The fossilised remains of a reptile closely related to lizards are the oldest yet to be discovered. Two new fossil jaws discovered in Vellberg, Germany provide the first direct evidence that the ancestors of lizards, snakes and tuatara (known collectively as lepidosaurs), were alive during the Middle Triassic period – around 240 million years ago. The new fossil finds predate all other lepidosaur records by 12 million years. The findings are published in BMC Evolutionary Biology. The international team of scientists who dated the fossil jaws have provided evidence ...

When individuals with psychopathy imagine others in pain, brain areas necessary for feeling empathy and concern for others fail to become active and be connected to other important regions involved in affective processing and decision-making, reports a study published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by a lack of empathy and remorse, shallow affect, glibness, manipulation and callousness. Previous research indicates that the rate of psychopathy in prisons is around 23%, greater than the average ...

Acupuncture or counselling, provided alongside usual care, could benefit patients with depression, according to a study by researchers at the University of York. The study, conducted by a team led by Dr Hugh MacPherson, of the Department of Health Sciences at York, found that in a primary care setting, combining acupuncture or counselling with usual care had some benefits after three months for patients with recurring depression. Published this week in PLOS Medicine, the study, which also involved researchers from the Centre for Health Economics at York and Hull York ...

MADISON, Wis. – In evolutionary terms, smell is among the oldest of the senses. In animals ranging from invertebrates to humans, olfaction exerts a primal influence as the brain continuously and subconsciously processes the steady stream of scent molecules that waft under our noses. And while odors – whether the aroma of stinky socks or the sweet smell of baking bread – are known to stir the emotions, how they exert their influence biologically on the emotional centers of the human brain, evoking passion or disgust, has been a black box. Now, however, researchers using ...

About 10,000 years ago, the Neolithic age ushered in one of the most dramatic periods of human cultural and technological transition, where independently, different world populations developed the domestication of plants and animals. The hunter-gatherers gave rise to herders and farmers. Changes to a more sedentary lifestyle and larger settlements are widely thought to have contributed to a worldwide human population explosion, from an estimated 4-6 million people to 60-70 million by 4,000 B.C. Now, researchers Aimé, et al., have challenged this assumption using a large ...

A study from the UK reveals that, in the population of Scotland, UK, life expectancy for people with type 1 diabetes has improved substantially, and this improvement should now be reflected in life insurance and other relevant policies for those with the condition. The research is by, Professor Helen Colhoun and Shona Livingstone, University of Dundee, UK, and colleagues on behalf of the Scottish Diabetes Research Network, and is presented at this year's annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Barcelona, Spain. "Historically those ...

Levels of social deprivation, as well as how well a patient controls their blood sugar, is an independent risk factor for mortality in people with type 1 diabetes. These are the findings of new research presented at this year's annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Barcelona, Spain. The research is by the Diabetes Clinical Academic Group at King's Healthcare Partners, UK, and presented by Dr Stephen Thomas, Dept of Diabetes and Endocrinology, Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (GSTT), London. Despite advances in care ...

New research published at this week's annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Barcelona, Spain, shows that having children lowers mortality in people with type 1 diabetes, but for women more than men. The research is by Dr Lena Sjöberg, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, and National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland, and colleagues. Previous research has shown that type 1 diabetes is associated with increased mortality compared with the general population, from both acute and long-term diabetic complications. ...

A simple 'traffic light' test that detects hidden liver fibrosis and cirrhosis in high risk populations could reduce harmful drinking rates and potentially prevent hundreds of alcohol-related deaths a year. Devised by Dr Nick Sheron and colleagues at University of Southampton and Southampton General Hospital, the Southampton Traffic Light (STL) test, which costs about £50, could be used by GPs in the community. Published in the October 2013 issue of the British Journal of General Practice (BJGP), the STL appeared to help reduce drinking rates in people with the highest ...

Male fruit flies like to have a variety of sexual partners, whereas females prefer to stick with the same mate – or move on to his brothers. An Oxford University study of mating preferences in fruit flies (Drosophila) has found that males and females respond to the sexual familiarity of potential mates in fundamentally different ways. While male fruit flies preferred to court an unknown female over their previous mate or her sisters, female fruit flies displayed a predilection for their 'brothers-in-law'. These responses were significantly weaker in mutated flies ...

BOSTON – Repeating bone mineral density (BMD) tests after four years provides little clinical benefit when assessing bone fracture risk in seniors age 75 and older, according to a recent study led by researchers at the Harvard Medical School-affiliated Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife. The study appears in the Sept. 25 online issue of JAMA. BMD testing is an important tool in osteoporosis risk assessment and management, although there are no established guidelines for the appropriate time interval between tests. Medicare pays for BMD screening every two ...

New research from the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) quantifies the potential impacts of increasing wind and solar power generation on the operators of fossil-fueled power plants in the West. To accommodate higher amounts of wind and solar power on the electric grid, utilities must ramp down and ramp up or stop and start conventional generators more frequently to provide reliable power for their customers – a practice called cycling. The study finds that the carbon emissions induced by more frequent cycling are negligible ( END ...

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory and telescopes on the ground may have found the most crowded galaxy in our part of the universe. The ultra-compact dwarf galaxy, known as M60-UCD1, may be the densest galaxy near to Earth, packed with an extraordinary number of stars. This galaxy is providing astronomers with clues to its intriguing past and its role in the galactic evolutionary chain. M60-UCD1, estimated to be about 10 billion years old, is near the massive elliptical galaxy NGC 4649, also called M60, about 54 million light ...

Imagine the distance between the sun and the star nearest to it – a star called Alpha Centauri. That's a distance of about 4 light years. Now, imagine as many as 10,000 of our suns crammed into that relatively small space. That is about the density of a galaxy that was recently discovered by an international team of astronomers led by a Michigan State University faculty member. "This galaxy is more massive than any ultra-compact drawfs of comparable size," said Jay Strader, MSU assistant professor of physics and astronomy, "and is arguably the densest galaxy known in ...

PHILADELPHIA— At least 30 percent of patients in intensive care units (ICUs) suffer some form of mental dysfunction as reflected in anxiety, depression, and especially delirium. In mechanically-ventilated ICU patients, the incidence of delirium is particularly high, about 80 percent, and may be due in part to damage in the hippocampus, though how ventilation is increasing the risk of damage and mental impairment has remained elusive. Now, a new study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine from researchers at the University of Oviedo ...

AMES, Iowa – Using a new and super-sensitive instrument, researchers have discovered where a protein binds to plant cell walls, a process that loosens the cell walls and makes it possible for plants to grow. Researchers say the discovery could one day lead to bigger harvests of biomass for renewable energy. Finding that binding target has been a major challenge for structural biologists. That's because there are only tiny amounts of the protein involved in cell growth and because cell walls are very complex, said Mei Hong, one of the project's lead researchers who's ...

Infection, pneumonia, blood clots and kidney failure are all possible complications after any major surgery. A new study shows that smoking boosts the risk of such complications following some of the most common colorectal procedures, including surgery for colon cancer, diverticulitis or inflammatory bowel disease. Lighting up also increases a patient's risk of death after surgery compared with patients who have never smoked. The study, published in the Annals of Surgery, is unique because it focuses on elective, or non-emergency, surgeries. "Elective surgeries are ...

ANN ARBOR—Caregiving is always tough, but it's that much tougher when caregivers have to rely on family ties that are ambiguous, strained or virtually nonexistent, suggests a University of Michigan study. Published online this month in the Journal of Marriage and Family, the U-M study is one of the first to explore how divorce and remarriage affect wives who are caregivers. The issue affects large numbers of Americans. More than 35 million Americans are remarried, and nearly half a million adults over age 65 remarry every year. At the same time, Americans are living ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Diet can dramatically lower hypertension and improve heart function in patients with a common type of heart failure, according to research presented at today's Heart Failure Society of America meeting in Orlando, Fla. After 21 days of following a low-sodium Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) eating plan, patients saw a drop in blood pressure similar to taking anti-hypertension medicine. "Our work suggests diet could play an important role in the progression of heart failure, although patients should always talk to their doctor before ...

An intriguing study led by the University of Colorado Boulder may provide a powerful new tool in the quiver of forensic scientists attempting to determine the time of death in cases involving human corpses: a microbial clock. The clock is essentially the lock-step succession of bacterial changes that occur postmortem as bodies move through the decay process. And while the researchers used mice for the new study, previous studies on the human microbiome – the estimated 100 trillion or so microbes that live on and in each of us – indicate there is good reason to believe ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. – For years, scientists have thought that a continental ice sheet formed during the Late Cretaceous Period more than 90 million years ago when the climate was much warmer than it is today. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has found evidence suggesting that no ice sheet formed at this time. This finding could help environmentalists and scientists predict what the earth's climate will be as carbon dioxide levels continue to rise. "Currently, carbon dioxide levels are just above 400 parts per million (ppm), up approximately 120 ppm in the last ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Determining whether a patient's lung cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes is critical for identifying the most effective therapy, but it usually requires surgery. A new study suggests, however, that measuring levels of a particular molecule in a sample of tumor tissue might accurately answer the question. Researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) have discovered that levels of microRNA-31 (miR-31) predict the spread of the most common ...

Australian researchers have demonstrated a strong association between the FTO (fat and obesity) gene and hip fracture in women. While the gene is already well known to affect diabetes and obesity, this is the first study to show that its high-risk variant can increase the risk of hip fracture by as much as 82%. The study, undertaken by Dr Bich Tran and Professor Tuan Nguyen from Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research, examined six gene variants (single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs) of the FTO gene, taken from the DNA of 943 women in the Dubbo Osteoporosis ...

In the already complicated science of what creates – and causes constant change in – two giant doughnuts of radiation surrounding Earth, researchers have added a new piece of information: some of the electrons reach such enormous energies that they are driven by an entirely different set of physical processes. These results were published in a paper in Nature Physics on Sept. 22, 2013. Understanding the nature of these radiation belts and how they swell and shrink over time is an integral part of interpreting, and perhaps someday predicting, the space weather that surrounds ...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Abiraterone acetate, a recently FDA-approved drug used to treat men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, significantly delays progression of pain and quality of life deterioration when taken in conjunction with prednisone. The study, published Sept. 24 in Lancet Oncology, was led by Ethan Basch, MD, director of the Cancer Outcomes Research Program at the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Researchers measured the pain and quality of life impact of abiraterone acetate, an orally prescribed treatment ...