Two studies published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry identify genetic mutations that play important roles in the condition commonly referred to as startle disease. Startle disease is characterized by an exaggerated response to noise and touch, which can interfere with breathing, cause catastrophic falls and even result in death. The newly identified genetic mutations affect how the signaling molecule glycine, which is responsible for sending messages between nerve cells, is both moved around and used in these cells. Startle disease, or hyperekplexia, emerges ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. — The unemployment rate differences among white males, women and minorities have decreased during the past few decades in the United States, but persistent inequalities continue among the groups, according to a study by an economist at the University of Missouri. Understanding these hidden differences in employment could help educators and policy makers develop more effective programs aimed at reducing unemployment inequality. "The belief that Americans are achieving equal levels of unemployment is flawed," said Peter Mueser, professor of economics at MU ...

Montreal, August 7, 2012 – Although it may not seem like much, the small wooden figurine Grandma brought back from the Holy Land has been blessed. She gives the souvenir to her grandchildren knowing she has done her job: deliver God into their lives. A recent study led by Hillary Kaell, an associate professor in the Department of Religion at Concordia University, and published in the Journal of Material Culture looks at why and to whom people give souvenir gifts – an area of study that little is known about. For her research, she chose to focus on Christian American women, ...

New Rochelle, NY, August 7, 2012—The body's natural reaction to reject replacement proteins represents a major obstacle to the successful use of gene therapy to cure a range of life-threatening diseases. A novel method that uses the body's own immune cells to induce tolerance to a specific protein was shown to suppress the rejection response, as described in an article in Human Gene Therapy, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (http://www.liebertpub.com). The article is available free online at the Human Gene Therapy (http://www.liebertpub.com/hum) website. "A ...

PHILADELPHIA – Bioengineered replacements for tendons, ligaments, the meniscus of the knee, and other tissues require re-creation of the exquisite architecture of these tissues in three dimensions. These fibrous, collagen-based tissues located throughout the body have an ordered structure that gives them their robust ability to bear extreme mechanical loading. Many labs have been designing treatments for ACL and meniscus tears of the knee, rotator cuff injuries, and Achilles tendon ruptures for patients ranging from the weekend warrior to the elite Olympian. One popular ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — California's hydropower is vulnerable to climate change, a University of California, Riverside scientist has advised policymakers in "Our Changing Climate," a report released July 31 by the California Natural Resources Agency and the California Energy Commission (CEC). "Climate change is expected to affect the quantity and timing of water flow in the state," explained Kaveh Madani, a former postdoctoral research scholar in UC Riverside's Water Science and Policy Center (WSPC), who led a research project on climate change effects on hydropower production, ...

1. Tuning into Contextual Clues May Help Doctors Improve Antibiotic Prescribing Habits Appropriate use of antibiotics can improve patient outcomes and reduce risk for antibiotic resistance. Febrile respiratory illnesses, or FRI, often present with vague, cold-like symptoms, making it difficult to discern whether the illness is viral or bacterial. Since there are few bedside clues that reliably distinguish viral from bacterial, physicians rely on contextual factors to aid treatment decisions. Contextual factors include epidemiology (for example, flu pandemic period) and ...

MINNEAPOLIS – Fainting has a strong genetic predisposition, according to new research published in the August 7, 2012, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Fainting, also called vasovagal syncope, is a brief loss of consciousness when your body reacts to certain triggers, such as emotional distress or the sight of blood. "The question of whether fainting is caused by genetic factors, environmental factors or a mixture of both has been the subject of debate," said study author Samuel F. Berkovic, MD, FRS, with the University ...

In the United States, clinicians are struggling to provide better and more affordable health care to more people—while keeping up with new scientific developments. The idea of a "learning health system" is one proposed solution for rapidly applying the best available scientific evidence in real-time clinical practice. In the August 7 Annals of Internal Medicine, a Group Health Cooperative team describes the experience of turning this intriguing concept into action. "In a learning health system, evidence and practice come together in a virtuous cycle, influencing each ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Two new studies offer insight into sex chromosome evolution by focusing on papaya, a multimillion dollar crop plant with a sexual problem (as far as growers are concerned) and a complicated past. The findings are described in two papers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research reveals that the papaya sex chromosomes have undergone dramatic changes in their short evolutionary histories (they are about 7 million years old; by comparison, human sex chromosomes began their evolution more than 167 million years ago). One of the ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — People living 700 to 900 years ago in Cahokia, a massive settlement near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, ritually used a caffeinated brew made from the leaves of a holly tree that grew hundreds of miles away, researchers report. The discovery – made by analyzing plant residues in pottery beakers from Cahokia and its surroundings – is the earliest known use of this "black drink" in North America. It pushes back the date by at least 500 years, and adds to the evidence that a broad cultural and trade network thrived in the Midwest ...

Hearing generic language to describe a category of people, such as "boys have short hair," can lead children to endorse a range of other stereotypes about the category, a study by researchers at New York University and Princeton University has found. Their research, which appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), also points to more effective methods to reduce stereotyping and prejudice. The study focused on "social essentialism," or the belief that certain social categories, such as race or gender, mark fundamentally distinct kinds of people. ...

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—August 6, 2012— Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have discovered that an FDA-approved anti-epileptic drug reverses memory loss and alleviates other Alzheimer's-related impairments in an animal model of the disease. Scientists in the laboratory of Lennart Mucke, MD, who directs neurological research at Gladstone, conducted the research on mice genetically modified to simulate key aspects of Alzheimer's disease. In the study, they show how levetiracetam—a drug commonly prescribed for patients who suffer from epilepsy—suppresses abnormal brain activity ...

VIDEO: Harry Ostrer, M.D., discusses how his research into a new genetic analysis focusing on Jews from North Africa has provided an overall genetic map of the Jewish Diasporas. Dr.... Click here for more information. August 6, 2012 — (Bronx, NY) — A new genetic analysis focusing on Jews from North Africa has provided an overall genetic map of the Jewish Diasporas. The findings support the historical record of Middle Eastern Jews settling in North Africa during Classical Antiquity, ...

Specially designed comprehensive behavioral therapy is more effective than sessions offering patient support and education in helping adults with Tourette syndrome manage their tics – sudden, repetitive motions or vocalizations – according to a study in the August issue of Archives of General Psychiatry. The findings come from a team of investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)/Harvard Medical School, Yale University, the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and other institutions. "The program we tested, which teaches patients new ways ...

CHICAGO – Weight training was linked with a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes in a study of male health professionals, and those men who engaged in weight training and aerobic exercise for at least 150 minutes a week had the greatest reduction in risk, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication. Regular physical activity is a cornerstone in the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), but the role of weight training in the primary prevention of the disease is largely unknown, according to ...

CHICAGO – Higher levels of physical activity were related to lower risk of death in patients with diabetes, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication. Increased physical activity (PA) has long been considered a key element in diabetes management. Patients with diabetes are at higher risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and premature death, so researchers note it is important to determine whether PA can produce similar beneficial effects in this high-risk population. While other studies have suggested that ...

Boston, MA – Men who do weight training regularly—for example, for 30 minutes per day, five days per week—may be able to reduce their risk of type 2 diabetes by up to 34%, according to a new study by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and University of Southern Denmark researchers. And if they combine weight training and aerobic exercise, such as brisk walking or running, they may be able to reduce their risk even further—up to 59%. This is the first study to examine the role of weight training in the prevention of type 2 diabetes. The results suggest that, because ...

CHICAGO – The odds of undergoing cranial computed tomography (CT) among children with minor blunt head trauma who were at higher risk for clinically important traumatic brain injury did not appear to differ by race/ethnicity in a secondary analysis of a study of injured children, according to a report in the August issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, a JAMA Network publication. However, there may have been differences for children at intermediate or lowest risk. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of pediatric illness and death in the U.S., ...

CHICAGO – Treatment with growth hormone-releasing hormone appears to be associated with favorable cognitive effects among both adults with mild cognitive impairment and healthy older adults, according to a randomized clinical trial published Online First by Archives of Neurology, a JAMA Network publication. "Growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH), growth hormone and insulinlike growth factor 1 have potent effects on brain function, their levels decrease with advancing age, and they likely play a role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease," the authors write as background ...

CHICAGO – Patients with hoarding disorder exhibited abnormal activity in regions of the brain that was stimulus dependent when deciding what to do with objects that did or did not belong to them, according to a report in the August issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, a JAMA Network publication. Hoarding disorder (HD) is defined as the excessive collection of objects and an inability to discard them. It is characterized by marked avoidance of decisions about possessions, according to the study background. David F. Tolin, Ph.D., of the Institute of Living, Hartford, ...

White children are more likely to receive cranial (head) CT scans in an emergency department following minor head trauma, compared with African-American or Hispanic children, a study published by researchers at UC Davis has found. The study findings do not indicate that CT (computed tomography) scans are underused in African-American and Hispanic children. Rather, the researchers suggested that white children may receive too many CT scans and thus may be exposed to unnecessary radiation. The results are online and appear in the August issue of the Archives of Pediatrics ...

Just as differences in song can be used to distinguish one bird species from another, the pips and squeaks bats use to find prey can be used to identify different species of bat. Now, for the first time, ecologists have developed a Europe-wide tool capable of identifying bats from their echolocation calls. The new free online tool – iBatsID – will be a major boost to conserving bats, whose numbers have declined significantly across Europe over the past 50 years. Details are published today in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology. Working with ...

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 6 , 2012) — University of Kentucky researchers, led by Dr. Jayakrishna Ambati, have made an exciting finding in the "dry" form of age-related macular degeneration known as geographic atrophy (GA). GA is an untreatable condition that causes blindness in millions of individuals due to death of retinal pigmented epithelial cells. The paper, "ERK1/2 Activation is a Therapeutic Target in Age-Related Macular Degeneration" appears in the current online issue of the premier journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Ambati, professor of physiology, ...

Despite advances in health care and increases in life expectancy overall, Americans with less than a high school education have life expectancies similar to adults in the 1950s and 1960s. "The most highly educated white men live about 14 years longer than the least educated black men," says S. Jay Olshansky, professor of epidemiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health and lead author of the study. "The least educated black women live about 10 years less than the most educated white women." The research, funded by The MacArthur Foundation ...