science newsletter: Science News SciGuru.com

Τετάρτη 19 Μαρτίου 2014

Science News SciGuru.com

Dogs like smell of familiar humans
Nanopores underlie our ability to tune in to a single voice
Love Hormone oxytocin could provide new treatment for anorexia
MicroRNA-34 is a tumour suppressor in prostate cancer: Implications for therapy

Posted: 19 Mar 2014 06:37 AM PDT

A region of the canine brain which is associated with positive expectations such as social rewards responds more strongly to the smell of a human with whom they were familiar than to the smell of humans they didn’t know or to either familiar or unfamiliar dogs. The results were obtained in a study led by researchers in Emory University and Comprehensive Pet Therapy in the USA and published in the journal Behavioural Processes.

Nanopores underlie our ability to tune in to a single voice

Posted: 18 Mar 2014 10:24 AM PDT

Even in a crowded room full of background noise, the human ear is remarkably adept at tuning in to a single voice — a feat that has proved remarkably difficult for computers to match. A new analysis of the underlying mechanisms, conducted by researchers at MIT, has provided insights that could ultimately lead to better machine hearing, and perhaps to better hearing aids as well.

Love Hormone oxytocin could provide new treatment for anorexia

Posted: 18 Mar 2014 10:05 AM PDT

Oxytocin, also known as the ‘love hormone’, could provide a new treatment for anorexia nervosa, according to new research by a team of British and Korean scientists.

The study, published today, found that oxytocin alters anorexic patients’ tendencies to fixate on images of high calorie foods, and larger body shape. The findings follow an earlier study by the same group showing that oxytocin changed patients’ responses to angry and disgusted faces.

MicroRNA-34 is a tumour suppressor in prostate cancer: Implications for therapy

Posted: 18 Mar 2014 09:49 AM PDT

The microRNA miR-34 cooperates with the ‘guardian of the genome’ p53 to function as a tumor suppressor in a mouse model of prostate cancer. The mechanism involves joint p53 and miR-34 mediated control of a cancer-promoting gene called MET. These are the findings of a new study published in the journal Cell Reports from researchers in Germany and the USA. This study clarifies how miR-34 can be used as an important therapeutic agent for prostate cancer as it enters phase I clinical trials.