Montreal, February 26, 2014 — New acquaintances are often judged by their handshake. Research has now recognized the simple squeeze as an important diagnostic tool in assessing strength and quality of life among critical care patients. In a study published in the journal, Support Care Cancer, Concordia professor Robert Kilgour and his colleagues at the McGill Nutrition and Performance Laboratory confirmed a link between handgrip strength and survival rates. The test was simple: 203 patients fighting advanced-stage cancers squeezed a device known as a dynamometer with ...

ANN ARBOR—Reducing the size of the Lake Erie "dead zone" to acceptable levels will require cutting nutrient pollution nearly in half in coming decades, at a time when climate change is expected to make such reductions more difficult. That's one of the main conclusions of a comprehensive new study that documents recent trends in Lake Erie's health. It offers science-based guidance to policymakers seeking to reduce the size of toxic algae blooms and oxygen-starved regions called hypoxic zones, or dead zones—two related water-quality problems that have seen a resurgence ...

CHAPEL HILL, NC – Creating a vaccine that protects people from all four types of dengue virus has frustrated scientists for decades. But researchers at the University of North Carolina have discovered a new target for human antibodies that could hold the key to a vaccine for the world's most widespread mosquito-borne disease. Using an experimental technique new to the dengue field, the labs of Ralph Baric, PhD, and Aravinda de Silva, PhD, showed that a molecular hinge where two regions of a protein connect is where natural human antibodies attach to dengue 3 to disable ...

For approximately one week every month, millions of women change their economic behavior and become more focused on their social standing relative to other women. According to new research from The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, the ovulatory cycle alters women's behavior by subconsciously motivating them to outdo other women. This research could have important implications for marketers, consumers and researchers. The researchers conducted three studies, one of which had ovulating and nonovulating ...

This news release is available in Spanish. A study led by Dr. Roderic Guigó from the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona, as part of the Chronic Lymphatic Leukaemia Genome Consortium, has made new advances in the study of this disease. The work, which was published (in print version) last week in the journal Genome Research, scrutinised the functional profile of the genes and mutations associated with leukaemia. The Spanish Chronic Lymphatic Leukaemia Genome Consortium had previously identified the principal mutations involved in the development of the disease. ...

West Orange, NJ. February 26, 2014. Kessler Foundation researchers have found that among individuals with TBI, depression and self-awareness affect subjective reports of memory, quality of life (QOL), and satisfaction with life. The study was published in the February 2014 issue of Brain Injury. (Yael Goverover, Nancy D. Chiaravalloti: The impact of self-awareness and depression on subjective reports of memory, quality- of-life and satisfaction with life following TBI. (doi:10.3109/02699052.2013.860474) Impairment in self-awareness (the ability to accurately recognize ...

It's an odd twist. For scientists to determine if a cell is functioning properly, they must destroy it. This is what happens in X-ray fluorescence microscopy when biological specimens are exposed to ionizing radiation, which provides images with a level of detail that conventional microscopes just can't match. This exposure can change what is being imaged in profound ways, possibly giving false accounts of how the cell actually works. To address this issue, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory created a new probe that freezes ...

ST. LOUIS – In a study published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Saint Louis University researchers have found a link between acute pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas) and pancreatic cancer, a finding which may eventually lead to some pancreatic cancers being detected earlier. Principle investigator Banke Agarwal, M.D., associate professor of gastroenterology and hepatology at Saint Louis University, says the study builds on earlier research suggesting a connection between the two illnesses. "Our study demonstrates that there is a much higher ...

Photoreactive compounds developed by scientists of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich directly modulate nerve-cell function, and open new routes to the treatment of neurological diseases, including chronic pain and certain types of visual impairment. All modes of sensory perception are based on communication between nerve cells. Both the response to the primary stimulus and the transmission of the resulting signal depend on the function of specialized receptor proteins that are associated with the surface membranes of neurons. Many sensory neurons respond ...

MANHATTAN, Kan. — A collaborative experiment involving a Kansas State University biochemist may mark the beginning of an effective, environmentally friendly plant-based method of insect control. Timothy Durrett, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics, was part of the collaboration that used various plant and moth enzymes to engineer plants that emitted sex pheromones that mimic those naturally produced by two species of moths. The research recently appeared in the journal Nature Communications, "A plant factory for moth pheromone production." The ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Just 12 percent of parents without insurance coverage take breastfeeding support classes that can offer crucial support and encourage new moms to breastfeed, according to a new University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends exclusively breastfeeding until babies are 6 months of age followed by breastfeeding in combination with the introduction of complementary foods until at least 12 months of age. However, only about half of moms in the US are still breastfeeding ...

Beating cancer is all about early detection, and new research from the University of South Carolina is another step forward in catching the disease early. A team of chemists is reporting a new way to detect just a handful of lurking tumor cells, which can be outnumbered a billion to one in the bloodstream by healthy cells. The researchers have constructed an ultrasensitive nanoprobe that can electrochemically sense as few as four circulating tumor cells, and it doesn't require any enzymes to produce a detectable signal. "That makes it a very robust system," says Hui ...

ETC International College, that has been helping students to improve their English Language Skills for Business and other areas since 1989, now adds English Plus Courses to its curriculum. By enrolling onto these courses, students can learn and improve other areas of their interests along with General or Business English skills. The current range of Plus courses available at the Bournemouth-based Language Training Center are: English plus tennis, horse riding, dancing, golf, photography, and alternative therapies. "We realize that, apart from learning English, ...

Source Health Labs launched a brand-new video available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvM3FOZtREU, showing effective ways by which having natural pain relief ingredients incorporated into a spray, the medication can be used quickly in any situation. The goal is to show how with a spray, a persistent discomfort victim can still delight in everyday tasks without being inconvenienced with having to use strong scented creams. The first concern asked was just how the video was advantageous. Source Health Labs media personnel, Jason Oglow, described that individuals who ...

A new screening technology reveals a signature of mortality in blood samples. Researchers have identified four biomarkers that help to identify people at high risk of dying from any disease within the next five years. Researchers from Finland and Estonia have discovered novel biological markers that are strongly indicative of risk of dying from any disease within the near future. Blood samples from over 17 000 generally healthy people were screened for more than a hundred different biomolecules. The health status of these study volunteers was followed for several years. ...

Around 16,000 people in Switzerland suffer a stroke every year. Often the result of a sudden occlusion of a vessel supplying the brain, it is the most frequent live-threatening neurological disorder. In most cases, it has far-reaching consequences for survivors. Often the stroke sufferers have to cope with handicaps and rehabilitation is a long process. The brain does, however, have a "considerable capacity for regeneration" explains Lukas Bachmann from the Brain Research Institute of the University of Zurich. As member of Professor Martin Schwab's research team, he found ...

A radiotherapy regime involving higher doses of radiation is a better option than having lower doses for men with localised prostate cancer, the 10-year results of the largest trial of its kind have shown. Having 37 rounds, or fractions, of radiotherapy at 74 Gray (Gy) – compared with 32 fractions at 64 Gy – controlled the disease more effectively and reduced the chance that men would need follow-up hormone-deprivation therapy, which can have long-term side-effects. The findings, published in The Lancet Oncology today (Wednesday), come from the major RT01 phase III ...

Early humans may have evolved black skin to protect against a very high risk of dying from ultraviolet light (UV)-induced skin cancer, a new analysis concludes. Skin cancer has usually been rejected as the most likely selective pressure for the development of black skin because of a belief that it is only rarely fatal at ages young enough to affect reproduction. But a new paper, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, cites evidence that black people with albinism from parts of Africa with the highest UV radiation exposure, and where humans first evolved, almost ...

Mass strandings of whales have puzzled people since Aristotle. Modern-day strandings can be investigated and their causes, often human-related, identified. Events that happened millions of years ago, however, are far harder to analyze—frequently leaving their cause a mystery. A team of Smithsonian and Chilean scientists examined a large fossil site of ancient marine mammal skeletons in the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile—the first definitive example of repeated mass strandings of marine mammals in the fossil record. The site reflected four distinct strandings over time, ...

Increased brain cell activity boosts brain fluid levels of a protein linked to Alzheimer's disease, according to new research from scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Tau protein is the main component of neurofibrillary tangles, one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. It has been linked to other neurodegenerative disorders, including frontotemporal dementia, supranuclear palsy and corticobasal degeneration. "Healthy brain cells normally release tau into the cerebrospinal fluid and the interstitial fluid that surrounds them, but ...

New images from the Smithsonian's Submillimeter Array (SMA) telescope provide the most detailed view yet of stellar nurseries within the Snake nebula. These images offer new insights into how cosmic seeds can grow into massive stars. Stretching across almost 100 light-years of space, the Snake nebula is located about 11,700 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Ophiuchus. In images from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope it appears as a sinuous, dark tendril against the starry background. It was targeted because it shows the potential to form many massive ...

Older women who have overcome breast cancer are likely to struggle with heart disease, osteoporosis and hypertension further on in their lives. Whether these conditions occur or not is influenced by the treatment that patients received to fight cancer, their overall weight and their age. Breast cancer survivors therefore should watch their weight and get regular exercise so that they can enjoy a high quality of life. These findings, by lead author Nadia Obi of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, who collaborated with the group of Prof. Chang-Claude from the ...

February 26, 2014 - Oakland, CA – A new study by Rhonda Patrick, PhD and Bruce Ames, PhD of Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI) demonstrates the impact that Vitamin D may have on social behavior associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Dr. Patrick and Dr. Ames show that serotonin, oxytocin, and vasopressin, three brain hormones that affect social behavior, are all activated by vitamin D hormone. Autism, which is characterized by abnormal social behavior, has previously been linked to low levels of serotonin in the brain and to low vitamin D levels, ...

Research by Beaumont Health System radiation oncologists and neurosurgeons found that symptoms of trigeminal neuralgia, or TN, a nerve disorder causing severe facial pain, were reduced in those treated with Gamma Knife stereotactic radiosurgery. The results were published in the February issue of the journal Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery. TN is a disorder of the trigeminal nerve, which is responsible for feeling in the face. In most cases, the facial pain is caused by a blood vessel pressing on the nerve. It is believed that TN is caused by deterioration of the ...

Enough women experience reproductive coercion – male behavior to control contraception and pregnancy outcomes – that a research team now recommends health care providers address the subjects with their patients and tailor family planning discussions and recommendations accordingly. Researchers from Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island were part of a team that published "Reproductive coercion and co-occurring intimate partner violence in obstetrics and gynecology patients" in a recent issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. "Reproductive coercion, ...