The most sensitive patch of mammalian skin known to us isn't human but on the star-shaped tip of the star-nosed mole's snout. Researchers studying this organ have found that the star has a higher proportion of touch-sensitive nerve endings than pain receptors, according to a study published January 30 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Diana Bautista and colleagues from the University of California, Berkeley and Vanderbilt University. Touch and pain are closely intertwined sensations, but very little is known about how these sensations are detected in our cells. In ...

VIDEO: This video shows the "dipping " technique performed by chimpanzee Ayumu. Note that he uses his mouth to insert the tube into the bottle. In form, his technique is identical to... Click here for more information. Chimps can learn more efficient ways to use a tool by watching what others do, according to research published January 30 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Shinya Yamamoto and colleagues from Kyoto University and Kent University, UK. Their study ...

A cluster of tapeworm eggs discovered in 270-million-year-old fossilized shark feces suggests that intestinal parasites in vertebrates are much older than previously known, according to research published January 30 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Paula Dentzien-Dias and colleagues from the Federal University of Rio Grande, Brazil. Remains of such parasites in vertebrates from this era are rare- of 500 samples examined, only one revealed the tapeworm eggs. This particular discovery helps establish a timeline for the evolution of present-day parasitic tapeworms ...

Contact: Michelle Geis mgeis@burnesscommunications.com 301-280-5712 Contact: Susan Tonassi 301-280-5711 stonassi@burnesscommunications.com Pact invests US $109 million to secure critical genetic material, maintain global food production CGIAR consortium partners with global crop diversity trust to revitalize genebanks housing scores of crops considered essential to food security BONN, GERMANY (31 JANUARY 2013)—Concerned that inconsistent funding eventually could weaken a global network of seed banks at a time when farmers face unprecedented challenges, two ...

Scientists at the Forsyth have gained new insight on how Tuberculosis (TB) remains a global epidemic. Although drugs have been available to fight TB for 50 years, the disease still infects nearly 2.2 billion people worldwide and causes 1.7 million annual deaths. This is largely attributed to the bacteria's ability to stay dormant in the human body and later resurface as active disease. The Forsyth team, and its collaborators from Stanford University, has recently discovered that Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes TB, can lay dormant and thrive within ...

PHILADELPHIA - The increasing incidence of allergic skin diseases, and the accompanying economic burden and heightened risk of developing other allergic conditions, have spurred researchers to look for better ways to control these immune system-based disorders. Atopic dermatitis, more commonly called eczema, now affects 10 to 20 percent of children in the United States and direct health-care costs exceed $3 billion, according to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. What's more, up to 50 percent of children with atopic dermatitis ...

Big Data computation at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech reveals that over the past two decades funding agencies may have awarded millions and possibly billions of dollars to scientists who submitted the same grant request multiple times — and accepted duplicate funding. An analysis led by Harold R. Garner, a professor at Virginia Tech, not only indicates that millions in funding may have been granted and used inappropriately, it points to techniques to uncover existing instances of duplicate funding and ways to prevent it in the future. The analysis ...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Despite a substantial increase in the number of people suffering the debilitating and often deadly effects of heart failure, treatments for the condition have not advanced significantly for at least 10 years. An analysis by researchers at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine shows new breakthroughs could be closer than we thought. The analysis points to striking similarities between heart cells in patients with heart failure and brain cells in patients with Alzheimer's disease, raising the possibility that some treatment approaches being ...

A systematic review published today in The Cochrane Library finds that in well-nourished adults current evidence does not support selenium for preventing heart disease. The review suggests that taking selenium supplements does not reduce a person's risk of developing heart disease, although most evidence is currently limited to healthy American adults. Diet is a key factor influencing heart disease risk. Selenium is one dietary element that could potentially play a role in preventing heart disease by protecting against oxidative stress and inflammation. It is a common ...

Magnetic fields produced by the naturally occurring electrical currents in the brain could potentially be used as an objective test for schizophrenia and help to better understand the disease, according to new research published today. A team of researchers from Plymouth and Spain have used the non-invasive magnetoencephalogram (MEG) technique to find two spectral features that are significantly different in schizophrenia patients compared to healthy control subjects. Furthermore, they found that there were four spectral features in the brain signals of schizophrenia ...

Dementia patients may benefit from a promising new treatment called Cerebrolysin, according to the results of a systematic review published in The Cochrane Library. The authors brought together the most up-to-date evidence on Cerebrolysin as a treatment for vascular dementia. Vascular dementia is a common form of dementia caused by damage to the network of blood vessels supplying the brain. Some of the symptoms are similar to those associated with Alzheimer's disease and stroke but in particular those with vascular dementia often experience difficulty thinking quickly, ...

People with hepatitis C and chronic liver disease who relapsed or failed to respond to initial treatment are unlikely to improve on interferon retreatment. In fact, they may face an increased risk of dying sooner, and are likely to experience a variety of adverse effects, according to an updated systematic review published in The Cochrane Library. Hepatitis C affects around 170 million people worldwide. In some cases, infection leads to chronic liver disease, liver failure or liver cancer, eventually resulting in death. Treatment is based on antiviral drugs. Interferon ...

A diagnostic test for tuberculosis (TB) can accurately and quickly detect both TB and drug-resistant strains, according to a new study. The authors of a new systematic review assessing the diagnostic accuracy of the Xpert® MTB/RIF test published in The Cochrane Library say their study can provide timely advice for clinicians and policymakers in countries where TB is a major public health problem. Millions of people develop TB every year. Around 13% of cases occur in people living with HIV and more than a quarter of these people die as a result. Drug resistance is a major ...

Global warming from greenhouse gases affects rainfall patterns in the world differently than that from solar heating, according to a study by an international team of scientists in the January 31 issue of Nature. Using computer model simulations, the scientists, led by Jian Liu (Chinese Academy of Sciences) and Bin Wang (International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa), showed that global rainfall has increased less over the present-day warming period than during the Medieval Warm Period, even though temperatures are higher today than they were then. ...

STANFORD, Calif. - Tuberculosis is a devastating disease that kills nearly 2 million people worldwide each year. Although antibiotics exist that can ameliorate the symptoms, the courses of therapy last for months and don't completely eradicate the disease, which frequently recurs years or decades after the initial treatment. Now, in a classic case of bench-to-bedside research, scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered a possible reason for the disease's resistance: The ability of the tuberculosis bacteria to infiltrate and settle down in ...

The Idu-Mishmi community and Arunachal Pradesh appeared on the world map today for its greatest contribution in studying dormant Mycobacterium in TB that has affected nearly 4 billion people in the world and causing 1.9 million deaths yearly. In India, one person is dying of TB every 3 minutes. The study details and the contribution of Idu-Mishmis of Arunachal Pradesh and RIWATCH (Research Institute of World's Ancient Traditions Cultures and Heritage) in accomplishing the study has been duly acknowledged in a research paper published in a reputed journal 'Science Translational ...

PITTSBURGH, Jan. 30, 2012 –A novel head-to-head study looking at differences in how the antiretroviral (ARV) drug tenofovir gets absorbed in the body as either an oral tablet or a vaginal gel found tenofovir gel can achieve substantially higher concentrations of active drug in vaginal tissue than the oral tablet, suggesting that tenofovir gel should be highly effective in protecting women against HIV transmitted through vaginal sex. Yet, as unequivocal as the study's results may be, they have not been borne out in HIV prevention trials to date, leading the researchers to ...

Severely malnourished children are far more likely to recover and survive when given antibiotics along with a therapeutic peanut-based food than children who are simply treated with the therapeutic food alone, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found. "The findings are remarkable," says Indi Trehan, MD, lead author of the research, published Jan. 31 in The New England Journal of Medicine. "Based on previous research, we didn't think there would be much benefit from antibiotics. We did not at all expect to see a drop in the death ...

A first ever study of the range and habits of white-backed vultures across southern Africa shows that they often shun national parks, preferring to forage further afield on private farmland. This behaviour and their tendency to scavenge in groups, means that vultures risk encountering dead cattle that have been administered veterinary drugs that are poisonous to them, or even poisoned carcasses intended to control other carnivores such as jackals. The research, using Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite transmitters to track the movements of adolescent vultures, ...

Children whose mothers take the antiepileptic drug sodium valproate while pregnant are at significantly increased risk of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders, suggests a small study published online in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. The authors base their findings on children born to 528 pregnant women between 2000 and 2004 in the North West of England. Just fewer than half the mums (243) had epilepsy, all but 34 of whom took antiepileptic drugs during their pregnancy. Fifty nine mums took carbamazepine; 59 took valproate; 36 took lamotrigine; ...

Comforting a friend or relative in distress may be a more hard-wired behavior than previously thought, according to a new study of bonobos, which are great apes known for their empathy and close relation to humans and chimpanzees. This finding provides key evolutionary insight into how critical social skills may develop in humans. The results are published in the online journal PLOS ONE. Researchers from the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, observed juvenile bonobos at the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo engaging ...

The largest study of epilepsy in sub-Saharan Africa to date reveals that programmes to control parasitic diseases and access to better antenatal care could substantially reduce the prevalence of the disease in this region. Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological conditions worldwide and it is well known that it is significantly more prevalent in poorer countries and rural areas. The study of over half a million people in five countries of sub-Saharan Africa is the first to reveal the true extent of the problem and the impact of different risk factors. The ...

[The fox and the grapes: an Anglo-Irish perspective on conscientious objection to the supply of emergency hormonal contraception without prescription Online First doi 10.1136/medethics-2012-100975] Conscience clauses, which allow pharmacists to opt out of providing the "morning after pill" without a prescription, risk unwanted pregnancies and undermine the principle of universal healthcare in the NHS, say pharmacists in the Journal of Medical Ethics. These clauses should either be banned or enhanced so that pharmacists and patients know exactly where they stand, rather ...

PULLMAN, Wash.—Washington State University researchers have linked orchards and vineyards with a greater prevalence of West Nile virus in mosquitoes and the insects' ability to spread the virus to birds, horses and people. The finding, reported in the latest issue of the journal PLOS ONE, is the most finely scaled look at the interplay between land use and with the virus's activity in key hosts. By giving a more detailed description of how the disease moves across the landscape, it opens the door to management efforts that might bring the disease under control, says David ...

(Seattle, January 30, 2013) Researchers from Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason (BRI) have found that proteins in the IL-6 signaling pathway may be leveraged as novel biomarkers of multiple sclerosis (MS) to gauge disease activity and as a target for new therapies. The research, which investigated how several components involved in immune response differ between MS patient and control samples, was conducted by a team of researchers at BRI led by Dr. Jane Buckner in collaboration with Dr. Mariko Kita at Virginia Mason Medical Center and was published today in ...