PASADENA, Calif. – Oct. 14, 2013 – The impact of bariatric surgery on risk factors for cardiovascular disease depends on a variety of factors, including the type of surgery, sex of the patient, ethnic background, and pre-surgery body mass index, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published today in Annals of Surgery. Researchers examined the electronic health records of more than 4,000 Kaiser Permanente patients in Southern California who had bariatric surgery for weight loss between 2009 and 2011 to determine what factors led to remission– or reduction – of metabolic ...

Clinical researchers from Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research and St. Vincent's Hospital have shown that a form of weight loss surgery, known as 'gastric banding', brings about reversal of diabetes in some patients, and dramatic improvement of glucose tolerance in others, within 12 weeks. Type 2 diabetes is a complex metabolic disorder that develops over time, with the body becoming progressively less able to control blood sugar levels. High blood sugars cause damage to tissues and organs, and can lead to very serious complications such as kidney failure and ...

In a study, published online today in the journal Age and Ageing, of over 270 patients newly diagnosed with minor strokes or transient ischaemic attack (TIA), only a minority sought medical help within the timeframe recommended by the Royal College of Physicians. This is despite the high profile FAST campaign, which was taking place at the time that the study was conducted. Rapid assessment and treatment of patients with TIA or minor stroke reduces the risk of early recurrent stroke. The Royal College of Physicians' Guidelines suggests that TIA patients who are deemed ...

An international team of scientists have identified potentially dangerous amounts of methamphetamine analog in the workout supplement Craze, a product widely sold across the U.S. and online. The study, published in Drug Testing and Analysis, was prompted by a spate of failed athletic drug tests. The results reveal the presence of methamphetamine analog N,α- DEPEA, which has not been safely tested for human consumption, in three samples. "In recent years banned and untested drugs have been found in hundreds of dietary supplements. We began our study of Craze after ...

People with ADHD and dependency rarely respond as they should to ADHD drugs. A randomised study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden now shows that it is possible to obtain the desired efficacy by administering the drug in higher doses. The results of the study are published in the scientific journal Addiction. ADHD is much more common in people who use drugs than in the population at large. ADHD can be treated with methylphenidate, a CNS stimulant used for both children and adults. However, no previous studies have been able to show that methylphenidate is effective ...

Researchers of the Spanish research council (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC) and the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC) have discovered that inhibiting the protein Rcan1 in mice reduces the burden of atherosclerosis, one of the commonest cardiovascular diseases. The results of their study, published in the prestigious journal EMBO Molecular Medicine, suggest that Rcan1 is a potential target for future drug treatments for this disease, and the team is already working to develop this potential. The study analyzed the molecular ...

Villi are small epithelial protrusions that serve to increase the surface area of the gut for efficient nutrient absorption. The mechanism of their formation during development was recently revealed by a study published in Science. The investigations, carried out by two research groups at Harvard University, were complemented by computational modelling carried out at the University of Jyväskylä and funded by the Academy of Finland. Villification (villus formation) has previously been hypothesised to be based on an active mechanism coordinated by growth factors. The present ...

DETROIT – Emergency Departments across Michigan are better prepared to handle a disaster today than they were seven years ago, according to a Henry Ford Hospital study. The study found that 84 percent of emergency departments said they are more prepared to handle a terrorist attack or natural disaster than they were in 2005. They've also enhanced their preparedness efforts by adding decontamination rooms, stockpiling antidotes for nerve gas and cyanide, and storing more respiratory protection supplies. At the same time, emergency departments acknowledged they could ...

Researchers around Dr. Michael Hirtz from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Dr. Aravind Vijayaraghavan from the University of Manchester have developed a new method to produce artificial membranes: Using a nanoscaled tip, they write tailored patches of phospholipid membrane onto a graphene substrate. The resulting biomimetic membranes, i.e. membranes simulating biological structures, allow for the specific investigation of functions of cell membranes and the development of novel applications in medicine and biotechnology, such as biosensors. The method is now presented ...

Chicago, October 14, 2013—The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research has released the results of a major new survey exploring the views of older Americans about their plans for work and retirement. It provides in-depth information about a rapidly growing segment of the population that by choice or circumstance is working longer. The Great Recession has had a marked impact on retirement plans. "The survey illuminates an important shift in Americans' attitudes toward work, aging, and retirement," said Trevor Tompson, director of the AP-NORC Center. "Retirement ...

This news release is available in German. Extension of cable-based telecommunication networks requires high investments in both conurbations and rural areas. Broadband data transmission via radio relay links might help to cross rivers, motorways or nature protection areas at strategic node points, and to make network extension economically feasible. In the current issue of the nature photonics magazine, researchers present a method for wireless data transmission at a world-record rate of 100 gigabits per second. (doi: 10.1038/nphoton.2013.275) In their record experiment, ...

Recent scientific findings have raised the fear that young athletes may fare worse after sustaining a sports-related concussion than older athletes. Researchers in the Vanderbilt Sports Concussion Center compared symptoms associated with concussion in middle- and high-school aged athletes with those in college-age athletes and found no significant differences between the two age groups. The study, "Does age affect symptom recovery after sports-related concussion? A study of high school and college athletes," was in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics. Lead authors ...

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have identified a protein expressed by human bone marrow stem cells that guides and stimulates the formation of blood vessels. Their findings, which could help improve the vascularization of engineered tissues, were reported online on October 12 in the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology. "Some stem cells actually have multiple jobs," says Dr. Jalees Rehman, associate professor of cardiology and pharmacology at the UIC College of Medicine and lead author of the paper. For example, stem cells in the bone marrow, ...

This news release is available in German. The endogenous hormone dopamine triggers feelings of happiness. While its release is induced, among other things, by the "feel-good" classics sex, drugs or food, the brain does not content itself with a kick; it remembers the state of happiness and keeps wanting to achieve it again. Dopamine enables us to make the "right" decisions in order to experience even more moments of happiness. Biological components reconnected Now a team of researchers headed by ETH-Zurich professor Martin Fussenegger from the Department of Biosystems ...

Walking is tricky business, as any toddler knows. And while most artificial feet and limbs do a pretty good job restoring mobility to people who have lost a leg, they have a ways to go before they equal the intricacy of a natural gait. As a result, over half of all amputees take a fall every year, compared to about one-third of people over 65. In cooperation with a Mayo Clinic scientist, researchers at Michigan Technological University are taking a giant step toward solving the problem. They are making a bionic foot that could make an amputee's walk in the park feel, ...

Nyon, Switzerland (October 14, 2013) – A new report published today by the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) warns that as a result of ageing populations and osteoporosis not being treated as a priority, health care providers will be faced with an avalanche of fractures and rising costs. Approximately 22 million women and 5.5 million men in 27 member states of the European Union (EU27)*, have osteoporosis; the total burden is expected to increase to 33.9 million (increase of 23 per cent) by 2025. The IOF report prepared in collaboration with the European ...

A team led by Chris Sullivan, a professor of molecular biosciences at The University of Texas at Austin, has provided the first positive evidence that RNA interference (RNAi), a biological process in which small RNA molecules prevent genes from being expressed, does not play a role as an antiviral in most body, or "somatic," cells in mammals. Their research was published in Cell Host & Microbe. RNAi plays an important antiviral role in plants and invertebrates, but it has long been disputed whether it plays a similar role in mammals. A better understanding of how RNAi ...

October 14, 2013—With higher populations and limited space, urban areas are not often thought of as places for agriculture. A recent surge in community gardens, though, is bringing agriculture and gardens into the cities. And certain byproducts of urban life – food and yard waste and municipal biosolids – can benefit those gardens, and the soils in them, tremendously. Sally Brown, associate professor at University of Washington will discuss the use of compost and biosolids in urban agriculture on Tuesday, Nov. 5 at 9:35 am. Her talk, Urban Soil Quality and Compost, is ...

Climate change affects forests across North America – in some cases permitting insect outbreaks, plant diseases, wildfires and other problems -- but Dartmouth researchers say warmer temperatures are also making many forests grow faster and some less susceptible to pests, which could boost forest health and acreage, timber harvests, carbon storage, water recycling and other forest benefits in some areas. The Dartmouth-led study, which appears in the journal Ecological Monographs, reviewed nearly 500 scientific papers dating to the 1950s, making it the most comprehensive ...

Buffalo, N.Y. – A new set of studies by researchers at three universities led by UB psychologist Lora E. Park has found that the previously assumed link between expansive body postures and power is not fixed, but depends on the type of posture enacted and people's cultural background. "Stand Tall, but Don't Put Your Feet Up: Universal and Culturally-Specific Effects of Expansive Postures on Power" is reported in the November 2013 issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 49, Issue 5). Park's co-authors are Lindsey Streamer, UB doctoral student in social ...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – A new study of women ages 50 and older examines the 12.2 percent who say they are satisfied with their body size to unlock the secrets of body satisfaction. This minority of midlife women who report being satisfied with their body size appears to exert considerable effort to achieve and maintain this satisfaction. In addition, they are not impervious to dissatisfaction with other aspects of their physical appearance; especially those aspects affected by aging, said Cynthia Bulik, PhD, corresponding author of the study. Cristin Runfola, PhD"Of course ...

Researchers from the University of Minnesota, Mayo Clinic, and University of Toronto have successfully shown that a new method for targeting mutated cells could create a major breakthrough in a personalized medicine approach to treat cancer. The team's findings are published in the Oct. 15 issue of Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association of Cancer Research. The new research discovers susceptible genes in the cancer cells using synthetic lethal interactions—pairs of genes in which mutation in either gene alone causes no damage to the cell, but where mutations ...

October 14, 2013—In some areas of Africa, farmers, scientists and policymakers are beginning to win the war on hunger, says Pedro Sanchez, PhD. Several factors have come together in recent years to tip the scales and increase food production. Sanchez will present "The African Green Revolution at the Tipping Point," on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013 at 8:45 AM. The presentation is part of the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and the Soil Science Society of America Annual Meetings, Nov. 3-6 in Tampa, Florida. The theme of this year's conference is ...

Boulder, Colo., USA – New Geosphere pre-issue publication articles are now online and include contributions to the CRevolution 2: Origin and Evolution of the Colorado River System II; Results of IODP Exp313: The History and Impact of Sea-level Change Offshore New Jersey; New Developments in Grenville Geology; and the Seeing the True Shape of Earth's Surface: Applications of Airborne and Terrestrial LiDAR in the Geosciences themed issues. Abstracts for these and other Geosphere papers are available at http://geosphere.gsapubs.org/. Representatives of the media may obtain ...

People's willingness to help others may be influenced by a gene that affects their level of social anxiety, according to a new study led by a University of Nebraska-Lincoln scientist. The study appears to be the first to describe this particular pathway. Research participants who carry the dominant version of the gene were more likely to indicate anxiety about social interactions or being trapped in situations or places. The anxiety appears to inhibit their "prosocial" behavior and increase their reluctance to come to the aid of strangers. Scott ...