Heartbeat Vibrations Power Pacemakers
Though pacemakers require only small amounts of energy (about 1 millionth of a Watt), their batteries have to be replaced periodically, which means multiple surgeries for patients. Researchers have searched for ways to prolong battery life - trying to generate energy to power a pacemaker using blood sugar, or the motion of the hands and legs - but these methods either interfere with metabolism or require a more drastic surgery, such as passing a wire from the limbs to the chest area...

IPM Decreased Pesticide Use In Univ Of Florida Housing
A new study recently published in the Journal of Integrated Pest Management (JIPM) shows that from 2003 to 2008, the use of insecticide active ingredients was reduced by about 90% in University of Florida housing buildings after an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program was implemented. IPM is a systematic approach to managing pests based on long-term prevention or suppression by a variety of methods that are cost effective and minimize risks to human health and the environment...

Genes Linked To Alzheimer's Are The Same For Early- And Late-Onset
The same gene mutations linked to inherited, early-onset Alzheimer's disease have been found in people with the more common late-onset form of the illness. The discovery by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis may lead doctors and researchers to change the way Alzheimer's disease is classified. They reported their findings in the online journal PLoS One (Public Library of Science)...

Genetic Connection To Traumatic Experience
Rutgers scientists have uncovered genetic clues as to why some mice no longer in danger are still fearful while others are resilient to traumatic experiences - knowledge that could help those suffering with crippling anxiety and PTSD. "Our work with mice demonstrates how genes play a role in developing and extinguishing pathological fear like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder," says Gleb Shumyatsky, an associate professor in the Department of Genetics in the School of Arts and Sciences...

Brain Blood Flow And Oxygen Monitored By First-Of-Its-Kind Head Patch
A research team led by investigators at Mayo Clinic in Florida has found that a small device worn on a patient's brow can be useful in monitoring stroke patients in the hospital. The device measures blood oxygen, similar to a pulse oximeter, which is clipped onto a finger. Their study, published in Neurosurgical Focus, suggests this tool, known as frontal near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), could offer hospital physicians a safe and cost-effective way to monitor patients who are being treated for a stroke, in real time...

In Preadolescence, Sleep Deprivation Tied To Increased Nighttime Urination
Nighttime visits to the bathroom are generally associated with being pregnant or having an enlarged prostate, but the problem can affect youngsters, too. A new study sheds light on why some children may need to urinate more often during the rest cycle. Danish researchers have found that sleep deprivation causes healthy children, between the ages of eight and twelve, to urinate significantly more frequently, excrete more sodium in their urine, have altered regulation of the hormones important for excretion, and have higher blood pressure and heart rates...

Erratic Heart Rhythm May Account For Some Unexplained Strokes
Occasional erratic heart rhythms appear to cause about one-fifth of strokes for which a cause is not readily established, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2012. About one-third of survivors leave the hospital with the cause of their stroke still undetermined. "Identifying and treating these patients for irregular rhythm could reduce the recurrence of stroke by 40 percent compared to reducing the risk by treating them with aspirin," said Daniel J. Miller, M.D...

Study Looks At Reasons For Lack Of Improvement In Outcomes For Treatment Of Unruptured Brain Aneurysms
Despite advances in the diagnosis and treatment of unruptured brain aneurysms, outcomes have remained stagnant over the last 10 years. This can be explained by the dramatic proliferation of minimally invasive endoscopic coiling procedures at lower-volume community hospitals, where outcomes are inferior. These findings are reported in a study by neurologists, neurosurgeons and neuro-anesthesiologists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center and published in the journal Stroke...

For Kidney Disease Patients, Goals For Blood Pressure May Be Unrealistic
An upward revision of the blood pressure numbers used to identify risk of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) might actually help doctors provide better care for their patients, said the authors of a study in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The researchers found that systolic blood pressure - the "upper number" in a blood pressure reading - was the key variable. Current guidelines call for CKD patients to maintain a systolic pressure of 130/80 or lower in order to prevent ESRD, which is complete or almost complete kidney failure, leading to dialysis, kidney transplant, or death...

Doctors Aim To Dispel Myths About Vaccines
Two Saint Louis University pediatricians are leading a Missouri State Medical Association statewide effort to change the way doctors respond to parents' fears of vaccines, and to raise awareness about the importance of getting children vaccinated. Ken Haller, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics, and Anthony Scalzo, M.D...

Adaptive Designs In Clinical Drug Development Conference, 26 - 27 March 2012, London
Join SMi at their Adaptive Designs in Clinical Drug Development conference to be held on the 26th & 27th March at the Grange Holborn in London. This event is the premier event of its kind in Europe and the only event to focus exclusively on how adaptive designs in clinical drug development. With more flexibility, faster development timelines and significant monetary savings, an adaptive design trial is the way forward. Jürgen Hummel, Associate Statistical Science Director, PPD has joined the speaker line-up...

US Pediatricians Recommend Routine HPV Vaccination For Boys
As part of a revised standard published this week, the American Academy of Pediatrics says boys should be routinely vaccinated against the human papillomavirus (HPV), a common virus that is spread through sexual contact. Although there are dozens of types of HPV, vaccines can protect both male and females against some of the more common types that can lead to disease and cancer...

Child Abuse And Neglect Toll $124 Billion, USA
A report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that was published in Child Abuse and Neglect - The International Journal, reveals that the total lifetime estimated financial costs that is associated with just one year of confirmed cases of child maltreatment, including physical and sexual abuse, psychological abuse and neglect, is about 124 billion U.S. dollars. The researchers examined confirmed incidents of child maltreatment over the period of one year and found 1,740 fatal and 579,000 non-fatal cases...

Susan G. Komen Starts U-Turn After Planned Parenthood Cut-Off
After announcing that it was going to cut funding for Planned Parenthood's breast screenings, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a breast cancer foundation, today announced that it is changing its funding criteria, meaning it will probably resume funding to Planned Parenthood, a sexual health organization. The public outcry regarding alleged reasons for Planned Parenthood being dropped as a grantee by Komen appears to have taken the breast cancer charity by surprise...

Six-Organ Transplant Girl Goes Home Today
After 100 days in hospital and undergoing a complicated 6-organ transplant, 9-year-old Alannah Shevenell, from Maine, leaves Boston Children's Hospital today and goes home. Alannah has been treated for a rare form of cancer; an inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor continued to grow after all possible treatments failed, and was compromising her internal organs. A team of surgeons, led by Dr. Heung Bae Kim, the hospital's Pediatric Transplant Center director, performed the transplant procedure of Alannah's liver, spleen, pancreas, stomach, small intestine and esophagus...

Most GP Complaints Resolved Locally, UK
According to an analysis of complaints in the latest edition of inpractice, the Medical Defense Union's journal that appears twice a year and is aimed at GP practice manager members covering topics like complaints, RCN indemnity changes and dealing with estranged parents, over 90% of 2,410 complaints made by GP members in the year April 2009/2010 seem to have been resolved locally. According to the MDU, this quota represents a great achievement made by practice managers who frequently take a lead in managing complaints...

Pharmaceutical Legislation Changes In Europe - EMA and Member States Prepare
Preparations are underway at the European Medicines Agency together with European Member States and the European Commission, for the introduction of the new pharmacovigilance legislation in July this year. The new legislation will represent the biggest change to the legal framework since The Agency was founded in 1995. The Agency is finalizing their preparations for the inaugural meeting of the new Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC), which is scheduled for 19 July 2012...

Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis - Update
The World Health Organization (WHO) has ongoing programs to improve and monitor tuberculosis (TB). The WHO's 2011 report on global TB control provides the most comprehensive information ever collected on the problems and issues of disease, as well as deaths caused by TB and multidrug-resistant TB (i.e. disease marked by in vitro resistance to at least isoniazid and rifampicin). They also look at treatment outcomes, financing mechanisms and new TB diagnostics, drugs and vaccines...

Suicide Recommendations Lead To Drop In Suicides Across England And Wales
According to new research published by The Lancet, there has been a substantial decrease in suicide rates among health authorities across England and Wales that adopted a new range of suicide recommendations. The recommendations were made by the National Confidential Inquiry (NCI) into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness in the 1990s, a project that is striving to monitor suicide and enhance health-care quality in the UK...

Measures Must Be Taken To Prevent Depression In Adolescents
As one of the most common, unrecognized and untreated health problems among young people, tackling depression is a serious priority for countries worldwide. The psychiatric disorder causes serious social and educational problems for patients, as well as leading to increased risk of suicide and substance abuse. A review of a published article in The Lancet urges that more measures are needed to prevent depression in non-specialist settings, such as schools and communities...

Malaria Deaths Grossly Underestimated
A new analysis of malaria mortality published in The Lancet this week suggests deaths to the parasitic disease worldwide have been grossly underestimated, especially in adults. If confirmed, the study has huge implications for how large amounts of charity money are spent in controlling the disease. However, the study also finds that thanks to improved prevention and treatment, such as anti-malaria drugs and insecticide-treated bed nets, deaths to malaria are falling rapidly...

Sugar Should Be Regulated Like Alcohol And Tobacco Say Scientists
Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), argue that added sweeteners pose dangers to public health, and the government should regulate sugar in the same way as it regulates alcohol and tobacco. They set out their reasons for viewing sugar as "toxic" in a comment article published in Nature this week. First author Robert H...

Improving Understanding Of Human Diseases With 3D Mapping Of Human Genome
Genome Institute of Singapore's (GIS) Associate Director of Genomic Technologies, Dr Yijun RUAN, led a continuing study on the human genome spatial/structural configuration, revealing how genes interact/communicate and influence each other, even when they are located far away from each other. This discovery is crucial in understanding how human genes work together, and will re-write textbooks on how transcription regulation and coordination takes place in human cells. The discovery was published in Cell,...

Link Between Insulin Resistance And Brain Health In Elderly
New research from Uppsala University shows that reduced insulin sensitivity is linked to smaller brain size and deteriorated language skills in seniors. The findings are now published in the scientific journal Diabetes Care. The main hormonal function of insulin is to support the uptake and use of glucose in muscles and fat tissues. However, in an earlier article recently published in Molecular Neurobiology, Christian Benedict from the Department of Neuroscience at Uppsala University has reported that when insulin reaches the brain, it enhances memory function in humans...

Averting Drug Resistance
Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is growing exponentially, contributing to an estimated 99,000 deaths from hospital-associated infections in the U.S. annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One reason that this is happening is that drug resistant proteins are transporting "good" antibiotics, or inhibitors, out of the cells, leaving them to mutate. In a paper recently published in the journal Nature, Professor of Biochemistry Dorothee Kern and collaborators including former postdoctoral student Katherine A...

Metabolic Side Effects Such As Obesity And Diabetes Caused By Antipsychotic Medications
In 2008, roughly 14.3 million Americans were taking antipsychotics - typically prescribed for bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or a number of other behavioral disorders - making them among the most prescribed drugs in the U.S. Almost all of these medications are known to cause the metabolic side effects of obesity and diabetes, leaving patients with a difficult choice between improving their mental health and damaging their physical health...

Alzheimer's Disease May Spread By 'Jumping' From One Brain Region To Another
For decades, researchers have debated whether Alzheimer's disease starts independently in vulnerable brain regions at different times, or if it begins in one region and then spreads to neuroanatomically connected areas. A new study by Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers strongly supports the latter, demonstrating that abnormal tau protein, a key feature of the neurofibrillary tangles seen in the brains of those with Alzheimer's, propagates along linked brain circuits, "jumping" from neuron to neuron...

Device Provides A Platform For Viewing Cancer Cells And Other Macromolecules In Dynamic, Life-Sustaining Liquid Environments
A photograph of a polar bear in captivity, no matter how sharp the resolution, can never reveal as much about behavior as footage of that polar bear in its natural habitat. The behavior of cells and molecules can prove even more elusive. Limitations in biomedical imaging technologies have hampered attempts to understand cellular and molecular behavior, with biologists trying to envision dynamic processes through static snapshots...

Protein Structures Offer Clues To Breast Cancer, Alzheimer's Treatment, Prevention
Using some of the most powerful nuclear magnetic resonance equipment available, researchers at the University of California, Davis, are making discoveries about the shape and structure of biological molecules - potentially leading to new ways to treat or prevent diseases such as breast cancer and Alzheimer's disease. The findings appear in the latest issues of the journals Nature and Journal of Biological Chemistry. "These are exquisite three-dimensional objects, and the structures really give insight into how they function in the cell," chemistry professor James Ames said...

Portable Recording Of Vital Signs Via "Life And Activity Monitor"
Researchers have developed a type of wearable, non-invasive electronic device that can monitor vital signs such as heart rate and respiration at the same time it records a person's activity level, opening new opportunities for biomedical research, diagnostics and patient care. The device is just two inches wide, comfortable, does not have to be in direct contact with the skin and can operate for a week without needing to be recharged. Data can then be downloaded and assessed for whatever medical or research need is being addressed...

Cancer Genomics: Special Issue Published By Genome Research
Genome Research publishes online and in print a special issue entitled, "Cancer Genomics," highlighting insights gained form cutting-edge genomic and epigenomic analyses of cancer...

Pedestrians Detected From Within The Car By A New System Of Stereo Cameras
A team of German researchers, with the help of a lecturer at the University of Alcala (UAH, Spain), has developed a system that locates pedestrians in front of the vehicle using artificial vision. Soon to be integrated into the top-of-the-range Mercedes vehicles, the device includes two cameras and a unit that process information supplied in real time by all image points. "The new system can detect pedestrians from within vehicles using visible spectrum cameras and can do so even at night", tells SINC David Fernández Llorca, lecturer at the University of Alcalá (UAH)...

Scientists Analysing The Release Of Genetically Modified Insects Into The Environment Find The Available Scientific Information Can Be Misleading
While genetically modified plants have already been introduced into the wild on a large scale in some parts of the world, the release of genetically modified animals is still at a relatively early stage. A team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plon, Germany has now published a study examining the free release of genetically modified insects in Malaysia, USA, and Cayman Islands...

Mentoring Helps Survivors Of Violence, Child Abuse
Can mentoring relationships help female students who survive childhood abuse or domestic violence? Absolutely, according to new research from Concordia University, published in the Journal of College Student Development. "Studies have shown that childhood abuse unleashes a chain of negative emotions that can impact an individual's future, producing feelings of shame, isolation, self-loathing and educational underachievement," says first author Rosemary C. Reilly, an associate professor in the Concordia Department of Applied Human Sciences...

Link Between Sleep Apnea And Silent Strokes, Small Lesions In Brain
People with severe sleep apnea may have an increased risk of silent strokes and small lesions in the brain, according to a small study presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2012. "We found a surprisingly high frequency of sleep apnea in patients with stroke that underlines its clinical relevance as a stroke risk factor," said Jessica Kepplinger, M.D., the study's lead researcher and stroke fellow in the Dresden University Stroke Center's Department of Neurology at the University of Technology in Dresden, Germany...

Detection Of Cyanide Poisoning Extended By Forensic Research
Researchers have found a new biomarker for cyanide poisoning, which may extend its detection window in death investigations by weeks if not months. Unless cyanide is discovered at the time of death on the mouth or nose, elevated cyanide concentrations can only be found for up to two days under current toxicological testing. A team of researchers have found a substance that appears in the liver following cyanide poisoning that could serve as a stable biomarker for a longer period of time. The research, by Dr...

Assessing The Value Of BMI Screening And Surveillance In Schools
The value of routine body mass index (BMI) screening in schools has been a topic of ongoing controversy. An expert Roundtable Discussion in the current issue of Childhood Obesity, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., debates the pros and cons of routine BMI screening in the school setting, discusses the most recent data, and explores when and for what purpose BMI screening results should be shared with parents and the potential benefits. The Roundtable is available online*. Patricia B...

Key Factors In Student Weight - Impoverished Schools, Parent Education
Attending a financially poor school may have more of an effect on unhealthy adolescent weight than family poverty, according to Penn State sociologists. Poor schools even influence how parental education protects kids from becoming overweight. "It was once thought that family income was the main factor when we talk about the research on adolescent weight," said Molly Martin, assistant professor of sociology and demography. "That's not true. The environments the children live in play a key role in weight problems among adolescents...

Depressed Patients Accurately Distinguished From Healthy Controls By Blood Test
The initial assessment of a blood test to help diagnose major depressive disorder indicates it may become a useful clinical tool. In a paper published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, a team including Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers reports that a test analyzing levels of nine biomarkers accurately distinguished patients diagnosed with depression from control participants without significant false-positive results...

Stem Cells Could Drive Hepatitis Research Forward
Hepatitis C, an infectious disease that can cause inflammation and organ failure, has different effects on different people. But no one is sure why some people are very susceptible to the infection, while others are resistant. Scientists believe that if they could study liver cells from different people in the lab, they could determine how genetic differences produce these varying responses. However, liver cells are difficult to obtain and notoriously difficult to grow in a lab dish because they tend to lose their normal structure and function when removed from the body...

For Those With Low Self-Esteem, Facebook Is Not Such A Good Thing
In theory, the social networking website Facebook could be great for people with low self-esteem. Sharing is important for improving friendships. But in practice, people with low self-esteem seem to behave counterproductively, bombarding their friends with negative tidbits about their lives and making themselves less likeable, according to a new study which will be published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science...

What Real Commitment To Your Marriage Means
What does being committed to your marriage really mean? UCLA psychologists answer this question in a new study based on their analysis of 172 married couples over the first 11 years of marriage. "When people say, 'I'm committed to my relationship,' they can mean two things," said study co-author Benjamin Karney, a professor of psychology and co-director of the Relationship Institute at UCLA. "One thing they can mean is, 'I really like this relationship and want it to continue.' However, commitment is more than just that...

Opening Doors To Generic Drugs With Fleming Europe, 30 - 31 May 2012, Berlin
New issues raised in the Generic licensing industry are going to be the center of attention at Fleming Europe's upcoming conference. Opportunities in emerging markets of BRIC countries and development in the EU will dominate the discussions held in Berlin. The current situation in the pharmaceutical industry is turning its side with generic makers. According to the report of The Economist from December 2011, the best-selling drugs are about to fall over the patent cliff. By 2015, blockbusters' worth 130 billion euros in global annual sales will go off-patent...

Massage Found To Reduce Inflammation Following Strenuous Exercise
Most athletes can testify to the pain-relieving, recovery-promoting effects of massage. Now there's a scientific basis that supports booking a session with a massage therapist: On the cellular level massage reduces inflammation and promotes the growth of new mitochondria in skeletal muscle. The research, involving scientists from the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and McMaster University in Hamilton Ontario appears in the online edition of Science Translational Medicine...

Circular RNAs More Common Than Previously Thought
In the classical model of gene expression, the genetic script encoded in our genomes is expressed in each cell in the form of RNA molecules, each consisting of a linear string of chemical "bases". It may be time to revise this traditional understanding of human gene expression, as new research suggests that circular RNA molecules, rather than the classical linear molecules, are a widespread feature of the gene expression program in every human cell. The results are published in the online journal PLoS ONE...

People-Pleasers Feel Pressure To Eat When They Believe It Will Help Another Person Feel More Comfortable
If you are a people-pleaser who strives to keep your social relationships smooth and comfortable, you might find yourself overeating in certain social situations like Super Bowl watch parties. A new study from Case Western Reserve University found that, hungry or not, some people eat in an attempt to keep others comfortable. "They don't want to rock the boat or upset the sense of social harmony," says Julie Exline, a Case Western Reserve psychologist and lead author of the study...

Study Suggests Surgical Breast Biopsy Not Overused
Contrary to earlier findings, surgical breast biopsies may not be as overused as previously thought, according to a study in the February issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology. Surgical breast biopsies are more invasive than needle biopsies, requiring an incision and the use of general anesthesia. Results from a previous study in 2011 in a surgical journal suggested that surgery is used for 30 percent of breast biopsies, an excessive number...

Chaos In The Cell's Command Center
A defective operating system is never a good thing. Like computers, our cells depend on operating systems to drive normal functions. Gene expression programs comprise the software code our cells rely on, with each cell type controlled by its own program. Corrupted programs can trigger disease. Cellular operating systems can be corrupted by viruses, mutations, or malfunctions that occur as cells change from one type to another...

Seasonal Changes May Influence The Efficacy Of Vaccination Against Diabetes
The development of a medicine for patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus, based on autoantigen GAD65, received a setback following crucial clinical phase 3 trials that failed to show significant effects. One possible explanation may be seasonal variations in the immune system, claim those responsible for the study that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). At the onset of type 1 diabetes mellitus, the immune system attacks the insulin-producing pancreatic beta-cells...

Areas Of Highest Human Risk For Lyme Disease In Eastern United States Detailed On New Map
A new map pinpoints well-defined areas of the Eastern United States where humans have the highest risk of contracting Lyme disease, one of the most rapidly emerging infectious diseases in North America, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As part of the most extensive Lyme-related field study ever undertaken, researchers found high infection risk confined mainly to the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Upper Midwest and low risk in the South. The results were published in the February issue of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene...

Study Of Human And Other Primate Brains Finds Extended Synaptic Development May Explain Our Cognitive Edge
Over the first few years of life, human cognition continues to develop, soaking up information and experiences from the environment and far surpassing the abilities of even our nearest primate relatives. In a study published online in Genome Research, researchers have identified extended synaptic development in the human brain relative to other primates, a finding that sheds new light on the biology and evolution of human cognition. "Why can we absorb environmental information during infancy and childhood and develop intellectual skills that chimpanzees cannot?" asks Dr...

For Brain Cancer - A Thought-Provoking New Therapeutic Target?
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common of all malignant brain tumors that originate in the brain. Patients with GBM have a poor prognosis because it is a highly aggressive form of cancer that is commonly resistant to current therapies. New therapeutic approaches are therefore much needed. Joanna Phillips, Zena Werb, and colleagues, at the University of California, San Francisco, have now identified a potential new therapeutic target for the treatment of GBM...

Alzheimer's-Related Protein In Brains Of Healthy Adults May Shed Light On Earliest Signs Of Disease
Researchers from the Center for Vital Longevity at the University of Texas at Dallas and UT Southwestern Medical Center have completed a large-scale neuroimaging study of healthy adults from age 30 to 90 that measured beta-amyloid protein - a substance whose toxic buildup in the brain is a diagnostic marker for Alzheimer's disease. The findings, published in the online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, mark a crucial step toward being able to predict who may be at risk for developing Alzheimer's disease long before symptoms appear...

Noise Exposure Can Cause Long-Lasting Changes To Sensory Pathways; Touch-Sensing Nerve Cells May Lead To Future Tinnitus Treatments
We all know that it can take a little while for our hearing to bounce back after listening to our iPods too loud or attending a raucous concert. But new research at the University of Michigan Health System suggests over-exposure to noise can actually cause more lasting changes to our auditory circuitry - changes that may lead to tinnitus, commonly known as ringing in the ears...

For Lasting Stroke Prevention, Stents And Surgery For Blocked Neck Arteries Are Neck-And-Neck
A new comparison of the procedures to help prevent strokes by removing or relieving blockages in the arteries of the neck concludes they are equally effective at halting repeat blockage. Two years after treatment with either surgery or a minimally invasive treatment using wire coils called stents, the re-blockage rate remained the same, approximately six percent. Results of the analysis were detailed in a presentation at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference in New Orleans. "This was a huge surprise," says Brajesh K. Lal, M.D...

Potatoes Lower Blood Pressure In Those With Obesity And Hypertension Without Increasing Weight
The first study to check the effects of eating potatoes on blood pressure in humans has concluded that two small helpings of purple potatoes (Purple Majesty) a day decreases blood pressure by about 4 percent without causing weight gain. In a report in the ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, the researchers say that decrease, although seemingly small, is sufficient to potentially reduce the risk of several forms of heart disease. Joe Vinson and colleagues point out that people in the U.S. eat more potatoes than any other vegetable...

Investigating The Neural Basis Of Prosopagnosia
For Bradley Duchaine, there is definitely more than meets the eye where faces are concerned. With colleagues at Birkbeck College in the University of London, he is investigating the process of facial recognition, seeking to understand the complexity of what is actually taking place in the brain when one person looks at another. His studies target people who display an inability to recognize faces, a condition long known as prosopagnosia...

Men With Reduced Fertility At Reduced Risk For Prostate Cancer
Involuntary childlessness owing to reduced fertility is a concern for many men. However, these men do have one advantage - they run a significantly lower risk of suffering from prostate cancer. Researchers are interested in whether this phenomenon could be used in the fight against cancer. There is a clear link between male subfertility and a lower risk of prostate cancer. According to a new thesis from Lund University in Sweden, involuntarily childless men have around a 50 per cent lower risk of suffering from prostate cancer than men who have fathered at least one child...

Dyslexia-Linked Genetic Variant Decreases Midline Crossing Of Auditory Pathways
Finnish scientists have found that a rare dyslexia-linked genetic variant of the ROBO1 gene decreases normal crossing of auditory pathways in the human brain. The weaker the expression of the gene is, the more abnormal is the midline crossing. The results link, for the first time, a dyslexia-susceptibility gene to a specific sensory function of the human brain. This collaborative study between Aalto University and University of Helsinki in Finland and the Karolinska Insitutet in Sweden was published in The Journal of Neuroscience...

Source Of Damage To Donor Organs Identified
For patients with incurable pulmonary conditions, a lung transplantation is the only available treatment option. However, suitable donor organs are scarce, and even getting them to prospective recipients is not easy. As Professor Alexander Dietrich of the Walther Straub Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology at LMU explains, "An isolated lung which is no longer perfused with blood can become so severely damaged that it is no longer functional. This so-called ischemia-reperfusion injury is one of the major problems in the field of lung transplantation...