Montreal − What leads to high cholesterol? Your genes and lifestyle factors may not explain it all. A study presented today at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress has connected some of the risk for high cholesterol in adults to their mother's cholesterol levels before she even became pregnant. The key finding: if a mother had high LDL ("bad") cholesterol prior to a pregnancy, her children are almost five times as likely to also have high LDL cholesterol as adults. "Maternal health and exposures in the womb may be important in modifying cardiovascular disease ...

Montreal − A team of researchers from Montreal has found that stroke patients living with Locked-In Syndrome (LIS) who cannot move, swallow or even breathe on their own, can regain a remarkable level of independence with technological help. The team's findings, to be presented at the Canadian Stroke Congress, stem from a 20-year study that followed the rehabilitation of 25 LIS patients, people who are aware and awake but cannot move or communicate verbally due to complete paralysis of nearly all voluntary muscles. "These patients can achieve a remarkable level ...

CHICAGO --- Doctors who make a lot of eye contact are viewed as more likable and empathetic by patients, according to a new Northwestern Medicine® study. Patients also gave doctors higher empathy scores when their total visit length was longer and when doctors engaged in a few "social touches" such as a handshake or pat on the back. However, more than three social touches in one visit decreased empathy scores. The researchers said it's possible that too many social touches from a doctor may seem forced and not genuine to a patient. The study, published in the Journal ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– The human mind is not only capable of cognition and registering experiences but also of being introspectively aware of these processes. Until now, scientists have not known if such introspection was a single skill or dependent on the object of reflection. Also unclear was whether the brain housed a single system for reflecting on experience or required multiple systems to support different types of introspection. A new study by UC Santa Barbara graduate student Benjamin Baird and colleagues suggest that the ability to accurately reflect on perceptual ...

LOS ANGELES (Oct. 15, 2013) – For the first time, a simple blood test may be the best way to determine if a patient is suffering from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), or another serious condition such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD,) according to Cedars-Sinai physician researcher Mark Pimentel, MD, lead author of a multicenter clinical trial. Researchers conclusively identified a test for antibodies that form against a particular protein, vinculin, found in the guts of patients, many of whom suffered acute gastroenteritis at some point. "This is a major breakthrough. ...

Researchers have discovered how the most common genetic abnormality in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) kills neurons and have successfully developed a therapeutic strategy to block this neurodegeneration in neurons made from the skin cells of ALS patients. The findings, which are published online in the October 16th issue of the Cell Press journal Neuron, have important implications for treating patients with these debilitating, currently incurable neurodegenerative diseases. The most common genetic mutation in ALS and FTD is an abnormal ...

DURHAM, N.C. – Though worlds apart, four unrelated families have been united in a medical mystery over the source of a rare inherited disorder that results in their children being born with abnormal brain growth and severe functional impairments. An international team of scientists, led by genetic researchers at Duke Medicine, has solved the case by identifying a recessive gene mutation that reduces the abundance of a certain protein that previously had not been known to affect brain development. The gene mutation causes a defect in the body's synthesis of a nutrient ...

Johns Hopkins scientists have developed new drugs that — at least in a laboratory dish — appear to halt the brain-destroying impact of a genetic mutation at work in some forms of two incurable diseases, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and dementia. They made the finding by using neurons they created from stem cells known as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), which are derived from the skin of people with ALS who have a gene mutation that interferes with the process of making proteins needed for normal neuron function. "Efforts to treat neurodegenerative ...

Researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center have discovered a new mechanism by which the deadly Staphylococcus aureus bacteria attack and kill off immune cells. Their findings, published today in the journal Cell Host & Microbe, explain a critical survival tactic of a pathogen that causes more skin and heart infections than any other microbe, and kills more than 100,000 Americans every year. "What we've found is that Staph unleashes a multi-purpose toxin capable of killing different types of immune cells by selectively binding to surface receptors," says Victor J. Torres, ...

There are supermassive black holes -- with masses up to several billion solar masses -- at the hearts of almost all galaxies in the Universe, including our own galaxy, the Milky Way. In the remote past, these bizarre objects were very active, swallowing enormous quantities of matter from their surroundings, shining with dazzling brilliance, and expelling tiny fractions of this matter through extremely powerful jets. In the current Universe, most supermassive black holes are much less active than they were in their youth, but the interplay between jets and their surroundings ...

WASHINGTON, DC and NEW YORK (Oct. 16, 2013)— A new report by the Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS) examines the impact of health reform on community health centers (CHCs) and their patients. "Assessing the Potential Impact of the Affordable Care Act on Uninsured Community Health Center Patients: A Nationwide and State-by-State Analysis," estimates that more than 5 million health center patients would have gained coverage had all states participated ...

Working with mice genetically engineered to display symptoms of schizophrenia, neuroscientists at the RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT have uncovered a faulty brain mechanism that may underlie schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders in humans. The study, to appear in the Oct. 16 issue of Neuron, is the first to tie a specific brain network abnormality to schizophrenia, whose symptoms range from disorganized thinking, hallucinations and paranoia to an inability to plan for the future. "Our study ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Schizophrenia patients usually suffer from a breakdown of organized thought, often accompanied by delusions or hallucinations. For the first time, MIT neuroscientists have observed the neural activity that appears to produce this disordered thinking. The researchers found that mice lacking the brain protein calcineurin have hyperactive brain-wave oscillations in the hippocampus while resting, and are unable to mentally replay a route they have just run, as normal mice do. Mutations in the gene for calcineurin have previously been found in some schizophrenia ...

Scientists have created a heat-resistant thermal emitter that could significantly improve the efficiency of solar cells. The novel component is designed to convert heat from the sun into infrared light, which can than be absorbed by solar cells to make electricity – a technology known as thermophotovoltaics. Unlike earlier prototypes that fell apart at temperatures below 2200 degrees Fahrenheit (1200 degrees Celsius), the new thermal emitter remains stable at temperatures as high as 2500 F (1400 C). "This is a record performance in terms of thermal stability and a major ...

For a long time, it was thought impossible to isolate a pearl's genetic material. Now, a Swiss research team has achieved this elusive goal. Scientists Joana Meyer, from the ETH Institute of Integrative Biology group headed by Prof. Bruce McDonald, and Laurent Cartier of the Swiss Gemmological Institute (SSEF), under the direction of Michael Krzemnicki, succeeded for the first time in extracting trace amounts of DNA from a variety of cultured pearls in an almost non-destructive way. Using the genetic code, they were able to differentiate pearls from three different species ...

Men with low-pitched voices have an advantage in attracting women, even though women know they're not likely to stick around for long. Researchers at McMaster University have found that women were more attracted to men with masculine voices, at least for short-term relationships. Those men were also seen as more likely to cheat and unsuitable for a longer relationship, such as marriage. The study, published online in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, offers insight into the evolution of the human voice and how we choose our mates. "The sound ...

With 30 million indwelling bladder catheters placed annually nationwide, patients face an increased risk of developing catheter-associated bacteriuria (bacteria in the urine). Many patients with indwelling urinary catheters acquire bacteria in the urinary tract while they are catheterized. Most previous studies assessing morbidity and mortality associated with catheter use have not separated urinary tract infection from asymptomatic bacteriuria. This has made it difficult to determine if bacteria in the urine puts patients at higher risk for bloodstream infection or death. ...

October 16, 2013, Shenzhen, China---A Chinese research team composed of Shenzhen Second People's Hospital, BGI and other institutes reports their latest study on bladder cancer genomics that was published online in Nature Genetics. The discoveries were made using whole-genome and exome sequencing technologies and provide evidence that genetic alterations affecting the sister chromatid cohesion and segregation (SCCS) process may be involved in bladder tumorigenesis and open a new way for the treatment of bladder cancer. Transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) is the most common ...

The actual aim of the study was to find out whether cats are more stressed when they live in large groups together or, whether the strict hierarchy of larger groups reduces stress. Neither could be confirmed in the present study, which was published in the journal Physiology & Behavior. The number of cats per household had no influence on the stress of the animals. Rather, stress in domestic cats depends more on the socialization of the animals, on the relationship with humans, on the space available to them or on the access to food. Every cat feels and reacts differently The ...

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich researchers have uncovered a novel effect that, in principle, offers a means of stabilizing quantum systems against decoherence. The discovery could represent a major step forward for quantum information processing. The laws of classical physics provide an adequate description of how our Universe behaves on the macroscopic scales that are accessible to our everyday experience. In the world of classical mechanics, the state of a physical system and its future evolution is fully determined by the instantaneous locations and ...

Philadelphia, PA, October 16, 2013 – There is a swirling controversy regarding the suspicion that medications prescribed for the treatment of ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) primarily act to control disruptive behavior as opposed to having primary effects on the ability to attend to the environment. Thus, there is a continued need to better understand the neural basis of ADHD medication effects. A new study in Biological Psychiatry now provides evidence that methylphenidate and atomoxetine, two FDA-approved medications for the treatment of ADHD, both ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Human fingertips have several types of sensory neurons that are responsible for relaying touch signals to the central nervous system. Scientists have long believed these neurons followed a linear path to the brain with a "labeled-lines" structure. But new research on mouse whiskers from Duke University reveals a surprise -- at the fine scale, the sensory system's wiring diagram doesn't have a set pattern. And it's probably the case that no two people's touch sensory systems are wired exactly the same at the detailed level, according to Fan Wang, Ph.D., ...

Oxford, October 16, 2013 - There has been an intense research interest in all two-dimensional (2D) forms of carbon since Geim and Novoselov's discovery of graphene in 2004. But as the number of such publications rise, so does the level of inconsistency in naming the material of interest. The isolated, single-atom-thick sheet universally referred to as "graphene" may have a clear definition, but when referring to related 2D sheet-like or flake-like carbon forms, many authors have simply defined their own terms to describe their product. This has led to confusion within ...

New research shows that cuckoos have striped or "barred" feathers that resemble local birds of prey, such as sparrowhawks, that may be used to frighten birds into briefly fleeing their nest in order to lay their parasitic eggs. By using the latest digital image analysis techniques, and accounting for "bird vision" - by converting images to the spectral sensitivity of birds - researchers have been able to show for the first time that the barred patterns on a cuckoo's breast may allow it to impersonate dangerous birds of prey. This might enable cuckoos to frighten other ...

An archaeologist at the University of Sheffield has found evidence that, contrary to a widely held theory, ancient Syrians made their stone tools locally instead of importing finished tools from Turkey. The discovery, newly published online in Journal of Archaeological Science, has implications for our understanding of how early cities developed in these regions and how the geographic origins of raw materials affect developing states. During the Early Bronze Age, around 5300 to 3100 years ago, blades made of chert and obsidian remained important despite the advent ...