PITTSBURGH, Feb. 8, 2013 – Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and UPMC describe in PLoS ONE how an electrode array sitting on top of the brain enabled a 30-year-old paralyzed man to control the movement of a character on a computer screen in three dimensions with just his thoughts. It also enabled him to move a robot arm to touch a friend's hand for the first time in the seven years since he was injured in a motorcycle accident. With brain-computer interface (BCI) technology, the thoughts of Tim Hemmes, who sustained a spinal cord injury that ...

HOUSTON - Low-grade serous ovarian cancer is less common and aggressive than the high-grade variety, yet exceptionally difficult to treat when frontline therapy fails. "After surgery, with or without pre-surgical chemotherapy, when low-grade serous ovarian cancer persists or returns, chemotherapy and hormonal therapy are relatively ineffective," said David Gershenson, M.D., professor in The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Department of Gynecological Oncology and Reproductive Medicine. Response rates for treatment are measured in single digits. Gershenson ...

Highlights Compared with standard dialysis, frequent dialysis can cause complications related to repeated access to the blood. The findings provide valuable information for dialysis patients and their physicians. Approximately 2 million patients in the world receive dialysis treatments. Washington, DC (February 7, 2013) — Compared with standard dialysis, frequent dialysis can cause complications related to repeated access to the blood, requiring patients to undergo more repair procedures to the site through which blood is removed and returned, according to a study ...

Highlight Adding fruits and vegetables to the diet is an effective alternative to medication to reduce metabolic acidosis and kidney injury in late-stage chronic kidney disease. Metabolic acidosis is a common complication of kidney disease. Washington, DC (February 7, 2013) — Adding fruits and vegetables to the diet may help protect the kidneys of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) with too much acid build-up, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN). Western diets that are ...

An international team of researchers has reconstructed the common ancestor of placental mammals—an extremely diverse group including animals ranging from rodents to whales to humans—using the world's largest dataset of both genetic and physical traits. In research to be published in the journal Science, the scientists reveal that, contradictory to a commonly held theory, placental mammals did not diversify into their present-day lineages until after the extinction event that eliminated non-avian dinosaurs, and about 70 percent of all species on Earth, some 65 million years ...

The demise of the dinosaurs is the world's ultimate whodunit. Was it a comet or asteroid impact? Volcanic eruptions? Climate change? In an attempt to resolve the issue, scientists at the Berkeley Geochronology Center (BGC), the University of California, Berkeley, and universities in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have now determined the most precise dates yet for the dinosaur extinction 66 million years ago and for the well-known impact that occurred around the same time. The dates are so close, the researchers say, that they now believe the comet or asteroid, ...

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania…A groundbreaking six-year research collaboration has produced the most complete picture yet of the evolution of placental mammals, the group that includes humans. Placental mammals are the largest branch of the mammalian family tree, with more than 5,100 living species. Researchers from Carnegie Museum of Natural History are among the team of 23 that took part in this extensive interdisciplinary effort that utilizes molecular (DNA) and morphological (anatomy) data on an extraordinary scale. By combining these two types of data scientists reconstructed, ...

In a study that represents a potential cultural shift in how basic science research can be conducted, researchers from Harvard Medical School, Harvard Business School and London Business School have demonstrated that a crowdsourcing platform pioneered in the commercial sector can solve a complex biological problem more quickly than conventional approaches—and at a fraction of the cost. Partnering with TopCoder, a crowdsourcing platform with a global community of 450,000 algorithm specialists and software developers, researchers identified a program that can analyze ...

By identifying two genes required for transforming inorganic into organic mercury, which is far more toxic, scientists today have taken a significant step toward protecting human health. The question of how methylmercury, an organic form of mercury, is produced by natural processes in the environment has stumped scientists for decades, but a team led by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has solved the puzzle. Results of the study, published in the journal Science, provide the genetic basis for this process, known as microbial mercury methylation, and have far-reaching ...

A new report suggests that the concentration of one human cytokine, interleukin 7 (IL-7), in the semen of HIV-1-infected men may be a key determinant of the efficiency of HIV-1 transmission to an uninfected female partner. In their study published February 7 in the Open Access journal PLOS Pathogens, a research group from the Eunice Kennedy-Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) led by Leonid Margolis report that the increased IL-7 concentration in semen facilitates HIV transmission to cervical tissue ex vivo. Semen is a complex biological ...

A University of Toronto Scarborough researcher was part of a team that reconstructed the family tree of placental mammals – a diverse group that includes cats, dogs, horses and humans. The research traces placental mammals back to a small, scampering, insect-eating creature that got its start 200,000 years or more after the extinction of the dinosaurs. The work is featured in this week's Science magazine. Mary Silcox, assistant professor of anthropology at UTSC, is a co-author on the paper and the only Canadian member of the team. She was responsible for organizing the ...

A proof-of-concept device that could pave the way for on-chip optical quantum networks has been created by a group of researchers from the US. Presenting the device today, 8 February, in the Institute of Physics and German Physical Society's New Journal of Physics, it has been described as the "building block of future quantum networks." In an optical quantum network, information is carried between points by photons – the basic unit of light. There is a huge potential for this type of network in the field of quantum computing and could enable computers that are millions ...

The 11 March 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake (Mw9.0) produced the largest slip ever recorded in an earthquake, over 50 meters. Such huge fault movement on the shallow portion of the megathrust boundary came as a surprise to seismologists because this portion of the subduction zone was not thought to be accumulating stress prior to the earthquake. In a recently published study, scientists from the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) shed light on the stress state on the fault that controls the very large slip. The unexpectedly large fault displacements resulted in the devastating ...

The proteins that have now been identified shouldn't actually exist. Nevertheless, they build the core of cellular aggregates whose identity has been enigmatic until now. These aggregates are typically associated with hereditary neurodegenerative diseases including variants of frontotemporal dementia (FTD), also known as frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). They are likely to be damaging and might be a target for therapy. FTD and ALS are part of a group of neurodegenerative diseases that show a broad and overlapping variety ...

Work-related stress is not linked to the development of colorectal, lung, breast or prostate cancers, a study published today on bmj.com suggests. Around 90% of cancers are linked to environmental exposures and whilst some exposures are well recognised (such as UV radiation and tobacco smoke), others are not (psychological factors such as stress). Stress can cause chronic inflammation which has been shown to have various roles in the development of cancer, plus stressed individuals are more likely to smoke, consume excessive amounts of alcohol and be obese – all ...

Research: Long term effect of reduced pack sizes of paracetamol on poisoning deaths and liver transplant activity in England and Wales: interrupted time series analysis The number of deaths and liver transplants due to paracetamol overdoses has significantly reduced thanks to UK legislation to make pack sizes smaller, a paper published today on bmj.com suggests. Paracetamol overdoses are a common method of suicide and frequent cause of liver damage. In September 1998, a new legislation was introduced by the UK Government which restricted pack sizes to a maximum of ...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- An international team of scientists including University of Florida researchers has generated the most comprehensive tree of life to date on placental mammals, which are those bearing live young, including bats, rodents, whales and humans. Appearing Thursday in the journal Science, the study details how researchers used both genetic and physical traits to reconstruct the common ancestor of placental mammals, the creature that gave rise to many mammals alive today. The data show that contrary to a commonly held theory, the group diversified after ...

WASHINGON, D.C.—February 7, 2013—Today, The Lancet Infectious Diseases published a new report that examines the global economic burden of Chagas disease. In the first study of its kind, researchers measured the health and economic impact of Chagas disease and found that the total economic burden of Chagas disease matches or exceeds that of many more well-known diseases such as rotavirus, Lyme disease and cervical cancer. Chagas disease infects an estimated 10 million people worldwide, with most cases occurring in Latin America. It is a parasitic infection transmitted ...

New Haven, Conn.— A team of scientists anchored at Yale University has demonstrated a new, highly versatile approach for quickly assembling drug-like compounds, establishing a broad new route to drug discovery and medical treatment. They report their results in the journal Science on Feb 8. Drug molecules interact with their targets, such as proteins or enzymes, by attaching to them in a way that neutralizes the target's undesirable effects in the body. This is sometimes called the "lock-and-key" method. The new approach offers scientists far greater control over the ...

The cause of the fireworks seen in this Hubble image and video is hidden behind a dense disc and envelope of dust. However, astronomers think that the strobe effect is due to periodic interactions between two newly-formed stars that are gravitationally bound to each other. These two stars drag material inwards from a surrounding disc of gas and dust. Astronomers propose that the light flashes seen in this video are due to this material suddenly being dumped onto the growing stars as they near one another in their orbits, unleashing a blast of radiation. "The protostar ...

The scientific and ethical debate over the use of animals in medical research has raged for years, but perspectives are shifting, viewpoints are becoming more nuanced, and new initiatives are seeking alternatives to animal testing, according to a special report by The Hastings Center, "Animal Research Ethics: Evolving Views and Practices." The report is available on a new Web site, animalresearch.thehastingscenter.org, a hub of educational information that defines and interprets this changing landscape. These resources are the outcome of a project on the ethics of medical ...

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine say overexpression of a protein called alpha-synuclein appears to disrupt vital recycling processes in neurons, starting with the terminal extensions of neurons and working its way back to the cells' center, with the potential consequence of progressive degeneration and eventual cell death. The findings, published in the February 6, 2013 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, have major implications for more fully understanding the causes and mechanisms of Parkinson's disease (PD), a neurodegenerative ...

VIDEO: This video, created from a sequence of images from the Hubble Space Telescope, shows a pulse of light emanating from the protostellar object LRLL 54361. Most if not all of... Click here for more information. Two of NASA's great observatories, the Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes, have teamed up to uncover a mysterious infant star that behaves like a strobe light. Every 25.34 days, the object, designated LRLL 54361, unleashes a burst of light. Although a similar ...

A recent study of the amphibians and reptiles of Sierra Madre Mountain Range, northeastern Luzon, reveals a preliminary enumeration of more than 100 species that contribute to the unique biodiversity of the region. At present, the Luzon region's herpetological range stands at more than 150 species. Out of these, a total of 49 amphibian species have been documented, 44 of which are native and a remarkable 32 endemic. In the world of reptiles, Luzon can boast with 106 native species, 76 of which are unique to this region. The catalogue published in the open access journal ...

Tumourigenesis is driven by genetic alterations and by changes in the epigenome, for instance by the addition of methyl groups to cytosine bases in the DNA. A deeper understanding of the interaction between the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms is critical for the selection of tumour biomarkers and for the future development of therapies. Human tumour specimens and cell lines however contain a plethora of genetic and epigenetic changes, which complicate data analysis. In contrast, certain mouse tumour models contain only a single genetic mutation and allow the analysis ...