Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, show that cholesterol metabolism is regulated by bacteria in the small intestine. These findings may be important for the development of new drugs for cardiovascular disease. It is well established that cholesterol is the major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Cholesterol – which is mainly synthesized in the body but also obtained from dietary sources – is converted to bile acids in the liver, which are then secreted into the intestine and either removed from the body or recycled back to ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Numerous websites are available to rate just about any service or product: restaurant food, hotel service and even a pediatrician's care. However, a new poll from the University of Michigan shows that only 25 percent of parents say they consider doctor rating websites very important in their search for a child's physician. But the latest University of Michigan Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health did show that younger parents, those under 30, were more likely to say that online doctor ratings are very important. And mothers were ...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Current national guidelines provide benchmarks regarding the number of END ...

Researchers from North Carolina State University have for the first time successfully coated polymer implants with a bioactive film. The discovery should improve the success rate of such implants – which are often used in spinal surgeries. The polymer used in these implants, called PEEK, does not bond well with bone or other tissues in the body. This can result in the implant rubbing against surrounding tissues, which can lead to medical complications and the need for additional surgeries. "We wanted to apply a bioactive coating that would allow the polymer implants ...

MANHATTAN, Kan. -- The more you sit, the higher your risk of chronic diseases. Kansas State University researcher Richard Rosenkranz, assistant professor of human nutrition, examined the associations of sitting time and chronic diseases in middle-aged Australian males in a study that is published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. Collaborators include University of Western Sydney researchers Emma George and Gregory Kolt. The study's sample included 63,048 males ages 45-65 from the Australian state of New South Wales. Study participants ...

VIDEO: In a video demonstration, a researcher asks the iCub robot to point to a guitar (shown in the form of blue object) then asking it to move a violin to... Click here for more information. This technological prowess was made possible by the development of a "simplified artificial brain" that reproduces certain types of so-called "recurrent" connections observed in the human brain. The artificial brain system enables the robot to learn, and subsequently understand, new sentences ...

Heart and cerebro-vascular disorders represent the two leading causes of death throughout the world. They are sometimes combined in a single patient and their combination represents both a considerable risk to the patient and a therapeutic challenge. Today's anti-thromobotic, blood-thinning medication provides effective treatment for coronary heart disease. Several randomised tests to assess new anti-thrombotic treatments in coronary patients have identified the fact that a history of stroke or TIA constitutes a marker for increased risk of intracranial bleeding that ...

Atherosclerosis is one of the commonest causes of death in modern societies. The condition is characterized by the build-up of fatty deposits called atherosclerotic plaques on the inner surfaces of arteries, which restrict, and may eventually cut off, blood flow. The deposits can also be dislodged from their site of origin and may then block major vessels in the heart or the brain, leading to life-threatening myocardial infarction or stroke. Monocytes, an important class of white blood cells, are known to contribute significantly to the development of atherosclerosis. ...

A study of eye movements in schizophrenia patients provides new evidence of impaired reading fluency in individuals with the mental illness. The findings, by researchers at McGill University in Montreal, could open avenues to earlier detection and intervention for people with the illness. While schizophrenia patients are known to have abnormalities in language and in eye movements, until recently reading ability was believed to be unaffected. That is because most previous studies examined reading in schizophrenia using single-word reading tests, the McGill researchers ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Therapy to ease stress, fatigue and other quality of life issues significantly improves patients' sense of well-being during cancer treatment, new Mayo Clinic research shows. Patients who kept to their standard routines showed a decline in quality-of-life measures, the study found. The findings are published this month in Cancer. Mayo cancer care specialists created a six-session program to address cognitive, physical, emotional, social and spiritual well-being. Each session includes physical therapy exercises to improve fatigue, discussions of topics ...

Animal scientists say a raw meat diet is a good source of protein for cats, but pet owners may need to supplement with other nutrients. In a new paper in the Journal of Animal Science, researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium analyzed the value of raw meat diets for cats and exotic felids. The researchers used several tests to evaluate the nutrients in meat from bison, cattle, horses and elk. To test how the different diets affected cats, the researchers collected blood serum and fecal samples from domestic ...

COLLEGE STATION, Feb. 18, 2013 — Imagine two steel springs identical in look and composition but that perform differently because each was tempered at a different rate. A team of researchers including a Texas A&M University molecular biologist has shown that concept — that the speed of creation affects performance — applies to how a protein they studied impacts an organism's circadian clock function. This discovery provides new insights into the significance of the genetic code for controlling the rates at which critically important proteins are synthesized, and could ...

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 18, 2013) — A study by a leading Alzheimer's researcher at the University of Kentucky provides new evidence that will help researchers home in on the molecular mechanisms involved in inflammation of the central nervous system (CNS) and aid drug-development strategies for treating inflammatory neurological diseases. The research was led by Linda Van Eldik, director of UK's Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, and included co-authors Bin Xing and Adam Bachstetter from the Van Eldik lab. The study demonstrated that the beta isoform of p38 mitogen-activated ...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Just the mention of H1N1 can conjure up images of long lines of people waiting to be vaccinated, news reports of the severity of the pandemic and the count of the number of people who perished from the 2009-10 outbreak. However, some positives are coming forward. Researchers at the University of Louisville have found variations within H1N1 patients who were hospitalized and identified those that most impacted patients. Their findings were published today (Feb. 18, 2013) on the PLOS ONE website. "While all of the variants that we uncovered hijacked ...

An expansion of collaborative projects involving Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá (FSFB), one of Colombia's premier health care institutions, and Johns Hopkins Medicine International (JHI) will continue for another 10 years under an agreement signed Feb. 18, 2013, in Baltimore, USA. The collaboration agreement detailing joint efforts in research and nursing, among other areas, was signed by Steven J. Thompson, chief executive officer of JHI, and Juan Pablo Uribe, chief executive officer of FSFB. "It is a privilege to have the opportunity to strengthen our collaboration with ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio—Though scientists have long believed that complex organic molecules couldn't survive fossilization, some 350-million-year-old remains of aquatic sea creatures uncovered in Ohio, Indiana, and Iowa have challenged that assumption. The spindly animals with feathery arms—called crinoids, but better known today by the plant-like name "sea lily"—appear to have been buried alive in storms during the Carboniferous Period, when North America was covered with vast inland seas. Buried quickly and isolated from the water above by layers of fine-grained sediment, their ...

This press release is available in French. Montreal, February 18, 2013 – In a large city like Montreal, public transit provides us with options for getting to work or school and back home again. In deciding to choose traffic jams over metro delays, or to pay for parking rather than buy a monthly pass, you weigh the pros, cons and costs of your options, and your mental calculations are more complicated than they may appear at first glance. In a paper recently published in The Journal of Transportation and Land Use, Zachary Patterson, an assistant professor in Concordia ...

CSIRO scientists have created a 'solar sponge' which captures and then releases carbon dioxide using the power of natural sunlight. The breakthrough presents a new way to recycle CO2 emissions using renewable energy. The 'sponge' which is made from a new smart material called a MOF - metal organic framework - adsorbs carbon dioxide, but when exposed to sunlight, instantaneously releases it. Known as dynamic photo-switching, this capture-and-release method is extremely energy efficient and only requires UV light to trigger the release of CO2 after it has been captured ...

MAYWOOD, Il. - A Loyola University Medical Center psychiatrist is proposing a new subspecialty to diagnose and treat patients who suffer both depression and heart disease. He's calling it "Psychocardiology." In his most recent study, Angelos Halaris, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that an inflammatory biomarker, interleukin-6, was significantly higher in the blood of 48 patients diagnosed with major depression than it was in 20 healthy controls. Interleukin-6 has been associated with cardiovascular disease. Halaris presented findings at a joint congress of the World Psychiatric ...

Misshapen cell nuclei are frequently observed in the cells of people with cancer and other diseases, but what causes the abnormality -- and why it is associated with certain disorders -- has remained unclear. Researchers at Northwestern University have recently developed a mathematical model that sheds light on the defect by clarifying the mechanisms that cause bulges known as "blebs" in cells' nuclear membranes. The research -- a collaboration between experts at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Feinberg School of Medicine -- could be a ...

International marine scientists today warned it will be vital to protect key marine turtle nesting grounds and areas that may be suitable for turtle nesting in the future to ensure that the marine reptiles have a better chance of withstanding climate change. A new study reveals that some turtle populations in the West Indian Ocean, Northeast Indian Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, East Atlantic Ocean and the East Pacific Ocean are among the least likely to recover from the impacts of climate change. Mariana_19feb_2 "To give marine turtles a better chance of coping with climate ...

Charlottesville, VA, February 19, 2013. Neurosurgeons from UC San Francisco describe the use of 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) fluorescence in guiding resection of recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Ingestion of 5-ALA by a patient before surgery leads to fluorescence of tumor cells intraoperatively in response to certain wavelengths of light. This can provide information not necessarily available through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the standard mode of imaging used to detect primary and recurrent GBMs. The additional information provided by 5-ALA fluorescence ...

Whales are mammals, but they don't look like the mammals living around us, as they have a triangular fluke for tail, no hind legs and no body hair. And inside their mouths, their teeth are unfamiliar too – being much simpler and 'peg like'. A multidisciplinary team of researchers have now married together the fossil record and the embryonic development process to investigate how the whale got its teeth. Most mammals have four kinds of teeth, each shaped for specific tasks. In most mammals there are wedge-shaped incisors, a pointy canine, and premolars and molars with ...

Stillbirth rates in First Nations and Inuit populations in Quebec are higher than in the general population, especially in late gestation and at term, found a new study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). "Aboriginal populations in Canada [First Nations and Inuit] rank at the top of the list of disadvantaged groups with the highest rates of stillbirth in the Western world," writes Dr. Nathalie Auger, Institut national de santé publique du Québec, with coauthors. Rates are 2 times those of the non-Aboriginal population. Researchers looked at data on 9983 ...

People with multiple illnesses are much more likely to be admitted to hospital unexpectedly, and mental health issues and economic hardship further increase the likelihood, according to a study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). "We provide strong evidence that physical multimorbidity substantially affects the use of acute hospital services, including admissions considered potentially preventable through management of optimal primary care," writes Dr. Rupert Payne, Cambridge Centre for Health Services Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom. ...