A new study reports that the incidence of ischemic stroke—the most common type of stroke, caused by a clot in the blood vessels of the brain—among non-Hispanic Whites and Mexican Americans over age 60 has declined over the past decade. Most concerning, however, is that the increased relative burden of stroke comparing Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic Whites has not changed at all in the last decade. Overall, Mexican Americans suffer much more, 34%, from this disease than non-Hispanic Whites. Findings are published in Annals of Neurology, a journal of the American Neurological ...

SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 13, 2013 – When mice ate a diet of 25 percent extra sugar – the mouse equivalent of a healthy human diet plus three cans of soda daily – females died at twice the normal rate and males were a quarter less likely to hold territory and reproduce, according to a toxicity test developed at the University of Utah. "Our results provide evidence that added sugar consumed at concentrations currently considered safe exerts dramatic adverse impacts on mammalian health," the researchers say in a study set for online publication Tuesday, Aug. 13 in the journal ...

PITTSBURGH, Aug. 13, 2013 – For the first time, a mouse heart was able to contract and beat again after its own cells were stripped and replaced with human heart precursor cells, said scientists from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The findings, reported online today in Nature Communications, show the promise that regenerating a functional organ by placing human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells – which could be personalized for the recipient – in a three-dimensional scaffold could have for transplantation, drug testing models and understanding heart ...

Ottawa researchers have developed unique virus-derived particles that can kill human blood cancer cells in the laboratory and eradicate the disease in mice with few side effects. The study is published in Blood Cancer Journal by co-senior authors Drs. David Conrad and John Bell of the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) and the University of Ottawa (uOttawa). While Dr. Bell and his colleagues have been investigating replicating viruses for the treatment of solid cancers for many years, with very promising results, this is the first major success they have had treating ...

1. A new strategy that cripples the ability of the dengue virus to escape the host immune system has been discovered by A*STAR's Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN). This breakthrough strategy opens a door of hope to what may become the world's first universal dengue vaccine candidate that can give full protection from all four serotypes of the dreadful virus. This research done in collaboration with Singapore's Novartis Institute of Tropical Diseases (NITD) and Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology is published in the Plos Pathogens journal, and is also supported ...

A study investigating the function of the recently discovered enhancer RNA molecules may open new avenues for gene therapy. According to the study researchers, altering the production and function of these molecules could affect the expression of genes and, in consequence, possibly also the progression of various diseases. Published in the prestigious Molecular Cell on 8 August, the study was carried out in collaboration between the University of California, San Diego and the University of Eastern Finland. Besides promoters located in the beginning of genes, gene expression ...

Neural stem cells transplanted into tumor-bearing rats can hinder tumor cell growth and prolife-ration; however, the mechanism remains unclear. Abnormal activation of the Ras/Raf/Mek/Erk signaling cascade plays an important role in glioma. Inhibition of this aberrant activity could effectively hinder glioma cell proliferation and promote cell apoptosis. To investigate the mechanism of glioblastoma treatment by neural stem cell trans-plantation with respect to the Ras/Raf/Mek/Erk pathway, Hua Li and team from the 476 Hospital of Chinese PLA observed Raf-1, Erk and Bcl-2 ...

High-resolution multilayer X-ray computer tomography and 3.0T superconducting magnetic resonance myelography are known to obtain a more complete and continuous two-dimensional original data. Three-dimensional reconstruction nerve models are classically obtained from two-dimensional images of "visible human" frozen sections. However, because of the flexibility of nerve tissues and small color differences compared with surrounding tissues, the integrity and validity of nerve tissues can be impaired during milling. Jiaming Fu and colleagues from the 98 Hospital of Chinese ...

The conventional method for repair of peripheral nerve injury is autogenous nerve grafting, but sources of autogenous nerve are limited. Furthermore, neurological deficits in the donor site and painful neuroma can occur following surgery. The use of allogeneic nerve grafts is limited because of host immune rejection. As reported, tensile stress and tensile strain directly affect the quality of nerve regeneration after bridging nerve defects by poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) conduit transplantation and autogenous nerve grafting for sciatic nerve injury. A new study published ...

Studying the expression of genes that are dependent on vitamin D makes it possible to identify individuals who will benefit from vitamin D supplementation, shows a University of Eastern Finland study published recently in PLoS One. Population-based studies have shown that vitamin D deficiency may increase the risk for chronic diseases and weaken the body's immune system. In the present study carried out at the University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, the study participants were given a daily dose of either 40 or 80 micrograms of vitamin D, or a placebo, over a course of ...

Research team of Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Georgia Institute of Technology, and Dong-Eui University developed a novel cathode material which has outstanding performance and robust reliability even at the intermediate temperature range. This research was published in Scientific Reports on August 13. (Title: Highly Efficient and robust cathode materials for low-temperature solid fuel cells: PrBa0.5Sr0.5Co2-xFexO5+δ ) As high power density devices, fuel cells can convert chemical energy directly into electric power very efficiently ...

Cancer in humans is frequently associated with unusually high amounts of one or more proteins responsible for controlling the rate at which cells divide. As an example, excessive amounts of the cyclin-dependent kinase CDK6 are often found in types of cancer such as lymphoma. Together with a number of collaborators within Vienna and beyond, Karoline Kollmann of the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna (Vetmeduni) has now shown that CDK6 is part of a multiprotein complex that stimulates the production of one of the so-called INK4 family members (confusingly termed ...

A multidisciplinary group of researchers from Finland (University of Turku and University of Helsinki) and Sweden (University of Skövde) has now found evidence that hypnotic suggestion can modify processing of a targeted stimulus before it reaches consciousness. The experiments show that it is possible to hypnotically modulate even highly automatic features of perception, such as color experience. The results are presented in two articles published in PLoS ONE and International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. The Finnish part of the research is funded by ...

A survey, run by Strathclyde academics on behalf of the Scottish Beekeepers' Association, indicated 31.3 per cent of managed honey bee colonies in Scotland failed to survive last winter – almost double the previous year's loss rate of 15.9 per cent. Dr Alison Gray and Magnus Peterson, of Strathclyde's Department of Mathematics and Statistics, warn the figures ought to be of major concern because bees play a pivotal role in crop pollination, agricultural yields and, therefore, food supply and prices. Last winter's figures represent 156 colonies lost during the winter ...

Female blue tits with brightly coloured crowns are better mothers than duller birds, according to a new study led by the University of York. Unlike humans, birds can see ultra-violet (UV) light. While the crown of a blue tit looks just blue to us, to another bird it has the added dimension of appearing UV-reflectant. The three-year study of blue tits, which also involved researchers from the University of California Davis, USA and the University of Glasgow, showed that mothers with more UV-reflectant crown feathers did not lay more eggs, but did fledge more offspring ...

Prisons and partner organizations must do more to provide health and social care to growing population of older prisoners. More needs to be done in prisons to look after a growing population of older male prisoners, according to research by The University of Manchester. The findings, just published by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Journals Library in Health Services and Delivery Research, showed 44% of prisons do not have a policy on the care and management of older prisoners and there was a lack of integration between health and social care services. Planning ...

New Rochelle, NY, August 13, 2013–Employers can have a significant role in improving efforts to prevent and treat diseases such as cancer by introducing and supporting health promotion programs in the workplace. Together, companies can influence health care policies and reimbursement and industry practices to support the fight against cancer. Johnson & Johnson's active role in implementing the CEO Cancer Gold Standard program is described in an article in Population Health Management, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available ...

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have uncovered a protein switch that can either increase or decrease memory-building activity in brain cells, depending on the signals it detects. Its dual role means the protein is key to understanding the complex network of signals that shapes our brain's circuitry, the researchers say. A description of their discovery appears in the July 31 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. "What's interesting about this protein, AGAP3, is that it is effectively double-sided: One side beefs up synapses in response to brain activity, while the other side ...

TORONTO, ON – Women with a history of childhood physical abuse are more likely to become obese adults, according to a new study by University of Toronto researchers. Results indicate that women who were physically abused in childhood were more likely to be obese than women from non-abusive homes. "After adjusting for age and race, childhood physical abuse was associated with 47% higher odds of obesity for women" says lead author Esme Fuller-Thomson, Professor and Sandra Rotman Endowed Chair in the University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. "Among ...

DETROIT – Doctors at Henry Ford Hospital have created a new route to the heart to implant an artificial heart valve by temporarily connecting major blood vessels that do not normally intersect. In a July 3 operation on 79-year-old Viola Waller of Charlevoix, physicians performed a world-first cardiac procedure when it became evident that other means would not work. "I knew of an experimental technique that had not yet been done in humans, and I had a patient with no other options who was failing rapidly," says William O'Neill, M.D., medical director of the Center for ...

A new high-tech analysis led by a University of Colorado Boulder researcher shows the oldest known petroglyphs in North America, which are cut into several boulders in western Nevada, date to at least 10,500 years ago and perhaps even as far back as 14,800 years ago. The petroglyphs located at the Winnemucca Lake petroglyph site 35 miles northeast of Reno consist of large, deeply carved grooves and dots forming complex designs on several large limestone boulders that have been known about for decades, said CU-Boulder researcher Larry Benson, who led the new effort. Although ...

In order to make solar energy widely affordable scientists and engineers all over the world are looking for low-cost production technologies. Flexible thin film solar cells have a huge potential in this regard because they require only a minimum amount of materials and can be manufactured in large quantities by roll-to-roll processing. One such technology relies on cadmium telluride (CdTe) to convert sunlight into electricity. With a current market share that is second only to silicon-based solar cells CdTe cells already today are cheapest in terms of production costs. ...

Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), a common disorder that impairs fertility by impacting menstruation, ovulation, hormones, and more, is closely related to insulin levels. Women with the disorder are typically "insulin resistant" — their bodies produce an overabundance of insulin to deliver glucose from the blood into the muscles. The excess makes its way to the ovaries, where it stimulates the production of testosterone, thereby impairing fertility. Now Prof. Daniela Jakubowicz of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Diabetes Unit at Wolfson Medical ...

WASHINGTON, DC -- Smartphones are a great way to check in on the latest weather predictions, but new research aims to use the batteries in those same smartphones to predict the weather. A group of smartphone app developers and weather experts discovered a way to use the temperature sensors built into smartphone batteries to crowdsource weather information. These tiny thermometers usually prevent smartphones from dangerously overheating, but the researchers discovered the battery temperatures tell a story about the environment around them. Crowdsourcing hundreds of thousands ...

WASHINGTON D.C. August 13, 2013 -- Adjacent to the walls of our arterioles, capillaries, and venules -- the blood vessels that make up our microcirculation -- there exists a peculiar thin layer of clear plasma, devoid of red blood cells. Although it is just a few millionths of a meter thick, that layer is vital. It controls, for example, the speed with which platelets can reach the site of a cut and start the clotting process. "If you destroy this layer, your bleeding time can go way up, by 60 percent or more, which is a real issue in trauma," said Eric Shaqfeh, the Lester ...