We would like to do without pain and yet without it we wouldn't be able to survive. Pain signals dangerous stimuli (internal or external) and guides our behaviour. Its ultimate goal is to prioritize escape, recovery and healing. That's why we feel it and why we're also good at detecting it in others. Pain in fact protects not only the individual but also his social bonds. The brain contains circuits related to the more physical aspects of pain and others related to affective aspects. As observed in a study just published by Giorgia Silani, Giovanni Novembre and Marco Zanon ...

Any analysis of exit polling reveals a welter of numbers whose meaning remains slightly elusive, with issues or candidate characteristics described as "very important," "somewhat important," or "not important at all" by voters. But it is not always clear how these findings fit together. Now, a new paper co-written by an MIT political scientist suggests a way to assess the relative impact of several factors at once, using a method known as "conjoint analysis" that is not currently employed in political polling. The method behind conjoint analysis is fairly simple: Respondents ...

AMHERST, Mass. ¬– Scoffing at or cutting funds for basic biological research on unusual animal adaptations from Gila monster venom to snail sex, though politically appealing to some, is short-sighted and only makes it more likely that important economic and social benefits will be missed in the long run, say a group of evolutionary biologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Writing in a recent issue of BioScience, researchers Patricia Brennan, Duncan Irschick, Norman Johnson and Craig Albertson argue that "innovations often arise from unlikely sources" and ...

CHICAGO (February 27, 2014) – For almost a year now, surgeons and first responder organizations have been working to increase the number of survivors of an active shooter or mass casualty incident. An important part of this initiative requires all law enforcement officers to get medical training and equipment to control bleeding, a goal set forth by the Hartford Consensus, a collaborative group of trauma surgeons, federal law enforcement, and emergency responders, and driven by the American College of Surgeons (ACS), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Major Cities ...

Luxury property expert William McIntosh of Carlton International has announced that owners of luxury properties have reduced their prices by up to 250,000EUR until mid April. McIntosh explains that the price drops indicate a very normal trend in the market on the French Riviera where luxury properties tend to sell better when the sun shines. It's a fantastic time to buy property in some of the most exclusive postcodes in the South of France before the spring-summer rush when there is more competition and prices naturally rise. Speaking of the trend McIntosh stated ...

Almost ten years ago, the group led by Erwin Wagner, currently at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), developed genetically modified mice showing symptoms very reminiscent to psoriasis. After publishing this discovery in Nature, the researchers decided to use this mouse model to study the underlying molecular pathways involved in disease development, and to look for innovative and efficient therapies. Now the group has discovered two possible novel treatments, based on existing pharmacological compounds, which are likely to cause fewer side effects. Psoriasis ...

Scientists from The University of Manchester – part of the Manchester Cancer Research Centre (MCRC) - have discovered a new protein that is involved in cancer and inflammation in lung tissue. The findings, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, could help in the development of new drugs to target lung cancer. Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in Greater Manchester, with around 930 men and 790 women dying from the disease every year in the area. While there have been major advances in treatments and outcomes for some cancers over the ...

Washington D.C., February 27, 2013 – A study published in the March 2014 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry found that the majority of youth with moderate to severe anxiety disorders responded well to acute treatment with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), medication (sertraline), or a combination of both. They maintained positive treatment response over a 6 month follow-up period with the help of monthly booster sessions. As part of the NIMH Child/Adolescent Anxiety Multimodal Study (CAMS), a group of researchers led by Dr. ...

A research breakthrough at Queen's University Belfast has sparked interest among aquatic biologists, zoologists and ecologists around the world. The joint research between Queen's and several South African institutions centred on the behaviour of some of the "world's worst" invasive species, including the large-mouth bass, an invasive fish which typically devastates invertebrate and other fish communities wherever it is introduced. Previously, the search for general characteristics of invasive species had been elusive, but work carried out by Professor Jaimie Dick ...

Endocrine disrupters are not the only worrying chemicals that ordinary consumers are exposed to in everyday life. Also nanoparticles of silver, found in e.g. dietary supplements, cosmetics and food packaging, now worry scientists. A new study from the University of Southern Denmark shows that nano-silver can penetrate our cells and cause damage. Silver has an antibacterial effect and therefore the food and cosmetic industry often coat their products with silver nanoparticles. Nano-silver can be found in e.g. drinking bottles, cosmetics, band aids, toothbrushes, running ...

The edge of chaos—right before chaos sets in—is a unique place. It is found in many dynamical systems that cross the boundary between a well-behaved dynamics and a chaotic one. Now, physicists have shown that the distribution—or frequency of occurrence—of the variables constituting the physical characteristics of such systems at the edge of chaos has a very different shape than previously reported distributions. The results, by Miguel Angel Fuentes from the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico, USA, and Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile, and Alberto Robledo from the National ...

Researchers at the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) have developed a novel treatment for myocardial infarction. In a study carried out at the UEF, virus vectors were used in a mouse model to deliver small RNA molecules into the heart, and this significantly reduced the size of myocardial infarction. In the novel treatment method, RNA molecules are targeted at the regulatory area of the vascular endothelial growth factor gene (VEGF-A). These molecules use epigenetic mechanisms to enhance the production of the growth factor in cells. The study also focused on the mechanisms ...

People in their 80s are often prescribed drugs to ward off a stroke when the risk of a stroke is not that high and the drugs have other side effects, finds a perspective published online in Evidence Based Medicine. People in this age group are being "over-treated," and doctors need to actively rethink their priorities and beliefs about stroke prevention, argues Dr Kit Byatt of the Department of Geriatric Medicine, The County Hospital in Hereford, UK. Statins and antihypertensive drugs were the most commonly prescribed cardiovascular drugs in the UK in 2006. And they ...

Babies born by caesarean section are more likely to be overweight or obese as adults, according to a new analysis. The odds of being overweight or obese are 26 per cent higher for adults born by caesarean section than those born by vaginal delivery, the study found (see footnote). The finding, reported in the journal PLOS ONE, is based on combined data from 15 studies with over 38,000 participants. The researchers, from Imperial College London, say there are good reasons why many women should have a C-section, but mothers choosing a caesarean should be aware that ...

When you're talking about something as complex as the brain, the task isn't any easier if the vocabulary being used is just as complex. An international collaboration of neuroscientists has not only tripled the number of identified brain structures, but created a simple lexicon to talk about them, which will be enormously helpful for future research on brain function and disease. Nick Strausfeld and Linda Restifo, both professors in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Arizona, worked with colleagues in Japan who led the project, and colleagues in Germany ...

PORTLAND, Ore. – Researchers have identified another concern related to low birth weight – a difference in how the body reacts to drugs, which may last a person's entire life and further complicate treatment of illnesses or diseases that are managed with medications. The findings add to the list of health problems that are already known to correspond to low birth weight, such as a predisposition for adult-onset diabetes, hypertension, and obesity. The implication, researchers say, is that low birth weight may not only cause increased disease, but it may also lessen the ...

A diverse team of scientists from UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has developed an experimental treatment that eradicates an acute type of leukemia in mice without any detectable toxic side effects. The drug works by blocking two important metabolic pathways that the leukemia cells need to grow and spread. The study, led by Dr. Caius Radu, an associate professor of molecular and medical pharmacology at UCLA, and Dr. David Nathanson, an assistant professor of molecular and medical pharmacology, was published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. Elements ...

Researchers at the Buck Institute have identified and categorized thousands of protein interactions involving huntingtin, the protein responsible for Huntington's disease (HD). To use an analogy of a human social network, the identified proteins are like "friends" and "friends of friends" of the HD protein. The network provides an invaluable resource for identifying targets to treat the disease and has been used to implicate a particular signaling pathway involved in cell motility. HD is an incurable, fatal, inherited neurological disorder that causes severe degeneration ...

Everyone knows a basketball player is more likely to miss a three-point shot if a defender is in his face, but a new automated method for analyzing team formations, created by Disney Research Pittsburgh, shows how players get open for a shot: via defensive role swaps. "To an expert, this makes obvious sense – if a defensive player has to move, the space where they moved from is suddenly open and, if their teammate doesn't cover that space quickly, it creates a potential open shot for the offense," said Patrick Lucey, a Disney researcher who specializes in measuring the ...

An automated analysis by Disney Research Pittsburgh of team formations used during an entire season of professional soccer provides further evidence that visiting teams are less successful than home teams because they play conservatively, not because of a mythical home advantage. The researchers, employing the first automated method for detecting formations, analyzed a whole season of player and ball tracking data compiled by Prozone for a top-tier professional soccer league. They found that teams usually played the same formations for both home and away games, but that ...

The question of why an individual would actively kill itself has been an evolutionary mystery. Death could hardly provide a fitness advantage to the dying individual. However, a new study has found that in single-celled algae, suicide benefits the organism's relatives. "Death can be altruistic – we showed that before – but now we know that programmed cell death benefits the organism's relatives and not just anybody," says Dr Pierre Durand from the Department of Molecular Medicine and Haematology and the Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience (SBIMB) at Wits ...

Despite widespread use of a single term, Alzheimer's disease is actually a diverse collection of diseases, symptoms and pathological changes. What's happening in the brain often varies widely from patient to patient, and a trigger for one person may be harmless is another. In a unique study, an international team of researchers led by USC psychologist Margaret Gatz compared the brains of twins where one or both died of Alzheimer's disease. They found that many of the twin pairs not only had similar progressions of Alzheimer's disease and dementia prior to death, but they ...

A bright supernova discovered only six weeks ago in a nearby galaxy is provoking new questions about the exploding stars that scientists use as their main yardstick for measuring the universe. Called SN 2014J, the glowing supernova was discovered by a professor and his students in the United Kingdom on Jan. 21, about a week after the stellar explosion first became visible as a pinprick of light in its galaxy, M82, 11.4 million light years away. Still visible today through small telescopes in the Big Dipper, it is the brightest supernova seen from Earth since SN1987A, ...

An international team of researchers led by an endocrinologist at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich has identified genetic mutations that result in uncontrolled synthesis and secretion of the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol is a hormone that is produced by the adrenal gland in response to stressful events, and modulates a whole spectrum of physiological processes. An international research collaboration has now identified genetic mutations that lead to the production and secretion of cortisol in the absence of an underlying stressor. The discovery emerged ...

It might seem too good to be true, but dark chocolate is good for you and scientists now know why. Dark chocolate helps restore flexibility to arteries while also preventing white blood cells from sticking to the walls of blood vessels. Both arterial stiffness and white blood cell adhesion are known factors that play a significant role in atherosclerosis. What's more, the scientists also found that increasing the flavanol content of dark chocolate did not change this effect. This discovery was published in the March 2014 issue of The FASEB Journal. "We provide a more ...