A new guideline refutes the current thinking that people with a heart condition called a patent foramen ovale (PFO) who have had a stroke are at greater risk of having a second stroke. The guideline, developed by the American Academy of Neurology, determined that people with a PFO who suffer a stroke with no known cause and receive treatment are at no greater risk of having a second stroke than those who had a stroke and did not have a PFO. The guideline is published in the April 13 issue of Neurolog
Rudolf Jaenisch of the Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA reports in the April 6, 2004 online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that introduction of the MeCP2 protein into post-mitotic nerve cells of MeCP2 mutant mice rescues the symptoms of Rett Syndrome. This raises the possibility that neurons are functionally normal in a newborn child and that neural dysfunction manifests itself only later due to prolonged MeCP2 deficiency. If correct, therapeut
At a time when growing numbers of Europeans are suffering from eating disorders that risk both their physical and mental health, the conclusion of the Salut! project has opened up a new world of solutions to these serious medical conditions.
The IST programme-funded initiative has developed online tools for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of eating disorders, including a self-help guide to treat sufferers of Bulimia, which affects up to 4 per cent of European women.
Althoug
Analysis of 11,633 species published in ’Nature’ underscores urgent need for major shift in conservation strategies
At least 300 Critically Endangered (CR) – as well as at least 237 Endangered (EN) and 267 Vulnerable (VU) – bird, mammal, turtle and amphibian species have no protection in any part of their ranges, according to the most comprehensive peer-reviewed analysis of its kind. The findings appear in the current issue of the journal Nature.
The “global gap analysis” au
A protein involved in the release of neurotransmitters in the brain is essential to learning and memory in mice, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have found.
A study published today in Neuron offers the first evidence that lack of this protein – known as RIM1 alpha – causes profound deficits in the learning process. The discovery is a major step in understanding the molecular events that underlie learning and memory – complex processes that can be impaired in human ne
Scientists have not yet found a way to actually make time run backward, but in the cutting-edge world of recent acoustics research, they have shown a way to make sound waves run backward in a kind of ultra-focused reverse echo. By the technology known as time-reversal acoustics, sound waves – in exact reverse order from the original sound – echo directly and very precisely back to their source point.
The technology promises a wide array of applications, including medical applications such a
A team of California scientists made headlines four years ago when it reported finding one of the largest insect colonies in the world – a 600-mile-long subterranean network of Argentine ants stretching from Northern California to the Mexican border. According to the researchers, this “supercolony” is made up of billions of closely related workers – all direct descendants of a small group of Argentine ants that were accidentally introduced into California more than a century ago.
But new st
Planter size has a significant impact on per acre costs, according to a University of Illinois Extension study examining planter costs with different farm sizes.
“Planting more hours per day could result in a smaller planter size having lower costs,” added Gary Schnitkey, U of I Extension farm management specialist who conducted the study.
The study’s objective was to determine the planter size that had the lowest cost for a given farm size. Farm sizes from 400 to 4,000 acres
Some 600 vials stored in a University of Michigan freezer for more than 30 years may hold keys to rescuing nearly extinct Tahitian land snails.
The snails, famous since the late 1800s as classic examples of species that had rapidly diversified in an isolated environment, later became victims of a “spectacularly inept attempt at biological control,” said U-M mollusk expert Diarmaid Ó Foighil.
The trouble started in 1975 when the predatory rosy wolf snail was deliberately introduced
12 month quality of life study with Parkinson’s patients shows surprising results
Patients with Parkinson’s disease who thought they had received a transplant of human neurons into their brains–but who really hadn’t–reported an improved quality of life one year later.
In the April issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, research reported by Dr. Cynthia McRae of the University of Denver’s College of Education provides strong evidence for a significan
Review article from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in New England Journal of Medicine
The cure rate for pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) might continue to rise with improved use of conventional therapies. But even more effective and less toxic therapies based on genetic and pharmacogenetic studies might one day push the success rate close to 100 percent, according to an article published by investigators at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the Apri
Next time an asteroid or comet is on a collision course with Earth you can go to a web site to find out if you have time to finish lunch or need to jump in the car and DRIVE.
University of Arizona scientists are launching an easy-to-use, web-based program that tells you how the collision will affect your spot on the globe by calculating several environmental consequences of its impact.
Starting today, the program is online at http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/impacteffects
Long-debated, a firm answer is now on the horizon
Earth’s magnetic field reverses every few thousand years at low latitudes and every 10,000 years at high latitudes, a geologist funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) has concluded. Brad Clement of Florida International University published his findings in this week’s issue of the journal Nature. The results are a major step forward in scientists’ understanding of how Earth’s magnetic field works.
A revolutionary new type of vehicle only one metre wide and specially designed to be driven in cities is being developed by a team of European scientists.
The vehicle combines the safety of a micro-car and the manoeuvrability of a motorbike, while being more fuel-efficient and less polluting than other vehicles.
The CLEVER (Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport) vehicle is a £1.5 million collaborative project involving nine European partners from industry and rese
Research published in Nature suggests that enough greenhouse gases could be in the atmosphere as early as 2050 to melt the massive ice-sheet that covers Greenland. As a result, sea levels could rise by around seven metres over the next 1,000 years.
Along with colleagues in Belgium and Germany, Dr Jonathan Gregory, of the Centre for Global Atmospheric Modelling (CGAM) at the University of Reading and the Met Office Hadley Centre, has estimated that Greenland is likely to pass a threshold of w
New research on untreated green olives has found that products with a stated shelf-life of 2-3 years can be ‘unacceptable’ long before their sell-by date. The study, published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, looked at the growing trend towards using polyethylene pouches which are vacuum-packed, filled with brine or packed in ‘modified atmospheres’. Only the vacuum pouches gave promising results, producing a shelf-life of nearly two years, while those packed in ordinary air had
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