Toronto, Canada (September 18, 2013) – In a world-first, decompression surgery has been shown to be an effective procedure to treat cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) – a common progressive, degenerative disease of the spine that can lead to paralysis – according to the results of a multi-centre clinical trial published today. The study, with its use of multiple outcome measures to determine patient improvement, is the first research of its kind to show that decompression surgery has a significant improvement in both the symptoms and quality of life of CSM patients ...

MILWAUKEE – The loss of estrogens at menopause increases a woman's risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, yet hormone replacement therapy can cause harmful side effects. Knowing the exact mechanism of estrogen activation in the brain could lead to new targets for drug development that would provide middle-aged women the cognitive benefits of hormone replacement therapy without increasing their risk for cardiovascular disease or breast cancer. In a new study, Karyn Frick, professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), uncovers details about ...

Bug spray, citronella candles, mosquito netting – most people will do anything they can to stay away from insects during the warmer months. But those creepy crawlers we try so hard to avoid may offer substantial solutions to some of life's problems. Researchers using the cutting-edge X-ray technology at the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Photon Source (APS) were able to take an inside look at several insects, gathering results that go beyond learning about insect physiology and biology. What they found could provide a blueprint for a material used for artificial ...

Physicists at JILA have created a crystal-like arrangement of ultracold gas molecules that can swap quantum "spin" properties with nearby and distant partners. The novel structure might be used to simulate or even invent new materials that derive exotic properties from quantum spin behavior, for electronics or other practical applications. Described in a Nature paper* posted online on Sept. 18, 2013, the JILA experiment is the first to record ultracold gas molecules exchanging spins at a distance, a behavior that may be similar to that of intriguing solids such as "frustrated" ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- If you got beat up by a bully on your walk home from school every day, you would probably become very afraid of the spot where you usually met him. However, if the bully moved out of town, you would gradually cease to fear that area. Neuroscientists call this phenomenon "memory extinction": Conditioned responses fade away as older memories are replaced with new experiences. A new study from MIT reveals a gene that is critical to the process of memory extinction. Enhancing the activity of this gene, known as Tet1, might benefit people with posttraumatic ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Individuals often turn to others for advice when making choices. Perhaps, it seems fitting then, that individuals would seek out others when they are faced with important health decisions. Yet, health communicators have debated whether stories should be included in patient decision-aids (which are informational materials designed to help patients make educated choices about their health) because they worry stories are too biased. Now, an MU researcher has found that stories used in decision-aids don't necessarily bias patients' decision-making; rather, certain ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- A genetic mutation, known as GBA, that leads to early onset of Parkinson's disease and severe cognitive impairment (in about 4 to 7 percent of all patients with the disease) also alters how specific lipids, ceramides and glucosylceramides are metabolized. Mayo Clinic researchers have found that Parkinson's patients who do not carry the genetic mutation also have higher levels of these lipids in the blood. Further, those who had Parkinson's and high blood levels were also more likely to have cognitive impairment and dementia. The research was recently ...

MIAMI, FLORIDA, (September 18, 2013)—You might find it hard to believe that dust clouds from the African Sahara can travel thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean, but it does every year and in large quantities. In a recent study, Joseph Prospero, professor emeritus at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and collaborators at the University of Houston and Arizona State University found that the average air concentrations of inhalable particles more than doubled during a major Saharan dust intrusion in Houston, Texas. ...

Using technology he helped develop, Vanderbilt University scientist Bryan Venters, Ph.D., has shed new light on the "dark matter" of the genome and has begun to explore a possible new approach to treating cancer. "Clarity is everything," said Venters, assistant professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics who further developed the high-resolution technology as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Frank Pugh, Ph.D., at Pennsylvania State University before moving to Vanderbilt in January. Venters and Pugh are co-authors of a paper published this week in the journal ...

The extra demands on parents of chronically ill children cause stress that affects the whole family, according to a systematic review conducted by Case Western Reserve University researchers that also explored what factors in the child's care most contribute to the added strain. The findings, reported in the August issue of the Journal of Pediatric Psychology article, "Parenting Stress Among Caregivers of Children With Chronic Illness: A Systematic Review," were based on an assessment of 96 peer-reviewed studies in 12 countries between 1980 and 2012. Researchers examined ...

Sequencing the DNA of an organism, whether human, plant, or jellyfish, has become a straightforward task, but assembling the information gathered into something coherent remains a massive data challenge. Researchers using computational resources at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego, have created a faster and more effective way to assemble genomic information, while increasing In a paper presented the past month at the 39th International Conference on Very Large Databases (VLDB2013) in Riva del Garda, Italy, Xifeng Yan, ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — To stay ahead in the race against drug-resistant infections, scientists constantly search for and exploit vulnerabilities in deadly bacteria. Now, researchers from Brown and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have used a novel compound to exploit an Achilles' heel in the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. In a series of laboratory experiments, the researchers have shown that it is possible to kill Mycobacterium tuberculosis by inhibiting ClpP, a cellular enzyme that is not targeted by any antibacterial drug on the market. ...

CLEMSON, S.C. — Cattle are what they eat. The forage — grasses and other plants ­— beef cattle eat affects the nutrition and tastiness of the meat. Clemson University animal science researchers report that steers grazing on one of five forages kept in paddocks showed significant differences in growth, carcass and meat quality. The research can help cattle producers with alternatives to corn and feed when they are looking to add weight and value to their animals prior to sale. A team of researchers supported by the Clemson University Experiment Station, Extension Service ...

Wednesday, September 18, 2013 [Granada, Spain] – New research findings on avocado consumption, presented as two posters at the IUNS 20th International Congress of Nutrition, in Granada, Spain suggest that although calorie consumption at dinner was unchanged, inclusion or addition of fresh Hass Avocado to a meal may help to reduce hunger and the desire to eat in overweight adults. Results also showed that including or adding avocado to a meal resulted in smaller post-meal rises in insulin compared to eating a meal without avocado. Findings were based on a Hass Avocado ...

When it comes to fat, you want the brown type and not so much of the white variety because brown fat burns energy to keep you warm and metabolically active, while white fat stores excess energy around your waist, causing health problems. Researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) Medical School are studying brown fat with a goal of fighting obesity. Right now, it is hard for researchers to spot brown fat cells at the molecular level, which is hindering efforts to harness their ability to guard against obesity. To address that issue, ...

We often ignore what we cannot see, and yet organisms below the soil's surface play a vital role in plant functions and ecosystem well-being. These microbes can influence a plant's genetic structure, its health, and its interactions with other plants. A new series of articles in a Special Section in the American Journal of Botany on Rhizosphere Interactions: The Root Microbiome explores how root microbiomes influence plants across multiple scales—from cellular, bacterial, and whole plant levels to community and ecosystem levels. Plants are teeming with microbial organisms; ...

Microscopic, bottle-like structures with corks that melt at precisely-controlled temperatures could potentially release drugs inside the body or fragrances onto the skin, according to a recently published study. Typical drug delivery systems act more like sponges than bottles. For example, drugs are absorbed into polymer particles and then allowed to diffuse out over time. The researchers hope that the new system may allow for greater control of drug delivery. Cargo would stay inside the hollow polymer particle when plugged with a solid cork. When the cork is melted by ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– The female common market squid –– AKA Doryteuthis opalescens –– may not be so common after all. Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have discovered that this glamorous cephalopod possesses a pair of stripes that can sparkle with rainbow iridescence. These flank a single stripe, which can go from complete transparency to bright white. This marks the first time that switchable white cells based on reflectins –– the proteins responsible for reflecting light as color –– have been observed. The findings are published in the Journal of Experimental Biology. The ...

By analyzing the distinctive cracks lining the icy face of Europa, NASA scientists found evidence that this moon of Jupiter likely spun around a tilted axis at some point. This tilt could influence calculations of how much of Europa's history is recorded in its frozen shell, how much heat is generated by tides in its ocean, and even how long the ocean has been liquid. "One of the mysteries of Europa is why the orientations of the long, straight cracks called lineaments have changed over time. It turns out that a small tilt, or obliquity, in the spin axis, sometime in ...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Pioneering new research from a team of Indiana University Bloomington biologists has shown for the first time that a protein which has been long known to be critical for the initiation of protein synthesis in all organisms can also play a role in the regulation of gene expression in some bacteria, and probably land plants as well. The protein, called translation initiation factor 3, or IF3, is one of three proteins that make up the core structure of the machinery needed to guide the joining of messenger RNAs and ribosomes as protein translation commences. ...

As e-readers grow in popularity as convenient alternatives to traditional books, researchers at the Smithsonian have found that convenience may not be their only benefit. The team discovered that when e-readers are set up to display only a few words per line, some people with dyslexia can read more easily, quickly and with greater comprehension. Their findings are published in the Sept. 18 issue of the journal PLOS ONE. An element in many cases of dyslexia is called a visual attention deficit. It is marked by an inability to concentrate on letters within words or words ...

The Toxoplasma parasite can be deadly, causing spontaneous abortion in pregnant women or killing immune-compromised patients, but it has even stranger effects in mice. Infected mice lose their fear of cats, which is good for both cats and the parasite, because the cat gets an easy meal and the parasite gets into the cat's intestinal track, the only place it can sexually reproduce and continue its cycle of infection. New research by graduate student Wendy Ingram at the University of California, Berkeley, reveals a scary twist to this scenario: the parasite's effect ...

Interlaken, Switzerland (19 September, 2013)—A new analysis of land-use concessions in emerging market economies (EMEs) in Africa, Asia and Latin America shows that at least one out of every three hectares licensed for commercial exploitation is overlapped by indigenous community land. The quantitative analysis found that land tenure is a statistically significant source of investment risk in emerging market economy concessions and extends across all land-dependent sectors, regardless of concession type. It shows that 31% of all commercial concessions (by area) are overlapped ...

Shoppers spend over £10 billion on bananas annually and now this demand is being linked to the contamination of Central America's crocodilians. New research, published in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, analyses blood samples from spectacled caiman in Costa Rica and finds that intensive pesticide use in plantations leads to contaminated species in protected conservation areas. "Banana plantations are big business in Costa Rica, which exports an estimated 1.8 million tonnes per year; 10% of the global total," said author Paul Grant from Stellenbosch University, ...

Extreme weather may lead people to think more seriously about climate change, according to new research. In the wake of Hurricanes Irene and Sandy, New Jersey residents were more likely to show support for a politician running on a "green" platform, and expressed a greater belief that climate change is caused by human activity. This research, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests that traumatic weather events may have the power to shift people's automatic attitudes — their first instincts — in favor of environmentally ...