Biologists at UC San Diego have discovered that electrical oscillations in the brain, long thought to play a role in organizing cognitive functions such as memory, are critically important for the brain to store the information that allows us to navigate through our physical environment. The scientists report in the April 29 issue of the journal Science that neurons called "grid cells" that create maps of the external environment in one portion of our brain require precisely timed electrical oscillations in order to function properly from another part of the brain that ...

What Medicare would pay for and where a radiation oncologist practiced were two factors that strongly influenced the choice of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for treating breast cancer, according to an article published April 29 online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The use of IMRT and the cost of radiation therapy increased sharply over the period of the study. IMRT is a radiation delivery technique that modulates the radiation beams to conform to the shape of the tumor or tumor bed in an attempt to maximize the dose of radiation to the ...

Researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and their colleagues have discovered that massive, swirling ocean eddies—known to be up to 500 kilometers across at the surface—can reach all the way to the ocean bottom at mid-ocean ridges, some 2,500 meters deep, transporting tiny sea creatures, chemicals, and heat from hydrothermal vents over large distances. The previously unknown deep-sea phenomenon, reported in the April 28 issue of the journal Science, helps explain how some larvae travel huge distances from one vent area to another, said Diane K. Adams, ...

FINDINGS: Whitehead Institute scientists report that two proteins once thought to have only supporting roles, are the true "stars" of the kinetochore assembly process in human cells. RELEVANCE: The kinetochore is vital to proper DNA distribution during cell division. This finding suggests that scientists may be able to stimulate kinetochore assembly in a process that could lead to new genetic research tools, such as efficient creation of artificial human chromosomes. Widespread use of artificial human chromosomes has been thwarted by scientists' current inability to ...

Call it a mystery with a stubby tail: an odd-looking mouse discovered through a U.S. government breeding program in the 1940s that had a short, kinky tail and an extra set of ribs in its neck – and nobody knew why. A team of scientists led by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco has now spilled the genetic secrets of this mutant rodent. In doing so, they may have uncovered a new wrinkle in the genetic code – an entirely unrecognized way our bodies regulate how genes are expressed in different tissues throughout life. This discovery has broad implications ...

An international team of astronomers today revealed details of a "super-exotic" exoplanet that would make the planet Pandora in the movie Avatar pale in comparison. The planet, named 55 Cancri e, is 60 per cent larger in diameter than Earth but eight times as massive. Twice as dense as Earth – almost as dense as lead – it is the densest solid planet known, according to a team led by astronomers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of British Columbia (UBC), the Harvard‑Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the University of California ...

One of the ocean currents which particularly interests oceanographers and climatologists is the Gulf Stream. This current, originating in the Gulf of Mexico, transports enormous amounts of warm tropical waters to the North Atlantic and is the cause of Europe's habitable climate. Climate predictions point to the fact that this will change in the future and affect especially the climate in countries of the Mediterranean region, with more dry spells. As global warming progresses, the North Atlantic will receive more precipitation and a greater amount of water from the melting ...

Fish and marine species are among the most threatened wildlife on earth, due partly to over exploitation by fishing fleets. Yet there are differences in assessing trends in worldwide fishing stocks which, researchers writing in Conservation Biology argue, stem from inappropriate use of time trends in catches. "Estimates of fishery status based on catches suggest that around 30% of fisheries are collapsed and 70% are overexploited or collapsed," said lead author Dr Trevor Branch from the University of Washington in Seattle. "Our assessment shows that the data are seriously ...

People with rare diseases have the same right to high-quality health care in line with current medical knowledge as other patients do. However, relevant and reliable clinical studies on rare diseases are often lacking. Among other things, this makes the development of corresponding guidelines more difficult, but precisely such guidelines could help improve treatment quality. The German Federal Ministry of Health therefore commissioned the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) to answer the following question: What methodological approaches are used ...

Neural tube defects in neonates are common in Germany compared with the rest of Europe. Extensive folic acid fortification of foods in Germany might prevent these in 85-100% of cases, Wolfgang Herrmann and Rima Obeid argue in this issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2011; 108[15]; 249-54). A woman's folic acid intake before and during early pregnancy ensures that the fetus does not develop the neural tube defect commonly known as spina bifida. Every year, 800 pregnancies in Germany are diagnosed with a neural tube defect. Most of those pregnancies ...

Montreal, April 28, 2011 – A program which combines interval training and healthy eating practices seems to be perfectly indicated for those suffering from obesity, according to the results of a new study from the Montreal Hearth Institute's centre for preventive medicine and physical activity (ÉPIC Centre). Results of the study were announced at the National Obesity Summit, currently taking place in Montreal. Within the framework of this study, researchers analyzed the track record of 62 participants in Kilo-Actif, a 9-month program intended for obesity sufferers that ...

DETROIT – A new Henry Ford Hospital study takes a closer look at one of the lesser known, but potential most serious side-effects of ACE inhibitor use – facial, tongue and airway swelling – and identifies a successful and less invasive course of treatment. Using a treatment protocol developed by Henry Ford, patients' symptoms were quickly diagnosed and promptly treated to reduce swelling, resulting in no tracheotomies to open the airway or reported deaths, says study author Samer Al-Khudari, M.D. "This side-effect is rare, but when it happens, it can be anxiety-provoking ...

A new study shows for the first time that monkeys can recall and reproduce simple shapes from memory. Identifying this recall ability is critical to our understanding of the evolution of memory and other cognitive abilities, and it could be applied to better diagnosing and treating memory impairments in humans. The finding by Emory University psychologists and Yerkes National Primate Research Center researchers Ben Basile and Robert Hampton was published today (April 28) in the journal Current Biology. The psychologists developed a computer touchscreen method to test ...

Stronger and tougher body armor to shield the chest, abdomen and back may be just what soldiers fighting in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars need to better protect their brains from mild injuries tied to so-called "shell shock," results of a Johns Hopkins study in mice suggest. Such mild trauma, resulting from the initial shock of exploding mines, grenades and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) now accounts for more than 80 percent of all brain injuries among U.S. troops. Some 160,000 American veteran men and women are estimated to have sustained this kind of trauma. "Protecting ...

INDIANAPOLIS – The largest study of its type has found that neither vitamin E, which is an antioxidant, nor the diabetes drug metformin, successfully reduced liver enzymes in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in children or teens, according to a paper published in the April 27, 2011 issue of Journal of the American Medical Association. The study also found that in patients with a severe type of fatty liver disease, a biopsy of the liver showed improvement in the injury pattern with vitamin E therapy. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is the most common cause of chronic ...

University of Granada researchers have proven that melatonin –a natural hormone produced by the body– helps in controlling weight gain –even without reducing the intake of food–, improves blood lipid profile –as it reduces triglicerids–, increases HDL cholesterol and reduces LDL cholesterol. Melatonin is found in small quantities in some fruits and vegetables as mustard, Goji berries, almonds, sunflower seeds, cardamom, fennel, coriander and cherries. Thus, the intake of this kind of food might help in controlling weight gain and preventing heart diseases associated to ...

(WASHINGTON, April 28, 2011) – Researchers have developed an effective technique that uses gene therapy on stem cells to correct chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) in cell culture, which could eventually serve as a treatment for this rare, inherited immune disorder, according to a study published in Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology. CGD prevents neutrophils, a type of white blood cell of the immune system, from making hydrogen peroxide, an essential defense against life-threatening bacterial and fungal infections. Most cases of CGD are a result ...

TORONTO, On – April 28, 2011 – Immigrants living less than five years in Canada are less likely than their Canadian-born counterparts to have premature babies regardless of where they live, according to a new study by St. Michael's Hospital. "Living in poor neighbourhoods has been linked with poor health outcomes, but this study shows that this is not always the case for new Canadians," says Dr. Marcelo Urquia, epidemiologist at the Centre for Research on Inner City Health at St. Michael's Hospital. "For new immigrants, while they have an advantage on avoiding premature ...

Researchers at the Center for Translational Social Neuroscience (CTSN) at Emory University are focusing on prairie voles as a new model to screen the effectiveness of drugs to treat autism. They are starting with D-cycloserine, a drug Emory researchers have shown enhances behavioral therapy for phobias and also promotes pair bonding among prairie voles. Giving female voles D-cycloserine, which is thought to facilitate learning and memory, can encourage them to bond with a new male more quickly than usual. The results are published online and will appear in a future ...

WASHINGTON — Structural Integrity of Offshore Wind Turbines: Oversight of Design, Fabrication, and Installation, a new report from the National Research Council's Transportation Research Board, examines standards and practices that could be used to design U.S. offshore wind installations. In order to develop offshore wind energy in the United States, a clear set of requirements is needed, the report says. As the U.S. currently lacks standards, the committee that wrote the report recommends that the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, ...

At the end of a long day on the job, the warehouse employee wants to deposit the last palettes quickly before heading home. With a little too much momentum he steers his forklift toward the shelf and collides with a shelf support. This is an every- day situation in large warehouses in which employees often have to maneuver goods through the narrow aisles, often under time pressure. Even harmless-seeming collisions are not really safe though, because over time they may in fact destabilize the shelf supports. In the worst case, the high-rack storage can come crashing down ...

Researchers are reporting results from the first year of a two-year clinical trial that Avastin, a drug approved to treat some cancers and that is commonly used off-label to treat age-related macular degeneration (AMD), is as effective as the Food and Drug Administration-approved drug Lucentis for the treatment of AMD. The report, from the Comparison of AMD Treatments Trials (CATT), was published online in the New England Journal of Medicine on Sunday, May 1, 2011. CATT is funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI), a part of the National Institutes of Health. "Over ...

Only when you are standing beside a wind turbine can you appreciate the immense size of the wind turbine and its rotor blades. The largest wind turbines operating in the world today have rotor blades over 60 meters long – roughly equivalent to three truck-and-trailer units end-to-end. Within the next ten years, manufacturers of high-output wind turbines for offshore wind farms plan to produce blades up to 90 meters long. The prototypes of these new blades have to be tested and certified before they can go into production, and that requires equally as large testing facilities. The ...

A year after the BP explosion and oil spill, those trying to find someone to blame are misguided, says psychological scientist E. Scott Geller, Alumni Distinguished professor at Virginia Tech, and author of a new paper published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Geller has spent much of his 42-year career developing interventions to keep people safe, particularly helping companies develop a culture that promotes occupational safety. There's almost never one person to blame for an injury; instead, companies ...

Nanoparticles will soon be used as tiny shuttles to deliver genes to cells and drugs to tumors in a more targeted way than was possible in the past. But as the scientists prepare to use the nanoparticles in medicine, concerns have arisen about their potential toxicity. Studies of both the applications of nanoparticles and their toxicity rely on the ability of scientists to quantify the interaction between the nanoparticles and cells, particularly the uptake (ingestion) of nanoparticles by cells. In the standard laboratory tests of the biological activity of nanoparticles, ...