Although body weight is largely determined by lifestyle factors, increasingly research is revealing that genetics also play an important role in determining an individual's susceptibility to obesity. Identifying the mutations that underlie the fraction of obese patients with monogenic obesity can help us to understand complex processes like metabolic rate, eating behavior, growth, and fat storage. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, two groups identified obesity-linked mutations in the gene SIM1. Sadaf Farooqi and colleagues at Addenbrooke's Hospital ...

Eating behaviours of preschoolers may be associated with risk of cardiovascular disease in later life, suggests a study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). A study of 1076 preschool children aged 3–5 years in the TARGet Kids! practice-based research network in Toronto, Ontario, looked at the link between eating habits and serum levels of non–high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, which is a surrogate marker of later cardiovascular risk. Parents filled out questionnaires assessing eating behaviours, such as watching television while eating, dietary ...

Mobile health technology has substantial potential for improving access to health care in the developing world and in remote regions of developed countries, states an article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). In many countries, access to health care is hampered by lack of medical professionals and health care infrastructure, limited or poor equipment, sporadic power and other obstacles. However, the development of remote-presence medical devices can help fill this void by connecting people in remote locations with experienced health care professionals for ...

PHILADELPHIA — A new molecular pathway involving the gene ZNF365 has been identified and abnormalities in that pathway may predict worse outcomes for patients with breast cancer, according to data published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. "Genomic instability is an increased tendency for abnormal changes in DNA, like the addition of extra copies of chromosomes, DNA breaks and mutations," said Ji-Hye Paik, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College in ...

Early exposure to BPA (bisphenol A) – an additive commonly found in plastic water bottles and soup can liners – causes an increased cancer risk in an animal model of human prostate cancer, according to University of Illinois at Chicago researcher Gail Prins. Prins presented her findings at the ENDO 2013 meeting in San Francisco June 17. "This is the first direct evidence that exposure to BPA during development, at the levels we see in our day-to-day environment, increases the risk for prostate cancer in human prostate tissue," said Prins, professor of physiology and director ...

A new subduction zone forming off the coast of Portugal heralds the beginning of a cycle that will see the Atlantic Ocean close as continental Europe moves closer to America. Published in Geology, new research led by Monash University geologists has detected the first evidence that a passive margin in the Atlantic ocean is becoming active. Subduction zones, such as the one beginning near Iberia, are areas where one of the tectonic plates that cover the Earth's surface dives beneath another plate into the mantle - the layer just below the crust. Lead author Dr João Duarte, ...

Ulsan, S. Korea, June 17, 2013 - Researchers from Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), S. Korea, developed a novel, simple method to synthesize hierarchically nanoporous frameworks of nanocrystalline metal oxides such as magnesia and ceria by the thermal conversion of well-designed metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). The novel material developed by the UNIST research team has exceptionally high CO2 adsorption capacity which could pave the way to save the Earth from CO2 pollution. Nanoporous materials consist of organic or inorganic frameworks with ...

The harder you pull, the quicker it goes. At least, that used to be the rule in mechanochemistry, a method that researchers apply to set chemical reactions in motion by means of mechanical forces. However, as chemists led by Professor Dominik Marx, Chair of Theoretical Chemistry at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum now report in the journal "Nature Chemistry", more force cannot in fact be translated one to one into a faster reaction. With complex molecular dynamic simulations on the Jülich supercomputer "JUQUEEN" they unmasked the Janus-faced nature of mechanochemistry. Up to ...

Research from the University of Sheffield has shown that unusual changes in atmospheric jet stream circulation caused the exceptional surface melt of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) in summer 2012. An international team led by Professor Edward Hanna from the University of Sheffield's Department of Geography used a computer model simulation (called SnowModel) and satellite data to confirm a record surface melting of the GrIS for at least the last 50 years - when on 11 July 2012, more than 90 percent of the ice-sheet surface melted. This far exceeded the previous surface ...

German motorists are willing to accept longer journey times and even detours if it means helping to ease the general traffic situation. This emerged from a recent user study carried out by the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems FOKUS in cooperation with the Technische Universität Berlin. Of 120 motorists who agreed to provide information about their driving habits and attitudes towards road traffic, two-thirds said they would rather have a stress-free trip even if it meant adding over three minutes to their journey, and 75 percent said they would even be ...

This news release is available in German. Researchers at the HZB Institute for Solar Fuels have modified so called superstrate solar cells with their highly efficient architecture in order to obtain hydrogen from water with the help of suitable catalysts. This type of cell works something like an "artificial leaf." But the solar cell rapidly corrodes when placed in the aqueous electrolyte solution. Now, Ph.D. student Diana Stellmach has found a way to prevent corrosion by embedding the catalysts in an electrically conducting polymer and then mounting them onto the ...

HGPS is a rare genetic disease that affects one in every 4-8 million births. The disease is caused by a spontaneous mutation in one of the two copies (alleles) of the gene LMNA, which codes for lamin A, a protein important for the integrity and function of the envelope surrounding the cell nucleus. The mutation causes incorrect processing of the messenger RNA for lamin proteins, resulting in the synthesis of an anomalous protein, called progerin. The new study, published in the leading cardiovascular research journal Circulation, identifies a possible treatment to block ...

This news release is available in German. Efficient, robust and economic catalyst materials hold the key to achieving a breakthrough in fuel cell technology. Scientists from Jülich and Berlin have developed a material for converting hydrogen and oxygen to water using a tenth of the typical amount of platinum that was previously required. With the aid of state-of-the-art electron microscopy, the researchers discovered that the function of the nanometre-scale catalyst particles is decisively determined by their geometric shape and atomic structure. This discovery opens ...

The plant genus Lepidiums is a small group of representatives of the economically important cabbage family Brassicaceae. Most commonly known as peppercress or peppergrass Lepidiums includes around 180 species worldwide. In a new extensive study, published in the open access journal PhytoKeys, scientists explore the diversity within the New Zealand Lepidiums oleraceum and allied species. Lepidiums oleraceum, is known in New Zealand, as "Cook's Scurvy Grass" because Captain James Cook, and other early explorers of that island nation, ate the plant as a scurvy preventive. ...

How does a social animal – mouse or human – gain dominance over his or her fellow creatures? A unique experiment conducted by Dr. Tali Kimchi and her team in the Weizmann Institute's Neurobiology Department provides some unusual insight into the social behavior that enables a social hierarchy, complete with a head honcho, to form. Kimchi and her research team, Aharon Weissbrod, Genady Wasserman and Alex Shapiro, together with Dr. Ofer Feinerman of the Institute's Physics of Complex Systems Department, developed a system that enabled them to observe a large group of animals ...

SAN FRANCISCO—- A mother's exposure to triclocarban, a common antibacterial chemical, while nursing her babies shortens the life of her female offspring, a new study in rats finds. The results were presented Monday at The Endocrine Society's 95th Annual Meeting in San Francisco. Commonly used in antibacterial soap and other personal care products, triclocarban has the potential for a large portion of the public to be exposed to it, said the study's lead author, Rebekah Kennedy, a graduate student in the Department of Public Health at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. "Our ...

SAN FRANCISCO-— New research suggests that fetal exposure to the common environmental chemical bisphenol A, or BPA, causes increased inflammation in fat tissues after birth, which can lead to obesity and metabolic syndrome. Results of the animal study were presented Monday at The Endocrine Society's 95th Annual Meeting in San Francisco. Found in plastic water bottles, older baby bottles and many other consumer products, BPA is a known hormone disrupter with estrogen-like properties. Prior research has linked BPA in both animals and humans to obesity and the metabolic ...

New research shows that every third person who is diagnosed for the first time with a mood disorder has been admitted to hospital with an infection prior to the diagnosis. The study is the largest of its kind to date to show a clear correlation between infection levels and the risk of developing mood disorders. Anyone can suffer from an infection, for example in their stomach, urinary tract or skin. It would now appear that their distress does not necessarily end once the infection has been treated. A new PhD project shows that many people subsequently suffer from a mood ...

When it comes to honey bees, more mates is better. A new study from North Carolina State University, the University of Maryland and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) shows that genetic diversity is key to survival in honey bee colonies – meaning a colony is less likely to survive if its queen has had a limited number of mates. "We wanted to determine whether a colony's genetic diversity has an impact on its survival, and what that impact may be," says Dr. David Tarpy, an associate professor of entomology at North Carolina State University and lead author of a ...

The study, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology by researchers at IIASA and Center for International Climate and Environmental Research (CICERO) calculates the climate impact for passenger trips of 500-1000 km—typical distances for business or holiday trips. It shows that while air travel continues to have the biggest climate impact per distance travelled, the choices that people make about how they drive or take public transport make a big difference in how much they contribute to climate change. "Traveling alone in a large car can be as bad ...

Aggression in school-age children may have its origins in children 3 years old and younger who witnessed violence between their mothers and partners, according to a new Case Western Reserve University study. "People may think children that young are passive and unaware, but they pay attention to what's happening around them," said Megan Holmes, assistant professor of social work at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland. Between three and 10 million children witness some form of domestic violence each ...

Joseph Pidala, M.D., M.S., assistant member of the Blood and Bone Marrow Transplant and Immunology programs at Moffitt Cancer Center, and colleagues from the Chronic Graft-Versus-Host Disease Consortium have determined that certain gastrointestinal and liver-related types of chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) are associated with worsened quality of life and death. Their study appeared in the May issue of Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, the official journal of the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. GVHD is a complication that can ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Next time you're doing a slow burn in security screening at the airport, calm yourself with the assurance that a more deliberate baggage scanner may do a better job. In a laboratory test of visual searching ability, scientists found trained Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screening officers were a lot slower than undergraduate students and other civilians. But the amateurs were sloppier. The test is part of ongoing research by Duke University psychologist Stephen Mitroff to understand how the brain manages visual searching, which is important ...

This news release is available in Spanish. The proposed system (Augmented Lecture Feedback System – ALFs) seeks to improve communication between students and professors during large lecture classes like those frequently given at universities. The way they work is quite intuitive: the professor wears a pair of augmented reality glasses that enable him/her to see symbols above each student; the symbols indicate the person's state while this activity is taking place. "These symbols are activated by the students via their cell phones and are used to tell the professor ...

Understanding how gastric bypass surgery changes the properties of nerve cells that help regulate the digestive system could lead to new treatments that produce the same results without surgery, according to Penn State College of Medicine scientists, who have shown how surgery restores some properties of nerve cells that tell people their stomachs are full. The results may also better predict which patients will keep the weight off after surgery. Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery is the most effective way to get severe obesity under control. Doctors make the stomach ...