these two ions, the pump plays a vital role in many important processes, including nerve impulses, heartbeats, and muscular contraction. Now, Rockefeller University researchers Natascia Vedovato ...

Washington, D.C., March 31, 2014 ― Data presented from two meta-analyses using the Atherotech Vertical Auto Profile (VAP®) Lipid Panel showed the impact high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and remnant lipoprotein (RLP) cholesterol have on determining a patient's risk for hard coronary heart disease (CHD) endpoints, such as myocardial infarction or coronary death. Each analysis examined men and women without prevalent CHD enrolled in both the Framingham Offspring and Jackson Heart studies over eight years. In both studies, HDL, the "good" cholesterol in the ...

WASHINGTON (March 31, 2014) — Giving patients steroids at the time of heart surgery does not improve health outcomes and appears to put them at greater risk of having a heart attack in the days following surgery, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session. The finding, which stems from the largest randomized trial in cardiac surgery ever conducted, challenges a practice that many surgeons have used for decades. "Based on these results, we suggest that steroids should not be used prophylactically during cardiac ...

Washington (March 31, 2014) — The use of metformin, a common regulator of blood glucose for diabetics, does not help protect against heart failure in non-diabetic patients who have suffered a heart attack, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session. The GIPS-III trial is the first double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study conducted to evaluate whether four months of metformin treatment preserved left ventricular function in non-diabetic patients with acute myocardial infarction. Metformin is commonly ...

WASHINGTON (March 31, 2014) — Gastric bypass and sleeve gastrectomy – two of the most commonly used bariatric surgeries – are more effective than intensive medical therapy alone when it comes to managing uncontrolled type 2 diabetes in overweight or obese patients after three years, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session. STAMPEDE is the largest randomized controlled trial with one of the longest follow-ups to compare the effect of these two procedures to intensive medical therapy in helping patients achieve ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — University scholars are largely resisting the use of social media to circulate their scientific findings and engage their tech-savvy students, a Michigan State University researcher argues in a new paper. While social media is widely used in fields such as journalism and business – not just to push a product but also to engage in open dialogue with readers and clients – it has failed to take hold in academia's so-called ivory tower. This is troubling given that universities in the United States and Europe are trying to increase access to publicly ...

(PHILADELPHIA) – A derivative of vitamin A, known as retinoic acid, found abundantly in sweet potato and carrots, helps turn pre-cancer cells back to normal healthy breast cells, according to research published this month in the International Journal of Oncology. The research could help explain why some clinical studies have been unable to see a benefit of vitamin A on cancer: the vitamin doesn't appear to change the course of full-blown cancer, only pre-cancerous cells, and only works at a very narrow dose. Because cells undergo many changes before they become fully ...

Once a hospital reaches a certain occupancy level, the quality of care it provides deteriorates, increasing the risk of mortality of critically ill patients. What is worrying is that this safety 'tipping point' is reached at occupancy levels that are below 100%. The findings are reported by a team of researchers led by Ludwig Kuntz, Professor of Health Management at the University of Cologne. Their paper (Stress on the Ward: Evidence of Safety Tipping Points in Hospitals) is to appear shortly in the international journal Management Science. For the purposes of their study, ...

Researchers at the University of Adelaide have discovered that a commonly used anesthetic technique to reduce the blood pressure of patients undergoing surgery could increase the risk of starving the brain of oxygen. Reducing blood pressure is important in a wide range of surgeries – such as sinus, shoulder, back and brain operations – and is especially useful for improving visibility for surgeons, by helping to remove excess blood from the site being operated on. There are many different techniques used to lower patients' blood pressure for surgery – one of them is ...

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – March 31, 2014 – Minneapolis Heart Institute Chief Cardiology Fellow Ankur Kalra, MD has been named as a finalist for the 2014 ACCF Young Investigators Awards. Kalra's research, funded by the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation (MHIF), supports the ongoing quest to better identify, with noninvasive tools, which heart attack survivors are at greatest risk for sudden cardiac death, and therefore may benefit from ICD (implantable cardioverter defibrillator) therapy. Kalra will present his research at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) meeting in ...

The human mind tends to devalue future rewards compared to immediate ones – a phenomenon that often leads to favoring immediate gratification over long-term wellbeing. As a consequence, patience has long been recognized to be a virtue. And indeed, the inability to resist temptation underlies a host of problems ranging from credit card debt and inadequate savings to unhealthy eating and drug addiction. The prevailing view for reducing costly impatience has emphasized the use of willpower. Emotions were to be tamped down in order to avoid irrational impulses for immediate ...

WASHINGTON, March 31, 2014 — It's almost April Fools' Day, and the American Chemical Society's (ACS') Reactions video series is celebrating with an episode featuring our favorite chemistry jokes. Which two elements look cute together? Why is father water concerned about his "iced out" son? What do you get when you combine sulfur, tungsten and silver? Get all the punchlines in the latest Reactions episode, available at: http://youtu.be/C5RZRkhk0OM. Subscribe to the series at Reactions YouTube, and follow us on Twitter @ACSreactions. INFORMATION: The American Chemical ...

Combatting the tissue degrading enzymes that cause lasting damage following a heart attack is tricky. Each patient responds to a heart attack differently and damage can vary from one part of the heart muscle to another, but existing treatments can't be fine-tuned to deal with this variation. University of Pennsylvania researchers have developed a way to address this problem via a material that can be applied directly to the damaged heart tissue. The potentially dangerous enzymes break down this gel-like material, releasing enzyme inhibitors contained within. This responsive, ...

VIDEO: Physicists from New Zealands' University of Otago have pushed the frontiers of quantum technology by developing a steerable 'optical tweezers' unit that uses intense laser beams to precisely split minute... Click here for more information. Physicists at New Zealand's University of Otago have pushed the frontiers of quantum technology by developing a steerable 'optical tweezers' unit that uses intense laser beams to precisely split minute clouds of ultracold atoms and to ...

The study, published today in PLOS Pathogens, explored the ways the rotavirus infection contributes to autoimmune disease in mice, and researchers believe the breakthrough could be relevant to human infection with rotavirus. The research found that it may be the "bystander effect" that causes the rotavirus infection to accelerate the onset of type 1 diabetes. The "bystander effect" suggests that the virus provokes a strong activation of the immune system, which then spills over, allowing the immune system to attack not only the viral intruder but some of the body's ...

Increasing expression of bone morphogenetic proteins at the lesion site of the central nervous system possibly induces oligodendrocyte precursor cells to differentiate into type-2 astrocytes. While the restriction of oligodendrocyte differentiation could affect remyelination, it remains poorly understood how type-2 astrocytes regulate regeneration and functional recovery. Thus, examining the effects of type-2 astrocytes on neuronal growth is helpful in understanding the possible influential factors of oligodendrocyte precursor cells on axonal regeneration and remyelination, ...

According to a paper published in the Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 9, No. 2, 2014), both depressive patients and healthy controls presented typical small-world attributes, and compared with healthy controls, characteristic path length was significantly shorter in depressive patients, suggesting development toward randomization. Patients with depression showed apparently abnormal node attributes at key areas in cortical-striatal-pallidal-thalamic circuits. In addition, right hippocampus and right thalamus were closely linked with the severity of depression. An artificial ...

Acupuncture has therapeutic effects on cerebral ischemia, dementia, epilepsy and other brain diseases, and also functions to repair the nervous system. Dazhui (GV14) and Baihui (GV20) are the preferred acupoints for treatment. However, whether acupuncture can treat addiction and prevent readdiction through changes to brain cell ultrastructure remains unknown. A research team from Anhui University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in China pointed out that cell apoptosis was observed in the hippocampus and frontal lobe of heroin readdicted rats by electron microscopy, and ...

Although some research has suggested that metformin, a medication often used in the treatment of diabetes, may have favorable effects on ventricular (heart) function, among patients without diabetes who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI; a procedure such as stent placement used to open narrowed coronary arteries) for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI; a certain pattern on an electrocardiogram following a heart attack), treatment with metformin did not result in improved ventricular function, according to a JAMA study released online to coincide ...

Cleveland: A study by Cleveland Clinic researchers shows bariatric surgery is a highly effective and durable treatment for type 2 diabetes in obese patients, enabling nearly all surgical patients to be free of insulin and many to be free of all diabetic medications three years after surgery. The STAMPEDE (Surgical Therapy And Medications Potentially Eradicate Diabetes Efficiently) trial was simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented today at the Annual Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology in Washington, D.C. The ...

Drug-dependent people who least take the future into account may, paradoxically, be the ones to benefit the most from certain treatments. The human instinct to choose instant gratification, such as a drug high, over a later benefit, such as good health — known as future or delay discounting — is strong in people with drug dependencies. An important component of addiction is failure to exert self-control in recognition of future consequences. In a study in Clinical Psychological Science, a team of researchers has found an unexpected pattern that may provide hope for ...

A mixture of diamond nanoparticles and mineral oil easily outperforms other types of fluid created for heat-transfer applications, according to new research by Rice University. Rice scientists mixed very low concentrations of diamond particles (about 6 nanometers in diameter) with mineral oil to test the nanofluid's thermal conductivity and how temperature would affect its viscosity. They found it to be much better than nanofluids that contain higher amounts of oxide, nitride or carbide ceramics, metals, semiconductors, carbon nanotubes and other composite materials. ...

Parents have reported before that trying to balance work and family obligations comes with career costs. But a new study from Rice University and the University of California, San Diego, shows that university workplace bias against scientists and engineers who use flexible work arrangements may increase employee dissatisfaction and turnover even for people who don't have children. "As researchers, we're interested in understanding the gap between the traditional 9-to-5 work setting and what workers actually need," said Erin Cech, an assistant professor of sociology at ...

WASHINGTON (March 31, 2014) — Clonidine – a drug that reduces blood pressure and heart rate – increased rates of clinically concerning hypotension and non-fatal cardiac arrest after noncardiac surgery, according to the POISE-2 trial presented at the American College of Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session. With more than 10,000 patients in 23 countries, this randomized clinical trial is the largest study of clonidine in surgical patients. The study's findings caught researchers by surprise. The earlier POISE-1 study found that beta blockers greatly reduced risk ...