The flip of a single molecular switch helps create the mature neuronal connections that allow the brain to bridge the gap between adolescent impressionability and adult stability. Now Yale School of Medicine researchers have reversed the process, recreating a youthful brain that facilitated both learning and healing in the adult mouse. Scientists have long known that the young and old brains are very different. Adolescent brains are more malleable or plastic, which allows them to learn languages more quickly than adults and speeds recovery from brain injuries. The ...

Boston, MA – "Use it or lose it." The saying could apply especially to the brain when it comes to protecting against Alzheimer's disease. Previous studies have shown that keeping the mind active, exercising and social interactions may help delay the onset of dementia in Alzheimer's disease. Now, a new study led by Dennis Selkoe, MD, co-director of the Center for Neurologic Diseases in the BWH Department of Neurology, provides specific pre-clinical scientific evidence supporting the concept that prolonged and intensive stimulation by an enriched environment, especially ...

A region of the brain known to play a key role in visual and spatial processing has a parallel function: sorting visual information into categories, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Chicago. Primates are known to have a remarkable ability to place visual stimuli into familiar and meaningful categories, such as fruit or vegetables. They can also direct their spatial attention to different locations in a scene and make spatially-targeted movements, such as reaching. The study, published in the March issue of Neuron, shows that these very different ...

KLAS Enterprises celebrated 15 years of working with providers and vendors last night with their annual Best in KLAS awards reception in New Orleans. The event was attended by prominent healthcare leaders who came to support KLAS' ongoing effort to improve healthcare transparency. The speakers for the evening included Jonathan Bush, CEO of athenahealth, Peter Smith, CEO and Co-Founder of Impact Advisors, and keynote speaker Russell Branzell, CEO of Colorado Health Medical Group. Branzell focused most of his comments on praising KLAS for being the "go-to source for ...

With an average satisfaction score of 4.5 out of 5 on security, cloud users feel safe. Non-cloud users though remain at bay--particularly with many questions still looming around the future of cloud computing in healthcare. The KLAS report titled Cloud Computing Perception 2013: The Hybrid Cloud in Healthcare looks at the evolution of the cloud in healthcare, provider concerns, as well as vendor performance. Given the near-perfect satisfaction scores that cloud-users gave to their vendors, 66% of non-users surveyed said security was definitely the main issue stopping ...

Early diagnosis and treatment with antimalarial drugs (ACTs—artemisinin based combination treatments) has been linked to a reduction in malaria in the migrant population living on the Thai-Myanmar border, despite evidence of increasing resistance to ACTs in this location, according to a study by international researchers published in this week's PLOS Medicine. These findings are important as this study suggests that alternative treatments are urgently needed to replace the failing first line drug regimen (mefloquine and artesunate). The authors, led by François Nosten ...

Is it feasible to share research findings with HIV-infected participants enrolled in observational research in rural sub-Saharan African? Anna Baylor and colleagues orally disseminated their findings to 477 research participants during a meeting modelled on a traditional wedding event. The information was enthusiastically received by participants. The meeting was a rewarding experience for the research team and identified new areas for investigation, say the authors. ### Funding: The UARTO Study is funded by U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) RO-1 MH-54907 and ...

Although patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have a disproportionately higher incidence of herpes zoster (shingles), an analysis that included nearly 60,000 patients with RA and other inflammatory diseases found that those who initiated anti-tumor necrosis factor therapies were not at higher risk of herpes zoster compared with patients who initiated nonbiologic treatment regimens, according to a study appearing in the March 6 issue of JAMA. "For patients with rheumatoid arthritis, the risk of herpes zoster is elevated an additional 2- to 3-fold. The contribution ...

Detection of midwall fibrosis (the presence of scar tissue in the middle of the heart muscle wall) via magnetic resonance imaging among patients with nonischemic dilated cardiomyopathy (a condition affecting the heart muscle) was associated with an increased likelihood of death, according to a study appearing in the March 6 issue of JAMA. Nonischemic dilated cardiomyopathy is associated with significant illness and death due to progressive heart failure (HF) and sudden cardiac death (SCD). Despite therapeutic advances, 5-year mortality remains as high as 20 percent. ...

Among patients with coronary artery disease referred for cardiovascular magnetic resonance and found to have regional myocardial wall thinning (of the heart muscle), limited scar burden was associated with improved contraction of the heart and reversal of wall thinning after revascularization, suggesting that myocardial thinning is potentially reversible, according to a study appearing in the March 6 issue of JAMA. Regional myocardial wall thinning is thought to represent chronic myocardial infarction. "However, recent case reports incorporating the use of delayed-enhancement ...

A team of scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School have found that substances which give some foods their bitter flavors can also act to reverse the contraction of airway cells. This reversal, known as bronchodilation, is needed to treat airway obstructive diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The new findings, which could have significant implications for such treatments, are published March 5 in the open access journal PLOS Biology. The sense of taste is mediated by taste receptor cells bundled in our taste buds. These ...

(Boston) – In a Clinical Crossroads article featured in the March 6, 2013 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Dr. Dan Alford from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Center (BMC) suggests that prescription opioid abuse can be minimized by monitoring patients closely for harm by using urine drug testing (UDT), pill counts, and reviewing prescription drug monitoring program data when available. Approximately 100 million Americans have chronic pain. The safe and effective use of opioids for the management of chronic ...

Employees with disabilities are twice as likely to be attacked at work and they experience higher rates of insults, ridicule and intimidation, a new UK study has found. Researchers from Cardiff and Plymouth universities found that people with physical or psychological disabilities or long-term illness reported higher rates of 21 types of ill-treatment than other workers did, often from their managers and colleagues. These included being given impossible deadlines and being ignored, gossiped about or teased. The research, published in the journal Work, Employment ...

People who suffer from insomnia appear to have an increased risk of developing heart failure, according to the largest study to investigate the link. The study, which is published online today (Wednesday) in the European Heart Journal [1], followed 54,279 people between the ages of 20-89 for an average of more than 11 years, and found that those who suffered from three symptoms of insomnia had a more than three-fold increased risk of developing heart failure compared to those with no insomnia symptoms. Dr Lars Laugsand, a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Public ...

Well at least this is true for sugar gliders (Petaurus breviceps) and grey short-tailed opossums (Monodelphis domestica), finds an article in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology, and shows that handedness in marsupials is dependent on gender. This preference of one hand over another has developed despite the absence of a corpus collosum, the part of the brain which in placental mammals allows one half of the brain to communicate with the other. Many animals show a distinct preference for using one hand/paw/hoof over another. This is often related ...

Research suggests that there may be a better way of measuring blood loss due to trauma than the current method, finds an article in BioMed Central's open access journal Critical Care. The study shows that base deficit (BD) is a better indicator of hypovolemic shock than the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) classification, which uses a combination of heart rate, systolic blood pressure and the Glasgow Coma Scale. Using data from the TraumaRegister DGU® 16,305 patients injured between 2002 and 2010 were classified according to BD and then assessed for demographics, ...

A UC San Francisco team has developed a tool that can help determine – and perhaps influence – senior citizens' 10-year survivability rates. The simple checklist helps doctors assess health risks that influence the longevity of older adults, and according to the authors, could be an opportunity for seniors to really engage with their primary care provider in having informed discussions about their health care maintenance. The UCSF team created a 12-item "mortality index" based on data of more than 20,000 adults over the age of 50 from 1998 until 2008, from the Health ...

About Sabin Vaccine Institute Sabin Vaccine Institute is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization of scientists, researchers, and advocates dedicated to reducing needless human suffering caused by vaccine preventable and neglected tropical diseases. Sabin works with governments, leading public and private organizations, and academic institutions to provide solutions for some of the world's most pervasive health challenges. Since its founding in 1993 in honor of the oral polio vaccine developer, Dr. Albert B. Sabin, the Institute has been at the forefront of efforts to control, ...

Support services for people living with HIV will benefit from better information about prosecutions for the sexual transmission of HIV, according to a report released today by researchers from Sigma Research at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and Birkbeck, University of London. The study, called 'Keeping Confidence: HIV and the criminal law from service provider perspectives', explores how criminal prosecutions for HIV transmission in England and Wales are handled by those who deliver health and social care services for people with HIV. The researchers ...

The perpetration of homicide by people with mental disorders has received much attention, but their risk of being victims of homicide has rarely been examined. Yet such information may help develop more effective strategies for improving the safety and health of people with mental illness. So a team of researchers from Sweden and the USA assessed mental disorders and homicides across the entire population of Swedish adults between 2001 and 2008. Mental disorders were grouped into the following categories: substance use disorder; schizophrenia; mood disorders including ...

People with high blood pressure enrolled in a clinical pharmacist-led web-based monitoring program were more likely to lower their pressure to recommended level than people who did not use the program. The study was published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. The study, led by David J. Magid, M.D., M.P.H., at Kaiser Permanente Colorado in Denver, followed people who use the American Heart Association's Heart360 program. Heart360 is a free, online tool for tracking heart health where users can upload blood pressure ...

The mating success of male butterflies is often lower if they are inbred. But how do female butterflies know which males to avoid? New research reveals that inbred male butterflies produce significantly less sex pheromones, making them less attractive to females. The research was published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. If animals (and humans) breed with a relative their offspring will be inbred and more likely to have genetic disorders. Because of these disorders inbred males are often weaker and, for instance, less able to defend the nest or ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Scientists are using ever more complex models running on ever more powerful computers to simulate the earth's climate. But new research suggests that basic physics could offer a simpler and more meaningful way to model key elements of climate. The research, published in the journal Physical Review Letters, shows that a technique called direct statistical simulation does a good job of modeling fluid jets, fast-moving flows that form naturally in oceans and in the atmosphere. Brad Marston, professor of physics at Brown University and ...

ANN ARBOR—Researchers at the University of Michigan have found a new potential benefit of a molecule in green tea: preventing the misfolding of specific proteins in the brain. The aggregation of these proteins, called metal-associated amyloids, is associated with Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions. A paper published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences explained how U-M Life Sciences Institute faculty member Mi Hee Lim and an interdisciplinary team of researchers used green tea extract to control the generation of metal-associated ...

A screening tool from the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) eases and greatly quickens one of the thorniest tasks in the biofuels industry: determining cell wall chemistry to find plants with ideal genes. NREL's new High-Throughput Analytical Pyrolysis tool (HTAP) can thoroughly analyze hundreds of biomass samples a day and give an early look at the genotypes that are most worth pursuing. Analysis of a sample that previously took two weeks can now be done in two minutes. That is potentially game changing for tree nurseries and the ...