What's your favorite prime-time crime show? Do you enjoy the fictional world of "CSI" or "Law & Order," or do you find real-life tales like "The First 48" or "Dateline" more engrossing? Your answers to those questions may say a lot about your fears and attitudes about crime, a new study finds. Researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln surveyed hundreds of adults about how often they watched various kinds of crime TV – made-up dramas, documentary-style "real crime" programs, and local and national news. They found that how each type of program depicts crime was ...

Like listeners adjusting a high-tech radio, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have tuned in to precise frequencies of brain activity to unleash new insights into how the brain works. "Analysis of brain function normally focuses on where brain activity happens and when," says Eric C. Leuthardt, MD. "What we've found is that the wavelength of the activity provides a third major branch of understanding brain physiology." Researchers used electrocorticography, a technique for monitoring the brain with a grid of electrodes temporarily implanted ...

A new study has provided the first conclusive evidence that cannabis use significantly hastens the onset of psychotic illnesses during the critical years of brain development – with possible life-long consequences. The first ever meta-analysis of more than 20,000 patients shows that smoking cannabis is associated with an earlier onset of psychotic illness by up to 2.7 years. The analysis, by an international team including Dr Matthew Large, from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) School of Psychiatry and Sydney's Prince of Wales Hospital, is published today in ...

The human brain operates as a highly interconnected small-world network, not as a collection of discrete regions as previously believed, with important implications for why many of us experience cognitive declines in old age, a new study shows. Australian researchers have mapped the brain's neural networks and for the first time linked them with specific cognitive functions, such as information processing and language. Results from the study are published in the prestigious Journal of Neuroscience. The researchers from the University of New South Wales are now examining ...

Rhizanthella gardneri is a cute, quirky and critically endangered orchid that lives all its life underground. It even blooms underground, making it virtually unique amongst plants. Last year, using radioactive tracers, scientists at The University of Western Australia showed that the orchid gets all its nutrients by parasitising fungi associated with the roots of broom bush, a woody shrub of the WA outback. Now, with less than 50 individuals left in the wild, scientists have made a timely and remarkable discovery about its genome. Despite the fact that this ...

In the developing brain, countless nerve connections are made which turn out to be inappropriate and as a result must eventually be removed. The process of establishing a neuronal network does not always prove precise or error free. Dr. Peter Scheiffele's research group at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel have been able to document this phenomenon using advanced microscopy techniques in the developing cerebellum, a brain area required for fine movement control. Dr. Scheiffele's group has discovered that a protein traditionally associated with bone development is ...

The health impacts of human rights violations in Chin State, home to the Chin ethnic minority in Burma, are substantial and the indirect health outcomes of human rights violations probably dwarf the mortality from direct killings. These findings from a study by Richard Sollom from Physicians for Human Rights, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and colleagues will be published in this week's PLoS Medicine and should encourage the international community to intensify its efforts to reduce human rights violations in Burma. The military junta, which seized power in Burma in 1962, ...

In a systematic review of current evidence published in this week's PLoS Medicine, the authors—Jim McCambridge from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK, and colleagues—conclude that there is enough evidence to recommend that reducing drinking during late adolescence is likely to be important for preventing long-term adverse consequences of drinking, as well as protecting against more immediate harms. Although there is an urgent need for better studies in this area, research to date provides some evidence that high alcohol consumption in late adolescence ...

CHICAGO – Among patients with early-stage breast cancer that had spread to a nearby lymph node and who received treatment that included lumpectomy and radiation therapy, women who just had the sentinel lymph node removed (the first lymph node to which cancer is likely to spread from the primary tumor) did not have worse survival than women who had more extensive axillary lymph node dissection (surgery to remove lymph nodes found in the armpit), according to a study in the February 9 issue of JAMA. Axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) has been part of breast cancer surgery ...

CHICAGO – Patients who underwent coronary artery bypass graft surgery and had elevated levels of the cardiac enzymes creatine kinase or troponin in the 24 hours following surgery had an associated intermediate and long-term increased risk of death, according to a study in the February 9 issue of JAMA. "About 400,000 coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) procedures are performed annually in the United States, giving public health significance to factors that affect the outcome of these procedures," the authors write. Increases in creatine kinase (CK-MB) or troponin levels ...

CHICAGO – In a study that included infants from South Africa, those who were exposed to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) at birth but did not become infected had lower levels of antibodies to diseases such as pertussis, tetanus and pneumococcus, compared to infants of non-HIV infected mothers, according to a study in the February 9 issue of JAMA. Infectious diseases account for nearly 6 million deaths worldwide annually in children younger than 5 years. Immunization against vaccine-preventable infections is essential to reducing childhood mortality. "The high prevalence ...

The incidence of major congenital birth abnormalities was slightly higher in the offspring of male cancer survivors compared with children of fathers with no history of cancer, according to a study published online February 8th in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The increasing number of male cancer survivors has given rise to concerns about the health of their offspring. Although previous studies on children conceived naturally have been reassuring about the health of the children, very few studies have looked at results among children conceived through ...

New research from Warwick Medical School published today in the European Heart Journal shows that prolonged sleep deprivation and disrupted sleep patterns can have long-term, serious health implications. Leading academics from the University have linked lack of sleep to strokes, heart attacks and cardiovascular disorders which often result in early death. Professor Francesco Cappuccio from the University of Warwick Medical School, explained: "If you sleep less than six hours per night and have disturbed sleep you stand a 48 per cent greater chance of developing or dying ...

There will be nearly 1.3 million deaths from cancer in Europe in 2011 according to predictions from a study published in the cancer journal, Annals of Oncology today (Wednesday 9 February) [1]. The estimates, which have been reached after researchers used for the first time in Europe a new mathematical model for predicting cancer mortality, show a fall in overall cancer death rates for both men and women when compared to 2007. But they also highlight some areas of concern, particularly rising rates of lung cancer in women. Researchers, led by Professor Carlo La Vecchia ...

At a time when the effects of paediatric oncology research have meant that more and more children survive cancer, its funding is too low and dependent on short-term grants to be able to sustain this improvement in the long-term, says a report supported by the EU-funded 7th Framework Programme project Eurocancercoms and published on-line in ecancer today*. The authors also looked at the citation impact of paediatric oncology papers and found that childhood cancer research is once again the poor relation; unlike cancer papers in general, paediatric oncology papers received ...

DETROIT ¬– A Henry Ford Hospital study has found that a pharmacist-directed anticoagulation service improves the way medication is managed for patients with heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT), a common but life-threatening thromboembolic disorder. Researchers found that patients treated by the anticoagulation service had a favorable response to alternative anticoagulant drugs three times faster and were 32 percent more likely to receive proper dosage than patients who were treated with the same drugs by the patient's primary medical team. This is the first time ...

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found that even small amounts of damage to heart muscle during coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is associated with an increased risk of death, even among patients who initially do well following surgery. The study is published in the February 9 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Small elevations of troponin and creatine phosphokkinase – chemicals called enzymes that are released by heart muscle cells when they are damaged – have often been dismissed as unimportant. But Mount Sinai ...

University of Alberta researchers Péter Molnár, Andrew Derocher and Mark Lewis studied the reproductive ecology of polar bears in Hudson Bay and have linked declining litter sizes with loss of sea ice. The researchers say projected reductions in the number of newborn cubs is a significant threat to the western Hudson Bay polar-bear population, and if climate change continues unabated the viability of the species across much of the Arctic will be in question. Using data collected since the 1990s researchers looked at the changing length of time Hudson Bay is frozen ...

Bacteria often attack with toxins designed to hijack or even kill host cells. To avoid self-destruction, bacteria have ways of protecting themselves from their own toxins. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have described one of these protective mechanisms, potentially paving the way for new classes of antibiotics that cause the bacteria's toxins to turn on themselves. Scientists determined the structures of a toxin and its antitoxin in Streptococcus pyogenes, common bacteria that cause infections ranging from strep throat to life-threatening ...

Toronto – Faster approval times for generic drugs will get them into consumers' hands quicker, but may not make the price any better, a pricing and marketing researcher has found. A mathematical model created by Andrew Ching shows that fewer firms enter the marketplace because the chances of getting there first and commanding the best profits are dramatically smaller when drug approval times are shorter. Ching is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. Using the drug clonidine, Prof. Ching's model showed the number ...

For Immediate Release – February 8, 2011 - (Toronto) – A new study from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) has found evidence suggesting that a variation of a specific gene may play a role in late-onset Alzheimer's, the disease which accounts for over 90% of Alzheimer's cases. This innovative study has combined genetics and brain imaging to determine who may be at risk for developing late-onset Alzheimer's disease long before symptoms appear. The gene, which is called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), is crucial to maintaining healthy function of ...

Park Ridge, IL (February 8, 2011) – According to new nutrition data from the United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), eggs are lower in cholesterol than previously thought. The USDA-ARS recently reviewed the nutrient composition of standard large eggs, and results show the average amount of cholesterol in one large egg is 185 mg, 14 percent lower than previously recorded. The analysis also revealed that large eggs now contain 41 IU of vitamin D, an increase of 64 percent. "We collected a random sample of regular large shell eggs ...

University of British Columbia researchers have uncovered the unique survival mechanisms of a marine organism that may be tiny, but in some ways has surpassed sharks in its predatory efficiency. Published today in the journal Nature Communications, the research team's portrait of the microscopic dinoflagellate Oxyrrhis marina reveals a predator so efficient that it has even acquired a gene from its prey. NB: A microscopic photo of Oxyrrhis marina is available at http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/?p=17636. "It's an interesting case of Lateral Gene Transfer, or the movement ...

Much of the devastation of stroke and head trauma is due to damage caused the overproduction of a substance in the brain called glutamate. Preventing this damage has been impossible, until now, as many drugs don't cross the so-called blood-brain barrier, and those that do often don't work as intended. But a method originally devised at the Weizmann Institute of Science may, in the future, offer a way to avert such glutamate-induced harm. Prof. Vivian I. Teichberg of the Institute's Neurobiology Department first demonstrated a possible way around these problems in 2003. ...

Post-traumatic stress disorder can affect soldiers after combat or ordinary people who have undergone harrowing experiences. Of course, feelings of anxiety are normal and even desirable – they are part of what helps us survive in a world of real threats. But no less crucial is the return to normal – the slowing of the heartbeat and relaxation of tension – after the threat has passed. People who have a hard time "turning off" their stress response are candidates for post-traumatic stress syndrome, as well as anorexia, anxiety disorders and depression. How does the body ...