Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. – When animals are on the hunt for food they likely use many senses, and scientists have wondered how the different senses work together. New research from the laboratory of CSHL neuroscientist and Assistant Professor Adam Kepecs shows that when rats actively use the senses of smell (sniffing) and touch (through their whiskers) those two processes are locked in synchronicity. The team's paper, published today in the Journal of Neuroscience, shows that sniffing and "whisking" movements are synchronized even when they are running at different frequencies. Studies ...

Cleveland: Only 42 percent of the deaths occurring within 30 days of percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) were attributable to complications from the procedure, according to a Cleveland Clinic study published online in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The research suggests alternative outcome reporting mechanisms for 30-day mortality for PCI should be considered before mandatory reporting regulations are put into place. PCI is a non-surgical procedure in which balloons and/or stents are used to open blocked or narrowed arteries, which are typically ...

Exposing skin to sunlight may help to reduce blood pressure, cut the risk of heart attack and stroke – and even prolong life, a study suggests. Researchers have shown that when our skin is exposed to the sun's rays, a compound is released in our blood vessels that helps lower blood pressure. The findings suggest that exposure to sunlight improves health overall, because the benefits of reducing blood pressure far outweigh the risk of developing skin cancer. The study has been carried out by the University of Edinburgh. Heart disease and stroke linked to high ...

Women with unintended pregnancy are four times more likely to suffer from postpartum depression at twelve months postpartum, suggests a new study published today (8 May) in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The study, conducted at the University of North Carolina prenatal clinics questioned participants about pregnancy intention at 15-19 weeks gestational age, and women were classified as having an intended, mistimed or unwanted pregnancy. There were 433 women (64%) with an intended pregnancy, 207 (30%) with a mistimed pregnancy and 40 (6%) ...

An analysis by researchers at the Institute for Immigration Research (IIR) at George Mason University shows that the Boston Marathon bombings had little effect on conversations on social media regarding immigration reform. Using two different data mining applications, the researchers collected more than 750,000 tweets containing the word "immigration" beginning in February 2013. "The Boston Marathon bombings on April 15, 2013 provided an unexpected opportunity to examine how this event has affected the immigration reform debate," says Jim Witte, director of the IIR. ...

In 2015, NASA, for the first time, will fly a space mission utilizing a radically different propellant—one which has reduced toxicity and is environmentally benign. This energetic ionic liquid, or EIL, is quite different from the historically employed hydrazine-based propellant, which was first used as a rocket fuel during World War II for the Messerschmitt Me 163B (the first rocket-powered fighter plane). Within the U.S. space program, hydrazine was used on the 1970s Viking Mars program, and more recently in the Phoenix lander and Curiosity rover Mars missions, as ...

VIDEO: Through the serendipity of science, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have discovered a potential treatment for deadly, drug-resistant bacterial infections that uses the same approach that HIV uses to... Click here for more information. Through the serendipity of science, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have discovered a potential treatment for deadly, drug-resistant bacterial infections that uses the same approach that HIV uses to infect cells. ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- A seven-year quest to understand how breast cancer cells resist treatment with the targeted therapy lapatinib has revealed a previously unknown molecular network that regulates cell death. The discovery provides new avenues to overcome drug resistance, according to researchers at Duke Cancer Institute. "We've revealed multiple new signaling pathways that regulate cell death," said Sally Kornbluth, PhD, vice dean of Basic Science and professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at Duke University School of Medicine. "And we've shown, at least in one disease, ...

Scientists at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute have discovered how the predominant class of Alzheimer's pharmaceuticals might sharpen the brain's performance One factor even more important than the size of a television screen is the quality of the signal it displays. Having a life-sized projection of Harry Potter dodging a Bludger in a Quidditch match is of little use if the details are lost to pixilation. The importance of transmitting clear signals, however, is not relegated to the airwaves. The same creed applies to the electrical impulses navigating ...

A new robotic sensor deployed by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Gulf of Maine coastal waters may transform the way red tides or harmful algal blooms (HABs) are monitored and managed in New England. The instrument was launched at the end of last month, and a second such system will be deployed later this spring. The results will add critical data to weekly real-time forecasts of New England red tide this year distributed to more than 150 coastal resource and fisheries managers in six states as well as federal agencies such as NOAA, the FDA and the EPA. ...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida today unveiled the state's most powerful supercomputer, a machine that will help researchers find life-saving drugs, make decades-long weather forecasts and improve armor for troops. The HiPerGator supercomputer and recent tenfold increase in the size of the university's data pipeline make UF one of the nation's leading public universities in research computing. "If we expect our researchers to be at the forefront of their fields, we need to make sure they have the most powerful tools available to science, and HiPerGator ...

LA JOLLA, CA---Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified a protein that drives the formation of pituitary tumors in Cushing's disease, a development that may give clinicians a therapeutic target to treat this potentially life-threatening disorder. The protein, called TR4 (testicular orphan nuclear receptor 4), is one of the human body's 48 nuclear receptors, a class of proteins found in cells that are responsible for sensing hormones and, in response, regulating the expression of specific genes. Using a genome scan, the Salk team discovered ...

DARIEN, IL – A new study suggests that your level of sleepiness or alertness during the day may be related to the type of food that you eat. Results show that higher fat consumption was associated with increased objective daytime sleepiness, while higher carbohydrate intake was associated with increased alertness. There was no relationship between protein consumption and sleepiness or alertness. These findings were independent of the subjects' gender, age, and body mass index as well as the total amount of sleep they were getting and their total caloric intake. "Increased ...

DARIEN, IL – A new study suggests that regularity of bedtime prior to initiation of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy is an important factor that may influence treatment compliance in adults with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Results show that bedtime variability was a significant predictor of CPAP adherence, which was defined as four or more hours of treatment use per night. The odds of one-month CPAP non-adherence were 3.7 times greater for every one unit increase in habitual, or pre-treatment, bedtime variability. "Long-term use of CPAP, such as ...

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Boston (May 7, 2013) – The first successful cornea transplant with donor endothelial tissue preloaded by an eye bank has been performed at Massachusetts Eye and Ear in Boston, Mass. Roberto Pineda II, M.D., Director of the Refractive Surgery Service at Mass. Eye and Ear, and an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, recently performed the groundbreaking transplant. Dr. Pineda performed the surgery utilizing donor endothelial tissue that was prepared and pre-loaded into EndoGlide™ (Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc.) cartridges at the Lions Eye Institute ...

WASHINGTON, May 7, 2013 – From New York City's Central Park to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, America's urban forests store an estimated 708 million tons of carbon, an environmental service with an estimated value of $50 billion, according to a recent U.S. Forest Service study. Annual net carbon uptake by these trees is estimated at 21 million tons and $1.5 billion in economic benefit. In the study published recently in the journal Environmental Pollution, Dave Nowak, a research forester with the U.S. Forest Service's Northern Research Station, and his colleagues ...

(PHILADELPHIA) An international group of investigators, led by researchers at Thomas Jefferson University's Kimmel Cancer Center, have solved the mystery of why a substantial percentage of castrate-resistant metastatic prostate cancer cells contain abnormally high levels of the pro-growth protein Stat5. They discovered that the gene that makes the protein is amplified — duplicated many times over — in these cancer cells, which allows them to produce excess amounts of the oncogenic protein. The study, reported in the May 7 issue of the American Journal of Pathology, found ...

Enzymes could break down cell walls faster – leading to less expensive biofuels for transportation – if two enzyme systems are brought together in an industrial setting, new research by the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory suggests. A paper on the breakthrough, "Fungal Cellulases and Complexed Cellulosomal Enzymes Exhibit Synergistic Mechanisms in Cellulose Deconstruction," appears in the current edition of Energy and Environmental Science. Co-authors include five scientists from NREL and one from the Weizmann Institute in Israel. The Energy ...

Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have quantified the significant value that concentrating solar power (CSP) plants can add to an electric grid. The NREL researchers evaluated the operational impacts of CSP systems with thermal energy storage within the California electric grid managed by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO). NREL used a commercial production cost model called PLEXOS to help plan system expansion, to evaluate aspects of system reliability, and to estimate fuel cost, emissions, and ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It was a controversial move when a health insurer began requiring people who were obese to literally pay the price of not doing anything about their weight – but it worked, a new study finds. When people had to choose between paying up to 20 percent more for health insurance or exercising more, the majority of enrollees met fitness goals one step at a time via an Internet-tracked walking program, according to a joint study by the University of Michigan Health System and Stanford University. Researchers evaluated a group of people insured by Blue ...

A new study shows that pediatric nurse staffing ratios are significantly associated with hospital readmission for children with common medical and surgical conditions. The study, led by a nurse scientist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, is believed to be the first to examine the extent to which hospital nurse staffing levels are related to pediatric readmissions. Publication of the study comes just weeks after the introduction of federal legislation that would mandate nurse staffing ratios across the country. The study, published online in the journal ...

Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center say identifying and selecting participants for phase II cancer clinical trials from a centralized warehouse of patient-donated biological data expedites participant accrual, reduces trial size, saves money, and may speed test drugs through the drug development pipeline. Their study, which analyzed datasets from recent clinical trials conducted at Moffitt, was published online March 15 in Statistical Methods in Medical Research. Launched at Moffitt in 2005, Total Cancer Care® is a comprehensive approach to cancer that enables physicians, ...

Quantum mechanics, famously, is full of effects that defy our basic intuition. A fine example is the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect, which occurs when two light quanta (or, photons) arrive simultaneously at a so-called beam splitter. As its name implies, a beam splitter is a device that splits one beam of light into two, by transmitting one half of the impinging light and reflecting the other half. For a single quantum of light, a photon, this means that it has a 50-percent chance to appear on either side of the device. But when two photons arrive at the same time at the splitter, ...

CHESTNUT HILL, MA (May 8, 2013) Can you imagine a world where a subway ride becomes the highlight of your day? Where going to the laundromat isn't such a dreary duty? A recent study published in the Journal of Service Research found that our perception of certain services can drastically change with the right adjustments, and not everyone needs Mickey Mouse and daily parades to make their experience magical. German professors Fabian Uhrich, Jan H. Schumann, and Florian van Wangenheim conducted studies on amusement parks, public transportation, museums, and spas to evaluate ...