Elderly people who suffer from depression can take the edge off faster by using a drug called mirtazapine, which appears to work more quickly compared to rival drugs. These results come from a study by researchers at Stanford University Medical Center who compared two drugs in an eight-week trial. Although both drugs treated the depression, mirtazapine began working sooner and eased the patient’s anxiety – a common effect of depression in elderly people.
“There’s a sense that we n
New research enables computers to name that tune
A team of British and American scientists claim a world’s first in online music recognition, paving the way for the musical equivalent of web search-engine Google; and the potential to resolve musical copyright disputes. Researchers at Queen Mary, University of London; King`s College London; Oxford University and the Universities of Indiana and Massachusetts have developed a new system which enables computers to recognise complex pieces
Deguelin may inhibit growth of Akt, an essential molecule in the promotion of precancer
The use of deguelin, a natural plant extract most commonly used as an insecticide in Africa and South American, inhibits the growth of precancerous and cancerous lung cells, with no toxic effects on normal cells, according to a study presented today at the first annual Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research meeting convened by the American Association for Cancer Research. The role of deguelin as a
The disorder Maedi-Visna that is detected in sheep affects on mammary gland. As it says in the source language, Icelander, it affects lungs and nervous system. The disorder is produced by the lentivirus Maedi-Visna, which belongs to the family of Aids. This virus infects sheep, and until now, there is no evidence of the transmission to humans. This virus, which is known since many years, causes a very slow evolution of the disorder. Therefore, shepherds often do not detect the infection, because shee
Research published in the online journal, BMC Biotechnology reports on a new, large-scale technique for distinguishing between male and female ostrich chicks using DNA extracted from feathers. This new technique will remove the need for invasive procedures currently in use to sex-type ostriches and allow breeders to discover the sex of their chicks much earlier. Details of this new technique can now be read by all interested parties because of the decision of the authors to publish in the open access
A U of T study suggests why giant gold and copper deposits are found at some volcanoes but not others, a finding that could point prospectors to large deposits of this and other valuable metals.
“There’s one characteristic that is common to all of these big gold and copper deposits anywhere in the world,” says Professor James Mungall of the Department of Geology. The ocean’s crust that is pushed down under a volcano can start to melt, which it doesn’t normally do. His study, which appea
Penn State engineers have shown that adding specially treated cooking oils, such as soybean, canola or sunflower oil, to mandated low sulfur diesel fuels and engine lubricants reduces friction and wear.
Dr. Joseph Perez, adjunct professor of chemical engineering and leader of the project, said, “Low sulfur diesel fuels mandated in California will soon be required in all states to enable diesel engines to meet the 2004 emission regulations. Removal of sulfur from the fuel causes severe wear p
Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of California, San Diego, have created the first computer simulation of full-system protein folding thermodynamics at the atomic-level. Understanding the basic physics of protein folding could solve one of the grand mysteries of computational biology.
Proteins are the basic building blocks of life and protein folding, the process by which proteins reconfigure themselves – the actions that result in structural change – are the
A new study from Johns Hopkins finds that some patients diagnosed with cystic fibrosis (CF) lack any of the more than 1,000 reported disease-causing mutations in the only known CF gene. Scheduled for presentation Oct. 18 at the annual meeting of the American Society for Human Genetics in Baltimore, the findings also recently appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The discovery may mean that another gene, as yet unidentified, is to blame for these cases, or perhaps these patients r
Studies published in International Journal of Toxicology
In its September/October issue, the International Journal of Toxicology is pleased to publish the last in a series of four studies examining possible reproductive and developmental health effects from two byproducts of drinking water chlorination. These studies fill significant data gaps identified by a Federal Advisory Committee formed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on drinking water regulations.
Sm
Patterns of proteins found in patients’ blood serum may help distinguish between prostate cancer and benign conditions, scientists from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) report today in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute*. The technique, which relies on a simple test using a drop of blood, may be useful in deciding whether to perform a biopsy in men with elevated prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels.
Using a test that can analyze
A chemical cousin of anti-anxiety medications, such as Valium and Xanax, significantly reduces kidney inflammation in mice inbred to develop a disease resembling human systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), researchers at the University of Michigan and the University of California-Berkeley have found.
Their research, described in the Oct. 16 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, also reveals the novel mechanism by which the compound works, a discovery that could lead to safer and mor
Today, Eurescom, Spirent Communications, and BTexact Technologies announced the completion of a test that confirms the feasibility of performance management for IP Quality of Service (QoS) using Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS).
As a result of this test, service providers will be able to employ a simplified methodology for identifying the location of performance problems across multiple operator networks, and for verifying their capability to capture performance information at various cl
Women seem to be less susceptible than men to stress and serious stress-related illnesses because of the protective properties of the sex hormone oestrogen, according to a recent study of nurses by the University of Greenwich.
The study indicates that oestrogen reduces the production of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline which, when secreted during long periods of stress, can cause major illnesses such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and osteoporosis.
The urine of 315 ma
Women with low folic acid levels are at a significantly increased risk of having an early, naturally occurring termination of their pregnancy, according to an article in the October 16 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
According to background information in the article, both folate deficiency and folic acid supplements have been reported to increase the risk of spontaneous abortion, which refers to the naturally occurring termination of a pregnancy – end of th
Mouse studies indicate successful pain relief, University of Pittsburgh researchers say
By “programming” a herpes simplex virus to deliver a gene-mediated pain-blocking protein at the cellular level, University of Pittsburgh researchers have been able to significantly reduce cancer-related pain in mice with tumors, the researchers report in the November issue of the journal Annals of Neurology. The paper, “Herpes vector-mediated expression of proenkephalin reduces bone cancer pain,” i
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