A tuberculosis drug called D-cycloserine (DCS), used in concert with psychotherapy, is an effective treatment for some anxiety-related disorders, according to research by scientists at Emory University School of Medicine and the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience (CBN). The study was led by Michael Davis, PhD, Kerry Ressler, MD, PhD, and Barbara Rothbaum, PhD, of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and is reported in the November issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.
One-year mortality rates are comparable to those from liver transplantation alone
Improvements in surgical techniques have made orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) a viable option for older patients who may also have cardiovascular disease, but poor cardiovascular health may keep transplant candidates from receiving a new organ.
Some such patients can safely undergo angioplasty to correct their heart conditions first, however, those requiring coronary artery bypass graft
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill scientists have reported – for the first time – a burst in new brain cell development during abstinence from chronic alcohol consumption.
The UNC findings, from research at UNC’s Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, were based on an animal model of chronic alcohol dependence, in which adult rats were given alcohol over four days in amounts that produced alcohol dependency. The study is in the Nov. 3 issue of the Journal of Neuroscien
Caspase levels are associated with liver injury
Caspase activity in the sera of patients with chronic hepatitis C infection (HCV) may be a more sensitive measure of liver injury than conventional surrogate markers like aminotransferases, according to a new study published in the November 2004 issue of Hepatology. Hepatology, the official journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is available online via Wiley
Prevalence is higher than standard tests for hepatitis B would suggest
Some kidney dialysis patients contract hepatitis B virus (HBV) during the course of their treatment, possibly from other members of the dialysis population with occult HBV. People with occult HBV test negative for HBV surface antigen (HBsAg) but positive for HBV-DNA, which is detected through sensitive tests not typically performed on dialysis patients. A recent study found that the prevalence of occult HBV in
Like the sailing vessel used by Captain Joshua Slocum to sail solo around the world 100 years ago, another ocean-going vehicle is making history. A small ocean glider named Spray is the first autonomous underwater vehicle, or AUV, to cross the Gulf Stream underwater, proving the viability of self-propelled gliders for long-distance scientific missions and opening new possibilities for studies of the oceans.
Launched September 11, 2004, about 100 miles south of Nantucket Island,
Decreasing testosterone boosts immunity because testosterone helps control T-lymphocytes, the attack cells of the immune system, according to Mayo Clinic-led research in laboratory animals. The findings appear in the Nov. 15 edition of the Journal of Immunology.
Collaborators include scientists from Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, N.Y.; the Tumor Immunity and Tolerance Section of the Laboratory of Molecular Immunoregulation, National Cancer Institute; and Howard Hughes Me
First-Ever Genetic Study of Late-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease in Hispanic Families
Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have found two locations in the human genome that may harbor genes that increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. If confirmed, they will be the first genes linked to Alzheimer’s disease since ApoE4 was discovered in 1993. The findings are published in the November issue of Molecular Psychiatry, a journal of the Nature Publishing Group. “We feel confid
University of Minnesota cancer researcher says shedding excess pounds may be key in preventing often fatal disease
A study from the University of Minnesota Cancer Center indicates that overweight and obesity could more than double an older woman’s risk of acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), an often fatal cancer of the bone marrow and blood. The results of the study are published in the November issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention journal.
Other stud
In recent decade, the words about “religious revival” have entered the language of Russian mass media. What changes in people’s consciousness are implied by these words? Russian psychologists have investigated the issue.
The Yuri Levada Analytical Center has published the data of the All-Russian representative surveys on the problem of religiousness, the surveys having been conducted annually since 1989 up to now. As only approximately 4 percent of survey respondents called the
Way out exists even from the most desperate situations. Water mollusca prove that statement. At first sight, they are absolutely unable to live without water, as they consist almost totally from water. However, this is only at first sight. Russian scientists have analyzed their data and the data from their colleagues who observed mollusca on the banks of various water bodies and have discovered the adaptation mechanisms these animals employ to live without water.
Water mollusc
Researchers of the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Plant Cultivation, Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences (St. Petersburg) jointly with their colleagues from Germany and Finland have grown up new lines of Solanum cultivated plants via the somatic hybridization method – hybrids of wild species of plants of the Solanum family with cultivars of tomato and potato, that posess new useful properties.
Potato and tomato – the plants that occupy the honorary place in the me
The humble tropical honeybee may challenge the idea that a post-asteroid impact “nuclear winter” was a big player in the decimation of dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
Somehow the tropical honeybee, Cretotrigona prisca, survived the end-Cretaceous extinction event, despite what many researchers believe was a years-long period of darkness and frigid temperatures caused by sunlight-blocking dust and smoke from the asteroid impact at Chicxulub.
The survival of C. prisca is p
Our four-legged, five-toed ancestors conquered the land earlier and more independently than expected, say paleontologists studying newfound 345 to 359-million-year-old tracks at an eroding beach in eastern Canada.
At least six different kinds of four-limbed reptile-like animals – a.k.a. tetrapods – with five digits on their feet left their tromping prints in the mud of what was once a tropical swamp at Blue Beach, Nova Scotia. The five-digit tracks range in size from four i
The longest animal that ever lived just got 40 percent shorter. A reappraisal of Seismosaurus has chopped it from 170 feet – about the length of ten hummers – to about 110 feet – a bit more than six hummers. The new look at the lengthiest beast also suggests it might also be a very close relative of a more common type of dino –Diplodocus.
Though drastically shorter, the new length estimate does not necessarily knock Seismosaurus off the throne as the Earth’s longest creatur
The lowly, ill-regarded tumbleweed might be good for something after all.
A preliminary study reveals that tumbleweeds, a.k.a. Russian thistle, and some other weeds common to dry Western lands have a knack for soaking up depleted uranium from contaminated soils at weapons testing grounds and battlefields. “There is some use to what we consider noxious weeds,” said geologist Dana Ulmer-Scholle of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro.
Depleted ura
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