Fresh insight into the survival strategy of the parasite that causes sleeping sickness could help inform new treatments for the disease. Scientists have found that the parasite, which can transform itself into either of two physical forms, has developed a careful balance between these. One of these types ensures infection in the bloodstream of a victim, and the other type is taken up by the tsetse fly and spread to another person or animal. The parasite maintains a trade-off between maintaining enough parasites to beat off the immune response and cause infection, and ...

The positive effects of mindfulness meditation on pain and working memory may result from an improved ability to regulate a crucial brain wave called the alpha rhythm. This rhythm is thought to "turn down the volume" on distracting information, which suggests that a key value of meditation may be helping the brain deal with an often-overstimulating world. Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology report that modulation of the alpha rhythm in response to attention-directing cues was faster ...

Church attendance in western democracies has declined; yet, a new University of Missouri study shows religious beliefs still influence people at the polls. Chris Raymond, a graduate instructor of political science in the MU College of Arts and Science, said that many political experts consider voters around the world as "floating without party loyalties," and that religion does not influence voters. Raymond's new study says religion still has a large impact on how people vote and helps define many of the platforms represented in the party system. In the study, Raymond ...

ANN ARBOR, MICH. -- A Data and Safety Monitoring Committee (DSMC) has determined that patients in a phase III clinical trial given atrasentan in addition to a standard chemotherapy regimen for advanced prostate cancer did not have longer survival or longer progression-free survival than patients on the same chemotherapy regimen who got a placebo rather than atrasentan. Almost 1,000 patients who had advanced, hormone-refractory prostate cancer were given up to 36 weeks of chemotherapy with docetaxel and prednisone. These patients were randomized so that one half got an ...

Acupuncture provides long-lasting relief to hot flashes, heart palpitations and anxiety due to side effects of the hormone given to counteract testosterone, the hormone that induces prostate cancer, according to a study published in the April issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology•Biology•Physics, an official journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). The main treatments for men with metastatic prostate cancer are either surgery or hormone therapy to significantly reduce the level of testosterone in the body. Eliminating testosterone ...

A discovery by Johns Hopkins scientists about how a single-celled fungus survives in low-oxygen settings may someday help humans whose immune systems are compromised by organ transplants or AIDS. A report on the discovery in a yeast called Schizosaccharomyces pombe appears April 22 in Molecular Cell. Previous work by the Hopkins team showed that Schizosaccharomyces pombe, a model organism that's often used to study individual genes, contains a protein named Sre1 that allows the organism to adapt to conditions in which oxygen is very low or missing altogether. To find ...

Berkeley, CA– New research by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory finds strong evidence that homes with solar photovoltaic (PV) systems sell for a premium over homes without solar systems. "We find compelling evidence that solar PV systems in California have boosted home sales prices," says the lead author Ben Hoen, a researcher at Berkeley Lab. "These average sales price premiums appear to be comparable with the average investment that homeowners have made to install PV systems in California, and of course homeowners also benefit ...

April 21, 2011 − (BRONX, NY) − Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have for the first time observed the activity of a single gene in living cells. In an unprecedented study, published in the April 22 online edition of Science, Einstein scientists were able to follow, in real time, the process of gene transcription, which occurs when a gene converts its DNA information into molecules of messenger RNA (mRNA) that go on to make the protein coded by the gene. Robert Singer, Ph.D., co-director of the Gruss Lipper Biophotonics ...

According to a new study, severely obese adolescents are no more likely to be depressed than normal weight peers. The study, which has been released online in the Journal of Adolescent Health, did find that white adolescents may be somewhat more vulnerable to psychological effects of obesity. This three-year study – performed by researchers from the Center for Child and Adolescent Health Policy at MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHfC) and the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at Tufts Medical School – analyzed the relationship between severe obesity ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- In the arid Namib Desert on the west coast of Africa, one type of beetle has found a distinctive way of surviving. When the morning fog rolls in, the Stenocara gracilipes species, also known as the Namib Beetle, collects water droplets on its bumpy back, then lets the moisture roll down into its mouth, allowing it to drink in an area devoid of flowing water. What nature has developed, Shreerang Chhatre wants to refine, to help the world's poor. Chhatre is an engineer and aspiring entrepreneur at MIT who works on fog harvesting, the deployment of devices ...

Scientists at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow are developing a technique based on a new discovery which could pave the way towards detecting Alzheimer's disease in its earliest stages - and could help to develop urgently-needed treatments. The technique uses the ratio of detected fluorescence signals to indicate that clusters of peptide associated with the disease are beginning to gather and to have an impact on the brain. Current techniques are not able to see the peptide joining together until more advanced stages but a research paper from Strathclyde describes ...

A better understanding of corrosion resistance may be possible using a data-mining tool, according to Penn State material scientists. This tool may also aid research in other areas where massive amounts of information exist. In data mining -- a branch of computer science -- computer programs categorize large amounts of data so they become more useful. Different types of data-mining programs can find correlations between data on specific subjects, or in different areas of a single subject. Data mining finds similarities and differences among data parameters that frequently, ...

Online retailer HMV reveals the most popular gadgets, CDs, DVDs and video game titles available for pre-order and release during April through their online store at hmv.com. Movies The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest DVD - Release date: 4th April 2011 The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest is the explosive final installment of Stieg Larsson's trilogy which began with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Leading on from the conclusion of The Girl who Played with Fire, Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) is under police custody and about to face the murder trial that has ...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – A study of DNA rearrangements in roundworm chromosomes may offer new insight into large-scale genome duplications that occur in developing tumors. A report of the research led by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine scientists was published in the April 22 online edition of the journal Science. The study focused on telomeres, a region of repetitive DNA sequence that protects the ends of chromosomes from deterioration or from fusing with other chromosomes. In many organisms, including humans, chromosome ends are capped by ...

There's no question, drugs work in treating disease. But can they work better, and safer? In recent years, researchers have grappled with the challenge of administering therapeutics in a way that boosts their effectiveness by targeting specific cells in the body while minimizing their potential damage to healthy tissue. The development of new methods that use engineered nanomaterials to transport drugs and release them directly into cells holds great potential in this area. And while several such drug-delivery systems — including some that use dendrimers, liposomes ...

April 18, 2011 – Illicit drug overdose deaths declined dramatically after the establishment of North America's first supervised injection facility located in Vancouver, Canada, according to the findings of a groundbreaking new study published in The Lancet. In the first peer-reviewed study to assess the impact of supervised injection sites on overdose mortality, researchers observed a 35% reduction in overdose deaths in the immediate vicinity of a pilot injection facility called Insite located in Vancouver, Canada, following its opening in September 2003. By contrast, ...

PITTSBURGH—Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute have leveraged the latest browser technology to create GigaPan Time Machine, a system that enables viewers to explore gigapixel-scale, high-resolution videos and image sequences by panning or zooming in and out of the images while simultaneously moving back and forth through time. Viewers, for instance, can use the system to focus in on the details of a booth within a panorama of a carnival midway, but also reverse time to see how the booth was constructed. Or they can watch a group of plants sprout, ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Earth may be able to recover from rising carbon dioxide emissions faster than previously thought, according to evidence from a prehistoric event analyzed by a Purdue University-led team. When faced with high levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide and rising temperatures 56 million years ago, the Earth increased its ability to pull carbon from the air. This led to a recovery that was quicker than anticipated by many models of the carbon cycle - though still on the order of tens of thousands of years, said Gabriel Bowen, the associate professor ...

What is a dental bridge? A dental bridge is a solution for missing teeth. Using a false tooth, a dental bridge is attached to two porcelain crowns and affixed to your adjacent teeth to hold it into place. Once in place, the false tooth restores symmetry, function, and beauty to your smile. Can a dental bridge be used to replace several teeth? Depending on how many teeth you need to have replaced, there are three different types of dental bridges. Traditional fixed bridges and cantilever bridges can be used to replace several missing teeth at one time. Resin-bonded ...

Do you belong to the one-half of the population that frequently uses dietary supplements with the hope that it might be good for you? Well, according to a study published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, there seems to be an interesting asymmetrical relationship between the frequency of dietary supplement use and the health status of individuals. Wen-Bin Chiou of National Sun Yat-Sen University decided to test if frequent use of dietary supplements had ironic consequences for subsequent health-related ...

Headaches are one of the more common medical complaints people have. Headaches can range from annoying to debilitating. Another problem with headaches is that they can be chronic, returning day after day. Despite their frequency, it can be very hard to track down the cause of headaches. If you have been to one or more doctors to seek help with your headaches, but have been able to get a true diagnosis and successful headache treatment, perhaps you need to go in a different direction. Perhaps you need a dentist. Could Your Teeth Be Causing Your Headaches? Where ...

What tales they tell of their former lives, these old bones of sirenians, relatives of today's dugongs and manatees. And now, geologists have found, they tell of the waters in which they swam. While researching the evolutionary ecology of ancient sirenians--commonly known as sea cows--scientist Mark Clementz and colleagues unexpectedly stumbled across data that could change the view of climate during the Eocene Epoch, some 50 million years ago. Clementz, from the University of Wyoming, published the results in a paper in this week's issue of the journal Science. He ...

All women have uneven breasts, but the difference can be so pronounced in many women as to create difficulty finding bras and clothes that fit properly. Extreme breast asymmetry can also lead to feelings of insecurity and depression about your appearance. The difference between breasts can be subtle in some women, dramatic in others; it can also include corresponding conditions such as uneven nipples, varying areolas or differently shaped breasts. The causes of uneven breasts can also differ. Asymmetrical breasts can be genetic in nature or brought about by hormonal ...

Maryland Court of Appeals Upholds Statutory Damages Cap Last year brought one significant disappointing legal development for Maryland personal injury victims and wrongful death survivors. While plaintiffs in Illinois and Georgia received news from their state's highest courts that damages should be determined by juries rather than politicians, the Maryland Court of Appeals issued an opinion that upheld the cap on damages passed by the state legislature over two decades ago. Insurance companies and other "tort reform" advocates were understandably pleased with ...

Athens, Ga. – Researchers at the University of Georgia and Yale University have discovered a compound with the potential to be more effective than existing agents in treating the very painful blisters known as shingles—a condition that affects up to 30 percent of Americans, mostly elderly, and for which no specific treatment exists. Most adults remember the fever, itchy blisters and possibly tiny scars they experienced as children when they had chickenpox, which is caused by the varicella-zoster virus, or VZV.Unfortunately, that memory can come back—with a vengeance—when ...