TORONTO, ON – Victims of childhood physical abuse are more than twice as likely to develop ulcers than people who were not abused as children, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Toronto. "We found a strong and significant association between individuals who were abused during childhood and those were diagnosed with peptic ulcers later in life," says lead author Esme Fuller Thomson, Professor and Sandra Rotman Chair at U of T's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. "I originally thought the link would be explained by factors such as stress, ...

Countries that enter into defense pacts with other nations are less likely to be attacked, according to new research from Rice University. And those countries are not more likely to attack others. The study, "Defense Pacts: A Prescription for Peace?", was published recently in the journal Foreign Policy Analysis. It was co-authored by Rice University Associate Professor of Political Science Ashley Leeds and Jesse Johnson, a Rice graduate student in political science. For their research, Leeds and Johnson did exhaustive analysis of defense agreements from 1816 to 2001 ...

Tampa, FL (Feb. 10, 2011) -- Preladenant, a non-dopaminergic medication, reduces off time in patients with Parkinson's disease receiving standard dopamine therapy, an international study led by the University of South Florida found. Results of the double-blind, randomized clinical trial are reported online today in the journal Lancet Neurology. The findings suggest that preladenant may offer a new supplemental treatment for Parkinson's disease without some of the complications of levodopa and other standard dopamine treatments. "The goal of treatment is to provide ...

EUGENE, Ore. -- (Feb. 10, 2011) -- A chronology of 1,000 years of earthquakes at the southern end of the San Andreas Fault nixes the idea that lake changes in the now-dry region caused past quakes. However, researchers say, the timeline pulled from sediment in three deep trenches confirms that this portion of the fault is long past the expected time for a major temblor that would strongly shake the Los Angeles Basin. The new study, appearing in the February issue of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, doesn't change existing thinking about the threat ...

DALLAS – Feb. 10, 2011 – The realization of medically treating different children uniquely may start with one of the deadliest diseases in existence: tuberculosis. New findings by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers indicate that the type of medications and the dosage routinely used to treat children with the disease should be individualized to each young patient in order to be effective. The findings, available online and in the February issue of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, show that currently recommended doses are much too low and that a child's ...

SAN FRANCISCO (February 10, 2011) — More than two thousand physicians, some of the top obstetric/gynecologists in the world who specialize in maternal-fetal medicine, especially high risk pregnancies, gathered today for their annual meeting in San Francisco to begin four days of intensive research presentations. Presentations each year at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's (SMFM) annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, represent major findings in reducing high-risk pregnancies and complications. Catherine Y. Spong, M.D., chief, pregnancy and perinatology branch, ...

ST. LOUIS – In new research from Saint Louis University, investigators have found evidence that a toxin produced by the brain is responsible for the series of cellular events that lead to Parkinson's disease. The study, published in PLoS One, found that the brain toxin DOPAL plays a key role in killing the dopamine neurons which trigger the illness. In earlier research, Saint Louis University investigators found that DOPAL seemed to be responsible for killing healthy dopamine cells, which in turn causes Parkinson disease to develop. Now, research in an animal model ...

Irvine, Calif., Feb. 10, 2011 – Those light-emitting diodes marketed as safe, environmentally preferable alternatives to traditional lightbulbs actually contain lead, arsenic and a dozen other potentially hazardous substances, according to newly published research. "LEDs are touted as the next generation of lighting. But as we try to find better products that do not deplete energy resources or contribute to global warming, we have to be vigilant about the toxicity hazards of those marketed as replacements," said Oladele Ogunseitan, chair of UC Irvine's Department of Population ...

COLLEGE STATION, Feb. 9, 2011 — When you've got to go, you've got to go — upstream, that is, if you are a male swordtail fish seeking a mate, according to research from Texas A&M University. A recent study led by Texas A&M biologists Dr. Gil Rosenthal and Dr. Heidi Fisher in collaboration with scientists at Centro de Investigaciones Cientificas de las Huastecas in Hidalgo, Mexico, and Boston University has determined that the fish use chemical cues in their urine to elicit sexual responses from their downstream female counterparts. In a study funded by the National ...

Scientists have modeled a system that may be used to control mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit, without the use of pesticides. In the proposed system, mosquitoes are engineered to carry two genes. The first gene causes males to transmit a toxin to females through their semen. The second gene, when expressed in females, makes them immune to this toxin. This research, published in the February 2011 issue of Genetics (http://www.genetics.org), describes a system that can be created using currently available molecular tools and could confine the spread of mosquitoes ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– UC Santa Barbara scientists have made a discovery that has the potential for use in the early diagnosis and eventual treatment of plaque-related diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Type 2 diabetes. Their work is published in a recent issue of Nature Chemistry. The amyloid diseases are characterized by plaque that aggregates into toxic agents that interact with cellular machinery, explained Michael T. Bowers, lead author and professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Other amyloid diseases include Parkinson's disease, Huntington's ...

MALVERN, PA – February 10, 2011 – Promedior, Inc., a clinical stage biotechnology company developing novel therapies to treat fibrotic and inflammatory diseases, announced today the publication of collaborative research in the International Journal of Biochemistry and Cell Biology entitled, "TGF-beta driven lung fibrosis is macrophage dependent and blocked by Serum amyloid P." The research showed that human Pentraxin-2 (PTX-2), also called human Serum amyloid P (SAP), potently inhibits all undesirable pro-fibrotic pathologies driven by TGFβ1 and represents a novel ...

Why do some people fret over the most trivial matters while others remain calm in the face of calamity? Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have identified two different chinks in our brain circuitry that explain why some of us are more prone to anxiety. Their findings, published today (Thursday, Feb. 10) in the journal Neuron may pave the way for more targeted treatment of chronic fear and anxiety disorders. Such conditions affect at least 25 million Americans and include panic attacks, social phobias, obsessive-compulsive behavior and post-traumatic ...

The Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) research team that first discovered tumor-associated RNA in tiny membrane-enclosed sacs released into the bloodstream by cancer cells has now found that these microvesicles also contain segments of tumor DNA, including retrotransposons – also called "jumping genes" – that copy and insert themselves into other areas of the genome. The investigators' report, which has been published in Nature Communications, is the first to show that microvesicles are involved in transferring retrotransposons between cells. "Retrotransposons' ...

HOUSTON and LOS ANGELES – February 10th, 2011 – Medical researchers from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) presented new research results at the American Heart Association International Stroke Conference that demonstrated how MultiStem®, a novel stem cell therapy being developed by Athersys, Inc. provided multiple benefits when administered in preclinical models of ischemic stroke. The study, conducted by leading researchers from the Department of Neurology at the UTHealth Medical School working in collaboration with scientists at Athersys, ...

Madison, WI FEBRUARY 3, 2011 – A troublesome trend is occurring at colleges and universities around the country: fewer students are graduating with degrees in natural resource related degree programs. As a result, the number of qualified professionals to manage fish and wildlife programs is dwindling. What is even more troubling is that nationally, the percentage of students enrolling in the major has increased. For reasons unknown, students have been leaving the natural resource degree path after enrollment to pursue other degrees. Finding cause for the steady decline ...

Contact: Stan Samples ssamples@kellencompany.com 404-252-3663 Calorie Control Council Study related to diet soda and stroke risk is seriously flawed Study is drawing a growing body of criticism and skepticism from experts in the field of nutrition and science The Calorie Control Council stated today that research findings presented during a poster session at the International Stroke Conference claiming an association between diet soft drink consumption and increased risk of stroke and heart attack are critically flawed. "The findings are so speculative and preliminary ...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A Sandia National Laboratories team helped reach a major milestone in the nation's nuclear nonproliferation efforts by working with the Central Asian country of Kazakhstan to move nuclear materials — enough to build an estimated 775 nuclear weapons — to safety. Sandia provided security and logistics expertise to complete the transfer across Kazakhstan of spent fuel containing 11 tons (10 metric tons) of highly enriched uranium and 3.3 tons (3 metric tons) of weapons-grade plutonium that had been stored in a BN-350 fast-breeder reactor in the busy Caspian ...

DETROIT— Romantic relationships often start out as enjoyable or even exciting, but sometimes may become routine and boring. A Wayne State University study reveals that dating couples that integrate other couples into their social lives are more likely to have happy and satisfying romantic relationships. Richard B. Slatcher, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology in WSU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and a resident of Birmingham, Mich., specializes in social and health psychology. His recent research suggests that spending quality time with other couples may ...

Richmond, Va. (Feb. 10, 2011) – Scientists at Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center have developed a novel treatment strategy for multiple myeloma that pairs two targeted agents to kill cancer cells. The study's findings, published in today's edition of the journal "Blood," are the first to demonstrate the synergistic, anti-myeloma effects of this combination regimen both in vitro and in vivo. Multiple myeloma is a cancer involving antibody-producing cells in the bone marrow, and, in most cases, is incurable. Targeted therapies work by interfering with ...

University of Arizona researchers have cracked one of the puzzles surrounding what has been called "the world's most mysterious manuscript" – the Voynich manuscript, a book filled with drawings and writings nobody has been able to make sense of to this day. Using radiocarbon dating, a team led by Greg Hodgins in the UA's department of physics has found the manuscript's parchment pages date back to the early 15th century, making the book a century older than scholars had previously thought. This tome makes the "DaVinci Code" look downright lackluster: Rows of text ...

The Internet has become not only a tool for disseminating knowledge through scientific publications, but it also has the potential to shape scientific research through expanding the field of metaknowledge—the study of knowledge itself. The new possibilities for metaknowledge include developing a better understanding of science's social context and the biases that can affect research findings and choices of research topics, according to an article published by University of Chicago researchers in the journal Science. Pooling research-related information online can shed ...

A rose by any other name would smell … like celery? North Carolina State University research intended to extend the "vase life" of roses inserts a gene from celery inside rose plants to help fight off botrytis, or petal blight, one of the rose's major post-harvest diseases. Some fungal pathogens, the bad guys that infect plants, produce a sugar alcohol called mannitol that interferes with the plant's ability to block disease like petal blight, which produces wilty, mushy petals – an effect similar to what happens to lettuce when it's been in the crisper too long. In ...

Most of us are familiar with the idea of image compression in computers. File extensions like ".jpg" or ".png" signify that millions of pixel values have been compressed into a more efficient format, reducing file size by a factor of 10 or more with little or no apparent change in image quality. The full set of original pixel values would occupy too much space in computer memory and take too long to transmit across networks. The brain is faced with a similar problem. The images captured by light-sensitive cells in the retina are on the order of a megapixel. The brain ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. – The aging population, 65 years and older, includes nearly 3.8 million divorced men and women, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Illnesses and end-of-life issues can be particularly difficult for singles without spouses or designated caregivers. A new study from the University of Missouri provides insight into the experiences of exes who care for their former spouses, offering support, assistance with daily tasks and management of health needs. "The concept of women as caregivers for their ex-husbands is largely unexplored," said Teresa Cooney, associate ...