For all those who have wondered where they'd be without their mothers, a study reported in the February Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication, puts a whole new spin on the question. Mice whose mothers pass along a mutant copy of a single imprinted gene can't keep themselves warm and die soon after leaving the comfort of the nest. The findings also reveal that the babies require a second round of heat-generating brown fat to survive. "When that second wave is delayed, it gets them in the end," said Anne Ferguson-Smith of the University of Cambridge. The findings ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Parkinson's disease researchers at the University at Buffalo have discovered how mutations in the parkin gene cause the disease, which afflicts at least 500,000 Americans and for which there is no cure. The results are published in the current issue of Nature Communications. The UB findings reveal potential new drug targets for the disease as well as a screening platform for discovering new treatments that might mimic the protective functions of parkin. UB has applied for patent protection on the screening platform. "This is the first time that human ...

The aviation accident attorneys at Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman are representing the families of the two men killed in Robinson Helicopter Company's first R66 crash which occurred on July 12, 2011 near Flandes, Colombia. Jose Ricardo Cabrera Killed in the crash, was the owner of the R66 aircraft, Juan Pablo Gaviria, former president of the Colombian Civil Air Patrol, and Jose Ricardo Cabrera, his dear friend and a skilled helicopter pilot. The R66 crashed shortly after take-off from Girardot Airport in Colombia. According to the National Transportation Safety ...

HOUSTON -- (Feb. 8, 2012) -- A protein kinase known as ROCK1 can exacerbate an important process called fission in the mitochondria, the power plants of cells, leading to diabetic kidney disease, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears online today in the journal Cell Metabolism. (ROCK1 stands for (Rho-associated coiled-coil containing protein kinase 1.) "We have shown the connection between ROCK1 and the progression to kidney disease through the effect of ROCK1 on the mitochondria," said Dr. Farhad R. Danesh, association professor ...

Visitors to Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol Building may have experienced a curious acoustic feature that allows a person to whisper softly at one side of the cavernous, half-domed room and for another on the other side to hear every syllable. Sound is whisked around the semi-circular perimeter of the room almost without flaw. The phenomenon is known as a whispering gallery. In a paper published in Nature Communications, a team of engineers at Stanford describes how it has created tiny hollow spheres of photovoltaic nanocrystalline-silicon and harnessed physics to do ...

While epilepsy surgery is a safe and effective intervention for seizure control, medical therapy remains the more prominent treatment option for those with epilepsy. However, a new 26-year study reveals that following epilepsy surgery, nearly half of participants were free of disabling seizures and 80% reported better quality of life than before surgery. Findings from this study—the largest long-term study to date—are now available in Epilepsia, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE). More than 50 million ...

### Additional authors on the study include: Elie Ghanem, MD and Bahar Adeli, BA, both with the Rothman Institute at Jefferson. About Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals (TJUH) are dedicated to excellence in patient care, patient safety and the quality of the healthcare experience. Consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report among the nation's top hospitals, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, established in 1825, has over 900 licensed acute care beds with major programs in a wide range of clinical specialties. ...

Patients who have their anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstructed by surgeons who have performed less than 60 surgeries are roughly four to five times more likely to undergo a subsequent ACL reconstruction, according to a study by researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery. The study also showed that participating in a subspecialty orthopedic fellowship-training program did not improve the learning curve of young surgeons performing ACL reconstructions. The research was presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, held Feb 7-11. "Conventional ...

Complex systems are prone to communication breakdowns, unless there is a concerted effort to properly share necessary information. Unfortunately, the failure to communicate is all too prevalent in the delivery of medical care. Dr. Peter Pronovost, a leading patient-safety experts at Johns Hopkins University, estimates diagnostic errors are responsible for the deaths of 40,000 to 80,000 hospitalized patients every year. That is a shockingly high number. With so many errors being made, injured people naturally turn to the legal system seeking proper compensation. And ...

Geneva, Switzerland: The first European Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) for the diagnosis and management of Wilson's disease are published today by the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) on the EASL website -- www.easl.eu.(1) Developed to assist physicians and healthcare providers in the clinical decision making process, the guidelines describe best practice for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with Wilson's disease -- a rare genetic(2) disorder that, if left untreated, is fatal. Approximately one in 30,000 people worldwide are affected ...

Stripping some mouth bacteria of their access key to gangs of other pathogenic oral bacteria could help prevent gum disease and tooth loss. The study, published in the journal Microbiology suggests that this bacterial access key could be a drug target for people who are at high risk of developing gum disease. Oral bacteria called Treponema denticola frequently gang up in communities with other pathogenic oral bacteria to produce destructive dental plaque. This plaque, made up of bacteria, saliva and food debris, is a major cause of bleeding gums and gum disease. Later ...

It appears that Arizona Governor Janet Brewer's attempt to block the imposition of Proposition 203 has come to an end. Last week, a Maricopa County judge dismissed the lawsuit that sought to block the portion of the law that allowed state-run marijuana dispensaries. According to a report by the Arizona Republic, Superior Court judge Richard Gama ruled that the state did not have any discretion in whether the voter-supported initiative could proceed. The law, named the Arizona Medicinal Marijuana Act (AMMA) legalizes marijuana use for people with chronic or debilitating ...

Respiratory tract infections, including pneumonia, are the most common cause of death in children under the age of five. In a study looking at children given standard antibiotic therapy, new research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine shows how zinc supplements drastically improved children's chances of surviving the infection. The increase in survival due to zinc (on top of antibiotics) was even greater for HIV infected children. In a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, 350 children, aged from six months to five years old, ...

An international team of scientists has demonstrated a revolutionary new way of magnetic recording which will allow information to be processed hundreds of times faster than by current hard drive technology. The researchers found they could record information using only heat - a previously unimaginable scenario. They believe this discovery will not only make future magnetic recording devices faster, but more energy-efficient too. The results of the research, which was led by the University of York's Department of Physics, are reported in the February edition of Nature ...

A surge of foreclosure filings over the past two months are threatening homeowners in Chicago. For almost a year foreclosures were on hold while mortgage companies sorted out the mess created by the robo-signing scandal. In November 2011, one in every 579 homes was in foreclosure, according to RealtyTrac, a company monitoring foreclosure properties. In Illinois alone, one in every 427 properties was in foreclosure in November 2011, placing it fourth in the nation in the number of foreclosures. Cook County had the highest number of foreclosures pending in the state at ...

Charlottesville, VA (February 7, 2012). Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center's VCU Massey Cancer Center and Harold F. Young Neurosurgical Center (Richmond, VA) and Old Dominion University (Norfolk, VA) have discovered that suppression of Wilms tumor 1 protein (WT1) results in downregulation of CD97 gene expression in three glioblastoma cell lines and reduces the characteristic invasiveness exhibited by glial tumor cells. This finding is announced in the article, "Novel report of expression and function of CD97 in malignant gliomas: correlation ...

Cleveland -- The use of padded headgear and gloves reduces the impact that fighters absorb from hits to the head, according to newly published research from Cleveland Clinic. In their biomechanics lab at Cleveland Clinic's Lutheran Hospital, the researchers replicated hook punches to the head using a crash test dummy and a pendulum. The impacts were measured under five padding configurations: without headgear or boxing gloves; with headgear and boxing gloves; with headgear but without boxing gloves; with boxing gloves but without headgear; and with mixed martial arts-style ...

Counties and parishes with a greater concentration of small, locally-owned businesses have healthier populations — with lower rates of mortality, obesity and diabetes — than do those that rely on large companies with "absentee" owners, according to a national study by sociologists at LSU and Baylor University. "What stands out about this research is that we often think of the economic benefits and job growth that small business generates, but we don't think of the social benefits to small communities," said Troy C. Blanchard, Ph.D., lead author and associate professor ...

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Treatments for Parkinson's disease, estimated to affect 1 million Americans, have yet to prove effective in slowing the progression of the debilitating disease. However, University of Alabama researchers have identified how a specific gene protects dopamine-producing neurons from dying in both animal models and in cultures of human neurons, according to a scientific article publishing in the Feb. 8 edition of The Journal of Neuroscience. This increased understanding of the gene's neuro-protective capability is, the researchers said, another step toward ...

Foam forming technology gives exciting opportunities to develop new recyclable and light weight wood fiber products. It also gives a possibility to decrease raw material and production costs remarkably compared to recent technology. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, together with industry has started setting up a new pilot scale technology platform for foam forming applications. With foam forming technology it is possible to improve paper properties and enable to manufacture high porosity, smooth and light weight products (e.g. hygiene products, insulation materials ...

Philadelphia, PA, February 7, 2012 – With no lab tests to guide the clinician, psychiatric diagnostics is challenging and controversial. Antisocial personality disorder is defined as "a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood," according to the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) of the American Psychiatric Association. DSM-IV provides formal diagnostic criteria for every psychiatric disorder. This process may be ...

On January 24, 2012, Congress was scheduled to vote on whether to debate two controversial bills regarding Internet privacy and intellectual property. The Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) were meant to limit online piracy and stem copyright infringement. However, they were met with fervent opposition from civil liberties advocates, privacy groups, online search engines and millions of consumers. Congressional offices were swamped with phone calls, letters and emails calling for legislators not to support the bill. In fact, ...

The fingers on the outside – i.e. the thumb and little finger - therefore react faster than the middle finger, which is exposed to the "cross fire" of two neighbours on each side. Through targeted learning, this speed handicap can be compensated. The working group led by PD Dr. Hubert Dinse (Neural Plasticity Lab at the Institute for Neuroral Computation) report in the current issue of PNAS. Thumb and little finger are the quickest The researchers set subjects a simple task to measure the speed of decision: they showed them an image on a monitor that represented all ...

A green thumb is required where plants are to grow abundantly – that also applies to watering them in dry areas. If they are watered too much, then the soil becomes saline; if the plants receive too little moisture, they let their leaves droop and, in the worst case, they wither. In the future, sensors in the soil, a central unit and an associated app will supplement the green thumb: one look at the smart phone and the farmer will know what moisture content the soil has. Which plants need water, which do not? If the plants get too dry, the farmer is alerted by SMS; the ...

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new technique that allows graphics processing units (GPUs) and central processing units (CPUs) on a single chip to collaborate – boosting processor performance by an average of more than 20 percent. "Chip manufacturers are now creating processors that have a 'fused architecture,' meaning that they include CPUs and GPUs on a single chip," says Dr. Huiyang Zhou, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering who co-authored a paper on the research. "This approach decreases manufacturing costs ...