You take your piano lesson, you go to sleep and when you wake up your fingers are better able to play that beautiful sequence of notes. How does sleep make that difference? A new study helps to explain what happens in your brain during those fateful, restful hours when motor learning takes hold. "The mechanisms of memory consolidations regarding motor memory learning were still uncertain until now," said Masako Tamaki, a postdoctoral researcher at Brown University and lead author of the study that appears Aug. 21 in the Journal of Neuroscience. "We were trying to figure ...

Stop smoking services across England have had an increasing impact in helping smokers to quit in their first 10 years of operation and have successfully reached disadvantaged groups, finds a study published on bmj.com today. However, performance across local services has varied considerably and requires attention, say the authors. In 1998, the UK government established a network of stop smoking services to ensure that every smoker in the country who wanted help with stopping would have access to evidence-based support as well as medication. Other countries have since ...

Chevy Chase, MD—Glucagon, a hormone involved in regulating appetite, loses its ability to help obese people feel full after a meal, but it continues to suppress hunger pangs in people with type 1 diabetes, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). The primary role of glucagon, a hormone secreted by the pancreas, is to signal the body to release stored glucose when blood sugar falls too low. But growing evidence suggests the hormone also may play a role in controlling food intake ...

Chevy Chase, MD—Women diagnosed with gestational diabetes are nearly seven times more likely to have obstructive sleep apnea than other pregnant women, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). Gestational diabetes causes glucose levels in the bloodstream to rise above normal levels. This form of diabetes occurs during pregnancy, typically in the second trimester. Between four and eight of every 100 pregnant women in the United States develop gestational diabetes. The new study ...

Maternity care that involves a midwife as the main care provider leads to better outcomes for most women, according to a systematic review published in The Cochrane Library. Researchers found that women who received continued care throughout pregnancy and birth from a small group of midwives were less likely to give birth pre-term and required fewer interventions during labour and birth than when their care was shared between different obstetricians, GPs and midwives. In many countries, including the UK and Australia, midwives act as the main providers of care for women ...

Scientists using a pioneering bio-imaging system to record simultaneously the development of hundreds of aquatic embryos have discovered significant parent-offspring similarities in the timing and sequence of that development. Researchers at Plymouth University have found the timing of key developmental milestones – such as the first beating of the heart, formation of the eyes and movement – differs markedly between individuals in a species of aquatic snail, but also that these timings appear to be heritable, i.e. they are passed from mother to offspring. The study, made ...

Frontiers in Plant Science Transgenic bacteria shed light on symbiotic exchanges within the soil Adding light-producing bacteria to soil can be a powerful method for tracking in real time how plant roots provide soil bacteria with carbohydrates, according to a new study in Frontiers in Plant Science. Soil bacteria rely for their growth on compounds released from plant roots in the form of excretions and sloughed-off cells, while bacteria often make scarce nutrients available to roots in exchange. For the first time, researchers from Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory ...

The concept behind gene therapy is simple: deliver a healthy gene to compensate for one that is mutated. New research published today in the Journal of Neuroscience suggests this approach may eventually be a feasible option to treat Rett Syndrome, the most disabling of the autism spectrum disorders. Gail Mandel, Ph.D., a Howard Hughes Investigator at Oregon Health and Sciences University, led the study. The Rett Syndrome Research Trust, with generous support from the Rett Syndrome Research Trust UK and Rett Syndrome Research & Treatment Foundation, funded this work through ...

Like cuckoos, honeyguides are parasitic birds that lay their eggs in other birds' nests and dupe them into raising their young. Now scientists reveal that, unlike in cuckoos, the resemblance between honeyguide eggs and those of their bee-eater bird hosts hasn't evolved to trick hosts into accepting the imposter egg as one of their own. Rather, it appears to have evolved to trick other honeyguides who would otherwise destroy the eggs because of fierce competition for host nests. The new research is published today, 21 August, in the journal Biology Letters. Honeyguides ...

SAN ANTONIO (Aug. 20, 2013) — Scientists today reported a possible basis for why food-restricted animals show increased susceptibility to drugs of abuse. This association has puzzled researchers since it was first observed more than three decades ago. Senior author Michael Beckstead, Ph.D., from the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, said the team found that dopamine neurons in a brain region called the substantia nigra fire bursts more than twice as frequently in chronically food-restricted mice. Cocaine significantly enhanced ...

People usually feel good when they make a charitable donation, but they feel even better if they make the donation directly to someone they know or in a way that builds social connection. Research to be published in the International Journal of Happiness and Development investigates for the first time how social connection helps turn generous behavior into positive feelings on the part of the donor. Lara Aknin of Simon Fraser University, in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, and colleagues at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver and Harvard Business School, Massachusetts, ...

One of the most promising types of solar cells has a few drawbacks. A scientist at Michigan Technological University may have overcome one of them. Dye-sensitized solar cells are thin, flexible, easy to make and very good at turning sunshine into electricity. However, a key ingredient is one of the most expensive metals on the planet: platinum. While only small amounts are needed, at $1,500 an ounce, the cost of the silvery metal is still significant. Yun Hang Hu, the Charles and Caroll McArthur Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, has developed a new, inexpensive ...

MIAMI – August 20, 2013 -- A new computer simulation conducted at the University of Bristol (UB) and University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science has revealed the epic, ocean-spanning journeys travelled by millimetre-sized coral larvae through the world's seas. The study, published in Global Ecology and Biogeography, is the first to recreate the oceanic paths along which corals disperse globally, and will eventually aid predictions of how coral reef distributions may shift with climate change. Coral reefs are under increasing threat ...

Genetics may play a role in how people's taste receptors send signals, leading to a wide spectrum of taste preferences, according to Penn State food scientists. These varied, genetically influenced responses may mean that food and drink companies will need a range of artificial sweeteners to accommodate different consumer tastes. "Genetic differences lead to differences in how people respond to tastes of foods," said John Hayes, assistant professor, food science and director of the sensory evaluation center. Based on the participants' genetic profile, researchers were ...

A recent study by members of the Children's Oncology Group reports results of a large trial showing that children whose leukemia cells have amplification of a portion of chromosome 21 may require more aggressive treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) than children without this gene amplification. "This helps identify patients who need more therapy than they may otherwise get," says Stephen Hunger, MD, investigator at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and director of the Center ...

Flight safety experts studying recent high-profile plane crashes found sudden autopilot disconnection to be a design flaw that creates unnecessary emergencies by surprising pilots during critical, high-workload episodes. "The sudden disengagement of autopilot is analogous to a pilot suddenly throwing up his or her hands and blurting to the copilot, 'Your Plane!'" says Eric E. Geiselman, lead author of a recently published two-article Ergonomics in Design series, "Flight Deck Automation: Invaluable Collaborator or Insidious Enabler" (July issue) and "A Call for Context-Aware ...

A new hypothesis concerning a crucial step in the anthrax infection process has been advanced by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick, Md. The research teams have explored the behavior of the toxins that rapidly overwhelm the body as the often-fatal disease progresses. Their findings suggest a new possible mechanism by which anthrax bacteria deliver the protein molecules that poison victims. Anthrax is easily weaponized; the findings could ...

A new report* by biometric researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) uses data from thousands of frequent travelers enrolled in an iris recognition program to determine that no consistent change occurs in the distinguishing texture of their irises for at least a decade. These findings inform identity program administrators on how often iris images need to be recaptured to maintain accuracy. For decades, researchers seeking biometric identifiers other than fingerprints believed that irises were a strong biometric because their one-of-a-kind ...

PHILADELPHIA – In 2005, the Institute of Medicine, surveying the outlook for the growing number of American cancer survivors, first described the idea of a survivorship care plan: a roadmap for the group of patients, today numbering nearly 12 million, who are beginning new lives as cancer survivors. Care plans aims to arm cancer survivors with a customized road map for their lives as cancer survivors: tips for follow-up screenings, information about possible late effects of their therapies, and pointers on fertility or financial issues they may face in the future. The ...

Researchers have long known that high levels of a specific protein in human cells are linked to tumor growth – but no one has fully understood how. Now, a groundbreaking discovery by UC Davis graduate student Kateryna Feoktistova and Assistant Professor Christopher Fraser illuminates the way that the protein, eukaryotic initiation factor 4E (eIF4E), acts upon cancer-promoting messenger RNA molecules. When translated, this type of mRNA can trigger the runaway cell replication that results in malignancies. Published in the August 13 edition of the Proceedings of the National ...

The ancient cycad lineage has been around since before the age of the dinosaurs. More recently, cycads also co-existed with large herbivorous mammals, such as the ice age megafauna that only went extinct a few tens of thousands of years ago. Cycads that are living today have large, heavy seeds with a fleshy outer coating that suggests they rely on large bodied fruit-eating animals to disperse their seeds. Yet there is little evidence that they are eaten and dispersed by today's larger-bodied animals, such as emus or elephants. If these plants are adapted for dispersal ...

Tropical Storm Pewa weakened temporarily while facing adverse atmospheric conditions in the Northwestern Pacific, and NASA's Aqua satellite captured the storm in infrared light. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image of Tropical Storm Pewa on Aug. 20 at 01:47 UTC/9:47 p.m. EDT, Aug. 19 as it weakened. The coldest cloud top temperatures and strongest storms were confined to a small area around the storm's center and in a band of thunderstorms northeast of the center. Cloud top temperatures in both of ...

The Central Pacific Ocean has generated a third tropical depression this year and NOAA's GOES-West satellite captured an image of Tropical Depression 03C far to the west of Hawaii. NOAA's GOES-West satellite imagery from Aug. 20 at 1200 UTC/8 a.m. EDT showed a rounded tropical depression about 1,310 miles/2,105 km west of Lihue, Hawaii. The GOES image was created by the NASA GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The GOES image shows the strongest thunderstorms around the depression's center. The depression was centered near 19.5 north ...

Tropical Storm Trami may not be making landfall in the Philippines, but it was close enough to bring heavy rainfall when combined with monsoon rains. NASA's Aqua satellite captured those extensive rains in an infrared image when it passed overhead from space. Tropical Storm Trami enhanced rainfall from the monsoon, and caused flooding in the northern Philippines, including Manila, the capital city. The northern Philippines were hit with two nights of heavy rainfall, but Trami is now moving to the northwest and away from the northern Philippines. According to reports from ...

This fall, NASA's Operation IceBridge will base its annual Antarctic campaign out of National Science Foundation's McMurdo Station, a change from the mission's previous four campaigns that were based in Punta Arenas, Chile. By switching bases of operations, IceBridge will be able to expand its reach by measuring parts of Antarctica previously unavailable to the mission. "Antarctica is a big place and there are many science targets for us to hit," said Tom Wagner, cryosphere program scientist at NASA headquarters, Washington. This change comes after nearly a year of planning ...