Bethesda, MD—If you are obese and hope to be a father, here's another reason to lose weight: your children and grandchildren may inherit your waistline or metabolic disorders. That's because scientists have discovered in mice that obese fathers, even those who did not show any signs of diabetes, passed this negative trait on most frequently to their daughters. Sons don't entirely dodge this genetic bullet either—both sons and daughters of obese fathers have increased risks of developing metabolic diseases, such as diabetes. "If these findings hold true in humans, then ...

Astronomers making visible-light observations with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have deduced the actual color of a planet orbiting another star 63 light-years away. The planet is HD 189733b, one of the closest exoplanets that can be seen crossing the face of its star. Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph measured changes in the color of light from the planet before, during and after a pass behind its star. There was a small drop in light and a slight change in the color of the light. "We saw the light becoming less bright in the blue but not in the green or ...

A University of Southampton Professor, in collaboration with colleagues at the BC Cancer Agency Research Centre, have discovered a novel way of killing cancer cells. The research, recently published in the journal Cell, has found a new potential treatment for cancer, which leaves the body's healthy cells undamaged, unlike traditional therapies such as radiotherapy. Chris Proud, Professor of Cellular Regulation in Biological Sciences at the University of Southampton says: "Cancer cells grow and divide much more rapidly than normal cells, meaning they have a much higher ...

New research reveals a causal association between elevated body mass index (BMI) and increased risk of gallstone disease. Results published in Hepatology, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, show women are at greater risk of developing gallstones. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) describe gallstones as pebble-like material, which can develop when there is excess cholesterol—accounting for 80% of all gallstones—bile salts or bilirubin in bile stored in the gallbladder. Gallstone disease is ...

Sad music might actually evoke positive emotions reveals a new study by Japanese researchers published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Psychology. The findings help to explain why people enjoy listening to sad music, say Ai Kawakami and colleagues from Tokyo University of the Arts and the RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Japan. Kawakami and colleagues asked 44 volunteers, including both musicians and non-specialists, to listen to two pieces of sad music and one piece of happy music. Each participant was required to use a set of keywords to rate both their perception ...

Researchers at the University of Southampton have completed a project that will enable surgeons to fit joint replacements with longer, optimised lifespans. The MXL project uses computational modelling to define the mechanics of an artificial joint -- a complex interaction of individual anatomy, prosthesis design, sizing and placement -- to ensure successful surgery and longer lifespans of the prosthetic joints. Professor Markus Heller, leader of the MXL project, says: "Joint replacement surgery substitutes worn-out joint tissues with artificial components. These artificial ...

Many birds feed on mosquitoes that spread the West Nile virus, a disease that killed 286 people in the United States in 2012 according to the Centers for Disease Control. Birds also eat insects that can be agricultural pests. However, rising temperatures threaten wild birds, including the Missouri-native Acadian flycatcher, by making snakes more active, according to University of Missouri biologist John Faaborg. He noted that farmers, public health officials and wildlife managers should be aware of complex indirect effects of climate change in addition to the more obvious ...

Many birds feeds on mosquitoes that spread the West Nile virus, a disease that killed 286 people in the United States in 2012 according to the Centers for Disease Control. Birds also eat insects that can be agricultural pests. However, rising temperatures threaten wild birds, including the Missouri-native Acadian flycatcher, by making snakes more active, according to University of Missouri biologist John Faaborg. He noted that farmers, public health officials and wildlife managers should be aware of complex indirect effects of climate change in addition to the more obvious ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — To parents, a baby's cry is a signal of hunger, pain, or discomfort. But to scientists, subtle acoustic features of a cry, many of them imperceptible to the human ear, can hold important information about a baby's health. A team of researchers from Brown University and Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island has developed a new computer-based tool to perform finely tuned acoustic analyses of babies' cries. The team hopes their baby cry analyzer will lead to new ways for researchers and clinicians to use cry in identifying children ...

New Rochelle, NY, July 11, 2013—Mosquito-borne dengue viruses cause an estimated 50 million cases of human dengue fever a year and are a significant public health threat worldwide. A novel therapeutic approach prevents dengue virus from reproducing in humans by targeting and silencing key regions of the dengue genome essential for viral replication. This innovative treatment strategy and the successful results of initial testing are presented in Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers. The article is available on the Nucleic ...

There are some combinations that just go well together: Milk and cookies, eggs and bacon, pancakes and maple syrup. But new research reveals that people with individualistic mindsets differ from their collectivist counterparts in ascribing value to those perfect combinations. The collection of new studies, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, demonstrate that people with collectivist mindsets tend to value the relationships between items more than the particular items themselves. People with individualistic mindsets, ...

A Vanderbilt research program that trains community pediatricians to diagnose autism within their individual practices may lead to more effective treatment of the disorder that now affects an estimated one in 88 children. Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers released today in the journal Autism the results of a three-year study that evaluated the effectiveness of a training program designed to enhance autism spectrum disorder (ASD) identification and assessment within community pediatric settings across Tennessee. After participating in training to learn ...

[Geneva, Switzerland – 11 July 2013] – This week the World Health Organization (WHO) released its newly updated 4th WHO Model List of Essential Medicines for Children (EMLc), in which three treatments developed by the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) and its partners have now been included. One treatment was also added to the 18th WHO Model List of Essential Medicines (EML) for adults. Artesunate-mefloquine fixed-dose combination (ASMQ FDC) was added to the EMLc for the treatment of malaria in children, and to the EML for adults, in line with current ...

MINNEAPOLIS – Older people with Alzheimer's disease are less likely to also have cancer, and older people with cancer are less likely to also have Alzheimer's disease, according to the largest study to date on the topic, which appears in the July 10, 2013, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. "Since the number of cases of both Alzheimer's disease and cancer increase exponentially as people age, understanding the mechanisms behind this relationship may help us better develop new treatments for both diseases," said study ...

Contact: Frances Dumenci, MS, APR fdumenci@vcu.edu 804-828-7701 Virginia Commonwealth University Matt McGue, Ph.D. mmcgue001@umn.edu 612-625-8305 University of Minnesota Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research Personality differences linked to later drinking have roots in early childhood An individual enters adolescence with personality characteristics and life experiences already accumulated. A new study evaluates the impact of childhood temperament on later alcohol use/problems. Results show that childhood temperament prior to age five predicts ...

Contact: Ash Levitt alevitt@ria.buffalo.edu 716-887-3366 University at Buffalo, SUNY Mark Wood mark_wood@uri.edu 401-874-4252 University of Rhode Island Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research 'Wasted' and 'hammered' versus 'buzzed' and 'tipsy' is more than just semantics Prior research found that women tended to use moderate self-referral terms for intoxication, whereas men used heavy terms. New findings confirm that men's drinking is generally described in terms indicative of excessive consumption while women tend to couch drinking in more moderate ...

Contact: David A. Kareken dkareken@iupui.edu 317-274-7327 Indiana University School of Medicine Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research The brain's response to sweets may indicate risk for development of alcoholism Several human and animal studies have shown a relationship between a preference for highly sweet tastes and alcohol use disorders. Furthermore, the brain mechanisms of sweet-taste responses may share common neural pathways with responses to alcohol and other drugs. A new study using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has found ...

Children with high proportions of poly-unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in cord blood at birth are more likely to develop respiratory and skin allergies in their early teens, according to research published July 10 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Malin Barman and colleagues from the Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. The researchers followed nearly 800 children born in 1996-97 for diagnosis of allergies at age 13, and studied a subset of 44 who were diagnosed with respiratory allergies, 37 with chronic skin rashes and 48 who did not suffer allergies. Cord ...

Personal tastes in music have little to do with how we keep time to a tune while walking, according to research published July 10 by Marc Leman and colleagues from Ghent University, Belgium in the open access journal PLOS ONE. Most people synchronize their steps to the beat of their tunes when they listen to music on a walk. In the current study, researchers found that even when excerpts of music had identical tempo and beat, other acoustic features influenced walkers' stride and speed. Participants in the study heard samples of 52 different types of music that all ...

Typhoid fever is one of the oldest documented diseases known to have afflicted mankind but what makes it so lethal has remained a mystery for centuries. In a study appearing online July 10 in the journal Nature, Yale researchers offer an explanation of how the devastating disease marked by delirium and stupor still kills 200,000 people every year - and also suggests the basis of a future vaccine. The culprit appears to be a powerful toxin possessed by Salmonella typhi, the bacterium that causes typhoid fever. Yale scientists for the first time describe the structure of ...

Spurred by increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, forests over the last two decades have become dramatically more efficient in how they use water, a Harvard study has found. Studies have long predicted that plants would begin to use water more efficiently as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rose. A research team led by Research Associate Trevor Keenan and Assistant Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Andrew Richardson, however, has found that forests across the globe are becoming more efficient than expected. Using data collected from forests ...

MADISON, Wis. — The emerging H7N9 avian influenza virus responsible for at least 37 deaths in China has qualities that could potentially spark a global outbreak of flu, according to a new study published today (July 10, 2013) in the journal Nature. An international team led by Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Tokyo conducted a comprehensive analysis of two of the first human isolates of the virus from patients in China. Their efforts revealed the H7N9 virus's ability to infect and replicate in several species of mammals, including ...

STANFORD, Calif. — A new study led by a researcher at the Stanford University School of Medicine shows that mammalian species can "choose" the sex of their offspring in order to beat the odds and produce extra grandchildren. In analyzing 90 years of breeding records from the San Diego Zoo, the researchers were able to prove for the first time what has been a fundamental theory of evolutionary biology: that mammals rely on some unknown physiologic mechanism to manipulate the sex ratios of their offspring as part of a highly adaptive evolutionary strategy. "This is one ...

Chancellor George Osborne has announced an increase in health spending of 1.9% for 2015/16, but taking inflation into account the true figure will be just 0.1%. And although politicians are promising to protect and increase the health budget every year, the latest Comprehensive Spending Review shows that the reality to be quite different. According to Ford, the NHS will have had to find £20 billion in efficiency savings by then and build even more savings on top. With demand for services rising by 4% per year, the NHS will have to generate further savings of £4.25bn to ...

Victims of forced marriage and honour violence in the UK are hesitant to seek professional help because they are worried social workers will not understand their cultural differences, according to new research presented today at Royal Holloway University. Researchers at Royal Holloway have called for social workers to receive mandatory training on sensitive issues surrounding different cultures and religious backgrounds, so that they understand that normal practices, such as involving family members, may not be the best solution in forced marriage cases. The study, ...