Scientists have found that the pleasurable experience of listening to music releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain important for more tangible pleasures associated with rewards such as food, drugs and sex. The new study from The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital – The Neuro at McGill University also reveals that even the anticipation of pleasurable music induces dopamine release [as is the case with food, drug, and sex cues]. Published in the prestigious journal Nature Neuroscience, the results suggest why music, which has no obvious survival value, ...

New York, NY, January 12, 2011 – Coronary syndromes vary in severity, ranging from unstable angina, non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI), to ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), the most severe diagnosis. Little data exist about changing trends in acute myocardial infarction and whether death rates are increasing or decreasing. In a study published in the January 2011 issue of The American Journal of Medicine, investigators found that STEMI rates decreased and one-year post-discharge death rates decreased in NSTEMI and STEMI patients. "The ...

Scientists are reporting that so-called "thirdhand smoke" — the invisible remains of cigarette smoke that deposits on carpeting, clothing, furniture and other surfaces — may be even more of a health hazard than previously believed. The study, published in ACS' journal, Environmental Science & Technology, extends the known health risks of tobacco among people who do not smoke but encounter the smoke exhaled by smokers or released by smoldering cigarette butts. Yael Dubowski and colleagues note that thirdhand smoke is a newly recognized contributor to the health risks of ...

Scientists are reporting a scientific basis for the long-standing belief that a widely used non-prescription drug in China and certain other countries can prevent and treat cataracts, a clouding of the lens of the eye that is a leading cause of vision loss worldwide. Their study appears in Inorganic Chemistry, an ACS journal. In the study, Tzu-Hua Wu, Fu-Yung Huang, Shih-Hsiung Wu and colleagues note that eye drops containing pirenoxine, or PRX, have been reputed as a cataract remedy for almost 60 years. Currently, the only treatment for cataracts in Western medicine ...

New Orleans, LA – Research conducted by Iaroslav Savtchouk, a graduate student, and S. June Liu, PhD, Associate Professor of Cell Biology and Anatomy at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, has shown that a single exposure to acute stress affected information processing in the cerebellum – the area of the brain responsible for motor control and movement coordination and also involved in learning and memory formation. The work is published in the January 12, 2011 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The researchers found that a five-minute exposure to the odor of a ...

Adding customer service representatives to a computerized radiology workflow management system means improved patient and referring physician satisfaction and increased radiologist efficiency, an analysis of a program at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati finds. Seven customer service representatives now staff the radiology reading room from 7:00 am – 11:00 pm daily and are responsible for ensuring that referring physicians receive completed radiology reports quickly. This means that the referring physician can get the report while the patient is still ...

Scientists are reporting the development of a new, ultra-light form of "frozen smoke" — renowned as the world's lightest solid material — with amazing strength and an incredibly large surface area. The new so-called "multiwalled carbon nanotube (MCNT) aerogel" could be used in sensors to detect pollutants and toxic substances, chemical reactors, and electronics components. A report about the material appears in ACS Nano, a monthly journal. Lei Zhai and colleagues explain that aerogels made from silicon dioxide (the main ingredient in sand) and other material already are ...

A new assessment of global earthquake fatalities over the past three decades indicates that 83 percent of all deaths caused by the collapse of buildings during earthquakes occurred in countries considered to be unusually corrupt. Authored by Professor Nicholas Ambraseys of the Imperial College of London and Professor Roger Bilham of the University Colorado at Boulder, the study also found that in some relatively wealthy countries where knowledge and sound business practices would be expected to prevail, the collapse of many buildings is nevertheless attributable to corrupt ...

Scientists dream of developing a real-world version of the Pied Piper's magic flute — new poisons that pose no threat to people, pets or wildlife, while specifically targeting rats, those germ-laden creatures that outnumber humans 6 to 1 in some urban areas. An article in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), ACS' weekly newsmagazine, details some of the steps toward that goal. C&EN Associate Editor Jyllian Kemsley points out that rats not only are notorious carriers of infectious disease, but threaten the survival of native plants and wildlife. ...

A new ultrasound technique is proving valuable in distinguishing malignant from benign breast lesions in some patients – results that could mean fewer unnecessary breast biopsies, a new study shows. The study found that ultrasound elastography, which indicates tissue softness, can help predict cancer in patients with BI-RADS category 4 masses. "Because malignant tumors predominantly are harder than benign tissues, this technique significantly improves the differentiation between benign and malignant tissue" said Hiroko Satake, MD, lead author of the study. Dr. Satake ...

The use of preoperative Breast MRI detects otherwise occult cancer with a relatively high degree of accuracy when applied to a diverse population of patients newly diagnosed with breast cancer, according to a study in the January issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology. The study was performed at the University of Washington and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance in Seattle, WA. The review initiated with 592 patients who were recently diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent staging with preoperative breast MRI. The analysis set was comprised of 570 patients, whose ...

Researchers at the University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute have discovered that the genetic mechanism which destroys brain cells is responsible for early development of Alzheimer's Disease in people with Down Syndrome and for development of Alzheimer's Disease in general population – providing a potential new target for drugs that could forestall dementia in people with either condition. The research, led by Dr. Weihong Song, Canada Research Chair in Alzheimer's Disease and a professor of psychiatry in the UBC Faculty of Medicine, ...

CORAL GABLES, FL (January 12, 2011) --Living through a natural disaster is a traumatic experience for everyone, but especially for children. A new study by University of Miami Psychologist Annette La Greca and her collaborators, indicate that some children who directly experience a devastating hurricane still show signs of posttraumatic stress (PTS) almmost two years after the event. The findings suggest that new models for intervention to help children after a natural disaster are needed. The study, titled "Hurricane-Related Exposure Experiences and Stressors, Other Life ...

EUGENE, Ore. -- (Jan. 12, 2011) -- As adolescents move from elementary school into their middle or junior-high years, changes in friendships may signal potential academic success or troubles down the road, say University of Oregon researchers. A new study, appearing in the February issue of the Journal of Early Adolescence, found that boys and girls whose friends are socially active in ways where rules are respected do better in their classroom work. Having friends who engage in problem behavior, in contrast, is related to a decrease in their grades. Having pro-social ...

Scientists from Texas have made an important step toward understanding human mating behavior by showing that certain genes become activated in fruit flies when they interact with the opposite sex. This research, published in the January 2011 issue of the journal GENETICS (http://www.genetics.org), shows that courtship behaviors may be far more influenced by genetics than previously thought. In addition, understanding why and how these genes become activated within social contexts may also lead to insight into disorders such as autism. "Be careful who you interact with," ...

PASADENA, Calif.—Glass is inherently strong, but when it cracks or otherwise fails, it proves brittle, shattering almost immediately. Steel and other metal alloys tend to be tough—they resist shattering—but are also relatively weak; they permanently deform and fail easily. The ideal material, says Marios Demetriou, a senior research fellow at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), has the advantage of being both strong and tough—a combination called damage tolerance, which is more difficult to come by than the layperson might think. "Strength and toughness ...

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – January 11, 2011 – 23andMe has released its first annual list of what it felt to be the 10 most interesting and significant genetic findings in 2010, as part of an ongoing journey to understand the role of genetics in personal health and human development. "Our understanding of the human genome is accelerating at a phenomenal rate," stated Anne Wojcicki, co-founder and CEO of 23andMe. "Below we have compiled a list of our top ten favorite genetic discoveries from 2010. We look forward to exploring more discoveries in 2011." Customers of 23andMe ...

Grand Rapids, Mich. (January 12, 2011) – Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) researchers have developed a method that can yield more information from archived newborn blood that has implications for a vast array of research, including population health studies and answering questions about diseases in infants and children. In a recent study published in Pathology International, VARI researchers detected approximately 9,000 activated genes in samples from adult blood spots on Guthrie cards that had been archived anywhere from six months to three years. Researchers say ...

Nature has a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde relationship with mercury, but researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have made a discovery that ultimately could help explain the split personality. While scientists have known that microbes in aquatic environments make methylmercury, a more toxic form of mercury that accumulates in fish, they also know that nature and other types of bacteria can transform methylmercury to less toxic forms. What they haven't completely understood are the mechanisms that cause these transformations in anoxic environments ...

This press release is available in French. Robot-assisted surgery dramatically improves outcomes in patients with uterine, endometrial, and cervical cancer, said researchers at the Jewish General Hospital's Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research in Montreal. Moreover, because of fewer post-operative complications and shorter hospital stays, robotic procedures also cost less. These results were published in late 2010 in a series of studies in The Journal of Robotic Surgery and The International Journal of Gynecological Cancer. To date, adoption of robotic surgery ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Bahram Mobasher, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Riverside, is a member of an international team of astronomers that has uncovered a burgeoning galactic metropolis, the most distant known in the early universe. This ancient collection of galaxies presumably grew into a modern galaxy cluster similar to the massive ones seen today. The developing cluster, named COSMOS-AzTEC3, was discovered and characterized by multi-wavelength telescopes, including NASA's Spitzer, Chandra and Hubble space telescopes, and the ground-based ...

Using two NASA X-ray satellites, astronomers have discovered what drives the "heartbeats" seen in the light from an unusual black hole system. These results give new insight into the ways that black holes can regulate their intake and severely curtail their growth. This study examined GRS 1915+105 (GRS 1915 for short), a binary system in the Milky Way galaxy containing a black hole about 14 times more massive than the Sun that is feeding off material from a companion star. As this material falls towards the black hole, it forms a swirling disk that emits X-rays. The black ...

In the first update of the American Geriatrics Society and the British Geriatric Society's guidelines on preventing falls in older persons since 2001, they now recommend that all interventions for preventing falls should include an exercise component and that a number of new assessments should be used, including; feet and footwear, fear of falling, and ability to carry out daily living activities. The guidelines, a summary of which are published today in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, also state that fall screening and prevention should be a part of all ...

PHOENIX, Ariz. — Jan. 13, 2011 — Genomic research could help doctors better target a drug widely used to treat colorectal cancer patients, according to a study by Genomic Health Inc. (Nasdaq: GHDX) and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen). The drug, oxaliplatin, is widely used in colon cancer. It is used in early disease, following surgery in those cancers that are likely to recur. It is also used in advanced disease to slow progression of the cancer where it has spread to other parts of the body. However, a significant number of patients experience ...

The development and growth of much of Asia over the past two decades has been nothing short of spectacular. Yet, there remains a huge void of great brands (Japan aside) emerging from this region - Surveys repeatedly confirm that Asian consumers overwhelmingly prefer great Western brands to home-grown ones: given the choice, they will drink Coke, wear Nike shoes, and drive a BMW every time. This begets the question: How effective will be the current transition of the world order from West to East in the absence of great Asian brands? And will that momentous transition remain ...